Danaan» Danaan - sacred nature

Gulf Coast Oil Spill- the oil comes ashore

D. — Tue, 18 May 2010 23:31:17 +0000

Update (just when you thought it couldn't get any worse): Scientists Find Evidence That Oil And Dispersant Mix Is Making Its Way Into The Foodchain (Huffington Post, 7-31-10)

On-topic update: Michigan Oil Spill Among Largest In Midwest History: Kalamazoo Spill SOAKS Wildlife (VIDEO), Huffington Post, 7-27-10

On-topic update: US Expert: China Oil Spill Far Bigger Than Stated, AP/NPR, 7-30-10

***

On June 26, 2010 join Hands Across the Sands to [...]

Climate change- tree growth, higher seas & green scum

D. — Tue, 18 May 2010 00:08:27 +0000

Interesting recent reports about climate change effects-

About an hour east of Washington, D.C., there's a forest where trees are suddenly growing much faster than ever before — some of them even twice as fast: Curiosity Rises With Trees' Strange Growth Spurt- NPR, 3-28-10. Just the fact that this researcher has seen a 12% rise in carbon dioxide in the 23 years he's taken [...]

Moringa Oleifera tree & water treatment

D. — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:13:13 +0000

Moringa oleifera (Forest & Kim Starr -http://www.hear.org/starr/)

The Moringa oleifera tree is native to India, and is cultivated widely throughout many countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. (It is not tolerant to frost- so would only grow in some climates.) Many parts of this tree are edible and highly nutritious. (It's called the 'drumstick' tree for it's edible immature green pods.) Organizations like Trees [...]

Urban gardening

D. — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:41:25 +0000

Urban life can seem awfully sterile with little greenery and/or abandoned lots. Often residents have no opportunity to connect with plants by actually growing them. (A must have experience for all children, in my opinion.) It looks like some city dwellers are tired of having just house plants or a few potted plants at windows; urban gardening, including edible foods farming, is becoming a movement. Here's a [...]

Eco or Green Burials

D. — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:57:44 +0000

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust? Not in the 'modern' burial. Since the introduction of embalming (say since the US Civil War) bodies are no longer reunited with the earth. (Having heard the report from a family member present at the relocation of a decades deceased relative- embalmed corpses do not naturally biodegrade. Sorry- it has to be said.)

Each year tons of resources are wasted in burials [...]

Seeing white animals

D. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:43:13 +0000

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301531h.html

I keep on seeing stories about white animals, and thought I should look up the recent sightings. Like many people I assumed these white or albino animals are pretty rare, and that they have different meanings in various belief systems. Little did I know. There are people positing new significance to these animals. And it turns out that I shared some misconceptions about the rarity of [...]

Cricket sounds

D. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:23:06 +0000

God's Cricket Chorus

(Cricket chirps slowed down results in an angelic chorus very worth listening to. Normal cricket chirps are included over the slowed down chorus.)

Sounds of rain [...]

Weavings- of spider silk and more

D. — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:46:15 +0000

After 4 years a gold colored tapestry has been made out of spider silk. I've put together articles on the tapestry, information on the golden silk orb spider, and on efforts to develop man-made spider silk. One of the latest attempts to make 'spider silk' fibers is with hagfish slime!

For four years weavers in Madagascar harnessed golden orb spiders to produce silk, and and then [...]

The Earth's hum

D. — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:23:55 +0000

The Blue Marble, Visible Earth- NASA

The planet emanates a constant rumble far below the limits of human hearing. Discovered in 1998 this low level "hum" was thought to perhaps be caused by disturbances in the ocean or atmosphere. Scientists now suggest that the Earth’s hum is caused not by earthquakes or atmospheric turbulence, but by ocean waves colliding with the seafloor. It will be interesting [...]

Bee memories

D. — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:45:03 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/ / CC BY 2.0

*** My grandfather kept bees for nearly 70 years, and I wish he was alive to ask about the current colony collapses. He started by keeping wild bees in the Oklahoma Territory/Texas area in the early 1900's, and said the European bees were much 'nicer'. (To translate from frontier 'speak'- they didn't sting as much as the wild bees. While it's possible, [...]