|Friday-esque Web Round-up

Movement + Adventure

• Would You Ride a Bike Superhighway? (Elisha Hartwig, Mashable)
• Cargo Bikes: The New Station Wagon (TOM VANDERBILT, Wall St Journal)
• Edgerunner Xtracycle (video)
• Ultimate Adventure Bucket List 2013 (National Geographic)
• Detroit Bike City - Slow Roll
• Now THAT is a fast bike (104-tooth chainring)! (Michael Graham Richard, Treehugger)
• The big benefits of walking to work (Chad Brooks, Mother Nature Network)
• Riding lessons for U.S. cities from one of Europe’s bike capitals (Greg Hanscom, Grist)
• Disposable Man (Three Mystic Apes)
• Richie Parker (Three Mystic Apes)
• Detroit Bike City — Slow Roll (Three Mystic Apes)

Food + Gardening

• Start a 1-Acre, Self-Sufficient Homestead (John Seymour, Mother Earth News)
• Designing Ecological Backyard Gardens: An Interview with Jessi Bloom (Utne)

Psychology

• 6 Unconventional, But Scientific Ways To Be The Happiest Person On Earth (Dumb Little Man)

Science + Industry

• What goes on when you are not there! (Three Mystic Apes)
• True Facts About The Owl. (Three Mystic Apes)
• Mariachi Band in Connecticut Serenades a Beluga Whale (Three Mystic Apes)
• NASA: Sun Getting Ready For A 'Field Flip' (Scott Neuman)
• Let's All Stop Obsessing About the 'Next Great Thing' in Urban Transportation (Eric Jaffe, The Atlantic)
• Making it: That ticking sound isn't just a watch; small manufacturing in gear in Detroit (Amy Haimerl, Crain's Detroit Business)

Religion

• Fox News, Reza Aslan, and the Historical Jesus (Utne)

Health

• Additional Benefits of Eating Organic (Jeff Boyd, A Better World)

Art

• Baltimore Vacants (Three Mystic Apes) 

BONUS

• List 1: Christian Social Ethics & Action
• List 2: Peace & Justice

|Friday Web Round-up

Food & Farming

• Oba-Chan (video)
• Island Time with Jack Johnson, Chef Ed Kenney, and Surfer Kelly Slater (Carla Lalli Music, bonappetit.com)
• Back to Eden (gardening film)

Business

• The Responsible Company — What We've Learned From Patagonia's First 40 Years (video) 
• Vincent Stanley--Patagonia (video)

Movement & Adventure

• Jay Nelson (Through the Lens)
• Yvon Chouinard: Return to the Outdoors (video)
• From a Wheelchair to the Sharp End – Story of the First Ever Paraplegic Lead Climb (Dave N. Campbell, The Cleanest Line)
• Alaska (Camp 4 Collective) 
• Get Rich With… Bikes (Mr. Money Mustache)  
• Slow is Fast Book Tour (video)
• Duct Tape Surfing (video)

Psychology

• The Unleashed Mind: Why Creative People Are Eccentric (Shelley Carson, Scientific American) 
• Dustin Hoffman on TOOTSIE (video)

Health

• Study: 'War on gluten' trend misdirected (The Local)
• Bras don't actually work, says French study (Melissa Breyer, Mother Nature Network) 
• Aging gracefully: Germans grow gray together (Sigrid Lupieri, CNN) 

Natural World

• Why Arctic sea ice will vanish in 2013 (Sierra Club Canada) 
• Cities under ice
• Wild Things: Living with Wolves (video) 
• Momenta (video)

DIY

• Wood Pallet Projects: Cool and Easy-to-Make Projects for the Home and Garden (Chris Gleason, book)

|Friday Web Round-up

Adventure

• Grand Trunk Road (trailer)
• The Last Ice Merchant
• A Life Well Lived -- Jim Whittaker
• Everest: A Time Lapse Short Film
• Dan Ross - Drawing Different Lines

Environment + Sustainability

• Toxic waste spill in northern Alberta biggest of recent disasters in North America (Nathan Vanderklippe, The Globe and Mail) 
• Permies
• Rios Libres: Environmental Dispatches – Episode 1, The People (The Cleanest Line) 
• Rios Libres: Environmental Dispatches – Episode 2, The History (The Cleanest Line)
• Techno-Fix--Michael Huesemann & Joyce Huesemann believe technology won't save us or the environment, but rather hastens collapse. (Utne) 
• Hemp History Week 2013 (Prana)
• The Fascinating Story Of Hemp (Prana)
• POW! David Letterman’s Epic Rant Against Fracking (Liberals Unite)
• Global warming: Not too late to rein in climate change, group says (Pete Spotts, Christian Science Monitor) 
• One Percent for the Planet

Health + Food

• 29 Amazing Vegan Ice Cream Recipes (BuzzFeed)
• Vegetarians live longer, researchers find (Grist)
• Why the King Amendment Would Preempt State GMO Labeling Laws (Mother Earth News)
• Will my 'paleo' diet prevent cancer? (Mother Nature Network)

Technology + Science

• Fairphone is going to be a real thing! (Treehugger)
• Yosemite's Iconic El Capitan Mapped in High-Res 3-D (National Geographic)
• Pixlr
• Digital Public Library of America

Animals

• Wild Orca Puts on Amazing Aerial Display (Adventure Journal)
• The Cutest Interspecies Animal Friendships (BuzzFeed)
• 20 Unlikely Animal Friendships (BuzzFeed)
• Biological clocks 'beat quicker' in cities (BBC)

Psychology

• The Question That Changed Everything for Me (Storyline)
• Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD (Psychology Today) 
• The Riddle of Consciousness (Gary Marcus, The New Yorker)

Craft

• Charlotte (film trailer)

Humor

• You Had One Job

Music

• The AJ List: 17 Of The Best Songs About Mountains (Adventure Journal)

Bonus

• Better World Links
• Christian Ethics

|Friday Web Round-up

Culture

• Conceptions of Beauty across Cultures (Sociological Cinema)
• Photoshop Disasters

Adventure

• Expedition Denali: Inspiring Diversity in the Outdoors (Kick Starter)
• 35 (Three Mystic Apes)

Psychology

• Creativity and the Everyday Brain with Rex Jung (On Being, NPR)
• MIT Brain Scans Show That Entrepreneurs Really Do Think Different (Fast Company)

Health

• Alli Rainey: Stepping Stones (Part 3) -- Celebrating National Physical Fitness and Sports Month (1): 10 Steps to Help You Craft a Healthier Lifelong Eating Plan (Prana)

Sustainability & the Environment

• 5 tiny home design ideas worth stealing (Mother Nature News)
• 5 Acre Abundance on a Budget (Geoff Lawton) [may need to register to view this permaculture video]
• A tale of two Earth Day heroes: Tim DeChristopher and Sandra Steingraber (Bill McKibben, Grist)
• Eating Less Meat Is World's Best Chance For Timely Climate Change, Say Experts (Michelle Maisto, Forbes)
• Comment Now to the EPA to Protect Bristol Bay, Alaska's Priceless Watershed (Save Bristol Bay)
• Fracking Ourselves to Death in Pennsylvania (Ellen Cantarow, Truthout)
• A Fist In The Eye of God: Reflections on the genetic manipulations of life (Barbara Kingsolver, Mother Earth News)
• Variables (Three Mystic Apes)

|Heart Health -- Summary (UPDATED)

I recently posted two collections of resources on healthy hearts:

• Excercise
• Diet

I also asked some people for their thoughts, and this is what they shared. First, a comedian, I mean, physician wrote:

So the heart is an incredibly important organ. Actually so important that without it working, the average person would die. This may be able to be proved in studies, the NIH is still considering funding for this kind of groundbreaking research.

As you have demonstrated, there are many voices giving recommendations on what is heart healthy. Very little can be proved or disproved. I do find it fairly compelling that a Mediterranean style of eating is associated with a lower risk of heart disease (nonstarchy veges, olives/olive oil, avacado, legumes, almonds, etc). 

I agree with exercise being important. The hardest issue for most people is just doing it. I recommend at least 30-35 minutes a day, if it can be done together for a sustained heart rate effect, all the better.

My reading of, The China Study, would lead me to suggest that animal-based proteins, such as in eggs, milk, cheese, or delicious meat, may be more problematic than the cholesterol content. This may especially be true for cancer promotion.

What you feed your heart is important, but of course ultimately the most important is Who lives in your "heart." A merry heart is good medicine. No matter how many years your heart beats on earth, your "heart" can be filled with His Spirit. 

Exercise--yes. Eat heart-healthy foods--yes. Sleep 7.5 hours a night--yes. Laugh--yes. Lose weight if needed--yes. Trust in God--yes.

 A family member shared:

I purchased an ebook on walking. They said there is not a lot of difference in health between walking 30 or 60 minutes, six days a week, but a huge difference between none and 30.... The best straight supplement for the heart, most say, is Co-Q10.... Also, turmeric and vitamin k-2 are both for helping the blood system. Turmeric prevents (among many other things) atheroschlerosis and k-2 takes the calcium from the blood vessels and redeposits it in the bones where it belongs.

A medically-trained individual recommended these two films:

• Neal Barnard, "Kickstart Your Health."
• Michael Greger, "Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death." [notice the differences between his findings and what I posted on the "eggs" page. this is a good example of the various findings that confuse non-scientists/non-nutritionists like me.]

A PA (physician's assistant) shared:

A good book is "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. MD. His ideas are slowly catching on, but many consider him possibly too extreme. I doubt it, but, maybe a little in my estimation.

And a compatriot recommended Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

I also value Michael Pollan's advice: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

And I've appreciated most of these (and hope to see the others soon) that cover personal, community and planetary health:

• Forks Over Knives
• Hungry for Change
• Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead
• May I Be Frank?
• Dirt!
• Fed Up!
• Food, Inc.
• Food Matters
• The Future of Food
• The Garden
• How to Save the World
• King Corn
• The Real Dirt on Farmer John 

I originally watched them with a general interest in health. Now I want to watch them again with a bit more urgency.

This TED Talk by Dan Buettner also has wisdom--How To Live To Be 100+. More on Blue Zones here.

BONUS:

• Portlandia: Pasta addiction (from the episode Winter in Portlandia)
• Portlandia: Shopping bags
• Portlandia: Chicken dinner

|Farming

Farming Hot among Hipsters (CNN)

|yes!

yes! finishes our Tuesday magazine trifecta, which I'm sure you'll agree has been almost as fulfilling as Tempe Tuesday.

• People Power Pushed the New Deal (S. Anderson, 5 June '09)
• Living Large in a Tiny House (C. Estes, 31 Oct '08)
• Growing Power in an Urban Food Desert (R. Bybee, 13 Feb '09)

|Organic Blueberries

We had a date yesterday picking organic blueberries for some friends at the Blueberry Ranch. It reminded me of a certain summer in Oregon picking strawberries with other mutant youngsters and much quieter and harder working migrant workers.

Okay, picking blueberries with my wife for a few minutes was enjoyable; picking the red berries all summer was really quite miserable. Next time you eat a strawberry purchased at a store, say a prayer of thanks and blessing on the ones who picked them! Eking out an existence for your family in orchards and fields is one tough life. My thoughts turn to the Immokalee workers.

|Organic

This headline was in the news this week: Organic food not healthier, study finds (Reuters, 30 July '09).

You guessed it, I believe this headline is misleading. "Not more nutritious" would be more accurate, though even this overlooks the evidence that some organic food is indeed more nutritious (milk example).

But my main point is that organic food is healthier in other ways. Organic farming releases fewer pollutants into our air, soil and water; pollutants that affect humans and animals. And there is also the issue of genetically modified organisms.

For more, you can start with this essay I wrote a few years ago and by watching The Future of Food. The Power of Community also speaks indirectly to this issue by looking at the sustainability of modern farming which depends heavily on cheap oil.

And these are good reading:

• Organic Food Benefits (Nutiva)
• Health Care Benefits (Grinning Planet)

|Dinner and a Pedal

After beating the peloton home by at least 4 minutes and pulling on the King of the Commute jersey, I hit the pavement again and headed for AV. I picked up a stir-fry and bottle of GT's Raw Organic Kombucha (Multi-Green) and pedaled home.

Our wok has had a hard life, so I used an iron skillet to make the stir-fry. I added tofu and seasoned it with a mix of soy-sauce, garlic and ginger.

|Food, Inc.

Maria shared this article with me about a new documentary:

'Food, Inc.': Attention Must Be Paid To Food Supply (NPR, 12 June 2009)

The new documentary Food Inc. takes aim at corporate giants behind the U.S. food supply. As director Robert Kenner and food advocate and author Michael Pollan tell Steve Inskeep, they made the film in order to raise Americans' awareness about where their food really comes from.

|Sabbath Dinner

Have you seen this new website yet--Sabbath Dinner? Adventist Today highlighted it recently.

"If you need a place to eat this sabbath then you've come to the right place. Sabbath dinner.org allows you to search throughout the United State (and soon the World) to find out who is having sabbath dinner near you."

Here's another one for finding a new flatmate--Adventist Roommate.

Pretty soon we'll have an SDA version of Couch Surfing. Well, maybe not.

|Multi-media

Last week I was sick for a stretch. As I began to mend, I took some time to finish a book and watch a film.

The Book: More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix (Brian McLaren). Through email conversations that model "spiritual friendship," McLaren demonstrates that evangelism in a postmodern world can't continue as it did in the modern era. I genuinely appreciated this book and highly recommend it.

"OUT: Evangelism as sales pitch, as conquest, as warfare, as ultimatum, as threat, as proof, as argument, as entertainment, as show, as monologue, as something you have to do.

IN: Disciple-making as conversation, as friendship, as influence, as invitation, as companionship, as challenge, as opportunity, as conversation, as dance, as something you get to do."

The Film: Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove: Readings from Voices of A People's History of (2006). This two-hour long reading was informative and dull. I'm sure the book is better. Most of the speakers seemed to just be reading, not orating or acting. Since the opportunity to add archival photos or video was ignored, the recording would make a better CD for the road than a DVD. Why sit for 2 hours and listen to people read to you? Odd. I was bored. Skip it and check the book out at your library. Or read the original, A People's History of the United States.

BONUS FILM: Then last night I watched my December Netflix choice, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, when my lady friend went to bed early. What to say about this one? What is it?

A tribute to the farm culture.
A tribute to family.
A tribute to mothers.
A tribute to community.
A tribute to the Earth.
A tribute to creativity and innovation.
A tribute to life.
A tribute to the family farm.
A biographical tribute to John Peterson.

You have to see it to believe it. The archival footage puts this one notch above the poor cinematography of The Gleaners and I. It consistently gets higher ratings on Amazon than I feel are warranted, but that's how people feel. The bug video was one of my favorite parts (also on YouTube).

[Spoiler Alert] Regular Pack Light readers will know that I value Community Supported Agriculture, so I was glad to see the story head that direction in the end. Viva CSA!

If you want more information, look to The Future of Food, but if you like your documentary with more flash and flare than data, this could be for you. You will still have plenty to think about.

|Film Review at Spectrum

I recently wrote a review of the documentary The Future of Food at the Spectrum Magazine blog.

Previously, I had mentioned it at Jeff's Justice Journal (Nov '07) and at Adventist Environmental Advocacy (Jan '08).

|Analysis of Words and Diet

Jon Stewart's team is so good. Check out this clip comparing two of Bush's bigger crisis speeches.

Also, today I came across an interesting analysis of eating locally. I wrote about it at AEA.

In conclusion we watched War Made Easy last night.