OIL SHOWDOWN IN THE AMAZON

Posted: 24 January 2013 by AVAAZ.org

There is one area of the Ecuadorian Amazon that is so pristine that the whole ecosystem has been preserved and even jaguars roam free! But the government is now threatening to go in and drill for oil.

The local indigenous people have been resisting, but they are afraid that oil companies will break up the community with bribes. When they heard that people across the world might stand with them and make a stink to save their land, they were thrilled. The president of Ecuador claims to stand for indigenous rights and the environment, but he has just come up with a new plan to bring oil speculators in to 4 million hectares of jungle. If we can say ‘wait a minute, you’re supposed to be the green president who says no one can buy Ecuador’, we could expose him for turning his back on his commitments just as he is fighting for re-election.

He doesn’t want a PR nightmare right now. If we get a million of us to help the Sani Isla Kichwa community defend their ancestral land and challenge the president openly to keep to his word, we could start a media storm that would make him reconsider the whole plan.

PLEASE sign the petition now and tell everyone (everyone!) ~ let’s help save this beautiful forest.

 http://www.avaaz.org/en/oil_in_the_amazon_8/?clTFScb

WATER AMBASSADORS’ GLOBAL IMPACT

How two members dug deep to bring sanitation to developing nations – by Susannah Maxcy of Renaissance Winter 2012 magazine.

On the impact Water Ambassadors has had on volunteers: “We’ve had big, macho Canadian men tear up.  When some village person shakes your hand and says, ‘thank you’ for saving the lives of our children, it’s pretty humbling.  It becomes a marker in people’s lives and that will change them forever.  I think people realize the blessing that Canada has.  You will never drink a glass of water out of the tap and think about it the same way again,” Barry expresses.

Access to water and proper sanitation are easy to take for granted when you live in a country with the world’s largest fresh water supply.  We will neither know what it is like to walk for kilometres to a well nor will we ever know what it is like not to have access to a clean toilet.  Enter Barry Hart, District 18, Haliburton and John P. Smith, District 13, Hamilton-Wentworth, Haldimand whose twists of fate inspired them to change the world one well and one latrine at a time.

… Barry Hart, founder of Water Ambassadors Canada, discusses the pressing need to bring clean water to third world countries … The interview is conducted by Lorna Dueck, host of Listen Up TV, a weekly television program exploring news and current affairs from a Christian worldview ~uploaded to YouTube on Nov 19, 2009

Barry Hart and his wife, Heather Alloway, first heard about the global water crisis 10 years ago at a conference they attended.  “It went from our heads to our hearts.  Within a year we were in Guatemala building a well in a remote location, a little scary at first, but totally blew us away … we remember sitting in the Houston airport coming home.   By memory we were calling people using a phone card back in Canada to try to tell them what we had seen, heard and experienced.  It was absolutely life-changing.”

Upon returning home, Barry and Heather formed the Water Ambassadors of Canada, a faith-based non-profit organization dedicated to improving and providing access to clean water to impoverished communities throughout the world.  Since its inception, Water Ambassadors has sent approximately 300 Canadians to Central America, the Caribbean and Africa to help build wells, install water filtration systems and teach hygiene.  Empowering the communities they help with the tools and knowledge to maintain these systems, Water Ambassadors provides water security in a time of increasing water instability.

… “Access is a big deal, because many of these places, people walk miles to get water from wells.  We repaired on well in November that had been broken for 14 years, which forced the people to walk by that well to get to the next town to get their drinking water … when you fix wells you’re giving them access to clean water close by, or in some cases access to water period, rather than drinking out of the local mud hole.  People totally appreciate it; they know what’s going on.  It’s a matter of their time and their health that you’re giving them … kids can go to school with healthier tummies and a lot of little girls are not spending hours getting water each day,” says Barry.

Get involved.  Are you interested in becoming a water ambassador?  Water Ambassadors offers travel volunteer opportunities in Central America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.  Learn more about Water Ambassadors of Canada at http://www.waterambassadorscanada.org.

MAGICAL, MYSTICAL SEAHORSES ~ MUST SEE VIDEOS

Animal World – Sea Horses | Storyteller Media ~ Published on Jan 23, 2012 ~ The mystical sea horse. Very graceful, very beautiful, very endangered and very strange. It’s the male who gives birth with this species. We join the team at the London Aquarium to see what they are doing to help save them from extinction.

The destruction of coral reefs, trawling and the use of seahorses in Chinese medicine is leading to their decline. How do we stop this near-mythical sea creature from becoming extinct? – Uploaded on Jun 23, 2010 to YouTube.

Male seahorse giving birth at The Deep Hull, Uploaded on Jun 21, 2010

http://www.thedeep.co.uk Filmed at The Deep, Hull, Yorkshire, United Kingdom  The world’s only submarium is home to over 3500 fish, including sharks and rays… There are many illegally imported seahorses. When they are discovered by Customs and Excise, London Zoo aquarium at ZSL help out by housing and taking care of them … We were able to help out by taking this mature breeding pair. Many seahorses are on the IUCN Red list classified as VULNERABLE and have shown population declines of 20% over the last 10 years. Many species haven’t enough information about them to be able to manage their exploitation.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus_%28genus%29 

WATER ~ NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION ~ YES!!!

Is losing weight one of your 2013 New Year’s resolutions?

Perhaps the following article, The Water Weight Loss Cure from Care2, posted by Annie B. Bond, September 2005 will help.

Water can be one of your best friends during a weight loss regime. Although beauty is largely a matter of inner radiance, physical treatments can help keep us feeling and looking our best. Water remedies can be quite effective in maintaining the figure and skin in particular.

Weight gain from overeating can cause unflattering changes to the figure, but it can be fought with a water remedy. By drinking generous amounts of water (more than a half-gallon (or 2 liters) a day, you can reduce the amount of food consumed and also eliminate false hunger pains.

Furthermore, good hydration of the tissues encourages enzymatic activity and therefore the burning of fat deposits. To lose weight drink 2.5 to 3.5 liters a day, on the higher side the more you weigh and eat.

Water is an essential ingredient for skin regeneration. The skin of a 130-pound individual contains around 2 gallons of water, and the skin of a 160-pound individual contains almost 2.5 gallons of water. This water is retained by special molecules capable of holding in place a thousand times their weight of the skin and the loss of a fresh youthful appearance. When the skin lacks water, it becomes dull, dry, and wrinkled and loses its elasticity, firmness, and color, and glands eliminate toxins poorly and become congested causing skin problems. Hydrating skin properly by drinking enough prevents these assaults on the skin. To maintain youthful skin, around 2.5 liters of water a day should be sufficient.

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-water-weight-loss-cure.html#ixzz2INoHuXbV

A Rainsoft Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment System ensures all your water needs are met ~ refreshing pure tasting water for drinking or cooking, without the worry of unwanted chemicals and pharmaceuticals that are showing up in our municipal water systems.  This also eliminates the added cost and environmental impact of plastic bottled water use.

Rainsoft Ottawa
Eternally Pure Water Systems, Inc.
5450 Canotek Rd., Unit 66-67
Ottawa, Ontario K1J 9G5
Tel – (613) 742-0058

HOW AWESOME IS THIS?! SEADRAGONS PART 2

LEAFY SEADRAGONS, AN ENDANGERED SPECIES, ARE CLOSELY RELATED TO SEAHORSES AND WEEDY SEADRAGONS 

Exotic

   Exquisite

      Enchanting

        Extraordinary

Seadragons are some of the most ornately camouflaged creatures on the planet. Their spectacular gossamer, leaf-shaped appendages over their entire bodies enable them to blend in perfectly in their habitat of seaweed and kelp found in water to the south and east of Australia’s coast.

Seadragon males are responsible for childbearing. The male dragons have a spongy brood patch on the underside of the tail where females deposit their bright-pink eggs during mating. The eggs are fertilized during the transfer from the female to the male. The males incubate the eggs and release miniature sea dragons into the water after about four to six weeks (as seen in the video).

Seadragons survive on tiny crustaceans such as mysids, or sea lice. They are frequently captured by divers hoping to keep them as pets. In fact, such takings shrank their numbers so critically by the early 1990s that the Australian government placed a complete protection on both species. Pollution and habitat loss have also hurt their numbers, and they are currently listed as near threatened.

Leafy seadragon documentary film “The Vanishing Dragon”,   uploaded to YouTube by madge1964 on Jan 5, 2009, was filmed in South Australia. The complete documentary DVD can be purchased at www.abysspictures.com

“Leafy Sea Dragon Compilation” YouTube video, uploaded by combisoft on Sep 23, 2006, is filmed in South Australia under the jetties at Rapid Bay and Wool Bay

Exhibits at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  ~ Leafy Sea Dragon HD SlowMix, Leafy Sea Dragon, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey California, USA, Uploaded on Mar 21, 2010 by jimg944

Orlando SeaWorld breeds rare seadragons ~ “We see people come up to this (seadragon) exhibit every day, and they’re just amazed to see that there’s something so unusual-looking. They’re a beautiful representation of the marine life of the ocean,” said Teryl Nolan Hesse, assistant curator for aquariums at SeaWorld Orlando. “They come here, see this, and they get excited about it. And when they’re excited about something, they want to learn more.”

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2018993230_seadragons26.html?syndication=rss

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leafy_sea_dragon

HOW AWESOME IS THIS?! SEADRAGONS PART 1

Part 1 of this blog is about the Weedy Seadragons ~
“Life – Weedy seadragons dance into the night” – BBC One
Uploaded by BBC on Nov 3, 2009

About the programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/life
These two could teach Strictly Come Dancing a thing or two. Named for their uncanny resemblance to the plant life around them, a male weedy seadragon seduces a female with some very fancy fin work. Two months later, however, the male is the one whos left carrying the eggs.

Living off the coast of south Australia, weedy seadragons (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) are the only known species along with sea horses and pipefish – where the male carries the eggs. Although the eggs start out in the female, she lays about 120 of them onto the tail of the male where they are then fertilized and develop until they hatch.

Feeding on plankton, larval fishes and small shrimp-like crustaceans, seadragons resemble swaying seaweed making them difficult to find in their natural habitats, even though they can grow to about 46 cm in length.

YouTube video, “Weedy Sea Dragons, uploaded by stephenjt on Feb 3, 2007 ~ Weedy sea dragons near Hobart, Tasmania, filmed mostly on a single dive in January 2007.

YouTube video, “Botany Bay Watch – Weedy Seadragon Project Aware Survey Trip”, uploaded by Aquapix on Aug 29, 2009 ~  Training Dive Botany Bay – The Steps August 29th 2009 Volunteer Training Course, www.botanybaywatch.com.au,

In this YouTube video, “Weedy Sea Dragon,  Uploaded by thelning on Dec 23, 2008, you can get an up close and personal perspective of these exotic creatures.The weird and wonderful weedy seadragon. Filmed at Jervis bay, NSW, Australia 1986. You can see at the end of the video how well camouflaged the weedy seadragon is, which makes it difficult to find them.

MALE WEEDY SEADRAGON HAS BABIES! ~ Published on Aug 3, 2012 by MontereyBayAquarium ~ In a first at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a male weedy seadragon has had a brood of more than 80 babies. Like their seahorse cousins, it’s the male sea dragons that carry and hatch the babies. We’re only the fifth aquarium in the U.S. to breed “weedies.”

My next blog will feature the “LEAFY” Seadragons
~ just as awesome!!!
 

T.G.I.F. ~ HILARIOUS ANIMAL HIJINKS

YouTube video ~ Try not to laugh. Best Animals Fail & Wins Compilation Ever !!, Funny Hahaha!!, uploaded by KarmaloopOffical

It’s not surprising to see that this video has had over three and a half million hits just in the last year alone!!!

Thought you might appreciate something really hilarious before you head off for your weekend activities.

Rainsoft Ottawa staff hopes you have a great weekend.

~ See you back here next week. ~

 

GREAT IDEAS FOR MOVING WARM WATER AROUND THE HOME

The following is an excerpt from the Nov./Dec. edition of Water Canada‘s magazine.

“Rethinking pumps and pipes” – Hot ideas for moving warm water around the home, by Michael Anschel and Kerry Freek.

Even though hot water can be the first or second largest use of energy in many homes, not a lot of thought is given to moving it through buildings efficiently. Add domestic hot water use, filtration, and distribution networks, and the energy value of water becomes significantly larger than generally acknowledged. Think about turning on a shower. In many homes, it takes three or four minutes for hot water to reach the point of use. Meanwhile, a large volume of treated, potable water, pumped at a great cost through aging municipal distribution networks to residential taps is lost down the drain. When you turn up the thermostat, hot water flows through the entire radiator system, not just the rooms which need heat. From the simple to the extreme, here are a few possibilities for saving water and energy while maintaining a steady supply of hot water in a home.

Picking efficient water heaters and pumps:  The first step in any home is to secure an efficient water heater. Generally speaking, there are four options: tank, tankless, combi, and hybrid. A tank heats water and stores it for when it’s needed.  At its best, it is 54 per cent efficient. Tankless and combi units can reach 98 per cent efficiency and eliminate the risk of combustion gas spillage in the home. Combi units have the added benefit of replacing your boiler, making them attractive from a cost perspective. Hybrid tank heaters are marginally more efficient than tank heaters at more cost, headache, and negative side effects… Over the years, pump technology has become increasingly more efficient – today’s pumps use a fraction of the energy that older models do. A smart pump could make a significant difference, radically improving an old system… A smart pump can also learn patterns and makes predictions. For example, if you wake up and take a shower at 7 a.m., the pump will run the line at 6:55 a.m. and, by the time you get to the shower, hot water is ready and waiting. The same pumps can send heat to your bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen in the morning selectively, rather than to the entire home…Re-circulating systems can provide some of these same benefits. The pumps that control these systems can be operated by switch, motion detector, or remote control. Pushing a small button on the way to the bathroom in the morning, for instance, could trigger a small pump that silently runs the hot water line, returning the cooler water in the line back to the tank and drawing piping hot water up to the shower valve so that it’s hot when you get there…

An efficient system is half the battle:  Switching from a tank to tankless system or replacing old model pumps with smart pumps may not make as much of an impact on energy bills if the delivery systems – that is, the pipes are inefficient. Switching an old 50 per cent efficient tank water heater to a high-efficiency tankless system will save energy, but in many cases even greater savings can be found by replacing or modifying inefficient delivery systems: the pipes. In many homes, the hot water heating station is a healthy distance from the point of use, such as a faucet. Residential systems may be better off with a new design approach – particularly in new construction. Here, the opportunity to completely rethink the layout of water pipes can yield the greatest amount of efficiency with the least amount of energy and resources…

Picking our battles: Understanding the value of a systems approach to hot water delivery and the opportunities that exist with high-efficiency smart pumps on our heating systems is an important first step. With minimal expense, we can easily modify existing systems and install new systems to be exponentially more efficient. We have an obligation to each other to make these changes a priority in our retrofit and new construction process.

HELP TORONTO SICK KIDS ~ VIDEO

Brain Power Studio sings for Sick Kids Hospital

YOU CAN HELP!

The Ottawa Comic Jam is co-sponsored by DragonHead Studio and Beth Stevenson’s Newmarket-based Brain Power Studio. The latter has gathered to sing and cut snowflakes to make a video for the Holiday Season. Every click on the Frosty video will help generate the size of the donation Brain Power will be making to the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.

 

It only takes a few minutes to click, watch and share. Brain Power has been instrumental in helping to support the Jam over the years. It’s awesome that we can give back to a great cause.

 “Brain Power Studio: Frosty the Snowman for Sick Kids” – published on Dec 17, 2012…. Please pass this video along as the more views we get, the more money we donate to Sick Kids! Thank you!
This Holiday season Brain Power Kids raised their voices to help raise money for Sick Kids Hospital. We made snow for kids who can’t get out in the snow this year. Please distribute widely!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 ~ AWESOME!

I hope you enjoy this rather creative YouTube video, uploaded by flashdance987, artistically mixing ABBA singing their Happy New Year song with the pan flute music of Dinu Bomha. 

“Happy New Year,
Happy New Year,
may we all have a vision now and then
of a world where every neighbour is a friend…”

The exhuberance of the children singing in this video is CONTAGIOUS!

YouTube video, “HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 -The Fantastikids, english children choir” Uploaded on Dec 29, 2010,  the Fantastikids & Monsieur Nô wish you “HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013”
This English children’s choir is made up 20 pupils from Ermitage International School of France. They sing to help Plan International France, www.planfrance.org  Welcome on http://www.thefantastikids.com/ andyou can see many video-clips on YouTube -The Fantastikids

LYRICS ~ Happy Happy New Year another reason to rejoice is here – 52 weeks to make your heart sing and see what four new seasons will bring.
Happy Happy New Year, toss out bad memories by their ear.
Gather up new ones in a bouquet, ring out the old ring in a new day.
Happy Happy New Year our resolutions now we will hear.
If we could all run toward the light so many wrongs could be put right.
Happy Happy New Year lets not forget about the things that we’re so lucky to have in our lives – our sons and daughters, husbands and wives.
Happy Happy New Year, let there be summer,let there not be fear.
The clouds will pass over our heads, and let the sun shine on us instead.
Happy Happy New Year, another opportunity is here to just believe in what we can be and see our dreams become reality.

I’ve included the following Abba Happy New Year video because I felt that in the first video the music mixing is dominated by the pan flute (as lovely as it is – you can’t hear the lyrics).

Happy New Year!
Best wishes for health, happiness and prosperity in 2013 to all our readers
from Rainsoft Ottawa ~
Eternally Pure Water Systems, Inc.