Palate Cleanser #171

I want to live here, floating...

Lily Pads, Eagle Lake

Photograph by Michael Melford, National Geographic

This Month in Photo of the Day: Nature and Weather Photos

An underwater camera offers a fish's-eye view of lily pads on Eagle Lake. Sulfur dioxide from power plants made many Adirondack lakes so acidic they became fishless. Thanks to the Clean Air Act and other measures, some now show signs of recovery.

See more pictures from the September 2011 feature story "Forever Wild."

visual palate cleanser concept © Bright Nepenthe, 2012

Celiac Page

As many of you know, I have Celiac Disease. I've been getting a number of people asking me about celiac and gluten-free issues recently, so I've finally decided to make a resource page. There are other sources out there of course, but hey, it's a handy thing to steer people to my page and blog. So this is a resource page for people who want to learn about CD, who suspect they have it, who have recently been diagnosed with CD or gluten-intolerance, and those who want more information about living gluten-free. You can find it on the pages tab right below the title of the blog, or click here.

© Bright Nepenthe, 2012

Palate Cleanser #170

Field, Scotland

Photograph by David Shields, My Shot

This Month in Photo of the Day: Nature and Weather Photos

Just after sunrise on the east coast of Scotland (the North Sea is just below the horizon), this pre-harvest field seemed to stretch forever, and the clouds were amazing.

Sigh....

Visual palate cleanser concept © Bright Nepenthe, 2012

Hope for a New Era

40/45!

© Bright Nepenthe, 2012

10,000 Days

سلام به خوانندگان ایرانی من

United4Iran's Awareness Meeting in front of the US Capitol yesterday.

Yesterday, April 1st, marked the cumulative 10,000th day that seven Baha'i religious leaders in  Iran have been incarcerated for merely practicing their faith. There were gatherings in a number of cities around the world on their behalf. The 20 year sentence the Baha'i Seven face is a brutal one, especially when one considers the conditions faced by Iranian prisoners.

United4Iran, proponents of the Green Movement, democracy and religious and intellectual freedom in Iran have asked their subscribers to please send letters to promote the interests of the Baha'i Seven. These leaders of a peaceful faith which has long existed in Iran have paid a terrible price for not recanting their religion. You can join me in supporting their fight for freedom here. Also, you can contact your US Representative about signing on to House Resolution 134, which condemns the persecution of Baha'i, the largest religious minority group, in Iran.

I encourage readers to join United4Iran's Facebook page in support of their mission, a free and democratic Iran.

And hey, while you're at it, you might want to check out Israel Loves Iran and Iran Loves Israel, grassroots efforts on the part of citizens of these respective countries to forge positive feelings between their nations and people. Don't be cynical about it. Some of the posters desperately hope for peace between their countries. And, if you want an extra dose of something hopeful about the goodness there (still!) is in the world, check out the simple trailer from from the documentary Cultures of Resistance:

You can watch Cultures of Resistance on Video on Demand with many cable providers in the USA. It's listed under Documentaries.

Director Iara Lee continues to accrue film from reisistance movements worldwide. I'll be featuring some of the Cultures of Resistance videos from Iran in coming weeks but you can check their Vimeo site out yourself and see some of their moving video testimonies from around the world.

برای تو صلح و آزادی است.

© Bright Nepenthe, 2012

Things That Totally Piss Me Off, Part #982

Here I offer for your viewing displeasure my purchase of a single package of Krups cleaning tablets, for cleaning my Krups espresso machine. They were purchased from Amazon. The box of tablets measures 2" by 3.5" and is only 1/4" high. It was shipped, via UPS, in a box, as shown, that was 8" x 10" by 3 " high. I'm an Amazon Prime Member, so in theory, the shipping was free. In reality, we all pay for this stuff in so many, many ways. 

Waste.

Waste bothers me.

© Bright Nepenthe, 2012

Palate Cleanser #169: A Song of Ice and Fire Version

The real title for this post is: Do NOT Try to Call Me Between 9 and 10 PM EST Tonight, Not Even If You Are My Child or My Parent.


visual palate cleanser concept © Bright Nepenthe, 2012

50 Words That Have No Place in Education!

AMNH lobby from: NYC in Pictures

What do the words slavery, cancer, dinosaur, and poverty have in common? 

They should be banned on tests in NYC schools! Banned I tell you! Because after all, you can still have tests about things like The Civil War, Human Physiology, Fossils, The Great Depression and such, without ever using these very upsetting words!!!!! We must protect our students in this country! No more upsetting words!

(Um, about the irony that you wouldn't be able to use the word dinosaur on a public school test in the school district with the museum with the largest dinosaur collection on display in the world? Got nothin'.)

Fifty Little Upsetting Words:

• Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)
• Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs
• Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)
• Bodily functions
• Cancer (and other diseases)
• Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)
• Celebrities
• Children dealing with serious issues
• Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)
• Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)
• Crime
• Death and disease
• Dinosaurs
• Divorce
• Evolution
• Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes
• Gambling involving money
• Halloween
• Homelessness
• Homes with swimming pools
• Hunting
• Junk food
• In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge
• Loss of employment
• Nuclear weapons
• Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)
• Parapsychology
• Politics
• Pornography
• Poverty
• Rap Music
• Religion
• Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)
• Rock-and-Roll music
• Running away
• Sex
• Slavery
• Terrorism
• Television and video games (excessive use)
• Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)
• Vermin (rats and roaches)
• Violence
• War and bloodshed
• Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)
• Witchcraft, sorcery, etc

© Bright Nepenthe, 2012