Reusing produce containers
Year: 2014
10 Benefits of Reading: Why You Should Read Every Day
When was the last time you read a book, or a substantial magazine article? Do your daily reading habits center around tweets, Facebook updates, or the directions on your instant oatmeal packet? If you’re one of countless people who don’t make a habit of reading regularly, you might be missing out: reading has a significant number of benefits, and just a few benefits of reading are listed below.
1. Mental Stimulation
Studies have shown that staying mentally stimulated can slow the progress of (or possibly even prevent) Alzheimer’s and Dementia, since keeping your brain active and engaged prevents it from losing power. Just like any other muscle in the body, the brain requires exercise to keep it strong and healthy, so the phrase “use it or lose it” is particularly apt when it comes to your mind. Doing puzzles and playing games such as chess have also been found to be helpful with cognitive stimulation.
2. Stress Reduction
No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships, or countless other issues faced in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story. A well-written novel can transport you to other realms, while an engaging article will distract you and keep you in the present moment, letting tensions drain away and allowing you to relax.
3. Knowledge
Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face.
Additionally, here’s a bit of food for thought: should you ever find yourself in dire circumstances, remember that although you might lose everything else—your job, your possessions, your money, even your health—knowledge can never be taken from you.
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5 Ways to be a Better Gardener
I stopped making New Year’s resolutions years ago, well, at least typical resolutions. I found that I never kept them and was continually disappointed in myself. However, I did find that when it came to my garden, I always seem to get inspired with the New Year by the arrival of all those gardening catalogs in my mail box and couldn’t wait to get back in the garden. So, I started to make gardening resolutions, and I find that they are much easier to keep. Here are a few to get you started.
Resolve to finally start a garden or learn to garden. I spent years resisting the urge to garden because I really believed I had a brown thumb. But, I never took the time to learn what it takes to grow a garden. What I discovered is that there are so many easy ways to improve your gardening success if you just take the time to learn them. Take a class, read a book, subscribe to a gardening magazine, or ask your friends that already garden. If you already garden, make a commitment to learn more, there is always something to learn.
Lemony Life Hack – Squeeze More Juice From Your Lemons!
Whether it’s a savory slab of salmon, or a sweet cheesecake, lemon juice can enhance a multitude of foods. But the squeezing of lemons to get their fresh juice is often tedious and seems to bear little reward. How do you all normally squeeze lemons? Most people typically cut it in half and get to squeezing straight away. But there’s a method that will yield much much much more juice, as we present below:
1. Warm your lemon in a microwave oven. If you want to the lemon juice cold, then just warm it for 5 seconds. If you want warm juice, use 20 seconds. The more you warm the lemon, the more juice you’ll get out of it.
2. After warming your lemon, roll it on a cutting board or counter while pressing strongly with your hand.
3. Finally, cut it in half and roll it as you would usually.
Just these few steps more, and you’ll extract so much more juice! Please try it out. You’ll be astounded at how much juice gushes out.
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Green Documentaries | e2: the economies of being environmentally conscious
e²
is a critically acclaimed, multipart PBS series about the innovators and pioneers who envision a better quality of life on earth: socially, culturally, economically and ecologically.
The series explores attainable solutions to pressing environmental and social challenges, and its stories are culled from a variety of fields including design, energy, transport, water, food and urban development. Episodes have profiled Nobel Peace Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus’s efforts to bring renewable energy to Bangladesh’s rural poor through microfinance; architect William McDonough and his “cradle-to-cradle” design philosophy; and former Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa’s sweeping redesign of that city’s transportation network, emphasizing alternatives to automobile culture.
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