Comfrey for fodder, ancient medicinal
“Comfrey has been cultivated, as a healing herb since at least 400BC. The Greeks and Romans commonly used comfrey to stop heavy bleeding, treat bronchial problems and heal wounds and broken bones. Poultices were made for external wounds and tea was consumed for internal ailments. Comfrey has been reported to promote healthy skin with its mucilage content that moisturizes and soothes and promotes cell proliferation.”
Author also cultivates a quarter of an acre of alfalfa(shown in photo above) for use as biomass and animal fodder.
Comfrey is a good plant to use to establish ‘pest-predator’ relationships in your garden and promotes biodiversity, in his experience.
“The bell shaped flowers provide nectar and pollen to many species of bees and other insects from late May until the first frosts in late autumn. Lacewings are said to lay eggs on comfrey and spiders overwinter on the plant. Parasitoid wasps and spiders will hunt on and around comfrey.”
He cautions against regular human consumption although comfrey has traditionally been used in nutrient rich, restorative teas. Comfrey grown in less polluted areas might provide just the borage remedy or fodder needed. It grows in climate zones 4-9, best in full sun where it will spread rapidly in well drained soil. For more about the benefits of comfrey, click above.
Particles discovered in ‘hypergraph state’, curving, non-linear
Physicists announce ‘extreme violation’ of ‘local realism’ by quantum particles in ‘hyper graph states’. Apparently, these hyper particles misbehave, violating idea that particles move in a linear fashion, even if a straight line is the quickest way to traverse from point a to point b.
The study findings were reported by Physics magazine. Research conducted by Mariami Gachechiladze, Costantino Budroni, and Otfried Gühne at the University of Siegen in Germany.
The properties of multiparticle quantum systems are described by quantum states, some of which can be represented on a graph where each point corresponds to a particle and each edge to the interaction between particles. While some quantum states can be represented by ordinary graphs, others are represented by hypergraphs. On an ordinary graph, two points can be connected by an edge, while on a hypergraph, a hyperedge can connect more than two vertices. Whereas an ordinary edge is usually drawn as a straight line between two vertices, a hyperedge is depicted as a curve that wraps around three or more vertices.
The physicists discover that particles in hypergraph state have ‘perfect correlations’ that are ‘highly nonlocal’. This gives term ‘quantum leap’ a whole new meaning. Is it a particle or is it a wave? Probably both.
Reporter suggests using highly connective particles to detect heavily predicted but elusive ‘gravitational waves’. Large-scale research in this area may have well been exhausted by now, as even CERN’s mega-ton, laser powered atom smasher could find no real ‘god particle’. I, like Starhawk, see everything in relationship, connected with all existence. If you blow something to smithereens, then indeed, nothing will be left.
Donald Scott’s work in magnetism and electricity shows how these two fundamental forces both attract and repel one another, forming DNA-shaped plasmic fields, as seen in cloud nebulas at a cosmic scale.
Newly discovered ‘hyper graph state’ could reflect similar electromagnetic behavior in particles at the atomic scale. As a potential unifying theory for Einsteinian termed ‘spooky action at a distance’, this highly connective particle state could be a key to bridging atoms and anatomy. Article continues:
The physicists also showed that the greater the number of particles in a quantum hypergraph state, the more strongly it violates local realism, with the strength increasing exponentially with the number of particles. In addition, even if a quantum hypergraph state loses one of its particles, it continues to violate local realism. This robustness to particle loss is in stark contrast to other types of quantum states, which no longer violate local realism if they lose a particle.
“People Permaculture” with Starhawk
Wise writer Starhawk sees ‘people permaculture’ as a fundamental shift away from 3-Century old, ‘mechanistic’ world view to one of re-discovery of our roots of oneness within Creation.
Current science studies use precise instrumentation, detecting divine sparks at tiniest, sub-quantum levels. Meanwhile, methods of bio-diverse, habitat restoring techniques of farming re-emerge. She states:
“Permaculture is a shift in our thinking. It’s a shift from thinking about separate, isolated things to thinking about relationships and systems and flows, how everything is in relationship.”
She sees our spiritual focus shifting as well.
“It’s a shift I’ve been talking about for 30 years. It’s a shift I think science is going through at a deep level, the old mechanistic model of the universe. It’s more string theory and physics, to the understanding that, when you look to the smallest and smallest piece of stuff, what you find is there is no stuff. There’s only relationships. There’s strings, there’s harmonies. There’s probabilities.”
Starhawk envisions a future with industry fine-tuned to work in harmony with the natural world.
Eric Rankin Sonic Geometry
Thanks for referral reminding me of video compendium by Eric Rankin where he explores geometrical shapes, numerical values and Platonic solids, synthesizing geometry into sacred frequency. He discusses the origins of sacred numbers like 432 from Sumerian root of 12-60 based system of counting, still in use today. He shows astounding relationship between F# and C# chords and what’s become known as ‘sacred geometry’. It’s geometric! and all about frequency.
Immigrants pay billions in taxes annually
Headline from Mic online reads, “New Study Shows Just How Much Undocumented Immigrants Actually Contribute.” Some startling statistics reveal the bigger story:
Undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $12 billion in taxes to the federal government annually. But that’s just for Uncle Sam. A new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that undocumented immigrants also pay quite a lot in state and local taxes — $11.6 billion a year. And that amount would increase significantly if the U.S. was to undertake serious immigration reform.
Immigrants contribute in three ways, according to report, through income tax, sales tax and property tax. Social security is also collected but not stored for their later use.
My father tells a story about how his great grandfather and brother from Ireland slept out in a tent for a time after they arrived as immigrants to America. It was the first time they’d ever seen lightening bugs, like lanterns to heaven.
Aging infrastructure and aging population of naturalized citizens in America would seem to necessitate that we have enough young people with strong backs to make necessary repairs to roads, railroad tracks and bridges, for instance. The billions paid by immigrants in taxes could provide just the funding for such worthy endeavors.
Missy Higgins pleads for ‘open arms toward the sea’ – protection for innocent
Singer/songwriter Missy Higgins releases single pleading with Canada to open its arms to families seeking passage from war-torn homelands across the sea.
Higgins sings, “Oh Canada, if you could help me out. All I wanted was a safe place for my family.”
Video includes powerful illustrations drawn by children displaced by this refugee crisis.
Sodium Benzoate, commonly used preservative shown to harm mitochondrial DNA
Natural News report by S.D. Wells sites a study using human volunteers that found sodium benzoate causes harm to human cells. Wells states:
A molecular biology expert at Sheffield University found that sodium benzoate damages mitochondrial DNA – cells associated with metabolism and aging. How much DNA damage is done by sodium benzoate? Nobody knows. Yet there is a whole array of diseases tied to this type of DNA (coding sequence) damage. Somatic mitochondrial mutations (mtDNA) have been increasingly observed in primary human cancers. In other words, mutant DNA eventually take over if fed the right carcinogenic “fuel,” namely sodium benzoate.
Wells reports that sodium benzoate may be responsible for a type of DNA mutation commonly seen in cancers. He explains how mutations can occur.
At the cellular level, sodium benzoate deprives mitochondria of oxygen, sometimes completely shutting down the “power station” of your cells. It’s programmed cell death, and when cells are deprived of oxygen, they cannot fight off infection, and that includes the infection known as cancer – the mutation and uncontrolled division of cells. Plus, when sodium benzoate is combined with vitamin C or E, benzene is formed, which is also a known carcinogen that causes leukemia.
The shocking part is just how common sodium benzoate’s use as a food preserving ingredient is. Anything packaged might be suspect. Wells lists a few:
Sodium benzoate is easily found in most conventional foods, especially the acidic ones, including pickles, peppers, soy sauce, ketchup, salad dressings, jams, most condiments, vinegar, fruit juices, salsa, dips, shredded cheese and diet or regular soda. You may also see it listed on your mouthwash, toothpaste, cough syrup, cream, lotion and hundreds of cosmetic products. Sodium benzoate is the cheapest mold inhibitor on the market, and is one of the main reasons many Americans do not have enough essential nutrients in their bodies to detoxify. This is occurring at the cellular level – think of Parkinson’s and other neuro-degenerative, premature aging diseases.
Beavers as ‘keystone species’ prove to be keepers – groundbreaking UK study
Western Morning News story by Martin Hess reports study showing beavers as, “A natural ally in the fight against flooding.”
The report based on a groundbreaking 5-year study conducted by Professor Richard Brazier of University of Exeter’s Geography Department shows that not only do beaver dams help retain water and reduce run-off but also create a habitat that serves to clean water of pollutants.
Hess reports:
Prof Brazier explained: “My job is to monitor the changes, then to see what difference these animals make over a number of years. So what I’m doing here is looking at flood attenuation. Is beaver activity changing the flow regime – the water that’s coming in compared with what’s leaving the site? Can they play a role in mitigating flooding?
“The second is water storage, specifically in dry times. Can more water be stored in this woodland landscape and therefore benefit streams and reservoirs downstream?
“The third is water quality. Have the beavers essentially created a natural filter for quite polluted water coming off agricultural landscapes?”
Asked why such an experiment had never been done before Prof Brazier replied: “It’s not easy in the wider landscape. In an experiment like this there is one stream in, one stream out, so we can control what’s going on. But there is another aspect – studying it in the UK, in this lowland intensively farmed landscape that we have, is important. If you want evidence to discover what beavers will do in our landscape you really have to study the animals here.”
He explained how the 13 beaver dams are slowing the water flow. “The water comes in at the top and fills up behind the first dam, overflows and fills the next. It is like a staircase. There is a constant release of water – each pond draws down and is replenished before the next rainfall.”
Professor Brazier calls beavers a ‘keystone species’ precisely because their dams create habitat for other species.
We had just 10 frogspawn clumps here in 2011 – and we had 580 clumps last week.
Those industrious beavers build dams that actually serve to purify water in this mountain stream, the same water is sourced for drinking water downstream.
“From this landscape here we are seeing an average of 150 mg per litre of sediment coming off farmland in storms. But what we see leaving the site here is just 15mg per litre. Behind every one of these dams the water slows until it’s practically not moving – the sediment settles and fills the pond.
“If you are water company and a river has high sediment, it costs a lot of money to treat. Nitrogen and phosphorus both enter this site at reasonably high levels especially in storms – but at the bottom end we see so little in nitrogen and phosphate, the university’s equipment cannot actually detect the minute amount.
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