Unilever Brands

Posted on January 25, 2012 by pixi

Unilever is a huge company, comprised of many brand names that you will probably be familiar with, both in the UK and abroad. Unilever is responsible for 20% of all palm oil farmed annually. This is a listing of their brands, provided to help you make environmentally-aware shopping decisions. Continue reading →

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Palm Oil

Posted on January 24, 2012 by pixi

Palm Oil is a vegetable oil derived from the fruit of the African Palm Oil Tree (Elaeis Guineensis), and is found in hundreds of food and body products on the market today. The palm oil tree originated in West Africa, but can be grown in any hot, humid climate. Today almost all of our palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, where huge swathes of rainforest are cleared for it to be planted.

As a direct result of this clearing, animals’ habitats are destroyed, the animals themselves are killed, and ecosystems are thrown out of balance. The fields of Palm Oil Trees that replace the tropical rainforest don’t allow anywhere near the same levels of biodiversity, and the plants and animals that survive the peat-draining, tree-felling and ground-burning must move or die. This includes endangered species such as the orangutan, the Sumatran rhino, the pygmy elephant of Borneo, and the Sumatran tiger. Continue reading →

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Sonnet 116 – William Shakespeare

Posted on January 24, 2012 by pixi

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

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A Balanced Diet

Posted on January 23, 2012 by pixi

The NHS' Eat-Well Plate
Continue reading →

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Vitamins and Nutrients

Posted on January 22, 2012 by pixi

Vitamin A / Beta-Carotene

Found in: Liver, egg yolks, whole milk, butter, fortified margarine, and fortified reduced fat and skim milk. Beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the body, is found in dark-green leafy vegetables, deep yellow and orange vegetables, and fruits.

Doses and overdoses: Recommended dose for men is 0.7mg, for women 0.6mg. Do not exceed 1.5mg daily. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, which will be stored in the liver and fatty tissues for future use.

Uses and warnings: Essential for normal vision, gene expression, bone growth, healthy skin, hair, and nails, and resistance to infection. Large doses of vitamin A are toxic and cause liver damage as well as birth defects if consumed during first months of pregnancy. Over time, an excess of vitamin A may also build up and weaken bones. Large doses of beta-carotene can cause skin to yellow and may increase cancer risk in smokers. Continue reading →

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There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.  -  Hindu Proverb

Posted on January 16, 2012 by pixi | Leave a comment

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.  -  Thornton Wilder

Posted on January 15, 2012 by pixi | Leave a comment

The Song of Hiawatha

Posted on January 14, 2012 by pixi

CONTENTS

Introductory Note
Introduction
I. The Peace-Pipe
II. The Four Winds
III. Hiawatha’s Childhood
IV. Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis
V. Hiawatha’s Fasting
VI. Hiawatha’s Friends
VII. Hiawatha’s Sailing
VIII. Hiawatha’s Fishing
IX. Hiawatha and the Pearl-Feather
X. Hiawatha’s Wooing
XI. Hiawatha’s Wedding-Feast
XII. The Son of the Evening Star
XIII. Blessing the Corn-Fields
XIV. Picture-Writing
XV. Hiawatha’s Lamentation
XVI. Pau-Puk-Keewis
XVII. The Hunting of Pau-Puk-Keewis
XVIII. The Death of Kwasind
XIX. The Ghosts
XX. The Famine
XXI. The White Man’s Foot
XXII. Hiawatha’s Departure
Vocabulary
Continue reading →

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We are so new, as a creature. I mean, we’re the last group made, you know? And we just got here. The reptiles were on this little blob of spit and sand for 200 million years, and we just sort of grew this opposing thumb about 25 million years ago. So we are very new, and very rude, and very crass and shallow. And the only way we know to improve ourselves, for the most part, is by standing on somebody else’s neck. Not on their shoulders, but on their neck.  -  Maya Angelou

Posted on January 7, 2012 by pixi | Leave a comment

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.  -  Ghandi

Posted on January 6, 2012 by pixi | Leave a comment