November 17, 2007
An internet word game has generated enough rice to feed 50,000 people for one day, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has said. The game, FreeRice, tests the vocabulary of participants. For each click on a correct answer, the website donates money to buy 10 grains of rice. Companies advertising on the website provide the money to the WFP to buy and distribute the rice. FreeRice went online in early October and has now raised 1bn grains of rice.
October 10, 2007
Dr. Ernst is back in the media spotlight with a poor quality study claiming that herbal medicines can’t be proven to do any good, but may do significant harm.
As the National Institute of Medical Herbalists pointed out, basing such damning conclusions on 3 trials, one of which was a pilot study involving very low numbers, hardly typifies the rigorous scientific standards that Ernst purports to support. One is tempted to question whether Dr. Ernst is more interested in media attention for himself than the health of the country’s population?
Claiming that there are no trials proving the benefits of herbal remedies is a very strange thing to do, unless one is ignorant of the Medicine Licences granted to herbs, e.g. Echinacea and the Traditional Herbal Medicine Licences granted to several herbal products.
Surely this can’t be your “Ernst”, Dr. Ernst -???-
September 15, 2007
Modern society today is faced with increasing incidences of poor health, related to modern lifestyles, that cannot be addressed by medicine alone. Contributing factors have been identified as an increasingly sedentary population, increasing levels of mental stress related to urban living and contemporary work practices, and hazardous environments e.g. air pollution. Natural spaces and natural elements such as forests and trees have been seen as providing opportunities to ameliorate such trends.
Now is Seed Gathering season, this being the best time in the year to gather seeds from our more common trees such as conkers, acorns, birch cones, rowan berries and apples ready to nurture into trees.
It’s fun, easy to do and the cheapest way to obtain young trees for planting. Go for a healthy walk in the crisp autumn air and take your pick of seeds from some of our best native trees or join in one of the events planned by > the Tree Council of Ireland, tree wardens, rangers, woodland owners and others.