Podcast – Page 17 – Paul Ayling.me

The origin of the name New Zealand

January 1, 2010

by Paul with No Comment Behind the News humour Personal

We are in New Zealand below is a map of where we are going on our trip (with markers indicating where we are staying)

View New Zealand Trip Jan 2010 in a larger map

Ever wondered where New Zealand got it’s name?

“Zeeland ( pronunciation (help·info)), also called Zealand in English and Zeelandic, is a province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands (hence its name, meaning “sea-land“) and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about 2930 km², of which almost 1140 km² is water. Large parts of Zeeland are below sea level. The last great flooding of the area was in 1953. Tourism is an important economic activity. Its sunny beaches make it a popular holiday destination in the summer. Most tourists are Germans. In some areas, the population can be two to four times higher during high summer season. The coat of arms of Zeeland shows a lion half-emerged from water, and the text “luctor et emergo” (Latin for “I struggle and I emerge”).” Zeeland ( pronunciation (help·info)), also called Zealand in English and Zeelandic, is a province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands (hence its name, meaning “sea-land“) and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about 2930 km², of which almost 1140 km² is water. Large parts of Zeeland are below sea level. The last great flooding of the area was in 1953. Tourism is an important economic activity. Its sunny beaches make it a popular holiday destination in the summer. Most tourists are Germans. In some areas, the population can be two to four times higher during high summer season. The coat of arms of Zeeland shows a lion half-emerged from water, and the text “luctor et emergo” (Latin for “I struggle and I emerge”).FULL wikipeadia entry here

The dangers of Cellphones

January 1, 2010

by Paul with No Comment Behind the News

After the HAARP post I was doing some more digging into Dr Nick Beggich who introduced the movie about HAARP. I found that his father was a democratic senator who died under suspicious circumstances and he also had another video about the dangers of mobile phones which I actually found quite credible where he talked about Dr George Carlo a scientist employed by lobbyists to the mobile phone industry.

Here is His video

Here is the video with Dr George Carlo

There was also a Scandinavian research that has been taken place

May 17, 2005
A Swedish study finds that users of digital phones in rural areas may be at greater risk of brain cancer. Its authors say the link is troubling, although they acknowledge that the amount of data is small and wider research is needed to amplify the findings.

The researchers said that incidence of brain tumors in rural areas of Sweden was much higher among users of GSM cell phones than among rural residents who were not cell phone users. The rate was also higher than among GSM users in urban areas.
The chance of developing a malignant brain tumor was roughly eight times

source click here

Vertical Gardens

December 30, 2009

by Paul with No Comment Permaculture & Garden

I was thinking about building a multi level garden and have been looking on google – it’ fascinating!

This website looked cool
http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/

Below is a video showing how to DIY a vertical garden.

I also liked this one too

This website looked pretty cool too

http://www.valcent.net

More infotmation here on DIY Hydroponics

Review and Renew 2009

December 27, 2009

by Paul with No Comment Permaculture & Garden

I have been thinking about the garden what went well and what didn’t go quite so well and what I want to try in 2009.

Went well

Compost – composted all household compostibles
Lettuce (I had home grown lettuce most days)
Mint – great but has now passed its best lasted about 3 months
Rosmary – can’t fail with this
Dwarf broad beans – I harvested a few and killed them and left in soil (fixing nitrogeon)
Garlic (from sprouted cloves)
Basil – good but bolted quickly

Almost Worked

Peas, tomatoes – started well but got rot
Cabbage, broccoli – started well be savaged by snails cabbage moth & slugs.
Broad beans some looked promising but rotted or just died
Strawberries, grapes (produced but eaten by birds)
Chillis (from from chill seeds from kitchen) kept getting eaten when young

Failures (didn’t grow at all)

Soybeans (maybe the seeds were bad)
Grow from seeds they kept dying

Things I have learnt

How to use mulch
How to water

Year 2 – Garden cleanup

November 27, 2009

by Paul with No Comment Permaculture & Garden

I will be on holiday soon. In melbourne it will be getting very hot and with our brick yard the back garden will get very hot indeed.

My garden is looking very sad at the moment. The lettuce that was looking so good has now bolted and the cabbage and broccoli is annihilated by pests. Heres what it looks like now.

I need to protect my plants from drying out and without watering them for a week or two. This is why I have decided that I will need to mulch. Using a stray mulch is supposed to keep snails at bay so I will be using pea straw.

Today I bought pea straw here are photos of my garden before and after mulching.

Painfull eyes continued

November 25, 2009

by Paul with No Comment Health

My eye has been giving me grief again. I went to see a specialist about three months ago and he told me I have a “corneal erosion”. Basically it like a scab on my eye that keeps sticking to my eyelid and slows dow the repair. Using thick eye lubricant on my eye before I go to bed helps although sleeping on my right side (as it is my left eye with teh erosion) it has been playing up recently and I was doing a bit of research looking into eye health and this is what I found
“Taking a vigorous walk for at least a half hour can temporarily reduce discomfort and pressure in the eyes.“

also recommend

“Blend until smooth: Serves one.

1 cup of skim or soy milk
1 dash of cinnamon
3 ice cubes
1 tablespoon flax seed oil
1 tablespoon lecithin granules
2 level scoops of vanilla or chocolate whey protein powder

1/2 banana or 1 cup of fresh fruit (mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches, etc.)”
full article

What is food acid?

October 31, 2009

by Paul with No Comment Health

I have been on a mini mission this last 5 months. Everytime I have been at a supermarket I have been looking for decent pickled onions and pickled beetroot. It is hard to find in Melbourne.

I have too major gripes with the pickles I have come accross.

1. They ask to be refridgerated after opening because .. (point 2) They do not contain any vinegar! (Instead sugar water and food acid)

I thought the whole point of pickling was to preserve said food and I also niavly expected pickled onions or beatroot to contain vinegar. Last week picked my own. I’d reccomend this as it only took me about half an hour to make 6 jars. (below is one)

Food acid is in so much stuff.

For instance it is in the “peters” lemon “Icy pole”. I was eating one of these a while back and read the label.

“All Natrual ingredients” then the ingredients read
on the Nestle website it says

”

Key nutritional benefits

99% fat free
Gluten free
All natural colours and flavours

”
What’s in an icy pole then?
“Water, sugar, food acid, natural colouring, natural flavouring”

I had two questions about this
1. How is “food acid” natural
2. How can a lemon icy pole with all natural ingredients contain no lemon???? Was lemon juice one of the “natural flavourings” on the ingredient list?

I called the nestle number on the packet to ask for more details. They could not tell me what food acid was. When I asked what was the “natural flavourings” I was told that this was a trade secret and if other companies knew then they would be at a competitive disadvantage. So it doesn’t take an Einstein to work out that these lemon icy poles have never been anywhere near a lemon.

Food labelling – what a load of nonsense!

Paul