Preparedness and your health.

[Spifflove]

Yes quite right. Environmental noise, smog and light pollution can be reduced by living in the countryside.

I should expand a bit on how multimedia leads to inattentiveness and hyperactivity. Inattentiveness occurs when a child constantly imagines a world more stimulating than the one he or she lives in. Hyperactivity is restlessness from not being constantly overstimulated. For example imagining you are back on Omaha beach instead of sitting in class learning algebra. Soon such children are taking "legal speed" such as Ritalin so they can sit still in class. Ultimately they become lost boys, permanent teenagers incapable of the responsibility of forming families and heading households.

 

[Spifflove]

Oddly enough, I was reading a quote [1986] from J. Cyde Ralph, M.D. today, so I will share:

Television is the Enemy

It is the most evil, insidious, unrecognized destroyer in America.

It destroys your muscle tone and reduces you to flab.

It eliminates social interactions (family, neighborhood, community, church, business, team, and other).

It demeans your existence by glamorizing pure poppycock.

It wastes your life with nothing to show for it.

Turn it on and enjoy a slow suicide.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I will support that quote 100% and interject that "social media" is even worse than the ole TV.

DH and I were at a resaurant and there was a young couple with a little boy at the table next to us. Wife and husband were on their phones, texting and phone calls - the boy had a little computer game. They placed their order, told the kid to eat his food twice and thanked the waitress - that was their total interaction for the 45 minutes they were there.

 

[GardenerGal]

I am worried about America and the Western World's increasing dependence on hi-tech electronics to get through their day. Not just communications devices, but everything, including our increasingly electronically operated automobiles and trucks. The day of being able to repair and maintain one's own pickup truck or other mechanical device, is over. We are now dependent on technicians with computer diagnostics. No more cars on blocks in the backyard or garage while we tinker on them... Ditto for the equipment and devices we use to clean our houses, wash our clothes, cook our meals. A vacuum cleaner no longer uses a real motor that can be repaired by a handy-person.

Penmanship is being phased out in public schools. The reasoning is that everyone uses electronic devices to communicate... you don't even need to sign a check anymore. Financial transactions can all be done electronically anyway. Block printing is all they need in an "emergency" where they have to write a note. In a generation, only "special" scholars will be able to decipher an antique or historic document or letter. An entire treasured tradition, the handwritten letter... which gives us a treasure trove of correspondence from world leaders, poets and writers, artists, philosophers, celebrities and great scientists... will be a dead art, from this century, on.

The "analogue" way of doing things is dying, everything is shifting to the Cloud and electronic data storage, and the electronic way of doing tasks. When clothing gets torn it's thrown out and new duds are bought. How many people still know how to sew on a button, or darn socks?

What will happen if, heaven forbid, we have a crash in our electrical supply or the computer/Internet network, and people are force to do things "by hand," including build a cooking fire, growing their own food, writing a note by hand requesting help, etc.?

For our own sustainability and self-sufficiency, we should never lose our "homely arts" and skills.

 

[mlongworth]

I am worried about America and the Western World's increasing dependence on hi-tech electronics to get through their day. Not just communications devices, but everything, including our increasingly electronically operated automobiles and trucks. The day of being able to repair and maintain one's own pickup truck or other mechanical device, is over. We are now dependent on technicians with computer diagnostics. No more cars on blocks in the backyard or garage while we tinker on them... Ditto for the equipment and devices we use to clean our houses, wash our clothes, cook our meals. A vacuum cleaner no longer uses a real motor that can be repaired by a handy-person. Penmanship is being phased out in public schools. The reasoning is that everyone uses electronic devices to communicate... you don't even need to sign a check anymore. Financial transactions can all be done electronically anyway. Block printing is all they need in an "emergency" where they have to write a note. In a generation, only "special" scholars will be able to decipher an antique or historic document or letter. An entire treasured tradition, the handwritten letter... which gives us a treasure trove of correspondence from world leaders, poets and writers, artists, philosophers, celebrities and great scientists... will be a dead art, from this century, on. The "analogue" way of doing things is dying, everything is shifting to the Cloud and electronic data storage, and the electronic way of doing tasks. When clothing gets torn it's thrown out and new duds are bought. How many people still know how to sew on a button, or darn socks? What will happen if, heaven forbid, we have a crash in our electrical supply or the computer/Internet network, and people are force to do things "by hand," including build a cooking fire, growing their own food, writing a note by hand requesting help, etc.? For our own sustainability and self-sufficiency, we should never lose our "homely arts" and skills.

Amen gardenergal. We live in town but i do as much as i possibly can here. Cant wait to get to country. Everybody refers to me as a hillbilly, cause i have chickens and most of my yard is garden. But who do they all come to when they cant figure out whats up with something in their garden or an animal question.

 

[GardenerGal]

Your life and setup sound like mine, mlongworth!

 

[Spifflove]

Organic corn is 20x more nutritious than gmo corn, on average, per analysis:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...yoXxMXxuveEvE55ZA8CQ6IA&bvm=bv.45645796,d.b2I

I would even go so far as to say gmo isn't "food grade" corn.

 

[Spifflove]

Pets lower blood pressure.

Studies have shown that people who own pets have lower blood pressure than people who do not. Dog owners have usually fared best, probably because they walked the most.

 

[GardenerGal]

Pets lower blood pressure.

Studies have shown that people who own pets have lower blood pressure than people who do not. Dog owners have usually fared best, probably because they walked the most.

I agree strongly. There's a good reason why therapy pets are allowed in apartment complexes that don't otherwise permit pets, and why all sorts of animals from dogs to miniature pigs and horses are brought in to visit the residents of nursing homes and care facilities.
When my mother was in her last year of life, I used to give her one of my gentle, sweet little Japanese bantam roosters to hold. It would sit placidly in her lap and make little clucks and funny little chook sounds as she stroked him and talked to him. Even if that contributed only a little to her quality of life, then that little rooster was priceless.

 

[farmchick897]

Great thread. One issue I didn't see mentioned is the fluoride added to our water. Also the iodized salt is not suppose to be good for you.