Got Salicornia?

Mother Jones tells us about The Saline Solution:

In the mid-’80s, an atmospheric physicist named Carl N. Hodges predicted that the key to saving the planet was to make the desert bloom—with a spindly saltwater plant known as salicornia, a.k.a. sea asparagus. The idea languished for years, but now scientists, investors, and even celebrities are lining up behind the 71-year-old’s vision for feeding the planet, fueling our cars, and reversing rising sea levels.

Salicornia, eh?

Well, I’m not an asparagus aficionado, although my wife makes a good asparagus and boiled egg concoction.

But sea asparagus cookies? No, I don’t think so.

Read it all

Welcome to Today!

Putin

Oooops! 😯 Maybe that’s not such a good photo to go with the title!

Here, this next one is better:

Apply our hearts to wisdom

Today is our daughter Dora’s twentieth birthday. So I made the above wallpaper with her in mind because of this transition from her teens to her twenties. Of course, it’s a good verse for all of us.

Now…two news items to start out your day….

Happiness is key to longer life

“Happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill” says Ruut Veenhoven of Rotterdam’s Erasmus University in a study to be published next month.

After reviewing 30 studies carried out worldwide over periods ranging from one to 60 years, the Dutch professor said the effects of happiness on longevity were “comparable to that of smoking or not”.

That special flair for feeling good, he said, could lengthen life by between 7.5 and 10 years.

The finding brings a vital new piece to a puzzle currently being assembled by researchers worldwide on just what makes us happy — and on the related question of why people blessed with material wealth in developed nations no longer seem satisfied with their lives.

And this less happy story:

Russia vs Georgia

A fragile cease-fire appeared even more shaky as Russia’s foreign minister declared that the world “can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity.”

The declaration from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came simultaneously with the announcement that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting in the Kremlin with the leaders of Georgia’s two separatist provinces.

“One can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state,” Lavrov told reporters.

[…]

Russian troops also appeared to be settling in elsewhere in Georgia.

[…]

The scene underlined how closely the soldiers Russia calls peacekeepers are allied with its military.

I said two news items, but here’s a third one to end on a more positive note:

Anything into oil

“Working with the USDA we’ve identified enough waste material around the country, we truly believe we can make the United States totally energy independent of foreign countries in about five years,” he said.

WND originally reported on the project in March as Bell, an agricultural researcher, confirmed he’d isolated and modified specific bacteria that will, on a very large scale, naturally and rapidly convert plant material – including the leftovers from food – into hydrocarbons to fuel cars and trucks.

That means trash like corn stalks and corn cobs – even the grass clippings from suburban lawns – can be turned into oil and gasoline to run trucks, buses and cars.

Make it a good day today!

Driving

Under the Influence

Forget fast-food waste or kitchen grease: Real aristocrats use wine to make their biofuels. Britains Prince Charles recently jumped on the biofuels bandwagon, converting his seldom-used 1960 Aston Martin DB6 to a biofuel system that allows him to run his classic convertible on wine rather than gasoline. "Charles only [travels] two or three hundred miles a year in the Aston but he wanted it to be environmentally friendly," an aide told the Daily Mail. The prince gets his wine from an English vintner who would otherwise have to destroy any wine produced above the European Union quota. Charles switch to a biofuel may curb a smidgen of carbon dioxide emissions, but it likely wont save him much money: The wine costs only slightly less than the gasoline hed buy for his classic.

Right

High gas prices arent forcing UPS off the roadways. Theyre just forcing the companys drivers to the right side of the road. According to executives at the international package delivery service, computer mapping software and traffic modeling has led them to conclude that delivery drivers should avoid making left turns. By mapping out routes that aim for only right-hand turns, the company saved 3.3 million gallons of gasoline in 2007. According to UPS research, drivers waste time and gas idling while waiting for left-hand turn signals. Even with the more circuitous path, the company estimates that it saved more than $9 million in 2007.

HT: WORLD Magazine.

Above all, love God!