WASTE NOT: MAKING Teeth from HUMAN Urine

This is one of those: "Never in a  million years," discoveries that, while true is almost too strange to digest. 

Imagine using your own urine to help create new teeth for yourself, which is possible according the BBC News. A July 29, 2013 online article states that urine can be used to create stem cells that can then be used to create teeth. The results have been published in Cell Regeneration Journal; the science was done by the Guangzhou Institute of Bio medicine in China. The researchers even claim that after three weeks of growth the "teeth" contained dentin, pulp and had enamel like the real thing. 

"A POOR SOURCE"

--Prof. Chris Mason, London

Others, however, are not so quick to jump on the pee pee tooth fairy wagon. Professor, Chris Mason, a stem cell specialist from University College London, denounced the discovery saying urine was a poor starting point and added that there was a great risk for bacteria. infection and other potential unknown hazards. That said, even the Chinese research team admits a urine made tooth is not as strong as natural human teeth.  Still the research is promising, and there may be a day in the not too distant future when permanent teeth will finally be able to be replaced from the body's own resources. 

The Guangzhou Institute for Bio medicine is a government sponsored scientific research organization affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has a combination of 500 researchers and grad students working full throttle.
Their director proudly states on their web page: "We serve the citizens of China and world through discovery." For the full BBC story, click here.

REAL MEN Wear Their Father's CLOTHES

Jack Kennedy

The Kennedy clan's men are famous or probably more correctly infamous for following male type. They were also metrosexuals before it was cool, an air and style that caught the attention of ladies and men alike.

We're liking this idea of guys going back to the clean and classic, which in doing our research came to the forefront time and time again in several blogs and men's trend magazines. The TV series Mad Men rebooted relaxed formality, and as super fans and big supporters of recycling in every area of your life and not big supporters of the baseball cap and pulled-down-pants-underwear-n-booty look, we're breathing a collective sigh of relief that young fashionistos are analyzing old movies, and digging in their father's (and grandfather's) closets for new fashion inspiration, once again.

One great trend watching site is Ivy Style. The editor, known simply as "Christian," takes a look at ivy league attire past and present. In an older post, he reminisces on his own style experiments which were being photographed and catalogued by Japanese journalists, even as he was updating them.

"PIPES AND CARDIGANS 
GET THE CHICKS!"
--Ivy Style on Hugh Hefner

Sean Jean fashion house

Marc Jacobs  fashion house

Another good find: FashionBeans: Timeless Style for the Modern Gent. Their latest installation (as of the date of this post) included a wonderful article on men's street style; various photographs of regular guys and how they fashion themselves. And of course, Pinterest will give you a plethora of men's and young men's looks from head to foot. Everyone from Marc Jacobs to Sean John is calling for men to be "clean and structured," "urban and individual" or "post modern." So, we say to them, "damn skippy!"  This is style that can be had anywhere from 7th Avenue to bargain basements.

Mick Jagger's daytime rags

NEWS YOU CAN USE--Barcodes

     Perhaps these are things you never really wanted to know anyway. But just in case...



If the first 3 digits of the bar code are 690, 691 or 692, the product is MADE IN CHINA. 471 is Made in Taiwan .
If the first 3 digits of the bar code are 00-09 then it's made or sourced in USA. 

     It is our right to know, but the government and related departments never educate the public; therefore we have to RESCUE ourselves (as usual). Nowadays, many Chinese businessmen know that American consumers prefer not to purchase products "MADE IN CHINA", so they don't always show the country of origin. However, if you want or need this information, you may now refer to the barcode. The first three digits tell the story:

890......MADE IN INDIA
690, 691, 692 ...MADE IN CHINA
00 - 09 ... USA and CANADA
30 - 37 ... FRANCE
40 - 44 ... GERMANY
471 ........ Taiwan
45 or 49 ........JAPAN
489...........HONG KONG
50 .......... UK
57 .........DENMARK 
64..........FINLAND
76.........SWITZERLAND and LIENCHTENSTIEN 
471......... is Made in TAIWAN (see sample) 
628.........SAUDI ARABIA 
629.........UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 
740..........745 - CENTRAL AMERICA

All 480 Codes are Made in the PHILIPPINES. Share this Info!

SCORE for GOLIATH on MONSANTO/ WHOLE FOODS ECO DEBACLE

"DID MONSANTO BACK 
A DELIVERY TRUCK OVER 
THE WHOLE FOODS KID?"
 --Greensburgher on Twitter

     It was a fierce twelve year struggle between the organic elite and genetic engineers with no clear winner in sight. But in the wake of the battle, it was obvious who had the bloodier ax. Monsanto emerged the victor with the help of  the U.S. Calvary--Uncle Sam. At stake were over 25,000 organic farms and ranches, the very people we have been depending on to keep our food supply uncontaminated.

     In the beginning, there was a conclave of greenies headed by Whole Foods, Stoneyfield Farm and Organic Valley who took up "the cause;" indeed the fight to keep the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive genetically engineered perennial crop away from John Q. Public. The crop was GE (genetically engineered) alfalfa--Round Up Ready Alfalfa-- which some, like World Truth TV, say was guaranteed to spread its mutant seeds across the nation; eventually contaminate organic animals; most likely poison farm workers, cause the use of toxic herbicides which in turn will in time will produce a super weeds, which will require even more potent herbicides to kill it.  At first blush, Whole Foods staunchly defended what they called "seed purity." but in the end it seemed they were overwhelmed by Monsanto, "the bio tech bully of St. Louis [and the government's] bio tech cheerleader, Tom Vilsack," said World Truth.

Whole Foods, however, sees it differently.

"THESE ARE TROUBLING TIMES IN THE KINGDOM"--Flo, Progressive Insurance

     "USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack recently invited representatives from agriculture, business and consumer organizations to explore coexistence between non-GE proponents and GE proponents.  It showed refreshing leadership after many years of debate that has cost farmers with contaminated crops in this country millions of dollars in litigation over the years," defended Whole Food in their blog, The Whole Story.

     Several months down the pike, they were on the defensive again pleading with the public to "get back to your scheduled shopping," comforted by these assurances:

"We have not been bought out by Monsanto... we (no way!) made a secret deal with Monsanto...Wrong again! GMO's [genetically modified organisms] have been in our food supply for as long as there have been GMOs." And even allowing that coexistence between GMO and NonGMO  "is a must!"

Two years ago, The NonGMO Project agreed stating: "...if the fields are contaminated...biotechnology companies for the first time would be held accountable and...forced to pay for the damages."

     Sigh. It would have been nice if the convincing had gone the other direction. This should have been a simple case of David vs. Goliath. In case you don't know your King James--David wins. In the bible, the mighty giant is slain by the tween with the power of the Almighty. Cool. But in this case we sense some unfair play, Monsanto may have just backed a delivery truck over the Whole Foods kid, who was probably on a bike. And they got away with it. Not cool. In the words of Flo from Progressive, these are "troubling times in the kingdom."

PIttsburgh Mayor Puts "Green" Money Where His Mouth Is

"Mayor Luke" of Pittsburgh, as he is called by both his friends and enemies, was the youngest mayor ever elected in the city's history, and one of the few nationwide in 2006 at age 26. He survived a special election, a re-election, a divorce, a series of alleged girlfriends and enough controversy to last a life time. Is it any wonder after snatching his hat out of the mayoral race in March of 2013 that he's now grazing in the calm of "greener" pastures?  No, you can't kick a man when he's up. 

Seen Green salutes Mayor Ravenstahl's "Edible Gardens" Program and his plans to "plant 10-15 edible gardens in targeted 'food deserts' throughout the City that can harvest 2,000 pounds of fresh produce for 200 families in low income neighborhoods."

It all part of the Mayor's Serve Pittsburgh Program in conjunction with the Department of Public Works fueled by a $100,00 grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies. Here's to hoping it all works. To learn more or apply, click here.

2013 Global Warming Rate Equal To 11,300 Years Ago

Researchers are warning us again, but are we not listening again? According to recent CNN reports, the last time temperatures rose at this rate was11,300 years back. Apparently 1901-1909 were the coldest decades, and we've been on the rise ever since. This ironically neatly coincides with the invention of the "motorwagon"  by Karl Benz. in 1885, who sold 25 cars in 5 years, mostly in France. Add to that Henry Ford's efforts in 1908 with the creation of an affordable modern car that sold 10,000 it's first year and you begin to see an obvious pattern. Steel-making and industry surely didn't help. One century later, we're being told 2000-2009 were some of the hottest years, and it appears were in crisis inventing catch-up technology to manage a monster of our own creation.

Said CNN, "A century is a very short period of time for such a spike. If not for man-made influences, the Earth would be in a very cold phase right now and getting even colder, according the joint study by Oregon State University and Harvard University. Climatologist Shaun Marcott was the lead author of the report on its results." His main concerns center around our ability to adapt globally and our inability to accept needed change.

While Marcott didn't want to comment on what the would might look like in the next century, CNN reports his hopes that we can "pull out of it." 

Tokyo born artist, Naoko Ito's work speaks to the salvage heart. Here, she "preserves" nature in mason jars. Ito currently lives and works in New York. This piece is from her Urban Nature series which she has been expanding since its inception in 2008. Her credits include exhibitions in New York and the far east: The Shirey,  Soho20 Chelsea Gallery, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, The affordable Art Fair, and the Yasashii Yokan Gallery in Tokyo, Japan.
     
        

The Future of Coca Cola Is Green

From the days of "Things go better with Coke," to today's "Live Positively," the Coca Cola marketing train has never run out of ideas. Enter Kent Muhtar, son of a Turkish diplomat, and you have yet another spokesman in the soft drink's iconic PR wheel. Muhtar is the current Chief Officer of Coca Cola, but he titles himself, "Chief Sustainability Officer." 

Even while the company battles accusations from detractors, who think their product has entirely too much sugar and contributes to childhood obesity, Muhtar and his team have diplomatically moved past these complaints by offering people something they can hang their eco hats on: A broad ranging sustainability program that's integrated throughout the company's entire business plan.
 
Said Muhtar in a Forbes interview: "The [original plan] didn't have the right metrics around it. Sustainability was just a warm and fuzzy word in our corporate social responsibility report, and part of compliance. We also didn't have proper alignment with our bottling partners." 

Now Cola Cola is making constructive changes that have even their harshest critics blinking in disbelief. Some of their bolder plans involve returning as much water to the earth as they take out or becoming "water neutral"; reducing their carbon footprint by 5%, and the introduction of a "plantbottle" which is 30% plant material and 100% recyclable. Ideally, this should make the global manufacturing of their over 3,000 products a bit more palatable to John Q. Public.

Pittsburgh's Tech, Art, Eco Fest Returns for 2013

"Never perfect...Just Beautiful" is the caption for GA/GI Fest. Each year, a mixture of the quirkiest, emerging and off-beat art, eco and tech ideas get a chance to be seen and heard during April's edition of First Fridays on Penn Avenue, an art crawl known as "Unblurred." This year it's on April 5th and 6th so mark those calendars! For more info from the blog, click here.