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A small ball

It was a haze all afternoon, all evening yesterday with no particular way to take in the catastrophe of another 2, no wait, 12; hold on, more than 15, no, 19 children (and a teacher or two for good measure) being murdered in a Texas school. And as you go through that news feed, you feel a ball growing in your stomach, becoming a knot in your throat that ties you down because nothing you could do…

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Are we getting back in here?

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Overwhelmed by choice

I realized a long while ago, and even once scrawled in my notebook:

“Overwhelmed by choice and befuddled by opportunity, I will eventually let pass everything I could have had.”

This was a dramatic way of expressing my inability to make choices. My desire to let fate intercede on my behalf. If by not making a choice, you have made a choice, I would sit in that state for as long as it took.

I’m an…

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#5yrsago Bookcase/staircase/slide!

Architects Moon Hoon designed a house in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, that uses a staircase as a slide, a library and a room-divider. My goodness, it is lovely.

https://boingboing.net/2013/04/22/bookcasestaircaseslide.html

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http://weareheremovement.com

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Eugenia Sho of the Toledo Cacao Growers’ Assn in Belize harvests a ripe cacao pod, the 30-40 seeds inside will be extracted, fermented, dried and processed to make chocolate. Check out these and 9 more delectable chocolate facts on our blog. Photo by James Rodriguez 

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Rick Perry has no idea how economics works

Energy secretary, former Dancing With The Stars contestant, and hmm — what’s that third thing? — Rick Perry does not understand how economics works.

In a speech at a West Virginia coal plant on Thursday, Perry attempted to offer the crowd a little lesson in supply and demand.

“Here’s a little economics lesson: supply and demand.” Perry said. “You put the supply out there and the demand will follow.”

Unfortunately for Perry, that’s not how it works. Since the 1930s, economists generally agree that supply follows demand, and excess supply leads to supply gluts and not more demand.

Put simply, if you mine a bunch of coal it does not mean people will suddenly want more coal.

Ironically, this is one of the central tenants of global energy policy. An increase in the global supply of oil without commensurate increases in global demand decreases the price of oil, forcing international organizations like the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to try and restrict supply in order to raise the price. Read more (7/6/17)

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A dead squirrel

Feet>Bike>Car Occasionally I’m reminded of it in subtle ways. On the rare day when I drive my daughter to daycare, it’s a minute long ride. We go there. I drop her off. Collect my kiss. It’s done. When we bike, we feel the wind and see the sun rearing up over the houses. I shout at her to push me up the hill. We coast down the other side and I drag my hand out signaling a left turn. I drop her…

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This is the coffee cuppers song, the ebb and flow, the slurp and spit. Sensory notes and subtle overtones. Yesterday at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual conference, the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA), SEBRAE and Carmo Coffees teamed up with Fairtrade Regional Coordinator Catalina Jaramillo and Fairtrade farmers to hold a cupping session to show off winners of a Fairtrade quality contest that took place early in the year. This is just a small sample of the action.

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happy international  women’s day!

Meet Friar Bigotón (Friar Moustache), aka Brother Carmelo, once a stray dog, now the first canine member of a Franciscan monastery in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He even has a little doggy-sized habit to wear alongside his fellow monks.

Considering that Saint Francis is the patron saint of animals, it seems only right that a Franciscan monastery would choose to adopt an animal in need.

“His life is all about playing and running,” fellow friar Jorge Fernandez told The Dodo. “Here, all of the brothers love him very much. He is a creature of God.”

“If only all the churches of our country [would] adopt a dog and care for him like Friar Bigotón,” Proyecto Narices Frías (Cold Nose Project), a local animal rescue, wrote in a post on Facebook, “we are sure that the parishioners would follow his example.”

Meanwhile it appears that Brother Carmelo is paying it forward by looking after the monastery’s fish:

[via Bored Panda and The Dodo] 

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Dinosaur, my Mantra

“Does a dinosaur stomp her feet on the floor and shout I want to hear one book more?”¹ Singing a song. Reading a book. Over and over and over. So much so that in unexpected moments the words form involuntarily on my lips at work, on my bike, while cutting onions. Each night we find meaning teased out in repetition completely unrelated to actual words. “You sit on my cold feet and I’ll sit on your…

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It is well known that a child learns to walk, to talk, and to know his way around the world just by trying something out and seeing what happens, then modifying what he does (or thinks) in accordance with what has actually happened. In this way, he spends his first few years in a wonderfully creative way, discovering all sorts of things that are new to him, and this leads people to look back on childhood as a kind of lost paradise. As the child grows older, however, learning takes on a narrower meaning. In school, he learns by repetition to accumulate knowledge, so as to please the teacher and pass examinations. At work, he learns in a similar way, so as to make a living, or for some other utilitarian purpose, and not mainly for the love of the action of learning itself. So his ability to see something new and original gradually dies away. And without it there is evidently no ground from which anything can grow.

David Bohm, On Creativity. With gratitude to my good friend, Whiskey River. (via crashinglybeautiful)

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Our Valentine’s Day Chat is coming up soon! Follow the #FairtradeChat on the Twitter.

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Hello, I have a Cold: A Guide to Remedies

Hello, I have a cold: A handy guide to crappy remedies.

I got this gif from here. A listing of things Vaporub can do.  For three weeks I was a coughing wreck. It would come on strong in the evening as I snuggled down to sleep. The cold, lung-rattling coughs, throwing my head back to lengthen, straighten my throat so that any untoward visitors could writhe out so they could be disposed of. And yet this monster hung on, wedged in my sinuses…

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Old Germany

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Cogitate before you masticate. Do your homework before you buy. Check out this great blog on how to be more fair.

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Fair Trade for Whom?

Fair Trade for Whom?

It started creeping up a few months ago. In some context in the political arena, it was mentioned, “We need fair trade, not free trade!” And I appreciated that. I got excited. I mean, I work for Fairtrade America. This is the kind of stuff that could drive interest through the roof. Boy howdy, I thought, well here we go. Someone really gets it. Someone who understands that many of our current…