10 Simple Things You Can Do To Help Protect The Earth

1) Put on a sweater. Remember when you turn up the heat in the wintertime, your furnace is probably burning fossil fuels. A sweater or a nice warm robe will keep you even warmer and will help conserve and reduce climate change.

2) Put one foot in front of the other. One hundred years ago,  99.9% of people got by wuthout cars. They took the train, they lived near their workplaces.....and they walked.  Using fuel efficient cars is important, but we can save even more fuel by driving less.

3) Go for seconds. Recycling doesn't always means only separating your cans and bottles. It can mean using things a second or third time. That nice padded envelope you got in the mail, for example? Instead of throwing it away, scratch out the address, tear off the stamps and use it again.

4) Watch your waste. Items you may be throwing away can contaminate the soil for thousands to millions of years. Your community probably has special disposal procedures for things like used oil and batteries.  Ink cartridges can probably be recycled where you bought them. And many of the new super efficient lightbulbs contain mercury, so proper disposal is crucial. Check with the store where you buy them.

5) Paper nor plastic. Bring your bags with you! By taking reusable bags to the grocery store, you can cut down on the 350 bags the average American uses each year and reduce needless deaths of marine life caused by plastic bags that end up in rivers, streams and oceans.

6) BYOB. Last year Americans went through 50 billion water bottles. Fill up a reusable water bottle at home and bring it with you. Don't like the taste of your tap water? Buy a filter! (Remember much of the bottled water sold today is filtered tap water anyway.

7) Flip 'em off. In much of America we can't even see the sun anymore, due in part to all the electrical lights. Keep the lights on in the room you are in, but keep the rest of your house dark. You'll find the darkness is soothing.

8) Get in touch with your roots. Plant a tree! It's good for the soil, good for the birds, good for reducing vlimate change -- and good for the air your breathing.

9) Get off. Catalogs are great when they're from companies you like to order from. But if your getting catalogs from companies you don't by from, call them and tell them to get you off their list - and that's an order.

10) Support the WWW. We're working to protect endangered species and preserve their habitats. Time is running out for many of the animals you love. We must act urgently,  and support is crucial in our efforts.

Easy Things to Conserve Energy

1. Change the filter in Your furnace: Keep your heating and cooling system running efficiently.

2. Change to fluorescent light bulbs: they use less energy than incandescent bulbs.

3. Combine car trips: Plan your errands to reduce transportation time

4. Lower temperature on your water heater: You'll still have hot water, but it means the heater less energy when your when you are not using hot water.

5. Check your cars tire pressure: Poorly inflated tires waste gas and cause more pollution.

For more tips to protect our planet by conserving energy on the road and at home, visit www. Nwf.org/home/howtohelp

Strategies to Face Your Digital Addiction

There isn’t one way to face and deal with an addiction, but I recommend trying a combination of these to see what works best for you:

Face the problem. What most of us do is put off thinking about the problem, or even admitting there’s a problem. It’s uncomfortable to think about what makes us feel guilty, so we put off this discomfort like we put off exercise. But ignoring the problem, pretending it doesn’t exist … that doesn’t make things better. The obstacle is the path. Face the problem, and in doing so, become more aware. See what is really happening with you. Learn about yourself. This is a valuable education.. You can’t change what you’re not aware of. Lots of addictions happen without us realizing what we’re doing, as we’re doing it, and only later do we feel guilty. Start to increase awareness of your urges, and your actions, while it’s happening. That means you need to have reminders around you, so that you’re constantly noticing the urges as they come up. You can still act on the urge, as you’re increasing awareness, but be aware that the urge is happening, and see what action you take, and what the result is (how do you feel afterward, what consequences are there?). This is a skill you can increase over time, with practice.. You are going to the addiction because of fear. You’re procrastinating on something harder, more uncomfortable, like work or exercise or socializing perhaps. The addiction fulfills the need you have to run to comfort, away from discomfort. Start to become aware of this fear, and shine some light on it.. Try an hour without the Internet, or a day without porn or TV. You might face some internal resistance, but if you tell yourself, “It’s just an hour” or “It’s just a day”, then you know you can get through this period of discomfort. The key is to make the period seem like a small challenge but very doable. Once you’ve done this once or twice, start to build these small doses into your schedule — let’s say an hour a day, or two days a week, whatever fits your life best.Increase the periods of non-distraction. If you do an hour a day of no Internet, try adding another hour in each day. Do that for a week and see how it goes. Use an Internet blocker if necessary, and some accountability with friends if that’s helpful.Think about the limitedness of your life. We’re only on this Earth for a short while, and it’s an exceedingly miraculous gift. Don’t waste it. Make something. Do something. Learn something. Go outside. Make friends. Drink the juices of life. Don’t allow your life to seep away through digital distraction. Live consciously by deciding how you want to spend your time.Become intentional. When you open up your computer, start by pausing, noticing your urges, and then taking a few seconds to set an intention for this session: I’m going to write an article, or read for 10 minutes about Mt. Everest (or whatever). Then do that, and get up and away from your computer. Take a break, stretch, do a couple yoga poses, drink some water. Then before you go into your next computer session, set an intention again. You might deviate from that intention sometimes, but practice at least setting the intention, then practice trying to stick to it. You’ll get better with practice, as with anything.

Eight trivia facts about pizza!

How many pizzas are sold each year? What’s the origin of the name “Margherita”? Since when do Europeans have eaten pizza?

Over five billion pizzas are sold all over the world each year.

Though pizza became a popular food in the U.S. in 1945, after World War II, it was brought to America by Italian immigrants 50 years earlier.

Pizza was being prepared by people of Pompei when the volcano erupted and buried the city.

Kids aged 3-11 prefer pizza over all foods for lunch and dinner.

Pizza Margherita was given its name by a chef who cooked for a 19th century Italian queen.  She ate her pizza with tomatoes and cheese.

It is estimated that over three billion pizzas will be eaten next year in the U.S. alone. Europeans have enjoyed eating pizza since the late 18th century.

Of all the toppings available, Americans choose pepperoni, a king of salami, as their favourite.

Ten Things You May Not Know About Sleepwalking

Sleepwalkers can perform simple as well as complex activities, however, there are several things that you many have not heard about them! A sleepwalker can drive a car while he is asleep. It is not easy to know if someone is sleepwalking or not as sleepwalkers usually have their eyes open so they look awake. 18% of the population have a tendency to sleepwalk. Sleepwalking is most common among boys. Stress can cause people to sleepwalk. You can wake up a sleepwalker without any problem, although they may be confused and not know where they are. They can trip over chairs, fall down stairs, even fall out of a window. People usually sleepwalk for a short time. Sleepwalkers don’t remember anything afterwards. A man in Canada was found not guilty of killing his mother-in-law because he was asleep at the time.