www.mrafferty.tumblr.com
You should go there. I don't post much on here.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Project Noah
Project Noah (networked organisms and habitats) is a great new(ish) website for documenting the organisms of the world. It was created as an experiment to see if people would use the mobile application to reconnect with nature and their environment. It is also a great tool for learning about the many different organisms of the world.
Project Noah awards patches for uploading photos and information, completing missions, special achievements and uploading a bunch of photos of organisms from a specific wildlife category, dubbing you "Specialist".
I find Project Noah to one of my favourite photo sharing websites, as I absolutely love wildlife and photography. So for me, Project Noah is a great website. For learning, sharing photos and learning about the world.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Photo Of The Day - August 13th, 2011
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| http://www.flickr.com/photos/-ocean/5946043288/in/faves-58592070@N08/ |
Friday, August 12, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Photo Of The Day - August 10th, 2011
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| http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyallcock/5329060658/in/pool-36101698174@N01/ |
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
In times of darkness, light was brought to the ancient Aztec village
of Tenochtitlan by Mo, a legend in history.
At forty-two years old, Mo had just passed the peak of his
life. He was beginning to feel tired and sore all the time, he knew his
life was soon to come to a close. Mo had only been the ruler of one
of the Aztec empire's city states for a mere six years, never fully
gaining the complete trust of his people.
Peace had washed over the valley of mexico for years. But people
were now becoming restless and wanted change, mo did not.
It was a warm day on May 5th of 1508, and Mo was enjoying the warm
rays of light that rained down from the skies. His people were still
rioting in his streets and causing mayhem, but there was nothing that
could be done. Standing on the top of his tall, stone palace, mo was
able to see all that was around him, the tall trees, the birds in the
blue skies, his people scattered around Tenochtitlan and his best
friend, Bernal Diaz del castillo striding towards him.
Castillo told Mo of the troubles running through the city. The riots,
the hate, and the petitions for a new ruler. Mo had heard of the riots
and hate, but the petitions for a new ruler came as a surprise.
Another surprise was that the petitions were signed by a majority of
Mo's peoples, meaning that he was required to step down. Fear and
then rage coursed through Mo's mind. He was to step down, but where
was he to go. He couldn't stay in tenochtitlan, for the embarrassment
was too large. He turned to Castillo for help, looking for an answer.
Castillo told Mo that the best choice was to leave the valley of
Mexico for good, to never turn back and travel the world.
Mo did not like this idea, but it was all he had.
The one thing that mo had never been taught how to do was how to
sail a ship. Again Mo asked for the help of his friend. The great
Castillo once more gave mo great advice, he told Mo that he and Mo
would travel the sea together on one of his very own ships.
It was decided! Mo and Castillo would set off the very next day. Not
knowing when he would return, if ever, mo packed all his belongings.
Castillo was able to retrieve some maps of the world from some
merchants passing through the valley. Together, Mo and Castillo
decided that they would head for italy. Their trip would take
many weeks, and months if the weather was in a bad state.
On the next day, Mo headed to Castillo's ship around midmorning.
Castillo had arranged for a small crew willing to leave the valley
of mexico for a long time, if not forever. When Mo arrived at the
dock it was already nearing night. All Castillo's and the crew's
belongings had been loaded onto the ship the night before.
As Mo boarded the ship, the sun set over the horizon, leaving a cool
sea breeze behind. Mo could just see the tips of the Aztec pyramids
as the santa MAria left the coast of Mexico.
The Santa Maria travelled for weeks, rarely ever seeing land.
Once, two weeks into the trip, the crew spotted a land mass
seemingly drifting on the ocean's surface. The small, peaceful
land mass reflected a god-like light onto the hull of the
Santa Maria, leaving the crew, Mo and Castillo feeling enlightened
and airy. The island was just big enough to accommodate the twenty-
some people aboard the ship, so Castillo and Mo opted to stay the
night. When they left early the next morning, Mo watched the palm
trees sway in the wind, hoping he could return one day.
When the Santa Maria finally docked in italy, Mo, Castillo and the crew
were thin, hungry and sunburnt. Mo and Castillo set out to find food
to send to the crew when they stumbled upon a great mass of people
gathered around some sort of a exhibition. They pushed to get a
closer view and saw what all the commotion was about. In the centre
of a hand drawn circle stood a giant wooden contraption. along the
edge ran a pile of iron balls. The people were chanting a name, or
what sounded like one. It sounded something like "leonardo da Vinci",
but in a heavy Italian accent. At that moment a man around mo's age,
with a long white beard, walked in to the circle.
"Welcome my friends!" Called the man, likely da Vinci. "Today I bring to
you my newest invention!" He pointed towards the contraption. "The
tank!" He shouted at last. The people around Mo and Castillo burst
into applause and cries of delight.
Mo saw a piece of aged parchment floating through the air above his
head. He reached out and grasped the crinkly paper. It was a paper
copy of the plans for the "tank". Mo hastily stuffed the paper in his
european style clothing. Mo and Castillo left, not paying any
attention to the screaming hordes of people swarming around them.
They returned to the ship with bags of food. THey carried a variety of
fruits, piles of dried meats and vegetables of every kind. THey also
had a variety of pastries to try for lunch.
After their hearty lunch, they all took a slight rest to regain their
energy. Mo had trouble sleeping, thoughts about how his city was
coping without him blurred his mind. Eventually, after the noise of
men on the upper decks rummaging for food lowered, mo was able to
sleep.
Mo woke early the next morning, before the sun had risen. With his
mind foggy and his body sore, he clambered up to the kitchens and
scoffed down a vine of beautiful, white, italian grapes. The burst of
sweetness overwhelmed mo, leaving him longing for more. Mo looked
out onto the horizon, where the sun was just peeking over the line
that separated the sky from the water. Mo stared at the sun as it rose
for at least an hour. WHen he came to, the upper deck was bustling
with activity. Mo new that the santa maria was leaving that day, but he
wished he could stay in the magical, beautiful, italy.
It had been a few weeks since they had left italy and the only problem
they had run into was a gargantuan wave that was headed straight
towards the hard run santa maria. Not much damage had been caused
and no lives were lost.
land could now been seen in the distance and the waves stayed at a
reasonable height. Castillo had assumed the land mass to be china or
india. Each day they strode a little closer to the land, looking for
hints of their location. On the fifth day of closing proximity they
found a were greeted by a mass of floating candles covered by paper
orbs to create a misty light effect.
From books that had been collected throughout their journey. MO and
Castillo were able to identify the land they passed each day as China.
They stayed close enough to the coast of china that they were able to
see land, but far enough away that they did not cause any trouble
with the chinese. They travelled like this for a few weeks, then on one
of the long, painful days, they saw a bump in the horizon ahead of them.
As the days went by, the bump in the horizon steadily grew in size.
Finally mo and Castillo were able to identify the bump as the island of
japan. According to the books, japan was in isolation from other
civilizations and had a distinct and unbleached culture.
When they were finally able to see, or what seemed like, a port city
they closed in, hoping to be allowed to dock. A large, arch like
structure loomed in front of them, which Castillo named a "torii".
A torii supposedly marked the entrance of a religious meeting place.
Soon they were able to see a large temple situated on the top of a
large hill.
They passed the torii and soon found themselves the centre of
everyone's attention. They sailed along the coast and were capable
of hearing hushed whispers in fast and foreign voices.
The Santa Maria slowly moved into an empty dock and mo and Castillo,
with an armed crew member, exited the ship to hopefully communicate
with someone to find out where they were. Eventually, mo and
Castillo were able to put a name to the odd place they were docked.
NAgasaki, japan. They had docked in the port city of nagasaki, japan.
Located on the coast of kyushu, one of the japanese islands.
Mo and Castillo were able to find a place to stay the night with the
help of an in hiding japanese local.
Once they were well rested and fed, mo and Castillo split up.
Castillo set off to find some supplies that were needed to repair the
santa maria. Mo, on the other hand, went off to explore the strange
country of Japan. throughout his gallivant, mo saw a series a
extravagant buildings and beautiful gardens filled with cherry trees,
teeming with silky, pale pink blossoms of freshness. Japan was a
truly beautiful place.
When mo returned to the dock, Castillo had repaired all the damage
done and the ship was ready to go. Castillo and the crew were all
feverish and anxious to leave the bizarre country of japan. Mo was
against leaving, but he was out voted.
Mo was able to convince Castillo to let them stay one more night,
but they were to set out from nagasaki early the next morning.
When morning came, the crew had been out preparing the ship for
departure for at least a few hours already.
Mo sat entangled in the rigging, watching little figures scuttle
around down below. From this high up mo was able to look far into
distance. He could see the temple they sailed past on their first day
in japan. He could see the tips of mountains far away, little huts and
farms plastered into the hillside. To the east, water was to be seen
for as far as the eye could see.
When the santa maria set off there carried an extra passenger. Mo had
taken a great liking to the nice japanese lady-in-hiding that had lent
them her home. Mo had offered to let the lady travel with them. SHe
had accepted.
Mo and Castillo had decided that they would return to tenochtitlan to
see if they were welcomed, if not Castillo and his crew would
continue their travels and mo and Chika, the japanese lady's name, would
return to the nice, tropical island they first passed months ago.
For weeks they travelled, hitting storms and land along the way.
Whenever land was near, mo and Chika would stop to collect foreign
items to furnish their island and create their home.
When the santa maria neared the valley of mexico mo and chika decided
that they did not want to return at all. THey wanted to start a new
life on the beautiful, drifting island, which they named nami-ha. Which
chika told mo meant wave in japanese. Mo very much liked this name.
Mo and chika said their goodbyes when they reached the island of
nami-ha. Castillo promised to visit occasionally.
Together, mo and chika waved off the santa maria. the ship that had been
mo's home for many months sailed off into the sunset. What a
beautiful sunset it was.
Mo and chika spent the rest of their long lives on the beautiful
island of nami-ha. There they had many kids, grew food on their farms
and were often visited by the constantly travelling Castillo.
Together, mo and chika lived happily ever after, their legend
remembered.
The end
Friday, March 11, 2011
Earthquake In Japan
My heart goes out to Japan, who was hit, today, by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, aftershocks ranging from 5.0 to 7.0 and a series of tsunami waves. This event today killed hundreds of people and destroyed many structures. It's the fifth largest earthquake in recorded history, and hit one of the most populated islands in Japan.
The tsunami is said to hit many parts of the world including North America's west coast.
I send my condolences to the people in Japan and I hope there was more I could do.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
My Thoughts On: Paleo
Ok, so the paleo diet is, by far, the best diet I have heard and read about.
Paleo is not the most well known diet, but it is definitely the healthiest out of them all.
First I'll tell you what the paleo diet is and then maybe a little of why I like it and what sparked my interest.
This is the way we, homosapiens, ate before agriculture came around.
In Palaeolithic times, people did not eat grains that often, they were were only eaten in cases of starvation, people only ate fruit when it was in season. There were no pesticides, there was no processing of foods, we ate what our bodies were made to eat. Real food.
Our views on a "healthy" diet have become so distorted and really make no sense.
Shouldn't a healthy diet get rid of all your problems, keep you at a healthy weight, make you feel better? Not according to the government. They want us to follow the food guides, eat those foods, go to their doctors, buy those problem causing medications.
But that is not what should be done. What really would help is if everyone started eating better, as in paleo better, and getting healthier. This conversion to the paleo diet would get rid of hundreds of problems! Such as disease, obesity, hyperactivity, depression and a number of other things.
I changed, well the whole family changed, to the paleo diet in November of 2009. Since then we have all become stronger, not been sick for ages, gotten rid of supposedly "unfixable" problems and started feeling better and more energetic.
At first I was not fond of letting go of sweets and pasta, my favourite food at that time, but I thought that changing what I ate for a while wouldn't kill me. And it didn't, it made me stronger!
I would say that my real interest in how foods affect us really only started when science fair 2011 had passed, which was on February 15th. I did a project on how your risk of cancer was affected by what diet you ate. Firstly, I chose three diets, Paleo, vegan and a standard western diet. I then researched up on cancer, the diets, carbohydrates and many other things. This probably got me thinking about how eating too many carbohydrates can cause me to become fat or die. Neither of which I want to do.
So I started paying more attention to the podcasts my dad listens to on the car ride. Some of which are, "The Paleo Solution" with Robb Wolf and Andy Deas, "The Livin' La Vida Low Carb Show" with Jimmy Moore, "Latest In Paleo" with Angelo Coppola and occasionally "Paleo Talk" with Sarah and Chrissy (I don't remember their last names =|). I will post the links to their blogs at the bottom and you can find their podcasts on iTunes.
So as I listened my knowledge of nutrition increased and I started to not want to eat the foods I used to, things slushies like and sandwiches or pasta.
I feel bad that people are poisoning themselves, causing their own deaths and illnesses without knowing. I now feel as though it is my obligation to provide people with the knowledge of food and how it can alter and destroy your body.
The websites listed below are great starting points for learning about the paleo diet and great for learning the in depth details about it all.
http://robbwolf.com/ Robb Wolf's website.
http://chasingcapacity.com/ Andy Deas' website (just found out about it... yay!)
http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com/ Jimmy Moore's website
http://www.latestinpaleo.com/about/ Angelo Coppola's website
http://everydaypaleo.com/ Sarah Fragroso's (found her last name) website
http://www.growinguppaleo.com/ Chrissy's website
*Sarah and Chrissy's websites are more for paleo pregnancies and moms.
Let me know what your thoughts on the paleo diet are, I'd love to know! =]
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