Dark Chocolate is good for you

Guess what? Scientists have found out why chocolate is good for you.

Eating one and half ounces (42.5 g) daily for two weeks reduced stress hormones in the body, and also helped to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. It also helps with the production of serotonin (the happy neurotransmitter in the brain) and endorphins (enjoyment). It has also been shown that savouring dark chocolate stimulates all part of the brain more intensely than passionate kissing.

It might also be helpful in providing relief from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Read more from the article here.

Charter for Compassion

Karen Armstrong won one of three TED Prizes last year and this has now come to fruition. The Charter for Compassion is a guide and means for people to sign up to the Charter, and to post moments of compassion they have experienced in their lives.

Please consider joining the movement for more Compassion and understanding in our lives...

Responsible Business Roadmaps

I received this link from St James Ethics Centre newsletter today. The St James Ethics Centre promotes ethical business practice and has regular debates - the IQ2 debates held monthly in Sydney. They also offer training programs, consulting, advocacy and counselling and other services to assist businesses and individuals to make more ethical choices in their work.

The Australian Government commissioned the St James Ethics Centre to "expand responsible business practice" and funded the National Responsible Business Practice Project. This and it has produced some roadmaps to give businesses and consumers a better idea of the true cost of an item or product from the grower or manufacturer to the consumer supply point. They consider the demand for the product, where it will ultimately be used, how much energy is consumed in growing or developing the product etc.

There are three roadmaps produced so far, one for Natural Fibre Garment Roadmap ((e.g. wool or cotton), the Potato Roadmap (fresh versus frozen potatoes) and the Building Roadmap provide information to help us determine the environmental cost of our manufacture, development and supply of some common purchases. At this stage I don't think they name brands or suppliers (which would make it easier to attempt to stay within 100 miles or 100 km from grower to table), but it is a start.

And if you are truly interested in responsible business practice, visit The Hub website for more information.

Laughter in surprising places

I received this link in an email from the Friends of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Australia. HH the Dalai Lama is teaching a number of programs in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart in early December 2009. This clip is delightful and I just wanted to share it.

Enjoy the laughter and click here.

Want a laugh?

Found this fun cartoon slideshow on Matthew Handy's website. He's a mathematician with a sense of humour.

If you are having trouble seeing the whole cartoon, hover your cursor over the bottom right corner of the slideshow box and select the option to view the cartoons on "full screen", then just hit "Esc" to return to normal screen view.

Find more photos like this on dotmaths

Respect and Empowerment

Just wondering -

If we gave others the respect we crave and allowed them to feel empowered the way we would want would we all get along better - ALL the time?

It seems that anger, frustration and feelings of lack of significance (whether real or imagined) make us react in ways that may not be in our best interests and leads to arguments, discord and distrust. This might be a bit simplistic but I think it is part of the picture of stress in our lives.

We need to be responsible for our actions and reactions, and our feelings as well.

In some ways, it is all about us, but as everything and everyone is linked, it is all about it all.

Assumptions say more about us

What assumptions do you take into every thought and conversation you have?

I recently read Dr Irene Pepperberg's wonderful book "Alex & Me" about her 30+ year working relationship with an African Grey Parrot, Alex.

Through her work, and in her book Dr Pepperberg considers the acquisition of language in non-primate animals, the nature of intelligence as well as our attitudes and prejudice relating to our place in the animal hierarchy. She wrote that other scientists did not believe her work, nor did they take it seriously and she was attacked for her conclusions from a number of areas. This might be based on a scientific rigour, our reluctance to think outside the box, an unwillingness to question previously held beliefs, or a notion that humans have the only worthwhile definitions and standards to which all life should aspire. It was hard for many people to accept that something with a brain the size of a walnut could understand maths concepts, word formation etc.

Are you secure enough in your beliefs to be open-minded? Many other birds display some intelligence.

Facing Challenges

We face challenges in our lives virtually all the time.

We each have our own ways of dealing with each challenge. Sometimes we take them head on, charging like a bull at a gate. Other times we take time to let things settle - to see what is truly going on and give a considered response. Our actions can be based on our courage and resilience at the time, and our understanding of the situation.

Whatever it is that we do, we need to be flexible - ready to take a stand if necessary, but ready to give the other points of view due regard. Our approach might be different based on with whom we are dealing (whether they are part of our business or personal lives) and the potential impact and consequence of our actions and the situation we are facing.

Often there is no "right" or "wrong" way - there is just the way we have done something - and we might need to be ready to respond to what comes next. Being fixed in our attitudes and responses can be costly and limit our options for resolution.

Challenging local councils

I visited Ballast Point park in Birchgrove, Sydney last weekend. A pretty spot, lovely views of the harbour and interesting design.

The site was originally used for loading ballast onto ships when they had off-loaded goods in the early colony (1788 - 1800) to return to England empty, and was a hunting and fishing point. It later was the site for a wonderful and significant home, called Menevia. It changed hands a few times and eventually was bought by Texaco (Caltex) - they demolished the house, and developed the site as a fuel depot, manufacturing and packaging facility until the 1990s.

It was bought by the government and returned to public use, with the site developed as a park. Apart from the interesting design, the site has wind turbines to power the path lighting. These are silent, are of a different design than others I have seen and seem perhaps small enough for domestic use.

Will local councils allow us to install wind turbines for our domestic use? My plea - all homes should be encouraged to have solar heating, wind power, and rain water tanks, and suppliers please aim to make it as easy as possible to install these and help our environment.