RaynePure Plus® Water Purifier

• Ensuring the everyday water we drink is safe and natural is as important as the water itself. Unfortunately, not all water we use from our taps is the pure, clean drinking water our bodies desire.
• The RaynePure Plus® Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System effectively reduces harmful contaminants turning tap water into convenient, fresh, clean water at your own separate faucet.
• The most cost-effective way to provide a continuous supply of sparkling clean water without the bottle for:
  • Exceptional coffee, tea and juice
  • Delicious soups, oatmeal and sauces
  • Cleaner, clearer ice cubes
  • Great for humidifiers, steam irons, plants, pets, and aquariums
• Certified by NSF and the California department of health services.

   If not here then where, if not now then when, if not us then who?”

    This was the question Yugratna, a 13 year-old girl from India, asked hundreds of world leaders at the UN’s Climate Change Summit last month. With nearly 3 billion young people making up our world’s population, I am particularly moved by this question, knowing that the worst effects of climate change mean so much more to someone her age.

    Quite a few of you have told us about your concern for the future of younger generations, given all that global warming threatens to take away from them. Whether it’s that cool mountain stream where you fished with your grandfather or the clean drinking water that Himalayan glaciers provide to millions, we all worry that our kids and grandkids won’t enjoy the same experiences or resources we have.

However, we continue to be amazed at the reactions and actions of young people themselves on this issue. From our vantage point, they aren’t sitting around waiting for climate change to unfold:

• Upcoming graduates are looking for jobs in renewable energy and sustainability;
• Thousands of millennials are petitioning online to have a voice in Copenhagen;
• A boy in Africa is teaching himself how to make an operational wind turbine;
• And individually, youth are making “going green” a lifelong practice, not just a trend.

Youth-led movements such as the International Day of Climate Action clearly show us that this generation is not waiting for the answers – they are finding their own solutions – now.

It’s time to follow their lead: tell us what you will miss because of climate change and if we change our course, what do you have to look forward to?

The UN Foundation, a public charity, was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. We are an advocate for the UN and a platform for connecting people, ideas and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems.

We help the UN take its best work and ideas to scale—through advocacy, partnerships, constituency building and fund-raising.

• Partnerships because we have learned what can be achieved when the public and private sectors work together through the United Nations;
• Advocacy because we know the leverage and impact that sound policy can have on the kind of social, economic and environmental change the UN seeks;
• Community-building because the UN was created for “we the people,” and all of us can give back and contribute to a better world; and
• We need new and additional resources to power solutions to global challenges.

Under the direction of our distinguished Board of Directors, we also work closely with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Office for Partnerships. Find out more about our Board of Directors or our relationship with the United Nations.

Click here to read a feature article on the Foundation by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

You better be prepared to clean up your water, because no one else is looking after your well being!  No, this is not a joke but a calling for all people that the water you are drinking contains poison in the form of heavy metals like Arsenic.

Some time ago the EPA reduced the Arsenic safe levels to 10 ppb instead of 50 ppb.  This fundamental change is affecting the way people look at the critical water issues in the United States.  The problem is regulating the rules set forth and ensuring that people across America receive healthy drinking water from water companies, wells, and suppliers.  With high levels of Arsenic in the water throughout the country, the regulators are over whelmed and won’t talk to the real issues due to their lack of response.

So it is time to take the bull by the horns and ensure your family or business is drinking clean, fresh, and healthy water.  There are multiple ‘point of entry’ or ‘point of use’ products on the market to clean your water before it enters your body.  Taking action now will save your life and allow safe, clean drinking water to be consumed without the hazards associated with the high levels of metals present in current wells and distribution points through the USA.

Small and cost effective systems as well as full home solutions are available for home owners.  DynGlobal is ready to help and provide a solution for your problem today.  See their water solution products here:

DG Mini
DG 50
DG Cafe
DG Cafe PRO

From economist William Easterly’s paper “Can the West Save Africa?” that compares findings on Africa’s technological troubles from Lord Hailey in 1938 with a 2005 U.N. Millennium Project report:

Easterly writes:

All of the above seem to forget that technology does not implement itself. Technical knowledge needs people to implement it—people who have the right incentives to solve all of the glitches and unexpected problems that happen when you apply a new technology, people who make sure that all the right inputs get to the right places at the right time, and local people who are motivated to use the new technology. The field that addresses all these incentives is called economics.

HT: Hit & Run

One of my Father’s favorite quotes was, “To whom much is given much is expected.”  Merely by living in the United States you are part of a society that has and uses most of the world’s resources.    You may currently be unemployed or underemployed or discouraged by your financial status.  Yet it is very likely that you take for granted something that over one sixth of the world’s population do not have access to:  Clean Drinking Water.

What would you and your family do without access to clean drinking water?  Every fifteen seconds a child dies somewhere in the world because of a water related illness.

Three and a half million people a year die from water related illnesses.

I encourage you to take a moment to express appreciation for the water you had to drink or you have used today.

Water is not currently considered a basic human right.   I encourage you to support the right to Clean Drinking Water by signing the United Nations Universal Declaration of

Human Rights Article 31.

Support Article 31.

http://www.article31.org/

Over a billion people on the planet who did not have a clean glass of water to drink today thank you for your support.

Amy

P.S. You can check out ways you can help by visiting  http://water.org/

Which of these things will happen first: pigs flying, creating water out of thin air, or the Chicago Cubs winning a world series? Some of you might have guessed the third option, but you would be wrong. Steve Bartman, anyone?

Element Four, a small Canadian firm, has applied its water technology to create the WaterMill, a novel electricity-powered machine that draws moisture from the air and purifies it into clean, drinkable water.

In a world where one out of five people are without access to clean drinking water, this new technology could potentially improve the lives of billions of people from third-world countries.

The WaterMill, which retails at $1300, is intended for household use only, but the company is designing a larger version called the WaterWall for the developing world, which would be large enough to supply water to a small village.

It’s early, but the company’s core principle is “to do good as we do well,” CEO Rick Howard says. “That’s part of truly what drives us — knowing that at some point we will be able to do some significant good.”

Read more at CNN online.

Water – the essence of all life – it is being said, is soon to be reaching a critical time, with access to fresh, drinkable supplies rapidly becoming more of an issue for the world’s population.

Editors of the Public Library for Science Medicine recently wrote that “access to clean water, which is essential for health, is under threat”, in a somewhat alarming announcement.

Water’s necessity is obvious for many aspects of our lives. Not only for cooking and cleaning, but also for the production of food, textiles, building materials and construction, as well as sanitation and waste disposal.

The case for providing access to the world’s population runs far deeper than how we use water in our daily lives however, resounding its importance. The World Health Organization estimates that inadequate water is responsible for nearly one-tenth of the world’s disease, and six percent of all deaths could be prevented by universal access to safe drinking water.

In light of this shortage and the clear need for clean water, greedy companies are also rushing to privatize its supply, in what could magnify a dangerous situation for those most in need of this basic human right, and its right to life.

Highlighting this grave fact, Maude Barlow, senior adviser to the United Nations on water issues says that “right now, if you can’t pay for it [clean water] you die in many, many countries.” Speaking to the UN general assembly earlier this year, she also added that the number of children dying each year of water-borne diseases is greater than the number of deaths from “war, HIV/AIDS and traffic accidents combined”.

“Right to Water” statistics from the 2003 world health report say that more than 1 billion people do not have available sources of “clean drinking-water”. This means, disease, hunger and death, which will then lead to further problems for business, government and non-government organisations, economies and the resources of the earth on a whole.

Not providing this basic need and ensuring its access to the world’s population could clearly become a dire threat to humanity as we know it.

Meeting at Luvuwu

Originally uploaded by wellsforzoe

The man in the suit is the school principal and until recently, when we replaced the roofing material, he had a thatched roof which leaked!!
The man in the foreground contacted HIV 20 years ago from a blood transfusion his wife got. As a couple they are open about their condition which is a great help to others in the community as they are in very good health using ARV drugs.
The community support group idea is simple. The community support each other and we support the group.

Liam writes:

We had a meeting with the Women and the HIV Support group in Luvovo today. Over 50 women and about 10 men were in attendance.

The meeting was to discuss the possibility of starting a micro-credit scheme for small-scale business in the village. The village chief had met the idea with an enthusiastic reception when we approached him and called his people to attend today.

The people eagerly welcomed the idea of assistance with business, and immediately went to work discussing options among each other, facilitated by community leaders and the school teachers.

After the meeting a lady came forward with a bag of oranges. She was wanting to give a gift as she wanted to get involved with the HIV support group. Another man came up to inform me that his brother, Venji, had died. Venji had been one of the two people who were suffering heavily from HIV when we first visited, to the extent that it severely hampered his ability to leave the house and his mood. He died on 10th December, but since then his brother has become even more involved in the support group and is eager to get more men to come forward and join.

Lucan Newsletter: June 28, 2009

A woman said to me this morning: ye don’t seem to be doing anything in Malawi these days!!.

Having convinced her to the contrary, I decided to write a little note.

Our main focus is still on the provision of clean drinking water and to this end we are making pumps in our temporary factory since October at a rate of about 10 per week. They cost about 30 euro and can supply clean water, to a village of about 150 people. We hope to begin building the permanent factory next week, now that we have finally got planning permission. We have just begun a programme of replacing in excess of 200 failed and broken pumps installed by others over the years. New wells are dug at the end of the dry season in October.
Our programme of dam building and irrigation continues as the villagers teach each other to build the most rudimentary, but effective of structures, adding fish ponds as they go.
Our six acre model garden is booming (and blooming). The idea was to research appropriate, open pollinated, vegetable seeds from globally appropriate areas, to see when and how they would grow and encourage local farmers to adopt them. The type and variety varies, but last time I counted, we had 79 varieties of plant. These are all grown using green manure and compost and we control pests with brews of local plants including tobacco!! researching as we go. We don’t use any artificial fertilizer or chemical pesticides.
All work is carried out by 12 men and women employees, few of whom have any formal education. It’s not easy, but it’s the only way and what they have achieved in a year and a half is staggering.
Another part of the programme involves the production of improved variety fruit tree seedlings by budding and grafting, including pears and apples from Seed Savers in Scariff, Co Clare.
Now that we have something to show, we offer farmers an opportunity to come and stay in our new hostel, learn how we do things, cook and eat what’s available and bring seeds and seedlings home. We are excited that Malawians can teach their neighbours.
Our school programme is developing; we have finished our seventh primary classroom, done some teacher training and provided loads of books and equipment, donated by schools here.
Whereas our initial focus was narrow we now find ourselves involved in meeting the needs of the people we work with.
In February we opened a two classroom facility for orphan day care in the most deprived area of Mzuzu. We now have up to 250 little ones attending where we provide one meal daily which may be the only food most of them get. Our Malawian partners had agreed to run it, but without money we were left to fill the gap. Mary took on 8 employees in May, did three week’s training and Árus Kate is flying.
Our latest venture is a remote, rural birthing centre. In one of our areas we found a midwife with about 10 clients per month, bringing life into the world in a building which would be demolished by even the most moderate animal rights activist. A leaking thatched roof, a concrete bed, no light, no water, no painkillers, no gloves, no aprons…..
You couldn’t imagine how horrific this is; our cattle are treated better, and you thought hospital trolleys were bad!
These are amazing women, illiterate but intelligent, proud and hard working, capable but deprived. They don’t want our handouts, which have robbed them of their dignity but they do need our help.
We are in the process of constructing a new building, which will be approved by Mzuzu Central Hospital, who have agreed to send an ambulance for emergency cases.

Last year we hit up a relationship with DIT, when 10 students came out to volunteer at Easter for two weeks. They were real volunteers, paid their own way and worked hard and made a little financial contribution to the projects. What we ask all our volunteers is to work with the people, journey with them, but always try to Inspire, Educate and Challenge, something they certainly did. The seventeen who came this Easter followed the amazing example and we couldn’t be more proud of them. Our young people are so confident, competent, loving, generous and observant. As Business students, we asked them to be analytical and critical and we have learned so much from them. The real plus is that we have a third year Business and Accounting student, Liam Stewart, from Cavan, doing his 6 month placement, from DIT, out in Mzuzu at the moment and he is a revelation.

We have also been adopted by the Blackrock College Outreach programme for the second year. This year the number has gone to 76 and they come in two groups for two weeks each to work with the poorest rural villagers. Last year they were truly amazing, they were straight into action once they arrived and as young men were a true inspiration to the youths of their own age who had never seen white people doing manual work before. Young people who give up two weeks of holiday time after their LC results, when most of their counterparts are enjoying the pleasures on the med are to be loudly applauded.
Having spent 8 weeks in Malawi so far this year, we leave on July 21, for 8 more and will finish with another month in November.

So we haven’t given up yet!!
Our website, usually updated daily is: www.wellsforzoe.org

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Charity: Water — Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Almost half of the people drink from dirty sources of water and about one-third of all Haitian children die before reaching the age of five years old. Because of the lack of roads, transporting supplies is extremely difficult and costly. With your help, we can earn enough free donations to bring clean water to a community that desperately needs it!

In this day and age, the statistics are seemingly unbelievable. 1.1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and nearly 2 million people die each year due to waterborne-related disease (90% of which are children under the age of 5). As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a worldwide water crisis among the world’s poorest people. Further, the UN has declared 2005-2015 Water for Life: The International Decade for Action. [Thirst Relief International]

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Arsenic has an affinity to iron oxides.

Rice University’s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) have announced a pilot test for a revolutionary, low-cost way to remove arsenic from drinking water.  CBEN’s arsenic-removing technology is based “nanorust,” which are tiny bits of iron oxide smaller than living cells.  

Arsenic chemically binds to nanorust because arsenic has a high affinity toward iron oxides.  Laboratory tests have demonstrated that nanorust is very effective at removing arsenic from water

Raw water for the city of Guanajuato contains arsenic.  As a result, CBEN scientists have signed an agreement with the University of Guanajuato and the Municipal Water and Sewerage Authority of Guanajuato (Simapag) for a pilot test the use of nanotechnology to clean contaminated water in Guanajuato, Mexico.

The agreement is the first known test of nanoparticles for water treatment in a municipal water treatment plant.  The secret to nanorust is the magnetic properties among nano-scale magnetite particles.

Magnetite (Fe₃O₄) is an iron oxide, much like rust, so the term “nanorust” was coined for magnetite nano-particles. Whereas rust (FeO) only contains iron in +2 oxidation states, Fe₃O₄ has iron in both +2 and +3 states. Nanorust crystals are so tiny that they are measured in the scale of nanometers (10^-9 meters).

Because of its ability to bind to arsenic, nanorust may be a low-cost means of removing arsenic from drinking water supplies.  CBEN plans to test nanorust-coated sand in sand filters to treat groundwater from wells.  

If all goes as planned, the arsenic in the raw water will be captured by the nanorust-coated sand in the filters. For the time being, water treated with nanorust will not be released for human consumption.

Arsenic is a colorless, odorless, tasteless element, and prolonged exposure to dangerous levels of arsenic can lead to skin discoloration, sickness and cancer. Arsenic-poisoned drinking water is a global problem, affecting tens of millions of people in communities in Asia, Africa, North America, South America and Europe.

Our systems will save you money from the very moment you begin to use them. Our water Softening Systems will significantly reduce the amount of soap, detergents and cleaners you use – by as much as 80% less! It saves on hard water damage to your plumbing and your water heater and other major appliances actually last longer. Our Drinking Water Systems ensure you never have to buy expensive bottled water again. Contact us today and see how much your family can save.

Here is a surprisingly efficient and extremely simple pump for transporting clean drinking water from one place to another. The diagrams below show how to move water in the horizontal direction, but the pump may also be designed to move water from a low elevation to a high elevation. (It can pump water up a hill.)

The rotating arms of this pump are probably driven by electric motors. An inexpensive micro-computer keeps the arms synchronized so that each arm is always 120 degrees out of phase with its neighbors. (It should be easy to superimpose a clock synchronizing pulse onto the power lines that go alongside the hose to feed the electric motors. In this case, each microcomputer that controls each motor operates independently, and there’s no need for the micro-computers to communicate with one another.) Though I can’t prove it mathematically, I think the efficiency of this pump will be quite good. Generation of turbulence in the water should be about as low as it could be. And besides this, what other losses are present in the system? The heat that is generated by the motors will not be more than with any other kind of pump, and the friction with the hose is low because the hose is supported by pulley wheels.

Here’s a sequence of images that show the motion of the hose in detail. If the arms rotate with clockwise polarity, then water will be transported from right to left:

Variations on this idea may include a long belt that mechanically links the rotating arms together. (This is probably not a very good idea, but it might be a good choice if a completely mechanical wind pumping system is desired.) Also, PVC pipe may replace the hose. In this case a PVC segment is connected to its neighbors with a flexible joint (like or short piece of hose), or else the diameter of the end of its neighbor pipe is large enough for the end of the PVC segment in question to extend to a point inside of the end of the neighbor pipe.

The diagrams show the arms rotating in the plane of the hose or pipe, but they may rotate in the orthogonal plane instead. In this case they mimick the motion of the High Efficiency Helical Liquid Pump. But maybe the best way to move the hose is to use a crankshaft with a “piston rod” that has a fixed connection to the hose:

In 1958, Rayne Water Corporation made history when it welcomed its 2nd Dealership; Rayne of Phoenix. It has been over 50 years and Rayne of Phoenix still operates in the same building, providing the best available water softeners and drinking water systems as well as reliable and environmentally-friendly Soft Water Exchange Tank Service.

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Our systems will save you money from the very moment you begin to use them. Our water Softening Systems will significantly reduce the amount of soap, detergents and cleaners you use – by as much as 80% less! It saves on hard water damage to your plumbing and your water heater and other major appliances actually last longer. Our Drinking Water Systems ensure you never have to buy expensive bottled water again. Contact us today and see how much your family can save.

Water is in short supply

By LENNY DESERIO

Staff Writer  

The humanitarian group Living Water International is taking their H20 Project to the country of Nigeria.  Living Water International is based in Houston, Texas, and helps bring water to developing nations by coordinating with other aid organizations to build wells in these countries. The organization’s past projects have included building wells in South America, Africa, and Asia. 

The problem isn’t always a lack of water in developing countries. Often times locals do have access to water, but it is typically contaminated with industrial pollutants and diseasecarrying organisms. According to Living Water International, approximately 1.1 billion people worldwide (roughly 20% of the world’s population) don’t have access to clean drinking water. The group also believes that unsafe drinking water is the cause of death of two million children each year in developing countries. 

Currently the group is coordinating with Ivivukhua Progressive Union worldwide to build a borehole (which is bigger than a well) in the village of Ivivukhua, Nigeria. Dr. Thomas Iskengebe, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Enrollment Services here at CCC, is a native of Nigeria.  He believes part of the reason the people of Ivivukhua need a borehole dug in their village is their lack of a source for fresh water. “There is no source of water in the village.  The closest well is eight kilometers away,  and even that has hygienic issues,” he said.   Iskenegbe believes another problem is corruption.   

“Nigeria is rich in natural resources,  but due to corruption in government, it doesn’t trickle down to the people.  This is why the borehole needs to be dug, because without outside intervention, the people of Nigeria will not have anything to drink.”  

It will cost about $100,000 to complete the project and provide clean water for the entire population of the village, approximately 7,000 people. The activity is being coordinated by the Student Government Association.  The Student Senate heard about the project through Rebecca Sheppard, Assistant Director of Planning and Research at CCC at an October 2008 meeting.  According to Student Senate Secretary, Tim Zoyac, the Student Senate is planning a voluntary payroll deduction for college staff to help raise funds for The H20 Project. “We are planning an automatic payroll deduction for college staff. This will be completely voluntary. Staff can choose a one time donation or donations taken out of their pay every pay period until Dec. 31, 2009,” said Zoyac.  Donation sheets were passed out during Development Day.  In addition to asking college staff to make payroll contributions, the Student Senate is also planning a spaghetti dinner. The dinner will be on April 2nd from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at a location to be determined.

Through my daily search on, well, everything and nothing I came across this campaign in Belgium. I love it, as it is a unique way of involving the TV audience in a new and completely different way, when it comes to marketing a good cause. Made by Studio Brussel on a very low budget.

Just back from three weeks in the Mzuzu area of Northern Malawi, with mixed emotions of delight, sadness, frustration, rage, joy, appreciation of my life and the opportunities it has afforded me, gratitude for the freedom that the hard work of my parents and ourselves has given me, freedom to do and give to others, freedom that an accident of birth has given me and which I am now hell bent on giving back.
In August last I got my first taste of urban poverty in Malawi, well in fact Mary did. I had been asked by three very positive and forceful women from the Mbawemi women’s group to look at their orphan day-care centre and see if we could help. I really had no interest in Orphanages; taking children from their communities, families and land rights… and only a little more in orphan day-care. I felt there were too many people doing it, with so many scams, waste and corruption, while I was trying to adhere to my abiding business philosophy of sticking with what you know. So like every good husband I chickened out and left it to Mary.
She checked the women out, in so far as one can and found an amazing bunch of sisters, who were volunteers; nearly as poor as the people they were helping, driven and desperate. They had begun this project in 2005, their building was awful, their hearts were big, their dreams were in technicolour, they were doing something, and they needed a hand – a helping hand and not a handout. We decided to, give it a go.
In November son number one, Eamonn and myself spent a busy week, doing a land deal, making the purchase, and employing a local builder. Bad mistake with the builder, as he was slow, just as useless as most men in the area and he stole half of our cement, but TIM (this is Malawi), corrupt from the top to the bottom, all Christians, very little Christianity. So we terminated him and his crew.
The blessing in disguise was that we found Peter and his gang, who are as hard working as you could meet. They took over on Dec 29 and the official opening took place on February 10. For the past few weeks we worked against all the odds; the rainy season, an unhelpful, and most times intoxicated chief, an indifferent and obstructive male population, dire poverty, a wet, low lying site, unhelpful neighbours and official bureaucracy who couldn’t care less. In fact very much like Ireland when you are trying to build something.
On the final morning, Mercy, one of the women hugged me and apologised for all the difficulties we had needlessly encountered, I just laughed and explained how I felt very much at home, very much like the planning process in Ireland I explained; You apply for permission on land where building is allowed and all hell breaks loose, obstructionists come out of the woodwork, like termites she asked; very much I answered; they object, tell lies, question your motives, defame your character, spread rumours, cost you money and after about two years the final level of bureaucracy say yes: always yes in my case. So what’s new: we laughed? She said you’re a tough customer, I smiled and let her know that we WILL realise all of our dreams.
Part of the dream was realised on February 9 with the opening of Áras Kate, a 1700 sq ft wonder. 260 little ones will be cared for and fed here every morning from 7.30 till 11. The one meal of porridge made from maize flour, soya, ground nuts with a little salt and a lot of sugar, will make a serious impact on their lives. Later in the year the sweetener will be honey from our 330 hives in the forest, the maize, soya and groundnuts will come from our land in Lusangazi and the vitamins from dried moringa leaves.
The process is simple really; its just community at it’s best. Of course it’s not a million kids, it’s not a Madonna affair, it’s only each one of 260 beautiful creations, who may now be given a shot at life by the generosity of a doting grandfather six thousand kilometres away.
Next we plan a drop in centre for battered and bruised women, for grannies and carers, a place to meet and laugh a little; a homework club for students, a little enterprise centre, small business loans at zero interest, first or second chance learning for young and older mothers and whatever needs arise.
All this is happening in the middle of the most serious depravation, starvation serious male alcoholism and all the abuse that goes with it.
Did someone mention a UN charter for children; would that person stand up and be counted?
If you think you can help, I assure you that you can.
Lend us your hands.
Thank you all for allowing me a little rant after a 32 hour journey!

How many people did you have breakfast with today?

I watched 50, helped make suggestions to 12, and followed 1500+ all in the space of 7 hours.  How?  Through several tools used in conjunction with Twitter.

I follow the amazingly perky and visual Andrea B (cyberetto) and enjoy following her Flickr photographs through her Daily Lifestream Digest.

Last night Andrea posted the most amazing photo of Coffee & Croissants and it got me thinking… what is everyone else having for breakfast around the Twiterverse (the collection of people who use Twitter around the world).

I attached the Tag “globalbreakfast” to the photo and proceeded to search out others sharing the same meal in different ways around the globe in 2 ways:

TweetDeck Search and Cloud used together.

Twitpic Public Timeline – you can refresh the page and ‘watch’ the new photos as they are posted.  This is not for the meek… somewhere someone in the world is A. Drunk, B. Partially Naked, C. Proud of Something Gross… but it can make for good people watching.

Tweetdeck / Twitscoop Integration – The multi-tasker’s paradise becomes super flexible when you toss a seach next to the cloud!  I didn’t think to grab a pic when I was spreading the love but it did generate a peak of 20 tweets at a time !

I cluttered up the stream by using the #globalbreakfast tag when asking people to join in… but once I got enough pictures I started sending a link to the GlobalBreakfast tag page on Twitpic instead.

Why?

I reached out and I met people. Tweet that you don’t know what you want for breakfast? You would have gotten a Tweet from me suggesting you look at the collection of pictures for ideas… started a bunch of great conversations!

I made Andrea smile and we shared a group forming experience few get to see… by using her picture as a calling card (take a picture of your #globalbreakfast and join http://twitpic.com/1d0es and others around the world) she got 1000+ views in an hour!

I had a chance to start the conversation about starting the day with a hearty breakfast and continue the conversation about Clean Drinking Water (CDW) for all.

I don’t intend to do this every day… but Friday night / Saturday morning seems ripe for the picking… I have started to research global / national efforts to ensure a healthy breakfast for all.

Did you know that Feed the Children in the UK is having a Eat A Breakfast Save A Life Day 2009 the week of 23 February 2009? Right now that seems like the front runner for my message next week… but I’m open to suggestions / enhancements / debate !

This week a family took their children out, someone ate at Azeteca, and a father prepared breakfast for the family all in the time it took for my husband and I to order (picture on the right) and be served (picture on the left) our hearty breakfast… who will be eating with us next week… and more importantly…

How do we bring the conversation of a good breakfast and clean drinking water to the GlobalBreakfast table?

****July 20009 Update

Twitpic has disabled the ability to tag photos.  I have not found another service that will provide the same collage / sharing feature yet.

Supported with grants from Rotary International,  The Mayan Families Charity distributed approximately 50 Q Beta water filters on Monday January 26, 2009 in the village of Tierra Linda.

The women were provided with instruction on how to assemble and clean the Q Beta filters.

Once the instruction was complete, the women began to assemble the Q Beta water filter that they would take for use in their home. 

The filters successfully remove harmful bacteria and parasites that cause water borne disease from the water that is used for drinking and cooking. 

Water borne disease impacts primarily children and pregnant mothers; therefore, the Q Beta filters are essential to maternal child health.  

In addition, the filters are distributed to schools so the children will have clean drinking water during the day as well as at home.   This is the Mayan Families preschool located in San Jorge de la Laguna near Lake Atitlan Guatemala.  The school includes a nutrition program for approximately 25 pre school children.

The Q Beta Water Filter Project is conducted in partnership with approximately 15 Rotary Clubs in the United States and Guatemala.  Together these clubs have distributed water filters to provide clean drinking water to more than 80,000 people.  For additional information on how you can get involved in this exciting Rotary International program, please contact Sandy Scoggins at sunsandy1855@yahoo.com

Today I am grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me.  In less than six weeks, I will be on the adventure of a lifetime.  I am traveling to the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya with a group of friends to run a tent medical clinic.   I am expecting this experience to permanently alter the way I see the world we all live in.

I wrote the interpreter about what I should bring to donate for the children recently.  Knowing that there is no sewage, running water, and many other things we in America take for granted, I thought antibacterial hand gel could be useful for the children.  The interpreter said “These children build their houses out of dung, kill cows on a Saturday, and drink the blood of goats.  I don’t think antibacterial gel will fly.  How about some jumpropes, coloring books, and crayons.  Definitely jump ropes, these children love jumping.”

Who would have thought??  Jumping.   Imagine- children without their basic needs cared for-happy, singing, and jumping rope.  This is definitely going to be the trip of a lifetime.  In a time when we are ruled by consumerism, fear, and greed-I think we could all probably learn alot about the value life’s simple pleasures from these children.  There is a real need to return to a simpler way of living, alot like a time not that long ago when a jumprope was all we needed to smile.

Sinead O’Connor to collaborate with John Waters
Just saw this from Hotpress
Sinead O’Connor has collaborated with former Hot Press scribe John Waters on a charity song that will be released in March.

Waters’ – who wrote last year’s Irish entry in Eurovision – said he penned it especially with Sinead in mind. The song is to appear on a compilation album and will be released on World Water Day in March.

Speaking to Hot Press, Waters said: “I’ve done this song with Sinead. It is pretty amazing, I can tell you. Steve Cooney is producing. It sounds amazing. It’s called ‘Baby, Let Me Buy You A Drink’, and it’s an attempt to catch the idea of Ireland and the Irish being both hound and hare in history, specifically in relation to Africa, and that we owe both friendship and reparation.”

Waters’ describes the singers voice as being “an absolute, total intuition for emotion”. He adds: “She can look at a song that has been sung a thousand times by other people and find what it’s really about. With the song I did, she just changed the phrasing – in ways that I hadn’t dreamt of – to make it live in a different way. What other people think in terms of technicality, she thinks in terms of emotions. So what you hear is not someone else singing, but your own heart being sung. She is not trained to be a great singer, she is trained to find the emotion of it – and that’s the key to it.”

Waters acknowledges that eyebrows might be raised by his collaboration with Sinead, particularly considering their much publicised break-up following the birth of their daughter.

“This is life. Time changes everything. We get on wonderfully these days. We had a very full-on relationship, while it lasted. Nothing that happens is separate from who you are. We were very full-on people and, inevitably, when a feeling turns, it goes radically in the other direction for a while,” he said.

“I have a great time for Sinead, quite separately from our relationship as parents. I think Sinead is a genius – a musical genius. So we get on very well now and we have the most amazing child, who fills us with wonder every day. How could you be looking at that – the creation you’ve been involved in – and not be reconciled in some profound way, you know? I have a much better relationship with Sinead than with pretty much any other ex of mine. I often wonder about people who say they have very good platonic relationships with their exes. I think that’s a terrible contradiction because it suggests that the relationship was not very passionate to begin with, if you can just stop short and say, Oh, let’s be friends. I always say, Actually, I have lots of friends, but if one of them dies I’ll let you know!”

(c) 2008 hotpress.com