Written by Deb St. George, Publisher, Accommodation-in-Greece.com
Monday, 19 May 2008
The mayor of the City of Athens, Greece, Mr.Nikitas Kaklamanis has signed a memorandum of Cooperation with all major food
stores for the gradual replacement of the plastic bag in the operation of Super
Markets within the limits of the City of Athens.
The green marketing campaign will start on April 14th 2008 and run for 5
years using the motto “I am not a plastic bag”.
Nearly 4.5 million Athenians will promote and sell the new green bags made from eco friendly materials.
"Through our
choices today we are creating tomorrow's world," said
Mayor of Athens.
"What we must realize is that time is not an ally. Consolidating ecological
conscience is not an issue that concerns more or less certain cities or states,
but covers all cities, all states and all their citizens. Concerns every society
as a whole and each of us separately."
The initiative for the gradual replacement of the plastic bag packaging environmentally
friendly forms is part of the overall philosophy for the environment that fosters international initiative of 40 major cities in the world against climate
change - C40 - which the city of Athens is a member.
Arsenic, is found in the soil where food is grown and arsenic is also
found in drinking water. Arsenic is poisonous to humans. The ferns were
found growing in a Florida lumber yard. It was amazing to discover that
the ferns had been soaking up arsenic from the soil through their roots
and was storing it in their fronds.
Bruce Ferguson, CEO of
Edenspace, a Virginia-based company that now licenses the patent for
the ferns and sells them commercially under the name “edenfern". The
fronds of Pteris vittata, or brake fern, can be clipped or the
entire plant can be dug up and disposed of safely.
In the United States they are now using ferns in
programs to remove arsenic from soil and drinking water. In Albuquerque,
New Mexico, the ferns significantly decreased the level of arsenic
in samples of the city drinking water. Some plants are able to live
without soil, in the water. About 100 ferns were placed in trays up a
staircase and then 450 gallons of water were pumped through the system
daily. Scientists are genetically modifying these plants to remove
environmental toxins. "Current methods to rid dirt of these poisons run
about $1 million per acre-foot of earth (the volume of a foot-deep acre
of soil). Using plants to do the same job, on the other hand, costs
about $3,000." The ferns are now grown year round in Florida, and can be
purchase online for $4.95 a piece, not including shipping.
A concentration of arsenic up to 15 to 20 times
higher than the acceptable maximum has been found in drinking water in
many countries, in Greece and Serbia and Montenegro, for instance says
Branislav Petrusevski, Director of the UNESCO-IHE project. He
pointed out that the maximum proposed by the World Health Organization
(WHO) is 0.01 mg per litre, however, arsenic levels in groundwater in
Bangladesh for example, are as high as 1.8 mg per litre, Petrusevski
added. “Recent medical research shows, moreover, that long term exposure
to very low arsenic concentrations can cause cancer and have a variety
of other adverse effect on human health," he continued.
These ferns can be grown outside the United States The ferns
could be used in small communities in developing countries such as
Bangladesh, which has problems with arsenic in drinking water.
Other solutions:
The company recently made the ferns available
royalty free to parts of the developing world, according to Ferguson.
Edenspace, which
specializes in a variety of plants to cleanup toxic substances, has
twelve employees and reported $1.2 million in revenues last year.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 22 January 2008 )
The Art of Aikido in Greece
Written by Deb St. George, Publisher, Accommodation-in-Greece.com
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
In Greece you will find people studying
the ancient art of Aikido. The
Aikido World's DOJO DIRECTORY lists
Aikido of Athens, The Hellenic Aikido Association,
Kobukan, and Aikikan Greece.
The Chinese are the first people that come to mind when it comes to these things
but the Japanese are just as athletic with a rich heritage of body contact
sports that can be found in their history. The modern Japan still gives honor
to these things by holding tournaments and promoting such sports abroad,
One of these is Aikido. It is interesting to note that the word comes
from three Japanese words from which one can derive the meaning of the one word.
Ai means joining, Ki means spirit and Do means way. From this we can understand
why Aikido is beyond just the physical skills of it students especially sin its
proponent Ueshiba focused more on the spiritual and philosophical development of
his students.
In Aikido, one is not taught violence instead one is
taught to be in harmony with the opponent to be able to defeat.
