An amazing new and simple DIY air conditioner has swept across many villages in Bangladesh. Because of the threat of flooding, a staggering 70% of the population lives in tin huts.

Most of these aren’t hooked up to electricity or water, so in the summer you can imagine how unbelievably hot they can get.

It gets so bad, a project called eco-cooler has formed because of the impact. Their mission is to spread the knowledge of how to make these cheap and electricity free methods to cool down the houses throughout Bangladesh.

Originally starting from the advertising agency Grey Dhaka and Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd, their collaboration has created something beautiful. All you need are a few plastic bottles and a board to make this simple cooler.

It works by cutting the bottles in half and mounting them on a grid through bottleneck size holes. You then place the board over window with the bottleneck facing inwards, and that is it! It’s really that simple. Continue reading →

These nuns are breaking all traditions of ordinary nun-hood. The sisters actually don’t consider themselves Catholic or associate with any specific traditional religion. These women have the purpose of cultivating cannabis and understanding that it is a sacred medicine to be respected. They call themselves Sisters of the Valley, and on their site it states:

“We respect the breadth and depth of the gifts of Mother Earth, working to bridge the gap between Her and her suffering people,”

They’ve created a spiritual space that they consider sacred to produce different kinds of CBD oil’s, tinctures, salves and different organic medicine. Many of these concoctions have proven to be extremely effective in treating a wide range of ailments, anything from back pain, seizures, migraines and much more.

These women are amazing because they observe the cycle of the Moon and produce the medicine in conjunction with the Moon cycles. This is incredible because the energy they are putting into their creations are extremely full of care and purity.

Located in California’s Central Valley, these sisters are really bending the rules of what it means to be a sister.

Check them out here.
Continue reading →

Oh, homework.

Most kids absolutely dread doing it, and it might be for good reason. Did you know the highest homework loads are in countries that have lower income?

Hong Kong and Japan, places that are known for top rankings in average math achievement had reports of less homework then the international mean. While places like the Netherlands, famous for having low stress loads on students, had 1 in 5 fourth-graders say they do no homework on an average school night..

And the Netherlands is in the top 10 for math average scores. 

Almost 10% of fourth grade children worldwide spend multiple hours a night on homework. Internationally, 1 in 5 fourth-graders spend 30 minutes or more on math to 3 to 4 times a week.

Different studies have shown excessive amounts of homework have led to sleep disruption and create a negative relationship to homework as it simply creates more stress.

There is no actual evidence to support that high levels of homework have measurable academic benefits. Many places in Europe in comparison to the US have more freedom in their schooling system which leads to better performance.

Many elementary schools outside of the US have a longer recess and less workloads which ultimately leads to more and better work getting done. Continue reading →

New research published in the medical journal The Lancet has found that, well, antidepressants on children and adolescents don’t really work. Out of 14 different antidepressants, only one was really effective at relieving symptoms of depression.

The pill fluoxetine was the only pill that worked in comparison to a placebo pill. On the contrast, taking venlafaxine, also known as Effexor, was associated with more suicidal thoughts and actual attempts when in comparison to the placebo pill. 

The researchers claim the study is the most comprehensive to date on this topic. Depressive disorder is becoming more common in children and adolescents, estimating about 3% of children age 6 to 12 and 6% of teenagers aged 13 to 18 have some sort of depression.

In 2014 alone, an estimated 2.8 million teenagers age 12 to 17, which is about 11% of the population of the US, had at least one major depressive episode. Researchers know that depression and young people is usually very different than depression in adults.

Adolescents have shown to be more irritable, have aggressive behavior and develop problems in school. Suicide attempts with younger people can be much more dramatic and leave a more prominent impact on their social functioning.

This study was conducted in 34 different clinical trials which involved 5260 different participants. They tested the drugs efficiency, tolerability and acceptability.

The final results show that fluoxetine was really the only antidepressant where the benefits outweigh the risks. Most of the other concoction of pills creates a higher risk of suicidal thoughts or attempts.

So what’s the real issue here? Continue reading →

Another mysterious crop circle has appeared in the field near Stonehenge. This design is just one kilometer away from the infamous and mysterious site. More and more crop circles have been appearing near Stonehenge over the last few decades.

This phenomenon is incredibly interesting, and has a lot of controversy surrounding it.

Many are quick to dismiss all crop circles as human made, even the most mind blowing intricate ones that seem almost impossible for us to have made. Yes, some are made from humans, but ones with this level of accuracy are just otherworldly.

Over the years there have been many different designs with very specific purposes. Most of these crop circles have detailed sacred geometry within them, some seem to be codes for us to decipher.

Crop circles seem to be a direct way for other beings to communicate messages with us.

In 1974 we sent out a message into space, and received one back embedded into these fields in 2001. Continue reading →

Did you know that Love and happiness are our natural mechanisms for physical and mental healing?

In Tibetan medicine and many ancient cultures around the world, is this not a new concept.

Tulku Lobsang wrote a beautiful book about this in which he shares this beautiful wisdom from the Tantrayana Buddhist perspective. (Love & Health. Love is the best medicine) It is saying that all diseases are caused by the mind and because of this; the way to become healthy is through love.

There are three general dimensions of love.

The first one is of the gross mind, which occurs through the senses of feeling good about external things. Next there is love on the subtle level, which is internally generated. And finally, there is love of the great subtle mind, which is absolute Love.

There are four levels of love of the gross mind, all of which he refers to as feeling love: looking love, smiling love, touching love and oneness love.

Feeling love is generated through sensory experiences, meaning positive experiences of the five senses. Whatever makes you feel good increases this kind of love. Think of the things we surround ourselves with in our homes, our decorations, clothes, the food we eat and the places we visit to enjoy ourselves. Continue reading →