Sending food waste to landfill is unnecessary, unsustainable and costly. Discussing the problem in an Exmoor pub one night were Richard Gedge – an ex-stockbroker who now runs an award-winning farm for its green credentials – and Dan Welburn, a former formula one engineer. Together, after experimenting with prototypes, they created the Ridan composter.

Capable of composting up to 400 litres of food waste a week, they have helped divert over 1,000 tonnes from landfill in two years, according to the company. They are proving popular with hotels, National Trust sites, prisons and even climbing centres.

Perhaps most importantly, colleges and schools are using them, not only to save money on disposal costs, but to help raise environmental awareness about the food cycle – helping young people to learn to appreciate food and think about prioritising locally sourced food. Food miles are usually considered with the distance from where it is produced to where it is consumed. But perhaps less often does anyone factor in the distance that wasted food travels to be disposed.

The ‘in-vessel’ composter is simple to use say its manufacturers, and it is suitable for all food waste, including cooked and raw, meat and dairy. The Ridan composting process requires no electricity and is carbon negative. Its design led to it being a finalist in the Devon Environmental Business Initiative (DEBI) awards in its first year. It was recognised not only for its sustainable practice in dealing with food waste, but also for savings in emissions. The process saves in combustion emissions through eliminating transportation, as well as reducing the methane from decomposing matter, which occurs in landfill.

“We are proud of what we have achieved so far and are now expanding rapidly. One day it will be standard practice for every catering facility to compost on-site,” says Dan Welburn. And his best moment since their system was launched? “Watching ‘I’ve got a brand new Ridan Composter’ sung by children at an assembly to the tune of Wurzels.”

Source: Positive News

On one’s well-being: “Keep the other person`s well-being in mind when you feel an attack of soul-purging truth coming on.”

On getting rest after a long day: “Oh, I don’t need sleep. I just went to my hotel and had a cold hot dog and vodka on the rocks.”

On living life to the fullest, we think: “I’ve always liked older men. They’re just more attractive to me. Of course, at my age there aren’t that many left! I’ve enjoyed the opposite sex a lot. Always have. Always will.”

On staying active: “I have a two story house and a bad memory! I’m up and down those stairs all the time: ‘What did I come up here for again?’”

On Facebook, after a successful campaign on the social media network site landed White a gig as a host of Saturday Night Live: “I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say: It sounds like a huge waste of time.”

You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.  ~Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

What is bought is cheaper than a gift.  ~Portuguese Proverb

A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.  ~Thomas á Kempis

The only gift is a portion of thyself.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.  ~Seneca

We do not quite forgive a giver.  The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays

But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith’s.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Gifts,” Essays, Second Series, 1844

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.  ~George MacDonald

The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.  ~Pierre Corneille, Le Menteur

Christmas is the season when you buy this year’s gifts with next year’s money.  ~Author Unknown

A hug is a great gift - one size fits all, and it’s easy to exchange.  ~Author Unknown

If you give what can be taken, you are not really giving.  Take what you are given, not what you want to be given.  Give what cannot be taken.  ~Idries Shah

In many ways, Havel embodied the spirit of the “flower child;” he spoke often of “truth and love” as trumping all other things, and was emphatically anti-war. In 1990, one of his first acts as president was to empty Czech prisons and close down its arms factories. Yet even the most conservative leaders seemed to love him. President George H.W. Bush, in an interview with Columbia University, remembered watching Havel command a crowd of a million after the Velvet Revolution, and said he couldn’t think of another foreign leader for whom he has more respect.

“I cannot say enough good things about President Vaclav Havel,” he concluded.

In 1990, Havel delivered a New Year’s address to a budding new nation, three days after being named its first president. He encouraged the new nation to be built around a politics of morality above all else, a message Orwell would likely have approved himself.

“Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community,” he said. “Let us teach ourselves and others that politics can be not simply the art of the possible, especially if this means the art of speculation, calculation, intrigue, secret deals and pragmatic maneuvering, but that it can also be the art of the impossible, that is, the art of improving ourselves and the world.”

This past week we lost a writer and a major intellectual, and we lost a brutal, confounding dictator. We also lost a playwright, a rebel, a rockstar, a chain-smoker, a renowned artist, a non-profit leader, and one of the most beloved presidents in history.

MYSTIC, Conn. (AP) - When retired Stonington lobsterman Jim Henry was 91 he decided it was time he taught himself how to read and write.

And now seven years later, at the age of 98, Henry is a published author.

Henry recently signed copies of his just-released book, “In a Fisherman’s Language,” at Academy Point, the senior housing project where he lives. A larger public signing is being planned for December, and the book will be soon be available at www.fishermanslanguage.com.

The book is a collection of short stories such as the time he was unable to save a fellow fisherman who fell overboard, his time as professional boxer and his arrival by boat from Portugal with his parents. Many of the stories involve his career on the ocean.

The cover of the book, which is published by Fowler Road Press of North Stonington, is a close-up black and white photo of Henry’s right hand as he writes on a piece of paper.

On Tuesday, the day before the signing, Henry was at the desk in his apartment.

He was beaming.

“I feel so good about doing this. I don’t know what to do or what to say,” he said. “I feel like I was just born.”

In recent days, Henry said people who have read the first copies of the book have told him they can’t believe they were now talking to the author.

“Here I am, nothing but a fisherman before and now everyone is looking up to me. It makes me feel so happy,” he said.

Source: News8.com

I equate writing with singing. People often won’t sing because at some point, usually during their formative years, someone told them they weren’t doing it right. They closed off their voice and became quieter.

Many think they can’t write, as if its a skill you either possess or don’t. My point? Who cares? Use it anyway. I write for my life now. It doesn’t have to be perfectly tailored pieces; it just needs to be released from my mind.

That’s why journaling is so powerful. There is no right or wrong to it. You simply need to move the thoughts from your brain onto paper. That’s it. Doesn’t sound very helpful, does it? But actually, its a tool by which you begin purging often-negative mental junk and clarifying the true, clear voice underneath.

If you make a practice of writing every day, you will see changes in your life. I promise. Its almost uncanny how accessible and simple of a life-changing tool it it, right at your disposal. It’s therapy on paper. It’s creativity refining itself into actual, tangible ideas. It’s release for a quieter mind.