"The Birds and the Bees" are Essential to Our Survival

Screenshot Image: Ever wonder why we should protect the bees? 
Take a look at this image. 
To prove a point, Whole Foods in Providence, RI temporarily removed all produce dependent on pollinators.
Image Source: Facebook | Timeline Photos | Organic Consumers Association | #SaveTheBees

So why all the hub-bub about bees? 

Well, if the above image isn’t reason enough to consider preserving our busy-little pollinating super-bugs, consider this:

Image: Bees pollinate at least 130 different crops in the US alone, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts. 

Image Source: Pinterest.com: Organic Consumers Association Beekeeping page

We are alive in part thanks to the honey bee. Bees have been the silent partner (well okay MOSTLY silent, apart from some buzzing) in the agricultural revolution that makes civilization even possible.

Imagine losing 1/3 of our food supply! That risk is real. 
Why? Because the honey bee is under threat.

According to SumOfUs Campaign: Help support our bold plan to save the bees,

"The bees are vanishing, and the pace is accelerating. We finally know the reason behind it, but powerful corporations are profiting off the very chemical — a nastly class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids — putting our ecosystem at risk, and they’re fighting like hell to hide the truth.”
~ SumOfUs Action: Save the bees from the pesticide that's wiping them out

There are other factors which have been contributing to bee colony collapse disorder, including the introduction of foreign parasites which were promptly distributed among the whole of the U.S. bee colony population thanks to the annual California almond industry pollination.

"Migratory beekeepers drive their hives 28,000 miles each year to provide pollination around the country. Apart from the absurdity of driving around flying insects that have evolved to explore neighborhoods, this annual California gathering creates a vast bee bordello where viruses, parasites and bacteria can be nationally propagated."
~ Dan Friedman
Source: Forward.com: 'Queen of the Sun,' an Illuminating Film That Explores Havoc in the Hives

To hear about this is one thing, to watch the story unfold before your eyes is another, and is one of the merits of the beautifully shot film, Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?

YouTube.com: Queen of The Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? - Official Trailer [HD] 

QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN...

Posted by Collectiveeye 

And, as always, we are to blame. Humanity. Short-sighted, selfish, ignorant humanity. And we are all culpable.

Rather than support nature, its precious ecosystems, and the hard-working creatures that perform their duty without question and without fail, WE FAIL in our duty and all of nature suffers. Careful!

If you learn enough about this issue, you might just get angered enough to do something about it.

You can start right now by visiting SumofUs.org and making a small donation:

"We're raising money to send in a swarm of beekeepers to the world's largest independent garden store conference, to make a persuasive, personal pitch to the very men and women who decide what pesticides are stocked on store shelves nationwide."
~ SumOfUs Action: Chip in to help beekeepers fight the pesticide industry's propaganda

Rainforest Ecosystem vs. “Green Bling”

Image: Living Wall Ecosystem w/ Turtle Pond vs. Typical “Vertical Garden”

Image Credits: peapodlife.com: living wall ecosystem + NYTymes.com: Gardens That Grow on Walls: Peter Kastan's 12-by-12-foot green wall in Miami, photo by Moris Moreno

New York Times warns: “A lot of living walls fail.”

If you’ve followed our blog for any length of time, you know we’ve said it before: competitors’ so-called “living walls” are just plain wrong. They do not work.

Even the New York Times seems to agree to some extent.

Although their article, “Gardens That Grow on Walls” outlines many of the benefits of typical vertical gardens and green walls, including aesthetics, air purification, etc., they make it clear that misconceptions about these “green architectural features” outweigh reality.

“A lot of living walls fail.”

~ Martha Desbiens, VertNY (landscape design firm).

Source: NYTymes.com: Gardens That Grow on Walls

Why? There are really too many reasons to list. But it comes down to this simple truth: unless a living wall is part of an ecosystem, it is 100% unnatural, unsustainable, and ultimately unhealthy for the indoor environment.

Why? There are simply too many variables at work for a human being to manage to keep plants in a typical living wall healthy, and the only feedback mechanism they have is plant illness and mortality.

“It’s like having a large poodle,” Mr. Kastan said. “You have to take care of it, feed it, walk it. It’s intensive care for plants.”

~ Peter Kastan
Source: NYTymes.com: Gardens That Grow on Walls

A rainforest ecosystem, on the other hand, takes care of its own plants. Sure, PeapodLife performs BioCare maintenance every two or three months (depending on the size, complexity and makeup of the ecosystem), but it’s truly maintenance.

The competitions’ so-called “maintenance” involves mostly plant-replacement due to plants dying off in their soil-based or hydroponic systems. The problems with dying plants are manifold: mold, VOC’s, high plant replacement costs, and an aesthetically awful feature over time.

PeapodLife living wall ecosystems are capable of running for decades with practically zero plant mortality or replacement costs. PeapodLife works with the inventor of the living wall ecosystem and is backed by over 30 years of real-world success stories. Rainforest ecosystems are the only way to go.

So Why? Why do people continue to invest their time, money and energy in so-called “living walls” and “vertical gardens” that attempt to circumvent nature’s way—ecosystems—instead of working with it?

“People want green bling…[they] think, ‘It looks beautiful and perfect, and I want something beautiful and perfect in my life.’”
~ Marguerite Wells, Motherplants, (nursery)
Source: NYTymes.com: Gardens That Grow on Walls

People want “perfection on the cheap.” They try saving some bucks up front for something that looks good for a few days after installation, and in the end pay ten times more living with the shortcomings of an inexpensive and ultimately unviable and unsustainable solution. Just like the name suggests, it’s just a “green façade.” It’s perfection in appearance only.  

Look to our blog article on Nature’s Perfection and you will begin to appreciate the natural beauty and dynamic, changing, evolving aesthetics of a genuine high-order rainforest ecosystem in your home or business. Growing, responding to the energies in your space, managing itself in its effort to be the most perfect expression of itself: a creator and sustainer of life.

It’s the difference between “green bling” and the real, authentic, deep-down beauty of nature. Truly alive, truly healthy, completely relaxing and invigorating. PeapodLife is closer to the “Garden of Eden” than any so-called “vertical garden” will ever hope to be.

19 Firefighters Die in Yarnell Hill Wildfire

YouTube Video: ABC World News Now : 19 Firefighters Dead in Yarnell Hill Wildfire
Gusty, hot winds blew an Arizona blaze out of control in a forest northwest of Phoenix killing 19.
Published by ABCNews

Young “Hot Shots” Sacrifice their Lives Protecting Communities & Nature

Every now and then we face a tragedy that reveals the fragility of our community, the terrible power of nature to renew itself, and the remarkable courage and sacrifice of those facing the latter in defense of the former.

The events of the past 24 hours in Yarnell Hill, Arizona have seen just such an exchange of fierce supremacy and unshakeable determination in the face of incalculable danger.

For the family and friends of the fallen heroes, we here at PeapodLife extend our thoughts, prayers and deepest condolences. Your sons, brothers, husbands, partners and friends have crossed a river of fire into the Light…literally. Know that their ultimate sacrifice will not go unrewarded.

At times such as these we may question many things about ourselves and our world. Are we living on a hostile, unforgiving planet after all?  What was the purpose of such a tragedy?  What sense can we possibly make of all this suffering? Yes, even as the fires rage in Arizona; our minds; our hearts.

But it is precisely at these times of questioning—doubt, fear, anguish—that we should remember there are three constants we can observe in nature: birth, death and sacrifice. These constitute the miraculous circle of life and love. They embody the abundance we enjoy. They define for us what is truly precious.

These 19 young “Hot Shots” were indeed precious: to the communities and the countryside they swore an oath to protect; to their loved ones; to all who knew them in anonymity and have come to know them in infamy. Theirs is the most precious of all of nature’s constants: sacrifice.

In their death, there is greater purpose than any of us can begin to understand, just as in their life was encapsulated a value no words can do justice.

Forget your “Men’s Health” magazine covers. Ignore your “Chanel for Men” advertisements. These 19 were REAL men. Bold. Strong. Fearless. Selfless. Each a lion’s share of life ahead of him; every last one a lionheart.

Let their sacrifice show us the way to the truth: that the fires that matter most burn within our hearts.
Let this so-called tragedy be more than a blip on the evening news.
Let its lessons blaze a trail in our consciousness that we may walk it.
Let these 19 warriors of Light live on in our thoughts, words and deeds.
Let the firefight of selflessness and sacrifice carry on in our hearts and our minds, with Grace.

YouTube Video: Leann Rimes - Amazing Grace 

Gospel 

Published by Fausto Caravati 

Your Indoor Rainforest Ecosystem: Unique & Perfectly Adapted to Your Life

Image (Screenshot): In The Last Samurai, Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) tells Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) a life spent looking for the perfect cherry blossom “would not be a wasted life.”

Image Source: tumblr.com: tagged #Katsumoto

PeapodLife Empowers Nature’s Mass Customization of Perfection

“The perfect cherry blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your whole life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.” 

~ Katsumoto, from The Last Samurai

Quote Source: IMBb.com: Quotes: The Last Samurai (2003)

I had the pleasure of living for a year in Japan.  In many ways it was the best year of my life, not least because I saw myself as a perfectionist living in a culture of perfectionism. The way in which perfection is approached in Japan strikes most Westerners—myself included at the time—as a bit paradoxical.

To many Westerners, perfection is a loaded, often polarizing word.  To some it is a challenge to be doggedly pursued; for others, an arbitrary imposition shackling us to the blind pursuit of an unattainable ideal.

While on the surface it seems Japan adopted “the relentless pursuit of perfection”—as the Lexus brand slogan suggests—unlike the West, the origins of this pursuit have a much softer connotation: nature.

The fact is, no two snowflakes are alike. Likewise no two trees, leaves, people, etc. are alike. And yet, somehow, out of the organized chaos that is cause and effect and evolution, nature manages to perfectly adapt to an ever changing dynamic environment. It all just works. Nature works.

Humanity approaches things in a very different way. We attempt to come up with a “perfect design,” then create assembly lines to try to replicate endless identical copies of it.

Yet we know from experience that no industrial process comes close to perfection on any level. From cookie-cutter housing to automotive recalls, computer glitches to never-ending software updates, we are not even close to the sublime genius and resilience of cells or organisms, let alone ecosystems.

The new “holy grail” in manufacturing is mass customization, “combining elements of mass production with those of bespoke tailoring,” (Source: The Economist: Idea: Mass customisation). Yet experience shows a component and/or systems-based approach can never replicate nature’s level of mass customization.  

This is why PeapodLife uses an ecosystems approach. We embrace the perfection of nature to achieve what human approaches to it cannot. Every ecosystem we sell is unique to you: it adapts to your life; your environment; your needs.

Sure, a lot of the underlying mechanicals will be similar from one ecosystem to the next, but the flora, fauna, and mineral/terrestrial elements will not only be unique, they will be alive: responsive, adaptive; yes, even intelligent.

Too many VOC’s in your indoor air? No problem! The ecosystem will adjust the population of VOC-munching microbes. No industrial or technological solution can replicate the ability of a high-order ecosystem to dynamically adapt to your needs on the fly. No other so-called “living wall” can either.

So while the rest of the world fumbles around with mechanical and computer technology trying to get finite systems to do the work of sentient life forms, PeapodLife invites you to discover the genius of working in mutual harmony with nature.

While the competition try to get their so-called “living walls” to “look perfect” and “perform within reason,” let your own unique Rainforest Ecosystem from PeapodLife show you perfection’s true nature…

YouTube Video: The Last Samurai - Perfect
The best scene from the Last Samurai. It is...perfect.
Uploaded by BillFoto

In the final battle scene of The Last Samurai, Katsumoto’s (Ken Watanabe) last words to Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) come at the end of his lifelong quest for the perfect cherry blossom: “They’re all perfect.”

Attila Lendvai

Seven Steps of Truly Sustainable Building Science

CBC.ca Video: Imagine the Fire
How reviving the aboriginal practice of controlled fires could be good for land and wildlife. This story was produced with the support of the Bill Lane Centre for American West
The National | Jun 19, 2013 | 14:24

Residential Building Science Experts Take Note: Sustainable Buildings = Ecosystem Management

Igne Natura Renovatur Integra (INRI): “All Nature Will Be Renewed By Fire; alchemists' aphorism)”
Definition Source/Credit: The Free Online Dictionary: Igne Natura Renovatur Integra

What does this CBC National news feature story by Duncan McCue have to do with sustainable buildings? At PeapodLife, our commercial and residential building science experts know that truly sustainable buildings will be based not on components or systems, but ecosystems.

As Duncan McCue’s feature on The National points out, the Dene Nation of Northern Alberta and Northwest Territories have used controlled burning to manage their environment in an intelligent and symbiotic way.

They used a ubiquitous technology essential to humankind’s survival (the mastery of fire) to support and accelerate the natural cleansing and renewing process of nature. With fire the Dene made space for healing and food plants where only weeds and deadwood grew, and invited grazing animals to return.

This is a beautiful real-world example of how humanity’s mastery of technology can be used to support nature and the natural renewal process taking place in all ecosystems.  It is anything but an exploitative model. It is a model of intelligent stewardship; of harmony; of mutual symbiosis…real “best practices.”

Forest Management Experts from Alberta and BC to California are waking up and taking note of this large-picture view.  Moving from forest-management to ecosystem-management has many benefits.  We support the ecosystem; the organizing and problem-solving power of the ecosystem does the rest.

PeapodLife brings precisely this ecosystem-management and support methodology to commercial and residential buildings via our indoor ecosystems. 

The result is Advanced Human Habitat:

• Freshest Air
• Living Water
• Organic Local Food
• Beautiful Natural Rainforest Aesthetic
• Positive Energetic Enhancement
• Improved Relaxation
• Greater Invigoration
• And so much more.

Image: Hand of Human Intervention in Mutual Symbiosis and Harmony with Nature

July 2012 Cover for the Sunday Review of The New York Times "The Ecology of Disease"

Illustration by Olaf Hajek

Image Source: NYTimes.com: Destroying Nature Unleashes Infectious Diseases

We challenge commercial and residential building science experts to recognize the wisdom of the Dene and others.  It’s time to see the big picture of true sustainability, in buildings, communities and the world as a whole!

Seven Steps of Truly Sustainable Building Science:

1. Use our best know-how (ancient and modern) and technologies,
2. Evolve beyond simple component-based and mechanical systems-based methodologies,
3. Learn from nature’s own best practices (biomimicry; Eco-mimicry),
4. Work with nature harmonically,
5. Manage and support natural ecosystem-based methodologies,
6. Accelerate and enhance ecosystems’ abilities to grow, learn, adapt and provide,
7. Enjoy the benefits of living in mutual symbiosis with nature in our homes, businesses, etc. 

Whether you’re a residential building science expert, a commercial building developer, building management company, green real estate investor, owner of a spa, hotel or retirement home, or a home/condo resident wanting to live sustainably in harmony with nature, Connect with PeapodLife. 

Indoor Ecosystem Promotes Life Transformation

Photo: Attila Lendvai, PeapodLife Project Director with Wolfgang Amelung, Genetron Systems Founder and Owner 

 Ecosystem for Your House Health Presentation

Life Transformation Institute Luncheon June 11, 2013

Life Transformation Institute’s Monthly Luncheon Welcomes PeapodLife

This past Tuesday, June 11 2013, PeapodLife was attended The Life Transformation Institute’s and Society of Internet Professional’s joint monthly networking luncheon at Chef of India Restaurant in Toronto, Ontario.

SIP/LTI Founder and Social Entrepreneur Max Haroon began by thanking all the attendees for coming out.  This was followed by a brief introduction of the day’s guest speakers, PeapodLife Project Director Attila Lendvai and our Partner, Genetron Systems Founder and Inventor of the Living Wall Ecosystem, Wolfgang Amelung.

Attila opened the presentation with the big picture analysis of the powerful results that are achieved when we reverse humanity’s exploitative relationship with nature to one of support.

“Instead of a human-developed systems approach imposing some technological process onto nature with the intention of maximizing outputs, PeapodLife employs technology to support nature’s existing processes. The result: nature surprises and delights with a broad spectrum of holistic benefits. This is the genius of working with nature to help it achieve its highest expression as opposed to the myopic industrialized pursuit of a few material objectives.”

Photo: Wolfgang Amelung, Inventor of the Living Wall Ecosystem

Ecosystem for Your House Health Presentation

Life Transformation Institute Luncheon June 11, 2013

Next, Wolfgang took the floor and gave some history on the development of the ecosystem technology. He also introduced luncheon attendees to the very smallest expression of an indoor ecosystem.

The “Progeny” ecosystem consists of a highly sophisticated floating island constructed of several layers of substrates, growing medium, etc. Wolfgang explained how it survives in the toxic indoor environments we live in, despite being so small:

“Maybe not in a fiberglass factory, but generally speaking, it creates a bubble of fresh air around itself, like its own little atmosphere. Anything in the air passing through the bubble is absorbed into the water and processed by the ecosystem.  It’s remarkable, really. And in some ways it’s the most sophisticated version of the ecosystem because it’s a miniature version of what the large ecosystem does. Unlike the large system, this small unit won’t clean the whole space.”

Photo: Ecosystem for Your House Health Presentation

"Progeny" - the very smallest expression of an indoor ecosystem

Life Transformation Institute Luncheon June 11, 2013

The attendees had an opportunity to ask questions, interact with the ecosystem, network, and of course enjoy a delicious Indian buffet-style lunch.

PeapodLife looks forward to next month’s luncheon when Wolfgang will be giving a workshop on how to begin incorporating indoor ecosystem technology into your existing home using the houseplants you already have.

For more information, or to register, visit the following link: Eventbrite: Max Haroon

Relaxation is Key to Awareness and Health

 
YouTube Video: Relax in a Tranquil Bluebell Wood w/o Music-Sounds of Nature-Bird Song-Forest-3D Trees-Dawn Chorus, Johnnie Lawson   
Uploaded by johnnielawson

Relax in Nature and be More Human

I thoroughly enjoy getting away from the game and going out fishing because it's so relaxing, so quiet and peaceful. I mean, there's no noise other than nature - and it's so different from what I do in a tournament situation that it just eases my mind.
~ Tiger Woods
Source: brainyquote.com: Tiger Woods

Normally we write a fair bit on our blogs, but today we thought we’d offer more of a “show” rather than a “tell.” After all, we’re inundated with so many words day in and day out. Wouldn’t it be nice to relax?

YouTube Video: 100mins. Relaxing Classical Music, Johnnie Lawson  
Uploaded by johnnielawson

Relaxing is essential to our wellbeing. Truly. Disease is a compound word: Dis-ease; not at ease…stressed. Stress is the #1 killer in the world. No one who’s relaxed can murder another person in a fit of rage. No relaxed person goes on a shooting spree.

YouTube Video: MEDITATION - Zen Music, Johnnie Lawson

Uploaded by johnnielawson

That’s not to say that being relaxed means “zoning out.” You want to be relaxed when you drive, but also aware, sharp. Likewise, to be healthy means you must be conscious of how you treat your body. But awareness and health are enhanced by relaxation. They are its foundation. And nothing is capable of simultaneously relaxing us and invigorating us—mind and body—like nature.

 

YouTube Video: RELAX-Classical Music-Beethoven-Violin Concerto-Healing Sound Of The Sea-Musica Clasica Relajante, Johnnie Lawson

Uploaded by johnnielawson

We hope you enjoyed these journeys of relaxation, feel a bit more aware and invigorated, and ever so slightly more human…AHH! 

PeapodLife: the Essence of Being, Rooted in Sophistication.