Qc: Qtips – Citrus For Everyday Uses Around the House

Want to cut back on the amount of chemicals you use to spruce up your home, get out stains and polish furniture? Citrus provides an easy and natural way to keep it easy, clean and organic.

• Polish copper by rubbing it with a lemon juice soaked cloth and buffing it dry.
• Brass and aluminum can be polished with a paste of lemon juice and cream of tartar. Another way to polish brass is by sprinkling salt on half of a lemon and rubbing it on the brass item. This method works on stainless steel as well.
• Rub lemon on your faucets to remove lime scale, hard water stains, and soap residue. It also works on porcelain.
• Whiten tennis shoes by spraying them with lemon juice and placing them in the sun.
• For a mild, stain-free bleach, soak your delicates in a mixture of lemon juice and baking soda for at least half an hour before washing.
• Boost your laundry detergent’s power by adding lemon juice to a wash cycle for fresh smelling laundry, to brighten whites and remove rust and mineral stains.
• For ink spots on clothing, apply lots of lemon juice to the stain as soon as possible. Wash the garment in normal cycle in cold water.
• Remove unsightly underarm stains from shirts and blouses simply by scrubbing them with a mixture of equal parts lemon juice (or white vinegar) and water. (more)

27 Household Uses For Citrus Fruit via Re-Nest

(s)Whiners: Bad Branding For Bacon

The aporkalyptic swine flu has got the pork industry all up in a hoof, er – huff. Hog farmers and producers are complaining of a bad PR situation where consumers are apparently afraid to eat to eat their animals.

CNN has provided a few quotable squeals:

“This flu is being called something that it isn’t, and it’s hurting our entire industry,”

“It is not a ’swine’ flu, and people need to stop calling it that … they’re ruining people’s lives.”

“On average they’ve lost about $20 a pig. So even if they lose $2 more, it’s hard on them.”

“I’ve had producers say, ‘Look, we’re dying out here, already we’re hurting and now this on top of it.’ ” (more)

Between this and the going-on in Egypt, killing pigs has become a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. Should vegans be secretly glad about the bad branding?

Inaccurate ’swine’ flu label hurts industry via CNN

Qc: Qtips – Cutting Some Green While Growing It

Today’s last post of gardening Qtips comes from our friends at Treehugger. They trim the fat from an article by The Observer, highlighting some key advice on saving money on all your gardening exploits:

“1. Plan Ahead

–Decide what kind of garden you want. Unstructured, informal ones with wildflowers and random containers are cheaper than formal gardens
–Vegetable gardens can work out to be cheaper than flower gardens and more productive
–Plan projects that you can do yourself, rather than hiring someone.

2. Cut the Cost of Plants

–Compare prices–often supermarkets and hardware stores are cheaper than garden centres and the quality can be just as good
–Planting from seed is cheaper than buying individual plants
–Take cuttings from fellow gardeners
–Split plants when they are big enough
–Go to local plant sales, often at churches or people’s gardens
–Buy small specimens of plants–they are cheaper and still grow bigger over the long run
–Perennials come up every year–try not to buy annuals which are finished after one season

–Herbs go on and and can be grown outside or on the window sill.” (more)

Four Ways to Keep Gardening Costs Down via Treehugger & The Observer

Qc: Qtips – Gardens In Small Spaces

It’s amazing what one can do with their space, no matter how small it may be. Just ask Apartment Therapy; a great resource for ideas on efficient use of space in your small living quarters. Here are some of their suggestions on keeping it real and keeping it small!

• Plants love sunny windowsill gardens, and so do we.
• To learn to grow food in a small space, click here.
• Grow a garden at the office with some desktop gardening tools.
• If you’ve got a tiny strip of soil outside, put it to good use.
• A balcony or deck is the perfect spot to start a container garden.
• For those with a black thumb, air plants are low-maintenance and soil-free.
• If you don’t have a backyard, you can still make a one-pot indoor herb garden for your kitchen. (more)

7 Ideas For Small Space Gardening via Apartment Therapy

Qc: Qtips – Grow Your Own Herb

Whole Living has provided an awesome overview on starting an herb garden. For any beginner, herbs are a great way to develop your green thumb and the returns are huge! Herbs can be ridiculously priced at the grocery store, especially if they claim to be “organic.” Save some money and learn how to grow your own happiness.

“Herbs are forgiving to grow, as long as you follow a few simple guidelines:

Healthy Soil
Choose an organic, light potting soil; this provides good drainage and room for young roots to grow. (If you’re starting plants from seed, you’ll use a seed-starting medium.)

Abundant Sun
Unless otherwise noted, your herbs will thrive in full sun.

Water and Food
Water your plants daily (ideally in the morning), until water drains out of the bottom of the pot. If you’re using a saucer under the pot, empty it of any water collected. The soil shouldn’t stay soaking wet, nor should it dry out completely. Use a balanced organic fertilizer according to package directions. Keep in mind that plants can be killed with kindness; take care not to overfeed or overwater.

Adequate Air Circulation
Avoid crowding your plants; this helps cut down on fungal and pest problems.

Container Options
Garden stores carry a dazzling selection of containers, from terra-cotta classics to stone pots that recall a Zen garden. But feel free to use your imagination. A pair of old boots or a broken watering can look fabulous with herbs spilling out of them. Whatever container you choose, make sure it has a hole in the bottom (or make one) to allow for drainage. To prevent soil from washing out when you water, place a shard of a broken terra-cotta pot, a few stones, or a piece of screen inside the bottom of the pot over the hole.” (more)

Grow Your Own Healing Herbs via Whole Living

Swine/11

As the world freaks out overreacts about this whole swine flu business, misinformation spreads faster than you can say “oinkchoo.” I feel sympathetic to the families who have lost people to this thing and it sure sucks to be among the “infected” but I mean, really: people die all of the time from things a lot worse and more frequently.

Who really loses from this? Receivers of the worst kind of PR; the pigs. Egypt has begun executing an order to kill ALL 300,000 pigs in response to the outbreak. I suppose this is one of the few instances that pig farmers and animal rights activits could stand on the same side, as they stone health offical cars in protest.

“Egypt, which has no swine flu cases, is the only country in the world to order a mass pig slaughter in response to the disease. The move mirrored Egypt’s battle with bird flu, in which the government killed 25 million birds within weeks in 2006.

“Killing (pigs) is not a solution, otherwise, we should kill the people, because the virus spreads through them,” wrote Abdullah Kamal of the daily Rose El-Youssef. “The terrified members of parliament should have concentrated on asking the government first about the preventive measures and ways of confronting the problem.”

But international health officials said the swine flu virus that has caused worldwide fear is not transmitted by pigs, and that pig slaughters do nothing to stop its spread. The WHO on Thursday stopped using the term “swine flu” to avoid confusion.

In Egypt, even the editor of a pro-government newspaper criticized the order to slaughter the estimated 300,000 pigs, which was pushed by parliament and issued by the government.” (more)

The holocaust of pigs in response to swine flu; chickens from bird flu and cows from Mad Cow disease.

Livestock desperately need a savvy PR agent and brand ambassador.

Egypt’s call to kill pigs amid flu scare ridiculed via Boston.com

Vegan @ the Movies: earth, Battle For Terra & Food, Inc.

The summer season of big blockbuster movies is here, but here are a few lesser-known, vegan-friendly titles you might want to check out:

earth (April 22)

Synopsis: The first film in the Disneynature series, “Earth,” narrated by James Earl Jones, tells the remarkable story of three animal families and their amazing journey across the planet we all call home. “Earth” combines rare action, unimaginable scale and impossible locations by capturing the most intimate moments of our planet’s wildest and most elusive creatures. Directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the acclaimed creative team behind the Emmy Award®-winning “Planet Earth,” combine forces again to bring this epic adventure to the big screen, beginning Earth Day, April 22, 2009.

Official Site

Battle For Terra (May 1)

Synopsis: The film tells the story of Senn (Justin Long) and Mala (Evan Rachel Wood), two rebellious alien teens living on the beautiful planet Terra, a place that promotes peace and tolerance, having long ago rejected war and weapons of mass destruction. But when Terra is invaded by human beings fleeing a civil war and environmental catastrophe, the planet is plunged into chaos. During the upheaval, Mala befriends an injured human pilot (Luke Wilson) and each learns the two races are not so different from one another. Together they must face the terrifying realization that in a world of limited resources, only one of their races is likely to survive.

Official Site

Food, Inc. (June 12)

Synopsis: In “Food, Inc.,” filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli–the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Official Site

The World Is Full Of Crashing Meat Eaters

The Moz always has something to whine about, but that’s why we love him! Notorious vegetarian, Morrissey left the stage mid-song (during “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, ironically) at this years’ Coachella Festival nautious from the smell of burning meat.  

His parting words: ”I can smell burning flesh … and I hope to God it’s human.”

Morrissey forced off stage at Coachella by smell of burning meat via The Guardian

An Awkward Silent, Philosophical Debate About Abortion/Veganism On the Way To Work

I never thought I’d see abortion and veganism juxtaposed in a complex, philosophical billboard challenge: pro-life? Why are you eating eggs? Eat eggs? Why are you pro-life? 

Discuss. 

Egg ads in a philosphical scramble via AdFreak

Qc: Another Reason To Be Vegan – Visual Live Animal Death Toll

Animal Visuals has put together a rather disturbing visual of a live tracker of the amount of animals slaughtered for meat consumption in the U.S. I gotta say… even knowing the statistics, seeing this really took me by surprise. 

WARNING: Although not graphic, this could perhaps be a little emotionally disturbing. 

Rate of Slaughter of Chickens, Pigs and Cows in the U.S. via Animal Visuals