Once valued so much that it was used as currency, this unique little seed has exceptional nutritive and structural benefits.
Chia seeds, you buy them at the health food store you put them in drinks or yougurt or any food you wish. They are super high in fiber, protein, essential fatty acids antioxidants calcium etc.
Nutrition Data:
1 Table spoon= serving
Calories:40
Fat:4gm (good fat)
Carbs: 5gm
Fiber: 5 gm
Protein: 2gm
Calcium: 76 mg
No sugar. Can’t really taste them, kinda nutty. As seen on Oprah, recommended by Dr Oz! Chia, is familiar to most of us as a seed used for the novelty of the Chia Pet™, clay animals with sprouted Chia
seeds covering their bodies. Little is known, however, of the seeds tremendous nutritional value and medicinal properties. For centuries this tiny little seed was used as a staple food by theIndians of the south west and Mexico. Known as the running food, its use as a high energy endurance food has been recorded as far back as the ancient Aztecs. It was said the Aztec warriors subsisted on the Chia seed during the conquests. The Indians of the south west would eat as little as a teaspoon full when going on a 24hr. forced march. Indians running form the Colorado River to the California coast to trade turquoise for seashells would only bring the Chia seed for their nourishment. There are additional benefits from the Chia seed aside from the nutritive enhancements when used as an ingredient. It was also used by the Indians and missionaries as a poultice for gunshot wounds and other serious injuries. They would pack the wounds with Chia seeds to avoid infections and promote haling. If you place a seed or two in your eyes it will clean your eyes and will also help to clear up any infections. There is a wealth of benefits beyond the information outlined in this article and treasure-trove of benefits yet to be discovered. Chia seed, having a qualitatively unique situational richness along with a profound nutritive profile is one of man’s most useful and beneficial foods and is destined to be the Ancient Food of the Future.
Two engineering students at Swarthmore College, Alex Bell and Andres Pacheco, have succeeded in taking their education on a greener route by building a fully functional hydrogen fuel cell powered motorcycle. Built around the chassis of a Buell Cyclone, which the duo purchased at a salvage yard, they had to remove the unecofriendly internal combustion engine and other factory components of the bike to replace it with their own eco-stuff.
The duo integrated a Polymer Exchange Membrane stack that can generate 1.2KW of electric power. This energy is fed into a 1.2KW 6-pole induction motor. Pure hydrogen is stored in two metal hydride cylinders at low pressure. The inside of the cylinders is filled with metal powder consisting of lathnium, nickel and aluminum. This powder reacts with pure hydrogen, converting it into metal hydride, enabling the cylinders to hold 900 liters of hydrogen at low pressure. The average efficiency of the bike is claimed to be around 46%, which is great considering the materials used to build the bike.
A Belgian architect, anticipating a 50cm rise in sea levels by the end of the century, has designed a floating refugee city. And it looks like a lilypad.
Vincent Callabaut’s amphibious city–bearing the name of its inspiration, lilypad– is a car-free, clean energy utopia that can support 50,000 people with no external supplies. With wind and solar power providing renewable energy, and rooftop gardens allowing for food production, it’s the most efficient, advanced, self-contained community ever imagined.
Why Do We Need This?
Humans inhabit very little of the earth overall, but there’s a reason for that: we’re generally not in places where it’s difficult to survive. Combine that with the Earth’s booming population, and you’ll begin to see why it’s worth figuring something out for after the rising sea levels brought on by our carbon-heavy lives begin to reclaim some of the land we inhabit.
Even if you set aside some of the more hysterical estimates of sea level rise, it’s estimated that by 2100, we’ll already see low-lying islands gone forever. The thought of an extra foot and a half of water can’t be terribly comforting to the Dutch or the citizens of New Orleans, either. Even though some of these places will survive by raising and reinforcing floodwalls, others are going to be reduced to navigational hazards for container ships.
Where Would It Go?
The lilypad floats, so it’s obviously ocean-or-lake-bound somewhere; in terms of vulnerable areas that could suffer greatly in the likelihood of an elevated sea level, you’re left with the usual band of sea-level ne’er do wells (all of Holland, NOLA, Miami, every city on the beach everywhere). But what about thinking outside the box? This is a fantastic way to get infrastructure established in a community-oriented, eco-friendly way in developing countries all over the world. Africa, Southeast Asia, comprehensive disaster relief efforts all over the world–it could be as simple as towing one of these massive lilypads, or a smaller, purpose-built version, into an area of concern. All the benefits of prefabrication would still apply…to the entire city. And it would be green. That’s a side effect of global warming that we can almost look forward to.
Check out this cool vid -
