ORAC Values in Moringa Oleifera

ORAC – Oxygen radical absorbance capacity

Source: Wikipedia

Oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) is a method of measuring antioxidant capacities in biological samples.

 

A wide variety of foods has been tested using this method, with certain spices, berries and legumes rated highly in extensive tables.”>New Study Shows Moringa Oleifera Scores Highest Antioxidant Content in Food

June 28, 2012

33

2

0

NEWTOWN, CiReach/ — In an independent test, Moringa oleifera scored the highest in antioxidant content of any food yet discovered. Beating the record-holding acai berry by over a 50% margin, Moringa Source Moringa oleifera leaf powder measured over 157,000 umoles using the Oxidant Radicals Absorbent Capacity (ORAC) system of measurement developed by the National Institute of Health’s National Institute for Aging.

Source: redOrbit (http://s.tt/1gcDF)

Happy July 4, USA

Happy July 4, 2012 to the USA., member state of the United Nations

This July 4, Americans celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. From the beginning, the United States has played a key role in the international community. Today, our world faces challenges that no one nation can tackle alone.

It’s unanimous – we live in an interconnected world where we all have to work together towards common goals like the Millennium Develoopment Goals.

What does your country think of the United Nations? Is your country among the 193 member States of the UN?

Happy Independence Day.

Social Media invading our Space and Time

Social Media invading our Space and Time

Social media  – an invader of space and time? at home, work, and abroad?

Companies are offering courses and nods as regards knowledge of social media tools as mission-critical : mastering them, OR ELSE!.

Read more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/network-wifi/3365954/7-steps-social-media-stardom/#ixzz1yorPkOBP

The ABCs of Social Media Terms, 2012 UNSMC

Introduction

Here are some humorous definitions of Social Media dating to 2010

Source  Jackson Wightman dot com

Google “social media” and the Wikipedia entry comes up first.

It says social media:

“are media for social interaction using highly accessible and scalable pubishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues.”

But Wikipedia is wrong. Here are 9 ‘awesome’ definitions of social media:

1. The group of web based things that saved the PR profession from going the way of dinosaurs
2. The group of web based things that brought loads of losers out of their moms’ basements and turned them into internet superstars.
3. A much hyped marketing channel who’s overall performance is still dubious, due to the difficulty in measuring its impact on the bottom line with any degree of rigor.
4. The ‘next’ version of email marketing (remember how hyped that was).
5. The collection of web based things that killed society’s attention span.
6. A misunderstood group of tools that are driving Fortune 500 executives crazy.
7. A marketing channel where ‘awesome’ is the most used word.
8. Scary s%$#, because you have to keep feeding the beast.
9. The thing that kept Ashton Kutcher relevant after that @#$$ retro show ended.

Source – Jackson Wightman dot com

Class Project, UNSMC June 2012

At the 2012 Social Media Class at the UN, one of my projects was to develop an “alphabet soup” of the terms used and presented during and outside the class.

Here they are:

Implicit in the term Social Media is the impetus to show and tell in your own voice whatever you would like to let others know and do; where action can be driven by you or by others.  Different platforms facilitate that action and call for use of different applications. The main idea is to attract others to your content; social media platforms facilitate this attraction.

A  – Activity, Application, Attract

Application software, also known as an application or an app, is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks.  Attract others to what you are up to online.

B – Backlash, Blog, Brand, Buzz

Expect Backlash should company rules/guidelines not be set or ignored;  Buzz is an outcome of social media, whether positive or negative; can have company or individual consequences (or both); Brands can be developed.managed, protected with Social Media (as well as have overnight success, or be ruined overnight)  Blog – web log (noun or verb) – To Blog; A Blog is a discussion or information published on a site on the World Wide Web (www). It consists of entries/posts. Blogs have evolved from being written by one person (a blogger) to groups or many authors.  Blogs are supported and integrated into mainstream by the rise of Twitter and other ‘micro-blogging’ systems. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

C – Curate/Content/Campaign, Client/Community, Culture, Communicate/Comment, Characters, Click

The essence  of social media – content is curated (managed) with focused campaigns on different topics or trends; clients and communities are developed and served with content, as well as giving their opinions and leaving feedback as they communicate and comment on the content presented; Characters – statistics defining posts; a replacement on Social Media for words in text – e.g. Twitter posts are counted in characters (140) and not in words; Click – an action without which there is no web activity

D – Discover, Define, Delete

Social Media according to entity’s culture in which borders, limits are defined (company, individual) and discovered; Delete – Action-oriented word which should not be ignored or forgotten (can have a relationship with Backlash above) – See Definitions below (after Z)

E – Engage 

Audience, clients

F – Facebook, Fan Page/Fans, Follow/Following/Friends, 

Facebook community can be personal or business driven; Fan Pages as well;  Follow  is  an action step in Social Media;  the reverse is Following – though not all who follow obtain followers and those who are followed do not necessarily return the favor.  One needs to Find (time, human/financial resources) to actively engage in Social Media activities; Friends/Fans  (essential to Social Media)

G – Google (important for search, location, tracking…); Google+ (a Social Media platform); Glogger (educational platform)

H – #Hash Tag; http

# symbol, called a hashtag, created by Twitter – is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet, and to categorize messages. http: hyper text transfer/transport protocol , sine qua non to linkinages and defining URLs  are uniform/universal resource locator – these two terms http and url have revolutionized the world giving way to the World Wide Web.

I – Invest time; Integrate

Social Media leads to time-scarcity among its users; platforms Integrate and collaborate with each other

J – Just Do It!

Nike is right! Social Media is here to stay, age, gender, ethnicity, location notwithstanding

K – Klout

Social Media knowledge/expertise gives you Klout, makes you influential in different topics. Klout Scores go up to 100 – the higher the score, the more valuable the perk. Klout Score at times considered by recruiters

L – LIKE, LinkedIn, Links, ..li, ..ly

Ubiquitous word on social media platforms; LinkedIn is a business Social Media platform; Links  make the web interactive and underlies its connectivity (hyperlinks)  the sine qua non for connecting, exploring on the World Wide Web.

..li (a Chinese measure of distance) now seems to be a recognized suffix (paper.li – individual or company newspaper which rounds up posts,content,shares, etc in your area of interest;

..ly definition evolving –  increasingly used as in bit_ly a shortening URL which became in vogue given the need to summarize and reduce content into characters

M – MEME, Mashable, Meet-up; Micro-blogging, Mobile

An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated (virally) through the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase, such as intentionally misspelling the word “more” as “moar” or “the” as “teh”. The meme may spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, news sources, or other web-based services. Mashable is one of the most up-to-date newswire on Social Media, Technology, etc; Meet-up Where like minds gather and network; Microblogging – Character-influenced blogs like Twitter (each tweet has no more than 140 characters); Mobile –Applications (apps) facilitate use of different platforms from different locations

N – Network

Technological and social; imperative for the functioning of Social Media

O – OOOPPSS!!!

An expression TO AVOID in curating and posting content, correlates with all of the above and below

P – POST, Pinterest, Prezi, Privacy

Post is similar to LIKE – another omnipresent word and act; Pinterest –another social platform; Prezi – another software/platform used for presentations and webinars; Privacy is key factor in online participation and the decision of choice of platform to participate

Q –  Quora, Quick

Quora is Another Social Media platform; Never be QUICK to post without examining/considering what can happen on the other side

R – REPLY, Response

similar to LIKE, POST – another omnipresent action to take

S – SEND, SHARE, Skype

Necessary actions for content flow in and around and to other platforms; SKYPE -influences the way we communicate around the world from the computer

T – Twitter, Tumblr, Traffic, Teleconferencing,

Twitter is a Social Media platform (microblogs), where 140 words or less can make or break a tweeter; Tumblr is a blog hosting platform; Traffic shows influence and popularity; Teleconferencing – A means of talking online in conference calls, seminars;

U – UNSMC; Unlike, Unfriend, 

Twitter #hashtag for Social Media Class at the United Nations #UNSMC; UNLIKE –A way to exercise control on what is read or posted on the internet; Unfriend –To delete someone on your list of friends

V – Visit, Viral

Visit – Act of going to different platforms, websites, mobility on the internet; Viral – Rapid spread of information

W- Webinars

Online presentations on different subjects

X – Xfactor

Intrinsic in each agency which must be teased out and understood

Y – Yammer, YouTube  

Yammer – a social network; YouTube – Dominates video management on the internet

Z=Zeitgeist????

Others welcome…

Muriel Glasgow,MPH

June 2012

UN Social Media Class Project, Draft 2

Fidel Castro, Moringa Oleifera and Jobs

 Here below is the Miami Herald’s take on the pronouncement

The Miami Herald’s take

 Cuba to plant Moringa Oleifera -(Policy & Gov’t./Reflections by comrade Fidel Castro)

Source: Cadenagramonte, Cuba

The conditions have been created for the country to start the mass production of moringa oleifera and mulberry….

(Read more here)

Listen to internet radio with Muriellas Corner on Blog Talk Radio

http://moringapartners.com/archives/685

Listen to
internet radio with Muriellas Corner on Blog Talk Radio

Moringa | Global Warming | and You

Emerging Trends in Health and Wellness
WBAI, 26 June 2010-06-26
Muriel Glasgow (Founder, Moringa Partners)

My Topic was on – Emerging Trends in Health and Wellness through the use of local Pharmacopeia – Moringa Oleifera…etc, stressing its economic viability, potential to improve nutritional status, and it contribution to CO2 absorption due to its being one of the fastest biomasses on the planet viz its capacity to grow up to 20 feet in one year.

Some local names of Moringa – Swahili – Malungah; Philippines/Hawaii – Malunggay – Some parts of India, Guyana, Trinidad – SaiJan; Senegal – sapsap or neberdie like in Liberia and Sierra Leone,  Haiti known as benzolive…
All parts of the tree are used – leaves, roots, seeds,  – for example the seed approximates olive oil in oleic acid and stays rancid free for a long time.

Moringa is known as the most nutritious of the plant species. It has been used in Aryuvedic Medicine over centuries and has been said to treat more than 300 diseases. It contains all essential amino acids (unusual for a plant) as well as Vitamin A/Iron/Calcium and other micronutrients.

Not only does it improve nutritional status, Moringa is an economically viable venture for entrepreneurs.  What makes it unique is its adaptabilty to harsh climates and its being one of the fastest growing biomasses on the planet, capable of growing 20 feet in a year.  This is why it can contribute as well  to CO2 absorption – a growing issue in global warming/climate change narratives.

The Forest Agency of Japan recentlypublished a study on Moringa and Global Warming.
Moringa Partners – http://www.moringa.groupsite.com are very interested in discussing some of the ideas and have shared elements of the research on our radio show – http://www.blogtalkradio.com/muriellas-corner – you can listen to the show on the link above.

The following stats might be of interest  as regards carbon dioxide emission and absorption:
* 1 person emits 320kg of CO2/yr; it takes 23 Japanese Cedar trees takes 50 years to absorb this amount of CO2; it takes 2 Moringa trees 2 years to absorb this amount
* 1 family car emits 2300kg of CO2/yr; it takes 160 Japanese Cedar trees 50 years to absorb this amount of CO2; it takes 10 Moringa trees 2 years etc
* 1 household(??people) emits 6500kg of CO2/yr; 460 Japanese Japanese Cedar trees 50 years to absorb this amount of CO2; 26 moringa trees absorb this amount in 2 years etc

How to stop the leak in the Gulf of Mexico defies imagination – however to combat global warming – plant moringa.

British Petroleum might as a proactive measure engage in planting moringa trees accross the Gulf States and the coastal areas to combat any impending dangers that might be caused by climate  change/global warming.

Listen to internet radio with Muriella’s Corner on Blog Talk Radio

Muriel Glasgow MPH
26 June 2010

RSS Feeds – I Know Our World

Follow the updates of I Know Our World – the World of the United Nations and other International News

Listen to
internet radio with Muriellas Corner on Blog Talk Radio

Chronicling John Derrick in Thailand during the Floods

My friend has been living in Thailand over the years. We have been having hilarious conversations over the cultural differences experienced as we interact with others in the different countries in which we find ourselves – for long or short periods, or even lifetimes.
Unless you are under a rock (where some of us happily reside), you have to interact with another person, at times, even under the same rock!

Here below is one of his recent letters in which he shares vividly his navigation through the rising waters in Thailand as he seeks higher ground…

xxxx

Hello again.
Most of my friends suggested that I keep them up dated on what’s going on at this end. In so doing this would become the most difficult and hilariously painful piece of writing I have ever attempted as it unfolded in a two-day period just when I was getting around to doing some serious work…for there have never been a time like this.

To begin at the beginning. A banging sound down stairs woke me at about five-thirty in the morning. This was the morning of 22nd October. It was my small freezer floating around in what has now become knee deep water on the first floor of my house. At that time I did not know what I was in for. Knowing me; I decided I was going to tough it out and Nawapan (my adopted daughter) agreed with me. We went ahead working from the top floor. Within two hours there were a series of announcements in Thai blaring out from speakers on top of lamp posts. The announcements stated that the district is planning to cut electricity and water supply to homes. Nawapan went on line and had us registered in a shelter, which is really a university a few towns away. Looking over the balcony I discovered that most of the people in the village had left or were leaving. A decision was made within five minutes that to remain in the house would be foolish…for there have never been a time like this.

Within thirty–minutes two knapsacks were packed with basic essentials and we were ready to evacuate; to where we were not certain…but out the house yes. We were now a little over knee deep in water as we waded through the first floor. My motorcycle was now half submerged and water was at the floor board of the car.
I turned off the main circuit breaker then lock the gate. By the time I reached the road outside I was in water up to my chest. There were people behind, in front and to my left and right. They were all carrying plastic basins on heir heads or pushing it on the surface of the water. A few of the villagers smiled at me, A smile that said, “Hey foreigner, we are all in this together.” There was an old man in front of me pushing a child’s bath tub with about ten puppies. Further up front the street was nothing more than a long stretch of polluted water chest high punctuated with people, all going in the same direction….in search of dry land, “and I was with them all”….for there has never been a time like this. I suddenly became afraid…afraid of what I really don’t know and can’t say. It could be that I am caught in a situation in which I have no idea how to resolve or when it would be resolved, coupled with the fact that I am now homeless and must rely on the goodness of others for temporary shelter and other amenities.

After forty-five minutes of wading through polluted water we reached a high bridge. There were hundreds of people with children, babies and pets waiting for the kindness of pick-up drivers to take them to the bus station, as most people in the village where I live have roots in provinces outside Bangkok and its periphery. A pickup driver asked me where I would like to go; Nawapan did the translation. I could not respond…my mind went totally blank and I had to sit down for a few minutes. It was only after my head was cleared that I realize that I had two options: the shelter or my wife’s apartment in a safe and dry part of Bangkok. We got as far as the pickup driver would take us then we transferred to a taxi and headed for my wife’s studio apartment. After one night I realize that it was a bit cramped for three people and decided to take up an offer from a Stanford trained Jamaican born unemployed MD (Orthopedic doctor) who lives in Bangkok. He lives in a penthouse of a very up-scale high-rise building on the 45th. floor. However, his building owners are caught up in a bit of corruption, legal wrangling and fight with the bank over a $20,000,000.00 loan/mortgage they are not repaying and he has not paid rent for close to one year, therefore he has no running water or electricity. (An interesting story I will tell you sometime in the future). I decided to go back to my wife’s studio apartment after one night in a waterless high-rise….there have never been a time like this.

Within hours of leaving my friend’s place a decision was made for Nawapan and me to go back to the house to retrieve some important documents. This action was one I am not certain up to this moment was a wise one.

We started out at ten in the morning to get to the village where I live, which is about 15 miles from Bangkok proper where we were. On my motorcycle, I would usually cover his distance in thirty-five minutes. However, on this day, fighting traffic and gushing water, the journey took four hours. Then I had to walk on an embankment; a kind of a river defense wall that was 1.5 meters high. However, this wall was already under ankle deep water and I kept slipping off into the chest deep water. I kept my little plastic pouch which contained my money, digital camera, car keys, driving license and ATM card in my hand high over my head so things would not get wet during the ordeal of trying to walk on a river defense wall that in made of mud and is under water.

After thirty-mines of walking, slipping and sliding, getting dunked and climbing back on the embankment I was ready to give up. A teen-age boy came next to me with one of those fiberglass canoes and offered to take me to a hump bridge up ahead. I agreed and did not mind paying the demanded price in Thai currency, equivalent to $15.00. As we got close to the bridge the unexpected happened. The small canoe capsized and I went one way, while the small plastic pouch containing my money, digital camera, car keys, driving license and ATM card went in another direction into the water and within seconds was swept away between the surface and the bottom. People joined in the search for my plastic pouch but the swift moving water showed me no mercy and I was forced to accept my loss.

I waded to the bridge, stood up all wet and dripping. I looked up at the sky and I instinctively knew that Sibelak, the God of Cruelty was looking down at me with glee. That was when I shouted, “Is that the best you can do. Is that your best shot? I’m Guyanese American, out of Brooklyn.” For that brief moment I felt good and the people around me, although they could not understand a word I was saying smiled I empathy and probably said, “That is one crazy Falang (foreigner).”

Stay with me it gets better.

I was now on a bridge over a canal that was by this time over-flowing its banks by about 12 inches. This bridge is the start of a road which runs past my house, a distance of about three kilometers. The time is now 3PM; five-hours since I left Bangkok to arrive at a point that normally takes me forty minutes. Nawapan sensing that I was not in the best mood, vehemently decided that I should find a spot on the bridge and sit and wait until she return as she intends to go to the house alone. Now, if I did not state before I will do so now. Between where I was on the bridge and where I live is about three kilometers, separated by 1.4 meters deep of flowing water. And for some reason at that time, did not call to mind that Nawapan is 1.5 meters tall and does not know how to swim…before I realize what was happening she stuck her mobile phone in my hand and was off, trudging knee deep water on the outer main road in search of a way to get to the house.(remember my phone is now someplace near the Gulf of Siam) Then it dawned on me that I could not call her, neither could she call me as I had the only phone in the group of two. According to Godfrey Chin, “You think it easy?”

As I sat on a piece of cold hard Siamese concrete, the twilight spectacle before me revealed a flotilla of makeshift rafts, comprising anything and everything that could provide buoyancy. The ferrying of old people, pregnant women and domestic pets found their way from a once comfortable dwelling not too far from me to a now dark, hard and cold concrete bridge.

The ferrying slowed as a result of poor light and the danger of accidents. My anxiety level was slowly ratcheting up as it was now six-thirty PM, getting darker by the minute, colder by the second and no Nawapan. Six forty-five, the phone in my pocket rang. It was Nawapan and her words were, “I just reach the house. Stay where you are.” Then she hung up. Another two hours would go by before she called again. This time she spoke a bit longer. She explained that she was able to retrieve some important documents and further stated that I should try to make my back to Bangkok from the west of the village and she would try to make her way back to Bangkok from her end. I did not bother to tell her that all the money I had is now gone to Davy Jones Locker. How I negotiated my way from Pathmtani to Bangkok with no money and no ability to communicate in Thai is another adventure story.

I reached Bangkok at about eleven PM Nawapan came in an hour later all wet and smelling like a dog’s breath but holding a plastic bag of documents plus some medication. She apologized for the delay sating that she had to wade through the water both going and coming…I was dumbfounded, and humbled beyond words then we ; one could only laugh…for there have never been a time like this.

Stay sharp as I search for higher ground.

More to follow…