Unbelievable Rube Goldberg Contraption

I don't know if this is real (click on headline for link) but the video makes it look real.
Am I too gullible?

Amazing Kinetic Sculpture

Theo Jansen's kinetic sculpture is amazing! It's kind of like a wind-powered robot. It's not designed to look human, and is far too wide to resemble a human, but the way it moves is oddly human-like. Here's more about the sculptor and his work.

A Duckling With Interspecies Compassion

Have you seen this short video of a baby duck feeding carp?

It's hard to see the duck at first because it blends in with the background. The duck is in the center of the frame, slightly toward the right. I had no idea that one species would feed another in a direct way (I mean other than being the food for a larger animal). Is this behavior unusual?

This baby duck has more intelligence and compassion than some humans.

Former Canadian Defense Minister Says Alien Technology Can Save the World From Global Warming

Former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer is calling on world goverments to use the technology derived from crashed UFOs to stop global warming.

I think this is a great idea, although people switching to a vegan diet would have a larger effect on stopping global warming than switching to hybrid cars.

Eat Future Fruit and Catapult into the Future

There's a new sci-fi TV show being developed by the Jim Henson Production Company that has as a plot element something called "future fruit." Eat it and be projected into the future. Since I like both raw fruit and time travel, this show sounds very interesting!

Spiritual Aptitude Test

Here's a very interesting spiritual aptitude test.

I found it on the website of Todd Murphy, who was recently on the Coast to Coast AM radio show, which has fascinating guests.

Little Book of Raw Thanksgiving Recipes

Hi,

I'll keep this message short because the busy season is upon us!

If you're hosting Thanksgiving dinner or bringing food to someone else's gathering, RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com's Little Book of Raw Thanksgiving Recipes is just the ticket for some great ideas! (It also makes a sweet surprise gift. Send us the e-mail address of your special people and we'll send it right out to them!)

Our little e-book contains 32 festive and fabulous Thanksgiving recipes by more than a dozen great American raw chefs. You'll find instructions for making tasty soups, salads, "turkey," stuffing, side dishes, and many scrumptious desserts. This year we have additions from David Norman's Bonobo's Restaurant, Matthew Kenney's The Plant, and Roxanne Klein and Charlie Trotter, plus my own yummy recipe for Cinnamon Ginger Chocolate Candy, and tips for entertaining.

Delivery is fast, via e-mail. Our e-book requires no special software to read (it's delivered as a Word document), and it's convenient! If/when you splatter food on a recipe while making one--which I can't seem to avoid doing! :o) --you can just toss the recipe and print out a new page.

Our Little Book of Raw Thanksgiving Recipes is a bargain at only $5!

Here's how to order:

RawFoodsNewsMagazine's Little Book of Raw Thanksgiving Recipes

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving,

Judy Pokras
editor/founder/publisher
www.rawfoodsnewsmagazine.com

Announcing the Cute Raw Foods Shop

Artwork Copyright: By Judy Pokras

Judy Pokras is pleased to announce the opening of her online shop "Cute Raw Foods."

Her shop carries the cutest cutting edge stuff--t-shirts and camis and totes and mugs and baby items and more. It's fashionable and stylish, and it pushes the envelope! We honor a healthy lifestyle, especially raw foods, and we do it in a hip way.

World Class Raw Foods Chef to Give Siesta Key Dinner Party On Oct. 13

Come experience what it would be like to eat in a raw foods restaurant in Sarasota!

On Friday, October 13, Raw Chef Dan, a restaurant consultant, chef and teacher in town from New York, will be hosting a dinner party in a beautiful Siesta Key townhouse where he'll prepare many recipes over the course of three hours--a sensational buffet of tasty raw vegan treats--ranging from drinks, tapas and entrees to fantastic desserts. The buffet will be open as the first guests arrive, dine and mingle as more guests arrive. Raw Chef Dan will prepare and serve new dishes throughout the party. Guests will have the opportunity to watch him prepare the various recipes, or can simply mingle and enjoy the festivities.

The party will be a fun place to socialize, meet like-minded people, get great ideas for dishes, and learn even more. Raw Chef Dan will talk about a raw foods restaurant in Sarasota, movies, the Bio-Photonic Scanner, Secrets of the Cube, resources, and books.

The innovative and talented Raw Chef Dan will give two raw vegan recipe classes plus a buffet dinner party with live preparations and demo.

Monday, Oct. 9 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m
BASIC RAW FOOD INTRO CLASS

When you attend Raw Chef Dan's Basic Raw Food Introduction Class, you’ll hear a short overview on the “whats and whys” of the raw food diet, you’ll see demos of recipes, and you'll get to eat the recipes, including:

Super Power Green Juice
Chocolate Banana Smoothie
Bell Pepper Soup
Marinated Italian Zucchini with Sun-Dried Tomato
Mock Tuna Salad Wraps with Sweet Mustard Sauce
Raw Sesame Hummus
Mock Cream Cheese
Basic Pie Crust
and Chocolate Mousse Pie with Berries.

The fee is $60 when you mention RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com or $75 at the door.

Weds., Oct. 11, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
INTERMEDIATE RAW PREP CLASS

Raw Chef Dan's Intermediate Raw Prep Class will feature a recipe demo, after which you’ll get to eat the food:

Black Nori “Caviar”
Cashew “Sour Cream”
Almond Milk
Marzipan
Basic Flax Crackers
Mock Meatballs with Creamy Gravy
Broccoli “Cheddar” Cannelloni
and Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding with Banana and Nutmeg.

The fee is $60 when you mention RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com or $75 at the door.
Take advantage of both classes for just $100 in advance or $120 at the door.

Friday, Oct. 13, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
DINNER PARTY

On Oct. 13, Raw Chef Dan will host a sensational buffet of tasty raw treats, ranging from drinks, tapas and entrees to fantastic desserts. The buffet will be open as the first guests arrive, dine and mingle, as more guests arrive. Raw Chef Dan will prepare and serve new dishes throughout the party. You'll have the opportunity to watch him prepare the various recipes, or you can simply mingle and enjoy the festivities.

This dinner party is a great opportunity for raw foods enthusiasts to introduce skeptical friends and relatives to a variety of delicious raw foods.

The fee is $70 when you mention RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com, or $95 at the door, with the discount price of $120 for two people in advance or $140 at the door.

Attend all three events and pay only $170 in advance or $200 at the door.

RESERVATIONS

Classes need to be paid for by cash, and credit card information is needed to reserve your place.

For more information and to reserve your seat, please contact Raw Chef Dan at 718-702-6275 or rawchefdan@yahoo.com, or call Mun at 917-270-0360.

Raw Chef Dan is a raw foods chef, teacher, and restaurant consultant in New York. His website is http://www.myspace.com/81872716.

See posting on SarasotaCalendar.com

A Druze Soapmaker Driven to Help Heal the World

I admire Gamila Hiar for being an entrepreneur who makes pure products, and who works to promote peace, coexistence, and the advancement of women's causes.

Calabasas California Bans Outdoor Smoking--Hooray!

I like when there are signs telling me that I'm moving in the right direction. And I'm not talking about traffic signs. I've been working on a treatment for a screenplay, and since I started, lots of synchronicities have been appearing in my life.

For the last year or so, I've been thinking about where I would move to. After all, this town, Sarasota, is a bit of a letdown (understatement!) after so many years in Manhattan. But I've become smitten by my proximity to nature and all the warm, smiling sunshine.

California's been beckoning to me for a long time. It's got the climate I prefer, the entertainment industry (where I should be working), lots of raw foods restaurants (where I want to be eating), and now it's got Calabasas, which has decided to ban outdoor smoking. That's a pretty damn great sign that I need to move there!

I'm one of the original anti-smokers. I don't mean I was against people who smoked. I just hated the secondhand tobacco smoke infusing my hair, my clothes, and my lungs. For several years before I moved out of New York, I stopped going out to clubs because I could no longer tolerate their wall of choking smoke. That was a big hardship, because I love to dance, and I love live music.

When I was around 14, I would stroll on the beach (the Jersey shore) with my 12-year-old cousin Dale. We would go up to boys and ask for a cigarette. (Actually I only remember doing this once.) One afternoon when we approached a tall boy and asked, he gave us a cigarette. My cousin, who was doing my bidding, broke it in half right there in front of him while she and I said smoking was a bad habit to get into.

Some years ago, I created an online petition asking for smoking to be banned in all workplaces. Finally, the times are catching up with me! Smoking's being banned in more and more localities. I'm thrilled; it's not so easy being decades ahead of the culture.

And now, thanks to Calabasas, the OUTdoors is being protected as well. Brav-O!

Now I just have to figure out how to make a whole lot of money so I can move to Calabasas. Cross your fingers for me that I turn my treatment into a hot screenplay.

Scientists Say Mice Can Sing

The above link (click on the headline) is a news item featuring the actual audio of male mice serenading their mates (or their would-be mates). Nature at its finest! Almost as great as Owen Wilson singing in Starsky & Hutch! (Well, okay, I'm prejudiced.) I can't wait to see the music video of the first real live mouse to get a recording contract.

Eavesdropping From Far Away

As a former Manhattanite who's always amused to hear the odd things passersby say, I'm delighted to find Overheard in New York. Here's something I overheard in NYC many years ago, something I never forgot:

I was walking west on East 10th Street from University Place. As a couple walked past me, the man said to the woman,

"She pays her bills with psychic checks."

I'd love to create a site called Overheard in Sarasota, but I never hear people saying anything interesting in this town. Sad, isn't it.

Bill's Fruity Birthday Cake

Gee, President Bill's birthday cake (from this summer) looks like a raw vegan cake. Decorated with fruit. Maybe, just maybe, it is! If you know, we hope you'll let us know. Even if it's not raw, it's mighty pretty.

Catalogue of Songs that Mention Various Dictionaries

This was pretty quirky and I had to list it. This inspires me to make a movie called Dictionary. Or Dictionary Grrl.

Dan Meth's Smart-Ass Guide to New York City

As a former Manhattanite whose heart is still there, I love Dan Meth's smart and smartass interactive animated cartoon about The Big Apple. Since I used to live just a short walk from the East Village, and did most of my food shopping there, I clicked on that part first. As my mother said upon seeing Dan's smartass guide, "Any time you miss New York, you can watch this."

Rock and Roll & UFOs

There's a new book on the link between Rock Stars and UFOs. Its author, Michael Luckman, was on Coast to Coast AM last night. Fascinating stuff. And while we're on the subject of little known facts about Rock and Roll, I just discovered this website as well.

Deejay Dancing in Publix

Adam Sandler dancing in a supermarket in Punch Drunk Love

I grew up wanting life to be like a Broadway musical, with people spontaneously bursting into song & dance in the middle of their everyday lives. I can't say I've encountered that very often. But it happened today, Saturday! Right here in Sarasota.

In this hypohurricane weather, I went to Publix to buy some supplies. When I stepped through the automatic doors, right there in front of me was a teenage deejay spinning dance music. I could hardly believe it! I parked my shopping cart and began dancing. Right there inside Publix's entrance doors.

It was dinner time, and although there were other shoppers, I was the only one dancing. Once I hear compelling music I've just gotta dance. Middle-aged shoppers in the checkout area peered over at me, bemused. Teenage store clerks looked at me and smiled. When the music slowed down, I did some shopping, then came back to join a conga line of six employees and an eight-year-old girl. They were doing an intricate dance as the song instructed: "Slide to the left, jump back, spin around, cha cha." I'd never heard this one before, but it must be popular because the little girl knew the steps perfectly.

Turns out that the deejay booth--complete with a boombox with a built-in video camera and a black and white screen--is just a one-weekend promo. But I love the idea of dancing while buying salad greens and pineapple, any time. Why limit it to one weekend? When I got home, I sent a letter to Publix corporate, suggesting that a dedicated dance area become a permanent feature of the Lakewood Ranch Publix. Being the only supermarket in the country with dancing would get them tons of publicity. I can see it now, entertainment news and late night talk shows all talking about Publix. I like the year-round idea because it beats driving to Ibor City to go deejay dancing. I'll be going back to Publix Sunday to dance. Who knows--I might even become their first-ever salaried go-go dancer.

April 21, 2008:

I just discovered this awesome video of two guys dancing to disco in a supermarket!!! These guys are my soulmates!

Got Psi?

Dean Radin, the head of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, was on Coast to Coast am last night, talking about the bizarre and fascinating world of quantum physics and mass consciousness. A woman called in to ask if by playing the "psi" games that IONS has online a person could develop their psychic abilities. (She said it's been happening to her.) Dean's answer was a resounding yes.

So I'm off to play some of these! Click on the "Got Psi" headline to see some of these games, and visit the Psi Arcade for more. If you go and play these, we hope you'll let us know how they're affecting you!

10 Things You Should Do If You See A UFO

People make fun of the subject, but why not have an open mind?