Falling Fruit: Foraging for Free Food App

Two programmers Caleb Philips and Ethan Weltys have created an interactive  global foraging map that shows that allows you to find fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries and lots of other healthy edible plants in public parks, urban farming projects, lining city streets, and even hanging over fences (and, therefor, onto the public domain of sidewalks).

The project, dubbed "Falling Fruit" identifies more than a half-million locations across the globe where fruits and veggies are FREE for the taking.

In practice, the Falling Fruit maps look like a typical Google map with foraging locations represented by dots. Zoom in and click on one, and up pops a box with a description of what tree or bush you can find there. The description often includes information on the best season to pluck the produce, the quality and yield of the plant,

Link to the Website: Falling Fruit

The Documentary "Food Cartographers,” directed by Jamie Schutz, follows Ethan Welty and Caleb Phillips in their venture.

Fresh Prescription

Instead of pills, doctors prescribe fruits and vegetables through program that unites health care with local food systems

The typical idea of treating diseases in this country consists of seeing a doctor, who then prescribes medication, says Dr. Richard Bryce, a senior staff physician in the Department of Family Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital who works full time at CHASS.

With Health Rx, he has the option of telling patients, “Here are meds. These are good meds but there’s a lot of side effects that go along with them, and if we can fix this problem with just nutrition and exercise you’ll feel better and you’ll be helping your health in general overall.”

Connecticut-based nonprofit Wholesome Wave, founded by a James Beard award-winning chef in 2007, created the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program that reached more than 5,000 low-income families between 2010 and 2014.

Health Rx, a partnership between the Ecology Center and CHASS, aims to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables as a way to manage chronic diseases. CHASS, which piloted the program last year, had 45 participants in 2013. This year, they have the capacity to reach 140 people who receive a total of $40, distributed through debit cards, to be used in $10 increments at the farmers market held every Thursday at CHASS.

Read the entire original article in Hour Detroit by DOROTHY HERNANDEZ in the link below..
Fresh Prescription - Hour Detroit

Ouija board helps psychologists probe the subconscious

Beloved of spiritualists and bored teenagers on a dare, the Ouija board has long been a source of entertainment, mystery and sometimes downright spookiness. Now it could shine a light on the secrets of the unconscious mind.

The Ouija, also known as a talking board, is a wooden plaque marked with the words, "yes", "no" and the letters of the alphabet. Typically a group of users place their hands on a movable pointer , or "planchette", and ask questions out loud. Sometimes the planchette signals an answer, even when no one admits to moving it deliberately.

Believers think the answer comes through from the spirit world. In fact, all the evidence points to the real cause being the ideomotor effect, small muscle movements we generate unconsciously.

That's why the Ouija board has attracted the attention of psychologists at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Growing evidence suggests the unconscious plays a role in cognitive functions we usually consider the preserve of the conscious mind. More..
Short Sharp Science: Ouija board helps psychologists probe the subconscious

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