WAFA’s Tina Lindgreen at Seeds&Chips Summit 2016

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Diane Walters

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There’s more exciting news at WAFA! Tina Lindgreen is honoured to be invited as keynote guest speaker at the Seeds&Chips-2016 summit (11-14 May) at Milan, Italy, on Saturday, 14 May 2016. The summit will host hundreds of exhibitors and guest speakers from across Europe and the US. The discussions will cover all aspects of food from the time it goes into the ground until it is put on the plate. Some of the topics will include climate change, environmental factors, lack of available resource, growing, processing, distribution, innovative new strategies, and many more ideas and conversations will be presented.

WAFA’s founder Tina Lindgreen along with Paul Vincent, co-founder and CEO of EnSo, and Ayrton Cable, founder and ambassador of WAF Youth Awards, will be introducing the opening of WAFA’s “call for applications” for the . . . (Read More Here)

LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN!

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Diane Walters

Photo Credit: Wikipedia via Flicker, Oxfam East Africa

It’s official!

Today the call for applications is “live” at WAF Awards. We are looking for people doing incredible things to help the less fortunate ones who are struggling in the areas of finding clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, and adequate healthy food to eat. If you know of anyone who has devoted their lives to these causes, now is the time to speak up. The nominations are open to anyone who wants to favor the good deeds of people who have practiced positive environmental change for at least two years. Tell us. Let us know who these modest heroes are.

Come! Join us in creating the celebration of the 2016 WAF Awards.

Wayne Lewis Lesser, Wayne’s World, Wayne’s Words

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Diane Walters

In 1944, I was born to loving parents. I came into a world of what I call “lesser” sound—I was born hearing-impaired. As a kid, I did not know or did not pay attention to my lesser sound. While I did have regular hearing exams, my parents never indicated to me that I might have hearing loss. In truth, my parents were unaware of my hearing loss throughout my childhood.

My kid sister followed in 1945 and was profoundly hearing-impaired. For years, my family was not aware of her hearing loss, or its severity. At that point, my family still did not know about my hearing loss, either. My mom took my sister from doctor to doctor until one said that she was hearing-impaired and needed hearing aids. She was fitted with aids at age 11.

My sister’s hearing aid was ugly and scary. I remember when she put it on for the first time: a one-piece unit, the size of a deck of cards, with two wires connecting the large earbuds into her little ears. My mom turned it on. At that moment, I was fooling around with . . .(Read More Here).

Published in Hearing Health Blog – April 21, 2016

~ SPRING HAS SPRUNG AT WAFA ~

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Diane Walters

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Spring has sprung, and all this new growth has been sprouting enthusiasm at WAFA headquarters. Birth is happening everywhere . . . new volunteers have joined our group. We now have Marina Kahle in research and applications, Eva Elise Kraus in research and applications, David Ram in human resources, Jannik Meier Sørensen in social media, Ancuta Gabriela Tarta in research and applications, and Camilla Warmedinger in journalism. Our team is great — so many brilliant people here who want nothing more to do than to bring good news to the world and share the positive side of environmental journalism in water, air, and food.

We are growing. The excitement is building. . . (Read More Here)

Aladdin on Broadway: What a Trip!

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Diane Walters

I still couldn’t believe, I was here. “Mattie Burch . . . yes, me—sitting here on a train, all by myself, going to New York.

The morning sun was shining through the window and felt so good on my face, and the rhythmic sound of the train running along rails made my eyes feel so heavy. I started to nod off a bit. The warmth and the repeated clickity-clack teased me into a twilight sleep. Visions of my freckled-faced children pulling on my new cotton-print dress, tugging my hands, tears streaming down their faces played in my thoughts. A tall man with bright green eyes and black hair stood beside me on the platform. I was looking down at my babies when a finger under my chin pulled my head up, and for an instant, I saw that handsome face. He kissed me hard, picked me up, and swung me ‘round and ‘round in a long embrace.

The train hissed, the porter cried, “All aboard!” and my new shoes landed on the steps to the train car as the man I loved lowered me gently down.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart! Remember, you call us, now. Call a lot. I love you!”

The children cried, “I love you, Mama! Bye! I love you!”

The train car swayed as it left Selma, North Carolina. My mind drifted in and out of sleep. As always, the last words I remembered were . . . (Read More Here)

lessersound™ Creates the “Color of Sound™” for H-I-P and H-A-R-P

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Diane Walters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!

High sound levels are linked to many physical health issues and can permanently affect hearing over time – Wayne Lesser.

SAN FRANCISCO, California-April 8, 2016-The lessersoundapp™ was created to determine when noise levels are so loud that possible damage could occur. The Smartphone app can be used anywhere you go: shopping, concerts, construction sites, walking down city streets, even in front of your TV. Most people are not aware when loud noises are harmful to their hearing, and there is no easy way to determine this information. In a country where healthcare measures are so prominent, this is one area that has been ignored. Wayne Lesser, hearing-impaired all of his life, wanted to help people take a proactive approach to protect themselves from further damage.

“The Sound Awareness Movement project came about when I heard so many people say, ‘I hate going to a place that is too loud’ (food, movies, bars, other public venues), and what did that actually mean? What we have done in the app is to define ‘loud’ through decibel levels and familiar colors to explain and personalize what ‘loud’ means, the consequences of exposure to ‘too loud,’ (in real time) and the harmful effects on hearing and body health.”

The National Institute of Deafness reports that approximately 15% of American adults (37.5 million) aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing. In addition, it also estimates that 15 percent of Americans (26 million people) between the ages of 20 and 69 have high-frequency hearing loss due to stressful noise exposure at work or during leisure activities. Many people are unaware that certain noise levels can cause long-term problems. Humans can become conditioned to loud noises and not even be aware when auditory damage is happening. There is no automatic warning in our bodies to alert us there is a problem.

The lessersoundapp™ created this system to show a warning when potential hearing problems can occur, so that hearing-at-risk-people (H-A-R-P) don’t become hearing-impaired people (H-I-P). It’s simple to use: within five seconds of opening the app, you’ll have the Color of Sound™—a color-coded measurement providing you with useful and beneficial information to protect your hearing.

Lessersound™ and lessersoundapp™ have been endorsed by the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), Maryland; the Hearing Health Foundation (HHF), New York City; and Speech and Hearing Center of Northern California, San Francisco.

1147 Cambridge Street ♦ Novato, CA 94947 ♦ 310-292-4801

jeannine@lessersound.com

It’s a Good Day to be a Writer

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Diane Walters

Sometimes a kind word can send us flying. Sometimes a negative comment can flatten us. These egos play a huge part in who we are, how our writing develops, and what we strive for in our careers. My ego is no different. You see? I have never had a rejection letter of any kind. Never. I’ve been at this writing gig for about eighteen years. Right now, my ego is feeling pretty puffed up. I just submitted chapter two of a story that I wrote from another fiction class, and the teacher wanted to see chapter one because she was so curious about the story. She wanted me to publish it for the whole class to read. I’ve never had that happen before. It’s proving to be a good day for me as a writer.

I’ve been published in the school paper a few times. I’ve written for one of the school’s Web sites. Locally, I’ve had a few things published in the newspaper and other places around town. And, I’ve never had a rejection. . . . Yes. It’s a good day today for me to be a writer.

Would I recommend my path to anyone else? Absolutely not. This is the one I walked. It only works for me. The teacher I had at Long Ridge Writers Group told me when I graduated, “You’re ready now. Go! Get published! Make good! You will make it.” But, I wanted more. I didn’t have a handle on structure. I didn’t have a handle on grammar. I didn’t know why my writing worked or didn’t work. None of it made a great deal of sense to me. I felt like the grand masters in the writing world knew secrets about the craft that I would never be let in on. It drove me . . . (Read more here)

Video of Professor Virginia Li’s (Li Zhen) Pilot Program in China

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Diane Walters

Yunnan Farmland Featured in the US National Library of Medicine, Bloomberg.com, and UCLA’s Center for Health Equity, Professor Virginia C. Li’s (Li Zhen) pilot program in China seems to be working.

In an effort to convince the highest producing tobacco country in the world that there are more advantageous ways to promote a healthy ecology and economy, Professor Li set up three test sites with 458 volunteer farmers in Yunnan Provence, Yuxi, China, to grow crops other than tobacco.

Why Yuxi? The Yuxi Cigarette Company is one of the . . . (read more here and watch the video).

* Market-building as State-building in China’s Tobacco Industry. Page 132. Proquest. Google Books

Photo Credit: Wikipedia, Yunnan Farmland

Diane Walters – Writer

Writing ~ Editing ~ Book Reviews

Monthly Archives: April 2016