Author Archives: Justin Elder

Contact: Liam Bailey Learns the Hard Way

by Justin Elder Posted on August 25, 2014

Mother Jones

Liam Bailey at home in Brooklyn. Jacob Blickenstaff


Thomas Bartlett and Martin Hayes


Aaron Freeman


Puss n Boots


Holly Williams


Ben Watt


Joe Henry


Gabriel Kahane


Jolie Holland


Rodney Crowell


Benmont Tench


Jill Sobule


Keith & Tex


Leyla McCalla


Declan O’Rourke


Michael Daves

Depending where you start counting, Liam Bailey‘s debut full-length album, Definitely Now, has been at least five years in the making. In 2011, the Nottingham-raised Brit was set to release a full-length on Polydor, produced by Salaam Remi (Nas, Amy Winehouse, Nelly Furtado). But his dissatisfaction with being molded into a pop product precipitated the album’s cancelation and a release from his contract. Bailey had previously put out two EPs on Amy Winehouse’s Lioness Records and a single on the Brooklyn label Truth & Soul, in addition to performing with folk-rock project The Accidental and the electronic music duo Chase & Status.

Definitely Now was finally released last week on Remi’s Sony imprint, Flying Buddha. Reviewed here by Mother Jones‘ Jon Young, it brings new energy to Bailey’s sound, adding crunchy rock-and-roll to his soul, folk, and reggae influences. I met with Liam at his current home, an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to talk about the evolution of his music. The following is in his words.

When you’re playing around and you don’t know anything, you’re fearless because you don’t know the rules that are there to be broken. It’s frustrating when I learn—the joy goes out of it. Once I’ve learned it, I get a bit scared about bending the rules, whereas when I didn’t know a thing, I’d go, “Fucking hell, I did that? It sounded really good!”

When I came to London, I knew how to play guitar, but I’d never played it live or anything like that. I’d been playing acoustic stuff and making it up as I went along. And because of that, things were very soulful and reggae-ish. When I started making records—I’d always been told in Nottingham: “You sound better over softer music, soul music”—I thought, maybe I’m just getting it wrong.

Anyway, I was proven right: I do sound good on rock and roll. It happened all very naturally. Before, when I was recording, I wouldn’t allow myself to do certain things because I felt there was an expectancy to do certain things. Instead of forcing myself to do what I truly wanted to do, I found it easier just to cut off and go with the flow.

This time, I’ve been very focused. When you’ve been released from a contract that you’ve worked since 16 to get, there’s three things you can do: Shit it, and go on back to Nottingham. Crack on and get on with it. Or just become a drug addict or an alcoholic. So I cracked on, albeit with a heavy lifestyle.

Once I went into recording, Salaam was like, “I like this heavy vibe, I like this; you’re angry aren’t you?” But even then, no one seemed to complain when I put the electric down and picked the acoustic back up to play the earlier styles of music.

To get on the radio in the UK, you have to follow a formula. It’s not rocket science: Make sure the chorus is in by the 50th second. You bring in your G, your A, then bring in a minor chord for the emotive feeling. You’ve got your bridge coming in by 55th second; going around the cycle. Preferably be in your middle eight bars by 1:50. Don’t worry if the melody isn’t as strong as the lyric and vice-versa; actually don’t worry if the song’s not too strong, we can just chuck strings on it and do the dynamic Teen Spirit thing. And bang! Radio One will like it, you’re on the radio. And try to have a gimmick if you’ve got one. It’s that easy.

I was glad I got a pack full of lionesses at Turn First Management. We just walked into Polydor and said, “What are you doing?” And they decided I was better relieved of the contract. I only saw it as a blessing over this last year. I was like, “Fuck, I’ve had five years of doing what I love, getting myself into trouble, getting out of trouble, having laughs, and now I’ve got a record I truly am proud of. That was such a brilliant feeling.

Before, I couldn’t look some of my mates in the eye and play them some of the music. There were about four good songs on the canceled record. My mom liked a couple of them. I couldn’t have turned to her and said, “Mom, I’ve walked into Polydor and I’ve quit.” Because where we come from, you don’t do that. You just don’t do it.

There was always something, just in the knick of time, to kind of bring me back in to my music. Because there was one point where I could’ve gone on a warpath and really severed ties in the business in blind rage. And if I’d have done that, it’s very, very likely you wouldn’t be talking to me now.

I can be the very emotive, emotional town crier. I remember as soon as it was kosher to do so, ringing people and telling them exactly what I thought of them and not giving a fuck. Some people respected that about me, some people were offended, because they take what they do very seriously. I was always dogged by this thought of “poor me, I’ve had to make a compromise on the song. Poor me, I better ring my dad and tell him how down or upset I am because I’m struggling to to get a song out. I’ll just ring him up during his 14-hour shift on a Saturday night.” Come on, it’s music! Somebody said to me, “If your life’s in danger, it’s not worth it.”

Throughout the disappointment, I remember being kept busy with touring with Chase & Status, I remember good friends, writing with them, writing on my own as well—and I’d just do some of that really shamanic stuff late at night with my guitar. And you wake up in the morning and just cross your fingers for dear life it sounds good. I remember times it was particularly upsetting for me and the people around me, but it was all part of the process of exorcizing demons. My dad has always said that I learn the hard way. And I do tend to learn the hard way.

If I ever get to the point I where I’m locked off creatively like I was before, I’ll fuck it off and get a job. I don’t want one, but it’s fine. I’d rather do that then go through what I put myself through unnecessarily.

Certain times I was thinking, you know, this could be my only shot, my last shot. In a positive way, mind. I might not get another album. I’ve got to smash it. I can’t be going, “Oh, I wish I’d done that. I wanted to do that.” I wanted to get the acoustic in, the folksier side of what I love, and I wanted to get in fucking rock and roll!

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Contact: Liam Bailey Learns the Hard Way

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Hooray for Carbon Taxes!

by Justin Elder Posted on August 20, 2013

Mother Jones

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Tyler Cowen recommends “Carbon Taxes vs. Cap and Trade: A Critical Review,” by Lawrence Goulder and Andrew Schein of Stanford University. This is right up there with “lead abatement” on the yawn scale, but wait! There will be no long, wonky excerpts. Instead, let’s get straight to the meat. Here’s their list of pros and cons:

It sure looks like a carbon tax is the winner, doesn’t it? But that’s because Goulder and Schein are economists, and economists almost universally prefer a tax to an emissions trading scheme. One way to come to that conclusion is to ignore the single biggest factor in favor of cap-and-trade: namely that it actually caps emissions with certainty. Goulder and Schein don’t ignore this, but they do manage to turn it on its head. In the table above, it’s cleverly hidden in the box called “Weitzman issue (price vs. emissions uncertainty),” which makes it into an economically tractable issue and, in an amazing feat of magic, converts it from an advantage of cap-and-trade to an advantage of a carbon tax. How? By assuming that the danger of allowing emissions to get too high is less than the danger of allowing the carbon price to get too high. So that’s that. As long as you assume the damage from greenhouse gas emissions isn’t that big a deal—not as big a deal as high energy prices, anyway—then cap-and-trade looks like a lousy deal.

Why am I being so snarky here? I don’t know. I’m in a bad mood, I guess. It’s unfair. There really are good reasons to prefer a carbon tax, even if I think that Goulder and Schein have their thumbs on the scale by assuming low administrative costs and better Weitzman efficiencies. What’s more, the truth is that I don’t care anymore. I have a modest preference for cap-and-trade precisely because it caps emissions, which is my highest priority. It also provides trading flexibility, which Goulder and Schein acknowledge. But honestly, the differences are small. If we could actually get stronger political support for a carbon tax, that would be fine with me. Any kind of carbon pricing is fine with me at this point.

But that’s not very likely. If Republicans are unalterably opposed to cap-and-trade because it’s really cap-and-tax, what are the odds that they’d support something that just admits it’s a tax up front? Not very good. Even as part of a tax reform package that lowers marginal income tax rates, something that you’d think nobody in either party would oppose, it seems pretty unlikely.

But if this is ever on the table, I’m all for it. It’s the most no-brainer form of tax reform I can think of. And even allowing for their thumbs on the scale, Goulder and Schein make a good case for a carbon tax. Too bad about all those Republicans, eh?

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Hooray for Carbon Taxes!

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Sen. Schumer’s Bright Idea: Ray Kelly for DHS Secretary

by Justin Elder Posted on July 12, 2013

Mother Jones

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) raised some eyebrows on Friday when he suggested that Ray Kelly, the controversial New York Police Department commissioner, should be the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS “is one of the most important agencies in the federal government,” Schumer said in a statement, responding to the news that the agency’s current head, Janet Napolitano, would step down in September to run the University of California system. “Its leader needs to be someone who knows law enforcement, understands anti-terrorism efforts, and is a top-notch administrator, and at the NYPD, Ray Kelly has proven that he excels in all three.”

Immigration reform groups cheered the news of the impending departure of Napolitano, who has presided over the Obama administration’s unprecedented levels of deportations of undocumented immigrants. “She will go into the halls of history as President Obama’s go to person for implementing the most repressive anti-Latino and anti-immigrant policies our nation has ever seen,” Presente.org, an immigration reform group that has harshly criticized the Senate immigration bill’s severe border enforcement measures, said in a statement. “This also presents an important opportunity for the Obama Administration to institute humane policies and stop the senseless deportations and separation of families once and for all.”

But Kelly, who has led the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk racial profiling program and its widespread spying on American Muslims, doesn’t exactly have a clean record when it comes to the humane treatment of minorities.

“The nomination of Ray Kelly would raise immediate questions about his commitment to immigrant rights,” says Arturo Carmona, Presente.org’s executive director. “He has a spotty record at best in New York as the lead proponent for the racial profiling policy of ‘stop, question, and frisk’ which the Justice Department is currently suing the NYPD over.”

The NYPD has been accused of systematically targeting Latinos and African Americans, charging hundreds of thousands with misdemeanor charges including pot possession, since Kelly’s latest tenure as commissioner that began in 2002. The NYPD under Kelly’s watch has also dealt with controversies involving its treatment of Latino officers. Anthony Miranda, chairman of the National Latino Officers Association, calls Schumer’s endorsement “irresponsible.” “I think his recommendation is ill-placed considering the lack of confidence people here in New York have had with Ray Kelly, especially minorities,” Miranda says. He points specifically to the department’s controversial English-only policy, under which at least nine officers have been reprimanded for speaking Spanish and which Latinos on the force say has created a hostile work environment. (A rival group, the NYPD Hispanic Society, has praised Kelly’s treatment of Hispanics on the force.)

Talks about Napolitano’s successor, of course, are speculative at this point. But Kelly’s name has been floated occasionally as a potential DHS nominee since President Obama was first elected in 2008. And the endorsement from Schumer, who led the bipartisan Gang of Eight’s efforts with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to pass immigration reform in the Senate, adds a degree of credibility.

A Kelly nomination might have an upside for immigration reformers, too. Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, says that a big-city police chief experienced with reaching out to immigrant communities might be what is needed to “challenge the culture of impunity” within the DHS’s immigration enforcement agencies and their cultures that he says have “little respect for human rights.” Kelly has criticized the Obama administration’s deportation policy, out of concern that it would make undocumented immigrants less likely to approach police to report crimes. And Republicans who have opposed reform by claiming that Napolitano would not enforce so-called triggers that, in the Senate bill, would require border security measures to be fully implemented before immigrants could complete their paths to citizenship, would have a harder time arguing that Kelly would be soft on enforcement.

Still, advocates of immigration reform have plenty of reason to question Schumer’s endorsement.

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Sen. Schumer’s Bright Idea: Ray Kelly for DHS Secretary

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Obama climate plan finally coming, on Tuesday

by Justin Elder Posted on June 23, 2013

Obama climate plan finally coming, on Tuesday

By Lisa Hymas

The White House

He’s thinking hard about that upcoming speech.

First we heard it from unnamed sources. Then we heard it from White House climate advisor Heather Zichal. And now we’ve heard it from Obama himself: The president is gearing up for a big speech in which he’ll unveil his long-awaited second-term climate plan.

Obama announced the news in his weekly video address on Saturday. “This Tuesday at Georgetown University, I’ll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go: a national plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change, and lead global efforts to fight it,” he said in the video, which was set to overwrought music and peppered with gauzy scenes of American landscapes. (Watch for yourself below.)

Obama urged people to “share this message with your friends,” and WhiteHouse.gov even provided a handy sample tweet: “Climate change is one of the most serious challenges we face—and it’s time to act. RT this video from the President: http://wh.gov” (What, no hashtag?)

The video didn’t give any specifics about what will be in the plan, but Zichal and other advisors have suggested the basic outline:

1) Crack down on carbon emissions from power plants. Regulations on new plants are already in the works. The next step is regs on existing power plants, which would gradually force coal-fired plants to start shutting down. Considering that electric power plants produce about a third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, this is a big deal.

2) Boost renewable energy development on federal land.

3) Increase the energy efficiency of appliances, industrial equipment, and public and private buildings.

4) Prepare for the climate impacts we’re already seeing.

That’s all stuff Obama can do without approval from Congress, though congressional Republicans will certainly try to throw up roadblocks.

And what won’t be in the plan? Anything about the Keystone XL pipeline. Obama seems intent on kicking that can further down the road.

Obama’s speech is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Here’s the video from Saturday, with a transcript below.

In my inaugural address, I pledged that America would respond to the growing threat of climate change for the sake of our children and future generations.

This Tuesday at Georgetown University, I’ll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go: a national plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change, and lead global efforts to fight it.

This is a serious challenge, but it’s one uniquely suited to America’s strengths. We’ll need scientists to design new fuels, farmers to grow them. We’ll need engineers to devise new sources of energy, and business to make and sell them. We’ll need workers to build the foundation for a clean energy economy. And we’ll need all of our citizens to do our part to preserve God’s creation for future generations — our forests and waterways, our croplands and snowcapped peaks.

There is no single step that can reverse the effects of climate change. But when it comes to the world we leave our children, we owe it to them to do what we can.

So I hope you’ll share this message with your friends — because this is a challenge that affects everyone, and we all have a stake in solving it together.

I hope to see you Tuesday. Thanks.

Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+.

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The Next Senator From Georgia Will Probably be Nuts

by Justin Elder Posted on May 17, 2013

Mother Jones

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The race to replace retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is starting to take shape, and it’s looking pretty one-sided. Rep. John Barrow, the Democrats’ most-promising statewide candidate, has already announced he isn’t running. The Republican field is growing. Former Georgia secretary of state Karen Handel, who gained notoriety last summer for attempting to sever the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation’s ties to Planned Parenthood, is reportedly considering a run. David Perdue, the cousin of former Gov. Sonny Perdue, launched an exploratory committee on Wednesday. If they both formally enter the race, they’ll join three candidates who made their intentions clear weeks ago: Reps. Phil Gingrey, Paul Broun, and Jack Kingston.

In their time in the House, the three congressmen have earned reputations as some of the lower chamber’s most conservative members—and also some of the most prone to going completely off the rails. Together, they pushed to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases on the grounds that climate change is a hoax (more on that in a second). They’ve called on the Smithsonian to be investigated (Kingston), proposed personhood for zygotes (Broun) and sought to block the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act (Kingston again).

Here are some of their choicest quotes, each paired with a photo of an adorably confused animal so as to offset the general absurdity of suggesting (for example) that basic biology is a lie “straight from the pit of Hell”:

Africa Studio/Shutterstock

Who said it? Gingrey, coming to the defense of failed Missouri Republican senate candidate Todd Akin, whose suggestion that a woman who had been the victim of “legitimate rape” had “ways to shut that whole thing down.” Gingrey told a breakfast audience in January that as an ob-gyn, he often tells women who have trouble bearing children to “relax.”

FotoYokov/Shutterstock

Who said it? Broun, offering a justification for introducing a congressional resolution to make 2010 the “Year of the Bible.” “This doesn’t have anything to do with Christianity,” he told Politico.

Dorottya Mathe/Shutterstock

Who said it? Broun, discussing a recent trip to the airport on a 2011 edition of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.

Liliya Kulianionak/Shutterstock

Who said it? Kingston, in 2005, as part of the first-ever installment of Stephen Colbert’s “Better Know a District” series.

otsphoto/Shutterstock

Who said it? Broun, in 2012, speaking in front a wall full of mounted deer heads. In response, he was repudiated by none other than Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who said Broun is “unqualified to make decisions about science, space and technology.”

Mat Hayward/Shutterstock

Who said it? Broun, one week after the 2008 election, just trying to bring attention to the fact that the president-elect might be a Marxist.

Maxy M/Shutterstock

Who said it? Gingrey, making his own ill-fated appearance on the Colbert Report, responding to the host’s suggestion that gay adoption is unnecessary because gay men can simply decide to become heterosexual.

Andrey_Kuzmin/Shutterstock

Who said it? Broun, pulling out all the stops in a floor speech during the 2010 debate over the Affordable Care Act.

S.P./Shutterstock

Who said it? Kingston, in a 2011 appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher.

Mark Herreid/Shutterstock

Who said it? Broun, totally not comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler, in 2010.

Schubbel/Shutterstock

Who said it? Gingrey, to Colbert.

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The Next Senator From Georgia Will Probably be Nuts

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Peabody Energy screwing former coal workers out of health care

by Justin Elder Posted on April 18, 2013

Peabody Energy screwing former coal workers out of health care

By John Upton

Shutterstock

A coal worker holding the actual heart of Peabody Energy CEO Gregory H. Boyce. 

If there’s anything darker than coal, it’s the hearts of coal company executives. They ask workers to risk their lives to extract the filthiest of all fossil fuels — and then they screw over those workers.

On Thursday, police arrested 14 people in St. Louis, Mo., during the latest in a series of large union-organized protests against such dark-heartedness by Peabody Energy. Workers say the company robbed them of desperately needed retirement health benefits through a cynical corporate maneuver.

The coal giant spun off a subsidiary in 2007 called Patriot Coal, which then bought up some business assets from Arch Coal. Patriot assumed many of Peabody’s and Arch Coal’s worker liabilities — it’s legally on the hook to pay for the health care and other retirement benefits of former workers and their families.

But oh, guess what, Patriot declared bankruptcy. Now it’s asking a bankruptcy court to allow it to weasel out of more than $1 billion worth of health and other benefits owed to retired miners, many whom never worked for Patriot and many of whom were left ill by their former jobs.

From an interview with an affected miner by NPR reporter Maria Altman:

CHARLES WHITLOW: I think there’s 12 pills there every morning, and there’s six pills here for supper.

ALTMAN: He takes more than two dozen pills daily, some of them for coal-related health problems, including CWP, known as black lung. Last year, he says the cost of all those pills topped $13,000.

WHITLOW: I lost my trust I had in Peabody. I used to be proud to say that I did work for Peabody Coal Company, but I’m a long ways from telling anybody that now.

ALTMAN: Whitlow and his wife, Brenda, are among hundreds who’ve written letters to the bankruptcy court asking that Peabody be held accountable.

University of Illinois law Professor Robert Lawless says the judge’s options are limited, though, because it’s perfectly legal for corporations to spin off both assets and liabilities.

As for Patriot Coal, Lawless says a bankruptcy law does make it harder to drop retirees’ health benefits, but he says it still happens, most recently with Hostess Brands Incorporated.

The United Mine Workers of America claims in court that Peabody set up Patriot to fail. The union alleges that the spinoff company was created as a way of wiping Peabody’s hands clean of obligations to care for the health of its retired workers.

From the St. Louis Business Journal‘s coverage of Wednesday’s protest:

An estimated 2,000 attended the protest, the fifth such protest in St. Louis, according to Phil Smith, director of communications for UMWA.

Union members planted 1,000 white crosses at Kiener Plaza. According to union officials, the crosses were “in memory of the 666 fatalities that have occurred at mines operated by Peabody Energy, Arch Coal and Patriot Coal or their subsidiaries since 1903 and symbolize the more than 22,000 active and retired miners, dependents and surviving spouses who will be at risk if Patriot Coal, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal succeed in their efforts to effectively eliminate contractually-guaranteed health care benefits.”

Protesters traveled from Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virgina to attend the protest.

Peabody’s response to the rally? From St. Louis Public Radio:

Peabody officials have said that the miners should bring their concerns to the bankruptcy court.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Facebook

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blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

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Crime Is Down in Los Angeles (And Everywhere Else Too)

by Justin Elder Posted on April 6, 2013

Mother Jones

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Hey, guess what?

With the first quarter of 2013 in the books, crime in Los Angeles has so far continued its decade-long decline, according to statistics released Friday.

OK, first off: can we please stop talking about LA’s “decade-long” crime drop? I know I’ve mentioned this often enough that I sound like a crank on the subject, but it’s important. If crime started declining in 2003, it might well be due to improved policing techniques introduced by Bill Bratton in 2002. But if it started declining in 1991—which it did—then the cause has to be something else, unless Bratton invented not just CompStat, but time travel as well. Moving on:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck announced the early but notable improvement at a press conference that served as a swan song for the mayor, who will leave office this summer after being termed out….Beck highlighted the significant declines in gang-related killings and other crimes — a result, he said, of close cooperation between his department and the city’s aggressive anti-gang programs that.

….”There is no other big city in America that can make these claims. I invite any of you to go to Chicago, go to New York, go to Houston … and see if you can find a replication of this effort. You cannot,” Beck said.

Look: the crime decline in Los Angeles has been impressive. More cops on the street have probably been effective. Beck’s gang initiatives have probably been effective—maybe even more effective than in other places. But no other city can make these claims? It’s exactly the opposite: nearly every big city can make these claims. The violent crime rate in Phoenix is down 52 percent from its peak. Washington DC is down 58 percent. Chicago is down 66 percent. Dallas is down 70 percent. New York is down 75 percent.

In California, San Jose is down 58 percent. San Francisco is down 61 percent. San Diego is down 67 percent.

We should all applaud anti-crime initiatives that seem to be effective. But we should also rigorously question whether they’re effective. And we shouldn’t mindlessly repeat claims that just flatly aren’t true, no matter who or where they come from. The public deserves to hear the full story about crime in America, not just the part that’s convenient for politicians singing their swan songs or police chiefs who want funding for more cops.

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Crime Is Down in Los Angeles (And Everywhere Else Too)

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Which Politicians Supported Gay Marriage and When?

by Justin Elder Posted on March 26, 2013

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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, the court will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which for the last 17 years has prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples. With new polls showing a significant majority of Americans endorse marriage equality—and three new Senators announcing their support in the last week—it’s tough to shake the sense that attitudes to once-polarizing issue have shifted irreversibly. Even RNC chairman Reince Priebus now suggests that support for marriage equality may no longer be a deal-breaker for conservatives.

Over the last three years, dozens of politicians have, to use the phrase du jour, “evolved” on marriage equality, starting with a trickle of mostly progressive politicians and culminating in recent months with mainstream figures in both parties calling for an end to the marriage wars. (Maybe it was all that sushi.) Here’s a look at how it went down:

Mother Jones
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Which Politicians Supported Gay Marriage and When?

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Shred: The Revolutionary Diet – Ian K. Smith

by Justin Elder Posted on March 19, 2013

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

Shred: The Revolutionary Diet

6 Weeks 4 Inches 2 Sizes

Ian K. Smith

Genre: Health & Fitness

Price: $11.99

Publish Date: December 24, 2012

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Seller: Macmillan / Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC


Dr. Ian K. Smith's Shred is the answer to every dieter's biggest dilemmas: how to lose that last twenty pounds? How to push through that frustrating plateau? What to do when nothing else is working? Here, Smith has created a weight loss program that uses all he knows about strategic dieting in one plan–like putting all the best players on the field at once to create a can't lose combination. Shred combines a low GI diet, meal spacing, and meal replacements. Those who follow Shred will constantly be eating (every three and a half hours!), four meals or meal replacements (soups, smoothies, shakes) and 3 snacks a day, over a six week program. Shred also introduces Dr. Ian's concept of &quot;Diet Confusion&quot;. Diet Confusion, like muscle confusion, tricks the body and revs up its performance. In the same way you need to vary your workout to see results, switch up your food intake to boost your metabolism. No matter how often or how unsuccessfully you've dieted before, Shred: The Revolutionary Diet will change your life. Shred has taken the internet by storm, and thousands have already joined Dr. Ian's Shredder Nation, losing an average of four inches, two sizes or twenty pounds in six weeks. Utilizing the detox from Fat Smash Diet , the intense cleanse of Extreme Fat Smash , and varying food of The 4 Day Diet , Shred is a six week plan to a new way of life!

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Shred: The Revolutionary Diet – Ian K. Smith

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Green Energy Ideas You Can Use In Your Home

by Justin Elder Posted on March 19, 2013

Living green can produce a sense of pride because you know you are protecting the environment. That’s great, but are you aware of how much green energy helps you, personally? That’s right, green energy can save you money in energy costs. This article has some great tips for using green energy to benefit everyone.

If you want a great green energy source that does not cost a dime, simply look to your legs for power. If you have to make a trip to the grocery store, use your bike or walk instead of driving. Not only will you save gas, but you will get exercise and help your body as well.

If you are looking to live a more green and eco friendly life, try a micro hydropower system. These devices will use the current running water in your home through a turbine to produce energy, which is both renewable and better for the environment. Try this alternative if you’re looking to reduce your dependence on fossil fuels.

If you are in the process of, or planning to, design your own home, you can build some green energy sources right into your home from the beginning. Start by looking for land that has a water source such as a creek or room for wind turbines. Another good idea is to choose a roof with solar panels built in. You can even position them to get the most out of sunlight.

If you know you are going to be leaving your home, set your heating system to go off about a half an hour before you leave, and to turn on again a half an hour before you return home. This way, you are saving energy, but your home will still feel comfortable when you return.

An easy tip that will have you saving energy instantly is to only preheat your oven when you absolutely have too. Often times, people preheat their ovens far longer than they should simply wasting energy. Only preheat your oven if you have to and if you do, make sure you start baking as soon as your oven is preheated.

You can make your kitchen greener by only buying products with minimal packaging. Avoid using waxed paper, aluminum foil and baggies by packing the family lunches in reusable containers. Save even more energy by purchasing reusable water bottles to go with the lunches. This saves the energy used to make the plastic disposable bottles and saves landfill space as well.

A great way to garden green and efficiently use green energy is to xeriscape. This means plant native plants in your yard so that there is less maintenance and energy used on it. You will save by not using a lawn mower and you will not have to use energy on your sprinklers to water natural plants as often.

Start small. Even if you don’t have the resources for a large-scale green energy project, there are still steps you can take. For example, solar chargers for small electronics generally only require the device to be set near a window for a few hours. Don’t underestimate the power of a small step.

The Earth is not a renewable resource. It provides us with what we need to survive, but we need to take care of it, to ensure that it continues to be there for us when we need it most. Use the information we’ve given you here, to use more green energy and help the environment in the process.

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