Renewal

Make Your Own Cereal Bars

If you use cereal bars as a quick snack (as I often do), you might be concerned about the ingredients (high fructose corn syrup) and maybe even interested in making your own.

I tried this a couple of years ago and ended up with some rather dry fare. Maybe I'll take these tips and try again.

What have been your experiences with making your own granola and cereal bars?

- Stephen Carter-Novotni

Photo via Wiki Commons.

Corn Syrup Chemistry

This article on the murky and industrialized world of high fructose corn syrup walks readers through a psychotically complex process that takes corn and turns it into sweetened gel (or fat Americans or poison, however you'd prefer to describe it).

HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from   cane or beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated to make, involving   vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which   take place in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite   of all the special enzymes required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It   is also very easy to transport--it's just piped into tanker trucks.   This translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers.

Learn About Cloth Diapering

Park + Vine is hosting a discussion and workshop on cloth diapers with cloth diaper authority Elizabeth Whitton. Free. 10 a.m., Oct. 18 at Park + Vine, 1109 Vine St., Gateway Quarter, 513-721-7275. RSVPs requested before Oct. 11.

- Stephen Carter-Novotni

Recumbent Bicycling for Speed and Health

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a story on local recumbent bicyclist Tim Guthrie, a 42-year-old who regularly commutes 40 miles round trip on his bike.

From the Enquirer:
For Guthrie, the enjoyable ride led to an enjoyable commute. Two or three times a week he bikes from his home in Batavia to his office in Mount Orab - a 41-mile round trip. Since May 2007, he's logged a little more than 3,000 miles and lost 35 pounds.

If there's a downside to comfort, it's that "you don't take breaks" or shift your position as often as when you're riding upright, Schwartz says. "Your legs sometimes will just die on you."

But recumbents weren't built for comfort alone. Gene Metcalf, a professor at Miami University, has a need for speed that drew him to the aerodynamic style.

"I like to go fast, and they're much faster than uprights," says Metcalf, 62.

EarthSave Vegan Potluck Sept. 28

EarthSave Cincinnati, a vegan group focused on how human diets impact the planet, is hosting a potluck meal this Sunday, Sept. 28.

Will Tuttle Ph.D., author of The World Peace Diet, will be the guest speaker. Free, but bring your own vegan dish to share, plate, cup and utensils. 4:30 p.m., Sept. 28. Clifton United Methodist Church, 3416 Clifton Avenue, Clifton, 513-961-2998.

- Stephen Carter-Novotni

Compost Bins Half-Price Saturday

The Solid Waste Districts of Hamilton, Clermont and Adams Counties are sponsoring a compost bin sale on Saturday, Sept. 27. Pick up a bin from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. for $37 (normally $80) at the Anderson Township Farmer’s Market, 7832 Five Mile Road or the Colerain Township Community Center, 4300 Springdale Road.

They take cash or check only.

- Stephen Carter-Novotni

Photo via Hamilton County Recycles.

Environmentally Friendly Homes in Northside

Live Green Cincinnati offers some photos and an article page on LEED Certified homes in Northside. Proper insulation does the lion's share of the work, but there's also hip, green gadgetry like the toilet that lets you select a half or full flush.

From LGC:
If you’ve been reading along for a few months, you know there there are local dedicated green Realtors, a certified Eco Broker, and development companies working to build green homes in the area.  There are national websites dedicated to finding and buying existing green homes, and now you can even find an affordable LEED certified home in the local MLS.

- Stephen Carter-Novotni

Photo via Live Green Cincinnati.

Louisville Man's Involuntary Penis Amputation and a Boy Impaled by Antlers

Louisville looks like a pretty dangerous place to live!

WLKY reports that a man went to Louisville hospital last year for a circumcision and awoke to find his penis gone. He's suing the doctors who performed the operation, saying that he never gave consent for the operation. The doctors' attorney says the penis was severed because the man had cancer of the penis. Watch the video here. (This is a report on what happened, not surgical video.)

In another recent report, WLKY reports on a teen who was impaled by a set of deer antlers.

Shock factor aside, the first report is a good example of why you need a communicative, respectful doctor. Without that kind of a relationship, you're pretty much at their mercy when you're on the table.

- Stephen Carter-Novotni

Tour and Hike Enright Ridge Eco Village

Imago for the Earth, an ecologically-minded urban renewal organization, is hosting a walking tour of their eco-village. Visitors will learn about how those involved have focused their lives on living sustainably and how older homes in the neighborhood have been made more energy efficient.

Tours begin every hour, on the hour and are free. 1-4 p.m., September 27. Corner of West 8th and Enright, 3647 West Eighth, Price Hill, 513-921-5124. The outing is canceled if there is rain.

- Stephen Carter-Novotni

Get Your Autumnal Equinox On

Heritage Unitarian Universalist Church (HUUC) is hosting a celebration of the Autumnal Equinox (AE) and Mabon. It's a sort of spiritual harvest festival and a time to reap what you've sown throughout the year.

The Autumnal Equinox is at 3:44 p.m. GMT September 22 (7:44 p.m. EST). This is the precise moment when the sun is directly over the equator. This also happens in the Spring, during the Vernal Equinox. This holiday is culturally and religiously significant around the globe. In Christianity, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the Vernal Equinox; Wiccans celebrate the AE as Mabon; and, most significant to those of us who are writers, the AE is World Storytelling Day in the Southern Hemisphere (it's the VE in the Northern Hemisphere.

Celebrate the harvest season at HUUC. Free. 4-7 p.m., Sept. 21, 2710 Newtown Rd., Anderson, 513-231-8634.

- Stephen Carter-Novotni