Judging from the video clip below, his guest was Alan Colmes, who plays a liberal on TV, and Monica Crowley, Ph.D., a conservative political commentator.

O'Reilly claimed that he'd go solar if only he could find somewhere it was available. He said, "I want to buy solar or wind for my house this winter. Can you tell me where to do that? There's nowhere, no one."

That's just wrong.

As Tor "Solar Fred" Valenza points out, there are scores of solar installers on Long Island. 

O'Reilly lives in a waterfront Manhasset mansion on the North shore of New York's Long Island where, as Vote Solar says, "high electricity rates, plenty of sunshine and a strong workforce make solar a great fit."

Vote Solar took the opportunity on Friday to put out a quick call for New York solar companies interested in helping Mr. O'Reilly go solar, and by the end of this weekend, 16 companies and two trade associations representing dozens more solar installers had signed on to the cause.

Vote Solar sent the following note to the O'Reilly Factor on Monday morning:

Dear Mr. O'Reilly,

Signed,

Clean Power Finance
Community Energy
EcoOutfitters.net
Energy by Choice
ETM Solar Works
Innovated Energy Solutions
KPS Solar
Mercury Solar Systems
One Block Off the Grid
RH Innovation Inc
SolarCity
Sungevity
Sunrise Energy Concepts
SunRun
Suntech America
Trinity Solar
Alliance for Clean Energy New York (ACE NY) — representing 20 companies with solar operations in New York.
Long Island Solar Energy Industries Association (LIPA) — representing 25 solar electric contractors on Long Island.

Edward Fenster, the CEO of SunRun, provided this learning moment: "Bill O'Reilly's request for information underscores that education and outreach must be done to help homeowners understand solar is available and often already less expensive than grid power today."

We've called and sent emails to Fox and O'Reilly's show to see how the search is going, but have yet to hear back.

Go Green

You may have powerfoods in your kitchen right now and don’t know it.

By eating powerfoods everyday you can energize and balance your body without costly vitamins and medical bills. Foods affect us on many levels and understanding these factors can help you make better health choices.

Before understanding the power of the foods around me, I was unhealthy, unhappy and confused. Constant visits to doctors and health food stores had little effect on my deep fatigue and constant hunger. That was 30 years ago when Western nutritional science was not as advanced as it is now.

It was the 5,000 year old Chinese herbal knowledge that made the difference for me. Using specific foods and food combinations to feed specific systems and create balance brought me back to the energy and joy I had as a teenager.

Since then I learned from all cultures. The message is always the same: Food can heal. Food can be your medicine. Food has POWER!

Five Sources of Power for Powerfoods:

1. Broad chemical influences on the body

These include:

• Alkaline-forming vs. acid-forming
• Organic vs. chemical-infused
• Raw vs. cooked
• Gluten-free vs. gluten-containing foods
• Complex carbohydrates (smart carbs) vs. simple sugars (dumb carbs)
• Whole vs. processed

Each of these factors has multiple influences on the body and a person will respond to these differences depending on their predisposition and levels of health.

Powerfoods are almost always whole but not necessarily gluten-free, raw or alkaline.

2. Specific chemical needs: The GAP Theory

Each food has different levels of specific nutrients. If a person has a particular need for a nutrient it will affect them greatly. Powerfoods tend to have very high levels of certain nutrients.

For example: suppose a person has a strong need for vitamin C.  It is winter and she is not eating enough fruits and vegetables.  An orange has vitamin C, so mandarin oranges that are popular around Christmas, have just the right chemistry to feed her immune system and prevent a cold.

3. Genetic influences of food

Scientists have been debating for years what is more important: your genetics given to you by your parents or your upbringing.  It turns out that the two are combined.  Your environment activates the expression of your genes. This is very powerful.

For example research has shown that a diet high in omega-3 fats reduces the expression of the Alzheimer’s gene APOE4.  We can sidestep bad genes by eating healthy.

Pollinators like bees are critical to our world’s food supply, and their numbers are dwindling. What can we do to help save the bees?

We rely on bees to pollinate over 30 percent of our food crops, but Colony Collapse Disorder threatens the world bee population and the future of our food supply. Plants like apples, avocados, squash, cucumbers, and many other food plants that we commonly eat need pollinators in order to grow.

Luckily, it’s not all gloom and doom! Here are some ways that you can take action right now to help the dwindling bee population.

1. Don’t spray pesticides. Pesticides are a major culprit in Colony Collapse Disorder, and the best way to help bees is to stop spraying the stuff!
2. Buy organic. Support organic farmers who use natural farming methods that are bee-friendly.
3. Don’t support industrial honey. Large-scale honey operations are more focused on output and profit than with the health of the bees. If you’re going to eat honey, make sure it comes from a small operation. You can often find small beekeepers at your local farmers market, and they’ll tell you all about their beekeeping adventures!
4. Plant a bee-friendly habitat. Pollinators need a place to pollinate, and by providing bee-friendly plants in your yard, porch, or window box, you give them a place to just be. Plants like fruit, herbs, melons, and even some trees can attract bees to your yard or garden.
5. Get heard! If we’re going to help save the bees on a large scale, we need to let decision-makers know how we feel. Check out this petition aimed at the EPA calling for a ban on pesticides that harm bee populations.

Related:

• Bee-Friendly Landscaping
• Four Tips for Bee Keeping
• Tale of an Urban Beekeeper

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by jurveston

Go Green

Maintaining a healthy gut isn’t as easy as popping a magic pill. “If you’re going to use probiotics, then drink, smoke and eat badly, that’s not going to cut it,” says Georgianna Donadio, PhD, nutritionist and founder of the National Institute of Whole Health. “The entire system must be in sync; the flora is just the tip of the iceberg.”

To take a big-picture approach to your gut, consider these steps:

• Eat several small meals during the day instead of pigging out at dinner. “Cramming in all your food at the end of the day stresses the gut by giving it too much food at once,” says Leslie Bonci, a registered dietitian and director of the Sports Nutrition Center at the University of Pittsburgh. And don’t forget to drink plenty of water to keep the
food moving.

• Prioritize whole foods. That means stocking up on vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes. If the food on your plate looks like food in the wild (e.g., grapes, not grape roll-ups), you’re off to a good start.

• Eat probiotic foods. Shoot for at least one daily serving of a food with probiotic or “live” cultures. Try yogurt, kefir (a fermented dairy drink), miso or tempeh. Look for the phrase “contains live cultures” or “active cultures” on the label.

• Bulk up on fiber. The more fiber you have in your diet, the more diversity you’ll have in your ecosystem. Aim for 25 to 38 grams of fiber a day, says Bonci. “Most people are still shy of their fiber intake.”

• Cut back on sugar. Refined sugars acidify the system and prompt the body to make more bile — and some types of bad bacteria feast on sugar and bile acids. Therefore, too much sugar may tip the bacterial balance toward the dark side. “With all the sugar we throw down these days, it’s no wonder our bacteria colonies are out of whack,” says Bonci.

Seven Ways to Tame Your Sweet Tooth

• Relax. In a 1999 study published in the international journal Gut, people in gastrointestinal clinics cited severe life stress as a precursor to their gastrointestinal problems. Although the connection isn’t clear, scientists do know that stress breeds inflammation and also upsets the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the contractions of the intestine, thereby changing the speed at which food moves through you. Stress affects our biochemistry at many levels.

• Get seven to eight hours of sleep every night. Sleep not only regulates hormones in the gut that contribute to feelings of hunger and satiety, it also shores up the immune system. When the body is deprived of sleep, even for one night, the immune system suffers, says Bonci.

Like tending a vegetable patch, maintaining a balanced microflora environment requires daily attention. Need more good reasons to give your bacteria the respect they deserve? Consider this: “If a freeze, flood or nuclear explosion destroyed all the humans on Earth, bacteria would survive,” says Gregor Reid, PhD. “They are definitely going to have the last laugh.”

Related:

• 10 Benefits and Uses for Miso
• Eating Animalcules

You may have heard that green tea is good for you but did you know that it has one of the most promising anticancer ingredients ever discovered?  No matter how much green tea information you have read, this has got to be the most amazing.

It seems to be down to the fact that it contains such powerful antioxidants, which fights the free radicals responsible for aging, among others.  According to the green tea information from the University of Kansas, green teas main antioxidant is 100 times more powerful than vitamin C and 25 times more potent than vitamin E.

The anticancer qualities come from the fact that it main antioxidant, EGCG, seems to stop cancer cells from duplicating. It is also known to help prevent heart disease, another huge benefit.

The reason it has such great antioxidant powers is the process used to obtain the tea. Green tea is steamed and then rolled, keeping all of its qualities as opposed to our more regular black teas which are fermented, therefore losing a lot of their goodness.

Other green tea information facts are that it lowers your bad or LDL cholesterol, which will help prevent your arteries hardening, and so help to prevent strokes.

Giving a boost to your immune system will help fight off those annoying colds and flu which seem to plague us more and more these days.

The list just goes on and on, including aiding weight loss by boosting your metabolism, but one of the most important factors is how you take it.

If you drink green tea, then it is recommended that you have 4-5 cups a day, preferably from leaves and not the inferior quality bags.

 Decaffeinated green tea is not recommended as recent green tea information shows us that the chemicals used to strip the tea of the caffeine can actually cancel any benefits of drinking the tea in the first place.

The most popular and beneficial way is to take green tea in extract form as part of a combined health supplement. The reason for this is synergy, one of the most important aspects of the green tea information provided here.

This means that when taken with other natural nutrients that it combines well with, like turmeric and olive leaf, the health benefits are greatly enhanced, compared with if you had only taken a tea supplement. Also green tea in supplement form is decaffeinated.

So there you have it, I hope this green tea information has opened your eyes even more to the power of this awesome little herb, and also how you can receive greatly enhanced benefits by taking it as part of a combined natural health supplement.

If you would like to learn more about the natural products which I personally take, including green tea extract, why not visit my website.

A native to Asia, green tea is rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants are known for their ability to help fight diseases and maintaining healthy cell structure. Antioxidant research has shown that antioxidants help prevent cancer, reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease, and can even lower blood cholesterol levels.

Researchers are now linking the antioxidants in green tea to acne prevention.

It has been long known that placing a warm tea bag on an acne blemish or similar growth will help to draw the toxins out of the lesion, promoting quicker heal times.

Current research has shown that green tea extracts fight bacteria, reduce redness and inflammation, and can deter hormone activity. All three of these symptoms are present in acne blemishes.

According to the findings reported to the American Academy of Dermatology by dermatologist Dr. Gan-Wong, when compounded into a cream with a content of 3% green tea extract, acne treatment results were comparable to using a topical solution containing 4% benzoyl peroxide, a common treatment for acne.

Dr. Gan-Wong’s findings were based on an independent study of just over 100 acne suffers. The test subjects were randomly split into two groups, with one group receiving the green tea treatment and the other receiving a benzoyl peroxide treatment. Neither group was aware of the treatment they received, nor were the dermatologist who documented their progress.

After a twelve week period, significant improvements in the reduction of acne and redness were noted in the patients using the green tea extract. The results were comparable to the results of the benzoyl peroxide users.

Additionally, dermatologist noted improvements in skin tone on the test subjects who were using green tea extract cream, and green tea users reported fewer cases of dry skin and allergic responses.

Thus, green tea extract cream had proven to offer the same benefits in the treatment of acne as benzoyl peroxide, with fewer side effects.

Benzoyl peroxide is a crystalline powder that is used in tire and plastic production as well as cosmetics. Benzoyl peroxide can irritate eyes, skin, and respiratory tracts, and is on OSHA’s hazardous substance list as a precaution against prolonged exposure.

What makes using green tea extract appealing as an acne treatment is that green tea is all natural.

Furthermore, it gives the holistic community a welcomed study on something that has been recommended by holistic healing practioneers for years. It is quite probable that green tea has MANY medicinal properties yet to be verified by western science. This seems very likely, considering the vast amount of anecdotal evidence regarding the healing properties of green tea.

So, on a holistic level, there is now one more scientifically backed treatment for acne available to those who want to avoid the harmful side effects of the various chemical acne treatments.

With this in mind, those who want to treat their acne, but hate the redness and irritation caused by using benzoyl peroxide and other chemicals on the skin, there is now a scientifically proven, all natural treatment. Green Tea!

Green tea has an unusual set of health benefits. It has a reputation for helping with many health issues, from the prevention of cancer to promoting concentration. You might wonder how green tea can help prevent cancer. Green tea is filled with antioxidants which protect your cells.

Surprisingly, it also has a reputation of being able to prevent tooth decay.

Is high cholesterol problem for you? Green tea has been known to help lower cholesterol. Having lower cholesterol is very beneficial in helping to prevent heart disease and stroke.

Is aging a concern for you? Green tea contains a lot of antioxidants that fight free radicals. Free radicals contribute to health deteriorating that comes with the passing of time.

Most people would like to lose at least a little bit of weight and a lot of people need to lose a whole lot of weight! Assist your body to lose weight by drinking green tea on a regular basis. It just may help raise your rate of metabolism so you can burn calories more efficiently.

Even arthritis has been known to be relieved by drinking green tea. That’s because green tea contains a special substance that protects cartilage.

If you’re a menopausal or postmenopausal woman, you’re going to want to do all you can to protect the density of your bones. That’s another reason to drink green tea since it has been known to help keep bones strong.

Do you or a loved one have diabetes and need all the help you can get managing this condition? Help guard your blood sugar level by drinking green tea.

Has a loved one shown signs of suffering with Alzheimer’s disease or perhaps you yourself are in the beginning stages of this dreaded affliction? Help protect your brain cells by drinking green tea.

Want to do all you can to slow the progress of Parkinson’s disease? Green tea contains lots of antioxidants which protect the cells of the brain.

Want to protect yourself from food poisoning? If you’ve been drinking green tea, bacteria that causes food poisoning may be killed by special substances in green tea.

Are you often laid low with infections? If you drink green tea, you can help strengthen your immune system.

Also drink green tea to protect yourself from the flu and colds.

Green tea is also a cleanser and if you drink it, you’ll be cleansing your body.

Be sure to buy green tea that is fresh so that you can derive the maximum health benefits from this drink that has been known for centuries to help people’s health.

Drink it either hot or cold to quench your thirst, but be sure to drink it just after it has been freshly made. However, wait a few minutes to let it steep so that the maximum benefits can enter both your teacup and your body as well.

There are additional health benefits to drinking green tea that are not included in this article. If you’re really interested, why not research the subject yourself?

It appears that green tea can help fight gastrointestinal carcinogenesis. This is the process by which normal cells in the gastrointestinal tract can be transformed into cancer cells.

Green tea has been found to contain high levels of antioxidants which are considered very beneficial in the fight against cancer. Antioxidants are compounds that can oxidize very easily, or in other words sacrifice one of their molecules to carcinogens, which are compounds looking to steal molecules from normal, healthy cells.

Carcinogens, or free radicals, in the body are considered cancer causing agents because they damage the body’s cells by stealing molecules. This can cause the cells to grow out of control, thus developing into cancer cells.

Green tea is thought to be extremely beneficial because the tea leaves are fresh and unfermented, thus preserving the antioxidants, called catechins, present in the leaves. The tea leaves come from the plant Camellia sinensis, which is the same plant that black tea comes from. The difference lies in how the leaves are treated. . T

he black tea leaves undergo the oxidation process, which oxidizes much of the specific antioxidants that are present in the green tea leaves. Of course, black teas have been found to contain many beneficial and unique antioxidants of their own, but do not contain the same amount of antioxidants as green tea.

These catechins found in green tea are considered better and stronger antioxidants than those found in black tea because they are water soluble and oxidize very easily, giving them a better chance of neutralizing free radicals before they have that chance to damage the body’s cells.

There are currently 30 epidemiological studies of green tea’s use in the prevention of cancer. However, there are very few studies on the treatment of preexisting cancers with green tea. A majority of the studies on green tea deal with whether the antioxidants present in the tea leaves help prevent gastrointestinal cancers.

One particular study on laboratory rats showed that 93.8% of a group of rats fed the extracted catechins from green tea survived after exposure to a strong mammary carcinogen (DMBA). This is compared to only 33.3% of the control group of rats not fed the protective catechins.

In another study was conducted on 1004 Chinese men: 190 of who had gastric cancer, 42 of whom had esophageal cancer, and 772 of whom were cancer free.

These men were studied over the course of 4 to 12 years. Those participants who were known to drink green tea on a regular basis showed a 50% lower risk of developing gastric and esophageal cancers.

This is a significant difference. It basically means that 50% fewer participants in the tea drinker’s group developed cancer than of those in the group found not to drink tea on a regular basis.

There are a total of about eight studies that show drinking green tea on a regular basis can reduce the risk of stomach cancer. It’s possible that green tea is also more effective in the prevention of esophageal and stomach cancers because it moves through the intestinal tract and is in direct, prolonged contact with those tissues.

Many researchers are saying that it is still too early to state conclusively that green tea can help to protect its drinkers from developing gastrointestinal cancers or even help fight the cancer that has all ready developed.

However, the current clinical studies look promising. Many tea drinkers claim the possible benefits of drinking green tea outweigh any small inconveniences.

Green tea has been used for hundreds of thousands of years in China and Japan. In fact, the numbers indicating the risks of developing gastrointestinal cancers in those two countries are among the lowest in the world

Not all green teas are the same. There is a wide variance among green teas concerning freshness, consistency, and concentration of the antioxidants in the teas. Information about the concentration of the antioxidants can sometimes be found on the packaging.

It is best to find your preferred brand of green tea and stick to it, drinking the tea habitually.