The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
August 16, 2010
The contest between coal-fired energy production and water demand is a mismatch. Mining and burning coal accounts for half of all water withdrawals in the United States, which is the same amount of water that pours over Niagara Falls in five months. Burning coal in power plants also is the source of more climate-changing carbon emissions than any other industrial sector. Here’s a look at the economically essential and ecologically damaging accord between coal and water.
Social epidemiologist Paula Lantz reveals what actually leads to premature deaths among Americans. Obesity? No. Poverty? Yes.
By Tom Jacobs (Aug 11, 2010)
So why is being poor hazardous to your health?
Paula Lantz: Stress processes probably play a role. Chronic stress is not good for immune function. [Difficulties with] housing, transportation, income security — all those factors can produce stress. Do you have friends and family — people who can actually help you get to the doctor? Is your community organized in such a way that it provides the resources you need?
Miller-McCune: Do you think the health care reform bill that recently passed will have an impact in terms of lessening the disparities in health in this country?
PL: The bill that passed is a big beast. The main thing it does is extend health insurance coverage to a greater number of Americans. That’s a good thing, a necessary thing, but it’s not sufficient to reduce disparities. There is funding in the bill for more community-based prevention. That’s a good start. There is recognition within the bill that health and health care are not the same thing.
M-M: What factors are you looking at as this new system begins to take shape?
PL: I’m worried that the focus will be on the health insurance exchanges and expanding Medicaid, while the broader mission of public health will be subsumed. In public health, we talk about primary prevention — let’s stop diseases before they occur.
by Katherine Gustafson (Aug 17, 2010)
…a patient with a poor diet and little money will be much more interested in eating right if he or she gets a doctor's slip worth $1 a day to be redeemed only at a farmers' market. Not only does the doctor's intervention let patients know that their health is threatened by diet-related issues, the free cash will motivate a corrective action.
This concept was originally pioneered by the Boston-area healthcare foundation CAVU Foundation (Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited) as part of its Healthy Weight Initiative. The organization's efforts were on a limited and local scale, though, so this year the charity is partnering with Wholesome Wave to pilot the “Fruit and Veggie Rx” program. At a recent meeting of all of Wholesome Wave's partners, a breakout meeting with CAVU representatives drew a large crowd of enthusiastic folks from farmers' markets and food-related foundations around the country. A spirited discussion ensued, in which it was clear that many in the circle felt this type of program could produce a massive positive change in eating habits if implemented broadly.
Phi Beta Iota: The above articles reinforce our holistic analytic model on Global Threats based on the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges & Change which states that poverty is the #1 Global Threat, even in the United States. Below are links to a few of our graphics representing our unique holistic view on analytics.
Journal: Health Care 101 and the Implosion of Washington
Graphic: Intelligence Maturity Scale
Graphic: Whole of Government Intelligence
Graphic: Strategic Analytic Matrix
Review: An Atlas of Poverty in America–One Nation, Pulling Apart, 1960-2003
Phi Beta Iota: Previously recommended in Worth a Look: New Book Engaging Emergence, we reiterate our regard for Peggy Holman, arguably one of a handful of leaders shaping our collective intelligence capacity today–Tom Atlee, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Harrison Owen, Thom Hartman, Jim Rough, Robert Fuller, Mark Tovey, are others, all helping shape community Open Space Open Source Collaborative Information-Sharing and Sense-Making.
See Also:
Review: The Handbook of Large Group Methods–Creating Systemic Change in Organizations and Communities
From the Author
At long last, it is available. I am delighted to say that Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity is now for sale from Amazon, Berrett-Koehler, Barnes and Noble, or through local bookstores.
I have a confession. I have an ambitious goal for the book: to meet today's needs in the way The Fifth Discipline did 20 years ago. And you can help make that happen.
By Anneli Rufus
Outbreaks of bed bugs, soaring in the most unexpected places — like CNN's headquarters — stoke some of our deepest fears. Virtually eradicated nationwide sixty years ago thanks to superpowered pesticides such as DDT, bedbugs are back — largely because those chemicals are now banned, but also thanks to what experts quoted in news reports call “increased foreign travel.” (Claims a rise in bed bugs of 80% since year 2000).
Comment: This article at times rises into exaggeration but is useful overall. In the comments section after the article, solutions to get rid of bedbugs mentioned were Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth and Borax.|
Continue reading “Dept of Homeland Sec Dogs for “Bed Bugs?””
My good friend Marshall Auerbach has one answer — can you “refudiate” it?
NewDeal2.0.org, Monday, 08/16/2010 – 5:02 pm by Marshall Auerback
Hint: it’s not Republicans.
Social Security remains one of the greatest achievements of the Democratic Party since its creation 75 years ago. Although Republicans have historically fulminated against the program (Ronald Reagan once likened it as something akin to “socialism”), they have actually made little headway in touching this sacred “third rail” in American politics. President Bush pushed for partial privatization of the program in 2005, but the proposal gained no policy traction (even within his own party) because Social Security continues to be hugely popular with American voters. It’s a universal program that benefits all Americans, not a government handout to a few privileged corporations.
Which is why it’s odd that Democrats seem almost embarrassed to continue to champion the legacy of FDR. The party frets about long-term deficits and the corresponding need to “save” Social Security from imminent bankruptcy and, in doing so, opens the gate to radical cuts in entitlements that will do nothing but further destroy incomes and perpetuate our current economic malaise.
FULL STORY ONLINE
Continue reading “Journal: Social Security Being Set Up for a Fall”
Project Masiluleke is a South African project that aims to find solutions for the country's growing AIDS pandemic. The project is unique in that it enjoys the collaboration of a group of leading South African and international partners in the clinical, technical, philanthropic, development and design arena's. The project was unveiled globally at the annual Pop!Tech Conference in Camden, USA in October 2008 and will be officially launched in South Africa in 2009.
Intended Impact
In a country where less than 5% of the adult population knows their HIV-status and more than 24% is HIV positive (close to 40% in provinces like Kwazulu Natal), Project Masiluleke has the potential to:
Other links on the same project:
http://www.frogdesign.com/services/project-masiluleke.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/projects/project-m.html
Clay Shirky looks at “cognitive surplus” — the shared, online work we do with our spare brain cycles. While we're busy editing Wikipedia, posting to Ushahidi (and yes, making LOLcats), we're building a better, more cooperative world. TED Video of Talk.
About Clay Sharpey
Clay Shirky believes that new technologies enabling loose collaboration — and taking advantage of “spare” brainpower — will change the way society works. Learn more.
Core Point: Over a trillion hours a year in cognitive surplus–Internet and media tools are shifting all of us from consumption to production. We like to create; we like to share. Now we can.
More From TED on The Rise of Collaboration
Recommended by Dr. Kent Myers. His additional commentary:
This talk gets at something that could go into the proposal for Virtual Systemic Inquiry (VSI). I need to emphasize that the VSI products have civic value. That motivates participation, but we also need to make it a little more obvious and easy how to participate, in order that generosity can flow more readily from more people. That's what I was trying to get at by making projects more standardized and quick. Software can let that flow, as Shirky says. The process and products should probably be pretty in some way too, like IDEO (also LOL cats).
