July 2008 Archives

Maybe the old saws about Russian monks living to be 100 on nothing but yogurt have a small bit of truth to them. New research finds that a restricted calorie diet actually increases life span and reduces free radical production in our cells.

The calorie restriction diet has been around for awhile, and this new study simply confirms that it works at least in theory. The basic idea? Gradually reduce your calorie intake by 15-30 percent over time -- 1,800 daily calories instead of the 2,500 recommended for an adult male by the FDA -- by eating lots of veggies and avoiding saturated fats and chemicals.

Hard-core CR fanatics often weigh their food on a scale and run their meal plans through software designed to ensure their getting the right nutrients. The danger of eating this way without carefully measuring and calculating is essentially anorexia, which is far less healthy than overshooting one's calorie goal for a day. Lose weight too quickly or fail to get enough salt or other essential vitamins and minerals, and health benefits fall away and the risks mount quickly. For instance, while CR has been found effective in reducing atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), rapid weight-loss reduces muscle mass and could shrink the heart, heightening the risk of a heart attack from overexertion. Reduced bone density and osteoporosis, anemia, memory loss and dizziness are among the other risks.

In fact, some critics see CR as little more than scientifically backed anorexia -- or something teetering on the verge of it. It's worth taking a look at this fascinating in-depth feature from New York Magazine from a couple years ago to get a picture of what living the calorie restricted lifestyle can be like. Judge for yourself if you think living a couple years longer is worth the work -- and the risks.

Have you decided for whom you're voting this November? If so, did you make your choice based on how aligned your views are with the candidate of choice? Or is your choice based on gut or emotions? Have your parents always voted republican (or democrat) so your choice follows suit?

All of these methods may work for you...and who's to say they are wrong. However, with how close the last election was, how fragile our economy, our status as a country in the world, and our morale as a nation is, shouldn't it be based on a bit more than gut feelings and historic party affiliation. If you agree (or would like to become more educated on the candidates), you should check out glassbooth.org, a site dedicated to connecting you to the 2008 presidential candidate that represents your views best. Glassbooth is unique in that it is a "nonprofit organization that creates innovative ways to access nonbiased political information." Their site includes a quiz revealing your 'matching' candidate, details on the candidates' views on various issues (including video clips and voting records), a blog to share your thoughts and see what other people are saying, and ways to contribute to help glassbooth continue their efforts.

So, before jumping to conclusions about which candidate to back, check to see if your views align. Your results might just surprise you.

Even the Big Three auto manufacturers in Detroit are rushing to replace their gas-guzzling SUVs with smaller cars, and developing new hybrids and electric cars.Toyota has announced plans to produce its popular Prius in the U.S. to help keep up with demand and reduce costs, while Honda is about to launch its first hybrid-only car. (Tangentially, Nissan's dealers now have so many Titan pickups sitting around unsold that Nissan is sending them solar chargers to keep the batteries from dying out of disuse!)

And the message at the Plug-In 2008 conference was that 100 MPG cars are just around the corner. If have a hybrid and you're willing to break your warranty, you could already have a 100 MPG car. But short of major modifications, you'll probably have to wait a couple years for an off-the-lot version.

In GOOD Magazine, Cliff Kuang says we should forget about a 100 MPG car for now anyway: "If you really think about it, the 100-miles-per-gallon innovation isn't as immediately effective as making a simple switch from a Suburban to a Civic. Just do the math: If you raise a guzzler's fuel efficiency from 15 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon, you save almost four gallons per 100 miles. But boost a fairly efficient car from 35 mpg to 100 mpg, and you save less than two gallons in the same distance. More importantly, the technology for all cars to reach 35 mpg is already here. The same innovations that in the last 30 years have made family cars into muscle cars can be easily deployed to save gas rather than boost performance."

PBS is offering a new program for all who are curious about Japanese electoral politics. Campaign, which airs this Tuesday, July 29th at 10 pm, provides "a startling insider's view of Japanese electoral politics" as it highlights a Japanese man "plucked from obscurity by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to run for a critical seat on a suburban city council."

Later in the week on PBS, China from the Inside will feature another episode of the documentary exploring China through Chinese eyes. On Friday, August 1st at 10pm, episode three, Shifting Nature, will examine in greater detail the environmental problems China is facing: "China's environment is in trouble, but solutions often seem as harsh as the problems. China is trying to feed 20 percent of the world's population on 7 percent of the world's arable land."

The Dutch Mills project is a plan to re-introduce an iconic structure of that land -- the windmill -- but this time, they won't be used to grind grain. The Dutch government has just approved the restoration of 120 mills (or in some cases, building new mills) of the 1,040 that still dot the Dutch countryside in order to create wind-generated energy.

T. Boone Pickens has the same idea, only his takes place on the more heated grounds -- both physically and politically -- of our own Panhandle State: Texas. Pickens plans to build the largest wind power plant in the world for $10 billion, and his mills -- or "turbines," as they're more accurately called -- will be placed around the state and stand twice as high as the Statue of Liberty and feature blades as wide as those of a jumbo jet.

[Image Credit: Nynke Vallinga, from Wikimedia Commons]

Did you know the New York City Police Department has had a "cash-for-guns" program in place since 2002? Actually, their on-going effort could be described as two different programs. 

In many ways the ugly trend of Balkanization that so polarized the 90s is, while still strong, facing now the idealistic post-tribal politics of Senator Barack Obama. And while, yes, people are still strongly influenced in their vote by the black magnetism of their tribal affiliation, Senator Obama's sunny campaign appeal has throughout favored idealism over the politics of blood identity.

What role, though, did tribe play in the Democratic party primary? The Washington Post did an interesting story about racial incidents that occurred on the campaign trail (that were, we cannot fail to note, deliberately downplayed by the Obama campaign). And it was the nearly overwhelming African-American vote - polarized, to be sure, by Bill Clinton's questionable post-South Carolina remarks -- that buoyed Obama throughout the rest of the primaries, negating the questions of "Is-he-black-enough?" Senator Hillary Clinton, who ran an incredible race, pivoted towards the white working-class vote, her last hope -- with nearly victorious results -- after the African-American vote was all but lost to the Clinton campaign as a result of those off-the-cuff remarks by her husband. In courting those white working class voters, race became a factor. Finally, let's not forget the Jeremiah Wright jeremiad, which so cacophonously clashed with Obama's campaign of idealism that it forced the Senator to break his relative silence on the subject and deliver his Philadelphia speech on race. Clearly we are not at a post-tribal American moment yet in America.

Still, that sea of 200,000 colorful and hopeful faces in Berlin gives one pause. Josef Joffe, the skeptical editor of Germany's Die Zeit told Brian Lehrer on WNYC this morning that if Senator Obama were running for Chancellor of Germany, or Prime Minister of Britain, he would win resoundingly. The world has come a long way when a "skinny but tough" man from Illinois, born in Kansas, educated in Hawaii and at Harvard - how American is that? -- could draw such crowds in "Old Europe." As Martin Luther King said in that eternally American I Have A Dream Speech, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." If that's not an appeal to post-tribalism - Obama-esque idealism -- then I don't know what is.

[image: LATimes]

The image above is a sample from the Transportation Security Administration's latest airport screening technology, the millimeter wave scanner. It and a backscatter x-ray machine were tested last year in Phoenix and are being rolled out in 10 of the country's busiest airports including LAX, JFK, DFW, ORD and others, as part of the TSA's "checkpoint evolution."

The agency says these devices will make it easier to screen for small but powerful explosives hidden against a passenger's body, and serve to replace hand pat-downs. The TSA assures that images will not be stored or transmitted, passengers' faces are blurred for privacy and that the screener viewing the revealing full-body scans will be isolated from public view. But privacy activists are crying foul. The American Civil Liberties Union has come out against the program, citing a laundry list of reasons they don't trust the system, and bloggers are shuddering at the thought of TSA agents seeing them essentially naked.

Although the images aren't saved in any system, you have to wonder how long before someone sneaks a digital camera in to snap photos of their favorites. On the other hand, CBS News in Chicago has been investigating claims of overzealous TSA agents at O'Hare, reporting stories of women being made to take nipple rings out and disabled men having their pants removed. If these scanners can eliminate situations such as these, maybe it is a privacy sacrifice worth making.

[Image Credit: Transportation Security Administration]

If you think food prices in American supermarkets are bad consider for a moment how tough it must be in East Africa. In countries like Ethiopia and Somalia, where poverty and drought and civil war are the norm, the rise in food prices is hitting particularly hard. According to Oxfam International, 2.6 million people in Somalia and 4.6 million people in Ethiopia require emergency assistance. Banff-born pop star Sandi Thom joined Oxfam Scotland workers as they put up an 11,000-litre water tank as an example of how donations can help.

From the BBC: "Ms Thom said: 'The water tank we have built today gives people an idea of where their money goes and how Oxfam responds in an emergency. Drought and rising food prices are some of the main causes that are propelling millions of people in East Africa towards severe hunger and destitution. The work that Oxfam is doing in East Africa is essential and sadly necessary.'"

You can donate to Oxfam's East Africa Appeal here.

[Image: BBC]

I don't think of myself as a vulnerable person, but truthfully, I'm so unprepared for a calamity that I might as well be an unclothed baby in the middle of a Los Angeles Expressway at rush hour.

And I just found this out, by taking a very short click-through exam: What's Your RQ (readiness quotient). As of this morning, I was still blissfully unaware of how unprepared I really am.

I scored 1 out of 10 -- compared to 4.7 out of 10 among my Park Slope neighbors, meaning no one on my block should be asking me for help or advice in the event of an emergency.

Curious to know where you stand? Take the test and find out.

[Image Credit: Jean-Michel Roche, from Wikimedia Commons]

I've played football (aka soccer) since I was about the same height as a size five ball. After playing for many different teams at varying levels, one observation I've always made is the fact that from the minute you step on to the field, it's just 11 vs. 11; 8 vs. 8; 7 vs. 7; 6 vs. 6; or 5 vs. 5. Nothing else matters. It's plumbers kicking neurosurgeons, lawyers slide-tackling mechanics, and ice cream truck drivers scoring past recruitment consultants. Nobody cares about vocation, background or status - it's all about the game and trying to put that damn ball in the opposition's net more times than they put it in yours. It's what some people refer to as a "leveler."

Everyone is welcome and being part of a team provides players with a sense of camaraderie, loyalty and belonging. Nobody wants to let their team down. Everyone wants to be fit, healthy and strong so they can perform to the best of their ability. But what if the entire team was living on the streets. What if every player in the competition was not only homeless but also battling alcohol and drug addiction? Can they kick it? Yes they can.

Check out the poignant documentary, Kicking It, about the Homeless World Cup, where 20,000 homeless people are "competing for the right to be recognized as human beings." There's no way I, or any teammates I've known, could walk away from the field without thinking about how desperately hard their lives become again the second the referee blows the full-time whistle.

[video: "Kicking It" trailer]

What, then, is the cause of the oughts? Arguably, there are several. But I'll suggest that the most far-reaching, all-encompassing, ever-pressing one is clear: the environment.

And so it comes as little surprise that an enduring icon of the past 50 years, a man who helped spawn the folk-rock music scene and played an instrumental role (no pun intended, seriously) in the birth of protest music, is now making waves near his home in Upstate New York (okay, that pun was intended).

Pete Seeger, along with several friends, introduced his latest effort to change the world last week -- a pool submerged in the Hudson River, which filters filthy water through an intricate network of mesh filters to create a clean, contained oasis for up to 20 people to swim in just off the coast of Beacon, NY.

The idea is to draw attention to the polluted river, and inspire others to follow suit -- either in making their own pools, or more ideally, light a fire under the policy makers in Albany to start realizing the deferred dream of making the Hudson clean in time for the 400 year anniversary of Henry Hudson's historic journey up his namesake waterway. (For those of you who don't specialize in local history, that's next year.)

Thanks, Pete. I'll do my best to venture to Beacon this summer. I still haven't been to the art museum -- maybe the promise of dipping my toes in your pool will finally get me there.

Sounds like a pretty nice day-trip, no?

[Image Credit: Unknown, from the pool's Website]

This week on Outrageous Wasters, a family of five that constantly runs loads of laundry and indulges in baths daily is taken to the House of Correction to learn water conservation and the benefits of organic products.

The Decorate episode of Big Ideas for a Small Planet focuses on finding stylish furnishings without polluting the earth. You will meet several designers whose creations are "inspired by nature and made from natural materials."

[image: Outrageous Wasters]

But now the FDA says that jalapeno and serrano peppers may have been to blame all along. Meanwhile, WebMD warns that tomatoes may still pose a risk, and should be eaten with caution -- that is, avoid commercially grown tomatoes in favor of smaller, organic farm produce and heirloom tomatoes.

The FDA has also added cilantro to the list of foods to be avoided until more information is in, suggesting to this writer that the government has no idea what caused the outbreak that sickened more than 900 people nation wide.

Maybe someone just has something against pico de gallo. Whatever the case, I'm not about to stop eating Mexican food.

Just eat wisely, and stay healthy.

[Image Credit: Tilman Baumann on Wikimedia Commons]

For more on these green fundraising activities, check out Green Students Fundraising, Greenraising and Higher Grounds Trading.

[image: Green Students Fundraising]

Mak Erot may not be a household name in the Western hemisphere, but the 101-130-year-old Indonesian woman (reports on her age vary) was nothing short of her country's Dr. Ruth until she died last week.

Famous throughout Indonesia for allegedly enlarging men's penises through herbal treatment, Islamic prayer, and supernatural methods, Erot drew fire for her controversial work in a predominantly Muslim country. But she also inspired countless imitators and pop-culture spoofs, and she was featured frequently in advertisements. Again, not unlike Ms. Westheimer.

However successful she may have been, Erot was noteworthy for at least improving Indonesian men's self-esteem. It's a shame, though, that they need it.

Friday July 18th marks the 90th birthday of former South African President Nelson Mandela's. Mandela celebrated his ninth decade on the planet -- nearly three of which were spent as a political prisoner at -- in Qunu, his childhood home, described by The Australian as " the humble rural homestead where he was born and once herded cattle." Mandela gave this birthday message to the world:

"There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty. Poverty has gripped our people. If you are poor, you are not likely to live long."

The former President also asked young South Africans to be "disciplined" in their lives. The twin themes of the disciplined life and the fight against global poverty have preoccupied Mr. Mandela since the end of the totalitarian rule of Apartheid. It was Mandela's own passion for organizational discipline that led, in part, to the ultimate triumph of the African National Congress as South Africa's ruling party.

[image: NelsonMandela.org]

About 90 percent of blacks in Africa have this variant; researchers estimated it may account for about 11 percent of HIV infections on the continent. An estimated 70 percent of African-Americans carry the gene.

"The big message of this paper is that something that protected people against malaria in the past is now leaving them more susceptible to HIV," said Robin Weiss of University College London. "After thousands of years of adaptation, this Duffy variant rose to high frequency because it helped protect against malaria," added Matthew Dolan of the Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center and San Antonio Military Medical Center. "Now, with another global pandemic on the scene, this same variant renders people more susceptible to HIV. It shows the complex interplay between historically important diseases and susceptibility in contemporary times."

Interestingly, however, the DARC-negative variant slows the progression of HIV, allowing people to live about two years longer than average. The study results -- and the discovery in 2005 of a genetic mutation that grants HIV immunity to certain Northern European descendants -- may point to a new track of HIV treatment that's more personalized to one's own genetics.

[Image credit: CDC on Wiki Commons]

"How does the Communist Party exert control over 1.3 billion Chinese? How do you run China?"

As PBS explains in its new special on China, "Do it successfully, and have a hugely prosperous, innovative and powerful empire to rival any the world has seen. Mess it up and the chaos is vast and terrible." PBS continues to provide an in-depth look at "China through Chinese eyes to see how their history has shaped them- and where their present is taking them" during a four-part series entitled China From the Inside.

Part One in the series, Power and the People, will air this Friday, July 18, at 10pm. Tune in to see "patrols along China's border with Kazakhstan, Party meetings, officials in Tibet trying to impose authority at the grass-roots, a village election, and a corrupt embezzler in prison, reprieved from a death sentence. Chinese people throughout, from farmer to Minister, speak frankly about the problems the country faces and the ways forward."

[Image: "China From the Inside: Voters at Polling Booths" by Jonathan Lewis]

Not since the days of Tip O'Neill have I been so fascinated by the role of The Speaker Of The House.

There is something refreshing about Nancy Pelosi, even if I don't agree with everything she does. Like taking the Impeachment of George W. Bush off the table in 2006. Or letting her party give George W. Bush a final victory by giving retroactive immunity to phone companies for breaking the law under his watch with the latest approval of the Federal Intelligence & Surveillance Act known also as FISA.

If I push that aside though, I have the same reaction that Michelle Cottle has about her when writing one of the best profiles of The Madam Speaker :

Now, having smiled, sweated, and strategized her way to the top, the speaker is savoring her burgeoning reputation as a power broker and all-around political badass. While she may not be the person who killed the Bush presidency (that honor goes to the president himself), Pelosi has of late emerged as the chief figure propelling his slide into political oblivion-- blocking his bills, stiff-arming his congressional compatriots, and reminding everyone of how lame the duck has become. In much the same fashion, her status as party eminence has been burnished, particularly on the left, by her tie-ups and stare-downs with Team Hillary. Thwarting the will of both an opposition president and the most fearsome political machine in her own party, Pelosi is now being touted as one of the most powerful speakers in modern history. It is a particularly sweet victory for a woman who has spent her political career striving to prove she can hold her own with the big boys.

One of the things I've learned about Nancy Pelosi is that she is a fast learner and a woman who is not afraid to try new things. She was one of the first people in Congress to actually staff a blog, even dropping in on it and writing posts herself from time to time. She also was one of the first higher ups on The Hill to get an online outreach director to work bloggers and other political digiterrati. She particularly keen on what organizations like The Sunlight Foundation are doing to open up the political process in Congress to citizens-at-large.

So it's with interest and curiosity that I urge you to check out AskTheSpeaker.org. It is a website put together by the good people of Netroots Nation, the largest gathering of online activists in the United States.

Gina Cooper scored a victory by getting Nancy Pelosi to appear on the event as one of the keynote speakers. They will "gather around breakfast" on Saturday the 19th at 9:00 in the morning and shoot the breeze about politics over bagels and coffee. Well, at least the attendees will.

To make sure that the community of activists got an opportunity to choose the questions to be asked to Ms. Pelosi, they set up a site where people can pose their questions and have anybody vote for them. All you have to do is register with the site, write up your questions and encourage others to vote for it up.

What's interesting is that it's a concept that I heard Pelosi is interested to see unfold. It's the kind of new tools she asks her staff take note for potential future implementation in their work.

If only she had had that before voting for that FISA bill.

The third annual gathering of the Netroots (formerly known as the YearlyKos Convention) will be held July 17-20 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Netroots Nation 2008 will include panels led by national and international experts; identity, issue and regional caucuses; prominent political, issue and policy-oriented speakers; a 26,000-square-foot interactive exhibit hall; a progressive film screening series; and the most concentrated gathering of progressive bloggers to date.

A meditative state is probably the best position to consider the present state of United States economy. Green MBA's have been growing in buzz and influence, but how about the idea of yoga at business schools? On the face of things these two concepts seem incommensurable - one otherworldly and the other veering towards the materialistic. Business schools are not known for providing a nurturing environment for the temperament of the yogi. The stresses of the business world, however, lend themselves nicely to the tonic nature of yoga. Business Week today notes the growing popularity of yoga at, of all places, some of the most competitive and hard-edged business schools: the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, MIT's Sloan School of Management, Harvard Business School and the Kellogg School of Management. From Business Week:

"Like many other practitioners of yoga, (Second year MIT grad student Matthew) McGarvey says the discipline helps him achieve inner focus. He began practicing yoga while starting a social enterprise in Tibet as a way to find relief from his work-related stress. In business school, McGarvey says yoga helped him stay centered. 'I found that during my first semester I was having to reexamine a lot of my life goals and priorities,' he says. 'Having a yoga practice helped sort through the white noise.'

".. Several MBAs have enrolled in the course, Barry says, which serves as a respite from the otherwise-busy life of MBA students. 'They tend to be extremely self-driven and highly competitive,' Barry says. 'To have an hour [that's] not about self-improvement prevents burnout to get through the hectic part of the semester'"

Interestingly enough, Indian MBA programs are quite familiar with the dicipline, where recruiting companies regard a yoga certificate as a plus point. As Professor J.M. Subramanya of the SDM Institute for Management Development told The India Tribune in January, "Companies see the yoga certificate as something positive about the candidate." More Business Week here.

[image:yogaeducationinsitute]

WARNING: You may find the image of teenage kids rebelling against the establishment by playing backyard baseball with heavy metal rock blaring in the background either pathetically cute or appallingly endearing.

Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come "BACK before we lost our collective minds and began shrieking with horror at the thought of kids having fun on their own (as in not part of an official league or otherwise organized activity), they used to do things like find a vacant field, turn it into a makeshift diamond and spend glorious hours in the summer sun," the local newspaper, Greenwich Time, wrote in an editorial in support of the youths on Wednesday.

The regular players, mostly high school boys but including Tara Currivan, 15 (who swings a mean bat and brings lemonade to the field), and Scott Atkinson, 13, seem a little befuddled by the whole thing.

"They think we're a cult," said Jeff Currivan, 17. "People think we should be home playing 'Grand Theft Auto.' "

And they seem to get the fact that many adults are taken with the idea of kids' doing something that's not structured, not organized and not oriented toward improving your SAT scores.

"It's just old-fashioned fun," said Vincent Provenzano. "We did it on our own. Maybe people think that's unusual."

I don't even know how to start with this one.

The New York Times reported about a brouhaha in Connecticut over a case of wiffle baseball. You see, the Connecticutians in the story are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore because teenagers in the neighborhood took over a city-owned lot (aided and abetted by a couple of parents, mind you), cleaned it up and turned it into a backyard baseball playground.

Yes, this is a case of neighbors yelling, "get off my lawn" to a group of clean-cut punks who want to have some clean-cut fun in walking distance and within their own neighborhood. They are actually complaining about the potential loss in property values or risk of liability by having kids and teenagers playing safely in a rescued abandoned lot in their own neighborhood.

And what kills me is the comment by the 17 year-old: That the adults would rather have them zombified in front of a computer game than seeing them out and about playing backyard baseball.

Am appalled by this, especially after writing about the incredible hardship the Uganda Skateboarders' Association went through to make a simple ramp out of mud in one of their poverty stricken suburbs. Compare that to this suburb in Connecticut and ... ugh. All am left with is a sigh.

Sigh.

After talking to hundreds of creative professionals about philanthropy and social change, I noticed two recurring themes. One, the majority of them wanted to do good. And two, they didn't want to do it by giving up their weekend to plant trees in the local park. Over a pint of Abita Beer in New Orleans, with a couple of other friends, we brainstormed on how we could combine doing good and having fun at the same time. A couple of beers later, Cause for Drinks was born.

Cause for Drinks is a series of bi-monthly happy hours we've hosted in a dozen cities across the country. It's a pretty simple idea. People in each city gather for happy hour at their local watering hole and $2 from every drink goes to a selected charity. So far, we've connected thousands of individuals and raised over $10,000 for charities like the New Orleans Kid Camera Project and Burma Lawyer's Association.

What started as an idea to connect the social and creative community together has become something much bigger. Throughout the process, we noticed that raising awareness about non-profit organizations wasn't enough for the creative community. They wanted to do more. They want to do something. Anything to make a difference. At our past events, we've had people submit ideas, volunteer their services, and of course, drink for a cause. While our mission is still to get the world full on good, we've tweaked it to always inspire action. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you say, but what you do!

The next Cause for Drinks will be held on Wednesday, July 16th in 7 major cities across the country, click here for more details.

If you're not satisfied with either Barack Obama or John McCain for president, you should know that you've got another option -- OK, two if you count Ralph Nader. The Green Party held its national convention this past weekend in Chicago, choosing Cynthia McKinney as its presidential nominee.

The nomination makes her the first African-American in history to be an official nominee for president. (Obama won't be official until the Democratic National Convention in August.) She's not, however, the first woman to be an official nominee -- and neither would Hilary Clinton have been. That honor goes to Victoria Claflin Woodhull in 1872, running on the Equal Rights Party ticket.

McKinney served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and 2005 to 2007 as a Democrat; she switched to the Green Party after finishing her most recent term. She's probably best known for an incident in 2006 in which she punched a Capitol Hill police officer who didn't recognize her at a security checkpoint. Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop artist, journalist and activist, will be McKinney's vice-presidential running mate. Read her acceptance speech here.

It's hard to imagine McKinney having much of an effect on the chances of either Obama or McCain -- the Green Party boasts only about 300,000 registered members, and received just 0.1 percent of the vote in 2004, compared with 3 percent for Nader in 200. But with both her and Nader doing their best to keep the Iraq War, the environment and other socially liberal topics at the forefront, Election 2008 is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in decades.

The cartoonist claims he wanted to illustrate the preposterous claim that Obama is unpatriotic, or worse, a terrorist. The magazine itself, no stranger to social satire but always respected for its intelligence and depth compared to other, increasingly shallow media, is nevertheless in hot water over this one.

Tell us what you think.

[Image: New Yorker cover illustration by Barry Blitt, Issue: July 21, 2008, AP photo]

But a new lawsuit may raise some eyebrows (well, for those still can). More than a dozen Botox users and their relatives are suing manufacturer Allergan, claiming the company hasn't warned patients of the potentially serious side effects of treatment. The plaintiffs claim at least three deaths have been caused by the drug, which is based on the botulinum nerve toxin, as well as an array of ailments including blurred vision, numbness, breathing difficulties, muscle weakness and more.

This lawsuit is just the latest in a string of bad news for the beauty treatment of the stars. In January the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen asked the FDA to put a "black box" warning, the strongest warning possible on Botox labeling; the FDA is currently considering that option, and put out an alert to physicians about the dangers of the drug. Frightening stories of unqualified technicians overdosing patients have surfaced, while the Humane Society complains that its development is cruel to animals.

[Image: Ron Heflin for the Associated Press]

Next week the indispensable International Criminal Court in The Hague celebrates its fifth anniversary (Happy Birthday, Cancer). The Rome Statute, which authorized the Court's establishment, took place on July 17th, 1998. Although it was conceived with the best of intentions, The ICC has had its share failures as it navigates, for the first time in history, the depths of Man's inhumanity against Man.

Also, three countries -- Russia, China and, alas, the Bush administration here in these United States -- have undermined the Court's performance. Further, the lack of a viable police force -- but a preponderance of prosecutors and judges - suggests more "paper tiger" status than mighty international law enforcement organization. Human Rights Watch recently issued a scathing report on the barely 10 year old organization. From Radio Netherlands:

"A good example is the ICC's first real criminal case, against Congo's Thomas Lubanga. It had been due to get under way at the end of June but was postponed indefinitely when the judge found that prosecutors may have withheld mitigating evidence. For a short time, it appeared that Lubanga might even have to be released.

"The report presents a possible cause of this type of problem, positing that the prosecutors are simply overloaded with work. In recent years, many experienced legal experts have left the ICC before their term of office was up, and Human Rights Watch is calling for new appointments to be made. But international legal expert and ICC watcher Heikelien Verrijn Stuart thinks this might be easier said than done.."

Still, the ICC is the best hope for bringing the tyrants and the slavers and the pirates and genocidists and Mafioso to justice within their lifetime - the Lord willing -- and improving the quality of life of human civilization against the negative anti-force within humanity.

Now, some good news (and you didn't think I was going to leave here without dropping a ray of light): In addition to the already 120 countries that have signed on board, The National Commission on Human Rights in Jakarta has urged Indonesia, a nation that is no stranger to the international crime of terrorism, to join.

UPDATE: Today, Friday July 11, the International Criminal Court prosecutors announced that they will seek the arrest of Sudan President Omar al-Beshir for genocide in Darfur.

[Image: Global Foreign Policy]

Side by side alongside anxious pols working the crowd and cutting deals in the Mile High city of Denver at the Democratic National Convention will be .. non-partisan yogis? Yoga Month Denver Health Festival, sponsored by the DNC Host Committee and The City of Denver Office of Cultural Affairs will sponsor the non-partisan Yoga Month Denver Health Festival. From The Rocky Mountain News:

"'It's all about health, a healthy lifestyle and yoga,' said Johannes Fisslinger, president of Yoga Health Foundation, the nonprofit organization in charge of the festival. 'We want to invite people to attend and learn about healthy living and yoga, and the health benefits of yoga especially.'"

Off the top of our heads we can think of quite a few pols that could benefit from a soothing yoga workout at the Minsuk Cho Architectural Pavilion for Public Discourse. Proceeds from the events which take place on August 24 and 25 will benefit Youth Health Alliance, a charity that provides free yoga inspired enrichment classes to underserved youth and their families.

[image: yogamonth]

I remember the early days, right before the explosion, when the streets of New York were littered with black and brown men (and some women) covered with the lesions of HIV. It didn't matter if they were gay or heroin addicts, they were almost invariably poor and homeless.

Then the epidemic struck the middle class gay men and all of a sudden the face of AIDS changed drastically and so it's activism which has turned the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community an advocacy and political force to reckon with in our country. Numerous organizations were created, including AMfar, and a huge push for medical research and pharmaceutical development happened all throughout the 1990s.

The strategy has paid off.

Although 50% of all HIV patients are composed by mostly white, gay men, they're survival rate is the highest when compared to Latinos and African Americans. A lot of that is due to the critically important activism by organizations Gay Men's Task Force.

Yet the truth also is tainted by the stain of prejudice against racial and ethnic minorities by the country's medical establishment. In our country many medical practices and pharmaceutical R&D projects have been focused on serving mostly middle class and "white" patients; considering race and ethnicity as "deviations" from the norm. It's why, for example, AIDS prevention and therapy policies have failed miserably among the fastest victims of the disease, black and brown women and children.

Yet, just to be clear, medical prejudice is not just an issue with AIDS. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, the list of ailments that affect black and brown racial and ethnic minorities harder than whites in this country, continues to grow. They grow in part due to medical culture that discriminated against blacks and other colored professionals.

For example, up until the 1990s, many hospitals wouldn't hire any doctors that were not members of the American Medical Association. And yet, many chapters would not so much bar their entrance as such much as put barriers to entry that would either make it easy for them to reject minority doctors or discourage them from applying for membership.

It's for these shamefully racist and bigoted practices that the American Medical Association officially apologized for this week:

AMA apologizes for history of racial inequality and works to include and promote minority physicians

The American Medical Association (AMA) today apologizes for its past history of racial inequality toward African-American physicians, and shares its current efforts to increase the ranks of minority physicians and their participation in the AMA. In 2005, the AMA convened and supported an independent panel of experts to study the history of the racial divide in organized medicine, and the culmination of this work prompted the apology. Details of the panel's work will be made public next week on the Web site of the AMA's Institute for Ethics to coincide with publication in a scientific journal.

"The AMA is proud to support research about the history of the racial divide in organized medicine because by confronting the past we can embrace the future," said AMA Immediate-Past President Ronald M. Davis, M.D. "The AMA is committed to improving its relationship with minority physicians and to increasing the ranks of minority physicians so that the workforce accurately represents the diversity of America's patients."

What is great about this very public apology is that it's a formality that comes 5 years after the organization formally started to really work towards changing it's practices. Since 2003 the AMA, along with the National Medical Association and the National Hispanic Medical Association has been working on the Commission to End Health Care Disparities. The Commission, coming into its 4th year of work, has been actively working to create guidelines for more inclusive medical policies as well as encourage new forms of scientific research that would take into consideration the demographic diversity of our country.

So hoorah for the AMA. It's such a rare thing for a US organization to acknowledge their past mistakes. It's truly a refreshing sight to these jaundiced by cynicism.

Now go read the whole statement by the AMA.

Anthony Famigilietti, a New York-area elite runner who qualified for the Olympics with his impressive victory in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in Oregon last week, seriously considered boycotting the games next month as a protest against China's record of human rights abuses and the country's policies regarding Tibet.

But after some thought, and no doubt some degree of temptation, Famiglietti decided to go ahead and compete. In the end, he told the press, it's not China as a whole we should blame, but the Chinese government.

This is an important statement, and one many others would be wise to repeat when protesting China.

In 1980, when the US government boycotted the Olympic games in Moscow, America's best athletes were denied the chance of a lifetime -- to compete against the best from other nations around the world. And to participate in a tradition that historically has set politics aside to embrace the purity of sport.

Famiglietti contends that we should indeed protest China's government, but not its people or its rich cultural history.

And more power to him if he achieves Olympic glory to boot.

[Image Credit: Xiaowei on Wikimedia Creative Commons]

Over the past twenty years, Kenneth Cole has been one of the most important voices when it comes to raising public awareness about HIV/AIDS. We created this video as part of a broader effort to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS using online media tools - such as Internet video - that didn't exist two decades ago. We started this video in an attempt to answer the question: "Why are HIV infection rates still on the rise?" AIDS is no longer the disease it was in the 80s. The treatments as well the public's understanding of the virus has changed. It is no longer a gay men's disease. In fact it has become a disease that targets women and young minority members.

Both of us grew up during the 90s and received a great deal of education on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but with the virus nearing its third decade it seems that younger generations are forgetting the epidemic that defined the sexual habits and values of the generation before them.

In the process of making this video we became acquainted with facets of the city that had existed for years in the cause against AIDS like ASC (AIDS Service Center) and amFar but were previously unknown to the two of us. In fact it was the amFar campaign "We are forgetting AIDS" placed on buses in New York City last fall that really sparked our interest in this topic. Something about it seemed to be very true. Not only are recent clinical studies saying something similar but interactions with other our peers also in their low 20s are saying the same thing.

We enlisted Jack Mackenroth, a former season 4 Project Runway cast member and an outspoken figure in the HIV/AIDS community who has been HIV+ for the past 18 years to conduct man-on-the-street interviews with young people in lower Manhattan. And we also took a look at the corporate and community based initiatives and that New York City has to offer.

In case enough opinions haven't been exchanged on this subject, the battlefield is here, the enemy is us, and the weapon of mass destruction? It's the economy, stupid.

I mentioned Franklin Roosevelt in my previous post. We need something like his new deal now, and who knows about new deals better than a retailer like me? After all, our industry offers a new deal just about every fifteen minutes.

Our economic New Deal needs to be about investing more than about spending. The $300 (for an individual) and $600 (for a couple) rebates that recently went out, costing the government $152 billion, make about as much sense as handing out condoms in the Vatican or selling fur coats at a PETA conference, because that money won't go into the economy. It will likely be used to pay down debt, or stowed for a rainy day (though it's looking increasingly cloudy recently).

Even if you wanted to spend it, with the cost of gas as it is, how many fewer Americans can even afford to drive to the store to spend their rebate, let alone drive to work? And if you do spend that rebate on gas, the money isn't going to our economy; it's going to the Middle East. Or, if you can make it to the local store to buy basic household needs, if not electronics, or maybe something to wear, that money is probably going to China.

The economy can't "get going", as I also said in the last message, unless people start spending, or, better yet investing -- and they aren't going to do either unless they think it has already "gotten going."

If our government actually invested in our economy what's being spent every day in Iraq (estimated to be $720 million, when you factor in things like the costs of future health care for veterans), we could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee.

Add to it the $152 billion they're sending out in the mail, and you could provide $10,000 grants to 150 million college students... or purchase a $100,000 home for 1.5 million homeless people in America.

Probably as important as any one of these things, we might actually be able to kick start our economy, which would help all Americans

We need to invest. And if by chance we are not sure as to how and where it is best to do so, I happen to have inventory on just the right product that is guaranteed to "improve the standing" of all Americans. How about a chicken in every pot and the finest in footwear on every foot?

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it (for now).

[Image Source: New York Stock Exchange, December 2007, by ThreeOneFive on wikipedia.org]

If you want to be impressed with one hell of a new golf resort, click here. If you want to know why this course is causing no small amount of panic in Scotland, just north of Aberdeen, read on.

Donald Trump, one of the wealthiest and most ruthless real estate developers of all time, has had designs on a fragile tract of land along Scotland's northeast coast for some time. In fact, the project has been in the works for the past few years, and already it's seen a fair bit of controversy.

But last week, the murmerings of dissent were a little louder than they have been, and for good reason. It seems the area on which Trump intends to build "the world's greatest golf course" is an officially designated "Site of Special Scientific Interest."

Moreover, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds argued that the land should be preserved for its natural habitat, to which Trump swiftly countered that 2,500 birds are shot over that land each year, and that locals are using the site as a personal garbage dump.

As with most things, money is likely to determine the outcome of this battle. Or maybe it won't, and the environmentalists will win. However unlikely that may be, this story draws attention to a part of the world that you might never have thought about, even if you visit the "world's greatest golf course" that could occupy that space one day. Every day we encounter buildings, freeways, strip-malls, and myriad other man-made constructions that obscure the earth beneath and around them.

Maybe this story will inspire us to pay more attention to those pieces of land that aren't yet hosting a piece of "civilization" -- and maybe we'll be inclined to fight if we see one of those pieces literally losing ground against a corporate plan.

[Image Credit: Dave Souza from Wikimedia Commons]

Tonight at 9pm, Japan's About Face will highlight the shifting role of the Japanese military in post-War Japanese society: "With troops in Iraq and sophisticated new fighter jets, Japan is reconsidering its rules of engagement. This program follows academy cadets preparing for possible overseas deployment and meets a group of peace demonstrators."

Later tonight, at 10pm, Tommy Lee Jones will narrate a new documentary about "a young man mistaken for a drug runner and killed by the U.S Marines patrolling the Texas- Mexico border. He became the first American killed by U.S military forces on native soil since the 1970 Kent state shootings." The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez will explore Hernandez's death and "its torturous aftermath."

[image: The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez[

When I lived in Chicago, in 2003, a man was walking down the street and accidentally shoulder-bumped another man going the opposite direction. The second man promptly turned around, pulled out a gun, and shot the first man in the head, killing him instantly.

Keep that in mind as you read the following...

Immediately following the Supreme Court's decision to allow handguns last month, the National Rifle Association responded by swiftly suing five US cities that have handgun bans of any kind (including partial bans, such as San Francisco's on guns in public housing).

Chicago and three of its suburbs have also fallen under the NRA's attack, resulting in the suburbs repealing their bans. Granted, Evanston, Morton Grove, and Oak Park may not be the roughest parts of the city, but they aren't without risk of gun violence, with gang activity prominent in Chicagoland overall.

This clip sums up Chicago's position quite well:

The Federal Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA) is one of those pieces of legislation that most people not only have not heard but due to its technicalities may not care about either. Yet FISA has become the bane of many a civil libertarian's existence not only for the fact that it gives the executive branch unfettered ability to spy on citizens without a warrant. It has become the lightning rod for the kind of "back tracking" legislation that are a step away from a constitutional amendments denying citizens the right to privacy.

In other words, Bush and his administration spent 8 years spying on US citizens illegally. They broke the law and now they're trying to remedy without due process by amending the law in such a way that would allow for the formerly illegal spying, all the while granting retroactive immunity from prosecution to the phone and telecommunications companies and government officials who aided and abetted the Bush administration.

When Barack Obama was running for the nomination, he spent a year saying he wouldn't grant immunity to the telcos. Now he's "flip flopped" on the issue and the civil libertarians of the Democratic Party are angry as hell.

So bloggers from sites like Daily Kos, Open Left, and other sites did what they do best : swarm in political actions online. They have bandied together to literally crash the gates at Barack Obama's party on the web by forming a group at MyBarackObama.com called Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right.

Given that the Obama gives people the tools to easily log into their address books at Google, Yahoo or any other web-based email service, groups at MyBarackObama.com can grow exponentially. Add to that the fact that the sites involved have the traffic to mobilize the first 1,000 it is then not shocking to see that the group has grown to over 10,000 members.

Some people are looking at this as if it is one of the biggest acts of civil disobedience online. I don't believe it is although, granted, it is "revolutionary" but only in the sense that it is the first time this has ever happened because, it is the first time any candidate has had this type of community organizing website set-up.

What is interesting to me is the fact that the Obama people are letting the group grow. It is a damn if you do, damn if you do moment for them. Yet I honestly believe that they look at this as a win given that now they will be able to compile data profiles of the malcontents.

In other words, the "protest" works to Obama's advantage because his people have now the permission from each registrant to be spied (while on the site) by the campaign.

Where do I stand in all of this? I think Obama's making a huge mistake and he shouldn't cave into the surveillance demands of the Bush administration. So am all for the civil libertarians cause.

Kenneth Cole weighed in on how to solve the economic malaise in America

Guest contributor Andrew Huff highlighted an innovative new milk jug that may help save the environment

Louise Reid Ritchie contributed a photo from a Barack Obama rally in Oregon

Kenneth Cole Media Marketing Manager Heather Dumford profiled two politically-themed programs on PBS

Marc Schiller uploaded the trailer for a new documentary film about the Amazon

Rise above from Nick Dentamaro on Vimeo.

Many people are told to stand tall in the face of serious illness. Neil Sauter took the phrase literally. The 25-year-old college instructor just completed a walk across the state of Michigan — on stilts — to raise funds for United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan.

Sauter, who suffers from a mild case of cerebral palsy that causes his ankles to turn inward, walked 830 miles and raised $64,000 in direct and matching grants, which will be used to purchase wheelchairs for others with the disorder.

"If I can use stilts to get all the way across Michigan, imagine what someone who needs a wheelchair can do if they have it," he said.

Warning : This Amnesty International advertisement about torturing by waterboarding may be too upsetting for some of our readers.

Christopher Hitchens is the curmudgeonly self-described polemicist and intellectual that most recently has been stationed at Slate.com. From his cyber column, he's been known to throw atheist molotovs to the theocrats of the American right wing and verbal judo blows to two of his most detested foes, the Clintons.

Yet even though he's no friend of the extreme right, he's been a defender of George Bush's foreign policy and a rabid apologist for the invasion of Iraq. Not of Abu Ghraib or torture techniques, but certainly for the war.

Which is why I find it fascinating (although not shocking given his propensity for pulling self-promoting stunts) that when asked by Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter if he'd like to be tortured with waterboarding by former military Special Forces, he gladly accepted :

You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it "simulates" the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning--or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure. The "board" is the instrument, not the method. You are not being boarded. You are being watered. This was very rapidly brought home to me when, on top of the hood, which still admitted a few flashes of random and worrying strobe light to my vision, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited for a while until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose. Determined to resist if only for the honor of my navy ancestors who had so often been in peril on the sea, I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and--as you might expect--inhale in turn. The inhalation brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me. I find I don't want to tell you how little time I lasted.

The men and women who show them their techniques for resisting waterboarding were training in the art of SERE, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. Their lessons they learned in waterboarding were for survival. The didn't learn waterboarding so they could torture enemy combatants. They were taught waterboarding so they could survive it in the event they became prisoners of war.

Hitchens may be fool to support the Iraq War but he is not an unethical fool. His article is an argument for respecting the Geneva Convention and for the most basic respect for human rights even in the middle of a terrible war.

I have a lot of problems with a lot of what Hitchens writes but it's when he writes articles like this one that he earns my respect.

Scientists have just unlocked one of life's great wonders: why we laugh. Maybe you don't want to know, but don't worry: knowing why you laugh isn't going to stop you from laughing.

It's quite simple, really, according to the study by Alistaire Clark (which as far as I can tell isn't funny at all): We laugh because our brains encounter patterns they don't recognize, and in the process of computing -- or understanding -- the pattern, the physiological response of laughter just happens, involuntarily.

Could this mean there's an evolutionary function to those guffaws, chortles, and tee-hees? After all, why else would we need to express to the world that our brains just encountered a new pattern? It could be a survival mechanism, or a means of coping with sudden confusion, allowing us a pleasurable sensation while we figure out how to negotiate this strange new information.

In any case, I have a few questions for Mr. Clark: First, if laughter is caused by encountering a new pattern, why do we laugh at the same joke -- or line quoted from a favorite comedy -- over and over again? Second, why don't all foreign patterns register as humorous? Some are outright terrifying, like when a monster in a horror movie has eyes on its knuckles and seventeen tentacles growing out of its chest. That's certainly a new pattern for an earthly lifeform -- but it ain't funny. Unless, of course, it's on The Simpsons. But why is it funny then, but not in a John Carpenter film?

And what about learning algebra? I don't remember doing a lot of laughing then. Or getting tickled... What kind of new pattern is that?

[Image Credit: David Alm]

Mars, Inc., the largest chocolate candies company in the world, has just begun a five-year research project to analyze the genome of one of nature's most storied and treasured gifts: the cocoa bean. What's more, the company solicited the help of another corporate giant, IBM, to help.

Intrigued? Or maybe just dumbfounded...

When we're in the midst of a food crisis -- rice costs are at an all-time high, simple foods like tomatoes are posing serious health risks, and the politics surrounding US beef has South Korea in a state of panic -- how on earth can anyone justify spending five years and untold millions researching a "food" that delights more than it sustains?

Simple: understanding the genome of cocoa will help produce better beans, more resilient to disease, and thereby benefit the estimated 6.5 million farmers who provide us with the raw material to make those delectable treats.

Of those farmers, around 70 percent are in Africa, a poverty- and disease-stricken continent that can use all the help it can get. If the project benefits those African cocoa farmers, their economies can only become stronger in return. That is, provided Mars and IBM share the wealth.

The prognosis on that is positive, too: the Mars company says it will make its research freely available via the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, which supports agricultural innovation for humanitarian and small-scale commercial projects.

[Image Credit: Andre Karwath on Wikimedia Commons]