Regular readers know my daughter Maegan is ADHD. I’ve gotten a lot of recommendations from other Moms of ADHDers to try this diet. I found a copy of Dr. Feingold’s book “Why Your Child Is Hyperactive”. He has a fairly convincing argument against artificial flavors and colorings. I don’t know that our family can manage a diet as strict as that given by Dr Feingold in his K-P Diet.

A less rigorous approach than the Feingold Program, given that many studies have shown the sensitivity of some children to dyes, is to start by eliminating only those foods (and vitamins, drugs, and toothpastes) that contain artificial colorings. It is important to use a diet diary or journal.

If that doesn’t help, the Feingold Association recommends eliminating:

* Corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, and corn sugar (in soft drinks and other sweetened foods)

* MSG (monosodium glutamate) and HVP (hydrolyzed vegetable protein, which contains some glutamate)

* Sodium nitrite (in luncheon meats)

* Calcium propionate (in baked goods)

After several weeks, if the child’s behavior has improved, every few days restore one eliminated food or ingredient at a time. Repeat that two or three times if a problem occurs, to confirm that the food is really a culprit. Studies show that some children are sensitive not just to food additives but also to such foods as:

* Wheat

* Eggs

* Milk and other dairy foods

* Chocolate

* Soybeans/tofu

* Corn products (including corn sugar and syrup)

Eliminate as many of those foods as possible, plus artificial colorings and other additives. Children can eat fresh meat and poultry, any vegetable (except corn and soybeans), fruits and fruit juices (but not citrus fruit/juice and not beverages normally consumed daily), rice, and oats.

Which sweetener to use?

There’s so much we don’t know about sweeteners, but the Association does have the accumulated experience of many thousands of families. Combining experience with what we do know, here’s a suggested guideline for choosing sweeteners:

* Acceptable choices

· Sugar - granulated, confectioner’s, or brown

· Cane sugar crystals

· Turbinado and various raw sugars

· Honey, Molasses, Pure maple syrup

· Rice syrup and similar syrups

· Stevia (an herbal no-calorie sweetener found in the supplements section of your supermarket or a health food store)

* Acceptable, but don’t overdo

When a sugar name ends in “ol” that means it is an alcohol sugar. Too much has a laxative effect.

· Sorbitol

· Mannitol

· Xylitol

· Hydrogenated starches

* Less desirable

· Corn syrup, corn sweeteners, dextrose

* Questionable

· Acesulfame-k (Sunett, Sweet One)

· D-tagatose (Naturlose)

* Do not use

· Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)

· Neotame

· Alitame

· Cyclamate

· Saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low),

· Sucralose (Splenda)

· High fructose corn syrup

I don’t how easy it will be to remove all artificial colors and additives. I do know it is a major chore just finding products at the grocery store that don’t contain high fructose corn syrup. I spent two days shopping at five different store (not different locations for the same store, different stores) with my Mom. We found one brand of ketchup without HFCS and one barbecue sauce without HFCS, out of dozens of brands and flavors of ketchup and bbq sauces. That is ridiculous. We spent 20 minutes just reading the labels on various brands and flavors of bbq sauce, because Maegan has to have it. Forget about buying ready-made sweets at the bakery or the grocery store. You are setting yourself up with an impossible task, trying to find anything there without High Fructose Corn Syrup in it.

So, I read this on “fixing” global warming:

The last resort solution

Australia’s Tim Flannery has proposed a radical alternative as a last resort solution to global warming: pump materials such as sulphur into the upper atmosphere in an attempt to block out a portion of the sun’s rays, forming a giant human-created blanket over the ozone layer. This would prevent the full amount of solar heat entering our atmosphere in the first place, and in turn lower the amount of carbon dioxide being trapped. One of the side-effects of this method would be that the sky would change color, taking on a deep purple hue, rather than the familiar sky blue that we know and love today.

There have been naturally occurring instances of such high atmospheric seeding. In 1991 Mt. Pinatubo erupted, spewing 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. This left a sulfuric acid haze over the world, which caused global temperatures to drop by about 0.9 degrees F (0.5C).

How could changing the color of the sky not have unintended consequences?

Here is just one “unintended” consequence:

This “blanket” idea could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth, according to a new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Daniel Murphy, a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory, said, “…because these systems use only direct sunlight, increasing stratospheric particles has a disproportionately large effect on them.” Solar energy collectors can’t use the diffuse light resulting from excess stratospheric particles as efficiently as direct light. Expected to deflect about 3 percent of the sunlight, Murphy predicted much of the 97% of sunlight that passes the “blanket” would be diffuse. After the 1991 eruption, output data from Solar Electric Generating Stations showed Murphy’s predicted 20% loss in usable solar power.

Did anyone study how Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption affected world health patterns? Probably not.

How long did the “haze” last?

What permanent changes have occurred?

Will we eventually have to “undo” this global experiment?

If we can’t answer that last question, we have no business tampering with nature anymore than we already, unintentionally, have. I think this requires much more thought, study and experimentation before serious consideration and implementation.

Remember, “measure twice, cut once”.

In the last few decades, consolidation of food production has concentrated power in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations. Many of today’s farms are actually large industrial facilities, not the green pastures and red barns that most Americans imagine. These consolidated operations are able to produce food in high volume but have little to no regard for the environment, animal welfare, or food safety. In order to maximize profits, factory farms often put the health of consumers and rural communities at risk.

America’s drinking water, rivers and lakes are at risk from these giant, corporate-owned factory farms. Animal feeding operations, many of which confine thousands of animals in facilities, produce staggering amounts of animal waste — 500 million tons per year. Too often, this waste leaks into our rivers and streams, fouling our air, contaminating our drinking water and spreading disease. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, hog, chicken and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.

Scientists, medical personnel and public health officials have been sounding the alarm on these issues for some time. The Food and Agriculture Organization recently warned that global industrial meat production poses a serious threat to human health. A 2008 report from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, a joint project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, underscores the risks of factory farming.

The 111-page report, two years in the making, outlines the public health, environmental, animal welfare and rural livelihood consequences of what they call “industrial farm animal production.” Its conclusions couldn’t be clearer. Factory farm production is intensifying worldwide, and rates of new infectious diseases are rising. Of particular concern is the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant microbes, an inevitable consequence of the widespread use of antibiotics as feed additives in industrial livestock operations.

Although the specter of pandemic flu — in which a virulent strain of the influenza virus recombines with a highly contagious strain to create a bug rivaling that responsible for the 1918 flu pandemic, thought to have killed as many as 50 million people — is the most dire scenario, antibiotic resistance is a clear and present danger, already killing thousands of people in the United States each year.

So great is the public health threat posed by factory farms that the world’s largest association of public health professionals, the American Public Health Association (APHA), issued a resolution urging state and local officials to impose a precautionary moratorium on the construction of new factory farms.

It’s that time of year again. Spring has sprung and the bugs are coming. That makes this the perfect time to review natural flea remedies.

First let’s talk about a couple of ways in which we can prevent flea problems for our pets altogether.

Many people recommend adding apple cider vinegar to your pet’s water (quarter of a cup to 5 gallons of water) or food. The dosage I use is 1 tsp. for small dogs and 1 tbs. for medium-large dogs added to each meal. Start with only a little, so they will get used to the taste. You can also try giving your pet Black Walnut Hulls that come in a capsule form at many health food stores which will repel not only fleas but also, ticks and mosquitoes.  Keep in mind that none of these solutions will work overnight and may take about four to six weeks before they are effective.

Flea-Repelling Plants

One natural way of controlling fleas is to put plants in their garden or yard that ward off fleas. It sounds weird, but many plants have natural pesticides as a defense mechanism, and there are a few that you can use to keep your yard and garden flea-free.

First is lavender. Lavender actually got a reputation in the middle ages as a cure for the plague. This was simply because it kept fleas away, and it was used as a scent on clothing. So the people who used it didn’t get bitten and didn’t catch plague from the fleas. Lavender is generally not toxic to dogs or cats.

Second is eucalyptus. If you can, plant eucalyptus, fleas and ticks will avoid any areas where eucalyptus grows. You can often get the branches at craft stores if you don’t want the whole plant.

Third is mint. This is traditionally considered a way to get rid of fleas, and it is safe for cats and dogs (it’s related to catnip).

You should know that putting these plants in your garden or yard may deter fleas from coming in, but it isn’t a cure-all. It won’t keep them off your pet or out of your house, so you’ll have to do something else about that.

If you suspect that your pet does have a flea infestation examine the animal closely by separating the hair on the animals back or flank area.  You want to be able to view the skin of the animal as well as possible.  During your search you might actually be able to see a flea scurrying by, but more likely you will see the evidence that the flea has left behind.  Flea dirt (or feces) will appear as small, black pebbles in the fur and on the skin.  To determine whether or not what you see is actually flea dirt, take a wet paper towel and wipe it over areas where the dirt is most prominent. If the wet paper towel turns red, then you can bet that you are indeed dealing with a flea problem.

Now let’s get down to bathing your flea infested friend.

Use an herbal shampoo that contains a combination of any of pine cedar, bergamot, rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus, citronella, tea tree, juniper or geranium oils.

(Cat owners take special note: Cats should not be given any essential oils, period.

The use of essential oils with cats is a potentially volatile combination. Cats do not efficiently metabolize essential oils and their use can lead to symptoms of toxicity. In addition to essential oils, cats have known metabolic sensitivities to certain herbal preparations and allopathic medications. Because the cat’s body does not efficiently excrete essential oils, they can build up to toxic levels. Symptoms of toxicity include vomiting, dizziness, clumsiness, lack of appetite, lack of energy and shock. In addition, cats have very thin, delicate skin. Essential oils are absorbed rapidly into their skin and enter the bloodstream, overwhelming their systems. Cats dislike strong odors and generally keep away from strong scents — even highly diluted essential oils. Many people find that they can use essential oils on their cats with no obvious adverse effects. Although one or more applications of an essential oil product or blend may not cause immediate harm, the effects of essential oils can be cumulative and manifest themselves at a later date in the form of toxicity for which owners and vets often can find no attributable cause.) source

Before you wet down your pet, here’s a handy trick to ensure that you are successful in killing all of those nasty fleas.  Know going into this process that as soon as you wet the animal down, those fleas are going to run for higher and dryer ground; this means they will flea (no pun intended) to the head area.  You should never douse your pet’s head with water and certainly not soap, so in order to prevent the fleas from escaping make sure that you first pour a thick layer of the shampoo all around the head and neck area; as close to the top of the head and underneath the chin area as you can get.  Pour small amounts of water with your hand onto the soapy area and spend some time building up a thick, soapy barrier that will kill the fleas that attempt to pass through it.  Proceed by wetting down and lathering up the rest of the animal’s body while frequently returning to massage and re-lather the neck area.  Fleas are very difficult to kill and it is better for your pet if you can handle the problem with one good bath rather than several of them, so be sure to leave the shampoo on for at least 15 minutes or more while continuing to massage the soap deep into the animal’s fur.  Rinse the animal thoroughly and dry it off well, especially during cold weather. You can rinse with Apple Cider Vinegar, but only if the animal’s skin is not broken. ACV will work as a flea spray, as well, just make sure the animal’s skin is not raw or broken. Vinegar in an open wound is not a good idea.

Household Flea Infestation:

Here’s a great way to get rid of the problem.  Mix four parts of Borax with one part of salt, and sprinkle over your carpet. The mixture gets down amongst the fibers, and dehydrates the fleas and eggs, and prevents them re-hatching. This works great, and it is much more effective and cheaper than “flea bombs.” The borax and salt work by absorbing the moisture of the flea and make all of those cracks and small areas that they might find to live in your home much more undesirable.  You can use the mixture by sprinkling it throughout your home onto carpets and into those harder to reach areas.  Allow the mixture to sit and then vacuum it up thoroughly.

Use ¼ tsp. of Eucalyptus Oil in a 8-10 ounce spray bottle. Fill with water. Put the sprayer on a fine mist. Spray your house with the mist. Spray the carpet, furniture, car, pet’s beds, and everywhere you think may have fleas. Fleas hate the aroma and run for the door. Do this 3 times a week. It leaves a fine mist that dries almost instantly. Spraying your pet is also a great idea. It doesn’t hurt them and it helps keep fleas away. Do this recipe all year, but especially do this routine in the summer months when fleas are at their peak. Vacuuming is also important for picking up eggs.

Fleas are a health risk for people as well as pets, so let’s do all we can to defeat the little bloodsuckers.

Money is the root of all evil and power corrupts.

So, you might as well start educating your children about both at an early age.

Teaching children about power usage can be a difficult task. It’s not easy explaining the concept of electricity to a child, let alone the fact that we have to pay for it. (But, why, Mom?) A cute little pig might help to solve this problem and monitor television and game usage at the same time. Power Hog is designed to teach children about the energy costs associated with their electrical devices.

Power Hog, an adorably pig-shaped power monitor introduces kids to energy efficiency (and general thriftiness) by piggybacking upon the familiar format of the piggy bank. You simply plug the tail into the power outlet and the snout into the electric device, feed in some coins and this little piggy does the rest. When the Power Hog is connected the dollar sign glows green, it fades when there is sufficient credit and alerts you that money is running low by blinking red.

The hog’s casing will be composed of an up-cycled resin made from recycled PET bottles, and it will ship with eco-friendly packaging. The pig itself is 100% recyclable and the cord is PVC free.

The Power Hog was designed by Mathieu Zastawny, Mansour Ourasanah, Tom Dooley, Peter Byar, Elysa Soffer and Mathieu Turpault and won second place in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition held in February 2009.

The Power Hog is marketed to parents who want to teach their children that electricity isn’t a free, never-ending resource as well as those who want a clever way to limit TV time. It is a novel way to associate energy conservation with savings. Even if your kid just unplugs the pig and plugs their device directly into the wall, surely anything that heightens a child’s awareness of power usage is a positive.

Do your friends and family email you jokes like this:

For several years, a man was having an affair with an Italian woman. One
night, she confided in him that she was pregnant. Not wanting to ruin his
reputation or his marriage, he paid her a large sum of money if she would go
to Italy to secretly have the child. If she stayed in Italy to raise the
child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18. She
agreed, but asked how he would know when the baby was born.

To keep it discrete, he told her to simply mail him a post card, and write
‘Spaghetti’ on the back. He would then arrange for the child support
payments to begin.

One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife. ‘Honey,
’she said, ‘You received a very strange post card today.’ ‘Oh, just give it
to me and I’ll explain it later,’ he said. The wife obeyed and watched as
her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted.

On the card was written:

‘Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Three with meatballs, two without.

Send extra sauce.

I have no idea where this came from originally, but it’s pretty funny.

I much prefer these forwarded emails to the infamous chain letters. What if I don’t have 20 people in my address book to whom I want to send religious/political/racist/sexist/ignorant claptrap. Spam filters don’t catch this stuff either, because it’s typically sent from people you know and want email from, just not this kind of email. Has anyone figured out a filter for this kind of forwarded email? If they have, where can I get it?

Happy Belated Birthday Barbie!

Barbie doesn’t look a day older than at her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959.

“I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world” - the music group Aqua’s tune was the only possible soundtrack to celebrate the iconic doll with her fantastical wardrobe turning 50. Mattel teamed up with the Council of Fashion Designers of America to bring 50 designer fantasies to the runway for Barbie’s birthday.

New versions of Barbie have been produced each year, along with a never-ending stream of outfits for her and her friends (nearly one billion over the years), including special high fashion designs by Versace, Gucci and Givenchy (much-prized by collectors; after all, who can afford a life-size version?).

“Barbie is everything that an all-American gal should be - sporty, smart, sophisticated and sexy,” said Michael Kors, while Tommy Hilfiger called the plastic fantastic with impossibly slim hips and preternaturally rounded bosoms “the quintessential American icon.”

Barbie has spent the last five decades setting a standard—for good or ill—for how some girls view themselves. Part of Barbie’s appeal, sociologists say, is that she has always had a foot in two worlds. While praised for representing an independent, adventurous female, feminists who say she portrays women as sex objects have long targeted her.

Mattel has been accused over the years of ignoring ethnic diversity by creating African-American, Hispanic and Asian Barbie versions that had darker skin tones but retained white features of the traditional doll. Mary Rogers, a sociologist at the University of West Florida and author of “Barbie Culture” said, “That [Mattel] can manipulate racial and class imagery is what makes Barbie such a powerful commentator on who we are and the cultural contradictions we have.”

Barbie evolved from a teenage fashion model in 1959 to a successful career woman. She took on non-traditional female roles such as astronaut, Army medic, NASCAR driver and presidential candidate years before real women did. She taught us independence. Barbie was her own woman. She could invent herself with a costume change: sing a solo in the spotlight one minute, pilot a star ship the next. She was Grace Slick and Sally Ride, Marie Osmond and Marie Curie. She was all that we could be.

An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced. Abortion as a term most commonly refers to the induced abortion of a human pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions are usually termed miscarriages.

Abortion has a long history and has been induced by various methods including herbal abortifacients, the use of sharpened tools, physical trauma and other traditional methods. Modern medicine utilizes medications and surgical procedures to induce abortion. The legality, prevalence, and cultural views on abortion vary substantially around the world. In many parts of the world there is a divisive public debate over the ethical and legal aspects of abortion between the pro-life and pro-choice movements.

Reasons for procuring induced abortions are typically characterized as either therapeutic or elective. An abortion is medically referred to as therapeutic when it is performed to:

* Save the life of the pregnant woman

* Preserve the woman’s physical or mental health

* Terminate pregnancy that would result in a child born with a congenital disorder that would be fatal or associated with significant morbidity

* Selectively reduce the number of fetuses to lessen health risks associated with multiple pregnancy

An abortion is referred to as elective when it is performed at the request of the woman “for reasons other than maternal health or fetal disease.”

Worldwide, almost all abortions are the result of unintended pregnancies. Common factors cited to have influenced the abortion decision were: desire to delay or end childbearing, concern over the interruption of work or education, issues of financial or relationship stability, and perceived immaturity. Some abortions are undergone as the result of societal pressures. These might include the stigmatization of disabled persons, preference for children of a specific sex, disapproval of single motherhood, insufficient economic support for families, lack of access to or rejection of contraceptive methods, or efforts toward population control (such as China’s one-child policy). These factors can sometimes result in compulsory abortion or sex-selective abortion.

• 83% of all abortions are obtained in developing countries and 17% occur in developed countries.
• 52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25: Women aged 20-24 obtain 32% of all abortions; Teenagers obtain 20% and girls under 15 account for 1.2%.
• While white women obtain 60% of all abortions, their abortion rate is well below that of minority women. Black women are more than 3 times as likely as white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are roughly 2 times as likely.
• 64.4% of all abortions are performed on never-married women; Married women account for 18.4% of all abortions and divorced women obtain 9.4%.
• Women with family incomes less than $15,000 obtain 28.7% of all abortions; Women with family incomes between $15,000 and $29,999 obtain 19.5%; Women with family incomes between $30,000 and $59,999 obtain 38.0%; Women with family incomes over $60,000 obtain 13.8%.
• Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S., Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as “Born-again/Evangelical”.

The most radical formulation of the anti-abortion or “pro-life” side of the debate views abortion as the murder of unborn children, and so as the equivalent of out and out infanticide, making the legal use of abortion since Roe v. Wade, at a rate of around 1.5 million a year in the United States, into a holocaust of the innocent fully comparable to the Nazi genocide against the Jews.

On the other hand, the most radical formulation of the pro-abortion or “pro-choice” side views opposition to abortion as opposition to the freedom of women, as hatred of women, and as part of a historical effort to “subjugate” women as nothing more than baby-making machines or, failing that, to see that they die in botched abortions as part of, indeed, something comparable to the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

And that is where they both lose me. If you have to equate your opponent with Hitler and the Nazis to win a debate, you don’t have a sound argument and that’s an automatic “fail” in my book. Which is why I’m firmly in the middle. I have friends in both camps, but I don’t completely agree with either side. I think, as with most things, the extreme views are wrong. Life isn’t black and white. Sometimes an abortion isn’t just the best choice; it’s the only choice. Abortions should not be used as post-conception birth control, but some women do not have access to adequate contraception. What are they supposed to do? Why do we insist that it is an either/or situation?

The “Americans With No Abilities Act” is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.

Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society. We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability (POI) to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing.

Advocates point to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U.S. employer of Persons With No Ability.

Private-sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against the inept include retail sales (72 percent), the airline industry (68 percent), and home-improvement warehouse stores (65 percent). At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons with No Ability (63 percent).

Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million mid-level positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.

Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given so as to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability (POI) into middle-management positions, and give a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.

Finally, the Americans With No Abilities Act contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, “Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?”

“As a non-abled person, I can’t be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,” said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Mich., due to her inability to remember righty tighty, lefty loosey. “This new law should be real good for people like me.” With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. Each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her inadequacy, should be provided with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so.

Original at The Onion.

I want a Movito. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t actually on the market yet, I still want one. In fact, I think I want more than one. One for each of us sounds much better.

Movito is a fully electric scooter designed for the dense urban landscape of the future. Its sexy design appeals to hip and trendy young adults, making a striking statement wherever it goes with its sophisticated styling and two toned colors.

Engineer/Designer Tiam Chiem’s “Movito” is a 2-modular design consisting of an upper scooter chassis and the base, which provides the drive via an in-wheel electric motor and hubless front wheel. The modular design allows a range of possible morphs, including multiple bodies to be connected to the base or two bases to be connected in parallel to form a two-seater.

The in wheel motor

The use of an in-wheel motor has allowed Chiem to design the structure of the scooter for weight reduction and a dynamic shape and form. Developed by CSIRO Australia, the in-wheel motor, which is currently utilized in solar powered, racing cars, boasts 98% efficiency, claimed by CSIRO to be higher than any other in-wheel motor. Weighing in at only 6kgs, the direct drive eliminates drive train loss and Li-ion batteries stored in the central body charge the motor.

Steering

The Motivo’s hubless wheel is based on the technology developed by Osmos and provides, amongst other benefits, for greater precision when riding. The steering pin of the orbital wheel is designed around a second large bearing in the hollow section of the circular runner. This inner bearing and the arms that attach the wheel to the main body manage steering.

Additional features

The Motivo features an integrated CPU and organic LED touch screen which allows the rider to customize the scooter to their own preference. Along with this are the features that enable the rider to connect wirelessly to the Internet, to access GPS or an iPod dock to listen to music.

The folks at NASA Tech Briefs were sufficiently impressed with the Movito design that it was recently awarded first prize in the transport category in their recent Create The Future Design Contest.

I ticked my husband, James, off this morning.

I made a comment about not having the right to complain if you didn’t vote. James said, “ You do realize you’ve managed to insult like 18 years of my life?” He also told me that there are arguments for and against voting, and I shouldn’t be so judgmental.

Whatever.

James' point of view

The only argument for not voting that I have any sympathy for are those people who are too poor to take time off from their multiple jobs to go vote. Sadly, it’s those people who need to vote the most. They are the people whose economic, social, and physical interests are constantly overlooked at best, and destroyed when inconvenient.

Remember New Orleans?

Why isn’t Election Day a national holiday? We can have a holiday for presidents long dead, but not one for choosing a new President? In what world is that sane or sensible?

We are all supposed to have a choice in our government. Unless you’ve broken some law and lost the right to vote, everyone is “allowed” to vote for his or her choice in government. Unfortunately, allowed does not mean enabled. Almost everyone in our country is “allowed” to vote, but many of us are not enabled to do so.

For some people it is the inability to take time off from work, others simply can’t get to the voting booth, and then some can’t even get to the polling place. Whatever the reason, it is a fact that too many Americans don’t participate in the most basic of civilian duties in a democracy: voting.

Found this online:

If any day on the entire calendar should be a Holiday in a democracy, it should be Election Day.   National elections should be national holidays.  State and local elections should be state holidays.  Schools should be closed for Election Day.

As a practical advantage, elementary schools could be used for polling places, without interference from or interfering with the childrens education.  And, we could very likely hire some teachers to work the polls. Teachers are good at giving instructions, and at getting people to cooperate and stay in line.

by Stephen Hansen

In a stunning and unexpected 6-3 ruling the right-leaning Supreme Court went against the wishes of the last president, took the wind out of the sails of health care reform of the current president, sent irresponsible Big Pharma a major wake up call, and bluntly told the arrogant FDA that they are indeed not above the rule of law. It is a major victory for every American citizen.

Is the FDA doing it's job?

Central to the issue is a power struggle between the federal government and states, which in this situation meant the federal government authority to pre-empt your state rights to sue if you are injured by a drug. The FDA, acting on behalf of the Bush administration and on the side of Big Pharma, has helped tie up thousands of drug injury lawsuits across the country. The FDA, who is supposed to be protecting consumers from drug injury and ensuring a correct risk/safety picture for any person taking a drug, was instead trying to shirk their responsibility and simply claim that Americans had no right to sue.

The Bush Administration had intentionally appointed anti-safety people in high positions within the FDA, starting with its Chief Counsel, Daniel Troy (and continued as a legal philosophy after Troy was forced out for his Big Pharma connections). Troy set in motion the legal problem the Supreme Court just decided.

During the final years of the Bush administration cancer industry insider Andrew von Eschenbach, MD, was appointed to run the FDA, and Wall Street insider, Scott Gottlieb, MD, was second in command. These individuals sought to fully implement the FDA label as senior to any rights of citizens. Their intention was to make sure that new biotech drugs would be protected from lawsuits, as the FDA wanted to speed new and even more dangerous drugs onto the market so as to foster the development of the biotech industry. In essence, the FDA management wanted to turn the American public into one large clinical experiment, with no right of recourse when injured.

This was occurring against a backdrop wherein the FDA couldn’t even name all the drugs currently on the market, had failed to demand required aftermarket follow up safety testing on drugs, and had intentionally withheld safety information on existing drugs from the public. The current situation with drugs is that almost no drug, even blockbusters and those in use for decades, have an accurate risk/benefit profile.

FDA allows tidal wave of drugs.

The FDA knows that when a new drug is approved for the market the full extent and range of  side effects won’t be known for years. History shows us time and again that Big Pharma actively hides risk data from the FDA and pays for “science” that distorts reality. This irresponsible behavior goes along with closed-door negotiations with the FDA, and has resulted in numerous drug disasters like Vioxx. FDA managers oftentimes go against the wishes of their own safety scientists and then move on to six figure salaries in the industry they regulate. Doctors are not apprised of the actual risks and consumers are left in the dark.

The FDA insistence that a drug label (based on what is known at the time of approval) should supersede citizen’s states rights to sue if they were injured has almost nothing to do with consumer safety. Rather, it is a federal power grab that is in the best financial interests of Big Pharma and Big Biotech, industries that do not have consumer safety as their top priority.

Experts believe this system is so badly broken, due to gross FDA mismanagement, that it will take 10 years of studies and many billions of dollars just to understand the actual risks of the drugs Americans are already taking.

In writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens put Big Pharma on notice. The defendant in this case, Wyeth, had argued that it could not comply with both federal and state law. Stevens told them they had a fundamental misunderstanding of regulation and were trying to hide behind the FDA, going on to say that it is a central premise of federal drug regulation that the manufacturer bears responsibility for the content of its label at all times.

That is not what Big Pharma wanted to hear.

…in my dreams anyway.

Known as the Sliding House, this unique piece of architectural lateral thinking was designed by London-based practice de Rijke Marsh Morgan. The brief was for a self-build house where the client could grow food, entertain, enjoy the landscape and basically retire in peace. The outcome was three buildings arranged along a longitudinal axis, with a garage set perpendicularly, off to the side to create a small patio… and one heck of a surprise.

The Surprise

Well, the name does kind of give it away. What appears to be the house’s exterior walls and roof is actually a second skin that slides across a longitudinal axis to reveal a second facade. Sliding back and forth, the mobile exterior offers the house’s residents flexibility with the look and behavior of the building. The lighting and mood of the interior spaces can be altered with the simple movement of the exterior, creating combinations of enclosure, open-air living and framing of views according to position. The building’s architectural flexibility also provides a means to control the buildings heating and cooling, according to the position of the sliding exterior.

Movement

The 20-ton house will traverse the entire site in only 6 minutes, with movement powered by hidden electric motors and wheels integrated into the wall thickness. The tracks for the outer wall have the option of being extended should the client wish to build a swimming pool, which may need occasional shelter. The entire house sits on a concrete bed, which partially hides the mechanism that allows the home to reveal a second facade.

If achieving a flexible outcome within tight planning constraints is truly the hallmark of a great architect, then dRMM architects can clearly take a bow. We absolutely loved this one.

About dRMM

Alex de Rijke, Philip Marsh and Sadie Morgan founded dRMM, a London-based studio of international architects and designers, in 1995. Now a team of about 20, the practice takes pride in only carrying out work that is innovative, high quality and socially useful. They have a track record of creating extraordinary architecture within the standard constraints of the construction industry. Their radical projects are led by site, client needs, concept and construction, rather than formulaic or style-based decisions. The team defines its approach as economy of means, expressive of use, materials and construction: an architecture of ‘maximalism’.

Doctors:

The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000. Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year is 120,000. Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

(Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)

Now think about this:

Gunowners:

The number of gunowners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. (Yes that is 80 million) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500. The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.000188.

(Statistics courtesy of FBI)

So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, “guns don’t kill people”, doctors do!

Fact: Not everyone has a gun.

Fact: Almost everyone has seen at least one doctor in their lifetime.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must BAN doctors before this gets completely out of hand.

Out of concern for the general public, the statistics on lawyers have been withheld for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.

OK, I’ll admit it, I laughed at this lame joke. I’m anti guns and doctors, so this cracked me up when I first read it. But, being the kind of person who at least tries to be honest with myself, I had to point out that you can make figures say almost anything you want.

They’ve used some figures and drawn a conclusion that isn’t necessarily accurate. Even if the numbers are accurate, consider:

How many people (on average) does a gun encounter in a day?

How many people (on average) does a doctor encounter in a day?

Do the figures hold up when we consider average deaths per person encountered? How about if we consider that mostly ill people (more likely to die) visit doctors. Does that influence the figures?

“Accidental” is a loaded word (pardon the pun) here.

Today, there is more information than you can shake a stick at.  Question. Think. Investigate. Decide.  Don’t blindly accept what people tell you - not even me.

Find out for yourself.

The 4moms Cleanwater Infant Bath tub with digital thermometer could make the job of bathing baby a little easier with a design that allows clean running water to enter the bath tub and be tested for correct temperature before coming into contact with your baby’s delicate skin.

The water collection area in the tub flows from the faucet into the reservoir where the temperature is tested by a digital thermometer. The water from the reservoir then overflows into the main part of the tub in a gentle, flowing motion. Meanwhile, dirty water is being continually expelled through sidewall drains.

The thermometer responds immediately to the water temperature and the color changing backlit display shows at a glance when the water is too hot (red), just right (green) or too cold (blue). In addition, there is an audible high temperature alert so you can focus on bathing baby without worrying about the water temperature.

The bottom of the tub is contoured and will fit in single and double basins as well as in the bathtub. The bath also includes a rinse cup, which is handy when it comes time to rinse baby’s head after shampooing.

They also sell this:

The 4 Moms Bath Spout Cover with Digital Thermometer brings a whole new degree of ease to bath time. No more checking the water temperature with your hand or wrist. Simply set the water temperature using the faucet and see it on the screen. No more worries about faucet danger. The soft, cushy cover protects even the most active child. Now your child can enjoy a comfortable bathing experience while you enjoy complete peace of mind, every time baby gets in the tub. The fast responding digital thermometer makes it easy to set a safe, comfortable and consistent bath temperature for your child. The soft cushy cover protects baby’s head from bumps and bruises. The backlit display, which changes color with water temperature, and graphic Comfort Zone take the guesswork out of monitoring bath temperature.

These are just more pieces of plastic junk that parents don’t need, use valuable resources to make, and with electronics embedded are a chore/responsibility to dispose of or recycle correctly.

Is bathing your child really this difficult?

The inside of my wrist was an acceptable temperature gauge for my kids. If it’s hot for you, it will burn the baby. If it’s cold, the baby will cry. Doesn’t seem overly complicated to me. I can understand wanting to cushion that hard bathtub faucet, but do you really need a built-in electronic thermometer?

I think it is a far better idea to simply test the water on yourself, and then stay with your kids while they bathe. If you’re there watching them, accidents are much less likely and you won’t have to worry about padding the faucet. Unless you are the one who needs the protection from burning and bumping, in which case I apologize for my rant and wish you the best of luck.