Wonderful Women Of The World: TedxWomen Part 4 – ReImagine
Posted by Michelle Moquin on December 27th, 2011
Good morning!
Well…this is part 4, the last of this series. I HOPE you have been able to watch them all…enjoyed them…and more importantly I HOPE that you were not only informed of something new and exciting, but perhaps someone, some Wonderful Woman Of The World, inspired you enough that you’ll incorporate what you learned into your life, and possibly the lives of others. How delightful that would be.
Again, click on each speakers name to watch their video.
ReImagine
How women and girls imagine a better life – and a better world – and make their vision a reality, shaping a brighter future for us all
Hosted by Lisa Ling, Journalist
Julia Easterlin is a singer, songwriter, vocalist, pianist, and guitarist who uses a looping machine to build her multi-layered sound. (Performance)
Julia Easterlin is a sophisticated musical mind who wields composition, production and performance in one fell swoop. One part siren and one part techy, she uses looping hardware to build a one-woman chorus live on stage. Trained as a classical pianist and jazz vocalist, Julia began performing at 15. After garnering acclaim from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the John Lennon Foundation, Downbeat Magazine, and the Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY Jazz Ensembles, she ventured into underground electronic, experimenting with her voice, manipulating it to mimic electronically generated sound waves. Combining electro/acoustic texture with the musical roots of her classical and jazz training, Julia composed and performed with the assistance of her “magic box” – a loop machine. This requires her to record, organize, maintain and trigger up to 20 different loops over the course of one song. When asked how she keeps track of it all, she says, “I visualize a song as a series of colors and shapes. Each sound I make has a corresponding shape, and the song form is represented by a pattern of all the shapes moving together. What I see in my head over the course of a song looks like a scrolling quilt or a painting that moves.”
Julia graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston and has performed at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago and the CollegeMusicJournal (CMJ) festival in New York. She received acclaim for her recording of Radiohead’s “There There”. Julia’s currently working with a new band, combining her loop station with two drummers and a bassist (and lots of dancing) to construct a new body of work. She plans to premiere the work in 2012.
http://www.juliaeasterlin.com/
Shahira Amin is an Egyptian journalist, the former deputy head of Egyptian state-owned Nile TV and one of its senior anchors.
Shahira Amin is a freelance Egyptian journalist who contributes mainly to CNN’s Inside Africa and CNN.com. She also writes for Index on Censorship, a portal for free expression. Amin was formerly Deputy Head of Egyptian state television’s English Language Channel Nile TV but she quit in the height of the uprising in protest at state TV coverage of the developments in her country. Shahira was also a former Senior Anchor and Correspondent for the channel.
Shahira has traveled the world covering major events and conflicts and has interviewed numerous statesmen and high profile figures. She has been recognized by UNICEF for her efforts to improve the status of women and children in her country. Earlier this year she received the American University in Cairo’s Catalyst for Change Award and is also the recipient of this year’s Holmes of the year award from the University of Gotheborg.
Piya Sorcar is the founder and CEO of TeachAIDS.
Named to MIT Technology Review’s TR35 list of the top 35 innovators in the world under 35 in 2011, Dr. Sorcar is the founder and CEO of TeachAIDS, a nonprofit social venture founded at Stanford, which creates breakthrough software used in over 50 countries. Funded by UNICEF, Barclay’s, Google, Yahoo, and other organizations, the TeachAIDS software addresses numerous persistent problems in HIV prevention, and provides the most effective HIV education tools to schools, governments, and NGOs worldwide – for free.
Dr. Sorcar began the research to develop TeachAIDS in 2005 as part of her graduate work. Today, she leads a team of world experts in medicine, public health, communications, and education, to develop versions of the software for new languages and cultures. She is the author of numerous articles and has been an invited speaker at many universities, including Caltech, Columbia, Tsinghua, Utrecht and Yale. She holds degrees in Economics, Business and Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an M.A. in Education and Ph.D. in Learning Sciences & Technology Design from Stanford University.
Google Science Fair Winners:
Shree Bose (winner in the 17-18 yrs. category)
For Shree, there is no end to learning. As a kid playing in sprinklers, each droplet of water held a fascination for her and every bug she ran shrieking away from had a story. She has been participating in science fairs since her first project—she turned spinach blue—to her recent project on drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Shree’s scientific journey is about more than gaining knowledge, it’s about holding onto awe and a sense of wonder in her approach to problems. This awe led to her interest in biology and the study of life, and to her involvement in cancer research at age 15. She believes that it will be the same awe that will help her to achieve her dreams of becoming a medical researcher and physician.
Her supervised research for her award-winning project involved the study of a particular protein, AMP kinase, of interest in cancer cells. Through tests on inhibiting this protein’s activity, her research determined its extreme importance in the development of chemotherapy resistance. She proposed a new way to treat resistant patients when they no longer respond to the chemotherapy drug. For the over 240,000 patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer, this research will reduce the recurrence rates in patients treated with particular chemotherapy drugs.
Shree was recently honored as the Grand Prize winner of the Google Global Science Fair, and has showcased her research to President Obama, NIH directors, and as a speaker at the Google Zeitgeist Conference in Phoenix. She is a recipient of the GDIAAC Youth Achievement Award given by the Indian Minister of Commerce and was named one of Glamour Magazine’s 21 Amazing Women of the Year in 2011.
Naomi Shah (winner in the 15-16 yrs. category)
“W-H-Y” was Naomi’s first word. Her countless questions range from flubber and the Internet to organic chemistry and nuclear energy. Her interest in science and technology was sparked at age five when she visited camps at the local science museum (OMSI) and competed in LEGO Robotics. Today, her dream is to become an inventor and entrepreneur focusing on environmental public health. Her passion for environmental health and improvement of the human condition has been fueled by her recent research.
Naomi’s research, executed independently in a two-phase project, involves the relationship between air quality and the lung health of asthmatic patients. It involved studying 103 subjects, statistically analyzing the data, and developing a novel mathematical model to quantify the effect of the airborne pollutants on the lung health of asthmatics. This work is pertinent to society—over 160 million people suffer from asthma worldwide, resulting in about 1.2 million deaths a year. People spend over 90 percent of their lives indoors where the air quality, a top environmental risk, is two to five times greater than outdoors.
Naomi has been invited to present her research to the Respiratory Therapist Conference, American Lung Association OTS Chest Disease Conference, Google Zeitgeist Event, Washington DC (presented to President Obama, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Directors of NIH, and others), and the National Environmental Health Association Conference.
Lauren Hodge (winner in the 13-14 yrs. category)
Lauren enjoys a variety of activities, but has a special passion for science. Every year since third grade year (at age 7), she has completed science fair projects since mainly for her own educational benefit. She was named grand champion at her school many times, and has participated in Envirothon and Mathcounts.
A thirteen-year-old sophomore honors student at Dallastown High School, she takes summer college classes at York College and Penn State York and attends rigorous summer camps. In her spare time she plays violin and piano, reads, does puzzles, and draws. She attended a District Orchestra for the past two years and was selected to perform a piano concerto with her high school orchestra in May. She hopes to do an undergraduate degree in science and music, and then pursue a doctorate degree.
She said that completing this science research has been a journey—the knowledge and experience gained along the path, the opportunity to collaborate ideas and the potential to improve our quality of life is her ultimate goal.
Shamila Kohestani is captain and founder of the first female soccer team in Afghanistan.
Shamila is entering her senior year at Drew University and will graduate in June 2012 with a major in political science and a minor in women’s studies. Ten years ago Shamila was beaten by the Taliban, deprived of any education from age 8 to 13, and confined to her home in Kabul.
Shortly after the Taliban were removed from power, she began to play soccer. Her soccer involvement and position as the captain of the first Women’s Afghan National Soccer Team, led to receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2006 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. During that trip to the U.S., she had the opportunity to attend the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership program in New Jersey. While at the program, she met a teacher from Blair Academy who convinced the school to provide a one year scholarship to Blair, a leading boarding school in New Jersey.
From Blair, through the help of the Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund (www.agfaf.org), Shamila was awarded a four year scholarship to Drew University. While at Drew, she has continued to play soccer, been an advocate for Afghan women and was named to the Dean’s list. During summers, she has been a volunteer counselor at the Julie Foudy Leadership Camps in Chicago, San Francisco, and New Jersey and this summer interned for three weeks at a program in Washington, D.C. called, I Live to Lead: Leadership Summit. She has also been a speaker at numerous elementary and high schools to tell young people her story and educate them on Afghanistan.
Her experiences and her education have prepared her to begin working toward her goal of being an effective contributor in the struggle to advance human rights for women.
Ivy Navarrete and Shayna Welcher, former LA gang members, are learning the restaurant trade at Homegirl Café.
Ivy Navarrete grew up in the Rampart District of Los Angeles and after years of running the streets, she found herself at Homeboy Industries in search of a second chance. She has been working at Homegirl Café since April 2011 and within months became a lead within the Farmers Market department. She has been clean and sober for eleven months now and has been helping other homegirls through their sobriety.
Ivy has been reunited with her three-year-old son and is working towards getting her own apartment and vehicle. She would like to pursue a career as a legal secretary.
Shayna Welcher came to Homeboy Industries after being incarcerated. Her mother met Father Greg while she herself was in jail. Once Shayna was released, her mother brought her to Homeboy and Shayna started her journey working at Homegirl Café. Shayna has been clean and sober for over two years. After becoming a leader in the Café she would proudly show off her smile and good attitude to everyone she served.
In February 2011, Shayna flew the Homeboy Industries coop and began an externship at the Black Cat Café in the Miracle Mile. After three months, they hired Shayna as a full-time employee. Should you ever visit the Black Cat Café, Shayna is usually at the front register sharing her smile and enthusiasm with everyone in the place. She loves to recommend food and gets positive energy from her interactions with the customers.
Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards.
Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and cofounder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. A celebrated thinker and catalyst, Tiffany is known for her ability to illuminate complex ideas in culture, science, technology, and life through her unique films, dynamic talks, and projects. She delivered the commencement address at UCBerkeley and her films and work have received 48 awards and distinctions. Her last four films premiered at Sundance, including her new 2011 acclaimed feature documentary, Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, which the New York Times hailed as “Examining Everything From the Big Bang to Twitter,” and the Atlantic called, “an intensely personal exploration of what human connection means in our modern technology-obsessed world.” Her previous two award-winning films, include Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness, about reproductive rights in America, and The Tribe, an exploration of American Jewish identity and the Barbie doll. Her films have shown in theaters and on TV all over the world and her team at the Moxie Institute is known for their groundbreaking work combining their films and new technologies and conversational tools and live events to engage people in new ways. They just have begun a new film series called Let it Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change. Tiffany is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, a visiting professor at the University of Wales, a member of the advisory board of M.I.T.’s Geospatial Lab, and she was among a group of technology leaders selected to advise Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on role of Internet in society.
twitter @tiffanyshlain
Jackie Wilson has the kind of unique voice you get when you blend the talent of Whitney Houston, the savvy of Joss Stone, the heart of Mary J Blige, and pepper it with the soul of Aretha Franklin. (Performance)
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Belicia: I wanted to respond to you yesterday but didn’t have time. I ask myself that same question a lot. The racists have a way of pitting the OTWs against each other and making false promises to OTWs, so as not to lose their voting numbers. I’m HOPEing someday soon that strategy will see its end of days.
Holly: Why can’t the guy just shoot himself and leave his family alone? Another selfish, gutless wonder.
Doug: And I thought you were describing this fine ass. :) Oh well…it was definitely interesting. Howie: Can you say anything about this?
Rawlings: Yes, you have opened your eyes by making the statement that, “…Obama has shown that he is more than capable of running the country”. Now. if closing your eyes and remembering that Obama’s mother is white inspires you to vote for Obama, then by all means close your eyes. There are too many racist ignorant people, their eyes closed, voting for the “just-us” candidate anyways, so you might as well close your eyes too, and vote for the “capable” candidate, the only one who supports all people in this country. And why stop there? How about spreading your vision amongst your peers?
Dianne: I can not comply with your request. Everyone needs to know that these racists are out there. They’re not crawling out from under any rock, but in plain site verbalizing their true thoughts here. And It doesn’t get any more real than here. I’m grateful to know what we’re up against. My advice it to heed Grace’s advice.
Anonymous: If you can call that logic. But yep, uh huh, you got that right.
Alycedale: Sadly, nothing else does matter to many.
Robert, Rt: I got so much out of your comment. Thank you. Your first two sentences say it all, and the body of your comment backs up those statements very nicely.
I want to address “spanking”. I was reprimanded, grounded, and yes spanked as a child, and I think I turned out pretty damn good in spite of Dr. Spock saying that spanking “destroys their (children’s) fragile personality”. I pushed my limits with my parents, but I also knew them. Or perhaps I should say, they reminded me of them when I pushed them too far. I had boundaries that showed they loved and cared for me. And I am grateful.
I rarely see a well-behaved child these days, and I am shocked when I see a child get away with such rude and/or abusive behavior and the parents do nothing. I once had a friend’s young child pour juice on my new suede shoes. I was so pissed and the parents barely said a word. In fact the wife was more upset that I was upset about my shoes than what her son had done. And then…get this, the son still wanting attention, pulled out his dick and pissed on the wall right in front of us. What did the parents do? Sent him to a room for a “time out”. This was about 10 years ago and I’ll not be surprised if I read about him in the news some day, caught for committing some horrific crime.
Akira: Yes, you can still be a girlz.
Social Butterfly: My pleasure. And unfortunately, I too feel your angst. I am like you, and I too am a big label reader, and have thrown away many a food from discovering something in them that was not to my liking after I had bought it and learned. It is getting harder and harder these days to eat isn’t it?
Readers: That is it for me today. What’s on your mind? Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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December 27th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Robert, RT,
I saw so much truth in your discourse to Zen Lill yesterday. I had some difficulty getting in but I wanted to say immediately after reading it that it is obvious that you scholarly research into the subjects you bring to this blog.
I passed it on to many mothers I know have asked the same questions posed by Zen Lill.
I hope one day you will visit our city of Atlanta Georgia and make arrangements to see a group of us in a sit and chat session. I know I would pay to hear you speak. I’m certain I could arrange to have a hundred or more there who would also be willing to pay to hear you speak.
This is not intended to embarrass or flatter(I don’t think you are that easily flattered). I just want to make it known that we are not seeking to use your time without compensating you.
We are a group of very well off women. It is not often we find a man that we feel has something genuine to offer our discussions. But you like President Obama have more to offer than the usual male feel good rhetoric.
Thelma
December 27th, 2011 at 10:53 am
This is an example of what I mean about men and how they set their priorities. Most stem from their tiny little dicks.
While our male legislators are so involved in the “protection” of our female youth’s “health” when it comes to them having the right to seek an abortion without the say so of men, they miss entirely the health and welfare of the ENTIRE student body of our public school system.
Their failure to properly oversee and manage the contractor that provides food services to 33 public schools is a prime example.
None of the cafeterias in those schools, which are operated by Sodexo Services Guam Inc., have sanitary permits.
This is a clear violation of local law and could mean the cafeterias can be closed, which also could result in the closure of those 33 schools if the sanitary permits aren’t obtained.
So why did it take an entire semester for Public Health to finally push the issue? Why didn’t the agency set a deadline and follow up with the school meals contractor?
And where was the Guam Department of Education in this process? Why didn’t it raise a red flag about the cafeterias lacking sanitary permits? Why didn’t it push the contractor to turn in any needed paperwork earlier?
My guess is the answer is our male legislators would have us believe that they are so concerned about the health and welfare of our female students that are pregnant that they had to ignore the majority of our male and female children who could be infected by people who have not passed a health clearance and could be infecting our children with God knows what.
Hypocrites are what we are dealing with. The usual men who use pretense of concern for the health of women to dictate how those women should lead their lives.
My suggestion to those men. GET OFF YOUR HYPOCRITICAL ASSES and show some real concern where it is genuinely needed. Public schools open on Jan 3rd. fix a real health problem.
Anna
December 27th, 2011 at 11:02 am
ALCOHOL: HOW MUCH CAN A WOMAN SAFELY DRINK?
You’ve probably already heard that about one drink of alcohol a day may reduce a woman’s chances of developing heart disease.
And you’ve probably also heard that drinking alcohol can raise the risk for breast cancer — in fact, a new study shows that as few as three drinks a week can have that life-threatening effect!
That sounds like a Catch-22 to me — what’s good for the heart may lead to cancer.
I know that life is full of uncertainty — but really, must women live with such conflicting health advice?
In search of answers that would help any woman, I called researcher Wendy Chen, MD, an oncologist and epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston, who conducted the new study, and cardiologist Robert Stark, MD, medical director of the cardiovascular prevention program at Greenwich Hospital/Yale New Haven Health in Greenwich, Connecticut.
HOW BOOZE AFFECTS BREAST HEALTH
First, Dr. Chen gave me the details about her latest study. She analyzed data from almost 106,000 women, ages 34 to 59, who participated in the US Nurses’ Health Study.
Participants were followed from 1980 through 2008, and one thing that was tracked was their alcohol consumption.
Dr. Chen found that those who reported having just three to six drinks per week were 15% more likely to develop breast cancer, compared with teetotalers — and the type of alcohol didn’t matter.
Slightly heavier drinkers did worse — with those averaging about 11 or 12 drinks a week having a 51% higher risk for breast cancer. (That’s just under two drinks a day on average!)
Alcohol is associated with higher estrogen levels and may make breast tissue more sensitive to the effects of estrogen, which can fuel cancer growth, said Dr. Chen.
The findings were published in the November 2011 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.
“We already knew that alcohol upped breast cancer risk, but this study gives us a better idea of the threshold,” Dr. Chen told me.
The study found that having two or fewer drinks a week was not “statistically significant” in terms of leading to an increased risk for breast cancer.
It also provides a more long-term view of the effects of alcohol consumption, compared with prior research, since this study followed women for almost three decades.
It’s important, she said, to focus on the common thread among those most at risk for breast cancer — drinking alcohol regularly over the course of many years.
In other words, in terms of breast cancer risk, don’t worry about occasional drinking or even occasionally overdoing it — like at a holiday party — because that type of consumption wasn’t linked to increased risk.
HOW IT AFFECTS HEART HEALTH
But how do we balance this news about breast cancer with the fact that one drink per day — especially red wine, which contains the antioxidant resveratrol — might keep the cardiologist away?
Dr. Stark noted that a glass of alcohol a day has been shown in prior studies to help fend off cardiovascular problems by raising levels of HDL “good” cholesterol.
But make no mistake, he said, aerobic exercise, such as walking or running, does a better job at raising our levels of HDL cholesterol than drinking red wine. And there is no downside to a sensible program of regular exercise.
SO WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?
As you might have guessed, there’s no single answer to whether or not you should hesitate to fill your wine glass, and a lot has to do with the individual risk factors that you have for either condition.
For example, Dr. Stark said, women with one or more cardiovascular risk factors should do several things to reduce their risk for heart disease — and having a nightly glass of red wine could be one of them.
But for women at high risk for breast cancer, drinking should probably be a rare indulgence, said Dr. Chen.
Who else may want to cut back? Women under age 38, because their estrogen levels are at their peak, said Dr. Stark.
What if you carry risk factors for both cardiovascular disease and breast cancer? Now that’s a tougher question to answer.
But keep this one uplifting thought in mind: There are so many risk factors that you can’t control, like age and genetics — focus on the fact that drinking alcohol is at least a modifiable risk factor, one that you can control.
Talk to your doctor — maybe even bring along a copy of this article — and together, figure out your best sipping strategy.
Source(s):
Wendy Chen, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, all in Boston.
Robert Stark, MD, cardiologist, Greenwich, Connecticut, and medical director, cardiovascular prevention program, Greenwich Hospital/Yale New Haven Health.
December 27th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Michelle, I too was spanked when I over stepped the limits my parents set for me. I think I turned out the better for it.
When one of my four grown children sent me Robert’s post he said that he was grateful that I had spanked him when tested the limits I sat for him.
He informed me that he and his siblings who have produced a combined 11 grandchildren for their mother and me also set the same example for their children.
My wife and I have produced a state senator, a doctor, engineer and pharmacist. All had their butts spanked when they misbehaved.
I am presently perusing back issues of your blog. Just what is your goal? It seems to have no particular theme.
I would have loved to venture my opinions on some of your political discussions.
My wife Martha and I are insatiable ex journalists. We met over bullets and coffee in Cambodia during the late 60′s. She was having coffee when I dashed into the restaurant while being chased by an unhappy war monger’s goons.
I suspect you will be hearing from her also. She loves a good verbal joust.
Russell
December 27th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
The Best Defense Is a Smart, Tough Offense: a Press that Pulls No Punches
December 27, 2011
Dear Friends of the Center for Media and Democracy:
Over the past year, we’ve proven that CMD’s style of independent reporting can be a real game-changer.
We leapt in to cover the Wisconsin protests from the outset when the corporate media was dodging the real story of the corporate-funded attack on workers’ rights. Our hour-by-hour reports and coverage of the players, like the billionaire Koch brothers and David Koch’s greed-is-good group, “Americans for Prosperity,” helped open people’s eyes across the nation.
We also launched the unprecedented effort to expose the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) by analyzing and making available nearly 1,000 “model” bills secretly voted on by global corporations and politicians behind closed doors. The way we approached this investigation has inspired hundreds of news stories illuminating this secret distortion of our democracy.
We also demanded a federal investigation of Koch buddy Mark Block and his suspect financial dealings to aid Herman Cain, a frequent speaker at Koch-funded Tea Party events. We’ve also worked to expose the “greed-washing” of the Big Banks and the obstruction of the banksters who helped crash the economy.
We picked these fights because playing defense is just not good enough. We didn’t do this to win praise, even though we were honored to win the prestigious Sidney Award this year. We did it because corporations are undermining essential American institutions, manipulating opinions, and diverting your taxes from the public good to private profit through “privatization” schemes.
In 2012, more money will be spent on front groups and the elections than ever before in the history of the world. We know how to uncloak these shadowy groups and we’ll be playing aggressive offense by investigating the CEOs bankrolling them.
Sincerely,
Lisa
Lisa Graves
Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy
P.S. It may seem like David v. Goliath, but just think of what we accomplished on a budget of little more than $500,000, compared with much larger groups spending out there.
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December 27th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Michelle the tank fire has finally stopped. We are getting up to go out to collect the dead. I am very afraid for my neighbors, friends and family.
So many dead. No one seems to care. Assad has been killing us without pause. Where are the arabs who are supposed to care?
December 27th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Michelle, I cannot return to this blog. The language and hate expressed here is too distressing.
December 27th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Your article on canola oil was so scary. I went directly to the family food bin and unloaded anything that had the industrial cleaning fluid in it.
What kind of government regulations do we have? Reading stuff like that on you blog should enlighten the republicans about what it means to have too little regulation of corporations.
One would think something else would matter to them besides profits.
Domunga
December 27th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Japan has been hiding their mismanagement of our nuclear crisis. They are planning to dump tons of radioactive dirt into the ocean.
December 27th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Your mercury landing was captured by a earth camera.
December 27th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
It matters not what the earthlings see they always misinterpret the data. They discovered our planet but decided that since it was more that 2.5 times the size of earth it could not be inhabitable.
Uv–23
December 27th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
ARE YOU A SMART SUPERMARKET SHOPPER?
How closely do you look at a nutrition label? Most of us say that we pay more attention to them than we actually do, according to a new study from University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and St. Paul that was published in the November issue of Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
In the study, 203 consumers were given a survey on how they typically look at nutrition labels in a grocery store, and this is what they said…
Roughly 33% said that they almost always look at calorie content.
About 25% said that they almost always look at fat, trans-fat, sugar and serving size.
But before they were even given the survey, these same consumers were asked to look at 64 different nutrition labels —
everything from soup to peanuts to ice cream — on a computer screen that was secretly tracking their eye movements.
They were asked if they would consider buying each product. Here is what researchers found…
Only 9% looked at calorie count for almost all the products.
A mere 1% looked at each of the other components (fat content, trans-fat content, sugar content, serving size) on almost all the products!
So if we’re not really thoroughly looking at nutrition labels, then how are we supposed to make informed decisions about what we eat?
Simplified rating programs are appearing in a growing number of supermarkets in the US to help solve this problem — and not all of them are looking out for your best interest.
(Was anyone surprised when the Smart Choices program — which was launched by top food companies that included Kellogg’s –
ended up calling sugary cereals like Froot Loops “Smart Choices” and then got cancelled due to backlash?)
But other programs are more merit-worthy, such as Guiding Stars, which awards a food either zero, one, two or three stars, depending on its nutrient content.
I’m a bigger fan of another program called the NuVal System.
It’s not perfect (none of them are), but it attempts to give you an even more precise assessment of a food’s nutrient content.
A NEWER KIND OF NUTRITION LABEL
NuVal is a system developed by David L. Katz, MD, MPH, adjunct associate professor of public health practice at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and a group of 12 nutrition experts –
and it can be found currently in more than 30 chains nationwide, including Kroger, Price Chopper and King Kullen.
NuVal provides each product in the store with a single value between 1 and 100, with 100 being the most nutritious and one being the least nutritious.
NuVal arrives at the value by inserting amounts of 30 food components into a formula, putting things that provide favorable health effects –
such as protein, calcium, vitamins and fiber — in a numerator… and things that provide probable or definite negative health effects –
such as sugar, sodium, cholesterol, trans fats, carbohydrates and calories — into a denominator.
Divide the numerator (the good stuff) by the denominator (the bad stuff) –
and there’s your single number that gets posted in the market near the price tags at the front of the shelves, theoretically making it easier and faster to figure which foods provide more nutritional bang and which ones are nutritional traps.
For example, you won’t be shocked to learn that fruits and vegetables tend to score very high (broccoli gets 100),
while foods that are highly processed tend to have very low numbers (Nabisco’s Chips Ahoy Chewy Real Chocolate Chip Cookies get a 2).
To talk about NuVal’s strengths and weaknesses and how we can make better choices in the supermarket, I called Deborah Beauvais, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (renamed Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, as of January 1, 2012) who specializes in food labels.
THE PROS & CONS
Having to look at just one number instead of a bunch does simplify things, said Beauvais.
But when it comes to foods with scores that fall in between the broccoli and the chocolate chip cookies, such as cereals and crackers, she said, those scores can be all over the place.
Personally, I worry that a consumer might see one cracker brand with a high score and one cereal brand with a low score –
and then think that the thing to do is to stop eating cereal and eat more crackers, which isn’t necessarily a good idea.
“The key is comparing each product to other products in the same category,” said Beauvais. For example, if you compare regular peanut butter to reduced-fat peanut butter, you’ll learn that regular peanut butter actually scores higher on the NuVal scale, because although it has more fat, it has less sugar and salt and more fiber and protein.
Another potential problem is that NuVal doesn’t t
ake artificial sweeteners into account, said Beauvais. So a zero-calorie product could rate very high even when it’s filled with additives.
For instance, Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Fudge Lites Bars are highly processed, artificially sweetened frozen chocolate-flavored bars… and they score an 82 — the same as canned Del Monte Fresh Cut Regular Spinach!
WHAT’S A SHOPPER TO DO?
Rating programs like NuVal are useful as a jumping off point, said Beauvais, but they’re not going to show you the big picture.
So it’s still important to read the full nutrition labels.
Whether you have a rating program in your supermarket or not, Beauvais advises you to…
Look at serving size first. Everything on the label is meaningless unless you’re aware of the serving size.
For example, there are 100 calories in a serving from a 20-ounce bottle of Gatorade, but there are 2.5 servings in the bottle.
Read the serving size first, because most of us drink the whole bottle, which is really 250 calories.
Know what the percentages mean.
When a label says that a product has, say, 5% of the daily value of sodium, that’s based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.
If you eat more or fewer calories per day, know that the percentage for you will be higher or lower.
After all, the more informed that you are, the easier it becomes to make healthier choices in the supermarket.
Source(s):
Deborah Beauvais, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, Chicago. http://www.EatRight.org.
December 27th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
11/7t3 why worry about that when the bigger question is if we change the trajectory of the observatory camera due to arrive in Martian space in August or the base that has been operational for the last three years.
The base is fully mobile but these earthlings are not worthy of the bother or so some contend. However, if the situation is to be maintained until the appropriate time after the November 2012 elections, it may be necessary to choose options favorable towards visional denial.
91Lf3//2
December 27th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Their logic analysis for deciding whether or not life can exist on a planet is too primitive.
Perhaps we should give them more data as to the type of intelligent life forms that can exist in environments extremely hostile to their frail constructs.
It would certainly make for a more logical discussion as they discover more planets about their planet’s size and range to their sun.
Water being a critical element in their estimation for the chances of life is so primitive as to be almost dear if were not for their tendencies to hover towards their own existence as the basis for all life.
But it does bolster Viv’s argument that we need not take the needs of this cattle planet’s inhabitants as far as some have suggested.
All respect given, of course, to the presence of THE TWO. Less to the experimentation by those in an effort to prove the viability and intellectual potential of this dangerous species.
Urte
December 28th, 2011 at 5:48 am
Urte:
You voice as if you are speaking for self. Many believe that you are voicing the position of the TAO with the intention to deceive us as to the TAO’s true intentions regarding their estimation of the value of the earth mind in space.
How else would one explain your use of “GirlZ” throughout the reaches of earth’s solar system? Many have encountered “Girlz” as far as 10 billion miles from earth in all directions.
This would put them within 2 billion miles of the end of earth’s sun’s influence. The meaning I am sure is not lost on the TAO.
So are we to believe that the TAO have no designs on the experimentation of the use of the earth mind in the father reaches of space as we know it?
Or are we to assume that the TAO would be attempting to make us believe that the earth mind would be too dangerous to permit to expand to its logical best operating level in our midst?
Ne/3-4
December 28th, 2011 at 6:14 am
I entered in as Urte because I was speaking for myself. Like everyone else who belongs to a mother ship I obey orders.
However, the TAO does afford its crew autonomic privileges that most don’t. The permission to voice personal feelings on certain issues is one of them.
I did so.
Urte
December 28th, 2011 at 6:21 am
Alycedale and Michelle:
Sadly, in my family nothing else matters. We are proud Pennsylvanians. But we are more proud to be white. More so than being American.
We celebrate our european ancestry while deriding the OTWs connection to his ancestry as proof of his disloyalty and untrustworthiness to this country.
Reading this blog for the last two years has really opened my eyes. I, too, have been guilty of most of these faults.
But I swear, I am trying to become the kind of citizen that I believe you represent. One that sees a place for all americans in America.
Laura
December 28th, 2011 at 6:25 am
“The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the Presidency.
It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment
to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.
The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America .
Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.
The Republic can survive a Barack Obama.
It is less likely to survive a multitude of Idiots such as those who made him their president.”
by: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Jones
December 28th, 2011 at 6:35 am
Best to stay anonymous when you post idiocy like anon18 did.
I’ll take a flawed but serious Barack Obama every time.
December 28th, 2011 at 6:42 am
Rumor has it that the Russians are looking for the connection the aliens on, in and around Guam have with the US government.
Peter, Anna, Lea, etc. look for an influx of russian “tourists” on Guam. Putin will be sending them there by the hundreds and then thousands.
If aliens reveal themselves in that area. Look for the rest of the planet to help you become independent if Obama isn’t your president when it happens.
Mark
December 28th, 2011 at 7:13 am
AMAZING STEM CELL TREATMENT FOR DIABETES
If recent research continues along its promising path, stem cells from women’s uteruses might turn out to be the “mother” of all treatments for type 1 diabetes — eliminating the need for patients (men as well as women) to inject themselves with insulin!
A group of scientists from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, has converted endometrial stem cells harvested from the base of adult female uteruses into cells that produce insulin.
It’s possible that this will turn out to be a major breakthrough for the roughly three million Americans who have type 1 diabetes (meaning that their bodies don’t produce insulin).
I contacted Hugh S. Taylor, MD, lead researcher of the study (published in the August 30, 2011 issue of Molecular Therapy) and a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale to learn more about this intriguing new application for stem cells.
While there are new technologies that are fairly easy to use to treat type 1 diabetes (like insulin pens and pumps), people who don’t naturally produce insulin still have to spend lots of time monitoring their blood sugar and need several injections of varying amounts a day.
But even with these advances, insulin injection remains inexact and inefficient, said Dr. Taylor. “Glucose levels change so rapidly that no amount of monitoring allows diabetics to inject insulin at the precise times they need it,” he explained.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
Dr. Taylor and his fellow researchers extracted the uterine stem cells from adult women and treated them with special nutrients and growth factors (indolactam and exendin) that earlier studies had shown would transform the cells into insulin producers.
These new-and-improved cells were then injected into eight mice with type 1 diabetes, while six other mice with type 1 diabetes were injected with placebo cells.
After five weeks, none of the mice that got the new insulin-producing cells developed diabetic problems — their blood sugar didn’t rise any higher, and they started producing insulin.
In contrast, blood sugar levels in all of the mice who received placebo cells continued to rise (above 220 mg/dL) and they also began to develop some of the common complications of diabetes that are so destructive, specifically cataracts and fatigue.
While the mice with the insulin-producing cells were still considered diabetic, they were clearly in far better shape than their placebo-treated counterparts, and Dr. Taylor told me that he believes that injecting more such insulin-producing cells into them might even lower their blood sugar and make their diabetes actually go away.
COMING SOON TO A DOCTOR NEAR YOU?
Dr. Taylor seems quite optimistic that human beings will react well to this new therapy, too. He believes that we could see treatments based on this technique within three to four years but noted that this depends, of course, on the outcome of research that is currently underway.
Thus far, no dangerous or harmful side effects have been identified.
Though it is possible that people will need repeat stem cell injections (perhaps every few months or every few years), the stem cells are inexpensive to produce and the injections can be given directly into the skin in a process so simple that it can be done in a doctor’s office. This is a promising development to be watched.
Source(s):
Hugh S. Taylor, MD, chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, director, Yale Center for Reproductive Biology and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
December 28th, 2011 at 7:32 am
Obama what’s not to like?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/iowa-caucus-2012-ron-paul-poll_n_1172411.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=122811&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle&utm_term=Daily%20Brief#comments
December 28th, 2011 at 7:34 am
How many peoples LIVES were saved when those thousands of Banks failed. That FDIC insurance was the only thing between them and starvation.
That “F” Stands for FEDERAL people.
RP and his supporters don’t like that and want all “F” out of your lives.
Along with all of those pesky roads you will need to use to get away from the racewars.
But you won’t care because DRUGS will be LEGAL!!
How can anyone profess ANY amount of intellect and think this man is a good Idea for this nation?
Just because 2 or 3 of his 400 bumper sticker slogans resonate doesn’t mean he doesn’t plan to IMPLEMENT all 400.
Didn’t think of that one did you?
That is all
December 28th, 2011 at 7:38 am
I just want to tell you folks something about the Iowa polls you are being told about.
I am an Iowan, and I am being deluged with these calls. I am NOT a registered Republican, nor have I ever indicated that I plan to attend a Republican Caucus.
Yet I am repeatedly polled. On the automated calls, Ron Paul is the first choice, so I press “1″ to get them to shut up and get me off the robodialer.
I wouldn’t place too much emphasis on these poll results.
I wouldn’t
December 28th, 2011 at 7:45 am
Once again someone asks who are those people who find the republican party attractive?
My cousins are always over here trying to convince us that we should support anti abortion platforms. I ask them why they are against welfare for the children they force to be brought into this world.
They just shrug and say “because government shouldn’t dictate how people live.” They don’t want to the state to take care of these children when they get here but they want to make darn sure that they get here…HOW IN IN THE WORLD DOES THAT MAKE SENSE??!!
December 28th, 2011 at 7:46 am
Abortion:
Never an easy choice.
Sometimes the best choice.
Always the woman’s choice.
December 28th, 2011 at 7:48 am
To all those pro-Abortion people here who feel that killing the unborn is not as important is having to take responsibility for your actions, I feel saddened that your mothers didn’t feel the same way.
December 28th, 2011 at 7:57 am
Cc must be a man. Why should a man have any say at all about abortions? They will never be faced with any type of abortion decision that will effect their bodies.
Further while women should have a right to express their opinions that doesn’t give them license to take away the rights of others.
Rie
December 28th, 2011 at 8:10 am
The anti-abortion crowd have claimed all along that they don’t want to run people’s lives and have no intention of controlling women and making them have babies as a result of sex. They claim they just want to end abortions.
That is not true and never was. Their idea is to get their foot in the door on the easy thing, abortions or late term pregnancies, with emotional pictures and ultrasound recordings of babies in the womb.
The next thing is to end all abortions. Then they want to appoint anti-abortion judges so they can pass a low defining a made up term called “personhood.”
By defining “personhood” as anything after sex has taken place, they can get those judges to outlaw anything that prevents a pregnancy from getting established.
There goes birth control and the morning after pill. But hey, they don’t want government in our lives unless its forcing us to do something they want done.
Evonne
December 28th, 2011 at 8:22 am
Most of these right to lifers are not so pro life once they have force a woman to give birth. They are virulently anti welfare or government assistance of any kind.
So the republican would allocate safety in the womb, but as soon as they are born —- better watch out.
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