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[ Thursday, September 30, 2004 07:49 PDT ]
Childhood obesity epidemic: Facts and Fads
Section:
Health
Summary:
The academic community is scrambling to hop on the fat crisis bankwagon. Dr. Judith Stern , a UCDavis Professor of Nutrition and ” an internationally known expert on obesity”, noted the following from a recent NYC Conference on Shaping America’s Youth. Her department is a lead in this Networking project. Nike, Campbell SOAP, Johnson and Johnson, and Gerber Baby Food are among the corporate sponsors. Academic Network, LLC of Portland Oregon is the management and support coordinator of the project. One of the project’s advisors in Susan Barr, PhD, RD, Professor. Food Nutrition and Health, University of British Columbia. BTW, her province has a relatively low incidence of childhood obesity.
* “No one is in charge”..: Apparently not the academics, not parents, not the schools, not the food industry, not the government, not the 4th estate and not even nutritionists or lawyers.
* Only 4% of 1100 programs spending $ 8 billion a year studying the problem had outome data.
* There are more than a thousand programs out there, but few a funded for more than one year.
Main:
Today,Gina Koleta of the nytimes reports on paying for the medical costs of obesity and its treatment.
There is a clear message here:
* Obesity is now being framed in the Disease or the inactivity Side-Effectmodel, rather than the more standard Condition of the Poor or the Gluttony of the Rich model.
Other world views include: the Genetic trait model, the Hunter-Gatherer Evolutionary model, the Yellow School Bus model, the Time Constraint model, the Demographic Shift Model, the Madison Avenue - Television Time model, the post Agricultural > post Industrial > Information Age model, and others.
* By the way, how far did you walk, jog, bike or swim today? How much time did you spend doing it? What is your mirror and your scale telling you every week? At we collectively taking charge or displacing responsibility?
Is the problem one of to little time for kids, young adults and senior citizens to play or work? Or is it one of too much time spent being physically inactive at home, in the classroom, in the restaurant, on the road, in the office, in the meeting room or in the field?
The Common Sense answers, based on observation and life experience and without the bias of Fear or Favor, is clear to most.
More:
Diet, Nutrition & Health: • Exercise and Health: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:
[ Sunday, September 26, 2004 13:31 PDT ]
Sunday in the Sacramento Valley Heartland
Section:
Columns
Summary:
A one Industry Town: Davis in the Fall, More than Meets the Eye
Main:
* The Campus and the Town are welcoming more than 4.000 Freshmen to the halls, dorms and playing fields of the Academy
* Prof. Liz Applegate has prepped the new members of the swim and water polo teams on sensible nutrition for training and competition.
* The Aggies won the last of the CauseWay Series of Football Games with Sacramento State University. The Band was is great early season form.
* The AquaDart Swim Team hosted a great 3 day meet at Arroyo Pool.
* Emma has started Gynmastic for Tots at The City Rec program held in the old Davis High School Gym between the Civic Pool and City Hall. For Grandpa it is a Tri perfecta.
* Tessa is all toothless grins, coos and jumping legs at 5 months in her own room and on the shaded grass of the new Little famiy abode.
* Energy, high spirits and optimism are in the air and that is as it should be at harvest time.
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[ Thursday, September 23, 2004 06:57 PDT ]
Sumner Redstone, Viacom and CBS: They would Rather be Read and Watched than be Right
Section:
Business
Summary:
* Q: What do Kerry and Redstone have in common?
Now we know what Bill Moyer is talking about when he mentions the power of mass media. Sumner Redstone and Viacom is the stuff of the American Dream come true.
Main:
On September 7,1999 Viacom CEO and Board Chairman, Sumner Redstone, a Liberal Democratic entertainment attorney from Boston, announced that he has added ” the Tiffany Network” to his global media conglomerate at a cost of 37.3 billon dollors.
Now, five years later, CBS News has lost its luster and the keys to the kingdom—-its reputation for full and fair reporting.
CBS lost the Westmoreland case, was outed for liberal Bias by Bernard Goldberg, lost the ratings race, failed to replentish its aging stable of reporter after retiring Cronkhite at 65, and was sloppy in its rush to judgement with hot documents from Texas.
Who is in charge of this Chinese fire drill? Who is reponsible? Who is accountable at the top? The knifes are being sharpened. The shareholders are anxious. The bloggers are manning the watch and the keep as militant fact checkers and more.
Meanwhile on NPR, Orville Schell of the UC Berkeley is concerned about the possible loss of powerful media sources for doing the heavy lifting of serious investigative reporting. Like: Jason Blair of the New York Times, Janet Cooke of the Washington Post, Mike Barnacle of the Boston Globe? Thanks, but no thanks. BTW, where are the Journalist’s Code of Ethics posted? Oh, it is called the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights, not the Bill of Responsiblity, Objectivity, Fairness and Sound Judgement.
We take the point of Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News. He sees blogging as a sharp and quick tool in the quiver of the networked journalist. You have instant and credible facts and consultants on the net if one learns the ART of winnowing the gold from the gravel.
Meanwhile, in the Heartland of the Golden State, we have our own Ken Shelley, California Secretary of State, to watch and there are always the eastern types like Maureen Dowd who come to LA and San Francisco so see how real liberals live and play. And Kitty Kelley believes that the Bush Family had all the power. But, we know who has all the fun. (;>)
* A: Their liberal Boston ancestors had a family name makeover. Traumas happened at the Copley Plaza Hotel.
More:
[ Tuesday, September 21, 2004 11:11 PDT ]
The Earth Machine: The Science of a Dynamic Planet by Mathez and Webster
Section:
Book Reviews
Summary:
Computer modelling of complex dynamic systems in nature like weather, climate, and ocean enerby transfers is at the heart of much of the public confusion and scientific debate about issues of credible science and responsible public policy. What is at stake is the public trust in the veracity of the scientific method , basic science research and the reporting of science publications. .Computer Modelling of Climate is discussed in a recent article in the New York Times.
Main:
Edmond A Mathez and James D. Webster and their publisher, Columbia University Press, New York. 2004 have written compelling story of the Earth based on HOPE. The Hall of Plant Earth at the American Museum of Natural History was funded by Ruth and Sandy Gottesman opened in 1999. It is not an inclusive and systematic textbook. However does present clear evidence as to how the Earth works.
In 18 well illustrated chapters and 327 pages including notes,glossary, bibliography and index, a series of nongeologist type questions are asked and then thoughtfully answered. For example, What are the causes of climate and climate change?
The Milankovich cycles and the triple effects the earth’s variable obit, axial tilt and axial “wobble” are explained with clear text, diagrams, data and charts. The net effect of these three events is a 20% variation in the amount of sunshine that reaches the earth. That effect is compared with “greenhouse forcing” over geologic time on page 212.
In Summary, the book is a gentle introduction the science of rocks and to the question of Why the Earth is Habitable?
More:
Earth Sciences:: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:
[ Monday, September 20, 2004 06:34 PDT ]
Deconstructing the New Gender Gap
Section:
Politics
Summary:
Today on NPR, Cokie Roberts have her analysis on the latest poll data in the U.S. presidential race. She focused on the recent reversal in the traditional Gender Gap that has been feature of the polling establishment’s conventional wisdom since 1980. The wisdom has been that women favor Democrats more than men.
Main:
MS. Robert points out the following:
* In the current election cycle, women, particularly those who are married, appear to be moved by family security issues.
* The women’s vote can not be taken for granted.
* Women may be the largest single swing vote block.
* Southern women are mobilizing to vote on issues they care about: marriage, family, religion, security and patriotism.
* Kerry is failing to attract women because his rhetoric is a cool, legally nuanced brand of continental upper crust English, not your warm, fuzzy, down home American idiom.
Kerry may collect dollors ,debating and style points, but at this point it early in the fourth quarter and the momentum has moved to the side that knows now to win the match without being offensive to key elements of the electorate.
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News: • The Water Cooler: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:
[ Tuesday, September 14, 2004 07:40 PDT ]
Bush League Politics
Section:
Politics
Summary:
Kitty Kelley: authorist? gossip columnist? political publicist? investigative journalist? documentary historian? celebrity maul? character assassin? queen of popular pulp fiction?
Regardless of one’s characterization of her current celebrity status, MS Kelley and her publisher, Doubleday, will be laughing all the way to the bank as they anticipate yet another best seller. The American appetite for fiction about money, family scandal, power, sex, and drugs with without limits or good taste.
Doubleday is part of Random House, Inc, a division of global media giant, Bertelsmann of Germany. The Mohn family is a major stockholder.
Main:
Impressions from the Heartland on the three part NBC Matt Lauer interview of unauthorized Bush family biographer, Kitty Kelley:
* The lady is smart, experienced and tough. She knows the business she is in and how it works.
* Gossip and scandal mongering are her stock and trade.
* Telling Line: ” Read my book and make your own judgement about its merits.”
* She claims that her words have been vetted line by line by her publisher’s liable lawyers.
* She is enjoying the spotlight of free publicity and the heat of the moment.
* She views the Bush Family as the most powerful dynasty in America. That might be news to the duPonts, the Roosevelts, the Rockefellers, the Mellons, the Waltons, the Heinz’s, and the Kennedy Clan to name just a few.
* Kitty does not know the game of golf.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Kitty is seen as a spunky filly who has elected to play where the big dogs with rather long memories roam. She and Dan have come closer to planting their flag and taking their last stand. Wrong time, wrong swamp, wrong subject.
Speaking of swamp, where is James Carville when we really need him for some good olde boy chili pepper hot rhetoric?
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