Politics

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The World Cafe - Principles for Purposeful Conversations

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

As much as technology has improved our ability to communicate with like-minded individuals around the world, there are still some difficulties that can only be solved by person-to-person discussion. The World Café is a new approach to harnessing the power of a group to take aim at the myriad of concerns that exist in any [...]

Mobilizing Aid for Haiti on the Web

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

It has been three weeks since the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in early January, reducing much of its capitol city of Port-au-Prince to debris and claiming over 170,000 lives. Hitting just 16 miles west of the capitol, the quake destroyed much of the impoverished nation’s infrastructure - leveling entire blocks of commercial [...]

Javed Abidi - Giving Visibility and Hope to India’s Disabled

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Power and compassion - these two words can sum up the focus behind Javed Abidi’s mission. As an impassioned advocate for India’s disabled citizens, he has given voice to an ‘invisible minority‘ - one that has been denied to them by both political and social sectors for decades. It is a subject that he understands [...]

California’s Unquenchable Thirst

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

‘Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.’
- Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell
Folk icon Joni Mitchell’s hit 1970 song ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ was written in response to the slow encroachment of mankind across the Hawaiian islands - but in modern times, the lyrics could serve as a [...]

Searhcing for Wind Power via Land, Sea and Air

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Before oil, gas, coal, hydroelectric and nuclear power - there was wind. It advanced the spread of civilization - by powering the sailing vessels of the earliest explorers and once settled, enabling them to efficiently irrigate their fields and mill their harvests. To our ancestors, wind must have appeared to be a coy mistress - [...]

Peak Phosphorous - A Looming Crisis

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Consider it an unforeseen consequence of our rapidly advancing ability to control the elements of our natural world - phosphorus, a key building block for life, is facing a shortage. Used as a key component in the production of fertilizer, it may not have the star power of other prized elements (such as gold, silver, [...]

Flash Mobs - The New Political Dissent

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

With the popularity of such widely-viewed YouTube clips as ‘Grand Central Freeze’ and ‘Oprah Flash Mobile Dance Party’, flash mobs have entered into our mainstream consciousness. Defined as a ’sudden, seemingly spontaneous activity planned through the rapid transmission of announcements’ through a variety of web-based tools (LiveJournal, Twitter, Facebook, et al.), the concept has [...]

Stem Cells - New Hope in Harnessing Nature’s Potent Toolkit

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Technology is advancing fast. But for people around the world facing the daily challenges of living with a disease, the future just isn’t coming quickly enough. This personal struggle - and increasingly, the untold financial cost of hospitalization and ongoing treatment at a time when the American health care industry is already under scrutiny - [...]

Remembering Ted Kennedy

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

The court of American opinion was not kind to Ted Kennedy. We expect our heroes to be without fault, perfect and polished at every turn. He was not that, and we would not let him forget it. Even in death, the multitude of obituaries were certain to include reference to his numerous personal struggles and [...]

ADHD Awareness Week - The Power Understanding Brings

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

‘Knowledge is Power.’ This quote by Sir Francis Bacon was the premise of a speech presented on behalf of New Zealand’s Minister for Disability Issues by Hon. Tariana Turia, at the kick-off seminar for their observance of ADD/ADHD Awareness Week. And although this quote can be used in a myriad of contexts, on this particular [...]