The Hartford Financial Services Group is announcing today that they will begin selling insurance at normal rates to men over 60 who have been surgically treated for moderate levels of prostate cancer. In the past, the men would have been forced to wait up to three years following treatment to qualify for life insurance coverage and would have paid much higher rates. (read the full Seattle P-I story)
Oregon Governor Pushes Renewable Energy
An ambitious plan for using renewable energy:
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski wants all the electricity used by state agencies to come from brand-new renewable sources such as wind and sun power — and he wants that done in an ambitious four years. (read the March 11 Oregonian report)
The New Medicine Airs on PBS March 29
A burgeoning movement is taking place in hospitals and clinics across the country, integrating the best of high-tech medicine with a new attitude that recognizes it is essential to the healing process to treat the patient as a whole person, and not a cog in an assembly line. A new public television documentary, The New Medicine, suggests that medical practice in America may be on the brink of a transformation. As scientific findings reveal that the mind plays a critical role in the body’s capacity to heal, the medical community is beginning to embrace a new range of treatment options, including many once considered fringe.
The program, which airs this Thursday on most PBS stations, is hosted by the late Dana Reeve, who died last month with lung cancer following the death of her husband Christopher. The two-hour show visits medical schools, healthcare clinics, research institutions, and private practices to show physicians at work on the cutting edge of this new approach. It explores why even some of the most conservative health institutions are now prescribing meditation and self-hypnosis along with high-tech modern medicine.
Rival Gangs in Jamaica Find Common Ground: A New Woman Prime Minister
“Portia Simpson-Miller, 51, who will be sworn in next week as the first woman Prime Minister of Jamaica, has prompted a rare dose of political unity with her pledge to succeed where decades of male leadership have failed in tackling the country’s notoriously high crime rate, joblessness and poverty.”
common ground reached by rival gangs where gunfire used to be commonplace between supporters of the new Prime Minister’s party, the PNP, on one side of the road, and backers of the Jamaican Labour Party, JLP, on the opposite side:
“While flare-ups here and in other ghetto communities continue, prompted by turf wars and gang disputes, the factions have at least found common ground in Mrs Simpson-Miller.
“The PNP like her, the JLP like her. On this we agree,” Michael Traill, a community leader in the JLP stronghold, said. “She gives us promises — schools, development, help for the children. She came from a poor background like ours.”
The Christian Science Monitor reports on the rising of women in Jamaica and features an inspiring photo of Simpson-Miller among supporters.
Polio Vaccines in Somalia
The World Health Organization has launched a five-day polio immunization campaign in Somalia to vaccinate nearly one and a half million children under age five against the crippling disease, which is on the decline there.
Saving Wildlife Also Helps Reduce Poverty
A World Wildlife Fund report this week says that efforts to save pandas and tigers and gorillas can also reduce poverty and improve the lives of local communities in rural areas, like Nepal, Uganda, India, Namibia, Costa Rica and China. Species work not only helps eradicate poverty and hunger, but also promotes sustainable and fair development, and in some cases generates significant amounts of money through eco-tourism projects, which allow tourists to observe species in the wild, like marine turtles, pandas and mountain gorillas.
Wind Power up by 25% Over Last Year
The wind energy industry worldwide installed more than US$14 billion worth of new generating equipment last year, an increase of 25 percent over 2004, according to a recent report by the Global Wind Energy Council. The Environment News Service reports the United States led the way, with an addition of 2,431 megawatts of capacity, enough to power 680,700 U.S. households per year. Germany was next with 1,808 MW, and Spain was third with 1,764 MW of new generating capacity.
Coral Reef Discovered
A new coral reef was discovered off the Thai coast, which is home to over 30 types of hard corals and at least 112 species of fish, including a parrot fish never seen in Thailand until now — and as a rare species of sweet lips. It’s an area of 1.4 square miles, 270 hectares, and scientists call it “spectacular.”
A Sure Sign of Spring: Wild Whooping Cranes Return to Wisconsin
Among the signs of springtime these days in central Wisconsin is the arrival of wild whooping cranes on Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and along the rivers and wetlands these majestic birds call their summer homes.
Thanks to the efforts of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), there are now 64 endangered whooping cranes migrating across the skies of eastern North America for the first time in more than a century using their eastern ancestral route.
Biologists with WCEP, an international coalition of public and private groups, announced today that 15 reintroduced whooping cranes had arrived on or near Necedah, and two others were roosting along the Wisconsin River.
Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in 1941, down to a low of just 21 birds. Today, about 300 birds exist in the wild. Aside from the 64 Wisconsin birds, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in Northwest Canada and winters at an Arkansas refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migrating flock of approximately 60 birds also lives year-round in the central Florida Kissimmee region.
The migrations began, as GNN reported in 2001, when pilots, like surrogate parents, first led whooping crane chicks, who had been conditioned to follow, away from Necedah in their ultralight aircraft (disguised to look similar to a crane). The same technique was featured in the movie, Fly Away Home. Each subsequent year, WCEP biologists and pilots have conditioned and guided other groups of juvenile cranes southward on the 1,250 mile journey (40-70 days) to central Florida.
The whooping crane chicks that take part in the reintroduction project are hatched at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., where they are introduced to ultralight aircraft and raised in isolation from humans. To ensure the impressionable cranes remain wild, project biologists and pilots adhere to a strict no-talking rule, and use recorded adult crane calls to communicate with the young birds. Researchers wear costumes designed to mask the human form whenever they are around the cranes.
New classes of cranes are taken to Necedah each June to begin a summer of conditioning behind the ultralights to prepare them for their fall migration. Pilots lead the birds on gradually longer training flights at the refuge throughout the summer until the young cranes are deemed ready to follow the aircraft over Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and into Florida.
The 19 birds in the Class of 2005, the most recent ultralight- reintroduced cranes, arrived in Florida on Dec. 13, 2005, after a 64-day migration. The 19 remain at their pensite in Florida and have begun taking short evening flights in the immediate area of the pen.
In addition to the 19 chicks that migrated behind ultralights in 2005, biologists also released four additional chicks last fall into the company of older birds at Necedah, in the hopes that the chicks would learn the migration route from adult whoopers or sandhill cranes.
WCEP is using this “direct autumn release” technique to complement the known success of the ultralight-led migrations. The chicks are reared in the field and released with older birds after fledging, or developing their flight feathers. This method has proven successful with sandhill cranes.
As of March 24, two of the 2005 direct autumn release birds had embarked on migration and were in Indiana; the other two remain in Florida.
Project staff from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service track and monitor cranes in an effort to learn as much as possible about their unassisted migrations back up North, and the habitat choices they make along the way. Wisconsin DNR biologists, join them in monitoring the cranes while they are at their summer locations, in 35 of 72 Wisconsin counties.
Whooping cranes, named for their loud and penetrating unison calls, live and breed in wetlands, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and aquatic plants. They are distinctive animals, standing 5 feet tall, with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.
Many other states, provinces, private individuals and conservation groups
have joined forces with and support WCEP with funding and personnel and by donating resources, like opening up private lands for the cranes along the migration route. More than 60 percent of the project’s budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, donations and corporate sponsors.
For more information on the project, like what to do if you see a Whooping crane, and to see the amazing photo of the ultralight disguised as a crane, visit the WCEP website at www.bringbackthecranes.org.
Photos by Jason Mrachina, CC (top) Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (middle)
India Makes Peace Overtures to Pakistan
Voice of America reports India is again warming toward rival Pakistan and calling for progress on Kashmir.
India’s Prime Minister has called for a treaty of peace and friendship with Pakistan. The overture aims at injecting fresh momentum into a flagging peace initiative between the two nuclear powers.
Clicks Against Breast Cancer, and Hunger, and Deforestation, and…
My friend Katharine sent me a message that the Breast Cancer Site was having trouble getting enough people to click on their site for donating free mammograms every day to underserved women. She said, “It takes only a few seconds to go to their site and click on “donating a mammogram” (the pink button in the middle). It doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors and advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising. Here’s the web site!” www.thebreastcancersite.com
This sounded just like the Hunger Site. (Have you ever clicked there to donate a free bowl of food for a hungy person?) In 1999, it had become one of most popular destinations on the internet. The Good News Network featured it in 1999, the first online activist web site. Well, whaddya know? I went to donate a mammogram with a simple click of my mouse and found — on the same page — not only the Hunger Site, but the Rainforest Site, The Child Health Site, the Literacy Site, and the Animal Rescue Site!
Carnegie Hero Fund Cites 21 for Extraordinary Heroism
The Carnegie Hero Awards were announced today. The bronze medallion and $4,000 were awarded to 20 individuals who risked their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving the lives of others. The heroes announced today bring to 8,981 the number of awards made since the fund’s inception in 1904. An additional prize was awarded posthumously to Leslie Joseph Staniowski, who died in the performance of his act. Staniowski, 51, was felled by a gunman when he attempted to restrain the man, who was shooting at a bartender in a Las Vegas casino.
To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, write the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 425 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1640, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, or call toll free 1-800-447-8900. Read about all 21 acts of heroism, including a man who found a baby on the couch while crawling through a smoke-filled home looking for casualties in the midst of a blaze. www.carnegiehero.org
Killing is over, say Basque terrorists
The Basque separatist group in Spain, announced a permanent ceasefire after four decades of armed military resistance. The Scotsman reports:
The news prompted jubilation across the country, where ordinary citizens say they can hardly believe the end has come for a group blamed for more than 850 deaths…
Green Australians Reusing 90% of Food Waste
A report by the Australian Food and Grocery Council revealed that about 90% of waste and by-products from the food and grocery manufacturers surveyed was being reused or recycled, with less than 10% going to landfill.
Industry participants in the survey have also reduced energy use by 14%, water use by 21% and greenhouse emissions by 29% since 2003.
Lawyer Floats Own Middle East Peace Plan
Josef Avesar, a successful Encino lawyer, has created a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The concept was intriguing enough to keep 300 Israelis, Arabs and Americans engaged during a recent three-hour symposium at UCLA,” reports the Jewish Journal. Mr. Avesar believes:
“It would create a momentum unparalleled in the history of the Middle East. Israelis and Palestinians would realize that there are more positive ways of dealing with each other. Age-old prejudices would soften, and accusations hurled by both sides would diminish. The public would be so galvanized by the success of the election and its attendant optimism that both sides would pressure their governments to cooperate with the federal system.”
It involves the creation of a Confederation that would serve as a mechanism for establishing projects of mutual benefit, such as utility grids, transportation systems and hospitals, composed of 300 independently elected delegates from every region.
Video Game Therapy Retunes Brain
Doctors in 2002 pronounced Ethan Myers brain dead for life. Today he is at peer level in reading, walking and talking, and for much of the progress his parents credit a new frontier of video game therapy. (CNET News)
CyberLearning’s SMART BrainGames system targets symptoms arising from brain injuries, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities. The system is built on NASA technology that used video games and neuro-feedback to train pilots to stay alert during long flights and calm during emergencies.
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Video games are serving other noble uses like allowing young leukemia patients to do battle with the invasion of cancer cells, helping ADHD kids learn to focus, and helping to combat obesity in West Virginia schools, where they use the lively Dance Dance Revolution, a step-to-the-beat game, as part of the curriculum.
Punks Against Suicide
A score of punk rock and hardcore bands are touring the country to raise awareness and much-needed cash for the teen suicide hotline, 1-800-Suicide and its parent organization, the Kristin Brooks Hope Center. The list of achievements born of this collaboration, after five years — and five tours — is impressive.
Since 2001, the Take Action Tour and the National Hopeline Network have teamed up and thanks to the petition drives and fundraising, suicide and the mental health challenges that lead to suicide have gained national attention in the halls of government. Impassioned politicians, like Congressman Patrick Kennedy, joined together with riveted punk rockers and concerned citizens for a press conference on Capitol Hill this month to demand the government fully fund and support suicide prevention efforts in the US.
Court Rejects Easing Pollution Controls
A federal appeals court rejects Bush Administration efforts to weaken Clean Air emission rules on aging coal-fired power plants. The vote was unanimous that the changes violated the Clean Air Act. Only Congress can authorize revisions in the law.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer led the court fight and called Friday’s ruling “a major victory for clean air and public health” and a “rejection of a flawed policy.”
Green College Courses and Degrees
Two opportunities for education, one green and the other coral (Gaia U. uses the color coral to distinguish the upcoming era of harmonious holistic living) Both are featured in the wonderful Positive News quarterly journal started the UK in 1993:
We’ve Read the Cover: Now NASA Opens The Book On Mars
The public has seen four rovers scratching the surface of Mars, and two orbiters peering at the red planet. Now with dazzling precision, NASA has put an expedition in orbit with more power to probe the secrets of Mars than all the previous orbiters and landers combined. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has arrived at the red planet.
The Reconnaissance Orbiter is a unique package of six instruments to help identify landing locations for future Mars Explorers. The six mission objectives for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in plain English:
1. Characterize the present climate and seasonal adjustments of Mars.
2. Determine the nature of complex layered terrain and identify water-related landforms.
3. Search for sites and pinpoint where any water is (to inform future studies asking if there was ever life on Mars, because, water is essential for life.)
4. Identify sites with the highest potential for landing and roving in the future.
5. Return scientific data from Mars.
NASA intends to fulfill all these goals while in orbit!