Democracy Blast

Fruit falling...into your hands?

Want to find (or share) free fruit near where you live? Check out Falling Fruit, a website that tracks where to find fruit and other edibles.  

Starting at a map of the world, you can zoom in to the US (or several other countries), and hunt virtually for nearby fruit you can then go out and pick actually. A similar website for Portland, Oregon, Urban Edibles, shows how many foraging spots can be found in a limited area.

Both sites take advantage of Google maps and, wiki-like, depend on the kindness of participants to share their information. Both sites also offer etiquette and ethic information about public foraging.  

Eat locally? Falling Fruit and Urban Edibles take the shopping out of the experience.

 

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Know your conspiracy theories!

Now that Edward Snowden has revealed the National Security Agency's actually HAS a secret surveillance program, it seems like a good time to take a look at various conspiracy theories. A poll conducted by Public Policy Polling helpfully divides the theory-believers by political party demographics. 

Do you believe that a secretive power elite conspires to rule through an authoritarian world government? 34% of Republicans and 35% of independents agree with you, but only 15% of Democrats do.

Think that global warming is a hoax? 58% of Republicans agree, while 77% of Democrats disagree. 

Is President Obama the Anti-Christ? 20% of Republicans believe so, compared to 13% of independents and 6% of Democrats who agree.  

Meanwhile, 6% of voters think Osama bin Laden is still alive, and 4% believe shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining power. 

At the PPP website you can find more opinions regarding intentional misleading about weapons of mass destruction to promote the Iraq War, or whether Paul McCartney died and was secretly replaced in the Beatles, or whether Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

As for the public’s response to Snowden’s revelations of our government’s collection of data on its people? The Washington Post reports that, “A large majority of Americans say the federal government should focus on investigating possible terrorist threats even if personal privacy is compromised, and most support the blanket tracking of telephone records in an effort to uncover terrorist activity, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll.” 

 

Do you agree that the federal government should investigate potential threats even if personal privacy is compromised? Click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.

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The birds and the bees

At some point, we all need to learn about the birds and the bees and the neonicotinoids. And a sort of unintentional field experiment, with the United States as the control group and the European Union as the experimental group, may teach us something important within a few years.

Here’s the deal: neonicotinoids are a type of pesticide that is increasingly being blamed for “colony-collapse disorder” that is killing honeybees. The data convinced the European Union that three types of these insecticides should be banned for two years from their countries. The American government remain unconvinced. 

So, starting in December, the nations of the European Union will cease using these pesticides, while the US continues to use them. If bees populations in Europe rebound and grow stronger, the blame for colony collapse will fall more strongly on neonicotinoids. If the bees don’t recover, this will likely indicate other possible culprits. 

Meanwhile, the birds are having problems that may be related to neonicotinoids as well. A study by the American Bird Conservancy states: “This report reviews the effects on avian species and concludes that neonicotinoids are lethal to birds as well as to the aquatic systems on which they depend. A single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird. Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, can poison a bird. As little as 1/10th of a corn seed per day during egg-laying season is all that is needed to affect reproduction with any of the neonicotinoids registered to date.”

 

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Solar-powered hospital

Since 1987, the nonprofit Partners In Health has been bringing healthcare to Haiti; now, with the building of a new hospital, they’ve also gone solar.

The combination of environmental concern, the high cost of electricity in Haiti, and the unpredictable nature of its availability led to the solar decision for the 200,000 sq foot, 300-bed hospital. PIH co-founder, Paul Farmer, is quoted as saying, “It’s not great if you’re a surgeon and you have to think about getting the generator going.”

“When fully operational,” the PIH website says, “University Hospital is expected to be the largest solar-powered hospital in the world that produces more than 100 percent of its required energy during peak daylight hours, an impressive feat for the first-ever teaching hospital in central Haiti.” 

Shoot, that’s an impressive feat for any hospital, anywhere.

Also noteworthy: in the 26 years since its founding, PIH has brought its good work to other places in need of health care: Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Russia, Peru, Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan--and USA and the Navajo Nation. 

 

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Ending Hunger in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Here’s how a city of 2.5 million people in central Brazil--Belo Horizonte, the nation’s 4th largest--is making food for all its citizens a reality:

 ~ Small farmers were given choice locations to sell fresh food directly to consumers, cutting out middlemen who’d hoisted the prices; 

~ Small markets, also strategically located, are required to sell certain healthy items at a set price of about two-thirds of the market price, while everything else can be sold at the market price;

~ Using the city-owned spaces also obligates the sellers to take truckloads of produce into poor neighborhoods in need of fresh produce;

~ “People’s cafeterias” offer heaping plates of hot food for about $1.10; everyone from any socio-economic class is welcome. The cafeterias serve 12,000 or more people each day.

 

The cost of these efforts? Around $10 million annually, which is less than 2 percent of the city budget. It translates into about a penny a day per resident. 

Perhaps the most important thing we’ve learned from Belo Horizonte? Real, true progress can be made in the fight against hunger.

See a 12-minute video about the program here. And learn how the program has grown here.

 

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At last! Something Democrats & Republicans agree on!

Just when you might have thought it impossible, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents have found something they can agree on: overturning the Citizens United ruling.

Thirteen states have called for a constitutional amendment in response to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that equated campaign money with free speech--allowing corporations, unions, and billionaires with deep pockets to anonymously out-advertise their political opponents. It turns out that no political party likes money to decide elections.

A constitutional amendment is difficult to achieve, but this grassroots effort has already galvanized voters--and their representatives--in West Virginia, Colorado, Montana, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Rhode Island, Maryland, Vermont, New Mexico, Hawaii and most recently, Maine. 

If you’d like to see your state jump onto this bandwagon, consider signing one of the petitions offered by Move to Amend, Daily Kos, Democracy is For People, or perhaps one by your state’s representatives.

 

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How you feeling?

May is Mental Health month, and a 3-minute online test can help determine how you’re doing, and whether you might want to share that information with your doctor.  

The online screening is designed to note mood and anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, bipolar disorder or depression.  

After choosing multiple choice answers on a 27-question list, participants will receive a mental health “number” and an explanation of its meaning.  

The free, private, 3-minute test is offered by Mental Health America, an advocacy group. Why not take a few minutes and check out your number?

 

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Start Something that Matters

“How would you use $50,000 to create positive, global impact?” That’s the provocative question posed by website GOOD and founder of TOMS shoes, Blake Mycoskie.

In their “Start Something That Matters” challenge, they’re offering financial support to help “launch an idea with the power to change the world for good.” 

Submissions are open from April 22 to May 17, noon Pacific Time. A panel of judges will choose finalists, which will then appear on the website for community voting. Judges will determine the final winner. “The chosen idea will be selected based on its potential for driving positive impact, its ability to be realized, and its viability for ongoing success to fuel positive change.”

Don’t have a great idea, but interested in watching--or voting on--the possibilities? Public voting will open on May 29 (noon Pacific Time) and close on June 12 (noon Pacific Time) at startsomethingthatmatters.maker.good.is/. And if you DO have a great idea, this is also the link to follow to learn more.

 

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It’s not what you know...

...it’s who you know. Or at least that’s what pollsters at You.Gov have been taking a look at. Traditional polls ask people their opinions on various matters important to society, but they rarely ask the participants if they or someone they know has personal experience with, for example, immigration, committed gay relationship, gun ownership, lack of health care, military service in Iraq or Afghanistan.  

You.Gov asked these questions, and has complied the results by gender, age, and political affiliation. Some of their “key findings” 

Illegal Immigration:

• More than one in four Americans (29%) knew someone who was an illegal immigrant
• Young adults are more likely to know an illegal immigrant than senior citizens
• Democrats and Republicans were equally likely to say they knew one 

Iraq and Afghanistan:

• 42% of Americans know somone or served themself in Afghanistan and 48% know someone or served themself in Iraq, 
• 13% Americans know someone who died in Iraq or Afghanistan 

Gay Marriage:

• A majority of Americans (56%) know someone who is in a committed gay relationship
• This extends across nearly all demographic groups and political affiliations 

You.Gov is looking into how who we know might affect our opinions. Check out the results of their poll here.

 

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What should we do now?

As our nation reels from yet another tragedy, sometimes the best response is to do something. Consider the following options in response to the bombing in Boston:

Volunteer at a food pantry or soup kitchen: www.foodpantries.org lists sites by state; Meals on Wheels might also need a hand: www.mowaa.org. 

The Red Cross often needs blood donors: www.redcrossblood.org/make-donation. 

Arbor Day Now at arbordaynow.volunteermatch.org might have a place for you to help plant trees. 

If none of those ideas sound quite right, check out VolunteerMatch at www.volunteermatch.org, where you can enter your city and receive a list of possibilities.

 

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