Some Kenyans seem to be able to have a "2nd Amendment right" to self and civil defense.

Wealthy Kenyans with Guns.

Libertarian Economics leading to "The Tragedy of the Commons"

Not sure why i post if no one comments... but Here is the Kind of Water Problems Africa has.

Open pit wells along a riverbed have been poisoned (possibly intentionally) with Tick Treatment.  The locals suspect the contractors for the China-funded railway to be seeking the river sand for their construction needs and attempting to chase away other users of the riverbed.   The government is investigating the exact poison used and the perpetrators.

Poisoned Wells in Kenya.

Masai manyatta visit Masai Mara pics

Ebola Scare Nakuru - Shamba Wash Station

BAD News.
There was an ebola scare in Nakuru when a child returned from Liberia / Burundi to an elite school just outside town with a fever and vomiting. But he tested negative for Ebola - good.

It seems the one thing that is really saving lives is "aggressive supportive care" -- fluid and electrolyte replacement to allow the patient to survive the onslaught of the hemorrhagic fever.  I think this alone has saved several lives even without immunological drugs like ZMAPP.  
IE. Dr Rick Sacra has been transferred to Nebraska.
" In the meantime, doctors will use "aggressive supporting care" to make sure that fluid loss and electrolyte loss don't damage his organs, Rupp said."

Should I consider stocking the necessary fluids and IV lines myself for me and mine or just run away?
...
Good News:
Some of the funding for the "Shamba Wash Station for Tania Rehab Center" has come through but we still need more support.  I am hoping to build this community a hand-crank, tumbling washing machine to wash and rinse the laundry for all 300 people.   This is how it is done now.

But remember, electricity is sporadic and expensive and water supplies unplumbed mostly and not municipally treated, so modern washing machines don't survive.  here is another example of laundry day, a bit more dramatic from Nairobi.

Next, post the trip to the MASAI MARA to see the wildebeest migration across the Mara River (filled with Crocodiles...).  Too Many Photos to edit etc... 

5 month "in country" update - a Few random Thoughts on Kenya

Kenya - although the laws are in English, don't count on doing business in English.  Better get some swahili lessons in before you come.

Kenya IS Like the Wild West as we may have imagined it except with cars and motorcycles.  The cattle and sheep are grazed by the side of the road and may wander into the highway at any time. They even wander straight into the downtown district.  All sorts of domesticated animal is wandering the streets, goats, sheep, cattle, gorgeous Masai Cattle with their loose hides, back hump and smooth fur, geese, chickens everywhere - I don't even see them anymore.  In the lower districts of Nakuru, closer to the conservancy, the baboons will come into the streets and run across the roof tops.

The men along the Rift Valley Highway harness donkeys to truck rear-axle carts and haul water up and down the highway that crawls along the volcanic cliffs to plateaus, where villages are dry.  The water is RAW- often from an open puddle - no filtration, no sanitation, no treatment of any kind.

Kenya is FULL of metal workers.  Why? Every window and door opening has a steel door or grate due to the security issues of a poor nation - poverty breeds desperation, desperation breeds crime.  BUT, None of them use proper Welding MASKS.  They use SUNGLASSES.  Which is why although Kenya is full of metal work, many of the welds are crap due to the inconsistent application of the welding stick because the welder is working with his EYES CLOSED!!!  I wonder what the stats are on blindness in former welders???

Many of the Non Government Organizations (NGO's) working to improve living conditions in rural Africa are finding that installing systems like deep water wells (bore holes) without financial systems and mechanisms to maintain them often fail to be maintained.  What I have found is that while Kenya is rich in soil, rich in labor, rich in agriculture, it is not rich in cash money, which is what larger institutions like banks, power companies and county administrations must be paid.

I have been looking for opportunities to use my knowledge and talents to build a company around more sustainable infrastructure.  I would like to do a demonstration micro-enterprise project for an orphanage outside the Masai Mara conservancy which concentrates on children with special needs.  They take care of about 175 children including one who was found at the age of four in the Nakuru National Park after being raised by baboons.  Her name is Charity and she is now around seven, she still does not speak, she still does not use a spoon, she still has the mannerisms of a baboon and yet she is protected and sheltered by the other orphans in this place who have taken her under their wings collectively even though many have their own problems.  please find my fund raising page here and pass it around to the charitable souls you may know. -TF
http://www.gofundme.com/c9ojzs

Nairobi Kenya ...  38 hours of transit  is wearing on me... Arrived in Nairobi after layover in Amsterdam where we met some very kind people at the Central Coffeeshop while having coffee.  Julia, from poland,  would like us to send a copy of "The Little Prince" from Kenya in Swahili if possible.  Adam upped the ante by declaring he would have a local translate it into one of the more rare kenyan Languages... We will see.
Nairobi has smoking areas for cigarette smokers but no real laws about air pollution, so the exhaust of the cars reminds me of LA in the 1970's.  (Danger - Long Memory).
Woke early this morning due to jet lag and contemplating coffee at 4am Nairobi time.  Our driver "Bonnie"  BonFacio guided us to the hotel Kipepeo in Nairobi where will stay the night.  looking forward to meeting Danny Connor of WellAware and Catherine of the Coop Bank AT THE SAME TIME.  How opportune~~!!!  havent really seen much yet but the airport. so more to come today... -TF Nairobi Kenya

Still humming with enthusiasm from the Workshop in Superadobe.  Meet SO many great people - all engaged in working to build a better world.  Watching Nader Speak of the Dream and designing a Water Fountain for villages in Africa.  With No exposed Valves that break, at a height to allows access to water for drinking and filling containers but too high to wash feet in the drain, self-contained with no exposed breakable parts - piping flows inside the main Column.  Pricing out at about $1000 (est. depends upon costs on the ground) for a solar powered, self-contained, sand filtered, water-recycling Village Fountain that holds and recycles about 100 cubic feet of water with 6 heavy unbreakable copper Spigots and a gravel drain trench so no more Lost Water in mud puddles. Peace.  -TF

Soon Attending the CalEarth SuperAdobe Workshop.

Superadobe (sandbag and barbed wire) technology is a large, long adobe. It is a simple adobe, an instant and flexible line generator. It uses the materials of war for peaceful ends, integrating traditional earth architecture with contemporary global safety requirements. Long or short sandbags are filled with on-site earth and arranged in layers or long coils (compression) with strands of barbed wire placed between them to act as both mortar and reinforcement (tension). Stabilizers such as cement, lime, or asphalt emulsion may be added. This patented and trademarked (U.S. patent #5,934,027, #3,195,445) technology is offered free to the needy of the world, and licensed for commercial use.

Looking forward to learning from the Son of the Inventor of this amazing technology and applying these tools to building a small water supply, filtration and agricultural/aquaculture Village system in Africa. Stay tuned as this is where I will be giving updates on our progress in AFRICA!!!   
 - TF

PowerWing Wind Turbine Logo

I don't know what exactly to call the turbine so any name suggestions would be appreciated. Here is the Project Logo for the Power Wing Wind Turbine Test bed project on kickstarter.com.

Turbine Test Bed Engine

This is the model we hope to build a test bed for to prove output of the turbine design. Kickstarter sponsors can have their names or logos emblazoned on the vanes of this model which are 7 and 3/8 inches wide and 48 inches long as the turbine will be placed on its side for the output testing.

Mild Wind Deflection Increases Power Output

Cleveland State University wind turbines at Progressive Field are overachievers

Non-profit formation a Wash

This is to say that this blog is defunct due to lack of interest and funding.
the author

MM-7 Stirling Engine

MM-7 Stirling Engine: "MM-7 Stirling Engine
New Engine: The amazing MM-7 Stirling engine will run indefinitely on just the heat from your warm hand! As a gift, conversation piece, or classroom demo, you can be sure it will be unique and attention getting.

Our Price: $379.00 " Fun gift Idea

CNN.com - Sierra Leone amputees in a league of their own - Apr 3, 2006

CNN.com - Sierra Leone amputees in a league of their own - Apr 3, 2006: "'The civil war was terrible,' Kamara says. 'It's reduced us to a nation of beggars ... one-armed and one-legged beggars.'"

CNN.com - Broken Borders: Teddy Roosevelt's words to live by - Mar 27, 2006

CNN.com - Broken Borders: Teddy Roosevelt's words to live by - Mar 27, 2006: "The following is one of my favorite thoughts on the issue of immigration. It's from President Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to the American Defense Society in 1919, 10 years after his presidency.
--Lou Dobbs
'In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...
There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1919"

Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source | Full text | Cocaine in surface waters: a new evidence-based tool to monitor community drug abuse

Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source | Full text | Cocaine in surface waters: a new evidence-based tool to monitor community drug abuse: "Cocaine in surface waters: a new evidence-based tool to monitor community drug abuse
Ettore Zuccato1 , Chiara Chiabrando1 , Sara Castiglioni1, 2 , Davide Calamari2 , Renzo Bagnati1 , Silvia Schiarea1 and Roberto Fanelli1
1Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milan, Italy
2Department of Biotechnology and Molecular Sciences, University of Insubria, Via Dunant 3, 21100 Varese, Italy

Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source 2005, 4:14 doi:10.1186/1476-069X-4-14"

study testing sewage water for illegal drugs... but also many pharmaceuticals can pass through current water treatment plants and pose an unrecognized dosing of populations dependent upon recycled water. This is one of the problems that the "City Ship" seeks to address by supplying each "Pod" a "toxic toilet" (as opposed to the "Green toilet") for those taking pharmaceuticals. This would prevent the recycled water system from becoming contaminated by pharmacueticals and known illnesses, which are better treated as medical waste within the buildings "toxin drain" system.

Telegraph | News

Telegraph | News: "River of cocaine

By James Orr and Nina Goswami
(Filed: 06/11/2005)

To early morning joggers, the sight of a man drawing buckets of water from a boat midstream in the River Thames may have seemed a little unusual.

On board were a team of three scientists, experts in their field, who were for the first time attempting to test for the presence of cocaine in Britain's most famous river.

Their series of sophisticated calculations based on data obtained from Thames water aimed to uncover the true extent of cocaine abuse in the UK.
The results from the Sunday Telegraph investigation make shocking reading. The research suggests that levels of cocaine use in London are 15 times higher than official estimates.

Clinical toxicologist Prof John Henry warned yesterday: 'Anyone who persists with using cocaine is inevitably causing damage to their health.
'Because of the long-term complications of cocaine use, we are looking at a healthcare timebomb. It will creep up on us just as surely as tobacco and alcohol have done.'

Unlike in the US, where experts claim cocaine use has peaked, the culture of taking the Class A drug in Britain is continuing to grow.
Chemical compounds of the narcotic do not break down easily, making it relatively simple to test for. Traces of the white powder are likely to pass through the user and into sewerage networks. But even when the sewage has been processed and the water returned to the rivers, significant evidence of the drug still remains.

Navigating their way along the Thames aboard the aptly named Watchdog, scientists from Milan's Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research took water samples from a variety of sites.
Dr Chiara Chiabrando, Dr Sara Castiglioni and "

Dr. Fred Bell's Health, Science and Energy Show

Dr. Fred Bell's Health, Science and Energy Show: "Dr. Fred Bell's
HEALTH, SCIENCE and ENERGY SHOW" Check out my interview in the Archives on March 25, 2006. We talk about architectures influence on society and health and why we must start demanding "City Ships" instead of more of the same "suburban death trap".

Tipping Mar + associates

Tipping Mar + associates Structural Engineers in green technology

United Nations Statistics Division - Environment Statistics

United Nations Statistics Division - Environment Statistics Hazardous Waste Generation ... By Nation.

United Nations Statistics Division - Environment Statistics

United Nations Statistics Division - Environment Statistics The United Nations focuses Water, Air, Waste and Land in its measurements of Environmental Indicators

AAAAI - Media Center: Media Resources: Media Kit - Asthma Statistics

AAAAI - Media Center: Media Resources: Media Kit - Asthma Statistics: "Asthma Statistics

• Approximately 20 million Americans have asthma. 1
  Nine million U.S. children under 18 have been diagnosed with asthma. 2
  
• More than four million children have had an asthma attack in the previous year. 2
  
• More than 70% of people with asthma also suffer from allergies. 3
  
• 10 million Americans suffer specifically from allergic asthma. 4
  The prevalence of asthma increased 75% from 1980-1994. 5
  
• Asthma rates in children under the age of five have increased more than 160% from 1980-1994. 5
  
• In 2003, there were 12.7 million physician office visits and 1.2 million outpatient department visits due to asthma. 1
  There were 1.9 million asthma-related visits to emergency departments in 2002. 1
  
• There are approximately 5,000 deaths from asthma annually. 1
  Direct health care costs for asthma in the United States total more than $11.5 billion annually; indirect costs (lost productivity) add another $4.6 billion for a total of $16.1 billion. Prescription drugs represented the largest single direct medical expenditure, over $5 billion. 1
  
• 12.8 million school days are missed annually due to asthma. 1
  The value of reduced productivity due to death represented the largest single indirect cost related to asthma, approaching $1.7 billion. 1
  
• Asthma accounts for approximately 24.5 million missed work days for adults annually. 1
  Asthma prevalence is 39% higher in African Americans than in whites. 1
  
• The prevalence of asthma in adult females was 35% greater than the rate in males, in 2003. 1
  
• Approximately 40% of children who have asthmatic parents will develop asthma. 6

1. 1. American Lung Association. Epidemiology & statistics Unit, Research and Program Services. Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality May 2005.
   
2. 2. Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2002. Series 10, Number 221.2004-1549
   
3. 3. National Library of Medicine. Understanding Allergy and Asthma. National Institutes of Health.
   
4. 4. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Fact Sheet #9: Asthma and its Environmental Triggers: Scientists Take a Practical New Look at a Familiar Illness . www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/factsheets/asthma.htm
   
5. 5. Centers for Disease Control. Surveillance for Asthma – United States, 1960-1995, MMWR. 1998; 47 (SS-1).
   
6. 6. Martinez FD, Wright AL, Taussig LM, et al.: Asthma and wheezing in the first six years of life,” N Engl J Med 1995; 332:133-138.
   

NAASO, The Obesity Society

NAASO, The Obesity Society Obesity Statistics State by State.

Diabetes Statistics - American Diabetes Association

Diabetes Statistics - American Diabetes Association

La. Residents Ponder Life Without Crawfish - Yahoo! News

La. Residents Ponder Life Without Crawfish - Yahoo! News Another Effect of Hurricane storm Surges: Depositing Salt in previously fresh or brackish wetlands and changing the ecosystem for months to years to come. - TMF

Let Justice Roll

Let Justice Roll GREAT SITE ABOUT ECONOMIC WAGE JUSTICE
Following two concise, biting articles that will c-c-chill you. This girl is writes like a machine gun. --JH
You may be interested in checking out these websites if you don't know them,
www.letjusticeroll.org, www.faireconomy.org, www.epinet.org, www.cbpp.org, www.cepr.org, www.ourfuture.org, www.americanprogress.org, www.commondreams.org

King would tell Congress to value workers
By Holly Sklar

Published by Cox News Service 1/15/06, MSNBC 1/13, Cleveland Plain Dealer, El Nuevo Herald (Miami), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Albany Times-Union, Topeka Capital Journal, Daphne Bulletin (AL), Mountain Mail (CO), Herald (CT), Lake Worth Herald (FL), Daily Corinthian (MS), Laconia Daily Sun (NH), Waco Tribune-Herald (TX), Progressive Populist, MinutemanMedia, TomPaine.com, Truthout.org, CommonDreams.org, many more
Copyright © 2006 Holly Sklar

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on the brink of the Great Depression and died fighting for the right of workers to earn a decent living.

On March 18, 1968, days before his murder, King told striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., "It is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis…getting part-time income." King said, "We are tired of working our hands off and laboring every day and not even making a wage adequate with daily basic necessities of life."

Two years earlier on March 18, 1966, King had called for Congress to boost the minimum wage. "We know of no more crucial civil rights issue facing Congress today than the need to increase the federal minimum wage and extend its coverage," he said. "A living wage should be the right of all working Americans."

King did not dream that in the year 2006, he would be remembered with a national holiday, but the value of the minimum wage would be lower than it was in the 1950s and '60s. At $5.15 an hour, today's minimum wage is nearly $4 less than it was in 1968, when it reached its historic high of $9.09, adjusted for inflation.

The minimum wage has become a poverty wage instead of an anti-poverty wage. A full-time worker at minimum wage makes just $10,712 a year -- less than $900 a month -- to cover housing, food, health care, transportation and other expenses.

As Congressional Quarterly observed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, "In the Lower Ninth Ward and other impoverished neighborhoods of New Orleans, people have long waged battle to make ends meet... That was a nearly unattainable goal in a city where many of the jobs were in hotels and restaurants that paid around the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour."

A low minimum wage is a green light for miserly employers to pay poverty wages to a growing share of the workforce -- not just workers at the minimum, but above it. In its 2005 Hunger and Homelessness Survey, the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that 40 percent of the adults requesting emergency food assistance were employed, as were 15 percent of the homeless.

A low minimum wage is a green light for greed. Between 1968 and 2004, domestic corporate profits rose 85 percent while the minimum wage fell 41 percent and the average hourly wage fell 4 percent, adjusted for inflation. In the retail sector, which employs large numbers of workers at or near minimum wage, profits skyrocketed 159 percent.

With the federal minimum wage stuck in quicksand, a growing number of states have raised their state minimums above $5.15 -- Oregon and Washington are highest at $7.50 and $7.63, respectively. Studies by the Fiscal Policy Institute and others have shown that states with minimum wages above the federal level have had better employment trends than the other states, including for retail businesses and small businesses.

Dan Gardner, commissioner of Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries, says, "Overall most low-wage workers pump every dollar of their paychecks directly into the local economy by spending their money in their neighborhood stores, local pharmacies, and corner markets. When the minimum wage increases, local economies benefit from the increased purchasing power."

In the words of Joel Marks, national director of the American Small Business Alliance, "Fair wages are good for business."

Congress has taken eight pay raises since 1997, while denying fair pay for minimum wage workers. On Jan. 1, congressional pay quietly rose to $165,200 -- up $31,600 since 1997. And unlike minimum wage workers, members of Congress have good health benefits, pensions and perks.

Wages are a bedrock moral issue.

It is immoral that workers who put food on our table go without health care to put food on theirs.

It is immoral that workers who care for children, the ill and the elderly struggle to care for their own families.

It is immoral that the minimum wage keeps people in poverty instead of out of poverty.

King would tell Congress to value workers and raise the minimum wage. We need a wage ethic to go with our work ethic.

Holly Sklar is co-author of "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future" (www.letjusticeroll.org) and "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us" (www.raisethefloor.org). She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com.
Copyright © 2006 Holly Sklar
--------------------------------------

Carving up our economic pie
By Holly Sklar
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services, November 22, 2005
Copyright (c) 2005 Holly Sklar

Pie season is here. Pumpkin, apple, cherry, whatever you like. We can use edible pie charts -- and some chocolate -- to see how our national economic pie is being carved up more unfairly.

Let's look first at income distribution.

Take two pies -- one for 1979, the other for 2003 (using the latest IRS data).

Divide the 1979 pie into 10 equal slices. If the slices were eaten according to the distribution of income in 1979:

-- The richest 1 percent of taxpayers would get one slice.
-- The rest of the top 20 percent would get four slices.
-- The other 80 percent of taxpayers would split five slices.

Now, divide the 2003 pie into 10 slices.

-- The richest 1 percent would get nearly two slices.
-- The rest of the top 20 percent would get a little over four slices.
-- The other 80 percent would split four slices.

In 1979, the top 20 percent of taxpayers had about as much income as the other 80 percent combined. In 2003, the top 20 percent had 60 percent of the income, leaving just 40 percent for the rest. The richest 1 percent nearly doubled their share.

Let's look more closely at the upward shift in income.

In 1979, the bottom 40 percent of taxpayers had about 15 percent more combined income than the richest 1 percent. In 2003, the richest 1 percent had twice the income share of the bottom 40 percent.

The richest 1 percent share of reported income jumped from 9.6 percent in 1979 to 17.5 percent in 2003. The bottom 40 percent share fell from 11.3 percent to 8.8 percent.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston puts the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else in stark perspective. He examined the income reported on tax returns of the top 0.01 percent -- about 14,000 households with at least $5.5 million in income.

From 1950 to 1970, for every additional dollar earned by those in the bottom 90 percent, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162.

From 1990 to 2002, for every additional dollar earned in the bottom 90 percent, those at the top brought in an extra $18,000.

If you are feeling financially down this holiday season, there's a good reason. Average workers have been earning less after inflation, not more. Average hourly earnings dropped 5 percent, adjusting for inflation, between 1979 and 2004 -- while domestic corporate profits rose 63 percent.

The share of national income going to wages and salaries is at the lowest level since 1929 -- the year that kicked off the Great Depression. The share going to after-tax corporate profits, which heavily benefit wealthy Americans through increased dividends and capital gains, is at the highest level since 1929.

Income gaps in the workplace have become increasingly outrageous, as seen in the growing gap between worker pay and CEO pay. We can demonstrate it with a pile of chocolate.

Give 1 piece of chocolate to your worker stand-in and 44 pieces to your CEO stand-in. That was the 1980 ratio of average full-time worker pay to average pay among CEOs in Business Week's survey of major corporations.

For the equivalent 2004 ratio, give 1 piece of chocolate to the worker and 362 to the CEO.

As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports, federal policy is contributing "to a further widening of income disparities between the most affluent households and other Americans." Households with incomes over $1 million will receive an average tax cut of $103,000 this year -- an increase of 5.4 percent in their after-tax income.

The congressional majority is done crying crocodile tears over Katrina and the shameful inequality it exposed.

They're working overtime to stiff the have-nots with more budget cuts so they can keep stuffing the pockets of the haves with more tax cuts. The budget knife is dropping on Medicaid, education, child care, food assistance and more-- even public health, despite loud warnings we are unprepared for bird flu and other threats.

Tell your senators and members of Congress what you think about their priorities, and make your voice count when you vote next November.

Holly Sklar is co-author of "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us" (www.raisethefloor.org). She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com.
Copyright (c) 2005 Holly Sklar

Aging Japan builds robot to look after elderly - Yahoo! News

Aging Japan builds robot to look after elderly - Yahoo! News A glimpse of a robotic medical future.

Covered by five millimeters (0.2 inches) soft silicone, RI-MAN is equipped with sensors that show it a body's weight and position.


The 100-kilogram (220-pound) robot can also distinguish eight different kinds of smells, can tell which direction a voice is coming from and uses powers of sight to follow a human face.


"In the future, we would like to develop a capacity to detect a human's health condition through his breath," Mukai said.

This may seem strange but many metabolic problems chane the odor of the breath such as ketoacidosis from extremely high blood sugar as seen in Diabetics
Japan is bracing for a major increase in needs for elderly care due to a declining birth rate and a population that is among the world's longest living.


The population declined in 2005 for the first time since World War II as more young people put off starting families.

OMB Watch - ALERT: EPA Proposes Rollback on Toxic Pollution Reporting

OMB Watch - ALERT: EPA Proposes Rollback on Toxic Pollution Reporting It is exactly this kind of Oligarchic manipulation of our current governmental system that makes me not really trust the EPA, USDA and FDA to protect the American public health to the highest standards technically and politically possible.

Notice how this is an assault on information (ie reporting) These are changes that alter the free flow of information about what chemicals a business is using and thus the real list of chemicals that they are responisible for disposing of properly. This is the short circuit of a free press as one of the foundations of an open democracy.

ACT NOW

OMB Watch - Toxic Chemical Sites in New Orleans

OMB Watch - Toxic Chemical Sites in New Orleans Nice Work on all the addresses of businesses that the EPA had already identified as possible toxic sites: either chemical or biological, as in sanitation systems

Miroslav Holub

Miroslav Holub who I had the honor and privilege to study with at Pitzer College in the Claremont Colleges, where he was a visiting professor teaching one course: "The Language of Science and The Language of Poetry". I must count him among my mentors.

Solomon E.T.C., A WRT Company

David Brower Center in Berkeley, by Solomon E.T.C., A WRT Company A Tipping, Mar & Associates project on the Scale of a "City Ship" acheiving Platinum LEED rating. This is where I would love to have the first Coalition Rethinking Cities offices or maybe just an apartment among the 96 there.

Buy the Book "How to Stop Suburbia from Killing America "

Buy the Book "How to Stop Suburbia from Killing America " in "Tree-saving" PDF format.

little double check on the stats ignore this and continue down

Here Again is the Purpose of this Blog

: "Healthy Architecture
The purpose of this web blog is to collect and dissemiate information about the health aspects of architecture and city planning.

I myself am a nursing student interested in Occupational & Environmental Health. I hope to someday become a Nurse Practioner and work to build healthier cities and buildings. Much of the Information collected on this site will directly relate to my Master's thesis in Nursing or else to other similar work being done in other cites facing similar public health issues.

The central questions revolve around: Are the cities we build helping to kill us? If so, in what way and to what degree? What are the greatest public health consequences of such architectural decisions? What solutions can be proposed that would help to work around the additional obstacles of the architecture which we have built and how can we build buildings and cities that are more healthful?

I look forward to any imput from anyone that relates to these goals.

To Start the Ball rolling... the aspects of public health that are being influenced by our archiecture include increased motorized transport dependence leading to increased air pollution which has been shown to effect both the respiratory system, contributing to an epidemic in pediatric asthma and allergies. Air pollution is significantly linked with increased cardiac incidents in patients with current cardiac problems. Transport dependence also has had a huge effect on the cardiovascular health of even indi"

Buy the Primer: "Stop Suburbia..."

Buy the Primer: "Stop Suburbia...": "Act Now to help the Cause! Help create the CRC, an organization with a singular objective: Building the "City Ship" by 2015! Buy the Primer: "Stop Suburbia from Killing America! A Primer" by Thomas M. Fenaughty...'"

Convio - Nonprofit success stories for online donations, email marketing, volunteer recruitment

Convio - Nonprofit success stories for online donations, email marketing, volunteer recruitment Web / content & email list management for non profits.

Solutions for Communities, Organizations and Non-Profits on Bondware Web Solutions

Solutions for Communities, Organizations and Non-Profits on Bondware Web Solutions: "Online File Library - The File Library allows you to receive large files easily and securely. Allow your members to upload content, pictures, and music for a truly interactive publication. Secure digital content management.
Community Calendar - Get a Bondware 3.0 website and add the Community Calendar module. Add exciting functionality and keep your members up to date and informed of the happening events.
Community Forums - Make your site the place to be! Provide a place for members to discuss topics your newspaper has covered. Keeps your members coming back time and time again. Private and Public forums available. "

This is a new software I am considering transfering this blog to for better interactivity with the visitors of this web site. Please comment... We are looking for a better solution than this booger.com which to me seems no better than a stack of papers on my desk.
- Tom Fenaughty

Harvard@Home: On the Relation of Science and the Humanities, with Professor Edward O. Wilson

Harvard@Home: On the Relation of Science and the Humanities, with Professor Edward O. Wilson

since Many People outside of the biological sciences know who E.O. Wilson is I would like to present this link as an introduction to one of the most humane and brillant scientific minds that America currently has actively working for a better world based on science and compassion for the human condition.

The Paula Gordon Show

The Science of Survival with Dr. Edward O. Wilson

The real work of the 21st century, according to the great Harvard scientist Edward O. Wilson, is to settle humanity down before we wreck the planet. Dr. Wilson says the explosion of the human population promises 8 billion people living on earth within 40 years (as compared to 2 billion in 1900.) It's a vast bottleneck coinciding with a documented worldwide decline in arable land and water. And we people are pushing the rest of life off the face of the earth. But Wilson also offers both hope and plans for action.

While Dr. Wilson expects the 21st century will be a scary rush of accelerating change, if -- and this is a very big "if" -- if we address our challenges of natural resources, conservation, and human population, we have a chance for a quieter, more secure time for humans and other forms of life on the other side.

We need what we are destroying. Creepy-crawlies and weeds are the very foundation of life, the little things that run the earth, cycle and recycle nutrients, create the air and soil. And they do it for free. Without them, Wilson assures us the terrestrial ecosystems of the world would collapse within a year, making human life unsustainable. That's before taking into account the species we are driving to extinction provide us priceless resources for scientific information, new pharmaceuticals, and much more.

Besides, Wilson asks, who are we to destroy Creation, the product of 100s of millions of years of evolution?

Thank you Doctor Wilson!!!

Stirling Energy Systems Inc. - Biomass Overview

Stirling Energy Systems Inc. - Biomass Overview

BIOGAS OVERVIEW

Biogas resources are organic crops and wastes, such as wood and paper residues, landfill gas, biogas from sewage wastes, and other agricultural wastes, converted to usable energy. Globally, the most common use of biogas is heating and cooking. However, there is a noticeable amount of biogas converted to electricity. One of the governing economic factors of biogas is the cost associated with shipping the fuels. These shipments can quickly move the cost per kWh to a noncompetitive level. Because of these costs, most of the biogas generation is in dispersed and customer-sited operations smaller than 100 MW.

In the U.S., there is approximately 10.5 gigawatts of biogas generating capacity. This capacity has remained constant for the past five years. The majority of this capacity is generation within the industries that produce their own fuel resources, such as the paper and lumber industries. These sectors have experience little growth in the recent past, and in turn, biogas has not seen any growth. Despite this relative stagnation, there is a shift occurring in the industry. Most new biogas capacity additions are using landfill gas and digester gas as fuel which frees them from an industry specific presence.

A further shift is expected to occur as technologies develop that allow smaller facilities to economically use available fuels. These operations could include farmers and other smaller industries in remote settings where this generation is most likely to be economically viable. One of the technologies expected to contribute to this shift is the Stirling engine, which is uniquely capable of handling diverse non-liquid biogas fuels because of its external combustion design.

Asthma: Children and Adolescents | CDC APRHB

Asthma: Children and Adolescents | CDC APRHB: "Asthma's Impact on Children and Adolescents

Asthma is a major public health problem of increasing concern in the United States. From 1980 to 1996, asthma prevalence among children increased by an average of 4.3% per year, from 3.6% to 6.2%. Low-income populations, minorities, and children living in inner cities experience disproportionately higher morbidity and mortality due to asthma. Asthma’s effects on children and adolescents include the following:

• Asthma accounts for 14 million lost days of school missed annually.
  
• Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among those younger than 15 years of age.
  
• The number of children dying from asthma increased almost threefold from 93 in 1979 to 266 in 1996.
  
• The estimated cost of treating asthma in those younger than 18 years of age is $3.2 billion per year.

LII: Constitution of the United States of America

LII: Constitution: Bill of Rights

The End of the Republican Party?

The End of the Republican Party? 2nd Amendment discussion - An Examination of current gun legislation about "Americans 2nd Amendment Right to Bear Arms".
Just for the Record the Second Amendment of the United States of America Constitution reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free STATE, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

It also states that A well regulated militia is NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE. In addition, the RIGHT of the PEOPLE to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

And yet these rights have been infringed and most states have disbanded their state militias.

EPA - Envirofacts - EMCI - Chemical References Index

EPA - Envirofacts - EMCI - Chemical References Index
List of Toxic Chemicals that the EPA monitors

Specter Believes Spy Program Violates Law - Yahoo! News

Specter Believes Spy Program Violates Law - Yahoo! News: "Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), whose committee has scheduled hearings Monday on the National Security Agency program, said he believes the administration violated a 1978 law specifically calling for a secretive court to consider and approve such monitoring."

Study links heart-surgery drug to major health risks - Health & Science - International Herald Tribune

Study links heart-surgery drug to major health risks - Health & Science - International Herald Tribune: "The drug is aprotinin, made by Bayer and sold under the brand name Trasylol. It has been on the market for 13 years. Halting its use globally would prevent 10,000 to 11,000 cases of kidney failure a year, and save more than $1 billion a year in dialysis costs as well as nearly $250 million spent on the drug itself, according to a report to be published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine."

My Thoughts: I once describes just such a situation when I said, "Perhaps if we truly knew the complete biological chemistry we would see that one factory making a products is polluting the environment for which we will produce a solution. Perhaps in another factory that produces another pollution that creates a second disease while curing the first."

W. J. Oswald, 86, Algae Miracle Worker, Dies - New York Times

W. J. Oswald, 86, Algae Miracle Worker, Dies - New York Times: "William J. Oswald, a scientist who pioneered ways to use algae to address immense human problems - including treating sewage, increasing food supplies, generating energy and facilitating voyages into deep space - died on Dec. 8 at his home in Concord, Calif. He was 86.

Saxon Donnelly/University of California, Berkeley
W. J. Oswald in undated photo. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said the University of California, Berkeley, where Dr. Oswald was a professor emeritus in civil and environmental engineering.
Dr. Oswald promised miracles from the humblest of plants and proceeded to perform more than a few. He developed a system of ponds in which algae eat and purify wastewater, and built more than 100 around the world. The algae could then be harvested using his patented process as protein-rich food for animals or people able to ignore its provenance. The leftover water, now cleansed, could be used for irrigation, as a coolant for engines and even, with more purification, for human consumption.

The sludge from the bottom of the pond could be added to the soil as humus, he advised. Methane gas produced by the algae could be captured and used. The per-acre yield of protein is 10 times that of soybeans, and algae suffer from few of the diseases that affect other crops. Since algae can do all this work in seawater, more precious freshwater can be conserved.
'It is technically feasible to apply controlled photosynthesis to reclaim and reuse our wastes an indefinite number of times and in so doing to produce unprecedented quantities of food, water and raw materials at costs within the economic reach of most societies,' Dr. Oswald said in a speech in 1960. Many of these concepts were realized in experiments or actual projects. Dr. Oswald's ingenious idea for having astronauts take along some algae to treat their waste, while producing oxygen and water, has so far been tested only with mice, successfully.

Treatment systems designed by Dr. Oswald or patterned after his design are now in use in Bolivia, Brazil, Greece, Mexico and South Africa, as well as in the United States.

Dr. Oswald was particularly interested in applying his ideas for simple, affordable, sustainable wastewater treatment to developing countries. In recent years, he worked with the government of India to develop a way to use algae ponds to purify the Ganges River.

In a 1998 article on this Ganges effort, The New Yorker declared, "Oswald is to algae what Michael Jordan is to basketball."


This year, Dr. Oswald received a lifetime achievement prize from the International Society for Applied Phycology (the branch of botany dealing with seaweed and algae). In addition, colleagues from around the world have nominated him for next year's Stockholm Water Prize.


Dr. Oswald was born in King City, Calif., on July 6, 1919, and grew up on a ranch in Southern California, where his interest in water, agricultural production and human health began. As a child, he witnessed the choking death of a schoolmate from a roundworm infection caused by poor sanitation.


During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces and was responsible for food and water sanitation for one of the D-Day invasion camps. While still in the Army after the war, he was a hospital administrator and coordinated the care of patients suffering from the effects of contaminated water.


He used the G.I. Bill to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. He stayed on to get a Ph.D. in sanitary engineering, biology and public health in 1967, the same year he joined the Berkeley faculty. He became a full professor in 1970.


In 2001, Dr. Oswald joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a senior staff scientist.


Dr. Oswald is credited with developing the advanced wastewater pond systems technology in which wastewater passes through a series of ponds to be treated. These "high-rate ponds" use algae fermentation to produce oxygen, which purifies sewage. The more common and much more expensive methods use electromechanical methods to produce oxygen.
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