Adriana Dunn | 6 months ago | Comments (0)
I just saw this on BoomTown and it stirred up a bad memory from my days working at a building on Microsoft's Redmond Campus as a receptionist. Steve Ballmer is quite possibly the single most intimidating person I've ever encountered in my life (and trust me, I've encountered a few).
So there I was, sitting at the reception desk, all alone, as I had been for at least 10 minutes. I decided to sneak a cookie (we weren't allowed to eat at the desk) and of course just as I cram the damn thing in my mouth in walks Ballmer, solo, which was weird because normally we had ample warning when the big wigs were coming through. I tried to chew and swallow as fast as possible but he approached the desk so quickly, all six feet five inches of him, and asked me where this one exec's office was and I tried to find it in the database but I couldn't because I was nervous and then I finally found it and tried to tell him but all that came out was spit and cookie crumbs...at least that's how I remember it. Regardless of how it really went down, it definitely was intense. So please, in solidarity with Microsoft receptionists everywhere who have to deal with Ballmer, watch this clip: More
Danny Jensen | 6 months ago | Comments (12)
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Discussions about a proposed tax on soda and sugary beverages have arisen lately as a way to help counter the rising trend in obesity and to help fund President Obama's health care initiative, but the food companies that produce those products are fighting to put an end to the talk. Personally, I think the tax sounds like a great idea and hardly think the beverage industry would suffer dramatically from a 3% tax increase.
The proposal is projected to generate over $24 billion dollars over the next four years, which would go a long way towards rebuilding our health care system, a significant portion of which goes towards treating preventable problems such as diabetes and obesity, that have been clearly fueled by decades of an overabundant and cheap calories in our diet. The organization Americans Against Food Tax, which not surprisingly includes many of the countries leading beverage manufacturers wants to portray the proposed tax as un-American. Take for instance this commercial, which depicts drinking soda as a healthy, family activity, and warns of a tax that threatens budgets and life's pleasures: More
Drawn To Distraction | 6 months ago | Comments (0)
If overhauling the health care system wasn’t already contentious, proposed changes to abortion coverage are stoking the fire.
The Energy and Commerce Committee voted 30 to 28 yesterday to allow health plans to choose whether or not to cover abortions as they see fit, on the condition that insurers use money from private sources to pay for the procedure.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said last week that decisions on such specific benefits should be “left to experts in the medical field,” referring to an advisory board that would recommend minimum levels of coverage for private insurers.
Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) proposed the abortion policy, which was supported by most Democrats and opposed by Republicans. More
Ciara O'Rourke | 6 months ago | Comments (0)
If overhauling the health care system wasn’t already contentious, proposed changes to abortion coverage are stoking the fire.
The Energy and Commerce Committee voted 30 to 28 yesterday to allow health plans to choose whether or not to cover abortions as they see fit, on the condition that insurers use money from private sources to pay for the procedure.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said last week that decisions on such specific benefits should be “left to experts in the medical field,” referring to an advisory board that would recommend minimum levels of coverage for private insurers.
Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) proposed the abortion policy, which was supported by most Democrats and opposed by Republicans. More
Danny Jensen | 6 months ago | Comments (0)
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In 2007 New York City began offering one-way plane tickets to homeless families who could move in with a relative elsewhere, providing the city with a surprisingly cheaper alternative than keeping the families in the shelter system. Mayor Bloomberg has repeatedly come under fire for questionable tactics to handle the cities continual challenge of homelessness, and while this plan may work out well for many families, the move strikes me as a refusal to address the root causes of homelessness. According to Arnold S. Cohen, the president and chief executive of the Partnership for the Homeless:
The city is engaged in cosmetics. What we’re doing is passing the problem of homelessness to another city. We’re taking people from a shelter bed here to the living room couch of another family. Essentially, this family is still homeless. More
Andy Kondrat | 6 months ago | Comments (0)
Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut announced today that he has prostate cancer, and will undergo surgery during the Senate recess in August. In a news conference in Hartford, the Democratic Senator and former presidential candidate said that the cancer was caught in an early stage, and as such, he has high hopes for a total recovery. The New York Times reports:
Mr. Dodd, who spoke from his office with his wife, Jackie, by his side, said that the cancer was discovered six weeks ago during an annual physical. “I’m very confident that we’re going to come out of this well,” he said. “I feel fine. This is very common. If you’ve got to have cancer, I am told by some doctors, it’s the slowest growing, the best one to have, the most manageable. ... I’m going to be fine,” he said. “We caught this early, and I look forward to going out on the trail.”
Senator Dodd faces a tough re-election bid in 2010, but he assured his constituents that he will be running, and he will campaign as hard as he can. And, as the acting chairman of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, he used his conference to remind the American people of the necessity of health care reform. More
Danny Jensen | 6 months ago | Comments (0)
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The ancient Bialowieza Primeval Forest, the oldest in Europe, is threatened by climate change, but the Polish neighbors of the unpopulated woodlands worry that conservation measures could damage the local economy. I have to believe that there are ways to protect one of the oldest forests in existence, without eliminating jobs or income from the surrounding towns. Over the past 50 years the average annual temperature has risen by 0.8 degrees Celsius, which is dramatic for an ancient forest, enough show the climate is shifting. A significant drop in annual rainfall and milder winters is also adversely affecting plant growth in the area. So far the regions wild European bison population doesn't seem to be affected by the changes, but if conservation efforts aren't taken their future could be imperiled, not to mention the threatened fate of the enormous biological diversity found in the region. More
Andy Kondrat | 6 months ago | Comments (1)
Here's something we may have mentioned a time or two on this website: energy efficiency can save money. You know, the fancy light-bulbs, the turning off of things when you leave the room, so forth and so on. So just imagine how much money energy efficiency could save on a large scale. Say, a national one? A new report from business consultants McKinsey & Company estimates that the United States could save $600 billion dollars by 2020 if specific energy efficiency ideas were adopted. From their website:
The research shows that the U.S. economy has the potential to reduce annual non-transportation energy consumption by roughly 23 percent by 2020, eliminating more than $1.2 trillion in waste – well beyond the $520 billion upfront investment (not including program costs) that would be required. The reduction in energy use would also result in the abatement of 1.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually – the equivalent of taking the entire U.S. fleet of passenger vehicles and light trucks off the roads.
Look at that last sentence again: the equivalent of taking the entire U.S. fleet of passenger vehicles and light trucks off the roads. More
Andy Kondrat | 6 months ago | Comments (0)
Just, oh, an hour ago or something we told you that the government had already run out of the $1 billion it had allocated for the "cash for clunkers" program designed to help auto buyers exchange their vehicles for more fuel-efficient ones. Well, the House of Representatives figured that resolving this issue, and the conflicting government messages around it, to be a top priority, and pushed through a resolution adding $2 billion to the program, with the vote being 316-109. The New York Times reports that the Senate will take up the bill next week.
A spirited debate is likely, as some senators are expected to use the opportunity to push for tougher fuel-efficiency requirements. If the Senate does not go along with the House’s version, the House might have to return to work on a compromise.
If approved, the money will come from money set aside for the Energy Department's loan guarantee program. More
Melanie Smollin | 6 months ago | Comments (0)
Taking a break from American education news today to bring you a story from Australia. (Hat tip to GothamSchools for this one.)
According to an article in The Australian, the federal government there has found an interesting way to improve the quality of education in 200 remote area schools.
You know how teaching hospitals are used as model facilities to train doctors? Why not designate excellent schools as “hubs” and use them to train teachers? More
