Good Fact

Safer Homes

- Agasel

A house in West Point, PEI, is the first Canadian home built under the “Designed for safer living” program.  This program is a joint collaboration between the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, the Canadian insurance industry, and home builders.

This slide show details how the house was rebuilt after being badly damaged by fire last spring.  The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction says it’s unclear how much the improvements added to the cost of the home, because the program is new.

Five more are expected to be built by December 2007, including one in the Prairies that will withstand wildfires, one in Vancouver that will handle earthquakes, and another in Sudbury to deal with wind and storms.

Fight for your Right to Eat

- Adam Clare

Fighting hunger is an ongoing challenge in many parts of the world, so it is good to hear that the Right to Food Campaign is on the road to success in India. India is by no means a shining example of ending hunger, but with the work of organizations like the Right to Food Campaign circumstances in India can change.

“The Right to Food Campaign has succeeded in placing hunger at the centre of development discourse in India. The campaign hopes that this long-running case will culminate in the right to food becoming a fundamental right that can be made justiciable in any court of law in the country. The case and the accompanying campaign have established the importance of the law as facilitator, but the right to food also requires political means and people’s participation.”

Introducing……Agasel

- Adam Clare

AgaselYou may have noticed a new name popping up around this site. Agasel has joined the team of volunteers that help spread good news around the world via this very website.

She brings with her a lot of knowledge of how traditional media functions and an interest in making the world a better place. Agasel is based in Vancouver, but looking for a more tropical climate to spend her life in that is conducive to her writing.

Agasel has already told us that we should do less homework and fashionable horseback riding.

You can get to know her personally at her blog.

Disney Ditches Unhealthy Diets

- Adam Clare

The Walt Disney Company has said no to unhealthy food in marketing. No longer will Disney use foods that are too unhealthy and have created guidelines that define what they will sponsor and what they wont.

“For instance, added sugar in those foods will not exceed 10 percent of calories for main and side dishes and 25 percent of calories for snacks. Total fat will not exceed 30 percent of calories for main and side dishes and 35 percent for snacks.”

I guess that means no more Mickey Mouse for many fast food chains.

Eat Like a Greek and Remember

- Adam Clare

A Mediterranean diet can help to fend off Alzheimer’s, according to a well-researched study. The diet is low in red meat and high in oils and lots of fruits and vegetables.

“In accordance with our previous results,” the authors wrote,” the associations between Mediterranean diet and Alzheimer’s disease remain unchanged and significant even when simultaneously adjusting for the most commonly considered potential confounders for Alzheimer’s disease, such as age, sex, ethnicity, education, APOE genotype, caloric intake, and BMI. Higher adherence to Mediterranean diet reduced risk for probable Alzheimer’s disease either with or without coexisting stroke.”

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