USA

Sicko Inspires Audience to Fight Injustices

- Adam Clare

After watching Sicko, an entire audience broke into conversation and grouped together to make their country better. If that’s not good enough, get this – it happened in Texas!

The talk gradually centered around a core of 10 or 12 strangers in a cluster while the rest of us stood around them listening intently to this thing that seemed to be happening out of nowhere. The black gentleman engaged by my redneck in the restroom shouted for everyone’s attention. The conversation stopped instantly as all eyes in this group of 30 or 40 people were now on him. “If we just see this and do nothing about it,” he said, “then what’s the point? Something has to change.” There was silence, then the redneck’s wife started calling for email addresses. Suddenly everyone was scribbling down everyone else’s email, promising to get together and do something… though no one seemed to know quite what.

Via boingboing.

SiCKO

- Adam Clare

I just watched Michael Moore’s new movie Sicko last night and let me tell you – it’s amazing! Sure, the movie is upsetting at points because you feel for all the poor people who suffer due to the American health care system. Granted, that isn’t good, but what is good is that Moore continuously reminds us that change is possible!

He shows us how the Canadian, English, Cuban, and French health care systems provide universal care for their citizens, and how great those systems are in comparison to the for-profit USA system. Being a Canadian, I was reminded about how good we have it in Canada, and makes me want to sign up on this site. Watch this movie, and get inspired to make a healthy change for this world.

Watch the movie below:

If the video above no longer works, just try this search. On a more cinematic note, this is Moore’s best film since Roger and Me (I found his last two lackluster).

Tidal Power for San Francisco

- Adam Clare

Golden gate
Readers of this site may remember that San Francisco spent some money investigating the feasibility of tidal power for the city last September. Well, things are definitely going good with that study has it’s entered a new phase. The San Francisco, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Golden Gate Energy Co. have agreed to further the study and invest $1.8 million into it. If this next phase goes well it may open up more opportunities for tidal power generation as the San Francisco project will have to take into consideration many factors that may deter other cities from trying such an initiative.

The $1.8 million study would seek to determine how much electricity could be generated, what kind of technology would work best and whether the project makes sense economically. It would also examine the project’s possible impacts on marine life and the environment.

Wear Clothing That Cleans the Air

- Adam Clare

neat I’ve never been one for fashion, but I think that has just changed with the introduction of clothing that eats smogs and kills bacteria. Olivia Ong, a design student at Cornell, came up with the idea of making a jacket that protects the wearer from bad things. It uses nano-materials (pictured) to do its thing, which makes the material itself very very expensive. Just imagine a world in which clothing actually makes the world better.

Ong’s dress and jacket, part of her original fashion line called “Glitterati,” look innocently hip. But closer inspection — with a microscope, that is — shows an army of electrostatically charged nanoparticles creating a protective shield around the cotton fibers in the top part of the dress, and the sleeves, hood and pockets of the jacket.

U.S. stops breeding chimps for research

- Adam Clare

Good news for those who like animals! The U.S. National Institutes of Health has decided to stop breeding chimpanzees for biomedical research. Chimps that are already being used for research remain as test animals, but the fact that more chimps won’t be used in this way is a step in the right direction for the ethical treatment of animals.

“This decision is a huge step towards a day when chimpanzees are no longer used in invasive biomedical research and testing,” Kathleen Conlee of the Humane Society said in a statement.

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