Compelling graphic showing the rise in obesity in the U.S over the past 20 years. The map shows the increase state by state from 1985 to 2006, and makes a strong impression through the use of color coding the percentages. The 1985 map shows a handful of states with 10-14% of their population overweight, then finishes with 2006 showing the majority of the U.S. saturated in red, indicating states with an obesity rate greater than 25%.
I love getting email from Al Gore (sent through his blog’s mailing list, not sent to me personally), but today’s message was especially interesting (with my red/bold highlights):
“Dear Carol,Current, the media company I co-founded six years ago with my partner Joel Hyatt, just last week launched a new web site that integrates television and the Web in an unprecedented way. It provides, as never before, a platform for citizens to make the media their own.Read more »
“Continent-size” swath of trash in Pacific, via San Francisco Chronicle:
” In reality, the rogue bag would float into a sewer, follow the storm drain to the ocean, then make its way to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that’s twice the size of Texas, according to marine biologists.
The enormous stew of trash – which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers – floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man’s land between San Francisco and Hawaii.”
Gorilla sculpture using wire coat hangers.
(wonder what Joan Crawford would think about this were she with us today…)
via Digg
via Reuben Miller
WikiHow’s “How to Become a Hobo”
The Blotter has another hot story
Police are investigating how the personal files of 1,200 Ameriquest Mortgage customers turned up in a dumpster at an Atlanta apartment complex. Police say the 40 boxes of records contain sensitive financial information, including customers’ credit histories, bank account information, tax and salary records and social security numbers.
Full story here
As a follow-up to the last posting about lead in lipstick, here’s the link to the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetic safety database.
via Reuters
Lipsticks contain lead, consumer group says
ATLANTA (Reuters) – Lipsticks tested by a U.S. consumer rights group found that more than half contained lead and some popular brands including Cover Girl, L’Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others, the group said on Thursday.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said tests on 33 brand-name red lipsticks by the Bodycote Testing Group in Santa Fe Spring, California, found that 61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).
Article here
Update: Here’s the link for The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
Former Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize today for their efforts to draw attention to the issue of climate change. The honor comes as a group of Democrats is urging Gore to jump into the race for the White House.
