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The elder boom has begun, and our nation is not prepared. Between 2011 and 2030, the number of adults 65 or older will increase from 40 million to 72 million and from 13 percent of the population to 20 percent. This drives growing concerns about the viability of Social Security, the sustainability of Medicare, and the availability of a workforce to provide health and social services.
Despite widespread concern about the physical health of older adults, mental health needs are mostly not on the national radar screen, a serious oversight for five reasons.
First, contrary to the ageist assumptions of our culture, people can live well in old age, but not without mental health.
Second, mental illness has a terrible impact on physical health. People with mental disorders are more likely to have physical disorders, and people with co-occurring physical and mental and/or substance use disorders are at higher risk for disability and premature death and have far higher medical costs than those with physical disorders alone.
Third, approximately 20 percent of older adults have diagnosable mental and/or substance use disorders, including dementia. This increases to over 50 percent of older adults by age 85, mostly dementia, the prevalence of which doubles every five years beginning at age 60. The range of mental health problems also includes:
Anxiety and depression, which often co-occur with dementia
Psychotic conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression
Substance use disorders
Fourth, untreated mental disorders contribute to avoidable placement in institutions, such as nursing homes, driving up the costs of long-term care in the U.S. They also contribute to social isolation and high rates of suicide.
Fifth, all older adults face emotional challenges related to social and occupational role changes, diminished — but not lost — physical and mental abilities, losses of family and friends, and the inevitability of death.
Both the public and the private sectors need to take steps to meet the mental health challenges of the elder boom. These include:
Making mental health promotion a key element of the health and aging services systems.
Providing home and community-based services to enable people developing disabilities to live where they choose.
Supporting family caregivers who provide 80 percent of the care for people with disabilities.
Improving access to mental health and substance abuse services in the community.
Improving the quality of mental health and substance abuse services in the community and in residential and institutional settings such as formal and “naturally occurring” senior housing, assisted living and nursing homes.
Fostering integration of physical health, mental health, substance abuse and aging services.
Enhancing the adequacy of services for minority populations, which will grow from 20 percent to 30 percent of the older population by 2030.
Increasing research regarding effective mental health promotion and treatment of mental and substance use disorders and improving translation for research findings into practice.
Providing outreach and public education to older adults and their families regarding mental health, effective treatment and where to find resources.
Addressing the shortage of a clinically and culturally competent workforce, in part by recruiting and training more geriatric professionals and paraprofessionals and in large part by including older adults themselves in the helping workforce in both paid and volunteer roles.
Restructuring methods of financing needed services so as to make them affordable, to enhance integrated care and treatment, and to support services in the home and in natural community settings.
Making the mental health challenges of the elder boom more than a rhetorical priority in both private and public service systems.
In these times of cutback in government spending, addressing the mental health needs of older adults may appear to be an unnecessary frill. But the truth is that failing to address mental health needs will drive costs up in the long run. Ignoring this is very poor policy.
(This article is coauthored by Kimberly Williams, co-founder and Director of the Geriatric Mental Health Alliance of New York.)

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The lack of diversity in the media has long been a source of frustration for media watchers. Turn on network or cable television and its clear that the value of racial, ethnic and gender diversity continues to be ignored by decision makers at mainstream television broadcast outlets. The result of the lack of inclusion of new and varied voices in the national media is a largely white, male, elitist perspective devoid of the richness and complexity of American experiences.
“We live in the most multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic America ever, but there is no appreciation for diversity in our conversations and in the media,” said PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley during our one-on-one telephone interview today. “There is value in bringing our whole selves to the table, including our race and our gender.”
Smiley is promoting his ‘America’s Next Chapter’ forum–a nationally televised discussion scheduled January 13 in Washington, D.C. at George Washington University. The event, which will broadcast live on CSPAN and air the following week on PBS, features Cornel West, Princeton University professor and author; Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post; John S. Chen, chairman of Committee of 100; Maria Bartiromo, anchor of CNBC’s Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo; David Frum, speechwriter for former President George W. Bush and founder of FrumForum; Dana Milbank, lead political columnist for The Washington Post; David Brody, CBN News chief political correspondent and Maria Teresa Kumar, executive director/co-founder, Voto Latino.
Smiley promises to use the program’s primetime billing and multiple airings on PBS to highlight issues such as poverty, urban decay, crumbling schools and unemployment. The three-hour discussion will explore how to “return America to its greatness” and involve citizens in the recovery. Known for his State of the Black Union forums and outspoken critique of President Obama, Smiley says his conversation with mainstream media heavyweights will provide diverse racial, ethnic and ideological viewpoints often missing on Sunday morning talk shows and cable networks.
During our conversation I also asked Smiley about his reference to a Rasmussen poll that found a significant percentage of Americans hold a bleak outlook about the nation’s future. “Will the panelist, especially the members of the media, address the role that the news media plays in shaping this gloomy outlook and the increased polarization of American politics?” Since “America’s Next Chapter” is about shifting public discourse, it seems an opportune time to discuss this issue given the primetime airing of the event and prominent media personalities on the panel.
Despite the ever expanding outlets for news and information, I agree with Smiley when he says “there is less and less ideological diversity in the media.” Speaking in reference to cable networks, Smiley says “they’re preaching to the choir. Fox [News] springs one way, MSNBC is counter spinning and CNN is trying to figure it all out. No one is learning, no one is growing. It’s about scoring points for your side.”
Smiley may ruffle some feathers during the forum. He points out that the conversation is strategically timed in advance of the President’s State of the Union address and official the marking of Obama’s two years in office. “What I bring is different, so the conversation is different.”
America’s Next Chapter is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested at www.americasnextchapter.com. The conversation will rebroadcast for three nights on Tavis Smiley on PBS beginning Tuesday, January 18 through Thursday, January 20.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

It’s not all that shocking that TIME recently listed Apple’s iPad as the most sought-after tech gadget in 2010. The capabilities of the iPad, as well as other tablets like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and HP’s Slate, are virtually endless — you can watch movies, play video games, catch up on the day’s news, or read a novel. Much of what you need is right there in front of you, whenever you need it.
E-books are just one industry of many that has exploded partly due to the growth of tablet sales. Gartner Research predicted that the worldwide sale of electronic e-book readers (like the iPad, the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes and Noble Nook) has increased by 79 percent since 2009, with 6.6 million units in 2010 compared to 3.6 units in 2009. So many people are jumping on the e-book bandwagon because of the simplicity it presents. In most cases, you download an e-book and it’s there at your disposal in minutes or even seconds. Another plus is that e-books are usually cheaper than print books, and some are even free.
It’s not only readers who have joined in on the e-book phenomenon. Best-selling authors are switching gears and publishing their books more directly through digital publishers. The benefit of publishing a book in weeks rather than years across all formats is a huge incentive.
My company FastPencil’s newest venture, FastPencil Premiere, is a next-generation publishing imprint designed for best-selling, established authors. Authors selected see faster publishing times, access to wide distribution channels including bookstores and ebooks, more content control and higher royalties. Some of the top-selling authors who have recently signed to FastPencil’s Premiere include Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for Soul series co-founder) who just launched his latest book “U R The Solution” with co-author Bill Froehlich, Steven Pressfield (“The War of Art” and “Legend of Bagger Vance”) and Guy Gilchrist (The Muppet Babies co-creator and classic newspaper strip “Nancy” cartoonist.)
Pressfield, for example, signed with FastPencil after many of his The War of Art fans kept asking him why the e-book version of the book (not with FastPencil) wasn’t working correctly. He teamed up with FastPencil and saw immediate success with his new The War of Art” e-book. Now his e-book is on a variety of platforms.
Major traditional publishers have also taken notice of the significant change, and some are even taking steps to adapt to the shift.
Seth Godin, a best-selling author who has been in the publishing industry for more than two decades, announced this past summer that he was dropping his publishing house and instead planned to sell his future books directly to his audience. He later announced his newest publishing vision with Amazon, the Domino Project, which will change many of the rules traditionally tied with publishing trade non-fiction. In a recent blog post, Godin writes about getting rid of what he calls the “middleman,” also known as bookstores, which have a limited amount of shelf space.
The creation of e-books has forever changed the publishing landscape. Rather than be at the will of those major publishing fees or product placement, authors have a choice in how they want to market and sell their e-books. Readers have the option of downloading a book for much cheaper than a print version and receiving it in a matter of moments.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

What’s your reason for getting fit and dropping a few pounds? Like Ashton Kutcher, are you worried about a “massive world-crushing event” where only the fittest survive? Or are your concerns more immediate, such as an oversized number on the scale and a thinning wallet?
Nearly 75 percent of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2019. That’s the projection of economists in a report, “Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit Not Fat,” issued by the Paris-based 33-member Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The condition will, they argue, drag down the economy and impoverish us.
Although the prediction seems dire, it’s not set in stone. The New Year gives us yet another chance to get it right — to lose weight and get fit. Here are the latest trends, research and products to help you decide how to eat and exercise to achieve your fitness goals in 2011.
Generational Shifts:
Childhood obesity has tripled in the past 30 years. About one out of every three children or teens is overweight or at risk of being overweight. Because children’s bodies are still developing, the damage to organs triggers medical problems extending throughout their lifetimes. A sense of urgency has led medical professionals, families, schools, legislators and leaders to intervene. Leading the charge is First Lady Obama whose Task Force on Childhood Obesity issued a report “Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation.”
Gaining weight is no longer viewed as an inevitable consequence of aging, but rather as a predictable byproduct of a sedentary lifestyle. Fitness centers are experiencing an explosive growth in boomer memberships, and seniors-only fitness clubs are popping up across the country. In addition, participation in competitive events for seniors continues to expand.
Exercise Trends:
Functional fitness, defined as the strength, flexibility and endurance needed to perform day to day tasks safely and easily, is growing in popularity, particularly as a bubble of boomers approach middle age.
Piloxing, an unlikely combination of pilates and boxing, offers a workout for those seeking maximum intensity in their workouts.
Wearing weighted vests turns a simple walk into a strength training workout. The weight-bearing exercise aerobic heart benefits increased bone health, which is of particular benefit to women at risk for osteoporosis.
Technology And Innovation:
Exergaming, once the exclusive province of youth, has moved mainstream. Seniors surprised Nintendo by their adoption of the Wii Fit games, and rehabilitation specialists are using Wii Fit and other exergames to help patients recover from injuries. The Kinect Fitness Games, played on the Xbox 360, have something for everyone: personal training, hundreds of activities, statistics and community challenges.
Fitbit, one example of a growing number of inexpensive fitness trackers, records information on health, wellness and exercise activity. The trackers, used by individual consumers and groups of employees as part of corporate wellness programs, sustain motivation by providing feedback.
Institutional Shifts
The new health care bill requires fast food chains and restaurants with over 20 units to display the nutritional and caloric information of menu items. When purchasing meals, consumers will find it easier to make informed choices.
In a remarkable shift of focus, companies have increased their adoption of upstream wellness programs, according to Frank Napolitano, CEO of Globalfit. The uptick was set in motion by the new health care bill. Unlike traditional downstream programs that address potentially disabling conditions, such as obesity, upstream programs focus on prevention.
A recall of contaminated eggs combined with a continuing concern about chemicals, additives and antibiotics appearing in the food chain has triggered a push for legislation to improve food safety in 2011.
Since weight has moved from a private to public matter, activists on both sides of the issue are heating up the debate. Fatties United argue for the right to choose lifestyles without constraint or discrimination, while others point out the direct and indirect costs of providing medical care to obese individuals.
Nearly a dozen successful lawsuits against public entities and private companies have moved the debate on how to reverse obesity from the food court to the courtroom. For example, in response to a lawsuit, the New York City School Board banned sugary soft drinks and most fattening foods from classrooms. And Kellogg Company agreed to adopt nutrition standards for foods it advertises to children in response to a lawsuit launched by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and two parents.
Food and Diet
Contrary to the earlier view that a calorie was a calorie whether it came from fat, protein or a carbohydrate source, not all calories are created equal. Research demonstrates that calories from sugar tend to be stored as fat while protein calories are burned.
Consumption of local produce (purchased at farmer’s markets or grown at home) is rising along with the demand for organic and natural food.
An estimated 30 to 40 percent of meat-eaters are occasionally opting for vegetarian meals. Called flexitarians, these individuals value the health benefits of vegetarian eating.
Students are participating in Meatless Monday campaigns at several universities and school districts (for example, Oakland, California and Baltimore, Maryland). Vegan meals have also been introduced within several branches of the military.
Contradicting the notion that healthy food is more expensive, researchers found that purchasing nuts, whole grains, soy and beans while reducing the purchase of high-fat dairy products and red and processed meats lowered food costs and improved dietary health.
Research
The health of both parents impacts offspring. Researchers had previously documented the impact of a mother’s health (and weight) on offspring, but they were surprised to find that male rats who ate a high-fat diet produced offspring with glucose intolerance, a precursor to diabetes.
Is food addictive? Rats fed junk food developed compulsive eating behavior and stopped exercising. Obesity quickly followed. Despite the controversial implications, some researchers are answering affirmatively.
Skipping breakfast increases the risk of a potentially fatal heart attack, according to a study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Sitting for long stretches (more than six hours) increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity, according to Marc Hamilton, a physiologist at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
Clearly, the landscape of fitness is changing rapidly. As in our exercise routine, flexibility is essential in mapping a personal plan of action to achieve optimum well being.

Follow Carole Carson on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I am leading a new effort to clean up Congress by boosting transparency and efficiency in the way the U.S. Senate debates legislation. This is the next step in bolstering accountability and cleaning up Washington.
I am pushing for greater transparency in Senate rules by forcing Senators who block up-or-down votes to do so openly and to explain their objections publicly.
If I oppose a bill, or if I’ve got a problem with a nominee, I’ll look you square in the eye and tell you why. That’s how we do things in Montana. It’s time to put a stop to secret, anonymous politics and get down to work.
Individual Senators currently have the right to block legislation, nominees, and up-or-down votes, through the use of a filibuster. In order to debate or vote on a bill that is being filibustered, a super-majority of 60 Senators must vote to override the filibuster. Even unsuccessful filibusters by individual Senators can delay Senate action for days.
It is time for those Senators to stop hiding behind rules and regulations and to get down to work creating more jobs for the American people.
Congress has got a job to do. Like most Montanans, I have a hard time understanding how one Senator can singlehandedly bring the Senate’s work to a grinding halt, without even saying who they are or why they’re doing it. If folks oppose something, that’s okay. But let’s work together to solve those problems, instead of just partisan grandstanding.
Here are some reforms in my proposal:
Ends the practice of “secret holds” where a single Senator can block legislation or a nominee anonymously and without explanation
Clears the path to considering legislation by allowing the Senate to call up a bill if a simple majority of Senators agree to do so–sixty votes would still be needed to end a filibuster of the bill itself
Ensures a real debate by requiring Senators wishing to block a final up-or-down vote to speak continuously on the floor until the filibuster ends
Guarantees a fair debate through consideration of an equal number of amendments by both Republicans and Democrats
Use of filibusters, secret holds, and other delaying tactics have exploded in recent years. According to official U.S. Senate records, more filibusters have been launched to delay legislation since 2006 than the total between 1920 and 1980.
A copy of the resolution is available on my website HERE.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The report, if true, was important.
According to a story posted at Examiner.com, and unhesitatingly picked up by Pravda and a slew of sketchy websites, scientists at SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) have found three objects the size of Delaware entering the solar system. This flotilla of bright blue craft is apparently making a beeline to Earth. The report says you should expect it to make landfall in 2012 — a year already fraught with menace.
Now let’s face it: The discovery of a fleet of alien craft (what else could they be?) seemingly intent on an unauthorized visit to terra firma sounds vaguely worthy of mention on the nightly news. But the mainstream media has decided you aren’t interested: The story has been published only in parts of the world you need shots to visit.
This is clearly a hoax, an assessment I wearily give to the many e-mail correspondents who have written me on the matter. Is it true, they anxiously ask, that Earth will be hosting alien house guests of uncertain temperament?
No. What’s more, this hoax is low grade, easily unmasked by anyone wielding modest technical talents, or just a bit of journalistic fortitude. For example, the incoming objects were observed in the direction of the south celestial pole (and “beyond Pluto,” if that helps you). But they were discovered, according to alleged SETI astrophysicist Craig Kasnov, with an instrument called HAARP — the U.S. government’s High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. The HAARP antenna array is real, but it’s in Alaska, a place from which it’s said you can see Russia, but never the south celestial pole. So that’s like espying Antarctica from a ship near Greenland.
If that doesn’t move you, there’s also the small point that HAARP is both unsuited for, and has never been used by, any SETI experiment. Oh, and SETI astrophysicist Craig Kasnov doesn’t exist.
This small fantasy is more than an amusing curiosity, however. It’s not the first time that internet stories have appeared suggesting that some SETI experiment has tuned in the aliens. And of course it won’t be the last. But these tantalizing tales are more than a nuisance.
Some of them are — like the present story — deliberate fictions, intended to amuse or confuse. Others are simple misunderstandings by reporters.
But either way, there’s a certain amount of damage done by crying wolf. It serves to trivialize the SETI enterprise, and occasionally wastes telescope time as researchers try to follow up on a supposed detection. In addition, it might cause the gullible to dig bomb shelters, pile up their mashed potatoes at dinner, or simply spend a year living in fear.
In view of the fact that we will likely have many unwarranted claims of alien detection before the real deal arrives, there’s been some effort to avoid misunderstandings. A small group of scientists, a subset of the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Permanent Study Group (the only worldwide SETI organization), hope to establish a publicly accessible clearinghouse (read: “website”) where experts can weigh in on the merits or otherwise of a report that aliens are on the air or in the neighborhood.
Sure, the conspiracy-minded might choose to dispute whatever the experts say, but after all, isn’t expert opinion worth more than random sentiment? Frankly, a clearinghouse would be good to have and might save you the bother of working yourself into an unproductive lather the next time you hear that beings from another solar system are cruising ours — or are making their presence known in some other way. It would be especially useful for the press, who must rapidly decide if a story has merit.
Meanwhile, you needn’t worry about the blue meanies “beyond Pluto.” These particular visitors are just another case in which the advertising was better than the product.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The Liberty Party, a leading opposition political party in Liberia, has followed the recent elections in La Cote d’Ivoire between Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara with concern. Immediately following the announcement of the results by the Elections Commission, I congratulated Mr. Ouattara on his historic victory. The defeat of an incumbent president is noteworthy in our part of the world. Unfortunately, not too long thereafter the Constitutional Court of La Cote d’Ivoire decreed victory for Mr. Gbagbo, thus reversing the announcement of the Elections Commission and triggering the current debacle.
Judging from the prevailing consensus within the international community, specifically the ECOWAS and the African Union (AU), Mr. Ouattara has been elected President of La Cote d’Ivoire. One must congratulate the leaders of ECOWAS for rising to the occasion, a move that will help to bolster the evolution of democratic processes in West Africa. They have said to one of their own, an incumbent president: Enough is enough; the will of the people must be respected.
Now the difficult task begins — the task of ensuring that former President Laurent Gbagbo makes his exit in a way that does not portray him as having “lost face.” I believe that it is not too late for Mr. Gbagbo to gracefully take his leave as a nationalist who contributed to placing La Cote d’Ivoire on the democratic path and began the process of healing for this great nation. Mr. Gbagbo has heard loudly — now I believe that he needs to be told behind closed doors, softly but pointedly — that his time is up. No amount of gamesmanship, not even military confrontation, which would only exacerbate the suffering of Ivoirians, will allow him to resume the functions of the presidency. And this is why I plead with him to consider the damage he would do to his legacy, the further destruction of his country, and the loss of additional lives, by frustrating the will of the majority of the Ivorian people.
I call upon eminent statespersons of Africa, specifically those from the West African Region, to persuade Mr. Gbagbo to leave La Cote d’Ivoire and take up residency in another country. ECOWAS should consider engaging the services of someone Mr. Gbagbo has heretofore seen as a brother or sister and friend, someone who Mr. Gbagbo can trust during these difficult moments. This would certainly help in resolving the Ivorian impasse. Of course, given the experience of the former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, Mr. Gbagbo is more likely to be persuaded if such an accord has the expressed backing of the Security Council of the United Nations.
But prior to Mr. Gbagbo’s departure from La Cote d’Ivoire, I encourage President Ouattara to exercise magnanimity in national leadership by beginning the process of national reconciliation, assuring Mr. Gbagbo that his supporters and followers will be accorded full protection under the laws of La Cote d’Ivoire.
The use of force to hasten Mr. Gbagbo’s exit should be the last resort. But there can be no equivocation — Mr. Gbagbo should be made to understand that legitimate force will be used unless he chooses to conform to internationally accepted democratic principles, allowing the will of Ivoirian voters to prevail.
There can be no reversing the mandate of the Ivorian people and frustrating the democratic process. But ending the current impasse will be just the first step of a long process to build once again a united La Cote d’Ivoire under one national leadership to which all Ivorians without exception would be loyal. It is only a peaceful La Cote d’Ivoire that would enable the Ivorian people to pursue their dreams and resume working for the economic growth and development of their country.
In my own country, Liberia, we are on edge for two major reasons. Firstly, it has already been reported that at least 14,000 Ivorians have crossed the border into Liberia, seeking refuge, as they fear the resumption of a full fledge civil war. Liberia’s stability is fragile and its economy is in such bad state that coping with an influx of refugees over a prolong period could become a huge problem.
Secondly, the resolution of the Ivoirian election crisis will significantly impact what happens in Liberia during our 2011 presidential and general elections. Liberia is a country without a history of democratic transition. The last time a Liberian president exited power as a result of an election was in 1944, when Tubman succeeded Barclay. And the last time power changed hands from one political party to another as a result of an election was in 1878, more than a hundred years ago. Liberians are, therefore, counting on our friends in ECOWAS, AU, UN, and other members of the international community, led by the United States of America, to ensure that the will of the Liberian voters prevail in 2011.
There are those who are tempted to cast the intervention of the international community in the current crisis in La Cote d’Ivoire in terms of the age-old debate about Africa and colonization/neo-colonization. This would be a mistake. The resolution of the Cote d’Ivoire election crisis in a way that honors the mandate of the majority of the Ivorian people, will herald in a new beginning for democratic experience in Africa. Democratic — free, fair, and transparent — elections can and must be the norm in Africa, and peaceful transition from one political leader or one political party to another must be the inevitable product of the will of the majority.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Taking House Republicans at face value on their pledge to cut 20% of all non-defense discretionary spending, we took a quick look at what cuts might mean for America’s ability to compete in the $2 trillion clean energy market. While there are certainly areas of the nation’s energy budget that should get cut or eliminated, to achieve $100 billion in savings every program — even those that help fuel the economic growth the new majority says it wants — is going to suffer.
Thanks to smart government investments, many clean energy businesses are getting off the ground or expanding in the U.S. This means new jobs created by Dow at a battery plant in Michigan, by Nissan for electric vehicles in Tennessee or Southern Company to build a new nuclear reactor in Georgia.
So what might a 20% chop look like?
–A $1.6 billion cut in the federal loan guarantee program would potentially cripple the much-needed nuclear renaissance at a time when China is planning a five-fold expansion over the next decade. Without loan guarantees, it’s unlikely we’d be building first nuclear power plant in the US in almost 30 years, and creating as many as 3,500 jobs, in Georgia today.
–$60 million less for ARPA-E’s already meager $300 million budget, gutting funding for advanced energy storage, next generation nuclear power and micro-battery technology that could also be used by the US military.
–Eliminating almost $500 million in grants to companies innovating in renewable energy, advanced vehicle technology, and battery storage. This could kill emerging clean energy businesses that have the potential to become the 21st century’s Google, General Electric or Exxon.
–Slicing $20 million from R&D investments to schools like Purdue University, Penn State, University of Wisconsin, and Iowa State University, which are developing the next generation of innovators and ideas that could spawn new businesses and jobs across the U.S.
Even conservative columnist George Will is ringing alarm bells. On January 5, warned House freshmen, “Making the government lean by cutting the most defensible — because most productive — federal spending is akin to making an overweight aircraft flight-worthy by removing an engine.”
Cutting the U.S.’s already meager innovation budget would be troubling enough in a vacuum. But clean energy is already a crowded global marketplace. Our economic competitors in China, the UK, South Korea and Japan are all increasing clean tech funding to fuel their growth — often while making tough decisions in other areas to slash their own budget deficits.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

On January 27th and 28th, the Food and Drug Administration is having a meeting to decide who controls your right to choose mental illness treatment. On one side are doctors, scientists, patients and their advocates. On the other side is a doctor who doesn’t believe mental illness is real and a religion.
The FDA will have to side with one or the other, and the outcome is by no means certain.
The hearings concern the continued availability of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, or “Shock Treatment”).
In spite of Hollywood portrayals like that in “One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest,” almost all acknowledge the scientific efficacy of the treatment. These include the National Insitutes of Health, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, American Psychiatric Association, the Surgeon General, and the Center for Mental Health Services which concluded:
ECT is often the treatment of choice for pregnant women and the elderly because it has fewer and less intense side-effects than some other treatments. To deny them the right to choose ECT, would be cruel. Patients with mental illness who have been helped by ECT include Kitty Dukakis who wrote Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy, based on her experience with it, and Dick Cavett who told People Magazine, his treatment was “miraculous.”
On the other side of the argument are Dr. Peter Breggin and the Citizens Committee on Human Rights (CCHR).
Dr. Breggin’s opposition is the logical outcome of his belief that mental illness is a myth. If I didn’t believe schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder were real, I too would be against treatment. Dr. Breggin gave his version of the origins of bipolar disorder on Huffington Post, stating the drug companies had to create a new patient population market and that market became “bipolar disorder.” As to schizophrenia, in “The Psychology of Freedom” he argued that people with schizophrenia bring the symptoms on themselves because of “cowardice” or “failure of nerve.”
The other organization expected to testify with Dr. Breggin is the Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights, which was founded by Scientology and believes psychiatry is an “industry of death”. Again: If I thought Psychiatry was an industry of death, I would oppose letting them offer treatment too.
NAMI brought the religion’s attempt to limit access to treatment to Washington’s attention over 15 years ago. I wrote on the core of the issue before this most recent hearing was scheduled.
Like all treatments for any disorder, ECT has side-effects that should be disclosed to patients. And if those patients choose other treatments, they should be allowed. But after so many years of being used successfully to help people, trying to outlaw it now is not in anyone’s interest.
To comment to the FDA or arrange to be heard, go here

http://www.fda.gov/AdvisoryCommittees/Calendar/ucm234979.htm

Wishing you all a happy new year.

This Blogger’s Books from
Madness in the Streets : How Psychiatry and the Law Abandoned the Mentally Ill
by Rael Jean Isaac, Virginia C. Armat
The Insanity Offense: How America’s Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens
by E. Fuller Torrey

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Robert Butler used father's gun in Omaha school attack

Last year, I started blogging about the making of a new novel, and I wrote in this space every day. It proved to take too big a toll on the progress of my story, so this year, I’m going to start out just writing on Wednesdays. I am, in other words, starting out the New Year by saying, “No.” I have to take this stand, because I have 100 pages of my book written, and these pages are starting to make demands on me. In order to meet those demands, I have to clear some time and space.
At 50 pages, you know that a story has a certain shape and weight. At 100 pages, however, it starts to generate heat, and it’s that heat that make the demands. My 100 pages want me to stay up late to keep writing. They wake me up in the middle of the night, nagging at me, refusing to loosen their grip. They want me to ignore the dishes and the laundry even more than I normally do so that I can keep writing. When I see 100 pages, I immediately start to think about 200.
100 pages can mess with your mind. The other day, in fact, I was so obsessed with working out a particularly important and thorny scene, that I was cranky and mean all day until I got it, and then I felt light and happy. My family was not amused.
In the immediate future, I will be saying “no” to parties, and to worthy literary events, and to lunches. I will be saying “no” to things that are good for me (like yoga), and to the people I love the most (the family who was not amused.) I know I should be trying to seek a healthy balance in all things at all times. But I have 100 pages, and right now, they happen to be very loud.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

There is a white elephant in the room that no one seems to be talking about. The push for short sales on the part of the lender and in some cases the government is at epic proportions. I agree that in some cases short sale may be the only option, but in most cases, it is not the only option. How on earth will our values stablize any time soon in this environment of a massive short sale campaign and foreclosures that should not happen. Doesn’t anybody see that if these continue, our property values will continue to erode, and more foreclosures will ultimately follow, but if more modifications take place our values can begin to stabilize.
From my experience talking to thousands of homeowners there are huge mistakes being made in the processing of their HAMP loan modification or in house loan modification applications. The second that the loan modification is denied, even it was done in error, which most of them are, a letter is sent to the homeowner telling them that a short sale is now one of their only options, other than the foreclosure that is now imminent or a deed in lieu, all options leave them without a home.
The banks are now resorting to offering homeowners money to short sell their home, that is of course if they get the bank’s approved price, or better yet if they ever get through the short sale process nightmare. I guess it would be a happy time if people did not care about staying in their homes. Newsflash, it is not a happy time, people do want to stay in their homes. Most can make a reasonable payment with modified terms. People are going through tough times, small businesses are, large corporations are, and even banks are as we have seen the biggest amount bank failures in history.
A question that most homeowners have is why the lender prefers to take a short sale vs helping the homeowner remain in the home, and the answer is obviously about money. Chase and Wells Fargo are even giving away free houses to non-profits, well how nice of them! What about the ghost of the family that lost their home, the ones that were trying for months to get help, why couldn’t they help keep them in their homes instead of giving it away for free or at huge discounts to non-profits, the answer again is about money. It always is. Have our values and integrity gone so far down in this country that this all seems acceptable?
What a great PR campaign the big banks have showing that they are providing revitalization to the community by giving away free houses, is this for real? Does anyone see through this? How does this make absolutely any sense that they give houses away and sell them at bargain prices but refuse to work to help homeowners? When you have seen the countless errors that I have seen in a sampling of loan modification processing stories, you would very well see that this is not a happy story, it is an injustice and it is without logic.
With out real controls put in place to monitor and audit the constant inaccuracies that happen on a daily basis to thousands of homeowners, these mistakes will continue to be made and homeowners that could have stayed in their homes will think that short sale was the only option.
People trust their bank is giving them the right answers. Homeowners believe that their lenders have their best interest at heart. I have to think that bank’s executive levels are clearly not getting this information, otherwise, I too would have no choice but to strongly believe that they don’t have the homeowner’s best interest in mind. The lenders do and will continue to make mistakes, big, life changing, costly mistakes for the American homeowners that are losing their homes, some even on Christmas Eve.
For most homeowners that venture into fighting back, it can sometimes take a year or more to get a reasonable person to listen and understand the mistakes, and to get them to finally correct them, however, that is if the homeowner ever reaches that person, and many homeowners do give up long before that happens.
The sad reality is that most homeowners never reach that reasonable person that can fix the mistakes, and they are told, “sorry you are denied, your only option is to short sale your house”. The American dream that our forefathers set up for this country is vaporizing right before our very eyes. This epidemic has a domino effect that is very detrimental to the American dream of homeownership.
There are solutions, if someone will listen. Just like hillsides collapse in a mudslide from continuous erosion to the soil as heavy rains undermine the integrity of the hillside, short sales and foreclosures continue to erode the property values of our neighborhoods, and the lack of proper assistance to the backbone of our country, the American homeowners, undermines the integrity of our economy and the collapses will continue.
Until then, to think for yourself you MUST question authority. Fight for your dreams by being your own best advocate. Get empowered with the right information. Be more knowledgeable then them. When you know your numbers the way the bank sees them, then you can be confident about your loan modification application, and you can fight with determination and resolve to Save Your Home!
Anna Cuevas is an invited blogger on The Huffington Post, author of several soon to be published books including “Fight for Your Dreams” with Bestselling author, Les Brown. Anna is the Founder of www.askaloanmodguru.com a blog dedicated to empowering homeowners with free information they need to confidently apply for a loan modification and also providing the latest Do It Yourself Loan Modification tools to Save Your Home. Request your free copy of “Dirty Little Loan Modification Secrets You Must Know” along with free bonus materials that take the guess work out of the loan modification process to stop your foreclosure dead in it’s tracks.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Cross-posted in Harvard Business Online
A number of years ago I encountered a puzzling holiday phenomenon. I was working at what was then J.P. Morgan Bank with a back-office department in which the staff was hard-pressed to collect and reconcile data at the end of every month. Consequently the last week of each month was always stressful and came with the constant complaint that the department was short on staff. Yet somehow this same process in the month of December — when many employees were planning to take time off between Christmas and New Year’s Day — was so much more efficient that a skeleton staff was able to finish the month without any problems. In essence what was difficult to complete in four weeks throughout the year was accomplished in just three weeks in December (with the same volume of work).
You’re probably familiar with the adrenaline rush of getting things done to meet a deadline — whether your deadline preceded a vacation, or came from a boss, client, or professor (remember those “all-nighters” in college?). But when an entire team faces a deadline together and is highly motivated to accelerate progress, “Christmas miracles” such as those I witnessed at J.P. Morgan are entirely possible.
Unfortunately, there is an addendum to this story, which is that the performance improvements achieved in December did not carry over into January. Within days the data collection and reconciliation process returned to normal, so that by the end of the month the team was again struggling to get everything done.
The lesson here is that the Morgan team could have identified the first week or two of January as a choice point. At this crucial moment, they could have decided to build on their December success and create a sustainably faster and more effective process; or they could have returned to their old patterns. Unconsciously they chose the latter.
The beginning of January is a natural choice point for every management team, whether or not you’ve experienced a Christmas miracle. The changeover to a new calendar year, coinciding with the return of many from holiday breaks, is a perfect opportunity to reflect on what was learned during the past year; set exciting stretch goals for the year ahead; and start taking actions to achieve those goals. In this spirit, Jack Welch used to ask his managers in January to think of themselves as just starting a new job — encouraging them to break free of the past year’s patterns and reinvent the way that they and their teams operate. Similarly, many companies hold leadership conferences in January for the “top 50″ (or more) so that they can get the new year off to a running start, with renewed energy and different ways of working.
If you are in a company that already uses January as a launching pad for reenergizing and reinventing your work, take advantage of the opportunity. Go to the leadership sessions with an open mind and your own creative ideas about how to improve performance. Then replicate the process with your team and help it to cascade across your organization.
If this is not part of the way your company ordinarily functions, then here are a few steps you can take independently to capture the January opportunity:
Reflect on the Welch question: What would you do differently if you had just been hired for your job?
Informally interview a few of your customers (internal or external) and ask them what they would like to change about working with you and your team in the coming year.
Bring your team together to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year — and then raise the bar for the year to come. How can you make 2011 a breakthrough year? How could the team become a model for high performance in the company?
By now most of us have returned from the holiday break, hopefully relaxed and ready to get back to work. But at this moment, we all face a choice: We can fall back into our old patterns and habits, both individually and collectively; or we can reinvent those patterns and generate renewed energy for the coming year.
Now that January is here, what’s your choice?

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

“The Conversation”: Deepak HomeBase at ABC Carpet and Home, New York City Dec. 21, 2010 from Better Days Productions on Vimeo.
What do you think of this idea?
deepakchopra.com

This Blogger’s Books from
The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness
by Deepak Chopra
The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment
by Deepak Chopra

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

In the past two years, President Obama and Congress have invested heavily in economic recovery, pulling America back from the brink of a second Great Depression and laying the foundations for renewed growth.
The recovery is in progress. But in the shadow of a global financial crisis and a deep recession, unemployment remains high and the American people need Washington to stay focused on job creation.
Americans will no doubt be confused by the priorities of the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Will they dedicate the first month of the 112th Congress to job creation, as we did in the 111th? No. House Republicans have announced their top priority: to deny millions of low-and middle-income Americans health care and increase the deficit by repealing health care reform, a signal achievement of the previous Congress.
Their effort is doomed to fail; the Senate will not pass nor would the President sign any such law. But House Republicans will nevertheless pay lip service to the Tea Party activists who put them in power by forcing a vote on repeal.
Opponents of health care reform have rallied around a Constitutional objection to the “individual mandate,” the provision of the reform law that requires Americans to purchase health insurance. They argue that Congress has no Constitutional authority to mandate coverage.
They are wrong.
The powers of the Congress are enumerated in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. Among them are the powers to raise and maintain the military, to declare war, to print and manage the currency, to establish federal courts and to make bankruptcy laws.
Critically, this section also grants Congress broad power “to regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States.” Congressional power to regulate interstate commerce is one of two key Constitutional foundations of the health care law. Under existing case law, Congress has clear authority under the commerce clause to regulate health care and health insurance, which undeniably impact interstate commerce and contribute more than 17 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
The other Constitutional foundation of the health care law is the final Congressional power enumerated in Article I, Section 8: the power of Congress to “make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers.” Congress not only can regulate the health insurance industry; it can establish the laws necessary and proper for carrying out that regulation.
The individual mandate is an essential plank of health care reform, whose core objectives are expansion of access to quality, affordable care and prohibition of insurance practices that deny necessary care to sick Americans. A key – and popular – provision of reform is the ban on discrimination against patients who are already sick. Without the individual mandate, Americans could abuse this provision by waiting to get insurance until after they are diagnosed with an illness. Insurers would be required to cover care even though the consumer had not been paying premiums to cover the expense. The cost of that care would be passed along to those who are already insured, hospitals, taxpayers and doctors. Such a system would be incoherent, ineffective and unfair.
Only through the individual mandate can we implement the ban on discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions and help millions afford coverage. It is a necessary provision of common-sense regulations that expand Americans’ access to care and stop abusive insurance practices. It is necessary, proper, and falls squarely within the powers of Congress enumerated in Article I.
This debate may well be headed to the Supreme Court. But decades from now, Americans will wonder what all the fuss over health care was about. We passed legislation that expands access to insurance for millions of Americans. It will prevent death from treatable illness for Americans who previously could not afford care. And it saves the taxpayer money. And it is Constitutional.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Juba, January 8, 2011 — A giddy optimism prevails in Juba, in Southern Sudan. Almost everyone in this dusty boomtown — from teachers and students, to politicians and bodaboda taxi drivers — says they will choose separation from the North in the January 9 referendum for southern independence.
If they do, the ten southern states of Sudan will become Africa’s newest nation, with enormous state-building challenges ahead. They will have to build the rule of law from scratch here and end entrenched patterns of communal violence and human rights abuses, especially by southern security forces.
Meanwhile, in Sudan’s northern states, which will also emerge as a new country, the mood is grim. In recent weeks, the Khartoum government has stepped up its hostile rhetoric and cracked down on northern human rights activists, journalists, critics, and opponents of the ruling party. In Darfur, where rebels and government forces continue to clash and peace remains distant, the Khartoum government has resumed attacks on civilians.
World leaders have understandably pressed Sudan, Africa’s largest country, to conduct the referendum peacefully, and on time. The vote is a milestone in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended Sudan’s brutal 22-year civil war, and its peaceful conduct is key to regional stability.
Implementation of the agreement has been halting and incomplete, but the parties have not resorted to violence against each other. The main flashpoints for renewed conflict — disputed and militarized parts of the North-South border — have not escalated despite provocations on both sides. Voter registration for the referendum, which I observed in several southern towns in November and early December, was relatively calm and for the most part free of the political intimidation, arrests, violence and fraud that tainted national elections in April.
The northern ruling National Congress Party seems to have come to terms with its likely loss of the South, which contains about a quarter of the country’s population, a third of the land, and 70 percent of the oil reserves. Last week, President Omar al-Bashir promised to respect the outcome and support Southern Sudan should it secede. Such positive, peaceful messages are exactly what the world wants from al-Bashir at this critically important moment for North and South.
To be sure, plenty could still go wrong during and after the vote — especially if the ruling party contests the results or if the parties fail to agree to a solution on Abyei, the disputed oil-producing area straddling the North-South border. Northern and southern armies and allied militias clashed there in May 2008 and threaten to clash again. Abyei was to have its own separate referendum starting on January 9 as well. But with no agreement about voter eligibility or land rights there, the political parties have put it on hold, indefinitely. All eyes should remain on this possible trouble spot.
All eyes should also stay on Sudan’s human rights record. For all their progress on the referendum, Sudan’s leaders have ignored the other aspects of the 2005 peace agreement, such as reforming the brutally repressive national security service and criminal laws that violate Sudan’s constitution, or ensuring accountability for human rights violations across Sudan. The fact is, al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for serious crimes committed in Darfur, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, while his government continues to engage in abusive, repressive tactics.
Just before Christmas, al-Bashir disparaged the idea of a society with ethnic and religious diversity and declared that if the South secedes, Sudan will impose strict Islamic sharia laws and make Arabic the only official language. Last month, in response to a broad public outcry, he defended public floggings for “indecent and immoral acts” — women wearing trousers, for instance — while police violently suppressed women who gathered to denounce the practice. High-level ruling party officials have threatened to strip the 1.5 million southerners in northern states of their rights in the event of southern independence.
Based on these threats and incidents, and past government practice, northern civil society members are bracing for more repression. In recent weeks, the government’s security forces arbitrarily arrested a group of Darfur activists and journalists, who remain in detention without charges. The authorities have targeted other prominent members of civil society, including by jailing the executive director of a prominent Sudanese human rights group on baseless charges, and used violence to suppress peaceful gatherings by opposition party members.
In Darfur, meanwhile, for the eighth year in a row, Sudan is carrying out aerial bombing and attacks on civilians. Peace talks have sputtered to a halt, and the resurgence of clashes has brought renewed targeting of civilians on the basis of their ethnicity.
Little detailed information is available about the conditions on the ground. After the March 2009 announcement by the International Criminal Court of charges against President al-Bashir, he expelled international organizations and shuttered Sudanese human rights groups. The result is an information vacuum, which the Sudanese government has maintained by repressing activists and journalists working on Darfur and restricting the access of the UN and other international organizations to conflict-affected areas.
International actors engaged on Sudan — foremost among them the United States and African Union — consider Sudan’s human rights record and justice for crimes in Darfur a “second-tier” issue, subordinate to the “first-tier” issues that they felt Sudanese leaders needed to resolve to carry out a peaceful, credible referendum. Their focus on averting renewed conflict is both necessary and laudable. Sudan’s 22-year civil war killed more than 2 million people.
But focusing on the agreement’s end goal — a peaceful referendum — rather than the real reforms the peace agreement called for is short-sighted. Sudan’s leaders and international supporters of the referendum process have collectively failed to address the very sorts of human rights violations that gave rise to Sudan’s civil war in the first place — indiscriminate attacks on civilians, denial of basic rights, and political repression.
As experience demonstrates, accountability is a critical component of lasting peace and stability. Justice and human rights issues need to be addressed at the same time as peace processes, not at some future indeterminate date. Sudanese people have seen how impunity fuels abuse: lack of accountability for attacks on civilians by militia during the long civil war probably factored into Khartoum’s decision to use the same strategy again in Darfur.
The African Union’s High Level Panel on Darfur, in its October 2009 report, recognized this crucial nexus, which others continue to ignore. Sadly, the Sudanese government has made no meaningful progress in the implementation of the panel’s recommendations for more than one year, and international actors have not sufficiently pressed Sudan to act on the report’s findings.
With the North-South referendum now clearly in sight, it is high time for world leaders to press Khartoum to secure a sustainable, enduring peace. It can do so by ending its long history of abuses, respecting the will of the voters, and fulfilling basic commitments to dignity and justice. Sudan’s long-term stability, in the North and South, as well as in Darfur and the troubled East, will depend on guaranteeing these fundamental rights.
Jehanne Henry is a senior researcher in the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, and in Southern Sudan to observe the referendum.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The nation’s great policy crisis, and the Obama administration’s political crisis, is the Great Recession and the fact that one in six Americans who would like a full-time job cannot get one.
Why in the world is President Barack Obama selecting as his chief of staff a person who comes from the very Wall Street that wrecked the economy and who is an ardent supporter of the job-offshoring, NAFTA-style trade agreements that have hollowed out the industrial heartland?
This is exactly the wrong direction for the administration, which seems intent on drawing exactly the wrong lessons from the 2010 elections. What the public wants is meaningful action on jobs and an end to the insider, corporate deal-making arrangements that William Daley represents.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

It is disappointing to see the same president who ran on his constitutional law professor bona fides devote so much time and effort to discrediting WikiLeaks and working up charges against its founder, Julian Assange. WikiLeaks, like the New York Times before it with the publication of the Pentagon Papers, has committed no crime. If the law of the land holds true, the administration will get nowhere with the foolish notion that Assange can be tried for conspiracy under the Espionage Act for doing what major media outlets do every day: publishing classified information about the government. The claim that somehow WikiLeaks is different because it allegedly encouraged sources to come forward is a red herring: even if the charge proves true, this is what journalists at every major media outlet in the country do every day.
Still, we wonder at those who assert that the cables “demonstrate no misconduct by the U.S.” (Floyd Abrams) or “provide very little evidence of double-dealing or bad faith in U.S. foreign policy” (Gideon Rachman). In fact, the U.S. Embassy cables, like the Pentagon Papers, show our government involved in systemic wrongdoing and wide scale deception. They present irrefutable evidence that this administration and its predecessor have been tampering with other countries’ legal systems to prevent prosecutions against government employees for committing human rights abuses and transgressing international law under often-secret post 9/11 policies.
This April 1, 2009 cable reveals the U.S. trying to derail the prosecution of the senior architects of the Bush administration’s torture program in Spain. The U.S. frets that “The fact that this complaint targets former Administration legal officials may reflect a ‘stepping-stone’ strategy designed to pave the way for complaints against even more senior officials.” When it looks to Chief Prosecutor Javier Zaragoza to stall or derail the proceedings, he reassures them: while “in all likelihood he would have no option but to open a case” he does not “envision indictments or arrest warrants in the near future.” (Untrue, by the way. Zaragoza and the U.S. may have succeeded in stalling the investigation, but this week CCR will take the next steps toward encouraging the judge assigned to the case to move forward despite the failure of the U.S. to respond to his inquiries.)
This February 6, 2007 cable shows the previous administration trying to prevent Germany from prosecuting the 13 CIA agents who abducted German citizen Khaled el-Marsi and flew him to Afghanistan for interrogation as part of the U.S. “extraordinary rendition” program–only to discover after many months that they had the wrong man. In public, Angela Merkel’s office called for an investigation while Munich prosecutors issued arrest warrants for the agents. In private, the German Justice Ministry and Foreign Ministry reassured an anxious US that they were not interested in pursuing the case.
Like the NYT when it published the Pentagon Papers, WikiLeaks has been accused of irresponsibly dumping a large cache of top secret documents into the public domain that compromise the safety of our country and our allies. In fact, despite the hysterical claims of a variety of elected officials, there’s been absolutely no documentation of any resulting harm, unless one counts the embarrassment of having Russian Premier Minister Vladimir Putin make fun of U.S. officials for trying to suppress free speech. WikiLeaks has only released 1,974 of the 251,287 cables in its possession, and none were classified as “top secret” (over half were not subject to classification at all). Finally, while its offer to go over redactions with the State Department prior to publication was ignored, the five major newspapers that have been publishing the cables have gone to great lengths to communicate with each other and the State Department regarding redactions.
Our government, as journalist and constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald has noted, increasingly wishes to operate through a one-way mirror where all of its citizens’ activities are open for surveillance while the activities of the government itself increasingly take place behind a wall of executive privilege, untouchable even by judicial oversight. But democracy demands the cleansing light of openness as a guard against the abuses of power. We should thank WikiLeaks for shedding light on governmental wrongdoing. Now let us hope that the U.S. public, as well as its politicians and media, will consider investigating these abuses at least as important as maligning the messenger.
Vince Warren is the Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Much to my surprise, I got an iPad for Christmas. I already have a desktop computer, a laptop and an iPhone. Why would I need an iPad? Then I remembered a video that went viral a few months ago of a man finger-painting a realistic portrait from a live model on an iPad, using the Brushes app. If you haven’t seen it, check it out:
Being a recovering artist, as opposed to a practicing artist, I ignored all the red flags that go up whenever I encounter art supplies of any kind and downloaded the Brushes app. Twenty-four hours later, I came up for air.
Brushes records all of your strokes and they are immediately available for play-back, stroke by stroke. After doodling for a while, the possibilities for animation became abundantly clear and I began experimenting. So, if you will indulge me and remember that I’m not a practicing artist, I offer my day-after-Christmas doodlings, just to give you a taste of the possibilities:
What can a real artist do with an iPad? David Hockney, always eager to experiment with new media, currently has an exhibition, Fleurs fraches (Fresh Flowers) at La Fondation Pierre Berg in Paris, consisting of iPhone and iPad drawings. Some are projected, some are shown on actual iPhones and iPads displayed museum style in a darkened gallery. He continues to update the exhibition, emailing new works every day. It runs through January 30.
(Click here to see a video of the exhibition and a discussion between Hockney and curator Charlie Scheips.)
(Click here for a review of the show in the Atlantic.)
Are you doing iPad art? If you would like to submit a piece of your own with the animation for possible publication on this blog, upload it to YouTube and email the URL to me at iPadsubmissions@offrampgallery.com. Do not attach the original movie file to the email — they’re too large and I will have to delete them unopened.
Book Review of My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic
My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic is a slim volume of questions put to advertising mogul, art dealer and collector Charles Saatchi, and his answers. He refuses to be interviewed in person but allowed questions to be submitted by journalists, critics and members of the public.
Keeping in mind the controlled environment in which he presents himself, Saatchi comes across as surprisingly candid, self-deprecating and funny. It is also abundantly clear that he adores his wife, domestic goddess Nigella Lawson. It’s hard to dislike a man who loves his wife and says when asked about a recent weight loss, “I was fat and ugly and now I’m thin and ugly.”
When asked if he is concerned about his impact on the art market, he responds: “I never think too much about the market. I don’t mind paying three or four times the market value of a work that I really want. Just ask the auction houses. As far as taste is concerned, I primarily buy art in order to show it off.”
Just a regular Joe following his passion. He does sometimes come across as self-serving, such as when asked to look ahead 100 years and say who are the great artists who will pass the test of time:
“General art books dated 2105 will be as brutal about editing the late 20th century as they are about almost all other centuries. Every artist other than Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Damien Hirst will be footnote.” Saatchi famously funded Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (a.k.a. the $12 Million Stuffed Shark) and showcased it in 1992 in the first Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. The piece resulted in Hirst being nominated for the 1992 Turner Prize (which he didn’t win that year) and launched him to superstardom.
Saatchi redeems himself when asked what he thinks about artists: “Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on. I love them all.”
This book is a light and interesting read, another piece in the puzzle for anyone who, like me, struggles to make sense of the seemingly incomprehensible world of contemporary art.
Upcoming Events at Offramp Gallery
Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story
January 9 – February 6, 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, January 9, 2-5pm

Anita Bunn, untitled, 2010, halftone photolithograph, 18″ x 14″ framed

Offramp Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition, Anita Bunn: The Sun Tells Quite Another Story from January 9 – February 6, 2011. The opening reception will be on Sunday, January 9, from 2-5pm. For her second solo exhibition at Offramp Gallery, Los Angeles based artist, Anita Bunn, will be exhibiting a new series of works that continue her exploration of the act of noticing as well as the temporal nature of the still and moving image.
Cross-posted from Jane Chafin’s Offramp Gallery Blog

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Would you pack up a family heirloom in a box lined with seed husks and mushroom spores? Eben Bayer, the 26-year-old CEO and chief innovator at Ecovative Design, thinks so. Bayer’s biodegradable packing materials are tough, cheap and renewable, putting Ecovative on a collision course with Styrofoam, the unrivaled king of the packing materials.
The spotlight on Ecovative Design is growing faster than the mushrooms they turn into packing material. It was only two months ago that Planet Forward featured Ecovative’s unique method of growing packing materials from fast-growing mushroom spores.
Ecovative was a hit on the Planet Forward website, and readers were left wanting more of these funky fungus fabricators. Readers were surprised by how quickly Ecovative grew the packing materials. They even tossed a few questions and comments at the project’s young creators.
Now the engineers at Ecovative play a starring role in Planet Forward’s most recent Nightly Business Review segment. I made a return trip to the Ecovative production facility to check up on Eben Bayer, Ecovative’s 26-year-old CEO and chief innovator. Bayer points out that his main goal is still to be achieved: moving Ecovative into the $20 billion a year packing material industry by ridding the world of Styrofoam.
Watch the full episode. See more Nightly Business Report.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The financial costs of the seemingly endless foreclosure crisis have been widely reported with Credit Suisse estimating that as many as 12 million families will lose their homes before this is all over. The predatory lending that led to the spike in foreclosures, and the robo-signings coupled with the illegal forcible removal of many families from their homes, promise to keep these issues in the headlines for years to come.
Lost amidst the news reports, legislative hearings, scholarly journal articles and books, documentary films, and blogs of all sorts are the perhaps more profound non-financial consequences. There have been some reports of the family tensions that often surround financial struggles, the hardships children face when they are forced to change schools, and related social stresses. But a deeper, darker challenge may be on the horizon resulting from the mistrust and betrayal families report as a result of the deception they have experienced in the mortgage market. While also feeling shame and embarrassment, even personal failure, for having allowed themselves to be taken in, these families are also aware of the exploitation they have experienced at the hands of their “trusted” financial advisors. That mistrust threatens the recovery some believe has begun in recent months.
As the British sociologist Anthony Giddens has noted, in complex societies where each individual cannot become expert in all the institutional contexts in which they must operate, trust is essential for people to negotiate the various realms, including financial institutions, in which they operate. People must feel secure in the trust networks they establish in order to survive and prosper, and for society itself to advance.
In a series of in-depth interviews nationwide with 22 adults who are at risk of foreclosure (they were either behind in their mortgage payments at some point in the past two years or, in two instances, had already lost their homes due to foreclosure) all respondents expressed both anger and personal responsibility. The interviews lasted between 30 and 90 minutes. In no question with any respondent was the word “trust” used. But in every case but one, the respondents explicitly referred to the mistrust they now have for anyone associated with the mortgage lending industry in particular or financial services generally.
One woman who, unknowingly, took out a variable rate mortgage told us “We didn’t have any reason to believe that he would lie to us or would mislead us on this. I mean there was no reason for us not to trust him.” Another young woman described the reaction of her elderly uncle who was misled into taking an adjustable rate loan, “He doesn’t trust anybody now, nobody.”
Homeownership, of course, has long been one of the pre-eminent symbols of success in the United States. Self-respect for many is wrapped up in the fact that they could call themselves a homeowner. Taking care of one’s family, being a contributing member of society, the very identity of who we are is often measured by the fact of being a homeowner. When that status is lost, it can be devastating. Many who are caught in the bursting of the housing bubble individualize their troubles and blame themselves, in part, for their situation no matter how egregious the deceit on the part of the lender. Anger is directed at their broker and themselves.
As one homeowner, whose family income was inflated by a broker in one of the loan documents, offered, “…if I had to do it all over again I would definitely have legal representation just to be there, cross my ‘t’s’ and dot my ‘I’s'”
One man acknowledged the haste with which he signed a loan where the broker misled him into thinking that various credit card loans would be consolidated. Instead, he was left with credit card payments on top of the mortgage, “Yes, I wouldn’t have been so rushed in the process…we should’ve known better, the things that they tried to pull.”
So our respondents exhibited a double-consciousness. They knew they were victims yet they still held themselves responsible. More problematic, in various ways all said they would be far more cautious in the future, with some indicating they would not likely deal with financial institutions again. In reference to the use of credit in the future, one respondent observed “Don’t let them have your money and don’t listen to them. I will be borrowing a lot less and I will be doing a lot less than what I did.” After watching his interest rate increase from 8 percent to 11 percent one man stated, “I tell my kids, you know, trust no one. No one out there, no one’s your friend, and I’m learning that more and more each day. I don’t trust them anymore.”
From a public policy perspective, even if the overriding concerns are the strictly financial costs, or more cynically the well-being of the “too-big-to-fail” institutions, these psychological and emotional costs may pose far greater challenges to our economy than the dollar amounts represented by the mounting number of foreclosures. Observers at all ends of the political spectrum recognize the importance of (prudent) risk-taking. When based on a foundation of knowledge, hard work, and no small amount of faith, entrepreneurship (which means risk-taking) is essential for any meaningful economic recovery. Refusal to participate in the nation’s financial institutions (assuming they are properly managed) due to lack of trust or any other reason, can only forestall that recovery.
Small business operators, homeowners, and citizens generally must have trust and faith in complex institutions, including banks, if our economy and society are to prosper. Whether our focus is Wall Street or Main Street, our families and homes or our global institutions, focusing only on the immediately transparent (and readily quantifiable) value of the foreclosed homes understates the true costs of the crisis and will only extend and exacerbate the years of struggle before us.
Lauren M. Ross is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at Temple University. Gregory D. Squires is a professor of sociology at George Washington University. This essay was drawn from their forthcoming paper, “The Personal Costs of Subprime Lending and the Foreclosure Crisis: A Matter of Trust, Insecurity, and Institutional Deception” to be published in the March issue of Social Science Quarterly.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

For those who missed it, 60 Minutes aired a segment on last October’s visit to Havana by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra earlier this week. It’s a must-watch for jazz, Marsalis, Cuba and New Orleans enthusiasts alike. (View the entire 13-minute segment here) I hope someone in the White House caught this segment because it’s a deeply moving reminder of why promoting broad people-to-people contacts between the U.S. and Cuba is the right, sane and humane policy.
Photo available at: http://havanarisquet.blogspot.com/2010/10/wynton-marsalis-and-jlco-shone-with.htmlPicture this: Wynton Marsalis and members of the Orchestra leading a New Orleans style street parade with Cuban music students and passersby joining in. Or the joyful grin on one Cuban man, who, with their baby in tow, accompanied his wife – and her horn – to the band’s hotel in hopes of getting a pointer or two from saxophonist Ted Nash (she did, and they jammed together). And, of course, there’s a magic in seeing Cuban piano legend Chucho Valdes make some music with Marsalis at the home of U.S. Interests Section Chief Jonathan Farrar, which 60 Minutes’ Morley Safer notes was home to the U.S. Ambassador to Cuba – 50 years ago when we still had one.
“Cuba, that’s like your cousins,” New Orleans native Marsalis says. And you can hear that closeness he’s talking about as he and a colleague mark the distinctive and incredibly similar New Orleans and Cuban clave beats.
When asked, Marsalis declined to offer his opinion on the troubled US-Cuba political relationship. He figures that’s not what he’s there to do. Instead, he traveled to Cuba to “bring people together.”
You can’t blame him for not wanting to enter the hornets’ nest on that one, but maybe he wasn’t evading at all. Afterall, so many of us who argue for engagement with Cuba do so not because we’ve got a political axe to grind, but precisely because we feel robbed of that exquisite human connectivity with our cousins. Our political leaders’ differences shouldn’t be getting in the way of people-to-people relationships. (Can anyone explain to me why Marsalis had to get permission from the U.S. government to visit a Cuban music school to teach and inspire those lucky kids for a day?)
Connecting with people in another land feeds us socially, culturally, artistically, spiritually and intellectually. When people put politics aside, they realize how much they have in common, and they incorporate new and positive influences into their lives.
You don’t have to denounce the U.S. embargo or the Cuban government to be able to catch the beat and enjoy the music together. And as Morley Safer put it, for at least the five nights Marsalis and the Orchestra were in Havana, “Cuba and the United States were speaking the same language.”
A version of this post appeared at The Havana Note.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

After being postponed twice, the 65 million (41 million) production is now scheduled to open on 7 February.
Its preview performances have been fraught with difficulties and safety concerns.
The most serious accident involved cast member Christopher Tierney, who plunged more than 20 feet into the orchestra pit when a safety rope snapped.
The performance – in the week before Christmas – was brought to a halt and prompted an immediate safety review.
Tierney, who recently left hospital, told WCBS TV in New York what he remembers from the accident.
“Once I hit the darkness of the stage, I had to just turn it real quick so I wasn't going to fall on my head and I crashed on my back.”
'Very upsetting'
New York theatregoer Steven Tartick was watching the show as Tierney fell.
“I started to have a panic attack in the theatre, people around me were crying. It was very upsetting,” he said.
“Then you leave the theatre and there are ambulances rushing up and that drove home the gravity of the situation.”
Tierney's injuries included a fractured skull, a broken shoulder blade and cracked vertebrae.
In another setback, lead actress Natalie Mendoza suffered a concussion after being hit by a weighted rope on the first night of previews.
The 32-year-old has since pulled out of the show. “It has been a difficult decision to make but I regret that I am unable to continue,” she said in a statement.
Ironically, though, the show's troubles have been helping to bring in audiences.
“Everyone wants to see it, but usually so that they can see someone get hurt,” says Gregory Castoria, a theatre promoter who fields questions from the public as they wait to buy discounted tickets in New York's Times Square.
“They want to see it for the wrong reasons, unfortunately.”
Theatregoer Alice Brown, from Virginia, said she had heard that in the musical “people hit the ground a lot during the show, but that it's really good”.
“I'd love to see it,” she said. “You never know what's going to happen – it's really live theatre”.
Adding to Spider-Man's problems are the two theatre critics who have broken the traditional embargo on reviews by writing preliminary assessments before the official opening.
Jeremy Gerard of Bloomberg News did have praise for some members of the creative team, including the aerial choreographer.
Yet he concluded it was “an unfocused hodge-podge of story-telling, myth-making and spectacle that comes up short in every department.”
'Really spectacular'
Such early reviews brought condemnation from veteran New York critic John Simon, who said it was “like grabbing a dish from a restaurant kitchen before it is fully cooked and then judging the meal by it.”
Performances in the past few days have been packed to capacity, but audiences have had mixed reactions.
Andrew Jeffrey from Melbourne has nothing but praise. “Yeah, it was a ripper!” he said. “I came all the way from Australia to see it, so I was pretty happy.”
Yet another theatregoer, Lois Plafond from Colorado, was not totally satisfied.
“I thought the ending was weak,” she said. “It just kind of fell apart at the end for some reason.
“It turned into this little love story and it didn't work for me. But until three-quarters of the way through it was really spectacular.”
Critics will cast their final verdict when they write their full reviews after opening night next month.
In the meantime, interest in the production continues to surge – arguably making Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark the most scrutinised show in Broadway history.

Source:BBC