Chart Wars

I found this very interesting video of Alex Lundry on Blip.tv (Conservative Political Pollster, Microtargeter, Data-Miner, and Data Visualizer according to his twitter account), talking about the political power of data visualization which he calls Chart Wars.

"A funny thing happened during this summer's health care debate: a chart that purported to show the organizational structure of the Democratic health care reform proposal took over the media cycle and triggered a partisan visualization volley.

Since then, the original chart has frequently been used as a provocative protest sign and is now the subject of a congressional investigation.

What was it that made this data visualization so powerful and politically potent? How can your organization or your cause harness data visualization as a messaging medium? With these health care chart wars as a backdrop, this presentation will show you how to be a smart consumer of data visualizations and infographics"

Who's looking out for the Insurance Companies?

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Shoes for Surgeries

The Preemptive Love Coalition sells handmade shoes to raise money for heart surgeries for kids in Iraq...

Linkage: Bad Water, Living Signs, etc.

VitaminWater sued for fraudulent health claims by Center for Science in the Public Interest. via

Signs come to life in the Pedestrian Project (image shown) via

Post Obama Shepard Fairy uses xConstructivism to sell for Saks (image shown)

Guantanamo's dark cloud as manifest by artist Julia Mandle via

Reallife: the latest social networking fad! via

Call for submissions: Essays from Jewish and Arab-Americans on peace in the Middle East. Thanks Mim!

Syke: Energy Drink for Smokers?

A recent article in the local free newspaper Style Weekly tipped me off to a curious underground campaign focused at young people in Virginia. It's for a new energy drink called Syke (which is not currently available in stores), but is being hyped as an extreme beverage that is "a secret blend of awesomeness and chemically engineered ingredients to help you live life faster." But all is not right in the land of Syke, and Style reveals that the campaign is actually a creation of the Rescue Change Social Group, "which develops programs to get young people involved in healthier lifestyles". Indeed over the coming months Syke, which is sponsoring actual music concerts, will get revealed as a dangerous product and eventually the "company" that makes it will be publicly shamed as part of what is a multi-phase anti-smoking campaign aimed to get under teens radars by having Syke be a metaphorical stand-in for cigarettes. Will it work? Style is skeptical. I'm intrigued to see where it goes, but the challenge of connecting the dots for their audience does seem massive. What do you think, is Syke the future of social marketing to teens?

Read the entire Style article HERE.

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Free Will Power

Free.Will.Power is a new campaign from NARAL Pro-Choice America which focuses on recruiting more young people to the cause by using a host of Web 2.0 tools. A series of videos was produced to promote the initiative, one for each word of the campaign title...

Food Security: Bill Moyers interviews Michael Pollan

Bill Moyers recently interviewed Michael Pollan (author of In Defense of Food and Omnivore's Dilemma) on the state of food security in the United States. Sadly he's not interested in the job of Secretary of Agriculture. You can watch the entire thing or read the transcript on the PBS website HERE or in 5 parts on YouTube...

Trouble In Toyland

Speaking of the holidays, the U.S. PIRG (the federation of Public Interest Research Groups) has released it's 23rd annual toy safety report: Trouble In Toyland. Unsurprisingly it shows that the high number of recalls of unsafe toys throughout 2007 has continued into 2008:

’ÄúWhile the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is a major step forward, many of its protections don’Äôt take effect until 2009, so it’Äôs still ’Äòbuyer beware’Äô for this shopping season,’Äù said U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock. ’ÄúWorse, last week the CPSC told companies that they could keep selling toys with toxic phthalate chemicals until they ran out of them, despite the law’Äôs clear prohibition against selling them after Feb. 10.’Äù

According to the most recent data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), toy-related injuries sent more than 80,000 children under the age of five to emergency rooms in 2007. Eighteen children died from toy-related injuries that year.

Read the entire report as a downloadable PDF HERE.

Book Review: In Defense of Food

I finally had a chance to read In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto, yet another fantastic book by journalist/author Michael Pollan. His books are consistently engaging and inevitably educate me on topics in which I already thought I was well-versed. This slim volume in no exception and manages to pack a big punch as it deconstructs one of the central food paradigms that we in the US have taken for granted (dubbed "Nutritionalism"). As with Omnivore's Dilemma and Botany of Desire, Pollan's sheer enthusiasm for (good) food and the fact that he is not working for a specific group or agenda helps him make a much more compelling argument about changing the way we relate to eating. The essential core of the book is the mantra "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants," which was originally introduced in a New York Times essay. Those three short phrases, as simple as they seem, contain the seeds to some very big ideas and Pollan fills out the book with well-researched facts and rules of thumb that forgo the difficult to follow recommendations of typical guides to healthy eating. This should be required reading for everyone in the US (are you listening Oprah?).

Cancer Bottles

In a bit of very sad irony the "Breast Cancer Awareness Bottle" (shown left) currently being sold in the U.S. is made of #7 polycarbonate plastic that contains Bisphenol-A (BPA) which the National Toxicology Program has found to be cancer causing in large doses. While the US Food and Drug Administration has said that the link between BPA and cancer "cannot be proven", the material has already been banned in Canada. Indeed the company that manufactures the bottles has responded to questions about the material by saying that a non-BPA version will be available in 6-8 months, since they would like to sell them in Canada!

If you have bottles marked with a 7 it is suggested that you do not refill/reuse the bottles since that allows the material to more easily transfer toxins to the liquid within. There is a good overview of BPA on Wikipedia HERE.

Thanks to my cousin, a breast cancer survivor, who did the research on this and passed the information along!

Tap Water Quality Database

While we're on the subject of water...
Find out how clean your tap water actually is (in the U.S.) on the Environmental Working Group's National Tap Water Quality Database.

Take Back The Tap

Food & Water Watch has released a report detailing the reasoning behind choosing tap over bottled water (as encouraged in the Think Outside The Bottle campaign) and why America's sewer and water system is in need of a major overhaul. From the report:

• Bottled water costs hundreds or thousands of times more than tap water. Compare $0.002 per gallon for most tap water to a range of $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon for bottled waters.
• The Food and Drug Administration regulates only the 30 to 40 percent of bottled water sold across state lines.
• The Environmental Protection Agency requires up to several hundred water tests per month by utility companies while the FDA requires only one water test per week by bottling companies.
• Nearly 40 percent of bottled water is simply filtered or treated tap water.
• U.S. plastic bottle production requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 100,000 cars.
• About 86 percent of the empty plastic water bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled.

Read/download the full report HERE.

Think Outside The Bottle

It's nice to see that America's obsession with bottled water is finally waning. Think Outside The Bottle is a pledge campaign which encourages the drinking of tap water. They've already nearly reached their 25,000 person goal, but hopefully they'll set the bar a bit higher once it's been met.

Thanks Cally!

Target to stop selling some PVC

Target stores recently announced that they will reduce the amount of PVC they sell, specifically in their own line products (including toys, baby products, shower curtains and packaging). Read the press release from the Center for Health Environment and Justice HERE. It includes this explanation of why PVC is worth avoiding:

Among the health effects of phthalates, found in many PVC products, are premature birth delivery, early puberty in girls, impaired sperm quality and sperm damage in men, genital defects and reduced testosterone production in boys.

’ÄúStudy after study have found that chemicals in vinyl can cause health problems in children and adults," said Dr. Peter Orris, Professor and Chief of Service at the University of Illinois Medical Center Chicago. "While using PVC products, people may be exposed toxic additives like phthalates and lead and when incinerated, PVC is a major contributor to dioxin.’Äù

The hazards of PVC are not limited to its use by consumers: it creates toxic pollution during its manufacture, harming workers and community members near PVC plants such as in Mossville, Louisiana. When thrown away, toxic additives like lead and phthalates can leach into the ground and nearby drinking water sources. When burned in incinerators, PVC produces dioxins and furans, chemicals that can cause cancer and are considered to be among the most toxic environmental contaminants known to man. PVC packaging can not be effectively recycled, and can contaminate an entire batch of 100,000 recyclable bottles.

King Corn Trailer

King Corn looks like it will be an excellent companion to the book Omnivore's Dilemma. Watch the trailer here...



Thanks Chris!

News Roundup

Getting caught up here from a very busy spell, I have lots to post, plus it's Blog Action Day so definitely want to get some environmental links out there. Here's a smattering to start you off...

From the Christian Science Monitor:
Amazon Farmers work with Corporations to Save the Forest
New Yorkers Using Biodiesel for Heating

From Ode Magazine:
Sesame Street working for Middle East Peace
Organic Agriculture CAN Feed The World
How Hospitals Make You Sick

From Mother Jones:
The Problem with Plastics (including a handy chart for your fridge)

FDA fights natural sweetener

A recent Organic Consumers Association article outlines the attempt by the FDA to prevent US consumers from having access to products containing stevia, a natural herb that is a healthy alternative to artificial sweeters for people who can't consume sugar. Claiming that research data is inconclusive the FDA has already requested that Celestial Seasonings stop selling their stevia sweened items.

According to the American Herbal Products Association, "Stevia leaf is a natural product that has been used for at least 400 years as a food product, principally as a sweetener or other flavoring agent. None of this common usage in foods has indicated any evidence of a safety problem. There are no reports of any government agency...indicating any public health concern whatsoever in connection with the use of stevia in foods."

Read more here.

How The Food Industry Is Deceiving You

The first of a five-part series (that appears to be from 2004) called "How The Food Industry Is Deceiving You" created by Peter Jennings...



Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

via Mercola.com

"Hugo Me": Supersize is Back

McDonald's, which dropped their "Supersize" range of jumbo products, shortly after the documentary "Super Size Me" came out, in an effort to address concerns about rising obesity rates, has now introduced the "Hugo" a 42oz 410 calorie soda. A recent New York Times article on the McDonalds about-face quotes a representative defending the summertime only product saying: ’ÄúPeople, I believe, tend to drink more during the summer. People are out and about.’Äù

Read the full article here.

via StayFree!

This Side Up: Simple Effective Design

This onesie created and sold by the This Side Up Campaign is a great example of simple effective design. The campaign raises awareness of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) which is the number one cause of death for children under age one. While the cause of SIDS is unknown, one of the most effective ways to prevent it is to make sure babies sleep on their backs. Their onesie with "This Side Up" printed on it is an easy way for tired, new parents to remember what to do when it comes to bedtime, plus sales of the onesie benefit the campaign. Find out more here.

Plate Design Diet

Plates with designs that help measure portions are as effective as if not better than medication in helping people with type-2 diabetes loose weight. Details on BBC News.

via Social Design Notes

Sicko Memo

Michael Moore recently posted a leaked memo from the Vice President of Corporate Communications of Capital Blue Cross in response to a viewing of his new film Sicko. Say what you want about Moore, his films clearly have an impact. Here's an excerpt:

You would have to be dead to be unaffected by Moore's movie, he is an effective storyteller.
...
Moore's movies are intentionally intense and his objective in Sicko seems to be to revive the earlier Clinton efforts - not to achieve universal coverage with this movie, but to push the topic to the top of the agenda. He will be just as successful whether proponents mount momentum or discussion entails key stakeholders defending why it won't work.
...
Ignoring its impact might be a successful strategy only if it flops, but that has not been the history of Moore's films nor the way this one appears to be headed. If popular, the movie will have a negative impact on our image in this community.
...
I believe the most successful strategy will not be in attacking the movie for its weaknesses or misperceptions, but in distancing ourselves and our brand from the groups and motivations he attacks...

Read the whole thing here.

Cereal Killer

According to a recent New York Times article Kellogg will begin phasing out marketing unhealthy cereals to children under 12 over the next year and a half. Having tie-ins with licensed characters will be limited to healthier cereals as well. The self-imposed changes follow the threat of a lawsuit from the Center for Science in The Public Interest and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. The plans for a lawsuit have now been dropped. From the article:

Susan Linn, the co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said Kellogg’Äôs decision to stop using licensed characters on sugary food was particularly significant. ’ÄúUntil now the industry has absolutely dug in their heels,’Äù Ms. Linn said.

In the last several years, health officials have repeatedly warned that the steady stream of food ads aimed at children is contributing to the number of overweight or obese children, which has soared over the last four decades.

Some countries have banned advertising of nutritionally questionable food to children altogether, and some members of Congress have suggested that federal regulation may be needed in the United States, too. The food industry has promised to bolster its own self-regulation.

Read the entire article here.

via Consumerist

Toxic Art Supplies

Co-op Ameria's: Real Money has an article on the potential toxic hazards of art supplies and how to identify and avoid them. They also provide a list of resources including a couple of recipes for homemade paints and dyes. Read the article here.

Make up or Die!?

Just because the FCC does not regulate the ingredients used in cosmetics doesn't mean you have to suffer for it.

Skin Deep: The Cosmetic Safety Database has information and online safety assessments for over 22,500 products. Created by the Environmental Working Group, this site is a great resource for discovering what harmful ingredients may be in your favorite cosmetics. Each product is given a score card with easy to undertand explanation of ingredients. You might be surprised to learn that many products with the words 'natural' or 'organic' in their name contain toxic chemicals.

You can also find out which cosmetic companies have joined the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, educational, religious, labor, womens, environmental and consumer groups working to protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the health and beauty industry to phase out the use of dangerous chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives.

With the help of The Cosmetic Safety Database, you can clean out your bathroom cabinets and find alternatives to products that contain killer chemicals like, DBP and DEHP which are found in anything from nail polish to deodorant and not included on packaging labels but are linked to birth defects.

(Thanks, Mim!)

Spotted in NYC Part II: R-Rated Smoking

Saw these ads all over Times Square last week promoting Reality Check a group that is pushing to have smoking relegated to R-Rated movies only.

The copy says "Now Playing in 75% of PG-13 movies" "Hollywood Presents SMOKING influencing 390,000 new teen smokers each year".

Get more details here.

That new car smell may be slowly killing you.

If you have to buy a car, be sure to find out how toxic they are first at HealthCar.org.

Happy yet?

The (Un)Happy Planet Index shows how efficiently countries turn environmental resources into human happiness. For the record the US is #150 out of 178 countries. And the top of the pile? Vanuatu, followed by Columbia and Costa Rica in that order. Get the details here.

File Under Irony: Dirty Soap

Anti-bacterial soap could actually be dangerous to your health!
From Newstarget.com:

Triclosan, widely used as an antibacterial ingredient in household hand sterilization products, breaks down rapidly when exposed to chlorinated water and produces toxic chemicals including chloroform, according to a study published on the Environmental Science & Technology research website As Soon As Publishable (ASAP), suggesting that many antibacterial products may not only be ineffective, but harmful.

Get the details here.

Via Organic Consumers Association