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• AIDS-vertisement

  YouthAIDS founder Kate Roberts is marketing safe sex to the masses.
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  • 012: New School
  • Date: Aug 26 2008
  • Contributors: Kathryn Hawkins

• Nature Playgrounds

  For all the benefits of playing in nature, we live in a modern (and urban) world, and are unable to escape easily into the forest. So how to do it? Bring the forest to us.
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  • 012: New School
  • Date: Aug 14 2008
  • Contributors: Morgan Clendaniel

• Fall Down, Go Boom

  In the last two decades, playgrounds have gotten safer, more streamlined, and progressively worse. Now innovators are taking playgrounds more seriously than ever.
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  • 012: New School
  • Date: Aug 13 2008
  • Contributors: Morgan Clendaniel

• The Obesity Threat Level Today Is Orange

  Obesity and its potential affect on our future health is being compared to the threat of terrorism by British public health experts.
  
  We assume this comparison is in reference to its severity, widespread reach, and the urgency with which it should be addressed.
  
  It might also be in reference to the ominous and inescapable grip obesity, which can lead to diabetes and other health problems, is gaining on its "victims": according to recent studies, obesity can be caused—or at least influenced—by ear infections, tonsillitis, being clumsy or having poor coordination as a kid, genetics, environmental factors... And sometimes, even by eating a lot.
  
  Image: Andras Kallai's Fat Barbie, 2006; from the 2007 Venice Biennale
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  • Date: Aug 15 2008
  • Posted by alexandra_m

• Exercise In A Pill; Simplification In An Article

  Ronald Evans, a mustachioed researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, has found what the LA Times is calling "exercise in a pill." When tested on mice, Evans' new chemical compound, AICAR, transformed their muscle tissue "from sugar-burning fast-twitch fibers to fat-burning slow-twitch ones—the same change that occurs in distance runners and cyclists through training." One pharmacologist quoted in the Times article says "You're getting the benefits of exercise without having to do any work."
  
  That's really overselling it. We're sure there are uses for this stuff. Maybe when our space colonists have to go into hibernatation, AICAR can help prevent muscle atrophy or something. But if people started replacing actual exercise with AICAR, they'd miss out on all of the well-documented psychological benefits of actually running around. It's cool, it's interesting, but it's no "exercise in a pill."
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  • Date: Jul 31 2008
  • Posted by Andrew Price

• Slow Food Nation: Victory Gardens

  One of our Choose GOOD partners has been receiving heaps of hard-earned, positive press. Slow Food, whose name distills its mission statement into two tiny syllables, has turned the lawns of San Francisco's City Hall into food-bearing gardens with its Victory Garden planting party on July 12, 2008.
  
  If you missed out on the planting, fret not. The garden will be operating through September 21, at which point there will be a community harvest (and food will be donated to those who need it most). Prior to that, the first harvest will be held on Labor Day Weekend, when Slow Food Nation's main event makes like a tree and leaves its heart in San Francisco.
  
  Photo by Scott Chernis. Check out some more stunning SFN photography and charming SFN blogging here.
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  • Date: Jul 28 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• What are we doing?

  Why does it seem that even some of the most important topics to our daily living, and saving our lives must now be left to advertising? I am very thankful for what Roberts is doing. But why aren't we taking care of this ourselves? Why aren't we taking this personally? We need to break past our fears and discomforts and start talking to each other about sex. Especially our children. Here in the USA the conservatives have raped our school systems of sex education and it is clear that the families have not taken on the responsibility of fully educating their children. In addition our conservative government requires countries to whom we give money for hiv/aids to only teach absence only. We, here in the USA are living proof that abstinence only "education" does not work. Please, can we start talking honestly to each other?
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  • Date: Sep 03 2008
  • Posted by LifeCoachTim

• We are what we eat

  And a lot of us eat death. I think the correlation between rising breast cancer rates and countries with rising levels of meat consumption is telling. The same goes for the lower risk of cancer in vegetarians. Admittedly, correlations aren't always causalities, but it merits attention.
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  • Date: Aug 07 2008
  • Posted by ConsumerX

• Relief

  I'm glad to hear that the monkeys being used in the Southwick's Zoo Monkey College program were bred at the zoo and not taken from the wild. However, I still have slight discomfort with the fact that exotic animals are being used for human service. This goes for dolphins in animal-assisted therapy for depression sufferers. I'm glad there's a way to help these people in need, but I'm just not sure this is the BEST way to help them. Hopefully, someone will discover a better way in the future.
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  • Date: Aug 05 2008
  • Posted by cait