HCR Explained: The New Health Care Law and Affordable Health Insurance, Policy, Plan Website - AARP Bulletin

HCR Explained: The New Health Care Law and Affordable Health Insurance, Policy, Plan Website - AARP Bulletin

Why the November 2 election is important. We cannot risk losing the gains we made.

Tea Party Republican Carl Paladino really goes off deep end with remarks on gays

This weekend Carl Paladino, Republican Party nominee for New York State governor, of the Tea Party stripe, really went off the deep end with comments about gays. In reacting to Democrat Andrew Cuomo's marching in the Gay Pride Parade, Paladino said,

I didn't march in the gay pride parade this year. My opponent did. And that's not the example that we should be showing our children, and certainly not in our schools.
I just think my children and your children would be better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family. And I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option. It isn't.

Paladino has already shown himself to be a third-rail candidate. Remarkably, these words are worst than a hot-headed slip of the tongue, these were premeditated comments, iin a prepared statement.
And the latest word is that he is standing by his comments. The New York Times reports Paladino's Today show appearance this morning, "Paladino Strongly Defends Remarks on Homosexuality."

Global warming and detailed rising sea levels map

There is an excellent global map at geology.com for the seeing effects on coastlines from rising sea levels, due to global warming, or what some call climate change.

The map has zooming capabilities, so that you can closely look at the country or region and see just how intensely the particular areas would be affected by rising se levels. You can also set the interactive map to see how different levels of increases in the sea level, from 1, to 2, to 3, and so on up to 14 meters will affect the coastlines.

The map shows that even at modest increases, such as 2 meters, about half of the Netherlands, the entire Venice region and the lower islands of the Florida Keys will be submerged under water.

You will also note that, despite dire predictions for New York City, the areas to see the worst effects are in eastern Brooklyn and southern Queens.

Heidi Cullen's "The Weather of the Future," an urgently relevant book for our times

Heidi Cullen, a climatologist with a PhD from Columbia University, and who has appeared on PBS News Hour," has written "The Weather of the Future." Its subtitle, "Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed" contains elements of the some of the extreme weather trends in North America in the last few years.
New York City has seen two tornadoes in the past three months, something that we rarely expect to see in the city. Frequently, storms in recent months have involved uprooting of trees, felling of major tree branches and heavy local flooding.
Heat waves in cities have become longer, devastating wildfires have become more damaging.
Cullen's book notes how low-lying areas such as nearly the entire nation of Bangladesh could become devastated due to rising sea levels. In the United States, much of the southern half of Florida is similarly low-lying.

The profound vulnerabilities that the world faces high-lights the need to take decisive action to reverse the ill effects of greenhouse gases. Republicans like to rant against carbon caps as job killers. They need to realize that inaction will lead to disaster-movie scenario with variations across the planet. In terms of life-style policies we need to expand mass transit, encourage tree planting, and encourage local food networks to minimize the carbon impact that is attendant with transporting food.

Join MoveOn's campaign to Turn Off Fox

There is so much to dislike with Fox News:
the constant drumbeat of a right-wing Tea Partier, Republican agenda that permeates the political talk and the "news,"
the Islamophobia.
If one needs a brief overview of the role of FoxNews as a transmission belt for the Republican Party, one should just view Robert Greenwald's quintessial video, "Outfoxed!"



And visit BraveNewFilms' site with continuing updates about the lies and disinformation on the Fox News Network.

Click to this Facebook link on the MoveOn campaign to "Turn Off Fox: Bad News for America."

Dare the Republicans to repeal these powerful health insurance reforms!

I just dare John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and the other Republicans to attempt to repeal these excellent reforms.

To be sure, these reforms are measly improvements, when compared to EVERY OTHER industrialized country (and some developing countries!). Congress should have enacted a single payer or a Medicare for all plan.

However, the Republicans' advocacy of the repeal of these reforms will be a delicious opportunity for the Republicans (and Blue Dog Democrats) to reveal themselves as lackeys, behold to the health care industry lobbyists. Just look at the reforms below, posted yesterday by Karen Davis on Huffington Post. The GOP will look heartless in the face of these essential reforms that will end the inhumane denial of health coverage to people that are too sick. Admittedly, too many of the other reforms are not scheduled to kick in until 2014.
(Wonder why the politicians are working for self-interested industry lobbyists, and not Joe and Jane policy-subscriber? See Dave Gilson's great article, "Who Owns Congress" in this month's issue of "Mother Jones" magazine for an article that graphically illustrates how corporate interests underwrite both the Republicans and the Democrats. [Follow the link at Dave Gilson, "Who Owns Congress," for a link to a page that will let you read the article if you provide your email address. Otherwise, support the magazine and buy the October 2010 issue!])
Now, here is the overview of the reforms that the Republicans intend to undo. The Republicans will look so foolish when they try to undo these. I'd like to know how they can rationalize calling preserving health care for children with pre-existing conditions amounts to a British-style socialized medicine!

The reform provisions that go into effect today will bring coverage, financial relief and health security to many, and will also impose important new rules on the insurance industry to prevent future abuses.

As of today, young adults up to age 26 will have the option to enroll in a parent's health plan. Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 are one of the largest segments of the uninsured; 13.7 million lacked coverage in 2008. Young adults often lose coverage when they age out of their parents' coverage upon graduating from high school or college, or when they become ineligible for public programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program at age 19. In 2014, they will also be able to gain coverage under Medicaid expansion or through state health insurance exchanges with subsidized coverage for people will low or moderate incomes. One million young adults (and their parents) are likely to take advantage of these important changes.

As of today, insurers can no longer place lifetime limits on benefits, and annual limits are severely curtailed. More than 100 million people currently have lifetime limits on the amount that their health insurance will pay, and 18 million have annual limits.

As of today, insurers can no longer retroactively cancel, or rescind, coverage. In what often becomes a nightmare scenario for ill patients and their families, more than 10,000 people each year have their coverage rescinded -- frequently just at the moment they need the coverage the most. Rescissions are no longer allowed.

As of today, there are new options for as many as 400,000 people with preexisting health conditions, who will immediately be able to enroll in new state-based insurance plans, and for the parents of thousands of children with preexisting conditions, who can no longer be denied health insurance for these youngsters.

Medicare beneficiaries who hit the prescription drug coverage gap or "doughnut hole" this year have already begun receiving $250 rebates. And, as of today, Medicare will eliminate cost-sharing for preventive care, and will provide for an annual wellness visit with no copayment. Next year, Medicare will provide a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs to Medicare Part D enrollees who spend enough on prescription drugs to enter the doughnut hole. And additional discounts on brand-name and generic drugs will be phased in to completely close the doughnut hole for all Part D enrollees by 2020.

A new era in American health care begins today, one that will usher in a new found health and economic security for millions who have struggled too long. But even with all the relief that will come starting today, the record losses in coverage experienced by millions of middle-income families point to the need to accelerate implementation of health reform to provide help faster.

Only way to get through to GHI (health insurers in mid-Atlantic states)

GHI, the health insurance company, specializing in Mid-Atlantic states is in the business of putting telephone operators out of work. It has a merry-go-round of press 1, 2, 3, so on.

They will not handle your call (212-501-4444 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              212-501-4444      end_of_the_skype_highlighting in NYC; elsewhere in New York State: 800-624-2414) if your do not have your card. The default options are all automated.

How to reach them? Choose the telephone option (press number 5) for buying a GHI plan. Then you will reach a real, live human being.

Detailed map project funded by NASA, US DOE about CO2 emissions

The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) have funded a project that has presented a video of carbon dioxide levels in the continental United States (the "lower 48 states").

The agencies have cooperated in funding Vulcan Project. The project has created and uploaded a video which shows a map of US carbon dioxide (CO2) levels.

Why should we be concerned with carbon dioxide? After all, we learn in school that we breathe in oxygen and we release carbon dioxide.

Actually, as a quick survey of the wikipedia carbon dioxide article will show us, fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide. The intake, by skin or by the air, of moderate amounts of carbon dioxide has many negative health effects.

Click on the right for the video on continental US carbon dioxide levels, in a map presentation. Bear with the long introduction, prior to the presentation of the maps.

In midst of jubilant news of vanishing oil spill: Big oil plume confirm

We're getting prominently placed news about the shrinking of the oil spill from British Petroleum's (BP) Deepwater Horizon. But Thursday, August 19, 2010 we get confirmation of a deep, long oil plum:
"Major study proves oil plume that's not going away"

http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/07/how-did-corn-get-so-sweet/59794/

http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/07/how-did-corn-get-so-sweet/59794/

Why is our produce food being manipulated to be sweet?

Air America Radio's death a part of larger trend of declining radio revenues

Just perusing over half-year old news: Death of Air America.

The New York Times article quoted someone: the liberal radio network, Air America's death comes in context of declining radio revenues overall. Radio is an old medium; we're in economically troubled times. The marginal forms of media will suffer harder.

Brian Stelter, "Air America, the Talk Radio Network, Will Go Off the Air," New York Times, January 22, 2010. In that article Stelter noted that the network did serve as a launching pad for some personalities that went on to greater heights, most notably Rachel Maddow, who is now at MSNBC, the cable network.

But the same author gave an update that suggested that liberal radio still flourishes without the network: "Liberal Radio, Even Without Air America." Thom Hartmann is one prominent liberal host that still is broadcast on many radio stations.

Oil in the Gulf -PBS' widget

Oil in the Gulf
Click to the above link for US Department of Energy estimates of leakage, British Petroleum (BP) estimates of leakage and Experts' worst case scenarios of oil leakage amounts.

Want to help the BP-beleaguered Gulf of Mexico?

Well, there's buying British Petroleum gas (funds from which will make their way to BP's Gulf of Mexico clean-up and reimbursements). If you can't stomach that approach, there is donating to the Gulf counterpart to the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Click to Save Our Gulf at http://saveourgulf.org/ to support the Alliance's work on behalf of the Gulf of Mexico.

From their website: Save Our Gulf is an initiative by Waterkeeper Alliance to support the Gulf Waterkeepers fighting to protect the Gulf Coast’s communities and environment from the long-term devastating impacts of the BP oil disaster. We are your trustworthy source for updates from the front lines, transparent news and action.

You can click on the bottom of the site to donate via Twitter or via old-fashioned online methods at their site.

Lady Gaga and anime-inspired contact lenses a health threat

The Lady Gaga-inspired giant pupil contact lenses are dangerous,
the New York Times warns
and ABC TV News warns.

Potential to lose vision in 24 hours!!!

Ill-fitting lenses can negatively affect the cornea.

Hello!!! If you are buying the lenses off the Internet you are not having a medical professional, an optometrist, fit you for the lenses.

Girls and ladies, you only get one set of eyes in life. If you are thinking that funny-looking eyes are necessary to get "his" attention, then maybe "he" is not worth your attention.
(Anyway, Lady Gaga's doe-eyes in the "Bad Romance" video are believed to have been computer-generated.)

Study: Sprawling cities experience hotter summer temperatures

The multiple days-long heat trend in the East Coast of the United States get one thinking about what the larger trends are....

Samantha Cossick, June 24, 2010, in "USA Today":

The rate of increase in the number of very hot days in sprawling cities is more than double that of compact cities, a study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal has found.

A team of Atlanta-based scientists studied the number of very hot days in 53 sprawling metropolitan regions between 1956 and 2005, each of which had different climate zones, population sizes and rates of growth.

The scientists found that the annual number of very hot days in sprawling cities increased by 14.8 days, but cities with the least sprawl increased by only 5.6 days.

Those cities with the highest increase in the number of very hot days include Atlanta, Greenville, Greensboro, Raleigh, Tampa and Grand Rapids, Brian Stone, lead author of the study and associate professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, said in an interview.

Two major principles contribute to hotter temperatures -- rising greenhouse gasses and urban heat island effect; however, Stone said greenhouse gas emissions would consistently raise temperatures across the nation, not in individual cities.

Urban heat island effect -- which includes cutting down trees and replacing them with parking lots, roads and buildings or putting dark shingles that absorb heat onto buildings -- has more of an impact on cities, he said.

"Urban heat island effect accounts for most of the warming we've seen in the past several years," Stone said. "All these things that are related with urban growth are making cities hotter."

Between 1992 and 2001, the rate of deforestation in sprawling cities was more than double that of compact cities, the study found.

Cities should try to cut greenhouse gasses as a long-term goal and look at immediate ways to reduce temperature increases, Stone said. Using materials that reflect light and increasing the forest cover are ways to do so, he adds.

The scientists used the sprawl index, which looks at population density, proximity of commercial and residential buildings and street network patterns, to categorize the regions. Those in the top 25% of the index had the most sprawl, while those in the bottom 25% had the least sprawl.

The team identified very hot days by using a city-specific heat stress index developed by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), which measures the average apparent temperatures, counting temperature and humidity.

Very hot temperatures were those above the 85th percentile with the 100th percentile being the hottest temperature during the study period.

Heat-related deaths have been linked to temperatures over the 85th percentile in other studies and are a public concern, Stone said.

"The rising levels of very hot days are a significant public health threat," Stone said. "It's about public health. Residents need to be thinking about how to adapt to land-use patterns and sprawl."

Great foods to help keep your skin from aging

"Beauty foods for younger-looking skin" Sunday, June 20, 2010
From the editors of EatingWell Magazine, via shine.yahoo.com:

When I was in high school and college, I got a summer job as a lifeguard. All those hours in the sun gave me what I thought then was a beautiful, bronzy tan.
Today I realize the sun exposure just accelerated my skin’s aging process. Truth be told, I did wear sunscreen, but not always as much as a dermatologist would recommend. (Find foods to keep your skin looking younger and lower your risk of skin cancer here.)

Turns out, the vast majority of UV light that I was soaking up was UVA. UVA is a major contributor to premature skin aging (think: fine lines and wrinkles) because it penetrates deeper than UVB light and damages skin cells before there’s any visible sunburn.

Even worse, collagen—the fibrous protein that keeps skin firm, youthful-looking and wrinkle-free—begins to decline starting in your twenties!

Now that I’m older and wiser—and not anxious to look the part—I’m wearing more sunscreen to protect my skin from the outside in. And because I’m a registered dietitian and nutrition editor, I’ve seen the science that shows eating more of these foods will protect my skin from the inside out.

Keep your skin looking younger—for the rest of your life—with these 4 foods:
Strawberries: Eating more vitamin C-rich foods, such as strawberries, may help to ward off wrinkles and age-related dryness, suggests research from 2007 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Vitamin C’s skin-smoothing effects may be due to its ability to mop up free radicals produced from ultraviolet rays and also its role in collagen synthesis. (Vitamin C is essential for collagen production.) You can find vitamin C in a multitude of cosmetics—of which some have been shown to be effective in protecting skin—but why not go straight to the source for a tasty boost of C: red bell peppers, papaya, broccoli and oranges are other excellent sources. (Try these sweet strawberry recipes for better skin.)

Tomatoes: Tomatoes get their red hue from lycopene, a carotenoid that may help to keep your skin smooth. In a study published in 2008 in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, researchers found that of the 20 individuals studied, those who had higher skin concentrations of lycopene had smoother skin. Boost your lycopene intake with fresh summer produce like watermelon and carrots too. (Find tomato recipe ideas here.)

Tofu: Tofu and other soyfoods, such as edamame and soymilk, may help to preserve skin-firming collagen because they are rich in isoflavones. In a study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, mice fed isoflavones and exposed to ultraviolet radiation had fewer wrinkles and smoother skin than mice that were exposed to UV light but didn’t get isoflavones. The researchers believe that isoflavones help prevent collagen breakdown. (Find tasty 30-minute dinners using tofu here.)

Tuna: Eating tuna—and other omega-3-rich fish, such as salmon, sardines and trout—may help keep your skin looking youthful thanks to the omega-3 fat EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). EPA has been shown to preserve collagen. (Enjoy tuna in Mediterranean Tuna Antipasto Salad and more healthy tuna recipes here.)

Munch away!