Health Care Repeal Opposed By 61% Of Public: Poll. As Republicans in the House announce their intentions to repeal the soon-to-be-signed financial regulatory reform bill, a Democratic source sends over the public reaction to the GOP's other major repeal effort. A Bloomberg News poll released on Wednesday shows that a full 61 percent of respondents don't have interest in repealing the health care legislation that Congress passed earlier this year (47 percent want to see how it works, 14 percent say it should be left alone).
Just 37 percent want the bill repealed (as is the wish of the Republican leadership). The numbers underscore increasing public approval of the health care reform law. It also illustrates the potential dangers the Republican caucus assumes by make the repeal agenda a major plank of its campaign platform. On Thursday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced that, once in power, he would work to repeal the financial reform legislation that the Senate was set to pass that afternoon. Global Clean Energy Report: China Surpassed U.S. as Top Sector Investor in 2009. The United Nations Environment Program and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century today reveal in a pair of new reports that despite an overall financial downturn in 2009, global investments in sustainable energy increased worldwide.
Core clean energy investments from private and public sources totaled $162 billion. Policies that favor the development of a green economy and businesses in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency also increased: more than 100 countries enacted some type of policy target and/or promotion policy related to renewable energy by early 2010.
Thirty eight developing nations had policy targets, and 41 developing nations had a policy of promoting renewable energy. Some segments declined, while others shined of course. Highlights from the clean energy 2009 reports follow below. Shined: ChinaDeclined: United States China surpassed the United States for the first time as the country with the greatest investment in clean energy. 5 Ways Social Media Helps Promote Good Health. Alexander B. Howard (@digiphile) is the Government 2.0 Washington Correspondent for O’Reilly Media, where he reports on technology, open government and online civics. He will share open source technology news at the OSCON convention in Portland, Oregon, on July 19-23. This March, a report on chronic disease and the Internet by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation showed that people fighting such illnesses are using social media to find information and connect with others who suffer similar ailments.
While the research showed that people who have chronic illness are less likely, on average, to have Internet access, once they're online they are more likely to blog about chronic disease and participate in online discussions or other forums. 1. As Claire Cain Miller wrote in the New York Times earlier this year, online social networks bridge gaps for the chronically ill. 2. 3. 4. 5. More health resources from Mashable: Alex Howard Alexander B. Facebook Film The Social Network Trailer Released; Apparently Zuckerberg is a "Creep" - Technorati Film. College Inc. - American University goes fully 'test-optional' American University is extending its "test-optional" experiment to all applicants who can meet a Nov. 1 deadline.
Dozens of colleges have joined an informal test-optional movement by dropping the requirement that applicants submit SAT or ACT scores. Colorado College is among the most recent colleges to relax test-score requirements. Critics of "high-stakes testing" believe the test-optional movement is a good thing. AU administrators, who experimented with waiving test requirements in last year's Early Decision cycle, have this to say: "This decision to expand our test-optional pilot follows a growing national trend toward test-optional policies and further emphasizes our belief that your academic performance is the most important consideration in our holistic review.
Please follow College Inc. all day, every day at washingtonpost.com/college-inc. And for all our college news, campus reports and admissions advice, please see our new Higher Education page at washingtonpost.com/higher-ed. With Google as Partner, Verizon May Not Need iPhone. The combination of the biggest cellphone carrier in the United States and ’s smash-hit phone would certainly be a powerful one. And it would be a major challenge to , which has been the exclusive carrier for the phone since its debut in 2007. But Verizon could decide that it does not actually need the iPhone, thanks to its deepening ties with .
In big cities, AT&T’s network has buckled under the data-heavy demands of the iPhone, frustrating customers. Verizon has managed to avoid similar problems while working with Google, Apple’s latest nemesis, to offer several strong rivals to the iPhone that use the Android operating system from Google. On Thursday, Verizon will begin selling the Droid X, an Android phone that many say may be the fiercest challenge yet to the iPhone, ’s crowning creation. “Verizon is back in the game, even without the iPhone,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. T-Mobile and Sprint have also jumped on the Android bandwagon. Technology Review: Blogs: TR Editors' blog: GE to Invest $200 Million in Smart Grid Research. Good morning! From my roomie @ptklein: - alexpriest's posterous. @nicoleindc @ptklein @dcseth @districtjoe - alexpriest's posterous.
Jimmy Buffett revises Margaritaville lyrics in Gulf concert: “But I know, it’s all BP’s fault.” « Climate Progress. The Tenacious Buzz of Malaria. Who else is out here for @sotgindc? It's soooo nice outside! Sisarina Inc - Bethesda, MD. Appsfire. Appsfire selection. Open Thread: Should the FDA Control Junk Food Marketing? Now that tobacco advertisements have been cut down to size by the U.S. government's Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act (no more color ads for tobacco, audio ads that use music or sound effects, mail-in cigarette coupons etc.), regulators are shifting their attention toward another major American health problem: junk food. BNET points us toward this document (PDF), which outlines potential nutritional standards for food marketed to children.
The document, created by an interagency working group with members from the FTC, FDA, CDC, and USDA, suggests that "foods marketed to children must provide a meaningful contribution to a healthful diet. " The working group's document has a fairly strict definition of "meaningful contribution": These requirements exclude a lot more than than traditional junk food. But we want to know what you think.
Do these requirements make sense, or is the government going too far? Andrew Alexander - Making the online customer king at The Post. In a past era, there was little need to share marketing information with The Post's newsroom. Profits were high. Circulation was robust. Editors decided what they thought readers needed, not necessarily what they wanted. But in today's newsroom, with its relentless online focus, editors get hourly reports on traffic to The Post's Web site. When audience numbers dip below goals, devices are employed to draw visitors. Photos of Anna Chapman serve as a magnet for those searching for news about the attractive Russian spy.
In the Internet age, readers rule. But this relentless focus on giving readers what they want has exposed confusion and concern within The Post's newsroom about journalistic standards. Ken Doctor, a Web-savvy news industry analyst, said using data to determine reader desires is invaluable. Raju Narisetti, the managing editor in charge of the Web site, insisted The Post's "brand and its ethics and rigor" are secure. My advice to The Post: Lead the discussion. Kicking off the SEO for blogs event this morning w/ @amandamogul - alexpriest's posterous.
Headed West to Twitter, Katie Stanton Reflects on Washington. Stanton on a State Department trip to China in May, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (To Stanton's left is Under Secretary of State Robert Hormats.) As you might have heard, Katie Jacobs Stanton is hanging up her BlackBerry, moving from the State Department's Office of Innovation to a job with Twitter in the company's San Francisco office. I caught up with Stanton at her desk at the State Department earlier today, her last day on the government payroll, and asked her what lessons she's taking away from her time in public service -- not only her seven months at the State Department, as part of the small innovation team headed by Alec Ross, but her immediately prior 11 months working as part of the White House new media staff, headed by Macon Phillips.
Stanton's experience is, I think, an intriguing one at a moment when people are once again complaining that official Washington is where technological vision goes to die. Dwight Schrute = high PWI // lol! #chispadc - alexpriest's posterous. Packed house here at #chispadc! Learning about modes of managing conflict: - alexpriest's posterous. Wally is already helping me unpack! - alexpriest's posterous. Still not sure how I feel about TVs in cars... Especially Taxis. What do you think? - alexpriest's posterous. Twitter is incredible-- - alexpriest's posterous. Share photos on Twitter. @dcseth haha sure, myspace style: Bluetooth 4.0 approved, will reach devices this year. July 07, 2010, 12:45 PM — The Bluetooth 4.0 low-power wireless networking specification has been approved, and the technology will start appearing in devices such as smart meters and laptops later this year, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group said on Wednesday.
Chips with the Bluetooth 4.0 standard have gone through a rigorous testing process, and the technology is being certified and licensed for use in chips and devices, said Mike Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, the standards-setting organization. Companies can now start designing and manufacturing devices using the standard. The Bluetooth 4.0 standard is an update to the previous Bluetooth 3.0 wireless technology, which was announced in 2009. The new standard adds a low-power specification for transmitting small bursts of data over short ranges. The technology could first make its way to watches, smart meters, pedometers and other gadgets that run on coin-cell batteries, Foley said. SmarTrip Card Price To Be Reduced - dontgetcaught. Twitter Search Volume Up 33% Since April. Huffington Post Says The Heck With Journo-Snobs And Launches Swimsuit Edition.
Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington, DC 20004 - (202) 452-7672. Wild, weird, wonderful stories about the elements that make up our universe. (1) - By Sam Kean. At one point, while drowning in research for The Disappearing Spoon, I could pretty much name every element on the periodic table, in order. I was more than happy to let this "talent" lapse, however—it's not exactly the coolest thing to blurt out at a cocktail party. And it certainly never crossed my mind that I might parlay the skill into something more. But Meenakshi Agrawal, an economics teacher in India, had grander ambitions than me. Agrawal set an unofficial world record in April by writing out all 118 element symbols (228 characters total) on a blank periodic table in 91.65 seconds.
Champion crossword puzzlers can ink in a 15-by-15 grid (225 spaces for characters, minus 30 or so black spots) in roughly the same time as Agrawal, and without knowing what to write beforehand. For a chemistry-related comparison, Tom Lehrer, in his classic ditty, "The Elements Song," managed to sing the names of every element on the periodic table (767 characters total) in 65 seconds. Mobile Photo Project | Blog. U.S. Will Invest $2 Billion in Solar Power. Over the weekend, President Obama announced the Department of Energy would be giving almost $2 billion in conditional funding to two solar energy companies, Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing.
Money will come from the $863 billion economic stimulus package. Projects funded by this move are expected to create more than 5,000 construction and permanent jobs. One of these initiatives is the Solana project, which Abengoa says will be the largest concentrating solar power plant in the world when it's completed. The Arizona-based plant will produce enough energy to power 70,000 households and will save the environment from about 475,000 tons of CO2 each year. "These are just two of the many clean energy investments in the Recovery Act," the President said. Here's the entirety of President Obama's address on YouTube: Solar power has become an increasingly interesting alternative for providing energy for all kinds of purposes, from our homes to our gadgets, from airplanes to spaceships. Morgan Stanley: We've Seen This Exact Same Kind Of Market Before, Back In 1998.
Morgan Stanley's Graham Secker believes that weakness in economic indicators is being misread. Global growth, and American growth, was supposed to slow as we entered the second half of the year, thus many leading indicators and other data points were expected to decline. Markets are nevertheless so uncertain, that the 'rolling over' of many indicators is playing with investors nerves. Thus far however, Mr. Secker doesn't believe the global economy is falling back into recession. What we're seeing in the markets right now is merely a 'market event rather than a real economic even' he says. Morgan Stanley: Still think this is more like 1998 than 2008 The recent performance of both equities and bonds is worrying; however, we continue to believe that we are currently witnessing a stock market event rather than a real economic event. Here's the similar performance he mentions, for U.S. stocks: Then for U.S. government bonds: But not quite Europe: (Via Morgan Stanley, Graham Secker)
High temps tomorrow around 102. How is this real?! - alexpriest's posterous. Meet Katie, the Iris Inn pup: - alexpriest's posterous. Study: Facebook's tarnished brand has bounced back | The Social. Polling firm YouGov, which said in May that Facebook had experienced a notable drop in consumer confidence right around the time of all that negative press about its changing privacy policies , now says that public attitude toward Facebook has taken a turn for the positive. In fact, the social network is YouGov's top "improving brand" for its BrandIndex numbers in the month of June among U.S. adults age 18 and over.
Facebook climbed from a YouGov rating of 2 in the weeks of June 1-15, to 17.5 in June 16-30. To put things into perspective, YouGov's ratings span from -100 (completely negative) to 100 (completely positive). Is it going to be 100 percent accurate? In April, Facebook held the third edition of its F8 developer conference, and in turn unveiled its Open Graph API --which dramatically expanded the number of ways in which Facebook member profiles can interact with third-party partner sites. Ice <i>that</i>, bro . Trent Reznor composing score for 'The Social Network' | The Social. The powerful array of talent behind "The Social Network," the upcoming movie about the origins of Facebook, continues to grow larger: Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor has announced that he is composing the film's score. "It's really f***ing good. And dark! " Reznor wrote in a post on the Nine Inch Nails Web site on Friday. "I'm happy to tell you we're nearing the completion of this and I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out.
The level of excellence that (director David Fincher) operates on is inspiring and the entire process has been challenging and truly enjoyable. " This is likely another piece of unfortunate news for Facebook, which did not sanction the creation of the film (or the book on which it's based ) and was probably hoping that the whole thing would turn out to be a big piece of cinematic Marshmallow Fluff that would tank at the box office.
But then the director was revealed to be Fincher, who has helmed well-regarded films like "Fight Club" and "Zodiac. " Internet can be a big benefit for democracy. We see evidence of the Internet's revolutionary impact in spheres ranging from commerce to entertainment to the way we now stay in touch with friends. The Fourth of July invites particular consideration of the Internet's impact on democracy. Moreover, it calls for a deeper understanding of the sources and conditions of the Internet's influence: What is unique about the Internet? From what technical and policy choices does its power derive? And, most urgently, what must be done to maximize its potential to support democracy at home and abroad? The Obama campaign was not the first to embrace the Web, but it set a new standard, using the Internet to raise millions from small donors and adopting online social media to mobilize volunteers and voters.
Conservatives leveraged the same tools in electing a Republican to Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts. Perhaps more important, the Internet is reshaping the daily processes of decision making at all levels of government. Incredible Pictures Formed by Thousands of US Soldiers. Share photos on Twitter. July 4th 2010 | Patriotic Commercials | Video. Just caught the tail end of the parade - alexpriest's posterous. John McCain: Michael Steele Needs to 'Assess" Whether He Can Stay in His Job.
The future of social relations | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Michael Steele causes uproar with Afghan remarks.