Heart Health

I was reading "is Heart Surgery Worth it?" From Business Week, and I would like to add a few comments to John Carey's critique of heart surgery.Heart surgery seems to be becoming more and more of a plastic surgery maneuver these days.

First off, it's the patients. When those who can afford face-lifts for their pet rocks begin wheezing going up the stairs, they opt for surgery rather than drug treatment and self-aware rehabilitation. Of course! Why not put some metal into your body instead of taking the time and responsibility to make a change in your own daily habits. The surgery is a quick fix that allows people to play doctor God, and in the meantime, get rid of the pain so they can continue to lounge about on their couches and eat their roast beef. They have only put a stopper in the drain with surgery, and soon the fat build-up and lack of responsibility will lead them back into surgery because these procedures are temporary. If you do not solve your problem yourself after the surgery, the fat will build up again. Hence the term "artery-clogging".

One thing is that not all people know there are alternatives to surgery, and here's an area where the doctors are failing. They are so enthusiastic about surgery that they are not empowering the patients with the knowledge of drug therapies and self-conducted methods. A lot of people are also too afraid to take the step. They aren't provided with a feeling of network. There are some doctors who are willing to provide that connection to networks and resources that will educate, instruct and encourage people to change their lifestyles and daily habits just enough to save themselves.

Surgery is not necessarily producing better results. But learning more about your body and how to care for it every day you live with yourself will.

Designer Awards

"BusinessWeek magazine has coverage of the 2005 annual Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). The competition this year was as hot as it was last year -- with some predictable outcomes, and a few surprises. No surprise was the top design firm: IDEO, which has been taking home most of the design awards for the design firms in the last few years. Surprisingly however, other design firms have been closing the gap on IDEO -- most notably, Design Continuum. From the corporate perspective, Apple and Samsung continue to bring in awards for having designed innovative products -- but this year, there was a surprise leader of the pact: HP. Who would have think that staid ole HP could out-design Apple and Samsung?"

Okay, I got that from my Dad's site. I'm not necessarily interested in the names, as much as the design. All the new tech gizmos are cool, but not as cool as the snack and sippy cup from Gerber. I like different human-based design that acknowledges a plastic and / or natural world outside of tech toys, too.

For a slideshow of the award winners, click here.

The Truth vs. the Dollar

This comment is on the Free Press and the media, taken from Media Centric, by Jon Fine, from Business Week.
Fine makes some very good points about the “fight” journalism has to put up in order to report different issues, and the fact that sometimes journalists are silenced by the economic duct tape of corporations, instead of doing what they love to do; good, solid, investigative reporting. I wouldn’t quite agree with Fine about his description of today’s “limping media business”, but I would say that some journalists are definitely limping … or handcuffed. It’s just stupid. Yet not many people would think that the great democratic environments we live in would have anything to hide. Journalists know. They know what some governments and corporations hide under the guise of “confidentiality”.

“There is a huge cost if, say, a source who has documents proving a corporation is fouling the water supply decides to stay silent because her anonymity can’t be guaranteed. It costs media companies nothing if that story is never written”. And it costs the environment, and possibly some people, their lives. Sad, really.

Google the world?

At http://maps.google.ca/ you can see the world! Well, At least any of it that Google deems important. Google has a service where you can type in any adress in Canada, U.S., of Great Britain, and view it either on a map, or from a satellite image. It's so good I can see the buildings we live in, and the park across the street. Talk about an identity boost! But then, those three areas are the only ones that have any level of detail. The rest of the world is only mentioned by countries. No capitals, even. That sucks. I would be interested in seeing what streets look like in Israel, or getting a satellite view of the pyramids, and their souvenir shops ... or what about Potsdamer Platz in Germany? The Eiffel Tower? This map is interesting for a while, but then it just feels like a disappointment, becuase of how lacking in worldly detail it is.