poverty
grrlscientist | February 3, 2010tags: health, medicine, health care, diagnostics, poverty, technology, George Whitesides, TEDTalks, streaming video
Traditional lab tests for disease diagnosis can be too expensive and cumbersome for regions that are most in need. George Whitesides' ingenious answer, at TEDxBoston, is a foolproof tool that can be manufactured at virtually zero cost.
In his legendary career in chemistry, George Whitesides has been a pioneer in microfabrication and nanoscale self-assembly. Now, he's fabbing a diagnostic lab on a chip.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from…
grrlscientist | December 25, 2009tags: Dangerous Wands: The Ghetto Harry Potter, Harry Potter, teaching, poverty, funny, humor, parody, streaming video
A little birdie whispered into my ear about this video .. to say the least, as a former college professor and Harry Potter fan, I LOVE it, and I think you will enjoy it, too!
grrlscientist | October 6, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
I am focusing on this project, The Viking Shark Project, because there are only four days left to fund this proposal before the deadline passes and 70 students from an impoverished high-crime magnet classroom are left wanting -- AGAIN!
The teacher is asking for 35 dogfish for his 70 students to dissect and this proposal has already raised half of the required funds, but it still needs to raise the remaining $248.50 so these kids can enhance their educational experience.
Given the fact that sharks are so misunderstood…
grrlscientist | July 23, 2009tags: Gordon Brown, world wide web, WWW, social injustice, poverty, security, climate change, economy, ethics, streaming video
We're at a unique moment in history, argues UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown: we can use today's interconnectedness to develop our shared global ethic -- and work together to confront the challenges of poverty, security, climate change and the economy [16:43]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.
grrlscientist | July 15, 2009tags: TEDTalks, environment, cities, poverty, crime, underground economy, Stewart Brand, streaming video
The man who helped usher in the environmental movement in the 1960s and '70s has been rethinking his positions on cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering. This talk at the US State Department is a foretaste of his major new book, sure to provoke widespread debate. You've GOT to watch the video of the train going through the poor part of town in Bankok -- it's amazing! [16:42]
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED…
grrlscientist | May 12, 2009tags: homelessness, unemployment, poverty, NYC Life, social policy
A homeless woman eats dinner (it looks like "Sheba" brand cat food, doesn't it?)
Image: orphaned.
I awoke this morning at 5am, as usual, and one of the first things I heard on the morning news was Mayor Bloomberg, one of the richest men in the world, saying that the city is charging rent for the homeless to stay in a shelter. Blinking in the darkness, I thought I was listening to the Onion news report instead of NPR. Sure, I heard that Bloomberg was considering this, but never thought he was cruel enough to actually enact…
thusspakezuska | April 30, 2009What's a good citizen to do if he or she thinks that cough and sneeze is swine flu? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends:
Stay home if you get sick. CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
This afternoon I've been reading Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich - which is ever so more relevant now, if that were possible, than when it was originally released. Near the end she notes:
It is common, among the nonpoor, to think of poverty as a sustainable condition -…
grrlscientist | December 14, 2008tags: Hobo Matters, satire, parody, streaming video
This streaming video is a tongue-in-cheek look at the Hobo world after the stock market crashed [7:45]
John Hodgman's PBS documentary, Hobo Matters. If not the most celebrated episode of The American Experience, certainly the most astounding, not only for the number of facts packed into this short episode, but also for the fact that PBS actually produced and dared to air it.
Unfortunately, this chronicle of the Great Depression and the Hobo Wars was quickly erased from history by the powerful Hobo Queen for it revealed too many secrets…
grrlscientist | November 28, 2008tags: Hunger in America, food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, food stamps, poverty
Image: Orphaned.
One thing that the Thanksgiving Holidays has made clear: America, the land of plenty where holiday overeating is celebrated as a social good, is suffering from a food availability crisis. The Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture describes a range of food security categories, ranging from "food secure," which includes high food security and marginal food security, and "food insecure," which includes low food security and very low food security.…
grrlscientist | August 17, 2008tags: book review, economic insecurity, politics, social programs, insurance, poverty, employment, education, housing
What ever happened to the American Dream? Well, if you are like me, you will admit that your pursuit of the American Dream is like chasing after a mythical horse that disappeared out the barn door literally decades ago. For example, even though I did everything right -- staying out of trouble, staying out of debt, avoiding all chemical and behavioral addictions, postponing pleasure by working hard and sacrificing so I could earn a top-notch education doing something I love and…
grrlscientist | July 14, 2008tags: poverty level, poverty threshold, federal definition of poverty, Michael Bloomberg, NYC, politics, society
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity, nothing exceeds the criticisms made of the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.
~ Herman Melville
How do you define poverty? Do you think it is the lack of nutritious food, clean clothing, reasonable housing and adequate health care? Even though your definition of what constitutes poverty probably hasn't changed much during your lifetime, the basic financial resources necessary to keep you from being…
scientificactivist | October 22, 2007A few years ago, while I simultaneously enjoyed a mild Texas evening and a few beers with a second-year medical student, my idealistic and outspoken friend argued that as a society we spend way too much money on scientific research. That money should instead, she contended, be spent wholly and directly on fighting global poverty and disease.
I agreed that it should go without saying that improving the world's lot ought to be our number one priority: an ideal rarely realized due to the pernicious distractions of war, greed, nationalism, ideology, and a variety of other factors. Esoterically…