An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that medical errors have become the 3rd leading cause of death in the US. Not only is this tragic, but is particularly ironic given the high costs of health care in the US. Furthermore, poor performance of health care in the US was recently confirmed by a World Health Organization study, which used different data and ranked the United States as 15th among 25 industrialized countries.

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If there is one gift we can give ourselves, it is the gift of listening to our inner voice. At a very early age I recognized that the different voices I was hearing, both from within and outside of me, were at conflict with one another. I was receiving messages from my parents, my teachers, my friends, my neighbors, my siblings, the media and myself.  read more »

Beginning November 12 the One Laptop Per Child program will introduce its Give One Get One program where consumers can purchase one of the devices of $399 and a second will be sent to a child in a developing country.  read more »

For anyone who has felt and ambivalence about the idea of carbon offsetting or for anyone looking for a good analogy to describe their misgivings towrds it, here's a bit of fun I found by way of the Inspired Protagonist this weekend.

CheatNuetral

Studies conclude that vegetarians are about 40% less likely to develop cancer than non-vegetarians. These studies surprisingly conclude that animal protein is more important in causing cancer than any other chemical carcinogen. Cutting down on meat intake and increasing vegetable and grains consumption will greatly diminish the risk for cancer.

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One of man's dominant roles throughout history has been protector of the tribe. With the record amounts of illnesses today, there is a tribe we don't consider that much, our internal organs. We face subtle but powerful threats to our well-being and the best way to stay on top of our game is to protect our inner All-Star team, our organs. Learn how to disease-proof your body.

How to Disease-Proof Your Body  read more »

We live in a society that seems to value certainty. As a group, we trust someone who stands up and declares, “I know something without a doubt.” Do we ever stop and ask ourselves, “What is certainty?” It’s a very important question that is never asked.

So, let’s ask it. What is Certainty? I don’t want to address individual issues, I want to talk about the state of being absolutely certain. It means that we think we know everything there is to know about a subject, to have absolute knowledge such that it’s not even worth the time to listen to other information.  read more »

Speaking to a group of 500,000 youth on Sunday's open-air Mass, the Pope urged, "Before it's too late, we need to make courageous choices that will recreate a strong alliance between man and Earth....We need a decisive 'yes' to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making the situation of decay irreversible."

He spoke of the tension and conflict caused by water shortages in some parts around the world, and the environmental impact of recent forest fires in Italy and Greece.  read more »

An Erie cancer researcher, John Kanzius, has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that may lead to the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.

He happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer.

Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, has held demonstrations at his State College lab to confirm his own observations. He explained that the radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies, he said.  read more »

Image copyright 2007 Chrissie Dowler

With sex all around us, oozing out of our televisions, theaters, magazines, fashion, on the streets, one would think we are the most sexually informed, open and comfortable nation on the planet. We manage to connect sex to just about anything we sell, buy, eat, smell, see, or touch. It is such a part of our daily lives, we have become like fish in water, unaware of its constant presence…except of course when a tit falls out in the middle of Super Bowl. It’s no wonder, then, that when a new study, “Why Humans Have Sex,” by Cindy M. Meston and David H. Buss, revealed its finding that there are 237 reasons why people have sex, every media outlet jumped to cover it.  read more »