Bicycle Mark A site for Politics/Biking/etc.

Just How Upset is Mother Nature?

To look back on the weather that has decimated most parts of the continental United States in 2011 and a few years back as well, it does not take a soothsayer or a crystal ball to see that Mother Nature is not a happy camper! The Mississippi River flooding is just the most recent example of weather gone amuck as there are also wildfires scorching millions of acres in states such as Texas, Arizona, and most recently Florida.

It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature

What is interesting and frightening at the same time is the hurricane season that is scheduled to attack the east coast of the United States has yet to unleash that fury of high winds and strong wave surges. Maybe we have pushed Mother Nature over the edge and now she wants a little revenge?

To Drill or Not to Drill That is the Energy Question

Do you recall last years BP Gulf Oil Spill? How could anyone forget the pictures of the devastation that only one oil rig did to the entire region of the Gulf Coast? Those images and the debacle that was and is British Petroleum still haunts million of Louisiana, Texas, and Florida residents and visitors.

No Offshore Oil Drilling Moratorium

Conversely, there are those that will perpetually debate on the benefits of offshore drilling. The energy question is whether or not to keep the moratorium on offshore drilling, which is still in effect throughout the Gulf Coast region, or to once again, allow the domestic and foreign oil barons to tap into one of our most precious resources. The debate continues.

Answering the Call for Nationalization of Economic Base in America

Just what is nationalization and what does this theory as well as fledgling practice have to do with the economy? For the Republicans, nationalization is the means to control the populace and to make certain that selective firms and governmental bodies receive the largest slice of the economic pie. Conversely, it is the Democrats, which would like for the public sector to stay as far away as possible from the private sector in all enterprises and industries.

Liberals Desire Equality

The Liberals, on the other hand, want nothing more than the equal distribution for all peoples and nothing more, nothing less. This can straddle the realm of socialists and what must be made clear is that liberalism although related to less-stringent socialism, has a vastly different approach to economic nationalization.

What Is Next For America in New World Order?

Wars, famine, poverty beyond belief, revolutions, murder, mayhem, and a blatant disregard for human life are only the beginning, of the description of what the world, in general, is currently enduring. How does America fit into this schematic and what are some of the next steps the country will have to face in the years to come?

Mirror Gazing

The New World Order, as some people are calling this era in human life on earth, can be defined as the alteration of geo-political theory and practice. No longer can the United States just sit back and watch as century old regimes are toppled all over the Middle East and Africa. No longer can America send in her best to fight and die for oil and the pursuit of control over a certain region we feel is important to American National Security. The next step for America is to take a good, hard look into the mirror and see what needs to be done here, on this treasured soil, first and foremost.

The Incoming US Infrastructure Collapse and What One City is Doing to Stop It

One major transportation center is in the heart of the United States; and is doing something to ward off the upcoming infrastructure collapse in this rusting nation. St. Louis, Missouri is that town and it is making great strides toward replacing the pipes and electrical conduits as well as the roads and bridges that the country relies on for a large majority of her commerce-transportation needs.

Smoother Safer Sooner

Way back when in 2004, the city’s residents and voters passed Amendment 3, which was and is also known as the “Smoother, Safer, Sooner” Amendment. This gave the Missouri Department of Transportation a vote of confidence and $1.7 billion to repair the Show Me States roads and bridges over the next several years. The St. Louis region has already utilized $170 million to rebuild the battered highways that were in such disrepair.

The US infrastructure is heading our way and only the cities and towns that are proactively preparing for this rust epidemic will be positioned to carry on life, as we know it. The rest of us will just have to get used to riding a bicycle, or so it seems.

By 2015, medical providers are expected to have employed the use of electronic medical records for their patient charts.  Part of the multi billion dollar stimulus package by the Obama administration is to implement this initiative.

As of October 2010 about 22 percent of doctor’s offices and only 10 percent of hospitals nationwide have converted to electronic medical records.  Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, up to $44,000 is set aside per physician who satisfies the government’s requirements for digital patient records as provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  For those who fail to make the conversion there will be penalties to pay.

A teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Boston called Brigham and Women’s hospital conducted a study in 2006 and founded that over a ten year period of adopting electronic medical records garnered a savings of 16.7 million dollars.  In addition to the savings factor, errors in processing claims and such could be greatly reduced due to mis-communication and illegibility issues.  All of which seem like good reasons to move forward into the future.

On Facebook people post their vacation pictures, send their party invitations, hunt for long-lost friends and make new ones.  Now doctors are using it to obtain information on their patient’s medical history as told in their own words.  It has become a great live-saving tool and offers tremendous help when doctor’s are scrambling for answers to troubling health concerns.  http://americanmedical.com/category/social-media-health-care/

U.S. Lighting Tech, a leading manufacturer of induction lighting based in Irvine, CA has announced completion of a multi mullion dollar credit facility (“credit agreement”) with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.  This move allows USLT to expand its inventory and working capital, assuring their ability to handle projects of any size and continuing of their path of growth and success.  The company was noted as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the U.S. by Inc 500/5000, and is also recently named the fastest growing company in the Orange County region by the Orange County Business Journal.

Induction lights by USLT can save up to 60% in energy and 80% in maintenance costs compared to older technologies. The induction format also offers a longer lamp life cycle which delivers real world energy savings and makes it significantly more cost effective than Light Emitting Diode or LED technology (with a rated life of 100,000 hours, USLT induction systems also significantly reduce the amount of solid waste in our landfills). USLT backs its products with a limited 10 year or 50,000 hour warranty. For more information, please visit www.uslightingtech.com.

San Francisco International Airport has just completed the re-construction of Terminal 2, or T2 as it’s called.  T2 houses carriers American and Virgin Airlines.  Those travelers on Virgin Airlines will especially like the astetics of T2 with it’s clean look and hip feel, synomous with the carrier’s style and service.

The new building houses about 90% of the older building’s content, which means recycling efforts were put to great use.  T2 is the first LEED gold-certified airport terminal in the U.S., which airport officials say helps with their environmentally friendly goal. Offering additional help are composing bins at recycling stations.

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Noeleen Heyzer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) says a change of mindset is the most important shift from the current economic paradigm to a green growth one.  Heyzer said in an interview, “We need to change the way we talk about green growth, which used to be seen simply as a reaction to climate change,”

Speaking at the Global Green Growth Summit held in Seoul, Heyzer said “After the economic crisis, there has been limitation in financing green growth, especially from countries in debt. We are working on how the private sector can cooperate for green growth in terms of incentives, eco-tech reforms, building sustainable infrastructure, sustainable cities, secure food security and so forth.”

She said the Asia Pacific region must change its focus from quantity to quality of growth, making sure such growth is sustained and shared.  The Summit was hosted by the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Global Green Growth Institute and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.