Minute Of Your Time: A Hairy Situation
Posted on 04. Jun, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
With no end in sight to the Deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the question is: how to clean it up? There are many possible answers, including the use of human hair. Seriously.
http://www.vimeo.com/12273659
Minute of Your Time: High-er Education
Posted on 25. May, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
For California’s marijuana advocates, legalization would lighten the state’s financial burdens by bringing in more taxes – as much as $1.4 billion per year. But it could also cut expenditures on a bloated prison system crowded with inmates convicted of petty drug crimes. Richad Lee, founder of Oaksterdam University, the country’s first Cannabis college, is leading the charge, spending millions of his own money to finance the campaign to pass this November’s California voter initiative on legalization. Yet as the battle heats up, all eyes are on the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association – aka the prison guards union, and the biggest lobby in the state. Learn more about it in the latest episode of “A Minute of Your Time.”
http://www.vimeo.com/12026097
Report Shows Chemical Cancer Risk
Posted on 06. May, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
So the President’s Cancer Panel is about to release a report that says Americans need to reconsider methods of cancer prevention–namely by regulating chemicals.
Compared to countries in Europe, for example, the U.S. has been very lazy about any regulation, let alone tightening a few. Of the 80,000 chemicals currently in use, only a handful have ever been tested for safety. As a result, the report says, Americans are consistently exposed to toxins that could lead to cancer. The report also points out that pregnant women are especially at risk– “to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted.’”
We covered this last year in “A Minute of Your Time,” when we pointed out that there’s one effect in particular that one would think members of Congress would be very worried about:
Get Your Wine While It’s Cool
Posted on 27. Apr, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
So do you favor a dry chardonnay with your fish? Or maybe something from Provence? Well, it may all be moot if climate change has its way. Global warming is changing the winemaking map across the world as weather becomes hotter and water more scarce. France may feel the pinch, but English wineries couldn’t be happier…
Learn more about it in the latest episode of “A Minute of Your Time.”
http://www.vimeo.com/12031380
The Dragon Goes Green
Posted on 13. Apr, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
You’d think the United States, with its history of innovation and acting on opportunties, would be the global leader in green energy production. Well, think again.
Check out who’s leading the race for solar, wind and biofuel power in the latest episode of A Minute of Your Time.
http://www.vimeo.com/10905948
Chinese Railroad, Redux
Posted on 09. Apr, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
The Chinese have raced past the U.S. in development of green technology—in case you doubted that, take a look at the preliminary agreement struck this week between China and California to build bullet trains.
China wants to become the chief licensor of these high-speed trains, which travel 215 miles an hour and which operate on environmentally friendly technology. Other countries are also vying to sell such technology to California, such as Japan, Germany, South Korea, France and Italy. But China also offered to help finance its construction.
We take a look at how China has overcome the U.S. in green energy and technology in Monday’s “Minute of Your Time.” But this brings up a few questions raised over a year ago by former congressman Charlie Stenholm, namely: if China has become the banker for the United States’ deficit, what happens when the bankers come to collect?
Stenholm talks about this here. We discuss an earlier railroad project in China here.
A Minute of Your Time: Talking Dirty
Posted on 05. Apr, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
There are three little words that Congress doesn’t like to say too loudly: Medicare’s going broke. With a current deficit of $38 trillion (projected to be $52 trillion by 2015), Medicare is rapidly becoming the elephant in the legislative chamber. Trouble is, while both parties claim to be the one to “preserve medicare,” neither seems very eager to tackle the problem. Medicare Part A (that pays for hospital bills, among other things) runs out in 2017, so they might want to get moving.
See who has an idea about how to fix it – and who doesn’t – in the latest episode of “A Minute of Your Time.”
Airplanes Bad
Posted on 30. Mar, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
Airplanes are one of the world’s worst polluters. Not only do they spew carbon emissions but they cause harmful chemical reactions in the sky that scientists still don’t fully understand. We recently checked in with Chris Goodall, author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life and Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate, who talked about the grave environmental dangers of aviation.
http://www.vimeo.com/10553677
A Minute of Your Time: Pulling the Plug
Posted on 29. Mar, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
There’s a dirty little word that Congress doesn’t like to mention, but which, in part, accounts for much of the relentless rise in insurance premiums over the last decade: costs. And with a large part of those costs accrued by Medicare recipients, solutions may prove rather uncomfortable. Especially for those poor folks who depend on their Viagra. Learn more in the latest episode of “A Minute of Your Time.”
http://www.vimeo.com/10526616
Health Insurance: No Exit
Posted on 24. Mar, 2010 by admin in A Minute of Your Time
President Obama just signed Congress’s health care bill into law. But will it really solve the country’s medical woes? Health care advisor Nathan Kaufman tells us that creating a viable system – you know, one that won’t bancrupt the country – will be a very long and involved process. And signing the bill is only the first step.
http://www.vimeo.com/10405704