Today on Twitter we asked our followers when they last went to see a doctor or dentist and whether the visit was covered by health insurance. We collected some of our favorite responses below. We ask a question to our Twitter faithful once a day, so if you’re not yet following @GOOD, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation.

Read & Discuss

The average American is both overweight and spends more than 100 hours per year commuting, that vast majority of those hours being spent in a car. Are those numbers correlated? Could we help reduce our societal weight gain by encouraging more commutes by bike or foot? Our latest Transparency is a look at the number of active commutes in several countries, as compared to those countries obesity rates.

A collaboration between GOOD and Lamosca.

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There are about 4 million people in New York City who struggle to afford food. In 2003, it was half that number. This time of year, as temperatures drop and holidays come and go, the pangs of hunger can be especially brutal. But thanks to an innovative new effort by the organization Robin Hood, you can help make a difference for one family in need. Have a look.

http://www.vimeo.com/4604123

To accomplish the goal of delivering 15,000 meals…

Read & Discuss

There are about 4 million people in New York City who struggle to afford food. In 2003, it was half that number. This time of year, as temperatures drop and holidays come and go, the pangs of hunger can be especially brutal. But thanks to an innovative new effort by the organization Robin Hood, you can help make a difference for one family in need. Have a look.

http://www.vimeo.com/4604123

To accomplish the goal of delivering 15,000 meals…

Read & Discuss

A morning news story today showing people boycotting Whole Foods for its CEO’s stance on health care reform gave me an equal dose of disappointment and encouragement. Disappointing of course, because any time I see a corporation that seems to share the values of a consumer who just wants to find healthy, reliable products for his/her family, it’s only a matter of time WHEN that company will be exposed for lying, cheating, stealing and generally…

Read & Discuss

Why the restriction on abortion in the health care bill is unfair.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) tussled with his party’s leadership in the House of Representatives for months before finally making an actionable threat: give me a floor vote on an abortion-restricting amendment, or I’ll kill your health care bill. Under the terms of that health care bill, uninsured Americans will be required to purchase health insurance, and the government will partially subsidize those who can’t cover…

Read & Discuss

Why the restriction on abortion in the health care bill is unfair.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) tussled with his party’s leadership in the House of Representatives for months before finally making an actionable threat: give me a floor vote on an abortion-restricting amendment, or I’ll kill your health care bill. Under the terms of that health care bill, uninsured Americans will be required to purchase health insurance, and the government will partially subsidize those who can’t cover…

Read & Discuss

A new tool for computer language analysis can evaluate your mind based on your Tweets (and might help psychologists, too)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or among the molemen, you’ve probably enjoyed the humor of @s–tmydadsays, the popular Twitter account of Justin, who describes himself like so: “I’m 29. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down s–t that he says.” That s–t consists of cranky honesty like “I…

Read & Discuss

A new tool for computer language analysis can evaluate your mind based on your Tweets (and might help psychologists, too)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or among the molemen, you’ve probably enjoyed the humor of @s–tmydadsays, the popular Twitter account of Justin, who describes himself like so: “I’m 29. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down s–t that he says.” That s–t consists of cranky honesty like “I…

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That’s an ear implant. It’s getting seeded with cartilage cells at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which is “part a consortium of researchers working to apply the science of regenerative medicine to battlefield injuries.” Gizmodo has a fascinating (if brief) interview with Dr. Anthony Atala, who’s grown human organs and tissue in a lab for about 20 years. Ideas like “tissue engineering” and “regenerative medicine” sound like science fiction to me, but apparently they’re…

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Today on Twitter we asked our followers when they last went to see a doctor or dentist and whether the visit was covered by health insurance. We collected some of our favorite responses below. We ask a question to our Twitter faithful once a day, so if you’re not yet following @GOOD, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation.

Read & Discuss

There are about 4 million people in New York City who struggle to afford food. In 2003, it was half that number. This time of year, as temperatures drop and holidays come and go, the pangs of hunger can be especially brutal. But thanks to an innovative new effort by the organization Robin Hood, you can help make a difference for one family in need. Have a look.

http://www.vimeo.com/4604123

To accomplish the goal of delivering 15,000 meals…

Read & Discuss

There are about 4 million people in New York City who struggle to afford food. In 2003, it was half that number. This time of year, as temperatures drop and holidays come and go, the pangs of hunger can be especially brutal. But thanks to an innovative new effort by the organization Robin Hood, you can help make a difference for one family in need. Have a look.

http://www.vimeo.com/4604123

To accomplish the goal of delivering 15,000 meals…

Read & Discuss

A morning news story today showing people boycotting Whole Foods for its CEO’s stance on health care reform gave me an equal dose of disappointment and encouragement. Disappointing of course, because any time I see a corporation that seems to share the values of a consumer who just wants to find healthy, reliable products for his/her family, it’s only a matter of time WHEN that company will be exposed for lying, cheating, stealing and generally…

Read & Discuss

Why the restriction on abortion in the health care bill is unfair.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) tussled with his party’s leadership in the House of Representatives for months before finally making an actionable threat: give me a floor vote on an abortion-restricting amendment, or I’ll kill your health care bill. Under the terms of that health care bill, uninsured Americans will be required to purchase health insurance, and the government will partially subsidize those who can’t cover…

Read & Discuss

Why the restriction on abortion in the health care bill is unfair.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) tussled with his party’s leadership in the House of Representatives for months before finally making an actionable threat: give me a floor vote on an abortion-restricting amendment, or I’ll kill your health care bill. Under the terms of that health care bill, uninsured Americans will be required to purchase health insurance, and the government will partially subsidize those who can’t cover…

Read & Discuss

A new tool for computer language analysis can evaluate your mind based on your Tweets (and might help psychologists, too)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or among the molemen, you’ve probably enjoyed the humor of @s–tmydadsays, the popular Twitter account of Justin, who describes himself like so: “I’m 29. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down s–t that he says.” That s–t consists of cranky honesty like “I…

Read & Discuss

A new tool for computer language analysis can evaluate your mind based on your Tweets (and might help psychologists, too)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or among the molemen, you’ve probably enjoyed the humor of @s–tmydadsays, the popular Twitter account of Justin, who describes himself like so: “I’m 29. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down s–t that he says.” That s–t consists of cranky honesty like “I…

Read & Discuss

While everyone’s focused on preventative care and electronic records as ways of reducing health care costs, David Rakel, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, found evidence that empathy has concrete benefits (surprise!). From the BPS Research Digest:

David Rakel and colleagues have found that patients who rate their doctor as highly empathic recover more quickly from a cold. Their illness is shortened by about a day—the same effect shown…

Read & Discuss

While everyone’s focused on preventative care and electronic records as ways of reducing health care costs, David Rakel, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, found evidence that empathy has concrete benefits (surprise!). From the BPS Research Digest:

David Rakel and colleagues have found that patients who rate their doctor as highly empathic recover more quickly from a cold. Their illness is shortened by about a day—the same effect shown…

Read & Discuss

The average American is both overweight and spends more than 100 hours per year commuting, that vast majority of those hours being spent in a car. Are those numbers correlated? Could we help reduce our societal weight gain by encouraging more commutes by bike or foot? Our latest Transparency is a look at the number of active commutes in several countries, as compared to those countries obesity rates.

A collaboration between GOOD and Lamosca.

…
Read & Discuss

Situated in the northeast corner of Guatemala’s Zacapa province, near the rural town of Gualán is the Zacapa hospital, where volunteers with the NGO Hearts in Motion regularly travel to offer emergency care, fix cleft lips and palates, and perform orthopedic surgeries that are much in need and otherwise hard to come by. While documenting some of Hearts in Motion’s work, Chris Davis traveled to the Zacapa province to photograph the hospital and the people it serves in…

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Finding a Better Way to Fight

It’s pretty much unanimous, at this point: The war on drugs has sucked us all down with it. Each year it accounts for more than a million arrests and costs the United States tens of billions of dollars. The impact of the war’s failed policies can be seen everywhere: There are arrest rates with their damning racial biases; the overcrowded state and federal prisons; and the fact that we spend…

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A major obstacle to improving health and business in rural Africa is a lack of connectivity. In some nations, 95 percent of the population lives off the grid with almost no access to electricity. That makes cell phones and light bulbs—both of which are critical to facilitating development—tough to use. Enter Lebônê Solutions, an organization that has figured out how to generate energy from an unlikely source: dirt. Using microbial fuel cell technology, Lebônê was able,…

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The ability to locate a shooting quickly can help police catch bad guys and save lives. In Richmond, California, acoustic gunfire detection is doing just that. With acoustic sensors distributed around the city, dispatchers can use the sound of gunfire to pinpoint where a shooting happened, the number of shots fired, and even the kind of gun that was used.

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Americans take 911 for granted, but in many developing nations a centralized emergency telephone number is unheard of. In Mumbai, a private ambulance company has stepped up to fill the void in emergency medical service. In a city where "ambulance" used to be synonymous with "hearse," Mumbai residents..
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Heroin makes Lou Reed feel like Jesus, and it won’t leave Guns N’ Roses alone, but how does it end up here in the United States? We take a look at the global opium trade from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to a shady street corner near you.

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The United States is the number one per capita consumer of corn in the world. Don’t recall stuffing your face with thousands of ears of corn last year? As expounded in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, King Corn, and Super Size Me, high fructose corn syrup and other derivatives work their way into everything from Wonder Bread to Big Macs. Add to that corn grown for ethanol production, and you’re looking at one corn-obsessed culture.

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Drinking has always been a mainstay of human civilization. In moments of joy, sadness, boredom, and even holiness, we drink. But what? And how much? And who drinks the most. Based on a 2004 study by the World Health Organization, this Transparency presents the most current international rankings..
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Seasonal allergy sufferers, rejoice! Japanese scientists have deployed an army of anthropomorphic pollen sensors across the country in an effort to aid the 15 million Japanese allergic to pollen. These Pollen Bots’ eyes change color depending on the pollen count so allergy sufferers can plan their outdoor activities accordingly. For those of us with hay fever, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

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Chances are you go to the gym because it makes you feel good. But nothing kills that post-workout buzz like contemplating the environmental impact of traditional gyms—the air conditioning, the cardio machines, the thousands of tiny towels that are washed daily. Manuel de Arriba Ares has an alternative:..
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You’ve seen the pink ribbons, but do you know how many American women actually get breast cancer? One in eight. While America may have the highest rates of breast cancer in the world, other countries are catching up, thanks to changes in diet, lifestyle, and exposure to carcinogens. We don’t have a cure, but this is our video version of the awareness ribbon. We hope it helps.

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Decades of war and internal strife have left Cambodia with one of the highest proportions of people disabled by land mines in the world. The country’s only professional sports league is the Cambodian National Volleyball League (Disabled), a network of volleyball teams whose players once fought against each other in times of civil war and now face each other on the court. They also sponsor a wheelchair racing program which empowers women who would…

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Professor Martin Schreibman says our oceans have been overfished beyond repair. If we’re going to keep eating fish and chips, tuna tartare, and all those omega-3 fatty acids, we may have to rely on aquaculture. Schreibman is working to bring those fish farms into the city. Urban aquaculture? We’ll bite.

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