Robert Paterson's Weblog

Kids And Teens See More Ads For Sugary Drinks

From 2008 to 2010, children's and teens' exposure to television ads for soda doubled, according to a new report from the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University. And beverage companies targeted black and Hispanic kids more than others in recent ads, the report found.

Commercials for Coke and Dr. Pepper products led the increase. Pepsi actually showed young audiences 22 percent fewer commercials for its products in that same time period.

Under a voluntary agreement, beverage companies have pledged to improve advertising directed to kids. But "our results clearly show that the beverage industry's self-regulatory pledges are not working," says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center.

 

The American Beverage Association takes issue with the report's conclusions. "This report is another attack by known critics in an ongoing attempt to single out one product as the cause of obesity when both common sense and widely accepted science have shown that the reality is far more complicated," writes president and chief executive officer Susan Neely in a statement.

via npr.org

Shades of Joe Camel?

The end of ideology - the awakening

 

Nature is speaking through us - ideology has prevented us from being in touch with out nature and with nature. 

As Paul shows us - the reaction to ideology is emerging itself naturally. OWS is another part of this deep feeling. 

This is how we fed ourselves for 2 million years

 

No wonder the Hunter sees his prey as a soul mate and brother - he has to be immersed in his world to hunt like this.

Amazing that in 10,000 years we have lost our ability to be like this - but all this ability and all this potential reverence surely remains deep inisde us?

A College Degree Isn't What It Used To Be

Michael Mandel reports that the "real wages for college graduates continue to plunge." Bradford Plumer has more detail:

via andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com

It had better be worth all the debt.

Making love with your clothes on

 

How to get boys to be good citizens? Harrow uses social structures

Boys are struggling in our schools. Something about how we are organized does not appeal to them and their rates of disengagement are very high. Could a very old school that only teaches boys and that has no trouble keeping them engaged teach us a few lessons? I think so.

Harrow was started in 1572 and, like the One Room School, is a good example of an “Evolved Design”. Harrow has learned in over 400 years of trial and error how to empower boys to be their best. It did not learn how to do this overnight. In the early 19th century there were student riots and a headmaster was tossed into a lake. But over time, Harrow has become expert in providing boys aged 13- 18 with an environment that supports both their learning and their social development. Its organization today offers us some hard won lessons for how we too can help our boys.

Harrow is a fee paying (“Public School”) school of about 800 boys that takes great pride in drawing on a wide mix of ability. The school is renowned today for not only helping most of its boys do well but also in enabling boys to find their gifts in a society that defines excellence very broadly. It is a remarkably “happy” school as well.

How does it do this? Much of its success is built into its social organization. There are 800 boys in the school. All the 800 boys live their entire time at Harrow in one of 11 Houses. In effect each boy goes to a very small school that is federated into a large one. House sizes fit into the size of the 80 grouping - or a Legionary Century.

Breaking up a large number of students into official and formal organizations that fit the natural, or “Dunbar Numbers”, is the centerpiece of all schools that have “evolved” over time.

Harrow has found ways of providing each boy with a secure social base, the House, while offering him the skill/ interest diversity of the larger world of the school. This is accomplished by setting in motion an interlocking web of social relationships that fit like “Venn Diagrams” between the world of the House, the classroom, the larger world of the school, activities and special interests and discipline.

This “Evolved Design” ensures that very few boys are isolated. Most find an officially sanctioned role that has pres- tige within the social organization of the school. For the rewards that Harrow uses to drive achievement are Honour and Reputation. The pathway is Challenge and Community. The goal is to find self discipline through taking on Responsibility.

Your primary social base at Harrow is your House. This is a boy’s core community. The meaning of membership is reinforced by Challenge. There are many inter house competitions that help to establish loyalty to your house from sport to plays to music. Inter house competition is taken much more seriously than inter school competition because in the house world, nearly everyone is involved.

Discipline and social cohesion is high at Harrow because at Harrow Senior boys have real responsibility.

Each House has a small group of leaders, “Privs” whose role is to run the House on a daily basis. This includes operational issues such as organizing all games etc and also includes internal discipline. Up to 50% of the senior year would have such a position.

There are many more senior roles available to boys who may not “fit” into the traditional role of leadership. All the “Clubs” usually called “Societies” and the sports are run by senior boys. “Societies” and Sport at Harrow not only give every pupil a chance to shine, but they alter the relationship between the teaching staff and the students. Here the teacher acts as a coach and a peer. Consequently both boy and teacher discover a much more complete person than is possible only in the classroom. This increase in mutual trust created outside the classroom spills into the classroom. Boys do not want to let down teachers who have made such a general investment in them as people. By graduation many of a boys best friends will be members of the staff. This process increases trust and engagement over time and helps pull the boys through the difficult years of the equivalent of grade 7-10.

The larger body of the school has the most prestigious roles available. Again a wide range of talent is recognized. At the School level a number of senior boys, “Monitors” are responsible for school discipline. Each house has at least one Monitor who is also Head of House. These are appointed by the Headmaster. The Head of School is effect a full time job and these days is often held by a boy who has completed his academic requirements.

Senior Sporting boys, the “Phil” also have their own elite school wide body as do those boys who excel in the arts, the “Guild”. These roles are elected. So not only is excellence in sport recognized but also in all forms of artistic endeavor. There are many ways to be “Cool” at Harrow. Being a loser is not one of them. There is room for all talent.

Even though there are 800 boys in the school, it is not possible to fall between the cracks either. There is always an- other person who has his eye out for your best interests both in the classroom and socially.

Harrow is a very complex society. The classes and the houses are distributed over several square miles. It has a unique language and culture that has to be learned if you are to fit in. New boys and Beaks feel very strange. To speed up belonging and to open up an avenue of friendship, all new boys are given a “Shepherd”, a boy that is at least a year older. The Shepherd’s role is to help the younger boy fit in as well as possible. Boys also need a guide throughout their time at Harrow for the academic part of their lives. Each house also has a house Tutor who is there to help you navigate the best route through your academic life. Problems in class can be worked on with an ally on

 The teaching staff. Choices for overall direction can be made in a warm and informed way. Most importantly, every boy not only lives in a house but has a Housemaster. The Housemaster is truly in loco parentis. The best of them become the best father a boy could ever have. Every boy has a number of adults that he knows are there for him as an individual. Every young boy interacts all the time with older boys who are in effect young men.

No boy is isolated or kept in a narrow age range of peers. This is especially important in the 14-16 age range when boys are most at risk of becoming disengaged.

Boys are in deep trouble in our system. Just as we have acknowledged that girls needed help in a very male environ- ment, so it is time that we faced up to the struggle that our boys are having now. A school such as Harrow offers us a set of principles for creating the requisite environment of challenge and community that boys need to become men. 

Here is a video that takes you deeper into this:

 

Iceland told the bankers to shove it - so should Greece

Some readers will remember that Iceland’s ninth century agrarian collapse was featured in Jared Diamond’s book by the same name. Today, that country is recovering from its financial collapse in ways just the opposite of those generally considered unavoidable, as confirmed yesterday by the new head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde to Fareed Zakaria. The people of Greece have been told that the privatization of their public sector is the only solution.  And those of Italy, Spain and Portugal are facing the same threat.

They should look to Iceland. Refusing to bow to foreign interests, that small country stated loud and clear that the people are sovereign.     

via sacsis.org.za

More here:-
The belief that citizens had to pay for the mistakes of a financial monopoly, that an entire nation must be taxed to pay off private debts was shattered, transforming the relationship between citizens and their political institutions and eventually driving Iceland’s leaders to the side of their constituents. The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.

Of course the international community only increased the pressure on Iceland. Great Britain and Holland threatened dire reprisals that would isolate the country. As Icelanders went to vote, foreign bankers threatened to block any aid from the IMF. The British government threatened to freeze Icelander savings and checking accounts. As Grimsson said: “We were told that if we refused the international community’s conditions, we would become the Cuba of the North. But if we had accepted, we would have become the Haiti of the North.” (How many times have I written that when Cubans see the dire state of their neighbor, Haiti, they count themselves lucky.)

In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan. But the revolution (though not televised in the United States), would not be intimidated. With the support of a furious citizenry, the government launched civil and penal investigations into those responsible for the financial crisis. Interpol put out an international arrest warrant for the ex-president of Kaupthing, Sigurdur Einarsson, as the other bankers implicated in the crash fled the country.

But Icelanders didn't stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money. (The one in use had been written when Iceland gained its independence from Denmark, in 1918, the only difference with the Danish constitution being that the word ‘president’ replaced the word ‘king’.)

To write the new constitution, the people of Iceland elected twenty-five citizens from among 522 adults not belonging to any political party but recommended by at least thirty citizens. This document was not the work of a handful of politicians, but was written on the internet. The constituent’s meetings are streamed on-line, and citizens can send their comments and suggestions, witnessing the document as it takes shape. The constitution that eventually emerges from this participatory democratic process will be submitted to parliament for approval after the next elections.

The Euro Zone Crisis - Now you will understand it all!!! :)

 

Another example of how it is the comedians who tell the truth - HT John Proffitt

The really smart thermostat - Nest - Tony Fadell

From iPod to Thermostat - I think this will really make a difference They will cost $249 when they ship on November 14, 2011 and you`ll probably want one if you`re into all things iPhone, iPad and iPod. Tech Crunch calls Tony Fadell the Godfather of the iPod an iPhone. When he left Apple to pursue his own life, Fadell couldn`t stop his urge to create something cool and useful. Fadell`s research said that billions of homes have thermostats that are ugly and non-functional. Ugly is the ultimate sin in the world of Mac-olytes. But functionality is even more important. Nest The Learning Thermostat will learn when to turn up and turn down the heat after a few weeks of user adjustment of the temperature wheel. If you forget to turn down the heat and leave home, it turns itself down after two hours of nobody home. Fadell says it will save up to 10% of energy costs. When you dial back the heat or cooling, the Nest shows a green leaf for green energy.

More Tech Less Jobs - The London Tube as an example

'Recruitment freeze'

The confidential document called Operational Strategy Discussion Paper and dated July 2011, looks at how the service will evolve over the next decade and examines "reducing operational costs by up to 20%".

It predicts the closure of most ticket offices by 2016 as more people use contact-less bank cards or Oyster smartcards to pay for their journeys.

Across London 30 ticket offices will remain which will become "travel centres", the paper says.

The strategy document predicts that by 2017 only 20% of trains will be manually operated with drivers in cabs, and beyond 2020 all lines are expected to have "fully remote train operations".

There are also mentions of a recruitment freeze and "imposing" overtime and part-time working.

via bbc.co.uk

Are you checking out your groceries by yourself now? How much do you buy online and how much in the store? Music, film and books - digital or physical?

Not only do we face a global pool of possible employees where quite complex work is now routinely outsourced but now even the McJobs are being replaced by Tech.

Not only McJobs. Basic legal services, basic book keeping and accounting are all well done by software now.

Even the office is disappearing. My nephew runs a small company that is completely networked with a host of Cloud based services such as Dropbox keeping the team connected.

So if we only look to the traditional sources of "jobs" for a "job" we are not going to make it.

So what to do? Not entirely sure but I think the direction is to look to creating a new kind of economy where we use our networks to help us make a living and to live.

Where more and more of us grow and process food. Where we share and rent stuff that we need - AirBNB for all things. Where we look after and teach our kids collectively.

That kind of world. For the "Jobs" are surely not coming back. Are we really going to give up all the tech and have people collect tickets, bag groceries, sell us books, do out tax returns?

The new alternative is murky but I am being forced into it myself. I just do not and will not have the money to buy things and services the way I used to. Will you? I increasingly buy local food from small local growers. I borrow and lend gear. I use a Co working Place. I suspect the new real economy is in here somewhere.

Just published today - a new book abut all of this called The Race Against the Machine.

"Digital technologies are rapidly encroaching on skills that used to belong to humans alone. This phenomenon is both broad and deep, and has profound economic implications. Many of these implications are positive; digital innovation increases productivity, reduces prices (sometimes to zero), and grows the overall economic pie.

But digital innovation has also changed how the economic pie is distributed, and here the news is not good for the median worker. As technology races ahead, it can leave many people behind. Workers whose skills have been mastered by computers have less to offer the job market, and see their wages and prospects shrink. Entrepreneurial business models, new organizational structures and different institutions are needed to ensure that the average worker is not left behind by cutting-edge machines.

In Race Against the Machine Brynjolfsson and McAfee bring together a range of statistics, examples, and arguments to show that technological progress is accelerating, and that this trend has deep consequences for skills, wages, and jobs. The book makes the case that employment prospects are grim for many today not because there's been technology has stagnated, but instead because we humans and our organizations aren't keeping up."