ctrp326 The Future of Making Things

Bre Pettis envisions a future where people don’t just go out and buy things when something is needed or breaks. He envisions a future where people will once again make things themselves, at home. During one of our legendary breakfast sessions during the 26C3 in Berlin on the last day of 2009, we talked about his vision and his company – Makerbot Industries.

I Will Continue the Tradition

Howard Zinn has died. The wonderful man who wrote books and gave speeches and walked picket lines and spoke out against war and tyranny… he has died.  The human who through his work, taught me so much about who am I, what I am passionate about, how the world came to be as it is.. learning about the world from the powerless instead of the powerful.

Howard Zinn has died and I never got a chance to thank him in person. I never got a chance to let him know, like so many throughout the world, I will continue to speak out, I will continue to try and give voice to the voiceless. I would have liked to tell him in person, but instead I will just continue the tradition…

“People in all countries need the spirit of disobedience to the state. The state that is not a metaphysical thing. But a thing of force and wealth. And we need a kind of declaration of interdependence among people in all countries of the world who are striving for the same thing.” – Howard Zinn 1970

ctrp325 Prop8 on Trial

Ballot initiatives are not the only battle ground in the struggle for equal rights in the United States. One year after California voters passed a proposition banning gay marriage, a court battle has begun to overturn that ban and prove that gay and lesbian couples should have the same right to marry as heterosexual couples do.

My guest is communications consultant, videoblogger, world citizen Jeffrey Taylor who joins me on the program from San Francisco. In this podcast he helps explain what this trial means, what both sides are doing in court, what could happen depending on the outcome, and all other aspects of the trial. We also get into the difference between fighting a battle for equal rights through the ballot box versus doing it in the courts and in the legislature.

Those wanting more info about the trial can follow NCLR or Jeffrey on twitter

Also his blog The Accidental Activist or the Prop 8 Trial Tracker are good places to read and follow deeper links.

Big Pharma Ads on Their Way

Anyone who has ever been to the United States, or watched commercials on American Television somehow, knows of the never-ending barrage of Pharmaceutical ads that have come to take over the gaps in between programming. They feature excessively clean and happy people walking through parks or high-fiving each other because some ailment they have has been cured by some brand name you should “ask your doctor about”. I can only imagine what its like to be a doctor in the United States today and have your patients coming up to you “asking about” a drug they saw on TV which they would like to have.

This has become the state of the American mediasphere, while over in the EU we still have in place relatively strong regulations preventing that kind of advertisement. Until now.

Ok perhaps the “until now” part makes things seem a little to dire, I would have done better to say that at this moment in time, the EU may relax its rules on Pharmaceutical and medical advertising.  Relaxing doesn’t mean we’ve got old people holding hands and discussing pills to lower their cholesterol on TV. But what we do have is a potential break from the clear policy of no medical advertising in the media.

The information is not easy to come by, perhaps due to its complexity or vagueness, so it is not exactly being discussed by the major news outlets.  What I’ve been able to gather at this point breaks down this way:

  • The change in policy would “allow pharmaceutical companies to provide information directly to consumers”
  • This was proposed in 2008, but put away soon thereafter due to strong criticism from member states.
  • The information they provide would have to be factual, objective, and not seek to advertise prescription drugs.
  • Any such information will go through a committee or a panel that will decide if it meets standards.

Of course many questions remain which I will now pose to various stakeholders and associations, regarding such a change.  Is this taking the EU down the same path as the United States, towards bombarding citizens with clever and appealing visuals regarding what they should choose for when it comes to health and medicine? Is there a push now within EU institutions to pursue this as early as this year? While I’m at it, just how powerful and influencial is the pharmaceutical lobby in Brussels?

Hopefully very soon Ill have some answers which you’ll be able to find right here in a future post.

crnr1 Weekly News Review

Presenting a new program from citizenreporter.org, The Citizen Reporter Weekly News Review, which aims to go over global news stories with the help of guests in different corners of the planet.  This week being our first attempt at it, my guests are Bente Kalsnes in Norway and Atul Chitnis in Bangalore.

We cover:

  • The Earthquake in Haiti
  • Google and China
  • Laws against Homosexuality in Uganda
  • Ukrainian Elections
  • Fast Food tax in Romania
  • Copyright law changes in India
  • Public data portals online in Scandinavia, UK, US and beyond.

Please don’t bother commenting about the audio problems, I’ve listened many times and I know where its bad, Im working on this issue, but its a new program, so this will take time to get right.