A new study is out providing support to one of my favorite ideas in public policy — that the best way to deal with the challenge of homelessness is to give homeless people homes to live in. To some it sounds utopian and it’s natural to worry about the cost, but a great deal of evidence suggests that it would be cheaper to house the homeless than to let them languish on the streets and deal with the aftermath.

The latest is a Central Florida Commission on Homelessness study indicating that the region spends $31,000 a year per homeless person on “the salaries of law-enforcement officers to arrest and transport homeless individuals — largely for nonviolent offenses such as trespassing, public intoxication or sleeping in parks — as well as the cost of jail stays, emergency-room visits and hospitalization for medical and psychiatric issues.”

Source: www.preventdisease.com | Original Post Date: January 12, 2012 –

A large-scale national study suggests that even moderate use of marijuana is less harmful to users’ lungs than exposure to tobacco, even though the two substances contain at least some of the same components.

This comprehensive study, led by UCSF and University of Alabama at Birmingham, collected data from more than 5,000 U.S. adults for more than 20 years.

Previous research from the University of Otago in New Zealand compared the effects of cannabis and tobacco smoke on lung function in over 1,000 adults.

They reported: “Cumulative cannabis use was associated with higher forced vital capacity [the volume of air that can forcibly be blown out after full inspiration], total lung capacity, functional residual capacity [the volume of air present in the lungs at the end of passive expiration] and residual volume.

By Andreas Toupadakis PhD

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Instead of searching to find terrorists, why don’t we search for justice? Instead of searching to find new weapons technology, why don’t we search to find the starving millions and feed them?

Wisdom + Compassion = Action

Nothing happens until our words turn into actions. The difficulty that our generation has is that when it comes to direct action, we stall. There is no solution to terrorism but one, no matter how much money the citizens of the world will invest to stop it. It will simply increase. Why? It is because terrorism is the result of the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Humans with great offices and power in this world will tell you that the cause of terrorism is something else. Do not believe them. They are trying to protect their power, which has been accumulated at the expense of the starving millions of the world.

Luminescent solar concentrators are nothing new in the realm of solar energy. Focusing the sun’s rays onto a compact area, the effect is similar to using a magnifying glass for generating heat and fire. The technology doesn’t come without problems, however. Solar concentrators tend to be unattractive monstrosities that pose a threat to local bird wildlife. Efforts have been made to merge the concentrators with standard windows, but the end result compromised the transparency and color of the glass. In response, the quest for a completely clear material began.

Affordable and non-intrusive

According to Richard Lunt of MSU’s College of Engineering, his team has developed a truly transparent luminescent solar concentrator that “can be used on buildings, cell phones and any other device that has a clear surface.” The key word here is transparent.