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The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest Dan Buettner See book keywords and concepts

Was there any regard for the old ways in the age of fast food and text messaging? I met Kamada's great-granddaughter, 14-year-old Kur-ara, in a village park where she was taking part in a school track meet. She blew away the competition in the first leg of an 800-meter relay race. As she passed the baton to her teammate, she threw her arms victoriously into the air and then ran to the finish line to cheer on her teammates. Kurara was still breathing hard when I caught up with her. "Champions!" she shouted in her confident, deep voice, pointing to her teammates who smiled beside her.

Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation Charles Barber See book keywords and concepts

Lately, cocooning has taken on a new wrinkle—the creation of and deep immersion in our own customized on-demand "digital environments," which combine the realms of Web surfing, video games, instant messaging, cell phones and their photographic and text messaging capabilities, cable TV, DVDs, and on-demand television and movies.

The Food-Mood Solution: All-Natural Ways to Banish Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Stress, Overeating, and Alcohol and Drug Problems--and Feel Good Again Jack Challem See book keywords and concepts

When she spoke at the Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego early in 2006, she (like the other speakers) was competing with the audience's use of e-mail, Web surfing, and text messaging. It was an eerie reflection of much of our society. Increasingly, people devote just a little attention to each of their multitasking activities, not giving full attention to any of them. I'll describe several examples of this odd behavior. One is the person who is either engaged in a face-to-face conversation or is sitting or walking by himself.

In November 2005, a teenager in suburban Denver was text messaging on his cell phone while driving his car—and swerved into the bicycle lane and killed a cyclist. This goes beyond immaturity, a lack of focus, or stupidity. It's a brain incapable of sound judgment because of unbalanced neuronutrients and neurotransmitters. Research on addictive behaviors has zeroed in specifically on the neurotransmitter dopamine (described in chapter 3), which plays important roles in pleasure, motivation, thinking, and physical activity. Eating tasty food and having sex elevate dopamine levels.

Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it Sue Palmer See book keywords and concepts

In less than two decades, technology has transformed our homes: PCs, laptops, email, the worldwide web; cable, satellite and digital TV, camcorders, DVD; computer games, PlayStations, iPods; mobile phones, text messaging, camphones ... And everything happens much, much faster than it did in the past. Social changes have been no less startling.

We have even discovered, in text messaging, a unique human ability to communicate by thumb. Ironically, the more technology has allowed us to talk to each other, the less we seem to talk to our children. As well as worrying about children's lack of sleep, the teachers I meet are particularly concerned about two other factors: lack of conversation at home, and too much television. They see these two elements as highly correlated. Language development is not an issue that generally worries parents - indeed, when I raise it with them, many wish their offspring would talk less rather than more.

Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda Jacky Law See book keywords and concepts

Patients can also receive information via text messaging and mailouts to help them take a drug that, it must be remembered, has been prescribed for their benefit. Whether described as exercises in concordance or disease management, pharma money is usually to be found. There are also Expert Patient programmes to end the era of the 'passive patient' by educating consumers to manage everyday aspects of chronic illness. The Department of Health launched its own version in 2001 before rolling it out nationwide.

Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century Alex Steffen See book keywords and concepts

For example, from Beijing we took the idea of the Lift Club, a sort of safe hitchhiking service organized by way of mobile text messaging. In Milan, we found a scheme among mothers so that kids can walk, rather than ride in cars, to school... All these things are banal locally, but when we introduce them elsewhere, they are innovations" (2004). dd Tool Sharing: The Bay Area, ToolBank mmmm When it comes to possessions, humans are not well known for their resource efficiency: the average power drill, over its entire life span, gets used for about ten minutes (Thackara 2005).

The Kenya Agricultural Commodities Exchange (KACE) sells up-to-the-minute market news via short-message service (SMS) text messaging. Farmers can access daily produce prices from a dozen markets, allowing them to make deals without having to travel around the country. Every month, KACE handles thousands of transactions; for buyers and sellers without mobile phones, kiosks set up near village markets around the country provide cheap access. Access to these tools helps city dwellers as much as farmers.

In 2004, One World International opened a service that posts new job openings (mostly for unskilled and semiskilled labor) and started taking remote applications from job seekers, via text messaging. Instead of pounding the pavement, the unemployed can now work the phones. Thousands have found jobs. jc & as Sambaza—A New Kenyan Currency ¦¦mb Author William Gibson once wrote, "The street finds its own uses for things." Until recently, poor and middle-class citizens of Kenya had few ways to transfer funds in order to pay a bill, make a loan, or simply give a relative a bit of money.

In May 2005, Safaricom introduced Sambaza, a service allowing customers to transfer airtime minutes to other subscribers via SMS text messaging. Because the minutes are worth money—and because Safaricom serves the majority of mobile-phone subscribers in Kenya — sending minutes quickly became another way to pay for goods and services. In essence, Safaricom has become the unofficial national electronic bank. A growing portion of the Kenyan economy now exists purely as bits on a wireless network.

Fahamu's team grew intrigued about the possibilities of text messaging as a tool for social justice because of the phenomenal growth of its flagship publication, the electronic Pambazuka News. Pambazuka (meaning "dawn" or "daybreak") combines news, commentary, analysis, and resource sharing on social justice, serving as a primary outlet for progressive views from across Africa. Key focus areas include women's rights and debt cancellation.

In 2003, smart mobs in San Francisco protested the American invasion of Iraq using cell phones, text messaging, and pirate radio to coordinate swarmlike movement, staying one step ahead of police. Many protesters used digital video, still cameras, and Wi-Fi connections to document the protests as they happened.

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