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Georgia's New State Health Plan Is Google
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun Jun 22, 2008 03:51 PM
from the step-away-from-the-computer-screen dept.
from the step-away-from-the-computer-screen dept.
theodp writes "In yet another case of life imitating Dilbert, the State of Georgia has issued a press release touting how helpful Google products will be in getting Georgians to go outdoors. According to the release and a follow-up Yo-State-So-Fat Official Google Blog post, this includes AdWords, Analytics, Maps, Earth, Picasa, Gadgets and a branded YouTube channel for the GO Georgia initiative 'We're thrilled that Google has joined us in the effort to help everyone in the state lead a healthier life,' said Sally Winchester, a manager for Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites. 'At Google, we are committed to helping our employees lead healthy lives,' added Maureen Schumacher, a Google regional sales director. 'We are very excited that Google products will be used as part of this effort to improve the health and well-being of all Georgians.'"
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Misleading Much? (Score:5, Interesting)
Looks a lot less like a health plan, a lot more like a powerful promotional partner for Georgia's Parks, Recreations and Historic Sites i.e. tourism?
Or is FOX TV a "health plan" because they run Viagra advertisements?
On second thought it has Google in the title and it's Sunday so it must be a debacle! Unleash the Flash rectangles! The captain goes down with the PageRank!
so what? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:so what? (Score:4, Funny)
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Are you saying GA's fat? (Score:2, Funny)
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Is this a variation on 'Naw you kiahds git off ma lawn!"?
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Re:Are you saying GA's fat? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Are you saying GA's fat? (Score:5, Funny)
You will pry my Georgia sweet tea (kept ice cold so it can be super-saturated with sugar) from my cold, dead fin-- *urk* *THUD*
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Re:Are you saying GA's fat? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Are you saying GA's fat? (Score:4, Funny)
Unless of course something we're to disturb to tea sufficiently or a suitable condensation nuclei we're introduced causing the sugar to come out of solution, in which case the only suitable solution is to reheat the tea.
Posting anonymously so I can still mod you up
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Re: (Score:2)
Wow, I never expected to be taken seriously, but you know... you are supposed to put the sugar in while it's still piping hot. There have been occasions where a particular sweet tea I like to call "Hepzibah Tea" (named after the podunk Augusta satellite town it comes from) leaves the container coated in rock candy when you take it out of the fridge. That is the good stuff you can't get up north.
Re:Are you saying GA's fat? (Score:4, Funny)
Actually you can only super saturate water with dissolved solids such as sugar at high temperatures. It's gases that dissolve better at low temperatures.
So you're not only fat, but a dirty, dirty liar!
Parent
14th Most Obese in Country (Score:4, Interesting)
...high rates of obesity (soul food), diabetes (sweet tea), and heart disease....
Having just moved from there, to the Bay Area, Ca....
Yes, Ga is unhealthy. Alot of the blame can also be put on the government of the state, which continues to push for more and wider highways (as if 16 lanes [google.com] isnt enough), continue to allow and support [southernstudies.org] the majority of power plants [georgiapower.com] running on fossil fuels, mainly coal and including 3 of the dirtiest [georgiapower.com] in the US, with two in the top 3 of that list. This, combined with naturally high humidity [answers.com], ultra high pollen counts and high temperatures makes the air quality suck, putting Atlanta in 4th [aafa.org] for most challenging place to live with asthma and consistently in the Top Ten [usatoday.com] smoggiest cities. This keeps people inside. Going anywhere basically means driving there as sprawl [esri.com] and the resulting proliferation of more roads without increased mass transit or even bike lanes(again, gvmt sponsored), reckless drivers in large vehicles thanks to (previously, and relatively) cheap gas and the whole "southern/redneck" bit that leans towards F250s with 12"lift on mud tires, and the horrid air make it difficult to impossible to walk or bike anywhere (outside of Down/Mid Town Atl) for fear of your life. So people tend to sit on their fat asses in their offices all day and eat at one of about 20 McDonads [google.com] or Waffle Houses [google.com] in the 2mi radius of their home (after driving there of course)... not that I miss having a 24h eatery nearby (I miss my WaHo and Marietta Diner!). Add to all that that NASCAR is a "Sport" in Ga, and as such, "exercising" consists of sitting in bleachers (or on the sofa), smoking, drinking budweiser and eating chilli cheese dogs while watching cars go in circles.
Alot of this could be fixed by improving mass-transit, curbing Sprawl (which is what really caused the drought) and improving Atlanta's Bikability [atlantabike2.org]. Generally getting people out of their cars and walking or biking places. MARTA's subway line only goes to about 3 useful places [itsmarta.com]: the airport, downtown, and perimeter mall, while a majority of people live in Cobb County, which rejected having anything to do with a Marta rail line (think: "It will bring in the colored people to steal our TV's!").
Ga is way behind in most rankings of things as well: the Gov'ner has repeatedly struck down [potsdam.edu] attempts to allow Sunday sales of any alcoholic beverage (outside of a restaurant), the most recent time saying it would teach "better time management," thus keeping Georgia one of 3 states still having such arcane blue laws. The state is kept in the past though laws like this, as well as the control the churches [guardian.co.uk] have over it and its citizens, which al
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Racism was only a tiny part of the issue. Money for example was much larger. The real reason Cobb rejected MARTA was lingring bitterness over Atlanta killing the trolley lines back in the 1950s. When MARTA was first pro
Re:14th Most Obese in Country (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, please. Gwinnett rejected it too, and "crime" was the primary excuse. Because, you know, criminals would commute from Atlanta and haul their phat booty back on the trains. It had nothing to do with the race of those most likely to need rail service into the city. Oh no, not that at all.
The delicious irony of it all is that Gwinnett is now the most ethnically diverse region of the state due to immigration, and had to start funding its own bus service just like Cobb.
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Except there's not much delicious about it. (Score:2)
I moved to the Indian Trail area in 1998. It was booming.
A year or so ago we were in the area and decided to drive around the area, including Gwinett Place Mall up on Pleasant Hill.
The whole area, particularly the area east of I-85 on Jimmy Carter is a disaster. The mall was desolate. The whole area just looks run down.
If this is what having an ethnically diverse region does for your community it's no wonder they resisted mass transit to speed its coming.
I have friends on the Norcross Police force. They
Re:14th Most Obese in Country (Score:4, Insightful)
The delicious irony of it all is that Gwinnett is now the most ethnically diverse region of the state due to immigration...
This is one of my favorite things about Gwinnett. I have friends on my street from Nigeria, Liberia, China, Mexico, Korea and India (and there are only about 20 houses on our street). We have a very close knit neighborhood and my kids get play with kids with very diverse backgrounds.
I work in the city of Atlanta and we hear a lot about "diversity". Their definition of "diversity" is African Americans working with Caucasian Americans. Pretty narrow view of diversity in my book...
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This is only step one... (Score:5, Funny)
Let's just say Steps 3 from 5 involve Google buying Georgia, rebranding the state Googlia (still GA), and eventually enslaving.... err.. emoploying the populace to work for the Google AI. Remember, the AI needs healthy people to carry out its will.
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Hey, as long as we get free food from the company cafeteria and Fridays to work on our own pet projects, I (as a Georgia resident) am all for it!
Ballmer wet dream (Score:2, Interesting)
Wow, that summary reads like a dream of Ballmer's, except with Google instead of Microsoft being the indispensable tech partner.
I guess there's nothing to worry about, because Google is good, right?
cutting corners (Score:4, Insightful)
Cut the BS (Score:5, Interesting)
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I wish they'd just drop the bullshit and come out and say "You want to turn into a lazy fatass and die an early death, that's your problem. Just don't pretend like it was anyone else's fault and don't burden the taxpayers with your poor decision-making and we're cool." I'd have much more respect for our esteemed leaders if they were honest about it.
They abandoned this path when they awarded that lady a multi-million dollar settlement because her fat (explative deleted) wouldn't fit in an airline seat.
Resistance is Futile (Score:2, Funny)
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and here I thought... (Score:4, Funny)
...Google has been one of the single biggest things keeping me INdoors
-Carl
Three step health plan (Score:4, Funny)
1: Partner with Google
2: ?
3: Health and profit
Kind of neat but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Looking at the disc golf section though, I'm kind of disappointed that the only information is solely for state parks. Living in Atlanta, I know of a few courses around that aren't state parks but county parks. They are also much closer than 30+ miles of the state parks.
I'm hoping that this is simply due to an early start and more information will get put in as counties might get online. But if not, I think they're missing a big opportunity for more information and getting people more involved at a local level. But perhaps they are simply looking for the extra revenue from the parks since most of the local parks are free access.
GA Resident Here... (Score:3, Insightful)
You would think... (Score:2)
This is GREAT! (Score:3, Interesting)
My girlfriend and I are traveling fulltime and living in the national forests, wildlife management areas, etc. I LOVE when we're in a state that has proactively put tons of information about their outdoor recreation areas online.
It's so much easier to find places to stay and know what's nearby in areas like this than in the more backwards areas where you are just guessing and stopping to ask the locals, who often have no idea or just give bad advice.
This is good for the state of Georgia, it's citizens and anyone traveling through the state that enjoys the ootdoors (the big blue room).
Watch out for the Bush zones... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Which southern state was giving out Mozart CDs (Score:2, Interesting)
I tell you what, that's some quality health initiative you got there, boy. Yesiree.
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No mention of Google Health (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe... (Score:2, Funny)
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So he didn't know Vogel was in GA? I don't get it, what was the big deal?
1) Take I-20 going towards ATL until you get to I-285.
2) Go north on I-285.
3) Go north on GA400.
4) Follow the signs when you get near Dahlonaga.
5) If someone tells you, "You got a perty mouth." you'll know you made it.
Hell you could start in Abilene TX and follow those directions.
Where are those four horsemen ? (Score:2)
Other states have outdoors initiatives too (Score:2)
http://www.nochildleftinside.org/ [nochildleftinside.org]
Many states do. Not just the obese ones.
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True, but the whole point of this story is the Google angle.
Who's Number 1? (Score:2)
Since the article states that GA is the 12th fattest state, I wondered who was #1:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/health/2269064/detail.html [thedenverchannel.com]
Not too surprising to see Mississippi is largest. I wouldn't have guessed Michigan would be #2. I guess that happens when it's too cold to go outside 5 months out of the year, and you sit indoors eating pasties (which, admittedly, make a delicious 1500 calorie meal.) Colorado's mountain climbing hippies are the leanest.
What I find really shocking is that most states hav
Getting Georgiahans rich (Score:2)
Maybe they'll feel richer now that they're partaking of the goodness of a multbillion dollar CEO.
As a georgia resident, I know NOTHING will ... (Score:3, Insightful)
As a georgia resident, I know for a fact nothing will make people go outside.. well, nothing except a huge bubble over the entire state with a massive HVAC system cooling it about 20-30 degrees depending on the time of year.
This year the winter "lows" were the mid 60's. I was walking around in a t-shirt basting in my own juices simply moving from the car to the grocery store in early january, and at this point in the year the AC barely keeps pace running 24/7 in a home a little over a decade old.
Just to the south-east of atlanta is a small town, and in that town I actually found a runed stone cover to hell. I came back during the summer to find the devil himself climbing out of his domain through this opening proclaiming it's too cold down there, so he's taking a month vacation in ATL.
Nobody in their right mind wants to go outside and fry, so people get fat.. and i mean MORBIDLY FAT. These people knock candy bar cases off the walls as they putter through the checkouts in the carts meant for paraplegics, their corpulence so spread that the 3 ft wide seat looks more like a bar stool.
I think Lincoln made a horrible mistake not allowing the south to secede. They are, statistically and geographically, the US beer gut : P
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
And between the heat, mosquitoes, and smog, I hope to spend my summer in front of my computer. Then again, I'm posting to Slashdot, so you knew that already.
Re:Georgians won't go outdoors? (Score:4, Insightful)
Except for the part of living in Georgia, I live in Atlanta. There's a BIG difference.
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You did know that Georgia already had a web site for all the state parks [gastateparks.org], didn't you?
The only real difference between this new site and that one is that they've added a "search by activity and zip code" function. All the information was already there and reasonably easy to find before, however.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately circumstances beyond my control forced me to leave.
I'd still be there otherwise. I love it.
Yes, it has it's problems (e.g. the traffic is horrendous) but so does every major city. Nevertheless,