Georgia's New State Health Plan Is Google

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.'"

so what?

[CaptainNerdCave]

so what if it's shameless promotion? the important thing is that the georgia administration is going against the status quo and admitting there _is_ a problem. i hope this gives other states (particularly southern states) the courage to go forward with health initiatives. with 1/4 of its adult population considered obese (as of mid-late 2007 http://vaccine-ophobia.blogspot.com/2007/08/georgia-14th-in-ranking-of-adult.html [blogspot.com]), this will hopefully start opening eyes and turning heads

cutting corners

[icepick72]

Sounds like Georgia wants some free hosting and free tools and will only have to pay a web integration salary instead of a developer ... why the hell not?

GA Resident Here...

[da3dAlus]

Actually, I only briefly heard about the GO initiative last week, just in time for their "all parks free" day. I _had_ to use Google to find the site just get info about it, considering the news broadcast didn't divulge many additional details.

Re:Georgians won't go outdoors?

[C-Shalom]

I'll second that.
Except for the part of living in Georgia, I live in Atlanta. There's a BIG difference.

Re:This is only step one...

[mrchaotica]

enslaving... err... employing the populace to work for the Google AI

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!

Watch out for the Bush zones...

[Tmack]

Just be careful or you might end up in clear-cut wasteland [creativeloafing.com] courtesy our wonderful leader. I just moved from the state, and alot of the "wilderness" areas now have huge swaths of these clear cuts. Sure, they claim they are in remote areas rarely visited, but they fail to mention that they are still very visible from the other more poplar areas. Now that Im in the Bay Area of SF, I get to enjoy the giant Red wood forests, which seem to be much better protected around here than the woods back in Ga. Its sad that my last few hikes in the Georgia wilderness areas include images of Ugly clear cutting swaths of what used to be beautiful woods.

Tm

Re:Are you saying GA's fat?

[MrDERP]

I am from GA (not originally )and this got me laughing pretty hard! That's how it is in very rural areas[South Carolina is much worse IMO], people are very friendly just really "country" Savannah is kind of half redneck half random people that moved here and country club like art college kids.I wouldn't say in this town there are more fattie's than Pittsburgh, Cleavland, Houston, Buffalo, Illinois, Detroit ([places I lived) or other "blue collar" type cities. When you go out into more rural reads yes, but then what's the point of this? there is nothing their but farms and grass, and cows etc.. Atlanta has the fun city stuff, Savannah has the historic/pretty/SoCo style stuff. What really would you do for the rural areas were people tend IMO to be more overweight. I think the health issue is a money issue, poor people don't eat as well, can't afford fish, fresh fruit and produce. So they get older chicken and fry it or by carbs (cheaper) Carbs IIRC cause a smoker to desire more cigarettes[me?]. So IMO yes people in New England/NYC/LA/SanFran/Rhode Island (other places I lived) for example tend to be more fit but it's largely a financial thing, part an education thing. -Derp downsouf in Savannah GA

As a georgia resident, I know NOTHING will ...

[plasmacutter]

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:14th Most Obese in Country

[digitalgiblet]

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...