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Ladies and gentlemen of the United States of America, make no mistake, you voted for change when you elected Barack Obama as President of the United States.  The Obama administration has brought change to the way the White House is run.  It is best demonstrated by President-elect Obama posting weekly videos to YouTube.

President-elect Obama understands that media consumption habits have changed and he is adapting to that change by posting his weekly addresses to internet video sites.  I applaud this effort and I look forward to his administration embracing other forward looking technologies once he assumes office on January 20th, 2009.

This quote is brought to you at the good folks at the Foundation for a Better Life. This quote is about learning. Enjoy!

“I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now…the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), excerpt from Letters to a Young Poet

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What does MSC stand for you ask?  It stands for the Marine Stewardship Council and it is an organization that is working to ensure that our we and our children have seafood to eat during their lifetime.  According to a 2005 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report, fisheries around the world are headed toward extinction.  The facts are:

1. 1/4 of the world’s fish stocks are overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion. They have been under excess fishing pressure which has reduced their capacity. There is no possibility of increasing fishing activity, and in some cases the stocks may decline further.
2. Roughly 1/2 of the stocks are fully exploited. They are being fished at or close to their maximum sustainable limits. There is no room for further expansion of fishing activity.
3. Around 1/4 of fish stocks are underexploited or moderately exploited and could perhaps produce more.

So, enough with all of the bad news and onto the good news.  The Marine Stewardship Council has been working to fight this trend by employing a rigorous standard to certify seafood products.  There is more information about their certification standards after the jump.

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This quote is brought to you at the good folks at the Foundation for a Better Life. This quote is about unity. Enjoy!

“Our happiness is completely and utterly intertwined with other people: family, friends, neighbors and the woman who you hardly notice who cleans your office.”

- Eric Weiner; author, national public radio correspondent

This is the first of many spotlights where I will recognizing PosiPeople community members for their contributions. Today, I want to recognize the PosiPeople user named, Jay K. (His username is “webuyitgreen”.) You can view his user profile and pieces he has submitted to PosiPeople.

Not only has Jay submitted several pieces of content to the forum, but he has also made sure that each submission was of high quality. I especially enjoyed all of his posts that explain the intricacies of fair trade. (I never realized how complicated the fair trade industry is.) Read the posts submitted to PosiPeople by Jay, I promise you will become smarter by reading them.

Also, if you like what Jay has done, feel free to visit his website or drop him a line.

Disclosure: At the time of the writing of this post, I have no financial relationships with any of the individuals interviewed.

I have said in earlier posts that The first International Cochrane Collaboration Systematic Review in Public Health and Medicine to review programs for the prevention of alcohol abuse found that SFP10-14 was the most effective universal, school-based prevention program in the world.

The Cochrane Collaboration authors (Foxcroft and associates 2003) at Oxford University found only 56 programs in the world with research data solid enough to include in their review of what works in substance abuse prevention. About 20 of these programs were found to have negative results or no positive results. Of the remaining programs, the Cochrane review found that SFP10-14, a 7-session plus four boosters version for low risk universal populations, had twice the effectiveness (effect size) of the next best school-based program. SFP was found three times as effective as any life or social skills training program implemented with youth only.

Visit the Strengthening Families Program online to find out more.