Pat Sullivan Blog

Stop Junk Snailmail for a DIME a day...REALLY! (UPDATED)

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Tired of junk mail?  Then check this out. 

For a dime a day, a brand new company called GreenDimes gets your off direct mailing lists AND plants a tree on you behalf each month.

I read about them in my daily tip from Ideal Bite.  I went to their website, re-read their simple picth, and GAVE THEM $36 IN UNDER 2 MINUTES of first hearing about them. 

Why? 

I have a massive junk mail problem.  My mailbox gets a pink slip about every other week because all our (junk) mail won't fit in our mailbox.  So either me or my wife have to trudge to the post office, stand in line, and wait to pick up a box of mail so I can weed through junk to find my Netflix movies and bills.

And the GreenDimes solution is so unique and SO PRACTICAL that it will probably make a bigger beneficial impact on the environment than anything else that's ever been tried.  They're stopping the problem at the root. 

(Meanwhile likely putting a few paper mills, printers, direct marketers, and businesses who rely on direct marketing out of business...uhh...bad news for Dunder-Mifflin Scranton I suppose.  ;-) 

Please click on this link to check out GreenDimes so that WHEN you join, you join as a friend of mine.  (And no, I don't make any commission from this.  And I don't need to.  I just like the "psychological income" by being the one who told you about it. ;-)

(H/T: IdealBite)

UPDATE: The CEO of GreenDimes, Pankaj Shah, just emailed me to say thanks.  Imagine that, a CEO who cares enough to reach out and thank those that are helping him spread the word! :)

UPDATE: Another email follow-up from Pankaj. Perfect timing too because I was starting to wonder when I would stop getting mail.  Looks like they're making some great progress as well! 

Thank you again for being a GreenDimes member!  We wanted to give you a quick status update and a few reminders – there is VERY important information in this email, so please take a minute to read it carefully. Since we launched on September 25, our members have allowed us to stop over 13,000 pounds of junk mail, save/plant nearly 26,000 trees, and save 46,000 gallons of water. An extra-special thanks to everyone who has given membership as a gift or invited their friends to join!

First, know that we have submitted your name to all of the major direct-mail lists and are following up with the smaller lists in the next two weeks. 

Second, and most importantly, this is CATALOG season!  PLEASE tell us which catalogs you do not want so we can contact them on your behalf.  This is a critical piece of our service!  Simply give us the catalog name, the recipient name, and the customer number or tracking number from the back of the catalog.  We know it’s clunky to email us all that info, so there will be a tool on our website live by December 16, 2006 to make submissions of catalog information easier.

Third, remember that most companies update their lists every 1-3 months and a lot of mailing labels are printed months in advance, so it’s a gradual process to see the amount of junk mail reduced.  If you signed up in September, you should have already noticed a reduction in your junk mail.  Members who signed up in October, give it a couple of weeks.  The rest, hang tight until the New Year. 

Fourth, you will be receiving a small packet from us in the next couple of weeks.  There are some companies that simply won’t accept 3rd party submissions.  So, we will send you pre-paid postcards (on 100% recycled paper, of course) that you will have to sign and mail.

Ok, if you’re bored, stop reading now.  The rest is just a heads-up on upcoming features and some marketing stuff.  In December, we’re launching a handful of cool features, including:
• The tool to manage your catalog requests
• An expanded member My Account page so you can see what exactly has been done on your behalf.
• A new way to manage your invites and gifts
• The ability to add 2nd residences

Have other ideas on things we can do or features we should launch to make the experience better?  Email us!

UPDATE: I continue to be amazed at Green Dimes.  I received a letter from them saying in essence, "We've done pretty good at removing you from junk mail lists, but there are a few old school companies that have to hear directly from you.  So just sign the enclosed, stamped post cards and drop them in the mail." 

Did I expect this?  No. 

Do I mind having to do a little work?  Not at all. 

Do I think it's awesome that Green Dimes paid for the postage on the four postcards?  Hell yeah!  That's the sign of a company not being run by bean counters.

If you haven't signed up for Green Dimes yet, do it now!

FDA’s rogue bureaucracy to face intense scrutiny in ‘07

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Email from Charlie Brown of Consumers for Dental Choice:

FDA’s rogue bureaucracy to face intense scrutiny in ‘07

As 2007 dawns, the stars are aligning for fundamental changes in how the government regulates (by that I mean fails to regulate) mercury fillings.  Thus much is clear:  the clock has run out for the pro-mercury bureaucrats at FDA’s Center for Devices, a bureau so out of the mainstream the Supreme Court calls it “FDA’s neglected stepchild.”  The Center’s cover-up of the mercury, its refusal to do an environmental impact statement, its decision to allow amalgam sales with no proof of safety, and its arrogant attitude toward its legal duties will all be addressed in different forums in 2007. 

This rogue bureaucracy’s biggest mistake was using a bogus “white paper” to try to strong-arm two scientific panels into acquiescing in their cover-up of the science.  Using a public relations offensive over Labor Day weekend of 2006, FDA’s Center for Devices & Radiological Health announced that THIS mercury is safe -- before the panels even convened!  Stunned at FDA staff’s callous indifference to the human suffering caused by mercury fillings, the real scientists voted 13 to 7 to repudiate the FDA pseudo-scientists.  [this story]  The scientists withstood pressure as well from the array of dental groups who profit from amalgam.

Media reports indicate that with FDA no longer shilling for organized dentistry, individual dentists who still place mercury fear lawsuits -- as well they should.  After the vote of September 7, every dentist in America who continues to place mercury in children and pregnant women -- particularly when miscalling amalgam “silver” -- is on notice of its potentially severe adverse consequences. 

Charles G. Brown, National Counsel
Consumers for Dental Choice
www.toxicteeth.org

PS - As a board member of Consumers for Dental Choice, I reached out to Mike Adams of Newstarget and we talked about getting mercury amalgams on the radar of his 500,000 readers in 2007.  Mike was always aware the mercury amalgams were bad, but had never really looked into it much.  We spent an hour on the phone talking about the documented health and environmental impacts.  He's now VERY gung-ho about it.  So some good things to come in oh-seven!

FDA Approves Cloned Animals

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Where do I begin?  I heard a 10 second mention on CBS evening news last night that the FDA is ready to declare cloned animals as safe to eat.  My first thought was, "Is there anyone out there watching this that didn't just say, 'Awesome, let's go get some cloned brisket.' ?" 

Then tonight I hear a snippet, "...after a 5 year study by the FDA, the cloned animals are virtually indistinguishable and therefore shouldn't need special labeling..." 

Is there a beef, chicken, pork, lamb, emu, or ostrich shortage that I don't know about?

Is meat now so expensive that no one can afford the "real thing?"  If it's so expensive, blame whoever is buying the "Beef, it's what's for dinner" commercials.  Air-time is PRICEY!

(Also, keep in mind of course that the "real thing" in most grocery stores is pumped full of growth hormone, antibiotics, and fed a nutrient-deficient diet of grain only.)

What possibly was the justification for cloned meat that is virtually identical to real meat?  In other words, not identical.

This reeks like an 11 by 11 room after two hours of band practice during an Arizona summer.  Yeah, that bad. 

But maybe the stench is so bad, the citizenry will wake up to the corruption.  Unlikely, since the new Nintendo Wii is so awesome.

What a shame.

More commentary and comments over at Dr. Mercola's blog.

MondayMorningMemo

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Do you subscribe to Roy H. William's MondayMorningMemo?  I just met Roy at the beginning of December while in Austin attending a 3-day class at the Wizard Academy.  (No, it's not some kind of Harry Potter thing...)

Anyways, the December 25 MondayMorningMemo was an excellent compilation of "ready to begin the new year?" type quotes.  Give it a read. 

And personally, I'm really looking forward to 2007.  Oh-six had it's share of ups and downs.  Day to day, there were more ups than downs, but the downs did make a noticeable appearance.  Still, hope springs eternal and I have very high hopes for oh-seven.  You?

I am Time Magazine's Person of the Year (UPDATED)

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

That's right, Time Magazine named me as it's person of the year.  :)

Somewhat ironically, this article was just forwarded to me from Andrea, the "community manager" of the new BazaarVoice user reviews feature we added to JigsawHealth.com about 30 days ago.  It's sort of scary to make yourself vulnerable to negative reviews.  I know our products are great, but not every single product pleases everyone all the time.  (Bob Marley taught that business lesson to me.)

But I elected to add BazaarVoice to our website because I felt like customers were searching for this kind of information anyways, so let's just put it directly on every product page.  Let the chips fall where they may.  The winning products should invariably sell better.  And the products that no one seems to like, we'll just drop from the catalog.  In the end, both the customer and the business win. 

Since we just recently added this feature, we only have about 150 reviews.  We started sending out emails to our customer base last week.  Even though we're a small company with only 20 months of operations, I expect to have at least a thousand reviews within the next 3 or 4 months.

So if you're a customer of Jigsaw Health and want to write a review, I would greatly appreciate it.  Find out about writing reviews and learn about the contest we're running to promote this.

PS - This may seem like an odd request.  Out of 150 reviews, our average ranking is 4.8 out 5 stars.  Like I said, I know our products are good, but 4.8 out of 5 stars is borderline unbelievable.  So if you have some constructive criticism, I would actually really appreciate that.  Not that this is an invitation to make up crap about products you've never tried.  :)

UPDATE: What Bob Marley actually said/sang was, "You can fool some people some time, but you can't fool all da people all da time..."  I mixed that up, but the same principle applies.

Pat interviewed on Grid7 Venturcast

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Pat was interviewed on the Grid7 Venturcast.  Talked about history on ACT!, the founding of SalesLogix, competing with Microsoft and Salesforce.com, how Steve Jobs is a smart jerk, and the latest pony Jigsaw Health. 

Enjoy!

Jimmy Moore and Livin' La Vida Low-Carb

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Jimmy Moore wrote some really nice things about Pat's book and Jigsaw Health.  Jimmy is somewhat biased because he and I are fellow health hackers in the podcast thing I've been doing (almost) every week.  But Jimmy knows his stuff -- he lost 200 pounds livin' la vida low carb!  Yeah, 200 pounds! Wow! Check out his story on his blog and his book.

Btw, Jimmy, I see you like low-carb bars.  We're getting ready to introduce the best tasting health bar ever -- Jigsaw Bars!  It took us and a candy maker one year and 15 formulations to find the perfect balance between taste and healthy nutrition (meaning no sugar, no soy, omega-3, glyconutrients, and more).  I'll send you some samples to review when they come in. 

If you, dear reader, want a free sample, email me (patrick at jigsawhealth dot com) with your mailing address.  If you have a blog and agree to review the bars with your honest feedback, I'll send you a box of bars. 

More to come soon...

Mercury from thermometers poison day care kids

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Marie Flowers of MercuryPoisoned.com points me to a story going on in New Jersey.  Apparently, the Kiddie Kollege day care building used to be a mercury thermometer factory that was never fully cleaned up.  And now, kids like Alexis Davis are showing signs of mercury toxicity:

"Alexis went to Kiddie Kollege for two years. Over those two years her health really deteriorated," she said. "They didn't know what was wrong with her." As she spoke, Davis presented class pictures of her daughter, taken while she was enrolled at Kiddie Kollege. The three pictures taken over the course of two years show the slow paralysis of Alexis' face, with the right side of her face no longer able to smile, Davis suggested.

"You can see her face has no strength; her teeth are rotting; these kids need help," Davis said.

Solstice Barn

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

Saw this while watching Brit Hume and the Grapevine tonight.  Pretty hilarious.  Check out the Nativity Scene Solstice Barn.

Brain Health from Dr. Amen

I am a big fan of Dr. Daniel Amen MD.  He has pioneered the use of technology that scans and takes pictures of the brain.  He has been able to pinpoint many useful things in conditions like depression, ADD, bipolar and other brain disorders.  While he uses Rx meds in his practice, he also regularly recommends natural supplements like 5-HTP, L-Theanine, Tyrosine and fish oil.  His technology can "see" the difference these make.  Sometimes they are all someone really needs, avoiding the use of sometimes dangerous medications that have a lot of side effects.  Notice I said "sometimes".  There is nothing wrong with using Rx meds when you really need them. 

The following is a newsletter sent where he talks about these supplements a bit.  I thought you might find it useful.

CBS-TV LOOKS AT NATURAL SUPPLEMENTS

If you’ve read any of my books or seen me speak you know I’m a big believer in using natural supplements. They are often very effective, have fewer side effects and people seem to be more willing to take them. And, in most cases they are less expensive. Recently a CBS news crew did a follow up on one of my patients and talked with me about why natural supplements work. If you’d like to view the video click here .

Unfortunately, the growing body of evidence indicates that our Western diets are increasingly unhealthy, both from general and brain-health perspectives. I strongly support the American Medical Association’s recommendation that every one should take a daily multi-vitamin supplement. Additionally, we’ve found that fish oils, amino acids such as l-tyrosine and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), are very helpful in maximizing brain function, battling depression, anxiety and other mood disorders.

One bit of caution – there are differing qualities of natural supplements. I’d advise you to always seek the highest pharmaceutical grade of any natural supplement, as we do for our patients here at Amen Clinics. Your body and brain run on the fuel you feed them - make good nutritional choices and good things will happen. You’ll feel better and your learning, thinking and coping abilities will be sharper.

To Your Brain Health,

Daniel

Daniel Amen, M.D.
CEO, Amen Clinics, Inc.
Distinguished Fellow, American Psychiatric Association