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.'"

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Ballmer wet dream

[fyoder]

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?

Cut the BS

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Kind of neat but...

[dyslexicbunny]

So I checked out their website http://www.getoutdoorsgeorgia.org/ and overall I'm pretty impressed with the idea. I think this is a good thing. If state park information is located in one place, perhaps more people might take advantage of the facilities.

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.

This is GREAT!

[HitekHobo]

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).

Which southern state was giving out Mozart CDs

[EsJay]

Which southern state was giving a Mozart CD to newborns (in lieu of future education and healthcare)? Mississippi?

I tell you what, that's some quality health initiative you got there, boy. Yesiree.

No mention of Google Health

[Ilyakub]

Interesting that the plan does not include promotion of Google Health.

14th Most Obese in Country

[Tmack]

...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 isnt enough), continue to allow and support the majority of power plants running on fossil fuels, mainly coal and including 3 of the dirtiest in the US, with two in the top 3 of that list. This, combined with naturally high humidity, ultra high pollen counts and high temperatures makes the air quality suck, putting Atlanta in 4th for most challenging place to live with asthma and consistently in the Top Ten smoggiest cities. This keeps people inside. Going anywhere basically means driving there as sprawl 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 or Waffle Houses 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. Generally getting people out of their cars and walking or biking places. MARTA's subway line only goes to about 3 useful places: 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 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 have over it and its citizens, which al

Re:Georgia = Swamp

[angrykeyboarder]

I lived in Atlanta for several years (1996-2004).

Unfortunately circumstances beyond my control forced me to leave.

I'd still be there otherwise. I love it.

• 4 Seasons (novel if you've spent most of your life in the Desert Southwest).
• Winters aren't freezing and Summers aren't sweltering.
• Snow is rare.
• Very cosmopolitan
• One of the greenest cities (literally) around.
• All kinds of things to see and do.

Yes, it has it's problems (e.g. the traffic is horrendous) but so does every major city. Nevertheless, the good outweighs the bad. It sure beats the hell out of Phoenix (where I've been stuck for the past 4 years).