Rob Kall (born June 29, 1951) is an American

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, and founder of the

OpEdNews ''OpEdNews'' is a United States–based progressive/ liberal news, antiwar activism, and opinion website founded by Rob Kall in 2003. It is a hybrid news, community blog and article aggregation site that publishes opinion-based articles, news s ...

website, a

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

-based progressive/ liberal

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

, antiwar

activism Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...

, and opinion

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

founded in 2003. Kall also hosts the 'Bottom Up Radio Show' as well as being founder and president of 'FutureHealth' and host of 'FutureHeath Radio'. In 2014,

Mediaite Mediaite is an American news website focusing on politics and the media. Founded by Dan Abrams, it is part of the Abrams Media Network. Mediaite saw its largest audience ever in 2023 with a total of 701 million pageviews for the year. That grow ...

showed Kall ranked as one of the top 200 print/online columnists.

Background

Inventor

In 1976-77, while Kall was a graduate student, he learned of the physiological finding that cold hands can result from the vascular constriction that indicates stress. He then developed the "Bio-Q ring" to detect stress through use of 13 liquid crystals to detect changes in the temperature of the hand. The concept was that if a wearer were forewarned of approaching tension, they could mitigate their actions and thus reduce stress. In 1978 and 1979, he took early design samples of the Bio-Q ring to BSA meetings in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

and

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. Encouragement from

biofeedback Biofeedback is the technique of gaining greater awareness of many physiology, physiological functions of one's own body by using Electronics, electronic or other instruments, and with a goal of being able to Manipulation (psychology), manipulate ...

experts Thomas Budzynski, Edward Taub, and others, kept him focused on the concept. Raising money as a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

medical writer, he founded Futurehealth Inc as a manufacturer of biofeedback instrumentation/materials. By 1984, 185,000 Bio-Q units had been sold, and according to the Futurehealth.org website, by 2014 that quantity has reached over 300,000 units sold in over 50 countries.

Radio

OpEdNews

Rob Kall relates how in early 2003, he had heard a

Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...

speech about why the United States "had" to go to war with Iraq and felt that Powell's reasons were disingenuous. Wishing to "publish the Truth", Kall began a personal

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

which developed into OpEdNews. Kall's articles on the OpEdNews website have been cross-posted in ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

''. He has been mentioned in an

op ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted aud ...

in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', by

Judith Warner Judith Warner (born July 4, 1965) is an American writer. Warner is a senior fellow at American Progress, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Time.com as well as the author of a range of nonfiction books, among ...

Recognition

Kall is ranked by

as one of the top 200 online/print columnists.

Awards and nominations

In July 2013, Kall, along with his ''Opednews'' (new media), became the first media winners of the Pillar Human Rights Award for International Persons of Conscience for supporting

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

s and the

first amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

, awarded by the 2013 Whistleblower Summit for Civil & Human Rights as hosted by ACORN 8 and Federally Employed Women-Legal Education Fund (FEW/LEF).transcript
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kall, Rob 1951 births Living people 21st-century American journalists American alternative journalists American bloggers American columnists American inventors American male bloggers American male journalists American online journalists American publishers (people) American radio hosts Journalists from Pennsylvania American opinion journalists