New posts at Many Years Young 2/7/12

Fitness and “fatness” both matter to the heart

Diabetes helped by any exercise

Health, quality of life may improve with exercise for cancer survivors

Massage May Enhance Exercise Benefits, Study Finds

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 2/6/12

“Yo-yo dieting” not tied to early death: study

For Weight Loss Choose Your Dining Partner Carefully

New secret to resisting junk food: Just put it off

High-Fiber Foods for Better Weight Loss

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 2/5/12

Nature of prejudice, aggression different for men and women

Prejudice Linked to Low IQ and Conservative Beliefs

Study finds most people are cooperative

Testosterone Makes Us Less Cooperative and More Egocentric

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 2/4/12

Thriving Small Businesses = Healthier Community

Mind Over Matter: Patients’ Perceptions of Illness Make a Difference

New Study Shows How to Boost the Power of Pain Relief, Without Drugs

Achieving Emotional Well-Being

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 2/3/12

Excessive worrying associated with increased stroke risk

High Triglyceride Levels Increase Stroke Risk in Postmenopausal Women

Erratic Heart Rhythm May Account for Some Unexplained Strokes

Sleep Apnea Linked to Silent Strokes, Small Lesions in Brain

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 2/2/12

Why the Brain Is More Reluctant to Function as We Age

Fish for a Healthy Brain

Path Is Found for the Spread of Alzheimer’s

The ethics of brain boosting

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 2/1/12

Weight loss may prevent leaky bladder

Mindfulness Key to Losing Weight While Eating Out

Calories count, but not where they come from: study

Just Say No to Soda

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 1/31/12

Winter Doldrums Got You Down?

Exercise may boost mood for some chronically ill

Too Many Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Inactive, Study Finds

Running or walking for a cause can boost motivation

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 1/30/12

People who are obese have more pain

Heavier Docs Less Likely to Tackle Patient Weight

Device makers urge coverage of weight-loss surgery

Man refuses surgery, drops 270 pounds

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 1/29/12

Walnuts shrink prostate tumors in mice

US Doctor Prescribes Food as Medicine

Pre-Surgery Diet Linked to Survival Odds, Study Finds

You’ll buy less junk food if you pay in cash

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 1/28/12

Paula Deen and the mañana diet

Teenager in health scare after 15-year chicken nugget diet

7 Unhealthy Diet Foods

Snacks Can Be Healthy AND Inexpensive

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 1/27/12

Narcissism Especially Bad for Men’s Health, Study Says

The Psycho-path to Success?

Genes Influence Criminal Behavior, Research Suggests

Boss’ management style affects bottom line

Plus lots more.

Joel Pett:

Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report:

State of Obama: Immunity for Wall Street

President Obama had hoped to put on a big show – a huge con, really – at his State of the Union address, by announcing a monetary “settlement” of massive banker criminality in housing foreclosures. “Obama’s operatives have doggedly pressed for a settlement that would effectively give banks immunity from prosecution..” But he was thwarted by a small group of state attorneys general that wanted a real investigation into “the crime of the century.” So the president “was finally forced to set up a federal unit of his own.” Since Obama’s own law enforcers have failed to send a single banker to jail, Wall Street immunity is likely to remain the real State of the Union.

Bold Progressives has a petition:

BIG NEWS: President Obama announced last night that our friend Eric Schneiderman, New York’s progressive Attorney General, will lead a new Special Unit to prosecute Wall Street illegality.

Let’s show Eric that if he’s willing to jail Wall Street bankers who broke the law and wrecked our economy, the American people will have his back.

Join over 22,000 others on our statement stating: “Bankers who broke the law must go to jail.” Click here.

Washington Wire:

Obama Lays Out New Policy Proposals

President Barack Obama made several new policy proposals in his State of the Union speech, though few of the ideas that need congressional approval are expected to advance.

The proposals for Congress to consider include:

• Create a “Buffett rule,” that would require households who earn more than $1 million per year to pay a minimum 30% federal income tax. In addition, families earning that much wouldn’t be allowed to take deductions for mortgage interest, health care, retirement or child care. Charitable contributions would still qualify for tax breaks.
• Require U.S. companies with foreign operations to pay a minimum tax on overseas profits. The companies would have to pay to the U.S. any difference between the foreign tax and the new, minimum tax. Officials wouldn’t say what the rate would be.
• Bar companies from deducting as a business expense costs associated with shutting U.S. operations to move them abroad.
• Create a new tax credit to cover moving expenses for companies that close production overseas and bring jobs back to the U.S.
• Reduce tax rates for manufacturers, with extra breaks for high-tech manufacturing.
• Pay for proposed $200 billion in spending on roads and bridges with some of the savings from the wind-down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Reduce federal aid to colleges and universities that raise tuition too high. Officials didn’t provide details.
• Provide funding to help people who have kept up their mortgage payments current to refinance at lower interest rates.
• Double the number of work-study jobs available for college students.
• Ban farm subsidies for millionaires.
• Ban insider trading by members of Congress.
• Prohibit lobbyists from bundling campaign donations, and bundlers from lobbying.
• Require the Senate to give certain presidential nominees an up-or-down vote within 90 days.

Mr. Obama also said he would take these actions on his own:

• Create a new trade enforcement unit to investigate unfair trade practice in countries including China.
• Set aside more federal land for natural-gas extraction and require companies to disclose the chemicals they use in fracking, a method used to extract the gas.
• Encourage new partnerships between businesses and community colleges to train workers for needed jobs.
• Establish a financial crimes unit at the Justice Department to go after large-scale financial fraud.

The full text is available here.

Now, will he do it?

Chrystia Freeland, The Atlantic:

The Rise of the New Global Elite

Before the recession, it was relatively easy to ignore this concentration of wealth among an elite few. The wondrous inventions of the modern economy—Google, Amazon, the iPhone—broadly improved the lives of middle-class consumers, even as they made a tiny subset of entrepreneurs hugely wealthy. And the less-wondrous inventions—particularly the explosion of subprime credit—helped mask the rise of income inequality for many of those whose earnings were stagnant.

But the financial crisis and its long, dismal aftermath have changed all that. A multibillion-dollar bailout and Wall Street’s swift, subsequent reinstatement of gargantuan bonuses have inspired a narrative of parasitic bankers and other elites rigging the game for their own benefit. And this, in turn, has led to wider—and not unreasonable—fears that we are living in… a plutocracy, in which the rich display outsize political influence, narrowly self-interested motives, and a casual indifference to anyone outside their own rarefied economic bubble…

The rise of the new plutocracy is inextricably connected to two phenomena: the revolution in information technology and the liberalization of global trade…

Many corporations have profited from this economic upheaval. Expanded global access to labor (skilled and unskilled alike), customers, and capital has lowered traditional barriers to entry and increased the value of an ahead-of-the-curve insight or innovation. Facebook, whose founder, Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out of college just six years ago, is already challenging Google, itself hardly an old-school corporation. But the biggest winners have been individuals, not institutions. The hedge-fund manager John Paulson, for instance, single-handedly profited almost as much from the crisis of 2008 as Goldman Sachs did.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of U.S. workers, however devoted and skilled at their jobs, have missed out on the windfalls of this winner-take-most economy—or worse, found their savings, employers, or professions ravaged by the same forces that have enriched the plutocratic elite. The result of these divergent trends is a jaw-dropping surge in U.S. income inequality…

The lesson of history is that, in the long run, super-elites have two ways to survive: by suppressing dissent or by sharing their wealth. It is obvious which of these would be the better outcome for America, and the world. Let us hope the plutocrats aren’t already too isolated to recognize this.

Dean Baker:

Unemployment Is Down Because People Have Given Up Looking for Work

The NYT mentioned the drop in the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent from a peak of 10.0 percent in 2009 as evidence of the economy’s recovery. Most of this decline is the result of people leaving the labor force. (Workers are only counted as being unemployed if they are still looking for work.) The employment to population ratio, the percentage of people with jobs, is only 0.3 percentage points above its low-point for the downturn.

New posts at Many Years Young 1/26/12

Positive thinking, affirmation help health

Do You Crave Spontaneous Happiness?

Steady Diet of Mental Stimulation Might Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk

Organize your mind to organize your life

Plus lots more.

New posts at Many Years Young 1/25/12

Exercise triggers “cellular garbage disposal”

Can Video Games Get You Fit?

Walking in place during commercials offers a good calorie burn

Fitting fitness inside the cubicle

Plus lots more.

Bob Gorrell: