Thursday, April 13th, 2017
Stephan: Do you drink sodas, and choose diet ones so you don't get a lot of sugar and gain weight? Well, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Here's the story.
Source:
The Endocrine Society 
Do artificial sweeteners make you gain weight? This question has been hotly debated by scientists for decades with study after study showing strange correlations between a tendency to obesity and consumption of low-calorie sweeteners. A new study could have uncovered one of the biological mechanisms behind this counter-intuitive phenomenon.
Ever since the introduction of modern artificial sweeteners to our shelves in the 1980s there has been debate around their safety and ultimate efficacy as a weight-loss agent. Several large scale studies over the past 30 years have displayed positive correlations between weight gain and artificial sweetener use.
While these studies did not imply a direct cause and effect, many researchers tried to come up with ways to explain the seemingly anomalous results. After all, why would consumption of lower-calorie foodstuffs result in weight gain? It didn’t really make rational sense, leading to behavioral explanations being bandied about suggesting those who consumed artificial sweeteners over-compensated their calorie consumption elsewhere.
Other explanations speculated that artificial sweeteners confused the body’s regular metabolic processes by being sweet but lacking calories. When your body doesn’t get the […]
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Thursday, April 13th, 2017
Alexis Zotos, Reporter - kmov (St. Louis)
Stephan: Here's another Republican controlled state legislature that has been bought by corporate interests and is docilely serving its masters to preserve carbon energy interests. Another Red value state in which the state citizens have elected Republican zombies only too anxious to screw the people who voted for them. Another state that will be falling behind. It's all part of the Great Schism Trend.
Credit: kmov
ST. LOUIS , MISSOURI – A bill making its way through the Missouri legislature could make it more expensive to go green when it comes to electricity.
A bill filed by Rep. Travis Fitzwater (R-Fulton) would allow energy companies to charge a fee for solar panel users.
Joan Bray, a University City resident, has had her solar panels for about six years. They sit in her backyard where they get full sunlight, helping cut back on their electric bill.
“It’s fun to watch the sunny days and see how much were getting,” said Bray, who estimates they receive about 15-20 percent of their energy from the sun.
Bray is planning to add more panels to her garage, but now is worried that the new bill would make it more expensive.
“The fact that this would put an additional financial lug on people is outrageous,” said Bray.
In an emailed statement, Rep. Fitzwater said the current laws “unfairly subsidize solar user’s infrastructure costs at the expense of all ratepayers, especially low-income ratepayers. The way that happens is that […]
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Thursday, April 13th, 2017
Jessica Alexander, - Salon
Stephan: I saw a group of children in the village near where I live sitting in a little park, each lost in their own electronic device, and I thought: this is what American kids playing outdoors means today. If you have a young child or a grandchild I suggest you look at Magical Child and Magical Child Matures, both by Joseph Chilton Pearce. Something has gone seriously wrong with child rearing in the U.S. and these will help. This story about Danish babies is an extension of what those books suggest.
Danish baby Credit: Shutterstock
A new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics has concluded that Danish babies cry less than babies in other countries, and they have the lowest rate of colic. English and Italian babies cried the most in the study and the behavior of Americans babies fell right in the middle of the results. What could be the reason?
As the co-author of “The Danish Way of Parenting” and a mom to two half-Danish children, I believe it has a lot to do with Danish peoples’ no-nonsense approach to parenting, which focuses on the basics, not fads or “mommy wars.”
Yes, the Danes have a good social system, which supports parents, but I believe there’s more to it than that. What can Americans learn from one of the happiest countries in the world for over 40 years in a row?
Less stuff, more connection
You won’t find a myriad of parenting fads in Denmark that lead new moms to second-guess their natural instincts and navigate a sea of baby products, endlessly debating which ones to buy […]
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Wednesday, April 12th, 2017
Noah Smith, Bloomberg View columnist, Assistant Professor of Finance at Stony Brook University - The Frederick News-Post/Bloomberg
Stephan: Neoliberalism is a Republican policy world view that seems to be grossly misunderstood. Today I heard someone use it in the sense of "new liberalism." The person speaking clearly believed it was socially progressive. It is, in fact, a philosophy of governance that was a major factor in what caused the American middle class to implode. Here is a good exegetic essay on how that happened. When you hear the word neoliberalism, just substitute the word "greed," because that is the essence of neoliberalism. On the basis of social outcome data Republican governance is more expensive, less productive, and less pleasant to live under.
If you’re a middle-class American baby boomer or Gen Xer, you might have spent much of the past decade wondering what went wrong. If you’re a boomer, there’s a good chance you’re still working well after you thought you’d retire.
And if you’re part of Generation X, you’re probably less wealthy than your parents were at the same age. Meanwhile, all across the U.S., pension funds are underfunded and will almost certainly have to default on some of their obligations to retirees.
It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, middle-class Americans looked forward to a future of wealth and leisure. If you were a small-business owner, or an engineer, or a lawyer at a small firm, you might not have expected to be rolling in it, but you probably didn’t think things would go so badly awry.
Who’s responsible? Who took your prosperity? Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro might tell you it was China, while his political aide Steve Bannon might tell you it was immigrants. Free-market think-tank types […]
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Wednesday, April 12th, 2017
Dan Nosowitz , - Modern Farmer
Stephan: As the United States in service to its corporate masters is hugging GMO agricultural technology to its bosom, Europe is going the opposite direction. Think of this as two laboratories doing the same experiment in two very different ways. We will see which policy works best based on social outcome data. My money is on the non-GMO approach. It's not that I am against genetic engineering per se, it is that we understand it so poorly at this point that everything we do has unintended consequences -- look at the plight of the bees. And please don't confuse technological GMO, with historical cross-breeding.
Credit: Paul Sableman / Flickr
The EU is an interesting counterpoint to the US in terms of its relationship with GMO crops. Currently, only one GMO crop is grown in Europe, and opposition to adding to it is strong.
Last week, EU nations voted on two new potential GMO crops. The vote was indecisive by EU rules, but not necessarily in sentiment.
Each country gets a vote, but in order for legislation to pass, support must come from countries making up at least 65 percent of the total EU population, a measure that restricts groups of less-populated countries from controlling votes.
This particular vote addressed a proposal for two new GMO crops: Pioneer’s 1507 and Syngenta’s Bt11. Both are varieties of maize; the former is modified to produce their own pesticide and to resist any pesticide containing glufosinate. (Glufosinate pesticides are primarily produced by Bayer, and come with brand names like Liberty and Rely.) The latter resists pests like the Asian corn borer, and can be modified to resist pesticides like […]
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