Annabelle Timsit, Early Childhood Reporter - Quartz
Stephan: To quote the American Heart Association, "For 6–11 year old children, the prevalence of obesity increased from 4.0 percent in 1971–74 to 18.0 percent in 2009–10. The prevalence of overweight in adolescents ages 12–19 increased from 6.1 percent to 18.4 percent." That has all kinds of health implications, but that's not the end of it. According to new research, obesity in childhood results in those boys and girls having lower IQs for life.
Obesity is literally creating a stupider less capable less healthy population. Compliant easily manipulated sheep, who can be milked for money by the Illness Profit System throughout their lives. I see this as an aspect of the Neo-feudalism Trend.
Credit: AP / Patrick Sison
Childhood obesity comes with a myriad of health risks, ranging from increased risk of heart disease and cancer to asthma and type 2 diabetes. A new study shows how obesity can have an impact on children’s cognitive development as well.
The study, conducted by epidemiologists at Brown University and published in the journal Obesity, found a link between children’s weight in the first two years of life and their cognitive abilities at school age. According to the study authors, “children on the threshold of obesity or overweight in the first two years of life had lower perceptual reasoning and working memory scores than lean children when tested at ages five and eight.” (The link between weight and working memory was only true for boys, however.) The study also found that overweight or obese children were more likely to have lower IQ scores.
Obesity, which can deregulate certain types of hormones and cause inflammation in the brain, has long been known to be associated with lower cognition in adults, including how they […]
Stephan: Can we easily achieve a full transition out of the carbon era? We can and, at least in some countries we are, as this report lays out.
Chinese workers check solar photovoltaic modules on a hillside in a village in Chuzhou, in eastern China’s Anhui province on April 13, 2017. Credit: AFP/ STR
According to data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there are seven countries already at, or very, near 100 percent renewable power: Iceland (100 percent), Paraguay (100), Costa Rica (99), Norway (98.5), Austria (80), Brazil (75), and Denmark (69.4). The main renewables in these countries are hydropower, wind, geothermal, and solar.
A new international study, which debunks many myths about renewable energy, notes that many large population regions are “at or above 100%” including Germany’s Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Hostein regions, New Zealand’s South Island, and Denmark’s Samsø island. In Canada, both Quebec and British Columbia are at nearly 100 percent renewable power.
Stephan: The media spotlight moved on months ago, so where is Fukushima today? Here is an update, and it is a pretty scary picture. I think history will see civilian nuclear energy as one of humanity's really bad calls.
rradiated tanks of water at Fukushima Daiichi plant. Credit: Spencer Lowell
The Tsunami-Driven Seawater that engulfed Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has long since receded. But plant officials are still struggling to cope with another dangerous flood: the enormous amounts of radioactive water the crippled facility generates each day. More than 1 million tons of radiation-laced water is already being kept on-site in an ever-expanding forest of hundreds of hulking steel tanks—and so far, there’s no plan to deal with them.
The earthquake and tsunami that hammered Fukushima on March 11, 2011 triggered meltdowns in three of its six reactors. That left messes of intensely radioactive fuel somewhere loose in the reactor buildings—though no one knows exactly where. What is known, however, is that every day, as much as much as 150 tons of groundwater percolates into the reactors through cracks in their foundations, becoming contaminated with radioactive isotopes in the process.
To keep that water from leaking into the ground or the Pacific, Tepco, the giant utility that owns the plant, […]
Amazon’s Alexa device has a lot of good qualities, but one bad one: It eavesdrops.
A couple in Portland, Oregon, was shocked to discover Alexa recorded a private conversation in their home and then sent it to a random person on their contact list.
Danielle, who asked her last name not be identified, told KIRO TV the revelation brought to life a fear that she and her husband had when they first installed the devices to handle their home’s heat, lights and security system.
“My husband and I would joke and say ‘I’d bet these devices are listening to what we’re saying,’” she said.
Things took a chilling turn into Big Brother territory about two weeks ago when the couple got a phone call from an employee of Danielle’s husband.
Stephan: This is what the Citizens United Supreme Court decision has permitted, and this is what Neo-feudalism looks like. The economic lords are attempting to manipulate American democracy with their money to achieve the government they want. It smacks of the power struggle between the barons and the king during the reign of James II. We are getting very medieval in the United States.
Credit:radio.foxnews.com
A Koch brothers-backed nonprofit is targeting one of President Donald Trump’s favorite members of Congress as part of a new ad buy slamming House members who supported a $1.3 trillion spending package earlier this year.
The six-figure effort from Americans for Prosperity is set to begin over Memorial Day weekend and includes direct mail, digital, radio and print ads aimed at 10 Republicans and seven Democrats.
Among the GOP members is Pennsylvania’s Rep. Lou Barletta, the Republican nominee challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in November. Barletta became famous for leading a crackdown on illegal immigration while mayor of Hazleton more than a decade ago and was personally encouraged by Trump to run for the Senate.
“It’s time to take a hard look at what lawmakers say and what they actually […]
