According to Discover Magazine, a new more-accurate test for obesity results in the following conclusions:
Glenn Greenwald, who now writes for the U.K. Guardian, sums up the media establishment's hatred of Julian Assange:
In 2008 – two years before the release of the "collateral murder" video, the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and the diplomatic cables – the Pentagon prepared a secret report which proclaimed WikiLeaks to be an enemy of the state and plotted ways to destroy its credibility and reputation. But in a stroke of amazing luck, Pentagon operatives never needed to do any of that, because the establishment media in the US and Britain harbor at least as much intense personal loathing for the group's founder as the US government does, and eagerly took the lead in targeting him. Many people like to posit the US national security state and western media outlets as adversarial forces, but here – as is so often the case – they have so harmoniously joined in common cause. Whatever else is true, establishment media outlets show unlimited personal animus toward the person who, as a panel of judges put it when they awarded him the the 2011 Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism, "has given the public more scoops than most journalists can imagine."
Think Progress reviews the highlights of what is, for the most part, a massively dysfunctional set of priorities. I am in favor, though, of ongoing audits of the Federal Reserve. I do need to give credit where it is due.
I very much enjoyed Brene Brown's TED talk on living whole-heartedly. She combines a humorous presentation with a deep and serious topic. At the outset, she recognized that "connection" is what life is all about, but shame (the fear that "I'm not X enough") destroys this sense of connection. To allow connection, we need to take chances; we need to allow ourselves to be SEEN. With this as the context, Brown set out to understand more about shame. It boils down to whether someone BELIEVES that they are worthy of love and belonging. The one thing that destroys a sense of love and connection is a fear that one is not worthy of love and belonging. People with a sense of worthiness, the "whole-hearted," have the courage to be imperfect. They have the compassion to be kind to themselves first, and then to others (because you can't do the latter without doing the former), They also develop their sense of connection as a result of being authentic. They believe that what makes them vulnerable is what makes them beautiful--these are people who are willing to do something where there are no guarantees. Vulnerability is the core of our sense of shame and fear, but it is also the "birthplace" of joy, of creativity, belonging and love." Brown's research showed that many of us "numb" vulnerability through our many addictions and obsessions. We can't selectively numb the bad emotions without also numbing the good emotions. Because we numb all of our emotions, we then instinctively feed our cravings through our destructive addictions. We compensate by trying to make uncertain things certain. We also compensate by blaming. We try to perfect ourselves and our children. We also pretend that what we do does not have an impact on other people. We don't know how to say that we're sorry and that we'll make things right. Brown's advice: Don't be afraid to be seen for the vulnerable people we are. We must learn to love with our whole hearts, even when there is no guarantee. We need to practice gratitude and "lean into joy." Most important, we need to learn to recognize that "we are enough," because we then stop screaming and start listening. "Only then can we be kinder and gentler to ourselves and the people around us."
From Glenn Greenwald's new platform, the U.K. Guardian:
[A]ttacking rescuers (and arguably worse, bombing funerals of America's drone victims) is now a tactic routinely used by the US in Pakistan. In February, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism documented that "the CIA's drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals." Specifically: "at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims." That initial TBIJ report detailed numerous civilians killed by such follow-up strikes on rescuers, and established precisely the terror effect which the US government has long warned are sown by such attacks. . .
It is telling indeed that the Obama administration now routinely uses tactics in Pakistan long denounced as terrorism when used by others, and does so with so little controversy. Just in the past several months, attacks on funerals of victims have taken place in Yemen (purportedly by al-Qaida) and in Syria (purportedly, though without evidence, by the Assad regime), and such attacks – understandably – sparked outrage. Yet, in the west, the silence about the Obama administration's attacks on funerals and rescuers is deafening.