Fat Tuesday, Dr. Oz, Big Food, Ag-Gag and Agri-Torture, Buzz-Kill; Abortion and Birth Control, Obamacare, VA, Think of the Children, Psych; Gone Viral, Vax Populi

Fat Tuesday

• Court: Teacher Teasing Overweight Student Is Child Abuse
• House GOP wants to cut Michelle Obama's healthy school lunches: These Republicans come from the unhealthiest states
• State high court rules NYC ban on large sodas is illegal—Suck it, Bloomie.
• China to recruit 'more portly' soldiers with brainpower—"China's military relaxes height, eyesight and weight requirements for soldiers in effort to attract more educated personnel, newspaper says."

Dr. Oz

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Dr. Oz and Nutritional Supplements
• Why Dr. Oz can say anything and keep his medical license
• A Snake Oil Salesman Alive and Well in Dr. Oz
• Twitter gets predictably snarky when Dr. Oz asks, "What are you eating that is Oz Approved"? Salon

Big Food

• Chipotle's anti-Big-Food ad wins Cannes PR award
• How the US Government Helps McDonald's Sell Junk Food—"The feds also helped bring you the Taco Bell Cantina Double Steak Quesadilla and several other fast-food gems."
• Hamburger Chef Jamie Oliver Proves McDonald's Burgers "Unfit for human consumption"
• Monsanto Tries to Patent & Control Natural, Non-GMO Tomatoes
• Whole Foods to pay $800,000 in overpricing case
• U.S. meat producers square off against consumer groups in request to peel back on labeling
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Letter of the Week -- POM Wonderful

Ag-Gag and Agri-Torture

• Undercover animal abuse videos could soon be outlawed
• Canada's Largest Dairy Farm Employees Accused Of Animal Cruelty
• The Abstinence Method—"Dutch farmers just say no to antibiotics for livestock." Gerbert Oosterlaken, owner of Hoeve de Hulsdonk farm, "believes the more you can see, the better."

Buzz-Kill

• Obama orders review of pesticides' effect on bees
• Pesticides threaten birds and bees alike, study says
• Pesticides linked to bee deaths must be banned, scientists say
• French scientists revive assault on pesticide, GM corn
• Study links pesticide exposure in pregnancy to autism

Abortion and Birth Control

• Supreme Court says employers with religious objections can refuse to pay for contraception
• Corporations Are People, And They Have More Rights Than You
• SCOTUS end of term: The Supreme Court’s conservatives are using the First Amendment as a weapon
• 'Supreme Court strikes down abortion clinic buffer zone
• Anti-abortion protesters take advantage of Supreme Court ruling
• Alabama Abortion Clinic Forced To Close Because Its Hallways Aren't Wide Enough
• The Rise of the DIY Abortion in Texas—"A pill that revolutionized reproductive rights in Latin America is now gaining ground on the black market in South Texas."

Obamacare

• McAuliffe Defies GOP: We're 'Moving Forward' With Obamacare Expansion
• Capitol police gave House clerks access to governor's office—"Father's Day budget delivery to the governor's secure suite of offices prompts protests from the administration, which alleged an 'unacceptable' security breach."
• Emails: GOP Secured Majority After VA Dem Promised Job, Phone And Car
• Analysis Shows GOP Fear-Mongering On Obamacare Premiums Is Probably Bogus
• Republicans Finally Admit Why They Really Hate Obamacare
• Here Is the Most Shameless Anti-Obamacare Argument Yet

VA

• White House report: Overhaul VA's 'corrosive culture' Politico
• Letters Claim Vets Were Mistreated At West Palm Beach VA
• Acton Vet Finally Gets VA Doctor's Appointment – 2 Years After He Died
• Obama to name new VA chief

Think of the Children

• Alaska to put free pregnancy tests in bars to curb fetal alcohol syndrome rate
• Is veganism child abuse?—"A mother is arrested for infant neglect after a hospital crisis that began with her veganism." Salon
• Meet the con man selling fake stem cell treatments to children—"Davide Vannoni is playing with people's lives, and the Italian government is paying for it."
• No, PETA, Cow Milk Does Not Cause Autism—"The group that brought you animal-fur horror stories has just launched a campaign claiming cow's milk causes autism. Hold on to your Cheerios, this one needs explaining."

Psych

• Cost of not caring: Stigma set in stone—"People with mental illness face prejudice and discrimination nearly everywhere they turn, from friends and employers and even insurance plans."
• Minnesota teen who planned school massacre: 'I think I'm really mentally ill'
• Stop Telling Your Depressed Friends to "Cheer Up"—"It's more helpful to express that their feelings are valid."

Gone Viral

• Untreatable virus spreading in the Caribbean now afflicts 4,600 LA Times
• Doctors Without Borders: Ebola 'out of control'—Experts say it's just the 'tip of the iceberg' and it's getting worse [WaPo].
• CDC: Up to 86 workers possibly exposed to anthrax

Vax Populi

• One unvaccinated child was patient zero of a measles epidemic
• Measles cases are spreading, despite high vaccination rates. What's going on?—In other news, Jenny allegedly-not-against-vaccinations McCarthy is no longer on 'The View'. WaPo
• First measles case in at least 6 years reported in Pierce County—"The case is connected to eight confirmed cases being investigated in South King County, all among members of the same extended family, officials said."
• Judge Upholds Policy Barring Unvaccinated Students During Illnesses NYT
• Ohio Amish begin vaccinations amid largest measles outbreak in recent U.S. history
• Blast from the Past: Fear and frustration dominated Somali community forum on measles, vaccines and autism

Fat Tuesday; Veterans; Obamacare, Medicaid; Mal-Practice; Health Issues, Vax Populi, Think of the Children; Breakthroughs; Sports; Brain; Sanitary

Fat Tuesday

• Global population of obese and overweight tops 2.1bn
• Australian obesity rates climbing faster than anywhere else in the world, study shows
• Top 10 Countries with the Most Obese People Named
• Japanese children 'not hungry to be sumo wrestlers'
• Mexican man, once world's heaviest, dies at 48
• One chilling reason Americans are increasingly overweight—"The new documentary "Fed Up" reveals how Big Food pushed the government to give out compromised health information." Salon
• Republicans for More Fat Kids—"Is it really cost that's driving the House GOP to fight Michelle Obama on school lunches? Of course not—it's the culture wars, the sugar lobby, and plain old hatred of her husband."
• Skinny People Make Overweight People Unhappy, New Study Finds
  
• Fat people stick together so they don't feel judged: Being overweight is considered OK if everyone around you is a similar size
• Coca-Cola accused of 'obscene' hypocrisy in £20 million 'anti-obesity' drive
• Many low-fat foods 'have SAME amount of calories as regular equivalents due to added sugar'
• The case for eating steak and cream—"Why everything you heard about fat is wrong."

Veterans

• Thoughts on Shinseki's resignation
• How the VA developed its culture of coverups—"Once a bureaucratic success story, the agency began to hide its problems from those in Washington." WaPo
• President Obama Finds New Veterans Affairs IG Report 'Deeply Troubling'
• Texas VA Run Like a 'Crime Syndicate,' Whistleblower Says—"For years, employees at a Texas VA complained that their bosses were cooking the books. For years, the VA insisted there was no widespread wrongdoing."
• Iraq Vet Killed In Gunfight With Police Was Turned Away by VA Hospital
• Report: 1,700 vets not on Phoenix VA wait list, at risk of being 'lost or forgotten'
• Veteran Sues VA After Diagnosis Delay Leads to Penis Amputation

Obamacare

• Obamacare Caused This Clinic To Close, And Its Doctors Couldn't Be Happier
• 21 things Obamacare does that you didn't know about
• Republicans are three times more likely than Democrats to say they know someone who was hurt by Obamacare WaPo
• Kentuckians Hate Kynect A Lot Less Than Obamacare—"Residents of Kentucky may hate Obamacare, but they're much less hostile toward Kynect, the state's health exchange created to comply with the law." McConnell says it has no connection with the ACA but he's talking out of his ass.
• GOP's Obamacare fears come true—More states deferring to federal exchanges than anticipated. Politico

Medicaid

• Missouri State Sen. Ed Emery to Voter: You Want Medicaid? Move to Oregon!
• A Health Care Scandal That's Way Bigger Than the VA
• Va. Republicans' lonely Medicaid stand—"Republicans in Virginia's House of Delegates have blocked hundreds of thousands of poor Virginians from getting health insurance under the Obama administration's Medicaid expansion. At the same time, they've refused to suggest any alternative method by which the needy people in the state might arrange health coverage." WaPo

Mal-Practice

• Brevard doctor ordered to pay Medicare $90M—For fraud.
• Sonoma County Man Battling Cancer Denied Coverage By Anthem Blue Cross After Paying $100K In Premiums
• Woman Gets $11.6M Bill After Death of Disabled Brother in NYC Facility
• Husband finds out wife still alive three days after turning off life support—"Husband watches wife 'die twice' after finding out she was still alive three days after he turned off her life support - but the hospital failed to tell him she had recovered."
• Trust your doctor, not Wikipedia, say scientists

Health Issues

• French lab shut after losing SARS virus samples
• Ebola: Deadly outbreak crosses border as mistrust hampers medical staff
• Thousands may have been exposed to hepatitis A at Missouri restaurant
• Year-old salmonella outbreak in California continues
• Portland issues boil water notice for the entire city after E. coli detected in 3 tests—How Oregon Trail.

Vax Populi

• Measles surge most since 1994 to 288 cases in U.S.
• The New Measles Outbreak: Blame the Anti-Vaxxers
• Delaying Vaccines May Increase Seizure Risk NYT
• Sunrise Police Searching For Missing Toddler —The mother said that if the husband let "them take her and vaccinate her and brainwash her; she says I cannot let a judge tell me how to raise my daughter."
• Canada: Time For a National Vaccine Registry

Think of the Children

• Childhood fluoride exposure has no effect on IQ—"Research comes in response to an NZ city's on-again, off-again fluoridation ban."
• Thousands of Toddlers Are Medicated for A.D.H.D., Report Finds, Raising Worries—"The practice draws concern, in part, because there has been little study on the use of A.D.H.D. drugs for children under 3." Piss-poor parenting really to blame? NYT
• Judy Blume: Parents worry too much about what children read—"Children's author Judy Blume, whose own books have been banned in the past, says children 'self-censor' reading material they don't understand."
  

Breakthroughs

• Woman's cancer killed by measles virus in unprecedented trial WaPo
• Teen Develops Early-Stage HIV Test For High School Science Project
• Drug Developers Take a Second Look at Herbal Medicines—"Desperate to develop new drugs for malaria and other ailments, researchers are running clinical trials with traditional herbal medicines—and generating promising leads."

Sports

• Ex-players: NFL illegally used drugs
• Classy Seahawks sign draft pick before having to cut him due to heart condition
• 91-Year-Old Marathoner Smokes the Competition—Did better than oldest woman in the NYC marathon.

Brain

• Why Are We So Obsessed With the Myers-Briggs?—"How personality tests become personal mythology."
• Sleepy brains neglect half the world—"A new study shows that drowsiness alters awareness in much the same way as a common form of brain damage."
• Scientists Selectively Erase And Restore Memories

Sanitary

• Lessons Learned From a Year Without Showering
• Urine and the bladder are not sterile, contain bacteria—"New studies challenge the belief that the bladder is bacteria-free."
• Watering gardens with lead, BPA and phthalates
• Levi's CEO Says You Should Never Wash Your Jeans
• One billion people still defecate in public despite health risks-UN

World Diabetes Day, Chews the Fat Day; Big Food, GMO; McDonald's; Obamacare; Health Issues; Brain, Damage; NSA Spying and Surveillance

World Diabetes Day

• World Diabetes Day: What Are The Risks And How Can We Prevent It?
• Mexican Coke Switching To Corn Syrup From Cane Sugar; 4 Reasons Why This Shift Is Terrible
• What's worse, fat or sugar?

Chews the Fat day

• Abercrombie & Fitch Will Offer Plus-Size Items This Spring Due To Financial Desperation and Ruined Reputation
• To ride the Moscow subway for free, do 30 squats—"As part of a Russian campaign to make citizens healthier, riders who buy a ticket at Vystavochnaya station in western Moscow have the option of paying in squats."
• FDA To Ban Trans Fats

Big Food

• Billionaires Received U.S. Farm Subsidies, Report Finds—"The federal government paid $11.3 million to 50 billionaires or businesses they own over a 17-year period, the Environmental Working Group says." NYT
• Organic sellout: USDA guts organic rules to protect mega-farms
• Schumer: Chicken Slaughtered, Raised In China Could Pose Major Risk

GMO

• Washington voters rejecting GMO labeling law
• GMOs aren't the problem. Our industrial food system is—"Food activists should move on from genetically modified foods, and focus on Monsanto and 'Big Ag's' other destructive practices."
• Chinese state media kick into high gear to ease GMO food fears

McDonald's

• Woman runs over boyfriend 3 times for McDonald's—"Tennessee woman upset boyfriend wanted to go to a different restaurant, police say."
• Dad 'unfit parent for refusing son McDonald's'
• Does McDonald's Belong in a Children's Hospital?—"Unhealthy endorsement vs. comfort food at a trying time."
• Why McDonald's Changed Its Restaurant Name Down Under—"Macca" does roll of the tongue.
• Why McDonald's Caffeine Problem Is Hurting Its Business

Obamacare

• Op/Ed: The Big Gut Check—"It's not just a hobbled website. Several things came together in October to seriously challenge and perhaps truly damage the roll out and perhaps even the future of Obamacare."
• Fox News's medical 'experts' take a pounding from 'The Daily Show'—"Fox News's medical experts stray from their avowed field of expertise -- quelle surprise!" WaPo
• White House Takes Heat From House Dems On Obamacare During Closed-Door Meeting—Will the DNC stick by the President?
• WaPo: CBS Ran Misleading Story On HealthCare.gov Security Issues
• How We Can Stop Hospitals From Over-Billing

Health Issues

• ABC News' Amy Robach Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis
• Efforts to Vaccinate Against Polio in Sudan Blocked
• Man Dies After Swallowing $54,000 Worth of Meth He Thought Was a Health Drink

Brain

• Billion pound brain project under way
• Scientists Figure Out What You See While You're Dreaming
• Video game playing found beneficial for the brain
• Brains flush toxic waste in sleep, including Alzheimer's-linked protein, study of mice finds WaPo
• Can soft drinks change your brain?—"Drinking sugary drinks on a regular basis could 'profoundly' change our brains, a study claims."

Damage

• Charles Youvella dies from injury—"A high school football player in Arizona died from an injury suffered during the fourth quarter of a blowout playoff loss, serving as yet another reminder of the dangers of head trauma in youth sports."
• Scans show retired American football players have brain deficits
• Brett Favre admits to memory loss: 'that's a little bit scary to me'
• Dorsett Told He Has Signs Of CTE
• Cleveland Clinic, NFLPA start program to look at ex-NFL players' brain health

NSA Spying and Surveillance

• NSA Transparency Hurts Americans' Privacy, Feds Say With Straight Face
• NSA has no idea when it spies on Americans, top lawyer says—"Because doing so would 'require a greater invasion of that person's privacy.'"
• How Obama's Response To NSA Spying Has Evolved
• Google: NSA tactics bad for all American companies—Fallout already being felt in China.
• NSA Leaks Could Inspire a Global Boom in Intrusive Surveillance—"Governments already dabbling with authoritarian control of the Internet could be spurred on by learning of NSA surveillance."

ENDA, Marriage Equality, LGBT; Obamacare; Abortion and Birth Control; Health Issues, Gone Viral; Food Scares, GMO, Monsanto; Pollution, China

ENDA

• Senate Invokes Cloture On LGBT Workplace Protections Bill—"The Senate voted Monday night to advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, granting workplace protections to LGBT people, by a margin of 61-30."
• Boehner Opposes ENDA, Quashing Hopes In The House
• Apple's Tim Cook Is Right, Anti-Gay Policies Hurt The Economy
• U.S. Bishops Urge Senate To Protect Religious Freedom To Discriminate Against Gays
• ENDA, explained WaPo

Marriage Equality

• 'Kids React To Gay Marriage' In New Video From The Fine Brothers
• Republicans need to pay attention to this poll on gay marriage in South Carolina WaPo
• Illinois: House could vote on gay marriage this week, with boost from Madigan—UPDATE: It passed!
• First 'gay divorce' attempted in Kentucky
• Southern National Guards tell Hagel to take a hike on gay troop spouse IDs
• Irish deputy PM pushes for gay marriage referendum date
• Australia: High Court challenge to gay marriage will be heard before ACT ceremonies

LGBT

• Mike Michaud: Yes, I am gay. 'But why should it matter?'
• One of Idaho's Most Popular Republican Governors Comes Out in Support of LGBT Rights
• GOP Congressional Candidate Told Gay Citizens to Go "Back to California"—"…and he could win."
• Isaiah Smith, Gay Teen Who Ripped Out Bible Pages, Suspended By Texas School
• Eminem defends gay slurs: 'I think people know my personal stance on things'
• New Jersey Couple Suing for the Right to Turn Their Gay Son Straight
• Pasta maker Barilla tries to make amends after chairman's anti-gay remarks

Obamacare

• Latest GOP Myth: Obamacare Will Make Your Grandma Die of Cancer—"Call it the "throw anything at the wall to see what sticks" strategy."
• Obamacare "victim" now says loss of previous health plan may be "a blessing in disguise"—"Dianne Barrette was the media's go-to example of an Obamacare victim -- until she found out all of her options." Salon
• For consumers whose health premiums will go up under new law, sticker shock leads to anger WaPo

Abortion and Birth Control

• Oklahoma Supreme Court Rules Abortion Law Unconstitutional—Which the Supreme Court has upheld.
• In Reversal, Court Allows Texas Law on Abortion NYT
• VA GOP's Attorney General Nominee Wanted Women To Report Miscarriages To Police Or Face Jail Time
• Trick-Or-Treaters In Albuquerque Got Anti-Abortion Propaganda Along With Their Candy
• Obamacare Birth Control Mandate Struck Down By Appeals Court

Health Issues

• J&J to pay $2.2B to settle marketing allegations—"Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay more than $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company promoted powerful psychiatric drugs for unapproved uses in children, seniors and disabled patients, the Department of Justice announced on Monday."
• Suicide Rate Climbs by 30 Percent in Kansas as Government Slashes Mental Health Budgets
• Castro Valley: Janitor steps up when center's license is revoked
• Don't let religious beliefs impede kids' care: doctors—"Pediatricians and child abuse agencies should step in when parents' religious beliefs keep kids from getting necessary medical care, doctors said Monday."
• NYC votes to raise cigarette buying age to 21

Gone Viral

• Pakistan polio outbreak puts global eradication at risk
• At least 22 people suspected of having polio in Syria
• 'Virgin cure': Three women killed to 'cure' Aids
• Churchgoers possibly exposed to hepatitis A through communion
• Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria—"FRONTLINE investigates the rise of deadly drug-resistant bacteria."

Food Scares

• Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem—"A study using DNA testing offers perhaps the most credible evidence to date of adulteration, contamination and mislabeling in the herbal supplement industry." NYT
• Sugar is 'addictive and the most dangerous drug of the times'—"Soft drinks should carry tobacco-style warnings that sugar is highly addictive and dangerous, a senior Dutch health official has warned."
• Vets, pet owners demand to know: Why can't FDA solve jerky treat mystery?

GMO

• Food giants pour millions into defeating Washington GMO label measure
• Washington could be the first state to require labels on GMOs. Here are the stakes. WaPo
• Kauai GMO Bill Vetoed By Mayor
• Environmentalists lining retailers up against GMO salmon
• Mexico Bans GMO Corn

Monsanto

• Tester strips protection for genetically modified crops from debt-ceiling bill—The so-called "Monsanto Protection Act".
• Brazilian judge rules in favour of farmers against Monsanto
• India: Monsanto will face bio-piracy case

Pollution

• 25 students in coma after inhaling industrial fumes
• Montana, feds to seek damages from Exxon spill
• Coal industry's go-to law firm withheld evidence of black lung, at expense of sick miners

China

• China smog emergency shuts city of 11 million people
• With Winter Ahead, Can China’s Smog Get Anything But Worse?—"As Chinese cities begin to fire up their central heating systems, which often rely on coal, residents worry about the impact on air quality." NYT
• One Artist Plans to Suck Pollution Out of Beijing's Skies

Fat Tuesday, Food Scares; Obamacare, Republicans; Bill of Health; In Bad Faith; Issues; Brain; Syria, NSA Spying

Fat Tuesday

• China 'Catastrophe' Hits 114 Million as Diabetes Spreads
• Mississippians are the fattest people in the nation, and also have the hardest time getting fed
• Bacteria from slim people could help treat obesity, study finds—"Experiments show microbes from thin or fat people's intestines can cause mice to lose or gain weight."
• KFC Starts Selling Deep-Fried Soup
• Video: Joe Rogan Fatso!—Stupid heckler gets knock-out view of how "fat" Joe is.

Food Scares

• Don't Trust a Chicken Nugget That's Visited China—"[T]he U.S. Department of Agriculture waited until Friday -- the day before a long holiday weekend -- to announce that it had ended a ban on Chinese chicken imports by approving four Chinese poultry processors to ship processed ("heat-treated/cooked") chicken to the U.S."
• USDA pilot program fails to stop contaminated meat—"A meat inspection program that the Agriculture Department plans to roll out in pork plants nationwide has repeatedly failed to stop the production of contaminated meat at American and foreign plants that have already adopted the approach, documents and interviews show."
• Aldi confirms up to 100% horsemeat in beef products—"Supermarket says it is angry with supplier Comigel after tests reveal 30% and 100% horsemeat in withdrawn ready meals."
• 'Pink slime' returns to school lunches in 4 more states
• UK: Packed lunches: pupils face ban in new school food plans

Obamacare

• Starbucks won't cut worker benefits ahead of Obamacare: CEO
• Big Majority Of Americans Opposed To Defunding Obamacare
• Poll: 44 Percent Of Americans Unsure If 'Obamacare' Is Still A Law
• More Good News on Health Care: Medicare Costs Are Down, Down, Down
• The Biggest Study Yet of Obamacare Premiums Indicates Insurance Will Be Cheaper Than Expected

Republicans

• Jim DeMint: Providing Health Care For Seniors And Veterans Is 'Un-American' And Grounded In 'Socialism'
• Georgia governor gets paid through secret PAC to obstruct Obamacare
• GOP Aims To Force Democrats To Vote On Defunding Obamacare—It's a tactic they've used before.
• 'Obamacare' turns from GOP uniter to internal divider
• Republicans should get out of the way of Obamacare
• HHS tells congressional Republicans to grow up
• 25 Republicans Who Supported Obamacare Before Obama

Bill of Health

• Time Warner To Remove U.S. Retirees From Company Health Plan
• When Our Neighbors Wish Us Dead or Broke, We're in Trouble with More Than Our Health Care System
• Health-care costs are a civil rights issue
• How a Cabal Keeps Generic Drugs Scarce—"The critical shortage of generic drugs continues unabated due to pharmaceutical companies colluding causing needless deaths." NYT
• Alive New York man sues after being declared dead by hospital—"A very much alive New York man said his Medicaid benefits were cut off, and credit cards and bank accounts were canceled after a hospital declared him dead."

In Bad Faith

• NZ baby refused treatment by parents—"The baby's parents have consented for her to have chemotherapy, then surgery to remove a tumour, but were unable to consent to a blood transfusion because of their religious beliefs."
• Measles cases put Texas megachurch under scrutiny
• Another Set of Faith-Healing Parents Arrested After Allowing Their Daughter to Die of a Treatable Disease—They've been charged with manslaughter.

Issues

• Angels of Karachi: The Pakistani women who risk death every day to vaccinate children against polio—"I continued after my niece was shot. We all die one day, so why not as a brave person?"
• Another U.S. porn actor tests positive for HIV, leading to moratorium
• Video shows how ER staff ignored Winnipeg man — even as he repeatedly vomited — in 34 hours before death
• What a moust-ache! Woman wakes from surgery to find doctors put moustache and teardrop stickers on her face
• Wrongful death lawsuit by family of woman who died waiting for ambulance thrown out because she did not make 911 call herself—Screwed by that law.

Brain

• Researcher controls colleague's motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface
• Sleep 'boosts brain cell numbers'—'Scientists believe they have discovered a new reason why we need to sleep - it replenishes a type of brain cell."
• Scishow: The Origins of Cute—"Hank talks about three scientific reasons why cute things make us a special kind of crazy."

Syria

• Obama Puts Syria Strike On Pause As Possible Diplomatic Solution Emerges—Was this a goof that may turn out to be good?
• Syria conflict: France to float tough UN resolution—"France will put a resolution to the UN Security Council to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control so they can be destroyed, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says."
• Obama was right to go to Congress. The fact that he might lose proves it.
• Bashar Assad tells Charlie Rose U.S. should "expect every action" in response to Syria strikes
• Some see biblical visions of doom in Syria trouble—"Some are pointing to Old Testament passages that predict the destruction of Damascus and a civil war in Egypt."

NSA Spying

• Gen. Keith Alexander: The Cowboy of the NSA—Apparently he "has no problem playing word games to justify what he wants."
• Scheier: Government Secrecy and the Generation Gap
• Crypto prof asked to remove NSA-related blog post—"Predictable backtrack from Johns Hopkins comes a few hours later." Update: The university apologized for acting "too quickly, on the basis of inadequate and—as it turns out—incorrect information."
• Phillip Rogaway: "Both US-persons and non-US-persons have a right to be free of routinized surveillance. This right does not spring solely from the US Fourth Amendment; it is a human and natural right as well."—This one's from a professor at UC Davis.
• EFF: Crucial Unanswered Questions about the NSA's BULLRUN Program

Animal Cruelty, Ecology; Environment; Pollution; Surveillance and Privacy

Animal Cruelty

• Famous River Walk duck killed—"Witnesses say 'George' was sleeping under a tree around 1:30am Wednesday, when two tourists walked up to him and began to beat the duck. Witnesses told police the duck was tortured and strangled."
• Turtle, trying to find place to lay eggs, beaten to death at golf course
• Humane Officer accused of shooting kittens
• Alleged Princeton dog killer indicted again for animal cruelty
• Woman charged with animal cruelty, torture after dog found dead in trash can
• Jose Jimenez, Argentinian Belle Vista Player Sent Off For Throwing Dog Off Pitch By Its Neck
• Food companies accused of animal cruelty

Ecology

• World Heritage Body Wants Drilling Ban in Gorilla Sanctuary in Cambodia
• Indonesian Conservation Official Arrested in Animal Trafficking Sting
• The bee keepers—"How a Harvard scientist, a sixth-generation bee whisperer, and a retired entrepreneur joined forces to rescue an embattled insect and save the American food supply."

Environment

• EPA Now Won't Finalize Its Study That Showed Fracking May Have Contaminated Groundwater—Wonder who got paid off.
• Republicans Support Bill to Cut Renewable Energy Spending by 50%
• San Rafael's Sun Valley students get Crayola to recycle

Pollution

• Pipeline in northern Alberta leaks 9.5 million litres of industrial waste water
• New pollution high as haze chokes Singapore—The smoke is from the fires "caused by illegal slash-and-burn land clearance in Sumatra, to the west of Singapore."
• Indiana gives BP a pass on mercury
• Exxon Sued After Emails Reveal They Misled The Public About Oil Spills
• Polluting to death: China introduces execution for environmental offenders

Surveillance and Privacy

• Edward Snowden missing after failing to fly to Cuba—"Whereabouts of former NSA contractor whose leaks to Guardian have caused global controversy a mystery after he does not catch expected flight to Cuba."
• For secretive surveillance court, rare scrutiny in wake of NSA leaks—"After the NSA leaks, lawmakers are pressing for answers about the surveillance tribunal and its judges."
• Obama Has Charged More Under Espionage Act Than All Other Presidents Combined
• Eugene Robinson commentary: NSA's phone metadata collection isn't worth the cost
• Why Is Apple Being Evasive About PRISM?

Snowden, Surveillance and Privacy; Workers and Wage Slaves; Politics and Economy; Public-Private Partnerships, Uncharitable; Wall Street and Financial Institutions; Corporations; Monsanto; Plane Fare

Snowden

• NSA leaker Snowden on flight to 'third country' via Moscow with WikiLeaks help—So much for extraditing him from Hong Kong.
• Edward Snowden: Shooting the messenger?—"Mainstream media in the US seems to be more interested in the character of the leaker than in the content of the leak."
• Petition to pardon Edward Snowden passes 100,000 signatures, forcing White House response—Non-response more like it, but at this least this continues to keep up awareness.

Surveillance and Privacy

• US spies on Chinese mobile phone companies, steals SMS data: Edward Snowden—"The US government is stealing millions of text messages in their hacking attacks on major Chinese mobile phone companies, Edward Snowden has told the Post."
• Amid NSA spying scandal, the gloves are off for EU's justice chief—"No longer is the EU standing for U.S. lobbying and policy pushing. The EU's Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding is back in the trenches. The gloves are off, and she's fighting back."
• Bill Clinton on NSA: Americans need to be on guard for abuses of power by US—"Former president tells Scottish audience there needs to be accountability and transparency when surveillance is used."
• Pelosi booed at Netroots while defending espionage charges against Snowden
• Google handed over years of e-mails belonging to WikiLeaks chatroom admin—A secret warrant was used to get them.
• NSA surveillance: don't underestimate the extraordinary power of metadata—"President Obama has reassured US citizens that 'nobody is listening to your calls', but it's not the content of conversations that intelligence agencies crave."
• There's a New Fascism on the Rise, and the NSA Leaks Show Us What It Looks Like—"The power of truth-tellers like Edward Snowden is that they dispel a whole mythology carefully constructed by the corporate cinema, the corporate academy and the corporate media."
• Tradeoff—"The stupidest framing of the controversy over ubiquitous surveillance is that it reflects a trade-off between 'security' and 'privacy.' We are putting in jeopardy values much, much more important than 'privacy.'"

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Graphics worker: 'The shouting of the bankers resembled constant gunfire'—"A woman working night shifts in graphics for a major bank, talks of the systematic abuse and poor conditions she faced."
• Former intern: Don't step on us
• Disabled workers paid just pennies an hour – and it's legal
• How I Got Fired from the Job I Invented
• Round Lake village residents in uproar over library employee's firing—"The tiny village is in an uproar, Mayor Dixie Lee Sacks said, over the firing of a well-liked veteran library employee who closed the library 40 minutes early last week, without permission, because of the threat of tornados in the area."
• Firing of Five Walmart Strikers Condemned by Rep. Ellison: 'Completely Unjust and Illegal'
• Laws fail to protect pregnant women who need special accommodations on the job

Politics and Economy

• Poll: Congress' new level of awfulness—"Asked about a list of institutions in American society, only 10% of those questioned in a Gallup survey released Thursday say they have confidence in Congress. That's down three percentage points from last year, and according to their release, 'this is the lowest level of confidence Gallup has found, not only for Congress, but for any institution on record.'"
• Sanders: We must not accept this economic 'new normal'—"Yes, the economy is improving, but too many Americans are being left behind, while the rich keep getting richer."
• Big Lie: America Doesn't Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World...We're Ranked 27th!—"America is the richest country on Earth. We have the most millionaires, the most billionaires—and a increasingly poor 'middle class.'"
• Decline and fall: how American society unravelled—"Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed. Was it an inevitable process – or was it engineered by self-interested elites?"
• Rising US wealth doesn't generate spending surge

Public-Private Partnerships

• State legislators' ties to nonprofit groups prove fertile ground for corruption—"New York scandals reveal unsavory pattern of 'quid pro quo' links between lawmakers and 'charities.'"
• Leaker's Employer Is Paid to Maintain Government Secrets—"Booz Allen Hamilton has become one of the largest and most profitable firms in the United States almost exclusively by serving one client: the government." NYT
• The Great Farm-Bill Ripoff—"A confusing clutter of programs that pay farmers not to farm, reward them for undue risk, write checks to rock stars and Rockefellers, give special treatment to certain crops without rationale, and ladle out welfare to the wealthy while ignoring those on the margins." To everyone's surprise, the Farm Bill goes down in flames.
• Scott Walker Plans To Sell Off Many Of Wisconsin's University Buildings, Prisons
• How Tea Party Favorite Rick Scott Helped Cook Up a Sweetheart Deal for His Florida Friends
• Residents of Blue Mound, a small North Texas town, upset with water veto—"The town's water is provided by a private company...." and Gov. Perry's veto made sure it stayed that way despite the town having "considerably higher water rates than the town's neighbors"
• Flipside: Attempted Land Grab Ends With Voters Booting Entire City Council

Uncharitable

• America's 50 worst charities rake in nearly $1 billion for corporate fundraisers
• Why is Nancy Brinker still CEO of the Susan G. Komen foundation?
• Lax IRS Oversight Fostered Costly Charity Scams

Wall Street and Financial Institutions

• The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis—"It's long been suspected that ratings agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's helped trigger the meltdown. A new trove of embarrassing documents shows how they did it."
• Obama Rewards Wall Street Again, Thwarts Reform By Sacking Gensler
• A Wall Street regulator’s race against time—"Can Gary Gensler finish the most important piece of financial reform before he’s out?"
• Wall Street is winning the long war against post-crash regulation—"Feeble as it was, Dodd-Frank was a high point of reining in abuses. Thanks to financial lobbying, it's business as usual."
• Credit Unions Fight Back against Big Banks—...and the lobbying efforts "that would strip them of their tax-exempt status."
• UK's Co-op Bank agrees to £1.5 billion 'bail-in' rescue plan
• 6 Unbelievable Ways the Big Banks Are Scamming You—"Five years since the crash, the big banks continue to screw over their customers.:
• Fox commentator paid $50,000 to tout stock
• Ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling to leave prison early—"In seeking to reduce the sentence, the government had emphasized that $40 million in restitution, currently held up as Skilling pursued appeals, would be released to victims."
• Depositing a Little Common Sense into the Law—"Did you know that small business owners can be prosecuted for making repeated cash deposits of under $10,000?"

Corporations

• Sen. Warren Blasts Pro-Corporate Trend of Federal Courts—"[Y]ou will end up with a Supreme Court that's a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce."
• In Major Blow To Consumers, Supreme Court Protects Mega-Corporations From Liability
• McConnell: 'Absurd' to ban corporations from having same rights as 'people'
• California To Wal-Mart: Enough! No More Taxpayer Subsidized Profits For You
• Criminal charges laid against Nestle Canada, other companies for chocolate price fixing
• Business Leaders Urge President to Allow G8 to Close Corporate Tax Loopholes
• Flipside: Marlins Park Is Satisfyingly Empty

Monsanto

• Appeals Court Makes Monsanto Promise Not To Sue Organic Farmers
• Monsanto Turns To Blackwater For Increased Security, Intelligence And 'Infiltrate Activist Groups'
• Monsanto snubs Puerto Rico Senate

Plane Fare

• Ryanair plans to put only one toilet on planes in latest scheme to slash fares
• Oof! Airline Fees Rise Yet Again: At Least $200 to Change a Flight
• Give them an inch and they take $773,074,040

Fat Tuesday; Big Pharma, Bill of Health; Health Issues; Mental, Psych; Sleep; Food Insecurity

Fat Tuesday

• Social Media Sites Fight "Thinspo"—"Instagram and other websites take aim at content that triggers or promotes eating disorders."
• Modelling scouts target anorexia patients
• Goodbye To The King Size: Mars To Downsize Candy Bars In 2013
• Airbus Is Installing Special Big Seats For Fat People — And Shrinking All Other Seats
• People in the South are not so fat after all -- and they lie less
• Vietnam bans short, fat Hanoi traffic police
• Are Happy Gut Bacteria Key to Weight Loss?

Big Pharma

• Big Pharma Company Jacks Up Price of Overdose Life Saver by 1100%: Now, More People Will Die
• Big Pharma made $711 bln overcharging seniors and disabled
• FDA Let Drugs Approved on Fraudulent Research Stay on the Market
• Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India—"By rejecting patent applications, developing countries have kept down the costs of much-needed medications. Can they continue to do so without harming efforts to develop new drugs?"
• U.S. consumers pay more for drugs

Bill of Health

• About the Obamacare 'train wreck'
• The Reason Health Care Is So Expensive: Insurance Companies
• Inside India's 'No-Frills' Hospitals, Where Heart Surgery Costs Just $800

Health Issues

• Checks Find Unsafe Practices at Compounding Pharmacies—"Federal regulators said they had found problems like black particles floating in vials, rust and mold in clean rooms and improper air flow at about 30 compounding pharmacies." NYT
• Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell's Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story—"The dead babies. The exploited women. The racism. The numerous governmental failures. It is thoroughly newsworthy."
• Man dies after pea trapped in lung diagnosed as cancer—"An English family grieving over a man's death has lashed out at doctors after they confused a pea in his lung for a cancerous tumour."

Mental

• Obama budget includes $235 million in new mental health spending
• Nevada buses hundreds of mentally ill patients to cities around country
• Mentally ill patients in Indonesia held in chains

Psych

• News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier—"News is bad for your health. It leads to fear and aggression, and hinders your creativity and ability to think deeply. The solution? Stop consuming it altogether." In related... news: Breaking News is Broken.
• TV Is Heroin Crossed With Hypnosis
• Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Can Be Contagious—Misery loves company.
• Patient people mull over future rewards

Sleep

• Sleep: Everything You Need To Know
• The end of sleep?—"New technologies are emerging that could radically reduce our need to sleep - if we can bear to use them."
• Is sleep the new sex?—"When we we aren't doing it, we're talking about it. But we also love to boast about how little we need." Salon
• Can you train yourself to get by on less sleep?
• Why teenagers really do need an extra hour in bed
• Less sleep leads to more eating and more weight gain, according to new CU-Boulder study
• Study: Listening to Certain Sounds Seems to Improve Sleep—"Participants played 'pink noise' that was synchronized to their brain rhythms slept more deeply and had increased memory retention."
• Clicky noises may help you memorize during sleep
• What Is Paradoxical Intention?
• Rural risk for sleep disorder Scots
• Spain Holds First Annual Siesta Championship

Food Insecurity

• The Privatization of Water: Nestlé Denies that Water is a Fundamental Human Right
• How Monsanto Went From Selling Aspirin to Controlling Our Food Supply—"Monsanto controls our food, poisons our land, and influences all three branches of government."
• Judge: Iowa State U. Must Shield 'Pink Slime' Data—"A judge has blocked Iowa State University from releasing documents about food safety research conducted for the beef-processing company that makes the product dubbed 'pink slime' by critics." NYT
• What government tests found in your meat—"When you shop for turkey burgers for dinner tonight, you may be buying more than meat for your dinner. A federal investigation found 'Superbugs' in meat test."
• The Curse of Fertilizer—"If we don't watch out, agriculture could destroy our planet. Here's how to grow all the food we need with fewer chemicals."
• Horsemeat scandal: Minister urged to reveal Sodexo supplier
• Mislabelled fish slip into Europe's menus

Fat Tuesday, Diet; Health Matters; Obamacare; Young and Old; Right-to-Die; Sleep; Psych; Brain

Fat Tuesday

• Fat City: What can stop obesity?
• Obesity worldwide: the map of the world's weight—"American women not employed outside the home were burning about 360 fewer calories every day in 2010 than they had in 1965, according to a new analysis, with working women burning about 132 fewer calories at home each day in 2010 than in 1965."
• Israel passes law banning models that have a BMI under 18.5
• What Housework Has to Do With Waistlines
• Obese heart patients 'do better'—"Obese cardiac patients are less likely to die than their normal weight counterparts, say researchers."
• What Losing 180 Pounds Really Does To Your Body — & Your Mind
• President Vladimir Putin calls for fitness tests for Russian schoolchildren—And teams up with Steven Seagal to promote fitness.

Diet

• Judge Blocks New York City's Limits on Big Sugary Drinks NYT
• No soda ban here: Mississippi passes 'Anti-Bloomberg' bill
• The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food—"Inside the hyperengineered, savagely marketed, addiction-creating battle for American 'stomach share.'" NYT
• 'FastDiet' book is attracting dieters, and doubters
• Biggest Loser Trainers Publicly Promote Diet And Exercise, Quietly Endorse Unproven Weight Loss Pills
• This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again—"Rob Rhinehart's vomit-coloured cocktail could change food forever."
• Heart Attack Grill's Unofficial Spokesman Dies After Heart Attack

Health Matters

• CVS wants workers' weight, body fat and glucose levels
• U.S. Won't Appeal Court's Block Of Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels
• Let your flatulence fly, scientists urge
• Sitting next to pretty woman for a 5-hour flight almost kills a man
• Medical Scans Show Leonardo Da Vinci's Drawings Were Right All Along
• Feeling sick makes us less social online too—"A new study from BYU finds that while most of us go online regularly for help in diagnosing health issues, very few of us actually post information, including questions or our experiences, on health topics."
• Montreal bodybuilder Joe Weider, who helped lift Arnold Schwarzenegger to fame, dead at 93

Obamacare

• It's the Demographics, Stupid—"Our population is aging, and there's nothing to be done about that. As it ages, it's going to need the same level of healthcare we provide for today's seniors. Unless you're a sociopath, there's nothing to be done about that either. As a result, Medicare spending is going to rise."
• Bachmann: Repeal Obamacare Before It 'Literally Kills' People
• Boehner: House will keep trying to repeal Obamacare—"'The House will continue working to scrap the law in its entirety,' he said on Obamacare's third anniversary." Salon

Young...

• Kids Ingest Potentially Poisonous Medication 500,000 Times Per Year
• Hitting Your Kids Increases Their Risk of Mental Illness
• Women Who Were Abused As Children More Likely To Have Kids With Autism

and Old

• Surrey woman left without care dies in hospital—"A woman in her 80s left at home in Surrey without medication, food, or water for nine days after a care agency shut down has died in hospital."
• Senior facility defends nurse who wouldn't perform CPR on resident
• Japanese man dies after being turned away from 25 hospitals

Right-to-Die

• As Families Change, Korea's Elderly Are Turning to Suicide—"The number of suicides among people 65 and older has nearly quadrupled in recent years, ranking the country's rate of such deaths among the highest in the developed world." NYT
• Healthy Vancouver senior commits suicide in bid to change right-to-die law—"I am a 91-year-old woman who has decided to end my life in the very near future. I do not have a terminal illness; I am simply old, tired and becoming dependent, after a wonderful life of independence."
• Support grows in Vermont for an end-of-life bill—"Most states ban physician-assisted death, but a movement is growing to give terminal patients the right to choose their fate."

Sleep

• Daylight saving time has a way of cleaning your clock
• Up All Night: The science of sleeplessness—"New technologies have made the study of sleep cheaper, easier, and less intrusive. But if this is sleep research's golden age, then why are we all so tired?"
• 8 Benefits of Napping: Why you Need to Nap Everyday
• Poor sleep in old age prevents the brain from storing memories
• Snooze button bad for you? Yes. Here's the science of sleep that explains why.
• Sleep Hits the Reset Button for Individual Neurons
• Overcoming Bias : Sleep Signaling

Psych

• Nothing personal: The questionable Myers-Briggs test—"The Myers-Briggs personality test is used by companies the world over but the evidence is that it's nowhere near as useful as its popularity suggests."
• You're Distracted. This Professor Can Help.—"David Levy's course at the University of Washington puts technology in its place--in the control of students."
• Social isolation shortens lifespan—"Ageing study finds being alone is a health risk."

Brain

• Brain scans predict which criminals are more likely to reoffend—"Neuroimaging 'biomarker' linked to rearrest after incarceration."
• AAN: More Proof of Effects of Pro Fighting on Brain
• Researchers Discover the Brain Origins of Variation in Pathological Anxiety
• Learning hurts your brain—"Mice left to explore new environments get DNA damage in their neurons."
• When Autocorrect Isn't to Blame—"A jumbled text message could help diagnose a stroke."