According to the project lead at Harvard — as well as the study itself and the federal funding therein — the conservative hyperbole forgets all about gay men... and there are other sequester-relevant studies that might be more worth the freak-out.
Jill and Scott Kelley on privacy and Petraeus, Mark Bittman on Coke's obesity awareness ads, Simon Jenkins on Prince Harry's Afghanistan story, Sarah Chayes on Benghazi and bureaucrats, and Aaron David Miller on Israel's election results.
Discovered: Lighting up might not lead to dumbing down; playing music can put you on a natural high; black carbon is twice as bad as we thought; evidence that obesity is inherited.
Public health efforts around the country have been calling out soda's central role in the obesity crisis. In response, Coca-Cola debuted a new commercial today that already has people drawing the big-tobacco comparisons.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Discovered: children from poor families are getting less obese; a supervirus may lead the UK to cry over its milk; chicken farmers swap oregano for antibiotics; ultramassive black holes are unfathomably huge.
Shashank Joshi on talking to Iran, Molly Redden on a female Pentagon chief, Mark Bittman on obesity, Susan Crawford on Comcast's power, and Ruth Marcus on inflation inside the fiscal cliff.
Discovered: Pigging out is a bigger concern than starvation; Christmas trees haven't evolved much in 100 million years; Rhesus monkeys have no rhythm; a really, really cute new (and endangered) primate.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Discovered: Weight loss surgery fails to reduce diabetes; E. coli often comes from cities, not cattle; big guts could mean brittle bones for men; sea levels rose nearly half an inch over past 20 years.
Yes, Americans are getting fatter, but not all of us are, right? Now you can see in this interactive from Scientific American of the changing rates of obesity, heavy drinking, and tobacco use by state.
A new study connects a lack of sleep to increased obesity and diabetes by showing how sleep deprivation can hurt people on a cellular level.
Discovered: A shot that reduces double chins; sleeping brains act like they're trying to remember something; research à la carte; a dizzying earthquake simulation machine.
Discovered: Vitamin D supplements won't prevent infections; desire to be skinny could be hardwired; a virus that makes you fat but staves off diabetes; and new dinosaur!
Discovered: BPA causes concern; thin people often less healthy than fat peers; Neandertals accessorized with feathers; baby boys shouldn't be given pacifiers.
We've constantly been told that obesity is one of the leading causes of health problems in the United States, today the Wall Street Journal reports on a new wrinkle on that obesity-health connection, as they found that some hospitals don't have equipment strong enough to deal with their injured, obese patients.
Discovered: remote-control cockroaches; female snakes that don't need a partner to reproduce; anti-obesity campaigns engender stigma; deaf gerbils given stem cell transplants hear.
Discovered: early risers are healthier than night owls; robots take one more step toward self-awareness; antibiotics expand our waistlines; octopi are conscious.
Discovered: Revisiting an experiment used to disprove free will; creatine helps women batlle depression; dilated eyes show sexual attraction; mothers underestimate the rise of childhood obesity in China.
At a press conference today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked about an upcoming march in protest of his proposed soda ban. The Mayor made it clear that he was less than amused.
Discovered: What 2,000 years of climate change looks like, just being fat isn't actually unhealthy, a molecule that could make teeth cavity proof, and get ready for R-rated movies just for smoking.
The Saudi Arabian woman most likely to compete in this summer's Olympic Games, 20-year-old show jumper Dalma Malhas, does not qualify.
In this week's Bloomberg Businessweek, Peter Savodnik sheds light on two very profitable and symbiotic American exports in the Middle East: Fast food and bariatric surgery.
Discovered: A promising first trial for the Alzheimer's vaccine, the science of cool, gastric bypass really works, and the very first space things.
Discovered: There is such a thing as too much exercise, a new Prostate cancer drug, American heads are getting bigger and bug bombs don't work on bed bugs
Discovered: Old people don't smell bad, we don't need more aerosol in the air, fewer food choices aren't always better, and fixing a spinal cord injury.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed a city-wide ban on sodas and other sugary drinks that are bigger than 16 ounces.
Discovered: Another close-to-Earth asteroid, even the formerly fat are remembered for being fat, and TV only improves the self-esteem of white boys.
Discovered: A medical procedure that turns your face into your heart, why we eat more when we're depressed, the fall of the Mayan empire explained, and men's mistakes count more.
Decades-old safety standards mandate that airplanes seats be designed to accommodate an average passenger weight of 170 pounds — about 25 pounds lighter than the people who are actually sitting in them.
Discovered: What makes a cell turn fat, the stomach organism that makes us fat, cocaine is bad for the brain, and debunking anti-vaccination myths.
Today in Green Research: Cookstoves aren't saving humanity, pollution's making us fat, climate change is going to mess with the corn market, a highly endangered plant.
America, we've told you this before. You've put on a few these past few decades. And beside those new pairs of jeans you had to buy, we now know just how much your ever-expanding waist is costing you in yet another way: Doctor's bills.
Discovered: A link between autism and maternal obesity, computer science confirms Super Mario brothers is hard, a childhood obesity gene, and there's something funky on the sun.
Discovered: A fattening gene mutation, we're doing a good job keeping the turtles safe, what Earth was like 2.5 billion years ago, and what makes the most popular orbits in the solar system popular.
Discovered: The right age to get fat, a possible sugary cure for Alzheimer's, coffee will not kill us, and there's a decent chance the sun will explode.
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are trying to prove their working-class roots as they campaign across the U.S., but the man who is truly one of us is Newt Gingrich, who, like so many Americans, is a crash dieter.
Discovered: Twitter addiction, Super Earth, there's a possibility obesity is infectious, 1.2 million malaria deaths, drinking coffee has at least one health benefit for a small set of people.
Discovered: Bigger babies don't mean fatter kids, why a month-long drinking detox won't save your liver, the in vitro fertilization twin phenomenon, and glaucoma risk factors.
The average American is almost 20 pounds heavier than they were 20 years ago, but even more troublesome is that their perceptions of what their "ideal weight" should be has jumped as well.
The Players: Noel Biderman, CEO of Ashley Madison, a dating web site (12.2 million members and counting) whose slogan is: "Life is short. Have an affair."; "Jacqueline", a plus-sized model and porn entrepreneur who unknowingly appeared as the punchline of two of Ashley Madison's ads
Michael Kinsley defends calling Christie "too fat" for the White House
Nancy Upton placed first in American Apparel's plus-sized contest but the company won't give her the win
Overall, global obesity rates have doubled since 1980
Stressed and sleep-deprived business travelers tend to pack on the pounds
A quarter of people say they have less respect for someone who smokes
The fast food chain is putting apples in every Happy Meal
A study finds that impulsive people tend to eat more
A new study by Harvard health researchers turns heads
On obesity drugs, the new head of al-Qaeda, and the right not to get married
On Obama and Israel, the IMF's faults, and the economic costs of obesity
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