WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the U.S., 27.1% of adults were obese in 2013, the highest rate measured since Gallup and Healthways began tracking in 2008. The obesity rate increased by nearly a full percentage point over the average rate of 26.2% found in 2012. As more Americans moved into the obese category in 2013, slightly fewer Americans were classified as overweight or as normal weight.

Obesity Rate in U.S.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which uses respondents’ self-reports of their height and weight to calculate body mass index (BMI) scores, differs slightly from government reports of obesity, which are based on actual heights and weights found in clinical measurements. A recent government report based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 34.9% of adults, aged 20 years or older, in the study were obese. This rate had not significantly changed between 2003 and 2012.

Gallup and Healthways began tracking U.S. adults’ weight daily in 2008. Individual BMI values of 30 or above are classified as “obese,” 25 to 29.9 are “overweight,” 18.5 to 24.9 are “normal weight,” and 18.4 or less are “underweight.” For the past six years, nearly two-thirds of Americans have had BMIs higher than is recommended, while roughly […]

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Remember when President Obama was lambasted for saying ‘you didn’t build that”? Turns out he was right, at least when it comes to lots of stuff built by world’s wealthiest corporate behemoths. That’s the takeaway from a new study of 25,000 major taxpayer subsidy deals over the last two decades.

Entitled ‘Subsidizing the Corporate One Percent,” the report from the taxpayer watchdog group Good Jobs First shows that the largest corporations in the world aren’t models of self-sufficiency and unbridled capitalism. To the contrary, they continue to receive tens of billions of dollars in government handouts. Such subsidies might be a bit more defensible if they were being doled out in a way that promoted upstart entrepreneurialism. But as the study also shows, a full ‘three-quarters of all the economic development dollars awarded and disclosed by state and local governments have gone to just 965 large corporations” – not to the small businesses and startups that politicians so often pretend to care about.

The true beneficiaries of subsidies are often hidden under layers of holding companies, shell firms and complex ownership agreements. But Good Jobs First did the tedious work of connecting the subsidies to the parent firms. In the process, the […]

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The mainstream media is failing us when it comes to covering the story of the century – made climate change. And, as Media Matters has reported, there’s no better example of this failure than the decline of climate coverage at Reuters since that news organization hired Paul Ingrassia as deputy editor-in-chief.

Ingrassia, who is now a managing editor at Reuters, is a self-described ‘climate skeptic,” and questions whether or not climate change is man-made.

Denying climate is absolutely insane. The UN’s Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change is a consensus document, meaning that 100 percent of the people who worked on it agreed with its findings.

The IPCC’s authors are the top climate scientists on earth, and they say that burning fossil fuels causes climate change.

In light of this sort of scientific consensus, denying climate change is about sensible as believing that a shape-shifting reptile Illuminati controls the world. In fact, in terms of pure percentages, there are more people who believe in a shape-shifting reptile Illuminati than there are scientists who deny climate change.

But apparently Ingrassia is perfectly comfortable with his crazy ideas. So comfortable, in fact, that he’s been pushing them on the writers who work under him.

According to Media Matters, which […]

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Over the course of evolution, purring has probably offered some selective advantage to cats. Most felid species produce a ‘purr-like” vocalization. In domestic cats, purring is most noticeable when an animal is nursing her kittens or when humans provide social contact via petting, stroking or feeding.

Although we assume that a cat’s purr is an expression of pleasure or is a means of communication with its young, perhaps the reasons for purring can be deciphered from the more stressful moments in a cat’s life. Cats often purr while under duress, such as during a visit to the veterinarian or when recovering from injury. Thus, not all purring cats appear to be content or pleased with their current circumstances. This riddle has lead researchers to investigate how cats purr, which is also still under debate.

Scientists have demonstrated that cats produce the purr through intermittent signaling of the laryngeal and diaphragmatic muscles. Cats purr during both inhalation and exhalation with a consistent pattern and frequency between 25 and 150 Hertz. Various investigators have shown that sound frequencies in this range can improve bone density and promote healing.

This association between the frequencies of cats’ purrs and improved healing of bones and muscles may provide […]

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Nearly half of the States in the U.S. currently allow the use of Cannabis for either recreational or medical purposes. While much has been made about the thousands of studies showing valuable medical benefits from this herb, there has been a conspicuous lack of scientific studies even suggesting that Cannabis is dangerous.

However, it is widely known that cannabis can get you killed. Here are examples of how you – or someone you love – could fall victim to the wiles of this crafty yet felonious garden vegetable.

[Editor’s Note: There has never been a recorded cannabis overdose or death. However, thousands die every year in America and beyond as a result of U.S. cannabis prohibition. Even more are locked up for life for nonviolent, cannabis-related crimes. Here are a few examples of the ways in which the criminal justice policysurrounding cannabis is far more dangerous than the plant they prohibit.]

Get arrested for possession or cultivation.

Peter McWilliams was a successful author of self-help books, like How to Survive the Loss of Loveand Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country.In 1996, the same year California voters legalized medical marijuana, McWilliams was diagnosed with AIDS and […]

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