Findings about what specific components of diets are most beneficial are frequently changing. However, an ongoing study of older adults shows evidence that one type of diet can help mitigate cognitive problems. An ongoing prospective study called the Chicago Health and Aging Project has shown that adherence to the Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of cognitive decline with older age. ‘This diet emphasizes vegetables, fruits, fish, olive oil, lower meat consumption, and moderate wine and non-refined grain intake, said lead author Dr. Christy Tangney of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. ‘Instead of espousing avoidance of foods, the data support that adults over age 65 should look to include more olive oil, legumes, nuts, and seeds in their diet in order to improve their recall times and other cognitive skills, such as identifying symbols and numbers. The nearly 4,000 participants in this study included black and white adults aged 65 and older. They were given a battery of cognitive tests which were assigned scores and then a clinical interview. Those who ranked in the highest in terms of following such a Mediterranean-type diet were more protected from cognitive decline. The adults were given these cognitive tests every […]
GUANTANAMO BAY — A brief detour from my Guantanamo coverage, as a State Department official, speaking only on background, confirmed something else I’ve been working on. The private security company formerly known as Blackwater and now known as Xe Services, will be allowed to bid on the next generation of the State Department’s lucrative Worldwide Protective Services Contract. The company’s track record of killing Iraqi civilians, shooting at Afghan civilians, taking for personal use U.S. military-issued rifles from the Afghan police and setting up shell companies to win government contracts will not be an obstacle. Once again, the fact that no federal acquisition official has recommended Blackwater be barred from bidding on federal contracts means, the official said, that ‘any company, including Xe Services and its subsidiary companies, [may] submit a proposal in response to an acquisition process established on the basis of full and open competition. While a Blackwater/Xe Services spokeswoman did not reply to repeated phone calls seeking comment before I left for Guantanamo, she told me last year that the company intends to bid on the contract - which is the successor contract to the one that allowed it to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq and […]
A new University of Washington survey shows that whites who are strong supporters of the tea party are apparently less committed to freedom and equality than those who oppose or are unenthusiastic about the movement. ‘Our survey suggests that among tea partiers, there’s less dedication to certain civil liberties, said Christopher S. Parker, a UW assistant professor of political science who leads the 2010 Multi-State Survey of Race & Politics. It examines what Americans, including supporters of the tea party, think about race, public policy, national politics and President Barack Obama. Among whites who strongly support the tea party, 60 percent agreed that America ‘has gone too far in pushing equal rights. By comparison, only 23 percent of white tea party opponents agreed with that statement. Additionally: ¢ 94 percent of tea party opponents said American society ‘should do whatever is necessary to ensure equal opportunity. Of all whites polled for the survey, 79 percent agreed with that statement. Tea party supporters agreed less. Sixty-four percent said America should do whatever’s necessary. ¢ 72 percent of tea party opponents concur that ‘we don’t give everyone an equal chance in this country. By comparison, 55 percent of all […]
Nigel Inkster, the former assistant head of the British spy service MI6, slammed the United States’ handling of its fight on terror, including what he called the ‘frenzied, alarmist response’ to the recently foiled Christmas Day bomber. Writing in an article published in the International Institute for Strategic Studies journal Survival, Inkster and coauthor Alexander Nicoll hammered what they believe is an out of proportion response to attempted terror attacks. They also attacked the United States’ policy of imprisoning detainees without trial — a practice that has continued under President Barack Obama. ‘It is surely not inspiring for radicalised people with the potential for violent action to see terrorists tried in ordinary criminal courts and sentenced to long prison terms.’ The authors, both members of the International Institute, continue: ‘But it surely is inspiring to them to see terrorists treated as a special class of prisoners to be held by the military, imprisoned without trial and tortured. This is the kind of treatment that makes jihadists believe that they can indeed be the fighters for a cause that they aspire to be.’ Obama has largely turned from a policy under President George W. Bush where alleged terrorists […]
In decaying societies, politics become theater. The elite, who have hollowed out the democratic system to serve the corporate state, rule through image and presentation. They express indignation at AIG bonuses and empathy with a working class they have spent the last few decades disenfranchising, and make promises to desperate families that they know will never be fulfilled. Once the spotlights go on they read their lines with appropriate emotion. Once the lights go off, they make sure Goldman Sachs and a host of other large corporations have the hundreds of billions of dollars in losses they incurred playing casino capitalism repaid with taxpayer money. We live in an age of moral nihilism. We have trashed our universities, turning them into vocational factories that produce corporate drones and chase after defense-related grants and funding. The humanities, the discipline that forces us to stand back and ask the broad moral questions of meaning and purpose, that challenges the validity of structures, that trains us to be self-reflective and critical of all cultural assumptions, have withered. Our press, which should promote such intellectual and moral questioning, confuses bread and circus with news and refuses to give a voice to critics […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
