Race is the subtext of now-potent populist appeals to whites, who feel battered from a tsunami of economic and cultural change. The Tea Party counterculture is waging a proxy war over race during America’s rapidly shifting economy and demographic makeup.
The Tea Party is sounding a siren call of aspiration and a primal scream of resentment — a whoop to Flour Power
To read the article click here.
TV shortens your life span, study finds
Tuesday, 12 January 2010 Meredith Griffiths for AM
ABC
Researchers say the major risk factor was sitting instead of being active (Source: Giulio Saggin, file photo/ABC News)
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Television viewing has often been accused of rotting the human brain, but it seems the real risk may be that it is doing some damage to the rest of your body.
Australian scientists have published research showing a link which suggests that the more TV a person watches, the sooner they die.
The report, which appears in the journal Circulation,says every extra hour spent watching television increases people’s risk of premature death.
Professor David Dunstan of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, followed more than 8000 Australian adults for six years.
The team discovered that the people who watched the most TV died younger.
“What this study provides is the first compelling evidence linking television viewing to an increased risk of early death,” says Dunstan.
“People who watch four or more hours of television a day have a 46% higher risk of death from all causes and 80% increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.”
Dunstan says the increased risk of premature death was independent of other risk factors like smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, diet or exercise.
He says that shows too much sitting is bad for our health.
“[Watching TV involves] prolonged sitting, because that’s the default position, and from that there’s an absence of muscle movement,” he says.
“We know from extensive evidence that muscle contractions are so important for many of the body’s regulatory processes, such as breaking down and using glucose, so that loss of muscle movement for prolonged periods may result in a disruption to the body’s regulatory processes.”
Sitting down
The report stresses that sitting too much is different from not exercising enough.
“The risk associated with prolonged sitting are also not necessarily offset by doing more exercise,” says Dunstan.
“Because in this study even people who were exercising, if they also watched high amounts of television, they had an increased risk of premature death.”
Dunstan says the team also has preliminary evidence indicating that nearly three-quarters of the working hours of office-based employees are spent sitting down.
Trevor Shilton from the Heart Foundation says the research highlights a vitally important new field of study.
“In just a couple of generations we’ve gone from being a very active people to people who sit around for most of the day,” he says
“I can foresee a time where we will have, in addition to our guidelines, a defined 30 minutes of physical activity, also guidelines about moving more and standing more throughout the day.
“And about sitting less, standing up every 20 minutes, going for a walk at work, having rules around television and computer times for our kids.”
Tags: television, health, medical-research, lifestyle-and-leisure, science-and-technology, research
Comments (14)
Comments for this story are closed, but you can still have your say.
ABC (Moderator):
12 Jan 2010 12:14:54pm
How much TV do you watch?
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DaveM:
12 Jan 2010 12:31:00pm
Practically no TV, but at work and at home I spend a ridiculous amount of time sitting at a computer. Presumably, that incurs the same physiological risk factors as those highlighted in this study. But who can maintain concentration and focus on a task if they’re getting up to stretch or move every 20 minutes?
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rohan:
12 Jan 2010 1:34:42pm
Standing without the 20 minute breaks can be an alternative – see this similar report : http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2007/1115-hamilton-inactivity.php and how one IT worker has converted to standing : http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1001-standing-versus-sitting
Not sure how many organisations would support the shift…
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John:
12 Jan 2010 12:33:06pm
From the article: "He says that shows too much sitting is bad for our health."
So where does that leave the thousands of people who sit in front of screens all day, as required by their employers? Will sitting in front of a screen all day turn out to be deadlier than asbestos? (I’m betting it will in terms of hours of life lost across the community.)
The next question is whether employers will be facing compo claims that make asbestos claims seem like lose change? I bet that few employers would be willing to change work practices to improve employees cardiovascular health, if it means less "productive" hours in front of the screen. These employers are effectively converting their employees life expectancy into profit.
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Office Worker Phil:
12 Jan 2010 12:33:18pm
I would like to find a program to load on my computor that interrupts my work every 20 minutes and prompts me to do exercise.
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DaveM:
12 Jan 2010 12:44:15pm
I had one and ignored it. I’d think ‘just five more minutes to finish this [x]‘ and then before you knew it there’d be another reminder, and another…
It’s not on my computer any more. Kept interrupting me too much.
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Rose:
12 Jan 2010 12:51:26pm
There are a couple of programs available out there that remind you to have breaks. The last 2 places I have worked for has had them implemented.
If you look up Strech Break reminder software in google you will find some results.
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stealthpooch:
12 Jan 2010 12:45:31pm
so is it actually TV that’s doing to damage or is the ‘TV bad for you health’ headline just a ploy to get people interested in the study? I mean, if I sit and embroider or read for 3 hours a night, wouldn’t I be at just as much risk as someone who sits in front of the television? At least, that’s what I think this study is indicating.
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Mike:
12 Jan 2010 1:11:17pm
The solution is simple, you want to watch TV, power it using a bicycle! Fours of TV equals no sitting + four hours of exercise!
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Rachael:
12 Jan 2010 12:49:46pm
Sedentary lifestyles are unhealthy? Well thank you, captain obvious.
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captain not so:
12 Jan 2010 1:23:23pm
actually, this wasn’t obvious at all. i, like a lot of us commenters, spend a lot of time sitting at my computer. i’ve always thought the exercise i do most afternoons makes up for this, and my bmi and high overall health would support such a notion. but from this research it appears that i may be exposing myself to risk factors i hadn’t even considered, such as a "disruption to the body’s regulatory processes."
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Rhys McKenzie:
12 Jan 2010 1:30:38pm
What about reading books in a nice comfy chair?
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Richard hill:
12 Jan 2010 1:51:38pm
This is a real worry, so all of those health and lifestyle programes that I watch are actually sending me to an early grave?
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The Unforlorn:
12 Jan 2010 1:54:26pm
I had no idea that watching tv in, lotus position, on my rug, was actually killing me…
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I almost never give the TV my full attention. I only watch it while exercising, brushing/flossing my teeth, or dressing.
Cross-posted from Promised Land.
Other recent posts on the latest wave of suppression of dissent in Israel| Essays Hadas Ziv; Hagai El-Ad; Yariv Mohar; Aeyal Gross; Dorit Abramovitch | News and analysis IDF joins assault on Israeli human rights community; Israeli media goes after New Israel Fund: “Responsible for Goldstone Report”; Hagee and CUFI fund anti-NIF campaign organizer; Two senior Maariv reporters attack the anti-NIF campaign sponsored by their newspaper |
Following the Im Tirzu campaign: First Knesset steps against NIF
We should see the attack on the New Israel Fund in context: this was no isolated event, but part of a widespread campaign against human rights and peace activists
David Rotem
The Knesset committee for legislation decided Wednesday to look into foreign donations to non-profit organizations operating in Israel, and among them, those received and disbursed by the New Israel Fund. The investigation will be led by the chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK David Rotem (Israel Beitenu,) and a special subcommittee, to be formed immediately. Meanwhile, MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) is pushing for a special Knesset investigation aimed against all Israeli human rights organizations which testified before the Goldstone commission.
Maariv reports that in a heated debate at the Knesset legislation committee, MK Zevulun Orlev (NRP) accused the NIF, Meretz party and the Israeli left of treason, no less:
“…NIF sponsors elements which are hostile to the state, and [by doing so] it causes us an unimaginable damage, not unlike our worse enemies… Meretz party has crossed the lines… former MK Naomi Chazan, which heads the NIF, has also crossed the lines.”
Yulia Shamalov Berkovich
MK Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich from opposition party Kadima joined the attack on the NIF in saying that:
“We must say to all Israel-haters that enough is enough. We won’t sit quietly when our enemies from home try to lead an undemocratic revolution here, encouraging boycott, desertion and pacifistic refusal to serve in the IDF, based on lies and distortions. We must draw our lines and tell the traitors to our people that this is enough.”
Im Tirzu, a right-wing nonprofit organization, has launched last week a campaign against the NIF, claiming it sponsors organizations that support Hamas. In a front page story in Maariv, senior political correspondent Ben Caspit quoted a “research” by Im Tirzu, which supposedly showed how the NIF was responsible for 92 percent of the anti-Israeli evidence in the Goldstone report. Caspit went even further, and raised the notion the all the NIF activities in Israel – the fund aids more than 300 grassroots and social justice organizations – are a cover for anti-Israeli subversion.
Gilad Erdan
Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) which represented the government in the Knesset debate, praised Im Tirzu: “it is a Zionist organization, which is doing a very important and positive work.” During the debate, minister Erdan referred to judge Goldstone as “this liar”.
—————————
One of the contributors to the progressive Jewschool blog asked yesterday how this campaign against the NIF and other nonprofits different from the smear campaigns we have seen against the left in the past.
While it is true that the Right has been attacking human rights organizations for as long as they existed in Israel, things have changed in the last few months, and those who care about Israeli politics should be aware of those changes.
Ad on page 3 of the January 31 edition of the Jerusalem Post.
For start, the nature and the intensity of the attack changed. The Im Tirzu ads against the NIF shocked many American Jews — they reminded almost everyone of anti-Semitic cartoons — but in Israel they were considered legitimate. The tabloids had no problem publishing them, and you can still catch them as banners on popular news sites as Ynet.co.il and nrg.co.il. In fact, I don’t know of a paper or site that refused to run this ad. What’s even more important is the personalized nature of the attack – specifically targeting the head of the NIF, Naomi Chazan. We haven’t seen such viscous personal attacks since the assassination of PM Yitzhak Rabin.
Second, and unlike the attack on left wing politicians during the Oslo days, this time it is not only the political right that goes after human rights activists. And it’s not just smears. We are talking official government and Knesset policies, and real measures being taken. When minister Erdan praised Im Tirzu in the Knesset, he did so as the official representative of the government to the committee. This government includes even the labor party (though some labor MK’s came out in the NIF’s defense). In fact, some of the dominant figures in the campaign against the NIF are MK’s from opposition party Kadima, which under Tzipi Livni claim to represent the pro-peace alternative to Netanyahu’s Likud! Kadima’s official website even posted Im Tirzu’s accusations against the NIF.
Going after the left is now a policy which crosses party lines in Israel, with some of Israel’s most notable media people – Avri Gilad, Yair Lapid, Ben Dror Yemini and more – making a habit of attacking human rights organizations. Gilad and Yemini specifically joined the campaign against the NIF, repeating right wing lies and distorting facts. and if that’s wasn’t enough, this morning, the Israeli Government Press Office translated and disseminated Yemini’s article. Read more…
To read more about the right-wing Israeli campaign to smear NIF and other Israeli human rights organizations and the threat to Israeli democracy that it poses click here.
New Zealand Virgin Auctions Herself For Tuition Money
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A New Zealand teenager who says she auctioned her virginity online for $32,000 to raise tuition money did not break any laws but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal, police warned Wednesday…
Shoshana and I photographed at home by our friend Margalit who was visiting from Jerusalem, January 2010. Shoshana’s paintings are in the background.
Peres Passes Peace Torch to Fayyad
Calls Palestinian PM ‘Ben-Gurionist,’ dismisses one-state solution
By Marc Tracy | 3:00 pm Feb 2, 2010 | Print | Email / Share
Peres speaking at Herzliya today.
CREDIT: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
At the Herzliya Conference, Israeli President Shimon Peres—86 years old, he is the last of the original Labor Zionist founders of the state of Israel—called Prime Minister Salam Fayyad “the Palestinians’ first Ben-Gurionist.” David Ben-Gurion, of course, was Israel’s first prime minister, the crucial participant in its immediate political creation, and Peres’s mentor; to call Fayyad a Ben-Gurionist, then, is to recognize the legitimacy of Fayyad’s desire for a Palestinian state. Peres specifically praised Fayyad’s focus on building in the Palestinian territories the infrastructure and institutions that any sovereign, competent state needs to have.
Peres also spoke against the so-called one-state solution, in which a single bi-national country encompassing all the land between the river and the sea would be formed: “There is no country which can hold two nations,” Peres argued, “because then there will be a conflict between people, which brings about terror, which will make life impossible. There is no choice but to settle our relations, in order to prevent terror from determining our sons’ fate.”
Peres’s “Ben-Gurionist” comment feels a little like an anointment (it feels like when Ted Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama). Hopefully the characterization will prove apt.
Meanwhile, do check in on Judith Miller’s dispatches from Herzliya for Tablet Magazine.
Her obit on The Poetry Asylum LJ community
Her bio: Think: a tomboy smartass geek in a bunny suit. Ok, wait… I’m part tomboy and part floor-length velvet with fishnets. I just moved back to my hometown after 8 years in Seattle and travels to 23 other cities. Talk to me because I can write poetry that doesn’t suck, but you won’t have to hear it. Because I make people look like rock stars for a living. Because I [have] no idea what’s going to happen next, but I’m ready for anything. Literally. Because I may be the one who can keep up with you. Because I’m an excellent co-pilot. Because I’ve had a motorcycle license and have the recipe for lemon bars memorized. But enough about me… Because you like curves. Because you want someone to watch Blade Runner for the 127th time. Because you need someone in your life who knows the difference between xlr, rca, ieee, and bnc cables. Because you can teach me something new. Because you haven’t met enough women who work hard, play hard and then go out for an IPA with a bourbon back. Because you know that secretly, women in control want to not have to be all that all the time. Not only do you already know that, but you’re strong enough to do something about it.
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