Monday, January 31, 2011

Seth's Blog

A friend sent me a copy of a new book about basketball coach Don Meyer. Don was one of the most successful college basketball coaches of all time, apparently. It's quite a sad book—sad because of his tragic accident, but also sad because it's a vivid story about a misguided management technque.

Meyer's belief was that he could become an external compass and taskmaster to his players. By yelling louder, pushing harder and relentlessly riding his players, his plan was to generate excellence by bullying them. The hope was that over time, people would start pushing themselves, incorporating Don's voice inside their head, but in fact, this often turns out to be untrue. People can be pushed, but the minute you stop, they stop. If the habit you've taught is to achieve in order to avoid getting chewed out, once the chewing out stops, so does the achievement.

It might win basketball games, but it doesn't scale and it doesn't last. When Don left the room (or the players graduated), the team stopped winning.

A second way to manage people is to create competition. Pit people against one another and many of them will respond. Post all the grades on a test, with names, and watch people try to outdo each other next time. Promise a group of six managers that one of them will get promoted in six months and watch the energy level rise. Want to see little league players raise their game? Just let them know the playoffs are in two weeks and they're one game out of contention.

Again, there's human nature at work here, and this can work in the short run. The problem, of course, is that in every competition most competitors lose. Some people use that losing to try harder next time, but others merely give up. Worse, it's hard to create the cooperative environment that fosters creativity when everyone in the room knows that someone else is out to defeat them.

Both the first message (the bully with the heart of gold) and the second (creating scarce prizes) are based on a factory model, one of scarcity. It's my factory, my basketball, my gallery and I'm going to manipulate whatever I need to do to get the results I need. If there's only room for one winner, it seems these approaches make sense.

The third method, the one that I prefer, is to open the door. Give people a platform, not a ceiling. Set expectations, not to manipulate but to encourage. And then get out of the way, helping when asked but not yelling from the back of the bus.

When people learn to embrace achievement, they get hooked on it. Take a look at the incredible achievements the alumni of some organizations achieve after they move on. When adults (and kids) see the power of self-direction and realize the benefits of mutual support, they tend to seek it out over and over again.

In a non-factory mindset, one where many people have the opportunity to use the platform (I count the web and most of the arts in this category), there are always achievers eager to take the opportunity. No, most people can't manage themselves well enough to excel in the way you need them to, certainly not immediately. But those that can (or those that can learn to) are able to produce amazing results, far better than we ever could have bullied them into. They turn into linchpins, solving problems you didn't even realize you had. A new generation of leaders is created...

And it lasts a lifetime.

Go away

Check out this website I found at 27bslash6.com

Friday, January 28, 2011

Eight weeks to a better brain | Harvard Gazette

Participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. In a study that will appear in the Jan. 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Harvard-affiliated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reported the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain’s gray matter.

“Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology. “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”

Previous studies from Lazar’s group and others found structural differences between the brains of experienced meditation practitioners and individuals with no history of meditation, observing thickening of the cerebral cortex in areas associated with attention and emotional integration. But those investigations could not document that those differences were actually produced by meditation.

For the current study, magnetic resonance (MR) images were taken of the brain structure of 16 study participants two weeks before and after they took part in the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. In addition to weekly meetings that included practice of mindfulness meditation — which focuses on nonjudgmental awareness of sensations, feelings, and state of mind — participants received audio recordings for guided meditation practice and were asked to keep track of how much time they practiced each day. A set of MR brain images was also taken of a control group of nonmeditators over a similar time interval.

Meditation group participants reported spending an average of 27 minutes each day practicing mindfulness exercises, and their responses to a mindfulness questionnaire indicated significant improvements compared with pre-participation responses. The analysis of MR images, which focused on areas where meditation-associated differences were seen in earlier studies, found increased gray-matter density in the hippocampus, known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion, and introspection.

Participant-reported reductions in stress also were correlated with decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress. Although no change was seen in a self-awareness-associated structure called the insula, which had been identified in earlier studies, the authors suggest that longer-term meditation practice might be needed to produce changes in that area. None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that they had not resulted merely from the passage of time.

“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life,” says Britta Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany. “Other studies in different patient populations have shown that meditation can make significant improvements in a variety of symptoms, and we are now investigating the underlying mechanisms in the brain that facilitate this change.”

Amishi Jha, a University of Miami neuroscientist who investigates mindfulness-training’s effects on individuals in high-stress situations, says, “These results shed light on the mechanisms of action of mindfulness-based training. They demonstrate that the first-person experience of stress can not only be reduced with an eight-week mindfulness training program but that this experiential change corresponds with structural changes in the amygdala, a finding that opens doors to many possibilities for further research on MBSR’s potential to protect against stress-related disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.” Jha was not one of the study investigators.

James Carmody of the Center for Mindfulness at University of Massachusetts Medical School is one of the co-authors of the study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the British Broadcasting Company, and the Mind and Life Institute. For more information on the work of Lazar’s team.

Raising the bar on disaster relief | Harvard Gazette

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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

State of the Union: A Call for Unity in Moving Forward - TIME

President Obama delivers his State of the Union address, Jan. 25, 2011

Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images

Nearly three months into his presidency, Barack Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University outlining his vision for his Administration. The title, "New Foundation," wasn't too catchy, and Obama began his talk by warning that "this is going to be prose and not poetry." But it provided a coherent theory of the case: Obama-ism was about laying the long-term groundwork for the economy of the future. For several weeks, Obama kept dropping "new foundation" into his remarks — about health care, education, even consumer protection. One aide thought about launching a New Foundation website to make the phrase synonymous with the Obama brand.

It never happened. "We got busy," the aide recalls. The Administration's focus shifted. The message drifted. The economy sputtered. Voters punished the President and his party last November.

Now the new foundation is back. Not the slogan, but the notion. A few details have changed. The "five pillars" that Obama unveiled in April 2009 did not include corporate tax cuts, regulatory reform or malpractice reform — all cherished Republican ideas that he floated in his State of the Union, implicitly acknowledging the new political realities. And this speech did not dwell so long on financial reform or health reform, both bygone partisan achievements that he'd rather not relitigate and yet another acknowledgment of the new balance of power. (See the full text of the speech.)

Still, Obama's formula last night for "Winning the Future" was basically a revival of his original new foundation: innovation, education, clean energy and infrastructure, eventually followed by deficit reduction. In fact, almost all of his policy proposals involved expanding or extending big-ticket items from the $787 billion stimulus package enacted during his first month in office: his Race to the Top education program, his $2,500-a-year tuition tax credit, his high-speed rail program, his broadband initiatives and his aggressive push to promote green energy and green manufacturing. He even gave a shout-out to the supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which became the fastest in the world after it received a $20 million stimulus-funded upgrade — and before it was overtaken by a supercomputer in China. (See pictures of Hu Jintao's visit to the White House.)

Obama mentioned that one too. His speech was also about competitiveness, and he made it clear that where the U.S. is falling behind its rivals is in research, education and transportation. But his emphasis was really on us, not us against them.

That was also his political emphasis. He repeatedly called for common ground, offering to correct a provision in his health reforms that could inundate small businesses with paperwork, proposing a five-year freeze in domestic spending, promising to veto any bill with earmarks, and calling for a reorganization of a government that puts salmon under the jurisdiction of one agency when they're in freshwater and another agency when they're in saltwater. "It gets even more complicated when they're smoked," he quipped. Obama did emphasize his commitment to vulnerable citizens, to health reform and to eliminating subsidies for the oil industry. But he's got a knack for making progressive ideas sound moderate, reasonable and uncontroversial, which is one reason he drives his ideological adversaries crazy. Who would want to pull the engine out of an airplane to lighten its load?

"I continue to agree with 80% of what the President says, but disagree with 80% of what he actually does," groused Republican Congressman Jeb Hensarling, a leader of House conservatives, in a statement after the speech.

Last night's Republican message — in the official response by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan and the rapid responses from his colleagues — was that Obama is simply doubling down on Big Government, that investment is just a fancy way of saying spending, that Democrats don't care about the $14 trillion national debt. The phrase "failed stimulus" came up a lot. At times in his presidency, most elaborately in the "New Foundation" speech, Obama has challenged these attacks, explaining how the deficit exploded before he reached the White House, how GOP tax cuts created far more debt than the stimulus ever did, how joblessness and the deficit would both be much worse without that "failed stimulus." Last night, he didn't really bother.

Apparently, Obama has moved past the debates of last year. Politically, at least, he lost them. He isn't renouncing any of his core beliefs or legislative accomplishments, but he isn't asking for a rematch, either.

This rope-a-dope is sure to frustrate progressives who are still spoiling for a fight. They're angry about Obama's recent compromise to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and they don't understand why he's so solicitous of opponents who have opposed all his initiatives in lockstep, who seem to define bipartisanship as Democrats doing their bidding. (Comment on this story.)

But Obama's approval ratings have been rising ever since he acknowledged his "shellacking" in November. He keeps signaling to the public that he's reaching out to Republicans, even though he's still pushing policies they've been denouncing for two years. It wasn't his choice to swim upstream — the midterm voters made that call — but evidently he's got something in common with those salmon. He gets even more complicated when he's been smoked.

See TIME's Pictures of the Week.

See the Cartoons of the Week.

House Calls for Deep Spending Cuts

By JANET HOOK and SIOBHAN HUGHES

WASHINGTON—The Republican-controlled House, hours before the State of the Union address, passed a resolution Tuesday calling for more drastic and immediate cuts in domestic spending than envisioned by President Barack Obama in the speech.

[SPEND_ALT] Bloomberg News

Paul Ryan has become the GOP's leading spokesman on fiscal issues.

The resolution, approved on a 256-165 vote, calls for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) to dramatically lower the ceiling on government spending in the remaining seven months of the current budget year.

Seventeen Democrats voted for the measure. No Republicans opposed it.

The vote was largely symbolic, as the House had already passed a rule giving Mr. Ryan that authority. But Republicans wanted to bring the issue to a vote to draw a contrast with Mr. Obama on their spending plans.

The president was expected to propose freezing discretionary, nonsecurity spending at current levels for five years. That would save about $26 billion over five years, according to the White House budget proposal for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The State of the Union Is...

Pick the words that you think best complete the president's sentences.

Speech Patterns

Review the main topics and words used in President Obama's address this year and compare with 2009 and 2010.

The Republican resolution calls for rolling back spending on domestic, nonsecurity-related programs to 2008 levels or lower. That could cut spending by as much as $100 billion from Mr. Obama's request for the current fiscal year.

Both proposals would leave Social Security and Medicare unaffected.

"Business as usual has to come to an end," said Mr. Ryan, who has emerged as the GOP's leading spokesman on fiscal issues. "The days of getting spending under control are just beginning."

Democrats argued that spending reductions sought by the GOP could damage the still-struggling economy.

"Deep, immediate cuts…would hurt the economy when it's in a very fragile state and risk throwing more Americans out of work," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.).

Mr. Ryan is likely to set the 2011 spending ceiling by the end of this week, after the Congressional Budget Office issues its annual report Wednesday estimating the current size and trajectory of government spending and the deficit.

Republicans' decisions about where specifically to cut spending to meet their overall target will be made in the coming weeks, as the House Appropriations Committee drafts legislation to extend a government-wide spending bill that expires March 4.

The legislation needs to be approved by the Senate. The spending cuts are unlikely to be as deep in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said Tuesday that the bill would be on the House floor the week of Feb. 13. House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R., Ky.) warned that the cuts would require more than painless trims of waste and fraud.

"The cuts that are coming will not be easy to make. They will not represent low-hanging fruit," said Mr. Rogers.

"It will not be easy, it will not be quick, and it will not be without pain," he said.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com

Obama Calls for Partial Spending Freeze in State of the Union Address

By JONATHAN WEISMAN And JANET HOOK

[obaunion] Getty Images

Mr. Obama said the U.S. couldn't afford to back away from new spending on programs to boost competitiveness, while also calling for a freeze on certain programs.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address Tuesday to ask the nation to meet the challenges of a global economy, framing what he called a competitiveness agenda that includes traditional Democratic proposals like increased education spending, alongside gestures to Republicans seeking deep budget cuts.

President Obama addressed the nation on the economy, innovation and healthcare during his State of the Union speech.

Mr. Obama said the nation needs to address its rising budget deficit but couldn't afford to back away from new spending on programs that he said would allow the U.S. to compete with rising powers like China and India—an approach Republicans were quick to reject as unaffordable. Mr. Obama also laid out areas of potential cooperation between the parties, such as a call to rewrite the corporate tax code.

The president answered Republican calls for steep budget cuts with a far more modest proposal to freeze a portion of government spending for five years. The bulk of his speech had larger aims: to recapture the policy initiative after his party's devastating losses in November and to inspire a nation worried about its place in a sometimes threatening global economy.

"We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world," Mr. Obama said in tones that resembled a halftime pep talk. "We have to make America the best place on earth to do business."

More than two months after what he described as his party's "shellacking" in midterm elections, Mr. Obama didn't appear to be on the defense. His pivot to the political center has boosted his poll ratings and captured the nation's attention. Before a national television audience, he hoped to use that attention to recapture the momentum on policy—or at least share it with resurgent Republicans.

Among other proposals, Mr. Obama called on the nation to prepare 100,000 new math, science and engineering teachers. He used the Cold War imagery of the Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite more than half a century ago to exhort a new generation to counter a new challenge: global competition.

Obama Addresses the Nation

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

President Obama was applauded by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner prior to delivering his State of the Union address.

"After investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs,'' Mr. Obama said.

And he laid down a series of goals: By 2035, he said 80% of America's electricity should come from clean energy sources. Within 25 years, 80% of Americans should have access to high-speed rail. Within five years, communications businesses should be able to deploy high-speed wireless to 98% of all Americans. He did little to explain how those goals would be reached beyond pledges to boost federal spending on infrastructure and basic research.

Much of what the president called for to boost the nation's competitiveness are items he has pushed for two years. Many of them—such as investments in high-speed rail, expanded Internet access and more infrastructure spending—were central to his stimulus plan of 2009.

But in some cases, Mr. Obama pressed to move to a new level. For instance, he said he would launch a national wireless initiative to augment an earlier push for broadband Internet access in rural areas.

And he said he would use expanded tax rebates and competitive grant programs to get consumers to buy electric vehicles and help communities build the infrastructure for the next generation of clean cars. That piggybacks on the stimulus program's efforts to stimulate advanced battery production.

In the Republicans' formal response, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said his party would take the lead in shrinking government and reducing spending.

President Barack Obama says "This is our generation's Sputnik moment" during Tuesday's State of the Union address.

"Our nation is approaching a tipping point,'' said Mr. Ryan. "We are at a moment, where if government's growth is left unchecked and unchallenged, America's best century will be considered our past century. This is a future in which we will transform our social safety net into a hammock, which lulls able-bodied people into lives of complacency and dependency."

He also derided Democrats' effort to describe new spending proposals as "investments."

"Whether sold as 'stimulus' or repackaged as 'investment,' their actions show they want a federal government that controls too much; taxes too much; and spends too much in order to do too much," Mr. Ryan said.

Republicans were underwhelmed by the president's pledge to freeze spending for five years on nonsecurity, discretionary spending. Such spending is a relatively small portion of total outlays, accounting for roughly 15% of the $3.5 trillion spent by the federal government last year.

"It strikes me as too little, too late," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas), a member of the new Republican House leadership team. "After this huge inflation of spending, he's willing to level-fund it. If that's his idea of fiscal responsibility, this nation is in deep trouble."

Mr. Obama's freeze proposal in essence extends a plan for a three-year freeze that he laid out in his State of the Union speech a year ago. Even Democrats were calling for a more aggressive approach, at least in defense spending.

In urging lawmakers to rewrite corporate tax law, Mr. Obama said tax breaks should be eliminated in order to cover the cost of lowering the corporate tax rate. If Congress follows through, the process is sure to set off a lobbying scramble among businesses and could serve as a precursor to the more difficult task of rewriting tax law for individuals—an effort that Mr. Obama also said he was willing to undertake.

White House officials said the overhaul should be revenue-neutral: neither raise additional revenue nor add to the deficit.

The president called for $8 billion a year in research and development on clean-energy technologies, a one-third increase, toward a goal of putting one million clean cars on the road by 2015. He also called for eliminating $4 billion in tax deductions to oil companies to help cover the cost of the new spending, a proposal the oil industry said was unfair and would hurt jobs.

"It is difficult to understand why we need to discriminate against our single largest form of energy at a time the nation needs additional jobs and revenue," said Jack Gerard, chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, a Washington, D.C., trade group that represents most major oil companies.

Mr. Obama proposed his programs to a Congress where much of the political momentum is flowing toward austerity. Before the president took to the podium, the House voted to give Mr. Ryan broad new powers to cut spending quickly.

Getty Images

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., NY), left, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) were one of the bipartisan pairs watching the State of the Union Tuesday.

thennow/obajump

thennow/obajump

On Wednesday, a group of Senate Republicans planned to revive a push for a constitutional amendment mandating balanced budgets, an issue little heard of since the heyday of the Republican "revolution" of 1994.

Mr. Obama delivered only one veto threat in his State of the Union address. He said he will not sign spending bills that contain pet projects of lawmakers, known as earmarks.

Republicans have vowed to forgo earmarks, but Democrats have generally declined to join them. Banning earmarks "takes power away from the legislative branch of government, and I think it's the wrong thing to do," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

Some of Mr. Obama's proposals seemed aimed at pleasing business groups. The president promised to work with Republicans on "medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits." He called for quick action on free-trade agreements, especially the newly completed free-trade accord with South Korea.

The State of the Union Is...

Pick the words that you think best complete the president's sentences.

Speech Patterns

Review the main topics and words used in President Obama's address this year and compare with 2009 and 2010.

Mr. Obama extended an invitation to lawmakers to address Social Security's looming financial crunch, as the Baby Boom generation retires. But he made clear he would oppose dramatic changes unsuccessfully pushed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, who wanted to allow some Social Security taxes to be invested in the stock market.

Mr. Obama said he would oppose "slashing benefits" for future retirees, but that left open the possibility of benefit trims that budget experts in both parties believe is necessary.

The president pledged to offset his proposed spending increases with cuts elsewhere. His five-year freeze on nonsecurity domestic spending, while affecting a small part of the overall budget, would nonetheless shrink anticipated budget deficits by more than $400 billion over the next decade, said Gene Sperling, director of Mr. Obama's National Economic Council.

Mr. Obama didn't detail the kind of efforts that would shrink government as much as Republicans have demanded. But he promised a reorganization of the federal government, including merging and consolidating agencies, and vowed to submit such a plan to Congress for a vote.

—Russell Gold contributed to this article.

Write to Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com

The President’s State of the Union Address: What They’re Saying | The White House

The White House Blog

The President’s State of the Union Address: What They’re Saying

Posted by Jesse Lee on January 26, 2011 at 09:02 AM EST

The reactions have been pouring in since the President gave his State of the Union Address last night.  If you missed it, you should by all means read the speech or watch the video of our first-ever “enhanced” presentation of the Address, but we thought you might also be interested in some of the early responses from observers across the country:

Newspapers and Magazines

Wall Street Journal: “President Barack Obama Used His State of the Union Address to Challenge Lawmakers in Both Parties to Rise Above Partisan Divisions to Tackle Problems that Will Allow the U.S. to Compete in the Global Economy.” “President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to challenge lawmakers in both parties to rise above partisan divisions to tackle problems that will allow the U.S. to compete in the global economy.” [WSJ, 1/25/11]

New York Times: Obama Called “For Americans to Unleash Their Creative Spirits, Set Aside Their Partisan Differences and Come Together Around a Common Goal of Out-Competing Other Nations in a Rapidly Shifting Global Economy.” “President Obama called Tuesday night for Americans to unleash their creative spirits, set aside their partisan differences and come together around a common goal of out-competing other nations in a rapidly shifting global economy.” [NY Times, 1/25/11]

MarketWatch: “President Barack Obama Urged Lawmakers to Set Aside Partisan Differences and Bolster the Economic Recovery and America’s Competitiveness…” “…President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to set aside partisan differences and bolster the economic recovery and America’s competitiveness in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. In an address before a joint session of Congress, Obama laid out a blueprint for job creation and ‘investments’ in the United States, saying the U.S. must “out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world.” [Marketwatch, 1/25/11

Forbes Blog: “President Obama Appealed to Democrats and Republicans to Put Aside Partisan Differences and Work Together to Restore American Competitiveness.” “In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Obama appealed to Democrats and Republicans to put aside partisan differences and work together to restore American competitiveness.” [Forbes Blog, 1/25/11]

New York Times Editorial: “Mr. Obama Did Not Wade Into Every Fight and Ignored Some. But He Did Take on Some Tough Ones… Americans Need to Hear a Lot More Like That from Mr. Obama in Weeks to Come.” “Mr. Obama’s speech offered a welcome contrast to all of the posturing that passes for business in the new Republican-controlled House. On Tuesday, House Republicans pushed through a resolution calling for reducing spending on domestic programs to 2008 levels.  That will not do much, if anything, to bring down the long-term deficit. In a fragile economy, especially, cutting back spending on transportation, education, scientific research, food safety and childhood nutrition, will do huge damage. Mr. Obama did not wade into every fight and ignored some. But he did take on some tough ones. He said it is time, for example, to stop deporting young people who were brought to America by undocumented immigrants and are now successful students. Americans need to hear a lot more like that from Mr. Obama in weeks to come.” [NY Times, Editorial, 1/26/11]

Roll Call: “In a Speech That Echoed the Voices of Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy…Obama Hammered the Message That the American Dream Is Still Within Reach…At the Heart of His Road Map Is a Plan to Put the Nation on a Strict Fiscal Diet While Also Making Targeted Investments In Clean Energy and Infrastructure to Boost the Economy.” “In a speech that echoed the voices of Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy, who led the nation through another period of economic and emotional transition, Obama hammered the message that the American dream is still within reach but only if people can meet the demands of a new age…Obama, speaking for about an hour, used much of his address laying out his vision for moving the country forward based on five themes: innovation, education, building, reform and responsibility. And at the heart of his road map is a plan to put the nation on a strict fiscal diet while also making targeted investments in clean energy and infrastructure to boost the economy.” [Roll Call, 1/26/11]

Experts, Commentators and Pundits

Brookings Institution’s Bill Galston: “President Obama Offered a Wide-Ranging Program for Revitalizing the American Economy and Retaining U.S. Global Economic Leadership… It Is a Narrative, Not of Anger or Resentment, But of Optimism and Hope.” “In a State of the Union address devoted almost entirely to domestic matters, President Obama offered a wide-ranging program for revitalizing the American economy and retaining U.S. global economic leadership. His agenda rested on five pillars: spurring innovation, reforming education, rebuilding America’s infrastructure, removing barriers to business success, and regaining fiscal balance… In short, President Obama argued, the main drivers of economic change are technology and globalization and (he implied) not trade or corporate misconduct.  This is the narrative favored by mainstream liberals and mainstream conservatives, and also by corporate leaders, but not by populists of either the left or the right.  It is a narrative, not of anger and resentment, but of optimism and hope.” [Brookings Institution’s Bill Galston Blog, 1/25/11

E.J. Dionne: “A Smart Speech…Reassuring Americans That We Can Overcome Challenges to Our Economic Power…Embracing the Idea of America As an Exceptional Nation That Always, Well, Wins the Future.” “It was a smart speech aimed at scrambling the political debate, reassuring Americans that we can overcome challenges to our economic power, and redefining the political center…Obama has clearly decided to take that challenge on, embracing the idea of America as an exceptional nation that always, well, wins the future.” [WashingtonPost.com, 1/25/11]

David Gergen Tweeted That Pres. Obama’s State of the Union Speech “May Not Be What People Want To Hear But It Is What We All Need To Hear.” [Twitter, 1/25/11]

ABC’s Christian Amanpour Said President Obama’s Speech Was “Reagan-esque” in its Optimism and “Full of Kennedy-esque Encouragement to Break a New Frontier.” “Well, full of sunny optimism, very Reagan-esque, on and on about American exceptionalism in many, many instances, and full of Kennedy-esque encouragement to break a new frontier. That "Sputnik" moment was remarkable – of course, harking back to 1957 when the Soviet Union put the first unmanned satellite in space and started the space race and really launched a whole new era of technological, scientific, and all sorts of progress – and the president calling for more of that here.” [ABC News, 1/25/11]

Time’sMark Halperin: Pres. Obama’s State of the Union Address Marked A Return To His Inspirational 2004 Self. “Whatever happens next, the president's 2011 State of the Union speech represents not a new Barack Obama, but a return to the original version.  You know the one. The magnetic Barack Obama of the ‘Red American/Blue America’ 2004 Democratic convention speech. The distinguished Barack Obama whose non-ideological best-selling book captivated the nation. The inspiring Barack Obama whose post-partisan rhetoric and promise won him the White House with decisive support, including from independent voters. Tuesday, that Obama, optimistic and unifying, borrowed from the best of his predecessors, as all smart politicians do... [Time, 1/25/11]

  • Halperin: Pres. Obama’s “Soaring State Of The Union” Was “Close To Flawless” In Presentation And A “Return To His Rhetorical Roots.”“Obama's presentation was close to flawless: upbeat and animated, leisurely and assured, surprisingly engaging even when he lapsed into the professorial mode he favors over tub-thumping...As the president declared in his speech, there will be tough political fights ahead.  Tuesday's feel-good tableau was fueled by well-crafted words that are, in the end, just words.  But by returning to his rhetorical roots -- as a progressive who believes America can meet its challenges only by working across partisan lines and rejecting tired old politics and extremist demands -- Obama harnessed the momentum he has had following his December bustle and Tucson leadership to achieve a soaring State of the Union.” [Time, 1/25/11]

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: Obama Brought Both Parties to Their Feet 45 Times – “I Think That Sets a Record for Modern States of the Union.” “And he brought both parties to their feet, Diane, at least 45 times, from our count. 45 instances of bipartisan applause. I think that sets a record for modern States of the Union.” [ABC News, 1/25/11]

CBS News’ Katie Couric and Jeff Greenfield: President Obama’s Speech Was “Reaganesque.”

COURIC: And in many ways, you felt this speech tonight was almost downright Reaganesque. There have been some comparisons made in recent days about how this could be his Reagan moment. Do you think it was in any way?

JEFF GREENFIELD: I think there was an effort on several grounds. One, the story telling was woven throughout the speech. Every political point or policy point he wanted to make was illustrated with that. Second, it was the future. He kept talking about winning the future and that was always a big theme about Reagan. It's not left/right, it's the past versus the future. Perhaps, most of all, the constant reiteration of optimism. We do big things, there isn't a person here who would trade places with anyone else on earth. I know we'll get there. That's almost like Martin Luther king, I’ve been to the mountain top. So in that sense he was clearly strike rhetorical notes that reminded me of Mr. Reagan. [CBS News, 1/25/11]

CNN’s Gloria Borger: “He Was a President Who Was Reaching Out to Republicans Saying I Get What You’re Saying I Understand It, But I’m Playing a Long Game Here. I Care About the Future of This Country As You Do. So We Have To Figure Out a Way To Do This Together.” “He was a president who was reaching out to Republicans saying I get what you're saying I understand it, but I’m playing the long game here. I care about the future of this country as do you. So we have to figure out a way to do this together, and I think it's something the public will respond to.” [CNN, 1/25/11]

CBS News’ Bob Schieffer: President Obama’s Speech Was “Well-Written” and Was “An Extension” of Obama’s Speech in Tucson.  “I thought the president had a very well-written speech, especially the beginning and the end… His Reagan moment was when he made that speech in Tucson. But I think he kind of built on that tonight. I thought this speech was something of an extension of that speech.” [CBS News, 1/25/11]

NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell: President Obama “Was Trying to Invoke the Optimism, the Can-Do Spirit That Brings to Mind Ronald Reagan in These Settings.” “That’s exactly what he was trying to get after. And I think he was trying to invoke the optimism, the can-do spirit that brings to mind Ronald Reagan in these settings. That, plus the heroes sitting with the first lady, of course, been replicated by all of the presidents since Reagan first did it in 1982. But the fact that he is trying to say we have passed the point of crisis, and now, we can do something, we can invest.” [NBC News, 1/25/11]

Howard Dean: “It Is a Very, Very Good Speech. I Am Delighted.” “I am going to be blunt about this I have seen the speech. It was leaked. It is a very, very good speech. I am delighted. I'm frankly a little surprised. The president is mindful of the deficit. He makes it clear he wants to work with the congress but with the most extraordinary thing is he lays down the gap gauntlet. Millionaires will have to pay more taxes if we are going to cut kids and other folks dependent on it. He made it clear this is going be a shared sacrifice and the tax cut extended for the people who make a million a year is not going to be extended again if we are going to do anything about the deficit. That was extraordinary. There is a lot of great stuff about the environment. I have to say, in print, we'll see how he delivers it, it is one of the most substantive speeches I have seen him make.” [MSNBC’s Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, 1/25/11]

  • Dean: “It Is a Statesman-Like Tone. He Sets Down Makers that Democrats Can Be Proud of.” “I have to say I’m jubilant about what the president is about to say. I didn't expect it. I didn't expect the tone. It is a statesman like tone. He sets down markers that democrats can be proud of.” [MSNBC’s Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, 1/25/11]

Fox News’ Juan Williams: “I Liked the Speech. The Reason Was I Thought it Spoke to Our American Moment.” “I liked the speech. The reason was I thought it spoke to our American moment. I thought this is not a moment for fake oratory that seeks to soar at this moment, because America needs to dig in and get some things done.” [Fox News, 1/25/11]

Donna Brazile Said President Obama’s Speech Would Be Remembered Not Only for the Words He Spoke, “But Because of the Spirit of Civility that Really Was in the Room Tonight.” “Now, this speech will be remembered not simply because of the worlds that he spoke, although uplifting, but because of the spirit of civility that really was in the room tonight.” [ABC News, 1/25/11]

Former Sen. Judd Gregg: “I Thought It Was an Excellent Speech… And He Was Actually Pretty Specific, I Thought, on Some of the Things He’s Willing to Put on the Table.” “Well, I thought it was an excellent speech, as you would expect. He was elegant. Especially at the end in his language. That we do big things, is a very American way of saying what we're about. And he was actually pretty specific, I thought, on some of the things he's willing to put on the table. Social security, tort reform, the issue of addressing the health care bill, not repealing it, but coming at it from different directions. Freezing spending for five years, discretionary spending. Tax reform, which I think is critical in my opinion, because we have the highest taxes in the nation than other industrialized states. Let's see where we go from here. I thought he outlined a whole series of specifics, if he's willing to sort of put -- he put the antes on the table. Will he follow up with the bid will be the question.” [CNBC, 1/25/11]

Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Dean Baker Praised Pres. Obama For Reaffirming His Commitment To Social Security. “However, the Wall Street crew and the people they fund in Washington have been vigorously pushing for sharp cuts in Social Security and Medicare, as though these programs were the program. President Obama resisted this pressure and reaffirmed his commitment to protecting Social Security both for current and future retirees. This was very courageous - he would have received much support from business and from the elite media if he had come out for gutting these programs - but he instead stood by these essential programs. This gets the second half of his term off to a solid start.” [Politico Arena, 1/25/11]

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Friday, January 14, 2011

Weight Loss After 40: Why It's So Hard -- and What Works

Every year, it s​eems, the needle on the scale is a little harder to budge. You cut back on portion size; you say, "No, thank you," to dessert; you sign up for an aerobics class -- and yet your jeans size goes up and your energy level goes down. What's going on?

Starting in our early 40s, our bodies go through a series of changes that affect the very core of our being. Thanks to hormonal and other changes, the very growth rate of our cells slows down. Some of these changes are the result of the natural aging process. It's just something we have to learn to work around.

Sometimes, though, something's gotten off track, metabolically speaking, and there's an underlying medical issue that needs to be dealt with before the usual weight-loss measures will have any effect. Here's a ten-step plan for understanding the challenges that prevent weight loss over 40, and for learning how to overcome them.

Seven Foods That Help You Lose Weight

1. Get to know your body's new biological rhythms -- and adjust to them.

In long-ago times, older didn't necessarily mean plumper. Think of those icons of the American prairie, the sinewy pitchfork-wielding farm couple pictured in American Gothic. But today, those of us over 40 face a twofold challenge: We're living longer, and we're no longer out there pitching hay to the cows at 5 a.m.

When it comes to burning calories, it's a fairly simple equation. What goes in must be burned off, or it sticks to our ribs. Acquiring weight is absurdly easy -- eating just 100 extra calories a day (100 more than what your body burns) will lead to a nine- to ten-pound weight gain over the course of a year, experts say. How much is 100 calories? Not a lot: A can of Coke contains 155 calories, a chocolate bar more than 200. Of course, that cola or chocolate chip cookie is no problem if we're walking or running it off. But after 40, our activity level tends to decline, too. So the challenge is to bring the two into balance.

Look back over the past year, and think about when your weight s​eemed to be holding steady and when it s​eemed to be trending slowly upward. What were you doing during the good weeks? What sabotaged you the other times? Make a list of what works for you, and what throws you off. Your own healthy habits in the past are the ones most likely to work for you now.

2. Eliminate underlying metabolic conditions.

Would it surprise you to know that thyroid problems strike as many as one out of five adults over age 40? The most common of these is hypothyroidism -- an underactive thyroid -- and hypothyroidism is one of the primary reasons many people over 40 can't lose weight. The thyroid is a tiny gland that produces hormones that regulate metabolism, and when it's underactive, so is everything else. Think of low thyroid as having your internal thermostat set too low. Symptoms include feeling cold all the time, poor circulation in the hands and feet, clammy hands, tiredness and lethargy, hair loss (including eyebrows and eyelashes), and weight gain -- despite real attempts to exercise and eat well.

If you suspect an underactive thyroid may be undermining your metabolism, the first step is to call the doctor and ask for a thyroid test. But beware: The first-line thyroid blood test, known as the TSH, is notoriously unreliable. And doctors are busy arguing about what's "normal" anyway. As of 2003, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists began recommending that the cutoff for normal TSH should be 3.0 versus the older standard of 5.5, but this news hasn't reached many labs or doctors. And lots of endocrinologists think having a TSH between 1 and 2 is ideal for maintaining normal body weight and function.

If your TSH result is above 3.0, make sure your doctor knows about the new recommendation. And ask for further testing; there are a number of additional tests that many experts believe give more accurate readings of thyroid function.

3. Adjust your eating habits for maximum energy.

Your goal at this stage in your life is to keep yourself feeling full without succumbing to the temptation to eat like you could at age 20. One strategy recommended by internist Julie Taw, MD, of Englewood, New Jersey, is to eat more frequently but to consume less at each sitting. An added benefit of eating this way is that it's easier to keep your blood sugar steady, so you don't have the peaks and valleys that contribute to fatigue.

Here's the rule: Try eating five to six small meals a day, and don't go more than three or four hours without eating. For example, you might eat a healthy breakfast before you leave for work, then have a nonfat yogurt in the late morning. Then instead of eating a big pasta lunch and spending the afternoon in a stupor, eat a light lunch and spend the rest of your lunch break taking a brisk walk. An afternoon snack of trail mix and an apple keeps you from needing the 4 p.m. sweet treat and makes it easier to avoid overeating at dinner.

Your goal is the opposite of the starvation approach to dieting -- you want to trick your body into feeling satisfied and well-fed at all times, though the total amount you're eating is less.

4. Time your eating to take advantage of your body's natural rhythms.

Don't like to eat breakfast? Sorry, but there's no way around this one; eating a good breakfast is one of the key habits experts have identified that keeps thin people thin. When members of the National Weight Control Registry (people who have maintained a weight loss of 30 pounds for between one and six years) were surveyed, 78 percent reported eating breakfast every day and almost 90 percent reported eating breakfast at least five days a week. This was one of the only factors researchers identified that those in the registry had in common!

5. Trick your metabolism with fat-fighting foods.

I know you've heard it before, but it's true: It's really not just about how much you eat, but how much of which foods. There are plenty of healthy foods you can eat all you want of -- and no, that doesn't mean stuffing your fridge with celery sticks, 1970s-style. Instead, make a few simple tweaks to your diet, incorporating foods that actually fight fat instead of those that trigger it. Then eat other foods in moderation, and you should be OK.

6. Make muscles an ally in your weight-loss campaign.

There's one thing the exercise gurus have gotten right: The more muscle mass you have, the more effectively your metabolism burns calories. But sad to say, a natural tendency of aging is to lose muscle, gradually replacing it with fat. So in order to enlist the calorie-burning abilities of muscle, we do have to work at it.

A common misconception, though, is to mix up muscle-building with aerobic exercise. Both are good, but the aerobic part -- though it does burn calories -- isn't what we're talking about here. What you really need to focus on for long-term benefit is basic strength training. Buy some hand weights, a bar, and some stretch bands, and channel your high school gym teacher. Make it as pleasant as possible; work out while you watch the evening news or your favorite sit-com. Slowly and gradually build up those biceps, abs, deltoids, and glutes, and you'll have some key allies in your fight to prevent age-related weight gain.

7. Get more sleep to burn more calories.

As any perimenopausal woman or hardworking man over 35 can tell you, sleep gets ever more elusive as you age. It's not just that we're busier and more stressed. We also have multiple physical issues, from back pain to snoring to night sweats, any of which can interfere with getting a good night's sleep.

Yet, paradoxically, getting a good night's sleep is one of the keys to losing weight, says neurologist David Simon of the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California. In recent years, significant research has shown that lack of sleep is directly connected to weight gain because of the actions of two hormones, leptin and ghrelin, that control hunger and satiety, or feeling full. When you're sleep deprived, your ghrelin levels increase at the same time that your leptin levels decrease. The result is more craving, less feeling full. Add to that the fact that sleep-deprived people often crave "energy" foods, which tend to be sweet or salty, and you can see how small changes in your routine can add up to big weight gain.

Lastly, there are tantalizing new studies suggesting that our bodies may be more metabolically active while we sleep than previously thought. So the longer we sleep, the more we rev up our inner fat-burning engines. (You still shouldn't snack late at night, though. Researchers also believe that calories eaten late in the evening are processed less efficiently than those consumed during the day, no matter how active our nighttime metabolism.)

Add these all together and you can see a pattern emerging: The older we are, the harder it is to get a good night's sleep -- and the less we sleep, the more likely it is we'll gain weight. What to do? Take steps to combat sleep problems and your waistline will benefit, too.

8. Strike up a healthy relationship with your sweet tooth.

If you're dying for a sweet treat, give it to yourself, savoring it slowly so it registers fully with your brain's pleasure sensors. A trick that many experts recommend: Cut the treat in half before you start eating, carefully wrapping the second half up to "save for later." You may or may not want it -- sometimes if you eat the first half slowly and consciously enough, you'll feel satisfied. But knowing it's there if you do plays a nice trick on your brain, which tends to crave things it perceives as being in short supply.

Also, don't try to substitute artificially flavored sweets. Researchers have recently discovered that artificial sweeteners fail to trigger the body's natural satisfaction response. So eating that 100-calorie artificially sweetened cookie only adds to your problems; you'll keep on wanting the real cookie, so the 100 calories you just ate were in vain.

9. Forget dieting. Instead, focus on your fuel-to-energy ratio.

If, like most 40-somethings, you're packing some extra pounds, you've probably made plenty of resolutions to go on a diet. You've also probably figured out by this point in your life that diets rarely work, and neither does suddenly embarking on a strenuous new exercise regimen. There's a good reason that sudden, drastic changes don't lead to long-term weight loss, and may even lead to a rebound. Have you noticed that your weight tends to stay fairly constant week to week, even if one day you go on a junk food binge and the next day you're fairly good? Nature designed us with optimum abilities to maintain a steady metabolic rate, because it helps us weather food shortages and sudden demands on our energies.

Unfortunately, this means that when you've gradually gained weight over time, your body has adapted to the new weight and now does its best to hold onto it. So here's what you do: You make slow, gradual adjustments to each end of the equation. And you -- and only you -- decide which end of the fuel-in, energy-out equation to emphasize and when.

10. Make slow, realistic changes in tune with your lifestyle.

Let's say you want to lose ten pounds. To do so right now, you'd have to eat nothing at all for about 2 weeks, or jog for 51 hours, or walk for 126 hours. Not only would it be impossible, attempts like those would send your body into starvation-mode metabolic slowdown, sabotaging your efforts.

But you could also, much more effectively, set out to lose one to two pounds a week for the next five to ten weeks. Remind yourself that you are the only one in charge of tuning up your metabolic engine. Decide whether you prefer to focus your energies on cutting down the number of calories you're consuming, or on upping the number you're burning. Most likely, you'll strike a balance between the two that suits you. If adding three half-hour walks a week is relatively painless for you, that's a good choice. If going outdoors in ten-degree weather is singularly unappealing and you wouldn't be caught dead in a gym, then focus on dietary changes instead.

Your primary goal should be making small, gradual lifestyle changes that you can incorporate into your daily routine and stick with over time. That's the ultimate secret to combating over-40 weight gain.