Former FBI agent says Oswald did not do it.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Jordan Worries Turmoil Will Follow as Syria's Refugees Flood In
By Kareem Fahim, NY Times, July 25, 2012
AMMAN, Jordan—Fearing the fallout and the spread of the uprising in Syria, Jordanian officials have recently moved more forcefully to restrain opponents of the Syrian government who have fled to Jordan, activists here say.
A Syrian opposition leader from Dara’a said that intelligence agents tried to dissuade him from returning after a recent trip outside the country. Jordanian airline officials demanded he buy a ticket to go on to Damascus before he boarded the plane. In another case, an artist once imprisoned in Syria said that since arriving in Jordan in March, he had been interrogated four times by intelligence agents who warned that he would be sent back to Syria if he engaged in conspicuous activism against the Syrian government.
The episodes reflected Jordan’s perennially anxious state, battered by cycles of crises in the region, fearful of stronger neighbors and dependent on others for financial and military support. In recent weeks, Jordanian officials and commentators have made dire predictions that refugees could overwhelm the country as the war worsens, strangling Jordan’s fragile economy and straining its resources.
But officials are especially concerned that the uprising could unsettle the country’s already turbulent politics. Small but persistent demonstrations over the past year have focused on government corruption, and have resulted in increasingly bold expressions of anger directed at the country’s monarch, King Abdullah II.
The king has tried to manage the call for change with a limited reform program that his critics say hardly diminishes his grip on power. The Syrian conflict could worsen one of Jordan’s deep domestic schisms, between citizens of Palestinian descent and so-called East Bank Jordanians.
Violence has already crossed the border. Residents near the frontier with Syria said they had seen at least one clash between Syrian Army troops and Jordanian border patrol officers who were trying to help refugees cross. On Monday, Jordanian police officers fired tear gas to break up a fight between Syrian refugees and local residents outside a refugee camp near the border.
The confluence of fears has led the country’s leaders to watch their words. King Abdullah, who previously called for Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to step down, was more circumspect in an interview last week, mentioning worries that Qaeda-linked fighters had joined the opposition. “If Bashar leaving the scene and exiting Syria brings a stop to violence and creates a political transition, that’s the lesser of evils,” he said on CNN. “But have we gotten past that stage? That’s a question I can’t answer.”
The Jordanian government has won praise for accepting 140,000 refugees. Many Syrians who have fled said that Jordanian officers rescued them on the border, in some cases as the Syrian Army pursued them.
The Kurdish woman said she left after her house collapsed under government shelling, killing her mother. Though she had no identity papers, the Jordanian authorities let her and her family enter; now they are searching for a Jordanian sponsor so they can leave the camp.
But Palestinians who have made it to Jordan cannot leave their camp, not even if they have family living elsewhere in Jordan.
Wessam Salama, an activist who has lived in Jordan for several years, said he had been able to provide charitable services to Syrian refugees, with little harassment from the state.
The government seemed most concerned with anyone trying to provide weapons to the Syrian rebels, he said. “Anything with guns, anything that creates chaos, they will have no hesitation in delivering us to Bashar,” he said.
Nizar al-Hrakiy, an opposition activist from Dara’a, said he had received threats from people he believed represented the Syrian government since he arrived in Jordan, causing him to twice change where he was staying. At the same time, he had to contend with warnings from the Jordanian authorities. “They put pressure. They do not want us to talk to the media, or to work on any military issue,” he said.
“They are focusing on their security,” he said, adding: “They don’t want the contagion of the revolution.”
AMMAN, Jordan—Fearing the fallout and the spread of the uprising in Syria, Jordanian officials have recently moved more forcefully to restrain opponents of the Syrian government who have fled to Jordan, activists here say.
A Syrian opposition leader from Dara’a said that intelligence agents tried to dissuade him from returning after a recent trip outside the country. Jordanian airline officials demanded he buy a ticket to go on to Damascus before he boarded the plane. In another case, an artist once imprisoned in Syria said that since arriving in Jordan in March, he had been interrogated four times by intelligence agents who warned that he would be sent back to Syria if he engaged in conspicuous activism against the Syrian government.
The episodes reflected Jordan’s perennially anxious state, battered by cycles of crises in the region, fearful of stronger neighbors and dependent on others for financial and military support. In recent weeks, Jordanian officials and commentators have made dire predictions that refugees could overwhelm the country as the war worsens, strangling Jordan’s fragile economy and straining its resources.
But officials are especially concerned that the uprising could unsettle the country’s already turbulent politics. Small but persistent demonstrations over the past year have focused on government corruption, and have resulted in increasingly bold expressions of anger directed at the country’s monarch, King Abdullah II.
The king has tried to manage the call for change with a limited reform program that his critics say hardly diminishes his grip on power. The Syrian conflict could worsen one of Jordan’s deep domestic schisms, between citizens of Palestinian descent and so-called East Bank Jordanians.
Violence has already crossed the border. Residents near the frontier with Syria said they had seen at least one clash between Syrian Army troops and Jordanian border patrol officers who were trying to help refugees cross. On Monday, Jordanian police officers fired tear gas to break up a fight between Syrian refugees and local residents outside a refugee camp near the border.
The confluence of fears has led the country’s leaders to watch their words. King Abdullah, who previously called for Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to step down, was more circumspect in an interview last week, mentioning worries that Qaeda-linked fighters had joined the opposition. “If Bashar leaving the scene and exiting Syria brings a stop to violence and creates a political transition, that’s the lesser of evils,” he said on CNN. “But have we gotten past that stage? That’s a question I can’t answer.”
The Jordanian government has won praise for accepting 140,000 refugees. Many Syrians who have fled said that Jordanian officers rescued them on the border, in some cases as the Syrian Army pursued them.
The Kurdish woman said she left after her house collapsed under government shelling, killing her mother. Though she had no identity papers, the Jordanian authorities let her and her family enter; now they are searching for a Jordanian sponsor so they can leave the camp.
But Palestinians who have made it to Jordan cannot leave their camp, not even if they have family living elsewhere in Jordan.
Wessam Salama, an activist who has lived in Jordan for several years, said he had been able to provide charitable services to Syrian refugees, with little harassment from the state.
The government seemed most concerned with anyone trying to provide weapons to the Syrian rebels, he said. “Anything with guns, anything that creates chaos, they will have no hesitation in delivering us to Bashar,” he said.
Nizar al-Hrakiy, an opposition activist from Dara’a, said he had received threats from people he believed represented the Syrian government since he arrived in Jordan, causing him to twice change where he was staying. At the same time, he had to contend with warnings from the Jordanian authorities. “They put pressure. They do not want us to talk to the media, or to work on any military issue,” he said.
“They are focusing on their security,” he said, adding: “They don’t want the contagion of the revolution.”
Turkey a hub for Syria revolution as illegal border crossing points abound
By Liz Sly, Washington Post, July 25, 2012
ON THE TURKEY-SYRIA BORDER—Come nightfall, a bucolic farming village begins to buzz with unusual activity. Shadowy figures emerge from olive groves, clutching small suitcases. Cars crowd the winding rural road collecting and discharging passengers. Farmers step onto their porches, ready to offer a bed for the night to Syrians who have hiked across one of the countless illegal crossing points along Turkey’s 550-mile border with their country.
On Wednesday, Turkey closed all of its legal border posts after Syrian rebels seized control of several crossings on the Syrian side. The move was prompted in part by concerns that Islamic extremists may have overrun at least one of the Syrian posts, at Bab al-Hawa, after a video posted online showed jihadi fighters there declaring they had established an “Islamic state.”
Turkish officials said that the closure would affect only Turks traveling to Syria and that Syrian refugees would still be allowed into Turkey.
But refugees do not use the official crossings. Nor do the rebels, arms smugglers, defectors and war wounded who have swarmed into southern Turkey in recent months, transforming one of the sleepiest parts of the country into a nerve center for the Syrian revolution.
Syria’s other borders, with Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan, are witnessing similar activity on a lesser scale. But it is in Turkey, whose government long ago embraced calls for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, that the Syrian rebels have found the warmest welcome.
“We must take care of them because they are our brothers and sisters,” said Suphi Atan, a spokesman for Turkey’s Foreign Ministry in the south, referring to the 43,000 Syrian refugees who are being housed in refugee camps dotting the border.
Turkey’s role in the revolt goes far deeper than helping refugees, though to what extent it is actively aiding a war that has spun beyond the reach of world diplomacy is unclear. Turkey seems to be groping for a strategy to address the unfolding chaos on its doorstep, said Hugh Pope of the International Crisis Group in Istanbul.
What is clear is that the Syrian conflict has already reached deep into Turkey. The quaint and ancient city of Antakya, the preferred destination for most Syrians crossing the border, pulses with the intrigue and gossip of the war next door.
Free Syrian Army fighters stride through its narrow streets, sunburned and sweaty from the battlefield, hoping to meet benefactors to provide them with money and arms.
Salafi Muslims, who have come to offer help from the countries of the Persian Gulf region, huddle over kebabs, their long beards and robes conspicuous in secularist Turkey.
Men who identify themselves as representatives of rebel battalions rent cheap hotel rooms and apartments, swelling the population of a city, once part of Syria, where many still speak Arabic as their native tongue.
Most of the talk is of money and arms, both of which are in inadequate supply, according to fighters and activists. Weapons have been reaching the rebels in small quantities, procured from arms dealers with funding provided by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. But deliveries have been intermittent, and the small arms and ammunition are not sufficient to defeat the well-equipped Syrian army, rebels say.
Some blame Turkey for not doing enough, even as its prime minister, Recep Tayyep Erdogan, delivers strongly worded statements condemning Assad, a former friend and ally, and predicting his demise.
Turkey, however, is deeply involved in the efforts to organize the Syrian opposition, hosting the offices of the umbrella Syrian National Council in Istanbul and acting as gatekeepers at the walled, tented camp housing the leadership of the Free Syrian Army at Apaydin, a pinprick of a village a few miles from the border.
There, Turkish soldiers screen the steady stream of rebel commanders, Arab benefactors and destitute Syrians who show up at its gates to offer money and weapons to the commanders inside or to solicit a share of them. Journalists are not admitted, and the officers have to request permission to leave.
Another indicator of just how closely Turkey has become embroiled in the effort both to help and also control the Syrian influx is on display around the corner from the village, on a small rise topped by a fortified military outpost that was reinforced further after Syria shot down a Turkish jet last month.
Here, an illegal crossing point has been formalized with a small metal gate fixed across a break in the barbed-wire fence. A Turkish officer sits at a kitchen table, writing down the names of those going in and out of the country. His clip pad is topped by a chart of Syrian military insignia, to help identify the ranks of army defectors coming across.
On a recent evening, an ambulance waited for wounded victims and a truck was offloading what appeared to be medical supplies for transportation into Syria.
Minibuses on the Turkish side of the fence were filling up with women and children, while minibuses on the Syrian side filled up with young men, most likely rebel fighters commuting back to Syria after visiting their families in the refugee camps.
The Turkish soldiers at the crossing refused to allow interviews, but rebel fighters elsewhere say they regularly come and go through the checkpoint, the only illegal route into Syria through which Syrians can drive, along a rough dirt track.
This is also the point at which weapons are ferried into Syria, delivered by Turkish military trucks and picked up by fighters on the other side in the dead of night, according to two farmers living nearby who said they have witnessed the activity late at night.
Turkey has repeatedly denied it is arming the rebels and says its efforts to help the Syrian opposition are purely humanitarian.
But at a minimum, Pope said, Turkey is looking the other way.
“Certainly there has been no decision made public that Turkey is arming the rebels, but I don’t think anyone is trying to stop the rebels acquiring weapons, either,” he said.
As the sun set over the village one recent evening, a Turkish soldier strode toward the olive groves from which Syrians usually emerge, waving his hands urgently. Then a shot rang out, to deter those trying to sneak into the country.
An hour later, the soldier was gone. A family of five slipped out of the olive grove and disappeared into the night.
Salam Fayyad: 'We have never been more marginalised'
Donald Macintyre, The Independent, 26 July 2012
The cause of the Palestinians has never been more “marginalised” than it is today, according to a warning by their internationally respected Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Citing the international focus on the Arab spring, the eurozone crisis and the US electoral cycle, Mr Fayyad yesterday said that Palestinian leaders were facing a “path of growing untenability” while the world largely focused its attention elsewhere.
In an interview with The Independent, the Palestinian Prime Minister was strongly critical of the West’s failure to tackle Israel more “seriously” over its violations of international law and its obligations under the nine year old Road Map.
He declared that this “marginalisation” was now the “biggest obstacle” to progress towards a Palestinian state. “Our cause has never been this marginalized,” he said. “Ever. This is our greatest challenge.”
And he warned that the Palestinian Authority itself was being undermined because of factors ranging from its acute financial crisis to a potential loss of faith by Palestinians that it would able to end to an occupation that is “entrenching itself by the day.”
He said the international Middle East Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and the UN, had focused on what at present was the “seemingly impossible task of re-launching the peace process in an effective manner… at the expense of paying attention” to a series of violations which included, but were not limited to, expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and which had taken place with “no consequences whatever.”
These included nightly incursions by the military into Palestinian cities designated under the Oslo accords as Area A of the West Bank and now supposed to be under control of in large part Western trained Palestinian security forces. “There is not a night when there are not multiple raids or incursions in Area A,” he said. He pointed out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been in the cabinet under Ariel Sharon that had accepted the internationally agreed Road Map that had among other things called for a halt to settlement building. “It really is outrageous. There is not a single requirement of the road map that the government of Israel can assert they are complying with. Not one.”
The international community had in 2009 issued a series of declarations that all settlement should indeed stop—which led to a ten month settlement freeze while attempts were made to restart substantive negotiations—he said that first the US and then the EU had now in effect told the Palestinians that “the rules of the game have changed”.
Calling for a pronounced shift by the international community to a “compartmentalized” approach in which it “raised the bar of accountability” by confronting Israel over the occupation without in any way “delegitimising” Israel itself, he declared: “What the EU, indeed the whole world should do…. is to ask the government of Israel—any government of Israel a straightforward question: ‘Do you support as a solution to this conflict the emergence of a fully sovereign state of Palestine on the territory occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem? Yes or no?’”
“If they answer yes it is going to be very hard for them to explain how they continue to accept settlement expansion, settler extremism, violence that in certain instances cannot be described other than as outright terrorism.” Mr Fayyad said that attacks on Palestinians and their property, farmland and mosques had increased by 150 percent over the last year.
The same applied to the “violent manner in which the Israeli army deals with non-violent Palestinian protests. This is both wrong and can be extremely dangerous from a security point of view because you simply don’t know whether there is going to be an incident too many.” And indeed both create the feeling that there is a “feeble PA” that “cannot do anything to effectively represent the people by mobilizing international opinion to stop this.”
Number of Jewish settlers in West Bank passes 350,000 mark
Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, July 26, 2012
JERUSALEM—The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank has crossed the 350,000 mark for the first time, and most of the growth—now about 4.5% annually—is coming outside the major settlement blocs in areas that are not expected to become part of Israel under a two-state solution, according to a report Thursday in the pro-government Israel Hayom newspaper.
At 350,143, the Jewish population in the West Bank has nearly doubled since 2000, when it was 190,206, said the newspaper, quoting data from the Interior Ministry. Over the last year, 15,600 new settlers were reported living in the West Bank.
The figures do not include the nearly 300,000 Jewish residents who have moved into East Jerusalem and large developments around the Jerusalem area.
Palestinians say the continued growth is killing any hopes of a two-state solution in which Palestinians would receive their own state in the West Bank.
Conservative Jewish lawmakers praised the growth. National Union Party Chairman Yaakov Katz, quoted by the newspaper, predicted that the Jewish population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem would reach 1 million by 2016, “at which point the revolution will have been completed.”
Economists Warn EU on 'Threshold of Catastrophe'
Der Spiegel, July 25, 2012
A panel of respected European economics experts are ringing the alarm bell this week over the euro crisis—direly calling on all European leaders to move swiftly to deploy the most powerful tools available to halt the currency’s downward spiral.
“We believe that as of July 2012, Europe is sleepwalking toward a disaster of incalculable proportions,” the New York-based Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) stated in a report warning leaders they need to move faster and more decisively to save the common currency. Otherwise it could very well disintegrate.
The study’s publication on Tuesday couldn’t be any timelier, given the recent dramatic developments in the euro crisis. Greece’s recession is proving to be far worse than previously expected, it is getting tougher for Spain to raise money on the markets (on Tuesday, interest rates on 10-year Spanish bonds rose to an unsustainable 7.6 percent) and Germany’s top triple-A rating is also at risk.
In recent weeks, the situation in the more highly indebted euro-zone states has intensified dramatically, write the experts, who include Peter Bofinger and Lars Feld of Germany. As members of the Council of Economic Advisors, they are part of a respected panel that advises the German government on such issues. The study’s authors also include Beatrice Weder di Mauro, a former member of the panel who recently left to work for Switzerland’s UBS bank. The experts wrote that the crisis is the result of flawed design, construction and implementation of the finance and currency system. In order to rescue it, the economists are calling for a radical restructuring. “The sense of a never-ending crisis, with one domino falling after another, must be reversed,” they wrote.
Among other proposals, the economists are calling for:
•tighter integration of the financial system with a strong institution at the European Union or euro-zone level that would make stabilizing the banks a matter for all of Europe;
•the permanent euro rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, to be provided with a banking license as a lender in order to give it the “firepower” that it needs;
•the European Central Bank to better use all the tools at its disposal (both conventional and unconventional) in order to bolster the currency union.
But the report’s authors also stress that the structural reforms they recommend “would be sufficient to put the euro zone on a firm footing” only if they are accompanied by the reduction of national deficits and if countries also restore their competitiveness.
Scientists Discover The Oldest, Largest Body Of Water In Existence--In Space
BY Charles Fishman, Fast Company, 07-27-2011
Scientists have found the biggest and oldest reservoir of water ever—so large and so old, it’s almost impossible to describe.
The water is out in space, a place we used to think of as desolate and desert dry, but it’s turning out to be pretty lush.
Researchers found a lake of water so large that it could provide each person on Earth an entire planet’s worth of water—20,000 times over. Yes, so much water out there in space that it could supply each one of us all the water on Earth—Niagara Falls, the Pacific Ocean, the polar ice caps, the puddle in the bottom of the canoe you forgot to flip over—20,000 times over.
The water is in a cloud around a huge black hole that is in the process of sucking in matter and spraying out energy (such an active black hole is called a quasar), and the waves of energy the black hole releases make water by literally knocking hydrogen and oxygen atoms together.
The official NASA news release describes the amount of water as “140 trillion times all the water in the world’s oceans,” which isn’t particularly helpful, except if you think about it like this.
That one cloud of newly discovered space water vapor could supply 140 trillion planets that are just as wet as Earth is.
Mind you, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, has about 400 billion stars, so if every one of those stars has 10 planets, each as wet as Earth, that’s only 4 trillion planets worth of water.
The new cloud of water is enough to supply 28 galaxies with water.
Truly, that is one swampy patch of intergalactic space.
Scientists have found the biggest and oldest reservoir of water ever—so large and so old, it’s almost impossible to describe.
The water is out in space, a place we used to think of as desolate and desert dry, but it’s turning out to be pretty lush.
Researchers found a lake of water so large that it could provide each person on Earth an entire planet’s worth of water—20,000 times over. Yes, so much water out there in space that it could supply each one of us all the water on Earth—Niagara Falls, the Pacific Ocean, the polar ice caps, the puddle in the bottom of the canoe you forgot to flip over—20,000 times over.
The water is in a cloud around a huge black hole that is in the process of sucking in matter and spraying out energy (such an active black hole is called a quasar), and the waves of energy the black hole releases make water by literally knocking hydrogen and oxygen atoms together.
The official NASA news release describes the amount of water as “140 trillion times all the water in the world’s oceans,” which isn’t particularly helpful, except if you think about it like this.
That one cloud of newly discovered space water vapor could supply 140 trillion planets that are just as wet as Earth is.
Mind you, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, has about 400 billion stars, so if every one of those stars has 10 planets, each as wet as Earth, that’s only 4 trillion planets worth of water.
The new cloud of water is enough to supply 28 galaxies with water.
Truly, that is one swampy patch of intergalactic space.
Dealing with Your Handicaps
By Robert Ringer, ETR, July 25, 2012
A healthy perspective has allowed me to view so-called physical handicaps in a different light since my daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at a relatively young age. Like most parents confronted with the illness of a child, I went through the usual stages of denial, anger, and despair.
However, as the years passed, I increasingly focused on how lucky my daughter was that she did not have the chronic-progressive type of multiple sclerosis. People with the latter form of the disease deteriorate rather quickly and usually become confined to a wheelchair early on. My daughter, who is attractive, intelligent, and personable, has been able to lead a relatively normal life, raise two children, and continue on a successful career path.
Knowing that there are millions of people much worse off than my daughter has had a positive effect on both of us. Even more positive are the endless stories of severely disabled people who have enjoyed great success and managed to live meaningful, vital lives by taking action to overcome their handicaps. One story of special significance to me is that of Ronan Tynan.
Tynan was born with deformed legs, which caused him to suffer severe scoliosis. It got so bad that at age twenty he made the unimaginable decision to have both of his legs amputated below the knees and wear prosthetic lower limbs. That could have been the end of his dreams, but, instead, it was the beginning of one of the most action-oriented lives imaginable.
Ronan set his sights on athletics, and went into serious training. From 1981 to 1984, he won eighteen gold medals and set fourteen world records competing in events for the disabled. These feats alone could have been the basis of an incredible inspiration story, but Ronan was just getting started.
He next made the decision to become a medical doctor, and enrolled at Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland. At thirty-two, he began practicing medicine, which one would have thought would have put an exclamation point on his huge capacity to overcome adversity. Not even close.
Having discovered that he had a gifted tenor voice, in his spare time he took up singing in pubs. In 1994, he entered a television talent show in Ireland—and won! He soon gave up practicing medicine and became a world-famous stage performer. Still, Ronan’s trials and triumphs had not all been written.
As a result of a sinus-drainage problem caused by the return of a childhood injury he had suffered, he suddenly lost his voice and, reluctantly, returned to the practice of medicine. After a long period of recuperation following surgery to correct the problem, he slowly regained his magnificent voice.
Today, he thrills audiences throughout the world with his stirring performances, and, at fifty-two, is a relatively young man. Where he goes from here is anybody’s guess, but he already has had a major impact on millions of lives, and mere mortals like myself are deeply grateful to him for the inspiration he has provided through his astonishing success.
Inspirational stories like that of Ronan Tynan abound by the thousands. From Helen Keller and Franklin D. Roosevelt to Stevie Wonder and Stephen Hawking, the evidence is clear that physical handicaps can be overcome. Always keep in mind that a handicap is just a disadvantage that makes success more difficult, but there is a clear difference between difficult and impossible.
In fact, technically speaking, a handicap is not necessarily a physical disability, but any kind of disadvantage that makes life more difficult. Indeed, over time, I have come to realize that every person in the world has at least one bona fide handicap.
An obese person has a handicap; a person with attention-deficit disorder has a handicap; a person with a low IQ has a handicap; a person with big ears has a handicap; a person who comes from a poverty-stricken background has a handicap.
You, too, have a handicap. In fact, you probably have many handicaps. I don’t know what your handicaps are, but I know you have them. Everyone you meet, in spite of how successful or how happy he may appear to be, has a cross to bear. No one makes it through life without experiencing the hardships caused by a handicap, and each of us is faced with choosing between three alternatives when it comes to dealing with those hardships:
1. We can roll over and die, figuratively or literally.
2. We can go through life in a perpetual state of anger, turning people off and virtually ensuring a life of misery and failure.
3. We can make a conscious decision to expand the boundaries of our mental paradigms, take inventory of the assets that we do have, then move forward with bold action to exploit those assets to our advantage.
As thousands of inspirational stories about overcoming adversity have demonstrated, the third alternative makes the most sense to a rational individual. We have the power to make a conscious decision to play the cards we’ve been dealt to the best of our abilities.
In the final analysis, it always comes down to what you do with what you have.
The 10-Minute Workout, Times Three
By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, July 25, 2012
“Every four years, the summer Olympics get people excited to exercise,” says Glenn Gaesser, a professor and director of the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University, who oversaw a new study about exercise and high blood pressure that was inspired in part by the coming games in London.
The streets and gyms fill with people who, fueled by stories of Olympic success, “run or work out for an hour or more,” Dr. Gaesser says. But “within a few weeks, most people have quit” and resumed their sedentary lives. “We wanted to see if there were approaches to exercise that would fit more easily into people’s lifestyles, but still be effective” in terms of improving health, he says.
Specifically, he and his colleagues hoped to determine whether breaking up exercise into small, manageable segments performed throughout the day would work as well as one longer, continuous bout.
So he and his colleagues gathered a group of adult volunteers. Each was generally healthy, except for some early symptoms of high blood pressure, a condition called prehypertension.
High blood pressure is, of course, one of the primary risk factors for heart disease and stroke, and prehypertension is one of the primary risk factors for full-blown high blood pressure. Almost 70 million Americans have prehypertension, Dr. Gaesser’s study reports, with symptoms like an average daily blood pressure approaching an unhealthy 140/90 and a tendency for blood pressure to spike to unequivocally dangerous levels throughout the day.
Encouragingly, prehypertension is known to respond well to exercise. But many studies of exercise and blood pressure have employed moderate exercise sessions lasting for an uninterrupted 30 minutes or so per day, which is the commonly recommended standard for improving health.
Dr. Gaesser, however, asked his volunteers to walk briskly at an intensity equaling about 75 percent of each volunteer’s maximum heart rate for 10 minutes three times during the day. The sessions took place at 9:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
On a separate day, the volunteers completed one 30-minute supervised session of brisk walking in midafternoon, while on a final day, they did not exercise at all.
All of them wore cuffs that monitored blood pressure continuously for 24 hours at a time.
As it turned out, exercise was helpful in controlling blood pressure, but breaking up the workout into three short sessions was significantly more effective than the single half-hour session. “The fractionized exercise led to lower average 24-hour blood pressure readings,” Dr. Gaesser says.
It also resulted in lower blood pressure “load,” or the number of incidences during the day when a volunteer’s blood pressure spiked above 140/90. Lowering blood pressure load is important, he points out, because a relatively high load “seems to be an indicator that someone with prehypertension is likely to progress” to full-blown, clinically high blood pressure.
Over all, the results “are really encouraging,” he says. “For people who think that 30 minutes of exercise is too hard or takes up too much time, we can say, just do 10 minutes” three times during the day. And, conversely, if someone is tempted to dismiss a mere 10 minutes of walking as too meager to be meaningful, “it seems clear that, at least for blood pressure control, fractionized exercise is actually more effective” than a single 30-minute bout.
His work joins a small but compelling body of science suggesting that, for many purposes, short, cumulative exercise sessions are remarkably beneficial. A study published last year in PLoS One, for instance, found that in children and teenagers, repeated bouts of running or other physical activity lasting as little as five minutes at a time reduced the youngsters’ risks of poor cholesterol profiles, wide waistlines and above-average blood pressure readings as much as longer exercise sessions did.
Other studies have found that exercising sporadically throughout the day aids in weight control, particularly for older women. It also, in a few small studies, improved aerobic fitness among previously sedentary people as much as a single, longer workout did and, as a regimen, was more likely to be maintained over the long term.
But so-called fractionized exercise has its limits. “You’re not going to make it to the Olympics” based on three 10-minute walks a day, Dr. Gaesser says. “You’ll be healthier. You won’t be an athlete.”
Apreciar lo bueno
http://anchor.tfionline.com/es/post/apreciar-lo-bueno/
MarÃa Fontaine
Uno de ustedes me escribió después de escuchar la canción que publiqué en mi página web, «Gracias por dar al Señor», y me habló de un artÃculo que describÃa la historia del autor e intérprete de la canción. El artÃculo explica que Ray Boltz se crió como cristiano, se casó y tuvo hijos, luego en cierto momento de su vida se divorció, se convirtió en gay y se unió a una iglesia cristiana de gays y lesbianas. La persona en cuestión se preguntaba si yo conocÃa esa información antes de colgar la canción.
Pues bien, yo no conocÃa esa información y me sorprendió un poco. Pero de todas formas me gusta la canción y no pienso que las decisiones de esa persona en cuanto a su estilo de vida cambien el hecho de que la melodÃa contiene una bella verdad y tiene un buen espÃritu. Estoy agradecida de que probablemente haya motivado a muchos del mundo a hacer más por el Señor y estoy agradecida porque su autor —aunque se convirtió en homosexual—, sigue testificando y dando testimonio de Jesús y probablemente transmita el mensaje a personas a las que otros cristianos no pueden llegar porque son muy santurrones y selectivos.
Mientras pensaba por qué el Señor permitió que colgara esa canción sin conocer esa información, me di cuenta de que quizás fue para que yo pudiera compartir con ustedes esta lección: No tenemos que coincidir en todo con una persona para poder apreciar sus buenas obras. No tenemos que estar de acuerdo con las decisiones que haya tomado sobre su estilo de vida o sus creencias para reconocer, valorar e incluso utilizar cosas que haya hecho o dicho que sean buenas o bellas, o sean verdad. Podemos escoger lo bueno, apreciarlo, permitir que nos edifique y a la vez reconocer que probablemente no coincidamos en todo con la persona.
Adoptar dicha actitud nos ayudará a ser mucho mejores testigos. A encontrar puntos en común con personas de diferentes creencias y a aprovecharlos para conducirlos a Jesúsy darles las soluciones que tenemos.
Aceptamos las cosas buenas, bellas e inspiradoras que muchos hacen o nos han entregado, aunque algunos de ellos puedan también haber hecho cosas con las que no coincidimos, que no apoyamos, o incluso que son grandes pecados. Si juzgáramos basados en aquellos pecados que aborrecemos, que no aceptamos y rechazamos, no aceptarÃamos los Salmos, porque David fue un asesino[1]. No podrÃamos conceder mayor valor a Moisés ni a su ejemplo como lÃder, ni a los primeros cinco libros de la Biblia escritos por él, puesto que mató a un hombre en un momento de ira[2]. No valorarÃamos ni aprovecharÃamos una buena parte del Nuevo Testamento porque Pedro negó a Jesús y porque Pablo anteriormente habÃa sido Saulo quien causó terribles problemas a la Iglesia primitiva[3]. TendrÃamos poca o ninguna música inspirada si empezáramos a analizar minuciosamente la vida de quienes escribieron o produjeron cada himno. De ver las cosas de esa forma, la verdad es que nos quedarÃa muy poco digno de aprecio o provecho, ¡porque nadie es perfecto!
Asà que: ¿Dónde trazar la lÃnea?
El punto es que cuando admiramos una bella obra de arte, o escuchamos una pieza de música hermosa, podemos apreciar la inspiración puesto que sabemos que Dios se la dio al artista o compositor, aunque éstos no estuvieran consagrados a Dios o no lo conocieran de forma personal. Siempre que algo es bello o celestial, sabemos que su autor fue inspirado por el Señor, puesto que «toda buena dádiva y todo don perfecto desciende de lo alto»[4].
Cuando las personas sirven al Señor de alguna forma, procuran hacer algo por cambiar el mundo, se levantan en defensa de su fe, combaten la injusticia o ayudan a los pobres, podemos apreciarlos por ello, orar por ellos y apoyar sus buenas obras. No tenemos que aceptar todas sus creencias o las decisiones que hayan tomado en la vida.
Piensen en Jesús y en Su relación con la humanidad estando en la Tierra. Aceptó y recibió a personas que habÃan tomado decisiones con las cuales Él desde luego no concordaba, pero eso no era lo importante para Él. Lo que le importaba era que querÃan Su amor, y Él se los dio sin reservas.
Si Jesús siendo perfecto y sin pecado, aceptaba y recibÃa de buen grado a todos, ¿cómo podemos nosotros dejar de hacer lo mismo?
Miremos más lo bueno, valoremos el bien que hacen los demás, la verdad que hayan encontrado y que comparten con otros o sus conocimientos y habilidades de los cuales nosotros y otros nos podemos beneficiar.
Es la actitud que nos permitirá ser mejores embajadores de nuestro Rey y que de por sà nos infundirá más de Su amor que es humilde, receptivo e incondicional.
ArtÃculo publicado por primera vez en mayo de 2009 y actualizado en julio de 2012. Traducción: Luis Azcuénaga y Antonia López.
[1] V. 2 Samuel 11.
[2] Éxodo 2:11–12.
[3] Mateo 26:69–75; Hechos 8:1–3.
[4] Santiago 1:17.
MarÃa Fontaine
Uno de ustedes me escribió después de escuchar la canción que publiqué en mi página web, «Gracias por dar al Señor», y me habló de un artÃculo que describÃa la historia del autor e intérprete de la canción. El artÃculo explica que Ray Boltz se crió como cristiano, se casó y tuvo hijos, luego en cierto momento de su vida se divorció, se convirtió en gay y se unió a una iglesia cristiana de gays y lesbianas. La persona en cuestión se preguntaba si yo conocÃa esa información antes de colgar la canción.
Pues bien, yo no conocÃa esa información y me sorprendió un poco. Pero de todas formas me gusta la canción y no pienso que las decisiones de esa persona en cuanto a su estilo de vida cambien el hecho de que la melodÃa contiene una bella verdad y tiene un buen espÃritu. Estoy agradecida de que probablemente haya motivado a muchos del mundo a hacer más por el Señor y estoy agradecida porque su autor —aunque se convirtió en homosexual—, sigue testificando y dando testimonio de Jesús y probablemente transmita el mensaje a personas a las que otros cristianos no pueden llegar porque son muy santurrones y selectivos.
Mientras pensaba por qué el Señor permitió que colgara esa canción sin conocer esa información, me di cuenta de que quizás fue para que yo pudiera compartir con ustedes esta lección: No tenemos que coincidir en todo con una persona para poder apreciar sus buenas obras. No tenemos que estar de acuerdo con las decisiones que haya tomado sobre su estilo de vida o sus creencias para reconocer, valorar e incluso utilizar cosas que haya hecho o dicho que sean buenas o bellas, o sean verdad. Podemos escoger lo bueno, apreciarlo, permitir que nos edifique y a la vez reconocer que probablemente no coincidamos en todo con la persona.
Adoptar dicha actitud nos ayudará a ser mucho mejores testigos. A encontrar puntos en común con personas de diferentes creencias y a aprovecharlos para conducirlos a Jesúsy darles las soluciones que tenemos.
Aceptamos las cosas buenas, bellas e inspiradoras que muchos hacen o nos han entregado, aunque algunos de ellos puedan también haber hecho cosas con las que no coincidimos, que no apoyamos, o incluso que son grandes pecados. Si juzgáramos basados en aquellos pecados que aborrecemos, que no aceptamos y rechazamos, no aceptarÃamos los Salmos, porque David fue un asesino[1]. No podrÃamos conceder mayor valor a Moisés ni a su ejemplo como lÃder, ni a los primeros cinco libros de la Biblia escritos por él, puesto que mató a un hombre en un momento de ira[2]. No valorarÃamos ni aprovecharÃamos una buena parte del Nuevo Testamento porque Pedro negó a Jesús y porque Pablo anteriormente habÃa sido Saulo quien causó terribles problemas a la Iglesia primitiva[3]. TendrÃamos poca o ninguna música inspirada si empezáramos a analizar minuciosamente la vida de quienes escribieron o produjeron cada himno. De ver las cosas de esa forma, la verdad es que nos quedarÃa muy poco digno de aprecio o provecho, ¡porque nadie es perfecto!
Asà que: ¿Dónde trazar la lÃnea?
El punto es que cuando admiramos una bella obra de arte, o escuchamos una pieza de música hermosa, podemos apreciar la inspiración puesto que sabemos que Dios se la dio al artista o compositor, aunque éstos no estuvieran consagrados a Dios o no lo conocieran de forma personal. Siempre que algo es bello o celestial, sabemos que su autor fue inspirado por el Señor, puesto que «toda buena dádiva y todo don perfecto desciende de lo alto»[4].
Cuando las personas sirven al Señor de alguna forma, procuran hacer algo por cambiar el mundo, se levantan en defensa de su fe, combaten la injusticia o ayudan a los pobres, podemos apreciarlos por ello, orar por ellos y apoyar sus buenas obras. No tenemos que aceptar todas sus creencias o las decisiones que hayan tomado en la vida.
Piensen en Jesús y en Su relación con la humanidad estando en la Tierra. Aceptó y recibió a personas que habÃan tomado decisiones con las cuales Él desde luego no concordaba, pero eso no era lo importante para Él. Lo que le importaba era que querÃan Su amor, y Él se los dio sin reservas.
Si Jesús siendo perfecto y sin pecado, aceptaba y recibÃa de buen grado a todos, ¿cómo podemos nosotros dejar de hacer lo mismo?
Miremos más lo bueno, valoremos el bien que hacen los demás, la verdad que hayan encontrado y que comparten con otros o sus conocimientos y habilidades de los cuales nosotros y otros nos podemos beneficiar.
Es la actitud que nos permitirá ser mejores embajadores de nuestro Rey y que de por sà nos infundirá más de Su amor que es humilde, receptivo e incondicional.
ArtÃculo publicado por primera vez en mayo de 2009 y actualizado en julio de 2012. Traducción: Luis Azcuénaga y Antonia López.
[1] V. 2 Samuel 11.
[2] Éxodo 2:11–12.
[3] Mateo 26:69–75; Hechos 8:1–3.
[4] Santiago 1:17.
