Links for Sunday, 1/29/2012 January 29, 2012

Psych Central - Finding Peace With Food & Our Bodies: Q&A With Dietician Julie Norman:

Q: You’re an ardent supporter of Health At Every Size. Why do you believe in this movement?

A: I can remember sitting in class as a dietetics student wondering why they were training us to put people on diets and at the same time teaching us statistics illustrating the ineffectiveness of dieting for improving health or even “improving” weight.

Weight is simply a poor measure of health and that narrow focus sabotages people’s attempts to legitimately improve their health on so many levels.  Once I take to focus off weight with clients, they are free to choose for their bodies in the present moment.

They are able to align with their bodies because they are working from acceptance.  If weight needs to change it will as a side affect of positive self-care.  This is true for all my clients across the size, shape and weight continuum.

The Nation - Wisconsin 'John Doe' Probe: What Did Walker Know? When Did He Know It:

Chisholm explains in a fifty-seven-page complaint that Russell and the newly indicted aides established a “secret email system available to and used by select ‘insider’ staffers for both official and unofficial business.” That system was built around a wireless router that was kept in an armoire in the office of Walker’s deputy chief of staff’—just a few feet from Walker’s office. Its existence was “never disclosed to county employees outside a closely held group within the Walker administration.”

The complaint discuses the exchange of thousands—yes, thousands—of e-mails involving fundraising and political activity. Many of these e-mails from the deputy chief of staff who is now charged with four felony counts of misconduct in public office, Kelly Rindfleisch, and top political aides to Walker, including Keith Gilkes, who went on to serve as the governor’s chief of staff.

Huffington Post - Welfare Drug Testing Bill Withdrawn After Amended To Include Testing Lawmakers:

A Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his Democratic colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers. "There was an amendment offered today that required drug testing for legislators as well and it passed, which led me to have to then withdraw the bill," said Rep. Jud McMillin (R-Brookville), sponsor of the original welfare drug testing bill.

Houston Press - Etsy Closes Azreal's Accomplice. Cites Policy Infringement:

Etsy's claim that Robertson was selling factory-made items is hard to believe, as her handmade clothing is fairly well-known. Robertson did use the term "factory-produced" on a single item, a corset she has made mass-produced by a team of workers in her employ that accompanies a gown. However, she produces all the patterns, sizes the pieces and sews each one save for a few she farms out to her team or her mother. According to Etsy's policies, help with items for sale is acceptable as long as the seller has a major role in the item's creation. Robertson's situation would appear to fulfill those standards.

When Robertson attempted to contact Etsy over the dispute, offering to change the wording on her item or remove it all together, Etsy replied:

Etsy has elected to revoke your account privileges permanently. Recent policy violations committed in one or more of your accounts has brought us to the conclusion that our business relationship must now come to a close. We do not make such decisions without great consideration.

Wired - Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong:

And while we count forgetting as the sworn enemy of learning, in some ways that’s wrong, too. Bjork showed that the two live in a kind of symbiosis in which forgetting actually aids recall. “Because humans have unlimited storage capacity, having total recall would be a mess,” says Bjork. “Imagine you remembered all the phone numbers of all the houses you had ever lived in. When someone asks you your current phone number, you would have to sort it from this long list.” Instead, we forget the old phone numbers, or at least bury them far beneath the ease of recall we gift to our current number. What you thought were sworn enemies are more like distant collaborators.