All posts tagged: lead

3 Sneaky Thoughts That Lead to Overeating

3 Sneaky Thoughts That Lead to Overeating

Published by skeptic

Throughout my career, I’ve witnessed the struggle between people trying to differentiate between actual hunger and the emotional cravings that pull us toward unhealthy food. Years ago, I worked as a behavioral specialist in a hospital-based intensive weight reduction program where we focused on physical solutions to overeating. However, the cognitive component—our thoughts’ role in fueling our hunger—was largely missing. Sadly, that vital aspect is still largely overlooked today. You’ve probably heard of the latest wave of weight-loss drugs. While their effects are impressive, their core mechanism lies in suppressing hunger. But could it be that our thoughts are just as influential in shaping the way we feel hunger? What if we could think out of emotional hunger and into healthier habits? Here are three key thoughts that often lead us to cave into hunger and how we can begin to change them: 1. “I deserve this treat.” It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you “deserve” a snack or dessert after a long day. This thought usually comes with an emotional context—stress, …

Watch David Byrne Lead a Massive Choir in Singing David Bowie’s “Heroes”

Watch David Byrne Lead a Massive Choir in Singing David Bowie’s “Heroes”

Published by José

Through­out the years, we’ve fea­tured per­for­mances of Choir!Choir!Choir!–a large ama­teur choir from Toron­to that meets week­ly and sings their hearts out. You’ve seen them sing Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” Soundgar­den’s “Black Hole Sun” (to hon­or Chris Cor­nell) and Leonard Cohen’s “Hal­lelu­jah.” If you dig through their Youtube archive, you can also revis­it per­for­mances of two Talk­ing Heads classics–“Psycho Killer” and “Burn­ing Down the House.” (Both below.) Which brings us to the video above. Accord­ing to Con­se­quence of Sound, Talk­ing Heads front­man David Byrne has long been a big fan of Choir!Choir!Choir!. He writes on his web site: I’ve sat mes­mer­ized watch­ing online videos of the Cana­di­an group Choir! Choir! Choir! They some­how man­age to get hun­dreds of strangers to sing beau­ti­ful­ly together—in tune and full-voiced—with rich har­monies and detailed arrange­ments. With almost no rehearsal—how do they do it?? They man­age to achieve lift off—that feel­ing of sur­ren­der when groups sing together—when we all become part of some­thing larg­er than our­selves. And back in 2018, Byrne got to expe­ri­ence some of that lift off first­hand. Hear him sing a mov­ing ver­sion …

MAHA: RFK Jr. Confirmed To Lead HHS Despite ‘Traitor’ McConnell Siding With Democrats

MAHA: RFK Jr. Confirmed To Lead HHS Despite ‘Traitor’ McConnell Siding With Democrats

Published by skeptic

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as the Director of Health and Human Services on Thursday, despite Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-INO) as the sole Republican to vote against him.  The vote – which is ongoing, came after a heated battle in the Republican-controlled Senate, which voted 53-47 on Wednesday to invoke cloture, setting up the final confirmation showdown. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic and former environmental activist, only needs a simple majority of 51 votes to secure the position. Kennedy’s nomination has been a political firestorm from the start. His past claims linking vaccines to autism and other harms sparked a fierce backlash from Democrats, who grilled him in contentious confirmation hearings last month. But despite their objections, Kennedy managed to navigate the political minefield, thanks in part to key Republican senators who were initially hesitant but ultimately threw their support behind him. CONFIRMED! Congratulations, Bobby.Congratulations, America.Thank you, President Trump. pic.twitter.com/LQMYO1vdZR — Nicole Shanahan (@NicoleShanahan) February 13, 2025 A GOP Divide Over RFK Jr. With Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee refusing to advance Kennedy’s …

Why it’s a terrible time for RFK Jr to lead US health policy

Why it’s a terrible time for RFK Jr to lead US health policy

Published by skeptic

Robert F Kennedy Jr testifying during his confirmation hearing on 29 January Win McNamee/Getty Images Robert F Kennedy Jr has been a controversial figure in US politics for years, and his nomination as President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has raised considerable concern. If he is confirmed for the position, he will be taking over at a time of chaos across US public health agencies. Trump plunged the country’s public health infrastructure into disarray in his first week… Source link

TikTok Ban and Trump Executive Order Lead to Tech Company Dilemma

TikTok Ban and Trump Executive Order Lead to Tech Company Dilemma

Published by skeptic

For more than six years, Amazon Web Services, the world’s largest cloud computing company, provided technical support to deliver TikTok videos to tens of millions of Americans. But over the weekend, Amazon faced a dilemma. A new law was taking effect banning TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, in the United States. Tech companies were barred from distributing and updating it or they would face financial penalties. At the same time, President-elect Donald J. Trump was telling tech companies he planned to pause enforcement of the law with an executive order. Just hours before the ban took effect, Amazon appeared to comply with the law, according to a New York Times review of the way TikTok’s web traffic is handled. Instead, Akamai Technologies, a Massachusetts-based company that was already helping to deliver TikTok videos to phones, took over more of the technical support. The change, which was picked up by digital forensics conducted by The Times, was one of the small behind-the scenes-maneuvers that showed how tech companies have diverged in their approach to …

Screen use guidelines in school: Parents must lead by example, experts say

Screen use guidelines in school: Parents must lead by example, experts say

Published by Sam

PARENTS MUST LEAD BY EXAMPLE Experts also stressed that parents should limit their own screen time to set a positive example. Adj Assoc Prof Chong said studies have shown that excessive screen use by parents often leads to similar behaviours in children.  “Parents should model good screen habits themselves, and reflect on whether they have tried to spend time with children without letting screens replace other activities,” she said. She acknowledged the challenges of balancing screen use for work and leisure in today’s digital age but emphasised the importance of physical activity. “We can explain to children that the online use is for work (or) for example, schoolwork, and the guidelines are trying to separate the use of screens for work versus leisure. However, all screen time is sedentary time,” she said. “There is no simple solution because we are a digital nation. Perhaps this guideline allows all of us, as parents, to also reflect on whether our dependence and utility of screens are excessive.”  IMH’s Dr Ong suggested that parents plan structured family activities, …

Airborne lead pollution may have cost ancient Romans 3 IQ points

Airborne lead pollution may have cost ancient Romans 3 IQ points

Published by skeptic

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Why didn’t the Romans invent the steam engine, electricity, or the airplane? Perhaps because they were 3 IQ points less clever than they could have been. The culprit: lead pollution — but not of the kind we already knew about. Odd and violent behavior The Romans drank tap water from lead pipes, prepared and ate their food on lead-containing kitchenware, used lead in their cosmetics, and even sweetened and preserved their wine with lead acetate. Ingesting lead is harmful to the body and brain, and it has been blamed for the odd and violent behavior of some emperors, and even the fall of the Roman Empire itself. However, these dangers would have only affected a small urban elite. A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) quantifies a much more widespread form of lead pollution: via the air. This affected everyone, including the Empire’s rural …

The Brutalist director defends use of AI to ‘refine’ his lead stars’ performances | Ents & Arts News

The Brutalist director defends use of AI to ‘refine’ his lead stars’ performances | Ents & Arts News

Published by skeptic

The director of The Brutalist has defended his lead actors’ performances after it emerged that artificial intelligence had been used to “refine” their Hungarian accents. Brady Corbet insisted that the performances of Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones were “completely their own”. Brody leads the three-hour film, playing Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth, a man trying to rebuild his life in the US following World War Two. Felicity Jones plays his wife, Erzsebet. The film won three Golden Globes earlier this month, and is expected to receive nods at the forthcoming Oscar nominations. In a statement, shared with Deadline, Corbet said: “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own.” He said they had “worked for months” with a dialect coach “to perfect their accents”, but that technology provided by the company Respeecher had been used “in Hungarian language dialogue editing only”. Based in Ukraine, Respeecher says it offers filmmakers the chance to “experience the future of voice cloning” with their “cutting-edge AI solutions”. Corbet said it had been used “specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for …

Oak Academy takes the lead on financial education

Oak Academy takes the lead on financial education

Published by skeptic

Government curriculum quango will produce additional lessons which will be available from spring Government curriculum quango will produce additional lessons which will be available from spring The government has tasked the Oak National Academy with producing additional lesson resources on financial education, after a committee of MPs demanded an “urgent” review. The education select committee has published the government’s response to its report on financial education last year. In it, the new government said its ongoing curriculum review “seeks to deliver an excellent foundation in the core subjects of reading, writing and maths, and a curriculum that is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative, that readies young people for life and work, and reflects the diversities of our society”. But the Department for Education added that the Oak National Academy “will be producing additional lessons on financial education and applying maths in real-life contexts across key stages 1 to 4”. “These are expected to be available from spring 2025. Lessons on finance and the economy also feature in Oak’s new citizenship curriculum, launched earlier this …