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ref=”http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2011/01/video-goodness-hey-thats-no-midfielder-terrier-crashes-soccer-game-tries-to-catch-the-ball.html”>Watch video. You’ll h ave

a hard time not cracking up.

AlterNet / By Larry Beinhart

How has a tiny fraction of the population arranged for their narrowest economic interests to dominate those of the vast majority

?
January 21, 2011 |

Who are they

? The richest 1 percent. And maybe the next 9 percent.

Who are we

? All the rest.

Which poses an interesting question.

How has a tiny fraction of the population – which is diverse in many ways – arranged for their narrowest economic interests to dominate the economic interests of the vast majority? And, while they’re at it, endanger the economic well-being of our nation, and bring the financial system of the whole world to the brink of collapse.

They have money.

We have votes.

Theoretically, that means we should have the government.

Theoretically, government should be a countervailing force against the excesses of big money, take the long view for the good of the nation, and watch out for the majority. Let alone for the poor and downtrodden.

What we actually have is one political party that is flat out the party of big money and another party that sells out to big money.

Well, at least we have safety nets.

George Bush’s biggest regret is that he didn’t privatize social security. Why so eager?

One reason is that it

is a big pile of money. Absolutely gigantic. It drives the bankers and brokers crazy that they can’ t ge

t their hands on it.

The other is ideological hatred. Stephen Moore (senior fellow at the Cato Institute, contributing editor of National Review and president of the Free Enterprise Fund) wrote, “Social Security is the soft underbelly of the welfare state. If you can jab your spear through that, you can undermine the whole welfare state.”

To read the rest, click here.

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“They seemed to be having a debate about how to handle the turtle and whether or not to cross the bridge,” she said. “The lemurs

certainly did not want to touch the turtle and not one harassed it in the least.”

Of course not — turtles bite, and if anyone knows that it’ s the

se lemurs.

So they began walking back out to

the turtle and going over their options.

“It was almost as if they were daring each other to make the first jump,” Bendush said.

And once a lemur lept, the rest quickly followed… and so they went, back and forth, hopping over the turtle whenever they needed to get from one end of the habitat to the other.

Read article and view pictures.

Many past studies of green tea have shown the effectiveness of on one particular nutrient called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). But, in this exciting new study, researchers tested EGCG along with two additional plant nutrients found in green tea: catechins catechin gallate (CG), and epicatechin gallate (ECG) against one of the most deadly types of cancer—pancreatic cancer. They tested the three nutrients’ ability to suppress cancer tumor growth and the inflamma

tory activity found in pancreatic tumor cells.

The results were impressive: researchers found that ECGC effectively slowed tumor growth and reduced the cellular inflammation.

Even more impressive, the two other nutrients: CG and ECG were substantially more effective than EGCG at halting the growth of tumors

and reducing inflammation.

Read article.

Would you swing a baby around by its limbs

?

Russian yoga instructor Lena Fokina would, and a video of her “baby yoga” routine has gone viral — making many American parents cringe in horror.

In the clip, Fokina takes a 2-week-old infant through exercises she calls “dynamic gymnastics.”

Watch video and read article.

The way Fokina handles the baby looks dangerous to me.

I had to stop watching after a minute.

The following video of moms and babies in a yoga class is much gentler, thank goodness.

I wish my dogs were even half this well-trained.

Watch video.

Joy Mazzola writes:

Recently, I hit a point with a coaching client where I realized he needed more than I could give him.

Up until that point, I had been listening, holding space, supporting, encouraging, asking a thoughtful question here and there,

and assigning gentle practices.

This h ad worked for

a while, but now his storytelling was starting to underscore beliefs about his life that were

no longer serving him.

He needed to be awoken to this pattern, and that was going to necessitate working with someone much more assertive – one who could interrupt his anecdotes, give clear instructions and guidelines, listen carefully but also speak firmly.

Read article.

Here’s a simple way to give your hunger communication system a tune-up so your brain is better able to judge when you’re full: Go for a w

alk.

Read article.

“It used to be thought that the immune system and the nervous system were worlds apart,” says John Bienenstock of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.

Now it seems the immune system, and infections that stimulate it, can influence our moods, memory

and ability to learn.

Some strange behaviours, such as obsessive compulsive dis order, may be triggered by infections, and the immune system may even shape our basic personalities, such as how anxious

or impulsive we are.

The good news is that understanding these links between the brain and immune system could lead to new ways of treating all kinds of disorders, from depression to Tourette’s syndrome.

Read article.