Rip The Core…

City planners and citizens alike frequently push for better public transportation. They argue that it can lessen traffic and reduce emissions from cars. Now there’s a new reason to be gung-ho about public transit–it helps make people skinnier. That’s according to a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine . [John MacDonald et al., http://bit.ly/bdR7so ] [More]

Public transport – John MacDonald – Preventive medicine – Weight loss – Health
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New study suggests Wii Fit may not help families get into shape after all.
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Editor’s Note: This post is the last in a four-part series of essays for Scientific America n by primatologist Frans de Waal on human nature, based on his ongoing research. (The first post, on our sense of fairness, can be read here ; a second post, on the impact of crowding, is here ; and a third post on power and coalitions is here .) De Waal and other researchers appear in a series of Department of Expansion videos focusing on the same topic.

The origin of human aggression and warfare remains hotly debated. Until now, this debate has been dominated by what chimpanzees do and how this compares with our own species. It is little known, however, that we have an exactly equally close primate relative, the bonobo. This species makes Hobbesians very uncomfortable , so they do everything to marginalize it. One anthropologist seriously suggested that we should ignore bonobos, because they are close to extinction, not realizing that by the same token we should also ignore "Lucy," "Ardi" and all those other ancestors that bit the dust. Others treat bonobos as a wonderful afterthought, a great curiosity, but irrelevant to where we come from.

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Frans de Waal – Primate – Primatology – Human evolution – Department of Expansion
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The University of Tulsa places student health as a priority and encourages students to do the same.
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Willingness is a core concept of addiction recovery programs–and a paradoxical one. Twelve-step programs emphasize that addicts cannot will themselves into healthy sobriety–indeed, that ego and self-reliance are often a root cause of their problem. Yet recovering addicts must be willing. That is, they must be open to the possibility that the group and its principles are powerful enough to trump a compulsive disease.

It’s a tricky concept for many and must be taken on faith. But now there may be science to back it up. Psychologist Ibrahim Senay of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign figured out an intriguing way to create a laboratory version of both willfulness and willingness–and to explore possible connections to intention, motivation and goal-directed actions. In short, he identified some key traits needed not only for long-term abstinence but for any personal objective, from losing weight to learning to play guitar.

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Addiction – University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign – University of Illinois – Guitar – Urbana-Champaign
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BORDENTOWN CITY A new health and fitness center, Retro Fitness of Bordentown, plans to open early next month at the former Ford dealership on Route 206 and Mayor James Lynch planned an early welcome for the establishment on Wednesday morning.
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Despite frequent reports that regular exercise benefits the adult brain, when it comes to schoolchildren, the concept of the dumb jock persists. The star quarterback stands in stark contrast to the math-team champion. After all, the two types require seemingly disparate talents: physical prowess versus intellect. Letting kids run around or throw a ball seems, at best, tangential to the real work of learning and, at worst, a distraction from it.

Parents, teachers and education policy makers have pitted athletics against academics even as they trumpet exercise as an antidote to obesity and poor health. From preschool onward, teachers encourage children to sit still rather than scamper. Many schools have cut back on physical education to make room for the three R’s. And when student scores on standardized tests become of primary importance to parents, politicians or other stakeholders in the education system, educators may feel pressured to direct students toward academic pursuits and away from athletic ones.

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Education – Standardized test – Child – Teacher – Products and Services
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BORDENTOWN CITY A new health and fitness center, Retro Fitness of Bordentown, plans to open early next month at the former Ford dealership on Route 206 and Mayor James Lynch planned an early welcome for the establishment on Wednesday morning.
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Do we have free will? Is there meaning to life? A slew of new books provide some insights into how scientists are supplementing Plato with PET scans, hoping to answer these questions.

In My Brain Made Me Do It: The Rise of Neuroscience and the Threat to Moral Responsibility (Prometheus Books, 2010), Eliezer J. Sternberg examines studies that pinpoint areas of the brain associated with exercising free will and suggests that our ability to decide makes us largely responsible for our actions.

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Philosophy – Moral responsibility – Brain – Free will – Positron emission tomography
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A local fitness company is bulking up.  Bodybuilding.com has gone up on the 2010 Inc. 500/5000 list of America’s fastest-growing companies.
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Education has been liked to decreased risk for dementia for decades, but researchers behind a new study opened up the brains of hundreds of people who had died with the disease to try to find out why this correlation exists. [More]

Dementia – Health – Conditions and Diseases – Neurological Disorders – Education
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MONROE — Monroe Township Community Center opened its new fitness center Tuesday and finally gave the Monroe community what it wanted.
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Always finding excuses to skip the gym? Congrats–you might be able to blame your genes. Because the mere desire to exercise may be inherited, at least in mice. So says a study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B . [Theodore Garland Jr. et al., http://bit.ly/crWNGd ] [More]

Gene – Proceedings of the Royal Society – Royal Society B – Science in Society – Human
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L.A. Fitness is pleased to announce the opening of its newest sports club, a 50,000 square foot facility in the Broadview Village Square in Broadview, IL on September 8, 2010. The club is in the building formerly occupied by Target at the intersection of West Cermak Road and South 17th Avenue.
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We are always telling stories about the world, the universe, ourselves. It helps to make sense of things. But sometimes, through familiarity or neglect, we get lost. We forget where a story really starts, losing sight of where it’s headed. What is biodiversity? Are electric cars new? Even the well-worn tale of human origins is missing a key chapter: how a small band of hunter-gatherers survived a climate disaster, becoming ancestors of us all. Here we provide the surprising origins of some strange and familiar things.

All In The Family [More]

Hunter-gatherer – Biodiversity – Human evolution – Fiction – Arts
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By ERICA BLAKE BLADE STAFF WRITER Donald Stump, an owner of the Lifestyles for Ladies Only fitness chain, entered a plea in Lucas County Common Pleas Court Tuesday for failing to submit thousands of dollars in sales taxes to the state. Stump, 58, of Temperance, pleaded no contest to one count of failure to remit sales taxes. As part of the agreement, a second charge of aggravated theft will be …
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SEPTEMBER

20 We often refer to a strong sexual attraction as animal magnetism, but arousal involves more than just base instinct. At the Mind Science lecture series , psychologist Stephanie Ortigue will describe how desire depends on complex mental processing. Her talk, “The Consciousness of Desire,” will reveal the brain regions associated with longing and how they are influenced by mirror neurons–brain cells that fire when we either perform or observe an action. [More]

Brain – Neuron – Mind – Philosophy – Philosophy of Mind
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The Manton Community Fitness Challenge is in full swing. The program that encourages Manton men and women to eat healthier and exercise more started in July and runs through Oct. 9.
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The Age of Digital Entanglement By Danny Hillis

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Hosting – Free – Web Design and Development – Sports Related – Business
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CELEBRITY Fitness will continue to be the Malaysian Ice Hockey Federation’s (MIHF) partner and provide their facilities to the national ice hockey team.
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