Walking to work makes us happier apparently

Julia Naughton tells us How Walking To Work Makes You A Happier Person.

Tips to move more at work

Nine 2 five health has 5 tips to move more at work, plus some activities a workplace can add to their calendar.

Password strength - the don't care region

Mark Stockley advises us to Stop wasting time making the wrong passwords stronger.

Most of the effort spent on making passwords stronger is wasted, according to a trio of researchers from Microsoft in the USA and Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

The researchers, Dinei Florêncio, Cormac Herley and Paul C. van Oorschot, said in a recent paper that there are two vast “don’t care” regions where energy spent on strengthening passwords is simply wasted.

...

The first “don’t care” region is an online-offline chasm. The chasm represents the gap between the number of guesses a password might have to withstand in an online attack and how many it might face in an offline attack (you can read more about it in my article Do we really need strong passwords?).

Tricks to remember what you read

In 9 tricks for remembering everything you read Shana Lebowitz collates some recommendations to improve our recollection of what we read.

Investing in preschools

In More preschool is a sure-fire budget fix, in the long run. But politicians don't have the guts Jacqueline Maley writes about the economic and social benefits of investing in preschool education for all children.

The evidence is clear that this near-magic initiative works to prevent poverty, illiteracy, social delinquency, welfare dependency, ill health, and even cardiovascular disease and obesity.

Are terrorists not religious enough?

In How to defeat terrorists? True extremism Giles Fraser argues that "Despite what religious terrorists may think, God doesn’t need saving. People should be more extreme in their faith – placing their trust in God’s greatness".

Golman Sachs and Trump

In The Vampire Squid Occupies Trump's White House Matt Taibbi documents the greed and immorality of the Goldman Sachs bankers now working for Donald Trump.

How the GOP's obstructionism worked

In The Victory of ‘No’ Michael Grunwald explains how the Republican Party's obstructionism worked.

Is a living wage affordable?

In Scrap welfare and pay everyone, even the jobless, a living wage Crispin Hull argues that a living wage would not cost that much.

Fundamentalist Rural America is the problem

In An Insider's View: The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America Forsetti's Justice argues that the problem in America isn't that the coasts don't understand rural America, it's that rural America doesn't understand itself.

The real problem isn’t east coast elites who don’t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is rural America doesn’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out. They don’t want to know why they feel the way they do or why they are struggling because they don’t want to admit it is in large part because of choices they’ve made and horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe.

Cheasecake Slice

New Idea Food's Cheesecake Slice (going by the ingredients I think it should be called the artery blocking slice).

The idea of using the biscuits might also work with a chocolate cheesecake filling.

The US Electoral College exists because of slavery

At least according to Akhil Reed Amar in The Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists.

Why Wisconsin turned red

In Trump's Victory and the Politics of Resentment Claudia Wallis interviews political scientist Katherine J. Cramer for the reason Wisconsin voted for Trump.

The working class

In 5 key things people don't get about the American working class Joan C. Williams pretty much describes the Australian working class too.

Vegatable noodle stir-fry

The Cook's Grocer has a Vegie noodle stir-fry recipe with crispy fried egg.

Lift weights to become smarter

In Weightlifting your way to a bigger brain Sarah Berry writes that recent studies have suggested that resistance based exercise may be good for the brain.

Lift weights to make your muscles and your brain stronger. This is true to the extent that even those with mild cognitive impairment experience improved brain function when they weightlift, according to a new study by the University of Sydney.

Healthy muscles are key to strength, weight control, and a defence against type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, but, until now, the link to brain function was not causal.

...

Resistance training is something most of us can do more of. One study from earlier this year found that nine out of 10 Australians do not meet the guidelines of twice weekly strength training. Strength training can include lifting weights (barbells, dumbbells or kettlebells), using resistance bands or body weight (push-ups, sit-ups, squats).

Spinach gnocchi recipe

Neil Perry's Spinach gnocchi recipe with peas, zucchini, goat's curd and tarragon recipe.

Muffin recipes

Goodfood has a collection of sweet muffin recipes.

Trump's campaign tactics and Russian propaganda

In Donald Trump campaign's 'firehose of falsehoods' has parallels with Russian propaganda Chris Zappone highlights how the rapid fire false claims and pronouncements by the Trump campaign are very similar to the propaganda coming out from Russia. In both cases they seek to overwhelm traditional media and fact checking, using social media to amplify their lies and falsehoods.

In other words, simply adhering to and amplifying the truth – as was the counter-strategy during the Cold War – is no longer enough.

This point will be no surprise to people working in online media – where the advent of social media has made it much easier for incorrect reporting to take on a life of its own.

One of the reasons is that the volume and pace of information in this propaganda method helps trick the minds of the audience into accepting incorrect facts.

This happens because questionable sources are forgotten even as the information is "remembered as true", the RAND report states.

The world's first political-consulting firm

Jill Lepore in The Lie Factory documents the rise of Campaigns, Inc - the world's first political-consulting firm. She also documents the firms efforts in blocking single payer health care in America.