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Re The AP wire having an article that Occidental had released Obama's record and that he went to college on a Fullbright scholarship, meaning as a foreign student.

This is phoney. The AP never had such a story and Occidental never released Obama's records. It had no reason to. The case that requested the records was thrown out.

The first blog saying that the AP had said that Occidental had released the records was put on line on April 1, indicating that it was an April Fool's joke.

HOwever, if you do not believe me, call Occidental and ask for the PR department and ask whether they released any records, and they will tell you no. Then call the AP, and ask their PR department whether they ever had a story reporting that Occidental released the Obama records, and they will tell you no.

Finally, call the Indonesian embassy in Washington and ask them if Obama was ever an Indonesian citizen, and they will tell you NO.

Three stories:

(1) When a perpetually overweight friend joined Weight Watchers, his mother sneered that he'd fail. Within months he far exceeded his goal, proving at the very least he could stickK it to his mother. Six moths later, he gained it all back and more.

(2) I have also struggled with my weight and several years ago took up a challenge in my gym, NYHRC, for "the member who could improve fitness the most in 6 months." I won. Within a year, all the weight was back, and more.

(3) In 2005, I started bellydancing to heal three herniated lumbar discs. Three years later, my back was better but my weight was the same. I loved dancing so much, however, and found it helped me enjoy my body no matter what it looked like, that last year 20 pounds melted away with no significant change in diet or exercise.

A year later, the weight is still gone and I eat what I like.

The moral?

I think an incentive can work in the short-term to modify behaviors that are driven largely by habit.

But if the unhealthy behavior (such as overeating, addiction, etc.) is driven by deeper needs and compulsions, an incentive will not only fail in the long term, it may do more harm than good as a person may end up feeling worse for failing after having briefly succeded.

In my case, the "deeper need" was simply to feel happy with my body. Once that need was met, no behavior modification strategies were necessary.

PARIS STREET RALLY

“We’re not going to pay for their crisis!”
The workers of France are yelling,
Determined to completely reject
What the bankers are selling

The French they love to demonstrate
And often sound so funny
But every Great Recession or so
They seem right on the money.

If you’re a true heavy smoker (1 pack or more a day), all the tea in China wont help or make you quite. The only way a true heavy smoker can quite and stay smoke free is if they truly want to quit for them selves, period. You can apply that to drugs and alcohol to.

Oh and Phil from queens, sorry but you cant be President of the United States unless your born in the USA, period.

I hope all these flakey liberals are sending their penalty money to the RNC, NRA or straight to Rush or Sean. Speaking of the Obama (see PS below) mis-administration, you’ll recall that the Nazi’s and Soviets experimented with State sponsored coercion to change people’s behavior. History does always repeat itself.

PS – Since the WNYC Censors closed the general chat "soapbox" that existed for years... I’m just relying some news that WNYC and NPR won’t… in a story that NPR missed but, that was covered heavily in Europe and that did briefly appear on the AP wire in early April – Obama’s college – Occidental in Cali – finally under a FOIL court order revealed that Obama went to college under a Fulbright Scholarship as an Indonesian citizen. This supports earlier AP photos from Indonesian school records that show him as an Indonesian citizen of Muslim faith. Draw your own conclusions.

I've got problems with discipline, and I kept putting off applying for college. So I pledged that if I didn't do it this fall, I'd join the military. That got me to apply!

gasoline/terrorism

consumption/earth ruination

red meat/cancer

don't these negative contributions fit into stikk?

When I was a little girl (around 7 or 8) I was perpetually nagging my mother to quit smoking. She decided that it might help her quit if she was to pay me a certain amount of money for every cigarette she smoked. I forget what it was; it wasn't much but it rapidly added up. I ended up with far more money than I ever would have been paid in allowance, which I spent on a lot of junky toys, and my mother went on smoking for many more years. I suppose there is a small percentage of people something like that would work for, but for most people I think they have to want change enough to pursue it for other reasons.

What happened to the concept of "self discipline?"

If you smoke, you are committing slow, often painful suicide. Why kill yourself?

My mother and I made a bet that we each had to lose a certain percentage of our body weight by a family event in July. If one or both of us does not succeed then we have to wear a bikini on the beach (something neither of us wants to do). We came up with this idea because we wanted a bet where both of us could or both of us could lose.

I've been using Stickk for about a month in order to make some progress on my dissertation. One piece of advice I have for people is to definitely employ one of your friends to ensure that you are meeting your goals. I've been known to fudge a little when I've not met my goal, which totally defeats the purpose.

What if your stick initiative is financial??? For example, buying a fancy car or stock....

When you buy a pack, aren't you already contributing to "evil big tobacco companies?" How many sticks does a person need?

For smokes, they already have a contribution to a charity you despise.... the sales tax