Commercial diet schemes better than doctors' help

"Commercial weight-loss programs such as Weight Watchers and Slimming World are more effective and cheaper than family doctor-based services led by specially trained staff, according to the findings of a study published on Friday."
Click here for details.

The Emperor's New Clothes: Breaking the Spiral of Silence

"Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s 'The Emperor’s New Clothes,' researchers Rob Willer, Ko Kuwabara and Michael Macy devised a set of ingenious experiments that showed how distressingly easy it is to make people go against what they believe to be true."

Read more about this experiment here.

World Vision Issues Report Card at the close of 2011 G20 Cannes Summit

"As the 2011 G20 Cannes Summit draws to a close, World Vision provides a report card assessing how the G20 did on food security and nutrition, critical issues for the health of children in the global south."

Click here to read World Vision's assessment of the Summit.

World Vision statement at G20 on Greek referendum and Eurozone crisis

"If you were a woman like Kadidja born in Niger, you would never have a chance to talk to the G20 leaders or vote in a referendum about the measures they are discussing, but you’d have to live with their decisions. Kadidja lives in a hot, dry, dusty nation in west central Africa — her children are among the 15 per cent suffering from acute malnutrition. She is struggling to keep her family alive on meals that consist of little more than millet porridge. According to the United Nations’ Human Development Index, only two countries of 172 are worse off than Niger, and the people are still reeling from a massive food and nutrition crisis in 2010."

Read more of World Vision's statement here.

The IKEA ‘Mr. Broccoli’ Soft Toy Heads Home for the Holidays and Visits School Children Along the Way

"Don’t head for the hills of Whoville just yet, the Grinch won’t be the only guy in green this holiday season.


Come November 1, Mr. Broccoli, an IKEA soft toy personality and a lead character in the IKEA Soft Toy campaign, will venture away from the broccoli patch and show the world his willingness to travel by boat, plane, rickshaw or railroad to make it home in time for the holidays. With a camera slung around his stalk, Mr. Broccoli plans to capture the heartbeat behind Save the Children’s IKEA-funded education programs in Bangladesh, China and Vietnam, while checking off some favorite U.S. and European hotspots from his travel list."

Catch up with Mr. Broccoli here.

Tom Brokaw's new book urges people to make a difference

"Just in time for the 2012 general election, Tom Brokaw has written a book that begins with the sentence: 'What happened to the America I thought I knew?' It's easy to imagine Republicans and Democrats flipping through it for ideas on how to avoid another debt ceiling debate, improve educational opportunities for all, or pursue green energy initiatives."

Click here for more about Brokaw's new book.

No Need to Keep Jumping

"There's a proverb that says if you love something, let it go. If it returns, it's yours. If not, well, it never belonged to you in the first place. But had my son Braden written that proverb it would go more like this: 'If you love something and it won't cooperate, stomp the guts out of it.'"

Check out Braden's story here.