UN criticises Israel over settlement plans

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and members of the Security Council, except the United States, have criticised Israel for its plan of the construct thousands of new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.?

Representatives of the 14 council members called for an immediate halt to the settlement plans on Wednesday, which they warned are threatening the possibility of a two-state solution with Palestinians.

The Security Council's president, Morocco's UN Ambassador Mohammed Loulichki, said that the?14 countries made the statements individually because efforts to get the council to unanimously agree?on a resolution or statement had failed.

Ban told reporters that Israel's heightened settlement?activity "gravely threatens efforts to establish a viable Palestinian
state".

"I call on Israel to refrain from continuing on this dangerous path,'' he?said.

"The Middle East peace process is in a deep freeze,'' he said.

"The two?sides seem more polarised than ever, and a two-state solution is farther away?than at any time since the Oslo process began'' in the 1990s.

Peace talks between the two sides have been frozen for four?years, in large part because of Israel's continuous construction of settlements.

Palestinian officials refuse?to negotiate with Tel Aviv while Israel expands its settlements on Palestinian territories, which are now home to more?than 500,000 Israelis.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the latest settlement plans in response to the UN General Assembly's?decision last month to upgrade the Palestinians' status to a nonmember?observer state.

Israel opposed UN recognition of a Palestinian state,?saying it bypassed peace negotiations.

'Pattern of provocation'

The US, Israel's closest Mideast ally, voted against the?Palestinian statehood resolution and vetoed a Security Council resolution?backed by the 14 other members in February 2011 that would have urged a halt?to all settlement building.

US officials made no statement on Wednesday.

But in a rare rebuke?of a close ally, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Tuesday?accused Israel of engaging in a "pattern of provocative action" that runs?counter to the government's commitment to peace.

She said settlement activity?puts the goal of peace "further at risk".

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN envoy, said Wednesday that the strong?US statement indicated that "there is unanimity against settlement?activity".

"Now, the ball is in the court of the Israelis,'' he said.?Mansour warned that with U.N. recognition of the Palestinian state, if?the Israelis continue to ignore the wishes of all of us, and if they continue?to decide to destroy the two-state solution then we will be able to resort to?all possible options available to us to defend ourselves and our people in a?better way.''

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Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/12/2012122024428789787.html

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Florida Attorney General withdraws request to make Times-Union reporter testify

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Source: http://feeds.jacksonville.com/~r/JacksonvillecomNews/~3/4KpuMJ9rkR8/florida-attorney-general-withdraws-request-make-times-union-reporter

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Mitt Romney Transition Preparations Cost Government $8.9 Million Thanks To New Law

Time Swampland:

One of the less scintillating milestones of the 2012 election was marked by the General Services Administration, when Mitt Romney became the first candidate to take advantage of the Presidential Transition Act of 2010. The Act, spearheaded by former Sen. Ted Kaufman, provides resources for major candidates to start planning for their presidency long before Election Day. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, TIME acquired documents from the GSA that show the scope-and cost-of this unprecedented government-assisted transition.

Read the whole story at Time Swampland

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/20/mitt-romney-transition-cost_n_2339359.html

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The Daily Word in a female president, Japan gun laws, APS suspensions

South Korea elects

first female president, conservative Park Geun-hye.

The sky (of The Pit) is falling!

Penn State scandal voted top sports story of the year (again).

APD officer arrested and accused of theft.

Tebow?s sad, sad story.

American pastor imprisoned in Iran while visiting family.

Rumors of school violence lead to 7 suspensions at Manzano High School.

Those darn foxes getting their heads stuck in everything.

A menagerie of adorable things that happened in 2012.

Viral videos.

How gun control works for Japan.

Source: http://alibi.com/blog/43780/The-Daily-Word-in-a-female-president-Japan-gun-la.html

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Engineers seek ways to convert methane into useful chemicals

Dec. 20, 2012 ? Little more than a decade ago, the United States imported much of its natural gas. Today, the nation is tapping into its own natural gas reserves and producing enough to support most of its current needs for heating and power generation, and is beginning to export natural gas to other countries.

The trend is expected to continue, as new methods are developed to extract natural gas from vast unrecovered reserves embedded in shale. Natural gas can be used to generate electricity, and it burns cleaner than coal.

"With petroleum reserves in decline, natural gas production is destined to increase to help meet worldwide energy demands," said Matthew Neurock, a chemical engineering professor in the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. "But petroleum -- in addition to being used to make fuels -- is also used to make ethylene, propylene and other building blocks used in the production of a wide range of other chemicals. We need to develop innovative processes that can readily make these chemical intermediates from natural gas." The problem is, there currently are no cost-effective ways to do this. Methane, the principal component of natural gas, is rather inert and requires high temperatures to activate its strong chemical bonds; therefore the practical and successful conversion of methane to useful chemical intermediates has thus far eluded chemists and engineers.

Neurock is working with colleagues at Northwestern University to invent novel ways and catalytic materials to activate methane to produce ethylene. This week the collaborators published a paper in the online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry detailing the use of sulfur as a possible "soft" oxidant for catalytically converting methane into ethylene, a key "intermediate" for making chemicals, polymers, fuels and, ultimately, products such as films, surfactants, detergents, antifreeze, textiles and others.

"We show, through both theory -- using quantum mechanical calculations -- and laboratory experiments, that sulfur can be used together with novel sulfide catalysts to convert methane to ethylene, an important intermediate in the production of a wide range of materials," Neurock said.

Chemists and engineers have attempted to develop catalysts and catalytic processes that use oxygen to make ethylene, methanol and other intermediates, but have had little success as oxygen is too reactive and tends to over-oxidize methane to common carbon dioxide.

Neurock said that sulfur or other "softer" oxidants that have weaker affinities for hydrogen may be the answer, in that they can help to limit the over-reaction of methane to carbon disulfide. In the team's process, methane is reacted with sulfur over sulfide catalysts used in petroleum processes. Sulfur is used to remove hydrogen from the methane to form hydrocarbon fragments, which subsequently react together on the catalyst to form ethylene.

Theoretical and experimental results indicate that the conversion of methane and the selectivity to produce ethylene are controlled by how strong the sulfur bonds to the catalyst. Using these concepts, the team explored different metal sulfide catalysts to ultimately tune the metal-sulfur bond strength in order to control the conversion of methane to ethylene. Chemical companies consider methane a particularly attractive raw material because of the large reserves of natural gas in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

In 2007, Dow issued a "Methane Challenge," seeking revolutionary chemical processes to facilitate the conversion of methane to ethylene and other useful chemicals. The company received about 100 proposals from universities, institutes and companies around the world. In 2008, the company awarded major research grants to Cardiff University and Northwestern University to advance the quest. Neurock is a member of the Northwestern University team. He is using theoretical methods and high-performance computing to understand the processes that control catalysis and to guide the experimental research at Northwestern.

"The abundance of natural gas, along with the development of new methods to extract it from hidden reserves, offers unique opportunities for the development of catalytic processes that can convert methane to chemicals," Neurock said. "Our finding -- of using sulfur to catalyze the conversion of methane to ethylene -- shows initial promise for the development of new catalytic processes that can potentially take full advantage of these reserves. The research, however, is really just in its infancy."

Neurock's co-investigators on the Nature Chemistry paper are Qingjun Zhu, Staci Wegener, Chao Xie and Tobin Marks of Northwestern University, and U.Va. colleague Obioma Uche.?

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Virginia.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Qingjun Zhu, Staci L. Wegener, Chao Xie, Obioma Uche, Matthew Neurock, Tobin J. Marks. Sulfur as a selective ?soft? oxidant for catalytic methane conversion probed by experiment and theory. Nature Chemistry, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1527

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/YsbE_j3qIgs/121220153505.htm

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Strike looms at East and Gulf Coast ports

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, a truck driver watches as a freight container, right, is lowered onto a tractor trailer truck by a container crane at the Port of Boston, in Boston. The crane and a reach stacker, left, are operated by longshoremen at the port. The longshoremen's union may strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their contract that expires Dec. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, a truck driver watches as a freight container, right, is lowered onto a tractor trailer truck by a container crane at the Port of Boston, in Boston. The crane and a reach stacker, left, are operated by longshoremen at the port. The longshoremen's union may strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their contract that expires Dec. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, a reach stacker operated by a longshoreman, right, places a shipping container on a tractor trailer truck at the Port of Boston, in Boston. The longshoremen's union may strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on their contract that expires Dec. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

(AP) ? Weeks after a critical West Coast port complex was crippled by a few hundred striking workers, the East Coast is bracing for a possible walkout numbering thousands that could close 15 ports from Massachusetts to Texas.

The latest talks between shipping companies and dockworkers broke down Tuesday, less than two weeks before the contract expires Dec. 29, leading to worries a strike was inevitable.

The National Retail Federation wrote to President Barack Obama this week to ask him to use "all means necessary" to head off a strike, which they fear could have catastrophic ripple effects nationwide. "We foresee this as a national economic emergency, to be honest," said Jonathan Gold, the group's vice president of supply chain and customs policy.

Gold said billions in commerce at countless businesses nationwide could be affected, from auto manufacturers awaiting parts to the truckers that deliver them.

Ingrid Hirstin Lazcano, founder of the Los Angeles-based Andean Dream LCC, said a strike on the East and Gulf Coasts could bankrupt her company, which sells soups, pasta and other products made from quinoa, a grain, grown in the Bolivian Andes.

The company has two containers shipped monthly to both Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and Lazcano said she's still recovering from the eight-day strike of 450 clerical workers at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, which ended Dec. 4.

"If the strike does happen, we will be paralyzed," she said. "We will not be able to fill orders."

James McNamara, spokesman for the International Longshoremen's Association, said the union knows what's at stake for others but must protect its membership.

"We offer the labor that keeps the commerce moving," he said. "If management doesn't appreciate or respect the labor that has made them a lot of money, then we have to do what we have to do."

A strike wouldn't affect passenger cruise ships, U.S. mail, military cargo or perishable cargo with a limited shelf life. It also wouldn't affect non-container, or break bulk, cargo such as steel, wood products and cars.

The longshoremen's union represents 14,500 workers at the 15 ports, which extend south from Boston and handle 95 percent of all containerized shipments from Maine to Texas, about 110 million tons' worth. The New York-New Jersey ports handle the most cargo on the East Coast, valued at $208 billion in 2011. The other ports that would be affected by a strike are Boston; Delaware River; Baltimore; Hampton Roads, Va.; Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Port Everglades, Fla., Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; New Orleans; and Houston.

The impasse comes during a 90-day extension of the current contract. On Tuesday, a federal mediator offered another monthlong extension. Various issues, including wages, are unresolved, but the sides couldn't agree on what's become the key sticking point, container royalties.

The royalties are payments to union workers based on the weight of cargo received at each port. They were created in the 1960s to boost wages and finance worker benefits after increased automation cut down salaries and jobs, making it impossible for the dwindling labor force to finance its benefits, McNamara said.

The container carriers and port operators, represented by the U.S. Marine Alliance, want to cap the royalties at 2011 levels, saying they've morphed into a huge expense, totally unrelated to their original purpose, which hurts the industry's competitiveness as it tries to keep up with new technology. The alliance says the royalty payments now amount to a bonus averaging $15,500 annually for East Coast workers who already earn more than $50 per hour.

The union says the payments aren't a bonus, they're an important supplemental wage. It argues that in its previous contract, management agreed to remove the royalties cap in exchange for being allowed to use $42 million of royalty payments to cover a previously negotiated wage increase. There's no way the union can allow the alliance to revive the cap now and accept the cuts in worker income and union revenue, McNamara said.

The sides have traded charges of inflexibility, though both also point to a history of cooperation since the last East Coast-wide strike in 1977. No one has ruled out renewing talks.

But with time so short, companies are pushing up shipment dates or finding alternative transportation, said Steve Lamar, executive vice president of the Washington-based American Apparel and Footwear Association.

Companies are already worried about restocking after the holidays, and some are still dealing with the effects of the West Coast shutdown and Superstorm Sandy, he said.

"You've already got companies and ports and trade that have been battered by a couple of situations over the last couple of months, and we still have this uncertainty," Lamar said.

In Philadelphia, port executive Robert Blackburn estimates a strike could affect 60 percent of the tonnage the port handles.

"Frankly, there's not a lot we can do except that hope that cooler heads prevail and, if they don't, perhaps there will be intervention by the president," Blackburn said.

___

Associated Press writers Eileen AJ Connelly in New York and Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-19-Longshoremen-Contract/id-cf9cae5c8f044ce8ba682931db04ebd2

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Leonardo Fibonacci | Journal of Geo-Science Education

In the room chapter we find in ' ' exploring tema' ' , speaking on the great numbers, we see the history of the mathematics with Archimedes and its form to represent great numbers. Later from there only we find a little on history of the mathematics in few chapters, at the beginning of chapter 6, we have an image of the papyrus of Rhind, and the history of the fractions, one more time in exploring the subject, later from there practically we do not see more history of the mathematics. Learn more about this with Victory Schools. Unhappyly, in the book of 7 year we do not find no reference to the history of the mathematics, not even in ' ' Exploring tema' ' we can see some reference. What we can find are curiosidades, images of mathematical, quadrinhos symbols, but nothing that history involves, that the information are not good or beneficial, but that much historical content could be used in all the chapters that are presented by unit, for example, the idea of the sprouting of the negative numbers, that stops the pupils is unknown until then, without a historical bedding is a little empty or meaningless, thus, the collection sins very in not using history of the mathematics in this unit. In the third volume more than we find a little history of the mathematics, not so present as in the first one, but also it is not inexistent as in as. In chapter 2, we have one brief citation on Archimedes with its idea to calculate the amount of sand grains would be necessary to full the Universe, through finding a difficult number great of being represented there. In chapter 3, the topic ' ' Exploring the Tema' ' we find one brief citation of the sequncia of Fibonacci and the number ' ' fi' ' , Leonardo Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician.

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Source: http://www.journalofgeoscienceeducation.org/leonardo-fibonacci

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Philanthropy Daily? ? The prosperity-charity connection

The charitable sector?understandable frets over the fate of the charitable deduction as pols?in Washington tumble towards?the fiscal cliff. But as my Philanthropy Daily colleague Jeremy Beer notes, one wise donor has pointed out a devil?s bargain that too many advocates for charities are willing to make in their campaign to protect the charitable deduction.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Kimberly O. Dennis, head of the Searle Freedom Trust (and a supporter of Philanthropy Daily), skewers the illogic of groups like the Independent Sector, which explicitly endorse President Obama?s lust to raise taxes on the wealthy, even as they also plead to keep the charitable deduction untouched.

This combination of policies is entirely unlikely to protect?much less increase?actual giving to charities. Dennis points out the well-established fact that for decades Americans have given away about?2 percent of their disposable income, which has also equaled roughly 2 percent of GDP. That was the case in 1974, when the greedy government demanded a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent, and in 1989, when the top rate was 28 percent.

I wish American giving were higher than those 2 percents, but at least we are far more charitable than Europeans. As Arthur Brooks points out,

Per capita, Americans give three and a half times as much as the French, seven times as much as the Germans, and 14 times as much as the Italians.

Those numbers should wake up anyone in the charitable sector who imagines that a big welfare state in a secularized nation is a recipe for nonprofit flourishing.

The same people may also want to peruse an essay co-written by Sandra Swirski of the Alliance for Charitable Reform and myself. As our subtitle warns, ?a growing government undercuts American philanthropy?:

One study cited by [the Congressional Research Service] estimated that government largess typically ?crowds out? private donations by around 56 percent. That means every $1,000 in government grant money can reduce private donations by $560.

In short, if you care about the health of America?s charities, you should be worried about more than the shape of our charitable tax deduction. You should take a keen interest in the shape and size of the governmental sector.

Given the seemingly Iron Law of 2 Percent, charitable giving will only grow if disposable income and our GDP grow.?Dennis is right to insist that

If nonprofits knew what was good for them, they would be focusing less on preserving the charitable deduction and more on economic growth and wealth creation. As the dreaded fiscal cliff approaches, they should be lobbying for a tax system that lowers rates and eliminates loopholes, allowing capital?including charitable capital?to flow to its most productive use. The resulting prosperity would do much more for charities than preserving their own special carve-out from a punitive tax structure.

FOOTNOTE: For all the details on the charitable deduction fight, visit the page devoted to it at the website of Alliance for Charitable Reform.

?

Copyright ? 2012 Capital Research Center. May be reprinted with attribution.

Source: http://www.philanthropydaily.com/?p=11773

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Stocks open mixed as 'cliff' worries trump GDP data

43 min.

Stocks opened narrowly mixed Thursday despite a better-than-expected GDP report, as ongoing "fiscal cliff" uncertainties kept a lid on gains.?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened slightly lower, led by Merck, a day after logging its biggest one-day drop in December.?

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq struggled for direction at the open. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near 17.

The economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace in the third quarter, expanding at a 3.1 percent annual rate, according to the Commerce Department, up from the 2.7 percent pace reported last month. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected a reading of 2.8 percent.?

Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims climbed 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 361,000 in the previous week, according to the Labor Department. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 357,000. The four-week moving average for new claims, fell 13,750 to 367,750, the lowest since late October.

Boehner pressed his "Plan B" proposal that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for those earnings up to $1 million, despite Obama's veto threat, saying it will be approved Thursday by the GOP-controlled House.?

Meanwhile, Obama said the two sides were only $200 billion apart in a deal to avoid the looming "fiscal cliff," and he's ready to get the job done.?

Merck slumped after the pharmaceutical company said its cholesterol drug study failed. The company said it no longer plans to seek approval for the drug in the U.S.?

NYSE Euronext surged after IntercontinentalExchange agreed to acquire the financial services company in a deal worth nearly $8.2 billion. The offer values NYSE shares at $33.12, a 38 percent premium over Wednesday's closing price. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2013.

November existing home sales are due at 10:00 am, with Reuters expecting a gain of 1.3 percent, compared with 2.1 percent in October. And the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's December business activity survey is forecast to come in at minus 3.0 compared to minus 10.7 in November.

Among earnings, Rite Aid surged after the drugstore chain posted its first quarterly profit in more than five years and boosted its forecast for the year.?

ConAgra Foods edged higher after the packaged foods company posted better-than-expected earnings, and said its full-year profit will be at the high end of estimates.?

Among earnings, Nike and Research In Motion are among notable companies slated to report after the closing bell.?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/stocks-open-mixed-cliff-worries-trump-gdp-data-1C7659304

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Weight Loss Programs Could Help Reverse Diabetes, Study Finds

By Katherine Harmon
(Click here for the original article)

Type 2 diabetes has long been thought of as a chronic, irreversible disease. Some 25 million Americans are afflicted with the illness, which is associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, as well as high blood pressure. Recent research demonstrated that gastric bypass surgery--a form of bariatric surgery that reduces the size of the stomach--can lead to at least temporary remission of type 2 diabetes in up to 62 percent of extremely obese adults. But can less drastic measures also help some people fight back the progressive disease?

A new randomized controlled trial found that intensive weight loss programs can also increase the odds that overweight adults with type 2 diabetes will see at least partial remission. The findings were published online December 18 in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. "The increasing worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes, along with its wide-ranging complications, has led to hopes that the disease can be reversed or prevented," wrote the authors of the new paper, led by Edward Gregg of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study tracked 4,503 overweight adults with type 2 diabetes for four years. About half of the subjects received basic diabetes support and education (including three sessions per year that covered diet, physical activity and support). The other half received more intensive lifestyle-intervention assistance. This second group received weekly individual and group counseling for six months, followed by three-sessions each month for the next six months, and refresher group sessions and individual contact for the subsequent three years. The interventions aimed to help individuals limit daily calories to 1,200 to 1,800--in particular by reducing saturated fat intake--and to help them get the recommended 175 minutes per week of physical activity.

After two years about one in 11 adults in the intervention group experienced at least partial remission of their diabetes, meaning that a patient's blood sugar levels reverted to below diabetes diagnosis levels without medication. Only about one in 60 in the control group, which received only basic support and education, saw any remission after two years. The findings suggest that "partial remission, defined by a transition to prediabetic or normal glucose levels without drug treatment for a specific period, is an obtainable goal for some patients with type 2 diabetes," the researchers noted.

The improvement, however, was not indefinite for everyone. After four years, only about one in 30 people in the intervention group were still seeing an improvement in their condition. Researchers think that regaining weight and falling behind on diet and physical activity goals increase the risk that people will return to a diabetic state.

About one in 75 in the intervention group saw complete remission of their diabetes, in which glucose levels returned to normal without medication.

The study did not find, however, that individuals in the lifestyle intervention group had lower risks for heart trouble, stroke or death than did those in the control group. "This recently led the National Institutes of Health to halt the [trial]," noted David Arterburn, of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, and Patrick O'Connor, of HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Minneapolis, in an essay in the same issue of JAMA. Similar results have come out of studies looking at more intensive medical treatment of diabetes. "A more potent intervention--bariatric surgery--already appears to achieve what intensive medical and lifestyle interventions cannot: reducing cardiovascular events and mortality rates among severely obese patients with type 2 diabetes," they noted.

As with any disease, however, prevention is the best strategy. "The disappointing results of recent trials of intensive lifestyle and medical management in patients with existing type 2 diabetes also underscore the need to more aggressively pursue primary prevention of diabetes," Arterburn and O'Connor noted. One recent study found that compared with no treatment at all, lifestyle interventions reduced the onset of type 2 diabetes by 58 percent in people with pre-diabetes (and the medication metformin reduced the onset rate by 31 percent). Bariatric surgery seemed to reduce the onset of diabetes in obese patients by 83 percent, Arterburn and O'Connor pointed out in their essay.

For people who already have diabetes, however, those who are still in the early stages and those with the biggest weight loss and/or fitness improvement had the best odds for beating the disease. And even if lifestyle interventions aren't capable of dialing back the disease entirely, any reduction--whether through lifestyle or other changes-in the need for medication and in medical complications due to diabetes can be considered an improvement in managing the disease, which already costs the U.S. health system $116 billion each year and is estimated to affect 50 million Americans by 2050.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/weight-loss-program-diabetes_n_2331474.html

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