Happiness increases with age, across generations: But your overall level of well-being depends on when you were born

Feb. 6, 2013 ? Psychological well-being has been linked to many important life outcomes, including career success, relationship satisfaction, and even health. But it's not clear how feelings of well-being change as we age, as different studies have provided evidence for various trends over time.

A new report published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that self-reported feelings of well-being tend to increase with age, but that a person's overall level of well-being depends on when he or she was born.

Psychological scientist Angelina R. Sutin of Florida State University College of Medicine conducted the study while at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she remains a guest researcher. She and colleagues at NIA predicted that people in the same "birth cohort" -- born around the same time -- may have had unique experiences that shape the way they evaluate happiness and optimism. They hypothesized that the level of well-being a person reports would, therefore, vary according to his or her birth year.

Using two large-scale longitudinal studies, NIH's Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) and the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Sutin and colleagues looked at data from several thousand people over 30 years, including over 10,000 reports on well-being, health, and other factors.

When the researchers analyzed the data across the whole pool of participants, older adults had lower levels of well-being than younger and middle-aged adults.

But when Sutin and her colleagues analyzed the same data while taking birth cohort into account, a different trend appeared: Life satisfaction increased over the participants' lifetimes. This trend remained even after factors like health, medication, sex, ethnicity, and education were taken into account.

So what explains the different results?

While life satisfaction increased with age for each cohort, older birth cohorts -- especially people born between 1885 and 1925 -- started off with lower levels of well-being in comparison to people born more recently. Looking at life satisfaction across all of the participants, regardless of when they were born, obscures the fact that each cohort actually shows the same underlying trend.

Sutin and colleagues point out that the level of well-being of cohorts born in the early part of the 20th century, particularly those who lived through the Great Depression, was substantially lower than the level of well-being of cohorts who grew up during more prosperous times. The greater well-being of more recent cohorts could be the result of economic prosperity, increased educational opportunities, and the expansion of social and public programs over the latter half of the 20th century.

According to the researchers, these findings may have important implications for today's younger generations.

"As young adults today enter a stagnant workforce, the challenges of high unemployment may have implications for their well-being that long outlast the period of joblessness. Economic turmoil may impede psychological, as well as financial, growth even decades after times get better."

Co-authors on this research include Antonio Terracciano also of Florida State University College of Medicine and a guest researcher at the NIA; Yuri Milaneschi of the National Institute on Aging and VU University Medical Center; and Yang An, Luigi Ferrucci and Alan B. Zonderman of the National Institute on Aging, NIH.

This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Association for Psychological Science.

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Journal Reference:

1. A. R. Sutin, A. Terracciano, Y. Milaneschi, Y. An, L. Ferrucci, A. B. Zonderman. The Effect of Birth Cohort on Well-Being: The Legacy of Economic Hard Times. Psychological Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/0956797612459658

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/CM7I9t8hCWE/130206141647.htm

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Twitter tweaks Vine porn problem with adult rating

Rosa Golijan , NBC News ? ? ? 20 hrs.

There's no sense in denying it: Vine, Twitter's new video-sharing service, has a wee bit of a porn problem. We've seen a pornographic clip featured as an "Editor's Pick" and there have been attempts to censor #porn, #sex, and other naughty hashtags in order to hide inappropriate content. And now Twitter just plain slapped an age restriction on the Vine app.

If you attempt to download the Vine app from the Apple App Store ? the only place you can get the app right now ? a message will pop up, demanding that you confirm that you are 17 years of age or older. This prompt appeared Wednesday after the Vine app received an update which includes bug fixes and minor improvements. (The update also allows users to report or block profiles, which, as we previously noted, was a missing feature when the app first launched.)

Given the porn-fueled drama surrounding Vine's early days, it's not particularly surprising that Twitter added an age restriction to the app. There could be additional motivations for the move as well, of course, as 500px, a popular photo-sharing app, was recently removed from the App Store over porn-related concerns and returned only once its developers made changes which included an age restriction and an abuse reporting tool.

A Twitter spokesperson previously told NBC Newsthat the company is "in the process of changing how users find and view sensitive content" and that it is "experimenting with a number of approaches and will continue to iterate," so we expect that the age restriction likely won't be the last thing we'll hear when it comes to Vine's porn problem.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/twitter-tweaks-vine-porn-problem-nc-17-rating-1B8269602

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Bulgaria blames Hezbollah for 2012 bombing, refueling terrorist listing debate

The European Union has long been under pressure from Israel and the US to list Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

By Nicholas Blanford,?Correspondent / February 5, 2013

Hezbollah fighters hold their party flags during the inauguration of a new cemetery for their fighters who died fighting against Israel, Beirut, Lebanon, November 2010. Najib Mikati, the Lebanese prime minister, repeated his condemnation of the Burgas bombing and said that Lebanon would cooperate with the Bulgarian authorities over a bomb attack linked to Hezbollah that killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver.

Hussein Malla/AP/File

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The Bulgarian government has blamed Lebanon?s militant Shiite Hezbollah organization for a deadly suicide bomb attack on a bus in the town of Burgas last July which left six people dead, five of them Israelis.

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The long-awaited results of the Bulgarian investigation into the bombing will place greater pressure on the European Union to proscribe Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, a classification repeatedly called for by the US and Israel but so far rejected by the EU. European countries are concerned that proscribing Hezbollah could destabilize Lebanon, which is already reeling from the repercussions of the war in neighboring Syria, and potentially jeopardize European interests in the Middle East.

Tsvetan Tsvetanov, the Bulgarian interior minister, said that two suspects had been identified and that they had carried Canadian and Australian passports.

?We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah,? he said after a meeting of Bulgaria?s national security council. ?We expect the government of Lebanon to assist further in the investigation.?

However, the dominant player in the Lebanese government is Hezbollah, which will limit Lebanon?s ability to assist in the ongoing investigation.

Still, Najib Mikati, the Lebanese prime minister, repeated his condemnation of the Burgas bombing and said that Lebanon would cooperate with the Bulgarian authorities.

?[Lebanon] is keen on Bulgaria?s security and that of the EU states and on ensuring that these relationships will be maintained and developed on all levels,? he said in a statement.

There was no immediate reaction to the Bulgarian announcement from Hezbollah and the group?s spokesman was unavailable for comment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who publicly blamed Hezbollah and its backer Iran for the bus bombing within hours of the July 18 attack, repeated his accusations that both were waging a ?global campaign of terror? and urged the EU to blacklist the Lebanese party.

The White House also urged the EU to take "proactive action" against Hezbollah. John Brennan, the Obama administration's top counter-terrorism official, said the attack exposed Hezbollah as a "terrorist group that is willing to recklessly attack innocent men, women and children and that poses a real and growing threat not only to Europe, but to the rest of the world."

Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, which helps coordinate national police forces in the EU, told the Associated Press that the bomb used in the attack was remotely detonated even though one of the bombers had died in the blast. He said that two counterfeit US drivers licenses found near the scene were traced back to Lebanon, where they were made.

?The Bulgarian authorities are making quite a strong assumption that this is the work of Hezbollah,? he said. ?From what I?ve seen of the case ? from the very strong, obvious links to Lebanon, from the modus operandi of the terrorist attack and from other intelligence that we see ? I think this is a reasonable assumption.?

European unease

To classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization requires consensus among the 27 EU member states. While some countries, like Britain, already have placed Hezbollah on their national terrorism lists, many EU countries have expressed unease at blacklisting the powerful Hezbollah. Some, such as France, Italy, and Spain, have troops deployed with a United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon which could make them vulnerable to reprisals. The peacekeepers have been targeted on several occasions in recent years by unclaimed roadside bomb attacks.

Additionally, some EU states worry that blacklisting an influential party like Hezbollah ? which is politically powerful in government and parliament and runs an extensive social welfare network in addition to its militant activities ? could destabilize Lebanon. That point was aired by Gilles de Kerchove, the EU?s top counter-terrorism official, in an interview last week with the online euobserver.com news portal.

?For Hezbollah, you might ask, given the situation in Lebanon, which is a highly fragile, highly fragmented country, is listing going to help you achieve what you want?... There is no automatic listing just because you have been behind a terrorist attack. It?s not only the legal requirement that you have to take into consideration, it?s also a political assessment of the context and timing,? he said.

In a statement, Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, said that the ?implications of the investigation need to be assessed seriously as they relate to a terrorist attack on EU soil, which resulted in the killing and injury of innocent civilians.?

Hezbollah's international reach

Hezbollah was associated with a string of international bombing attacks against Western targets in the 1980s and early 1990s, but seemed to abandon global militancy in the late 1990s to concentrate on its domestic interests.

However, in the past five years, Western intelligence agencies have noted a resumption of global activity by Hezbollah in association with the Quds Force, the external operations wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The motives appear linked to the killing of Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah?s top military commander who died in a car bomb explosion in Damascus in February 2008, and a series of assassinations against Iranian scientists and suspected acts of sabotage against Iran?s nuclear facilities.

In marked contrast to the bombing spectaculars attributed to Hezbollah in previous decades, the recent attacks generally have been poorly-planned, amateurish, and usually foiled before they could be carried out. The purported plots and attacks since 2008 spanned Thailand, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kenya, and Cyprus. According to the New York police, there were nine thwarted international attacks alone planned by Hezbollah between January and July 2012.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/q7TvoHvTbWk/Bulgaria-blames-Hezbollah-for-2012-bombing-refueling-terrorist-listing-debate

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Texas investigator charged in comic book heist

Karen Warren / AP file

Anthony Chiofalo, accused of embezzling $9 million from his former employer Japanese equipment manufacturer Tadano America leaves a Houston court on Jan. 7. Chiofalo had just turned himself in after about six months on the run. His lawyer says at least $1 million of Chiofalo's assets, which he needs to pay restitution to Tadano, have been stolen by a former investigator in the Harris county district attorney's office.

By Kari Huus, Staff writer, NBC News

It is a tangled tale that could perhaps be best told?through a graphic novel.

A former Texas police investigator appeared in federal court Tuesday accused of stealing comic books worth hundreds of thousands of dollars -- from a man who was himself facing charges for stealing millions of dollars from his employer, which he then used to buy the valuable classics, the Houston Chronicle reported.

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Lonnie Blevins was an investigator for Harris County involved in the case of lawyer Anthony Chiofalo,?who was charged last May with bilking his employer out of $9 million.

In the course of the case, authorities seized Chiofalo?s high-priced comics and other collectibles ? including a first-edition Batman comic book worth about $900,000 and an original Green Lantern comic valued at $300,000.

But after a months-long federal investigation, Blevins was arrested in the disappearance of some of those assets which he allegedly sold.

Blevins, who left the Harris County District attorney's office in December, resigned from his subsequent job with the Bexar County D.A.'s office on Monday after learning of the charges, his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin told the Chronicle.

The FBI believes Blevins stole the Chiofalo?s comic books from a storage unit containing evidence from the fraud case, and that he sold some of them to dealers in Chicago for $70,000, according court documents obtained by local TV station KTRK.

According to witnesses interviewed by the FBI, Blevins asked for the money in small check amounts, the report says.

Chiofalo's?path to the present has many twists. He was charged last May for stealing millions from Japan-based crane manufacturer Tadano America, by getting his company to pay millions to a phantom law firm and then pocketing the money. When Chiofalo's wife, 51-year-old Susan Chiofalo was arrested, he fled Texas.

Chiofalo was was on the lam until December, and by coincidence staying in Newtown, Conn. at the time of the horrific grade school shootings. As police swarmed into the town, he left and turned himself in at a police station in Rhode Island.

Now, under a civil judgment Chiofalo is attempting to pay restitution to Tadano, according to his attorney, Paul Doyle.

Doyle said that how much his client is able to repay in the civil case could affect Chiofalo?s sentencing in the criminal case against him.

"We have been trying to cooperate and provide the company with restitution, but have not been able to," Doyle said.

Doyle says that the county did not follow inventory and security procedures for the seized assets, and there appear to be dozens of comic books missing ? worth more than $1 million, he said.

Doyle says he is drafting a motion to get Chiofalo?s case dismissed, because of the alleged misconduct by the Harris County DA in handling the assets and other aspects of the case, including the arrest of Chiafalo?s wife, 51-year-old Susan Chiofalo, for alleged involvement in the theft. She is out on bail, and her case is pending.

Meantime, Chiofalo remains in the Harris County jail, unable to make the $18 million bail.

Blevins is out on bond.

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/05/16858211-holy-switch-a-roo-texas-investigator-charged-in-comic-book-heist?lite

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Insider says no doubt Hillary will run for president

Politics Confidential

Hillary Clinton had not even stepped down from her post as Secretary of State, when a superPAC supporting her run for president in 2016 was filed with the Federal Election Commission. The superPAC's website launched over the weekend.

Allida Black is chair and founder of the group, and says she is, as the superPAC is named, "Ready for Hillary."

"I've been waiting for Hillary all my life. But I am more than ready this time," says Black, who campaigned for Clinton in 14 states in 2008.

Clinton has not said whether she will throw her hat in the ring, telling ABC News in her last television interview as Secretary of State that she is "flattered and honored" at the intense interest in whether she might run for president in 2016.

"I have no doubt she's gonna run," says Black. "She knows there's this huge groundswell. She sees the challenges. She's not gonna say no. Not because of her, but because of us."

But there are a lot of other big-r?sum? Democrats out there as potential 2016 candidates, like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Vice President Joe Biden. Black says it is not their time.

"Hillary is the leader that the country needs. I mean she's been president of the world really for the past four years," says the George Washington University professor and historian. "She spent her whole life getting ready."

SuperPACs played a big role the 2012 election, Mitt Romney's superPAC poured more than $80 million into his campaign. Some were as well funded as entire presidential campaigns. Black did not have a specific goal for how much money "Ready for Hillary" will be able to raise, but expects a lot from supporters.

"We're gonna need that gazillion dollars. And we will get that gazillion dollars," she says. "We have the contacts, we have the skills, we have the passion, and we have the people on the ground to pull it off."

For more on Allida Black, including whether she thinks Clinton would have been a better president than Obama, and how much she thinks Clinton's "sky high" popularity will fall if she gets back into politics, check out this week's Politics Confidential.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/hillary-2016-founder-hillary-clinton-superpac-says-no-115615404.html

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Syrian opposition chief renews dialogue offer

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? The leader of Syria's main opposition group urged President Bashar Assad on Monday to respond to his offer for a dialogue, insisting he is ready to sit down with members of the regime despite sharp criticism from some of his colleagues.

Mouaz al-Khatib, leader of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, said he is extending his hand to the regime to "facilitate its peaceful departure." And some anti-regime activists are behind him, threatening even deeper fractures in the already divided movement to oust Assad.

Al-Khatib's offer, first made last week, marks a departure from the mainstream opposition's narrative insisting that Assad step down before any talks. It has angered some of his colleagues who accuse him of acting unilaterally.

It is likely to be rejected by Syrian officials who insist Assad will stay in power at least until his term ends in mid-2014. And even if accepted, he will likely not have broad enough backing among the opposition to make any deal meaningful.

More than 60,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began almost two years ago. The revolt, which began with largely peaceful protests, has turned into civil war now locked in a deadly stalemate with sectarian overtones.

Al-Khatib's overture reflects the realization among some opposition leaders that a victory is unlikely to be achieved on the battlefield as well as disillusionment with an international community that has largely failed to stem the bloodshed and has balked at military intervention to help topple Assad.

"The major powers have no vision. ... Only the Syrian people can find a solution to this crisis," he said in an interview with Qatari-based Al-Jazeera television.

His initiative follows meetings he held separately with Russian, U.S. and Iranian officials on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich over the weekend. Russia and Iran are Syria's two closest allies.

"It is possible that al-Khatib has recognized the fact that the world community is incapable of ending the crisis but he and other Syrians can," said Ahmed Souaiaia, a professor at the University of Iowa with joint appointments in International Studies, Religious Studies, and the College of Law.

The initiative came nearly four weeks after Assad outlined his own vision for ending the conflict with a plan that offers elections and a new constitution but ultimately keeps him in power.

Al-Khatib said last week he is willing to hold talks with the regime in Egypt, Tunisia or Turkey if that would help end the bloodshed. He also made his offer conditional on the regime's release of tens of thousands of detainees and renewal of passports of activists who live abroad.

"Look in the eyes of your children before you sleep maybe will get back some of your humanity and will find a solution together," al-Khatib said in remarks directed at Assad.

The Syrian opposition movement has been plagued from the start of the uprising by a lack of unity and cohesion that has hampered not only success on the battlefield but also foreign assistance.

Opposition figures were divided over al-Khatib's proposal.

"There is difference between negotiating with the regime and negotiating for the regime's departure," said Muhieddine Lathkani, a London-based member of the Syrian National Council opposition group who supports the dialogue offer.

Lathkani added by telephone that al-Khatib's move "aims to stop the bloodshed." But he cautioned that the rebels will not stop their operations during this time.

Others, including prominent coalition leader Kamal Labwani, said al-Khatib committed a "grave mistake" by acting alone and suggested he should apologize publicly or step down.

Al-Khatib, a 52-year-old preacher turned activist, said he was placing the ball in Assad's court.

"The regime has to take a clear stance and we will extend our hand for the sake of our people and in order to facilitate the peaceful departure of the regime," he said, renewing the offer from last week.

There has been no comment from Syrian officials on al-Khatib's initiative last week or his latest comments.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who met al-Khatib, said in Berlin on Monday that "we have to assist the opposition and the government to sit together" and work through a reform process under international supervision.

Iran is viewed by many in the opposition as a party to the killings in Syria because of its support for Assad.

A senior Iranian official visiting Damascus this week appeared to voice support for al-Khatib's call for dialogue, without naming him.

"We welcome any initiative that leads to dialogue," said Saeed Jalili, the head of Iran's National Security Council. He said the talks should be held in Damascus.

Amid the discussions of dialogue, activists said Syrian warplanes hit several opposition strongholds in the Damascus outskirts, from where rebels have been threatening the capital, the seat of Assad's power.

The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said that rebels captured early Monday the Baath Dam on the Euphrates river in the northeastern province of Raqqa. Months ago, rebels captured the nearby Tishrin dam. They can now control the flow of water to some areas around the country.

Elsewhere in Syria, army troops also battled rebels in oil-rich Deir el-Zour in the east, along Syria's border with Iraq. In the north fighting was concentrated around the battlefield city of Aleppo, particularly along the road that links the city with its airport.

The Observatory said there was heavy fighting near Aleppo international airport as Syrian troops tried to dislodge rebels from Sheik Said area, southeast of the city that is Syria's largest urban center and its main commercial hub.

State-run news agency SANA reported late Monday that rebels targeted a power station in Qaboun on the outskirt of Damascus, causing extensive electricity cuts in the capital and its suburbs. It was the second widespread outage in weeks in the capital.

In Lebanon, a judge issued arrest warrants for a top Syrian intelligence official and his aide for their alleged involvement in a bombing plot in Lebanon last year, judicial officials said. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk is accused of being involved with Lebanon's former information minister who allegedly plotted a wave of attacks in Lebanon at the behest of Syria.

Mamlouk, head of Syria's national security council, was indicted in absentia along with the former minister in the summer. The indictment and arrest warrants signal worsening Lebanese-Syrian ties as a result of the Syrian civil war.

____

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Barbara Surk in Beirut and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-opposition-chief-renews-dialogue-offer-144236608.html

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Scientists identify remains as those of King Richard III

LONDON -- More than 500 years after his death in battle, scientists announced Monday that they had definitively identified a skeleton unearthed in northern England last summer as that of Richard III, the medieval king portrayed by William Shakespeare as a homicidal tyrant who killed his two young nephews in order to ascend the throne.

DNA from the bones, found beneath the ruins of an old church, matches that of a living descendant of the monarch's sister, researchers said.

"Rarely have the conclusions of academic research been so eagerly awaited," Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist on the excavation, told a phalanx of reporters Monday morning. "Beyond reasonable doubt, the individual exhumed ... is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England."

PHOTOS: Remains of King Richard III

The dramatic announcement capped a brief hunt for Richard's remains, the progress of which has been closely charted by international media and whose success has been barely short of miraculous.

Working from old maps of Leicester, about 100 miles northwest of London, archaeologists from the local university had less than a month to dig in a small municipal parking lot -- one of the few spaces not built over in the crowded city center. The team stumbled on the ruins of the medieval priory where records say Richard was buried, then found the bones a few days later last September.

"It was an extraordinary discovery that stunned all of us," Buckley said.

The nearly intact skeleton bore obvious traces of trauma to the skull and of scoliosis, a curvature of the spine that matched contemporary descriptions of Richard's appearance. The feet were missing, almost certainly the result of later disturbance, and the hands were crossed at the wrist, which suggests that they may have been tied.

Scientists at the University of Leicester, which pioneered the practice of DNA fingerprinting, were able to extract samples from the bones and compare them to a man descended from Richard III's sister Anne. The match through the maternal line was virtually perfect.

"The DNA evidence points to these being the remains of Richard III," said Turi King, the project?s geneticist.

Richard reigned from 1483 to 1485, and occupies a unique place in England's long line of colorful rulers. He was the last king to be killed in combat, at the Battle of Bosworth Field, by his successor, Henry VII. His death ended the Plantagenet dynasty and ushered in the long era of the Tudors, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Jo Appleby, an osteologist at the university, said the skeleton belonged to an adult male in his late 20s to late 30s; Richard III was 32 when he died. The man would have stood 5-foot-8 at full height, but the curved spine would have made him appear shorter.

The skull was riddled with wounds strongly indicative of death in battle, including two blows from bladed weapons, either of which would have been fatal, Appleby said.

Richard III is one of England's most controversial monarchs, reviled by some as a bloodthirsty despot who stopped at nothing to gain power, but revered by others who insist that he has been unfairly maligned. His supporters note that the repugnant portrait of Richard in today's popular imagination is based almost entirely on accounts from the time of the usurping Tudors, especially Shakespeare's indelible characterization of him as a "deform'd, unfinish'd" man without scruples.

Fans say Richard III was an enlightened, capable ruler whose important social reforms included the presumption of innocence for defendants and the granting of bail, which remain pillars of the legal system in Britain and the U.S.

What happened to Richard's two nephews, however, who were his rivals for the throne and who were shut up in the Tower of London as young boys, never to be seen again, remains a mystery.

ALSO:

Race to unearth a royal mystery

Bones found in hunt for King Richard III's remains

Netanyahu officially asked to put together new Israeli government

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/DcRis9sRf34/la-fg-wn-richard-iii-remains-20130204,0,1974179.story

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