Word: supporting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Optimism wasn't just a psycho-spiritual lifestyle option; by the mid-'00s it had become increasingly mandatory. Positive psychologists, inspired by a totally overoptimistic reading of the data, proclaimed that optimism lengthens the life span, ameliorates aging and cures cancer. In the past few years, some breast-cancer support groups have expelled members whose tumors metastasized, lest they bring the other members down. In the workplace, employers culled "negative" people, like those in the finance industry who had the temerity to suggest that their company's subprime exposure might be too high. No one dared be the bearer...
...book combines years of the research by the authors with other studies to support its ideas. One of their most striking findings—from a large study that began in 1948 in Framingham, Massachusetts—is that obesity is greatly determined by social networks (some other researchers have questioned this interpretation). According to Connected, “If a mutual friend becomes obese, it nearly triples a person’s risk of becoming obese.” Because of imitation and shared expectations called “norms,” even friends...
...among the final-status issues on which he hopes to revive talks this month. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is prevaricating on talks, mindful of his growing marginalization in Palestinian political life. Abbas' popularity reached an all time low last week after he heeded U.S. pressure to withdraw Palestinian support for Security Council action on a U.N. report accusing Israel (and Hamas) of committing war crimes in Gaza last winter. Hamas, the militant organization that controls Gaza and is also the ruling party in the elected Palestinian legislature, has the power to effectively veto any peace agreement...
...world is full of examples of leaders who, quite genuinely, had humility as a goal, until events forced them to abandon it. In his campaign debates with Al Gore in 2000, George W. Bush said the U.S. should act as a "humble nation," the better to win the support of others for its policies. Sounded great. But Bush's commitment to be an international shrinking violet did not survive the terrorist attacks of 9/11, nor should it have. What the U.S. and the world wanted and needed in response to 9/11 was not (or, let's say, not just) quiet...
...while al-Qaeda's support may not be welcomed by many Uighurs, no other nations in the Muslim world beyond Turkey - whose people see the Uighurs as a kindred community - have offered much solidarity. As China's economic ties to the Middle East grow stronger, few governments can risk Beijing's ire. Its traditional image in the region as a remote and non-interfering member of the third world is shifting toward that of a more influential power, but it remains far from generating the kind of animosity and suspicion that the U.S. attracts. Instead, "China is perceived...