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British Journal of Sports Medicine confirms what other studies have shown. 150 minutes of walking - any kind of walking including up the stairs at home and in the home and outdoors, can reduce health risks including aging by 73% compared to only 49 minutes daily.

Other studies have shown the need in a desk bound work culture to move around and not be statinary or sedentary. That alone lowers health risks and bad backs, bad necks. All types of exercize are important, one does not need a marathon or hard exercise, even the incidental movement throughout the day say medical experts is vastly underestimated. Walking to the bus or subway, tram stop, moving about the house frequently, just stop the sedentary situation plays a big part in remaining healthy.

Veerman, a health expert says find something you enjoy and do it, something you like that is your thing. That includes going up and down the stairs at home.

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Living with Uncertainty and knowing one will not know what lies ahead, one will be ignorant much of the time, acceptance of death as inevitable, is part of living. 

Physicist Feynmann says-

“I’m smart enough to know I’m dumb”, Feynmann, saying: “I can live with doubt, uncertainty and not knowing.” He accepted a lack of understanding a certain level of ignorance about what the future will bring. In 1910 no one thought there would be a world war and pandemic in 2 years, we did not know that the pandemic was a year away in 2018.

The Bible and Bhagavad Gita have admonitions about this. Wisdom is knowing that we lack the understanding and knowledge of the universe, that there is something else we call Spirit that guides the world and what is called the Imperishable Brahman that is within us and pervades all.

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German chancellor Angela Merkel arrived for a meeting of eurozone leaders in Brussels on October 23, 2011. She said: "I believe that now we have reached a more realistic view of the situation in Greece and that we will provide the necessary means to be able to protect the euro." Germany has insisted that bondholders take writeoffs of between 50-60% of Greek debt so that Greece would have sustainable debt. A review of Greece's debt by the European Commission in coordination with the ECB and the IMF shows that Greece's debt situation is totally unsustainable and will require a bondholder writeoff of around 60%. according to that report a 60% writeoff for bondholders would be required to bring Greece's debt below 110 percent of GDP by 2020. This has supported the German "realistic" view and Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, who heads the euro group of finance ministers stated that "we agreed yesterday (Friday, Oct. 21) that we have to have a significant increase in the banks' contribution." France also backed away from the plan it was supporting for the European Financial Stability Facility (the fund established to lend to troubled countries) to borrow from the European Central Bank, something Germany opposes. French finance minister Francois Baroin, said the issue was "not a definitive point of discussion for us,... what matters is what works." The Dutch support the Germans on these issues and Dutch finance minister, Jan Kees de Jager, said the use of the European central bank was "no longer an option." Options being considered are for the European Financial Stability Facility to offer insurance against a portion of losses on Italian and Spanish bonds....

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Because technology spending has been more disciplined and focused on productivity and efficiency gains, the investment has been lower but more effective than in the 3 years leading to the last recession in 2001. At that time it was increasing 12.9% a year leading into the recesson and faced sharp cutbacks leading to a drop of 11% over the next 2 years 2001-2003. By contrast this time the tech spending went up by about 2.8% a year in the last 3 years, according to Gartner, and has delivered solid results at places like American Airlines. Technology spending is likely to hold up and continue moderate increase this year and next as the US enters a recession. At American a fuel efficiency drive starting 2005 including software to come up with best routes, flight paths and baggage loading has saved 96 million gallons a year. Note that spending on computer hardware and software is about half of all capital spending by business.

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Japan and South Korea which rely on the U.S. for defense offered only a mild response to president Trump's announcement of  25% tariff on steel imports. Australia also defended free trade but offered no response to the U.S. duties on Australian steel and aluminium exports to the U.S. of $388 million.  There was no criticism of Mr. Trump. 

Japan's prime minister Abe talked to Trudeau of Canada as a 11 nation group pushes ahead with the TPP or Trans Pacific Trade Agreement, and are set to sign the agreement in Chile this week, on  March 8, 2018.

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Indonesia's airport passenger traffic increased to 60 million in 2011, up 15% from 2010, according to the Ministry of Transportation. About 8 million were international passengers, up 23% from 2010. After the Asian financial crisis in 1997 the government relaxed restrictions on setting up an airline to stimulate the economy. There are now 18 airlines offering scheduled flights, up from 13 in 2001. Garuda spun off a low cost carrier, Citilink, and Lion Air is starting premium carrier Batik Air in 2012. The middle class in Indonesia has grown from 80 million to 130 million since 2003 creating more passenger traffic. Existing infrastructure is struggling to cope with the demand for air travel and is falling behind.

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Romney emphasizes that he supports some of the popular parts of the Obama Healthcare Law such as coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. He tells voters he got everybody in his state insured. He also says there will not be a huge cut in taxes that would worsen the deficit. He would close loopholes and deductions to offset any deductions as shown by his advisor Harvard economist Martin Feldstein. The idea is to get a message across that will resonate with women, minorities, the middle class, workers, and business- the 100%, something he is able to do with some credibility having come from Massachusetts, a liberal state in the eastern United States.

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It may come as a bit of a shock to learn, that the entire country of Nigeria produces about as much electricity at electricity generating facilities, as the electricity used around Japan's Narita airport. Most people in this country of 150 million people, get electricity only for a few hours a day. As a result two thirds of all electricity consumed in Nigeria is produced using small scale generators. President Jonathan's plan to raise $3.5 billion to increase electricity supply 13 fold. Since the 1990's the capacity increased by half, but distribution is extremely poor, so that the actual supply has remained flat. One result is a very small manufacturing sector, of about 4% of GDP.

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A study by Dr. McCormick of the Harvard Medical School and professors at the City University of New York School of Public Health at Hunter College, shows that the anticipated savings from conversion to medical records may not materialize to the extent expected. This study of data from 1100 doctors of 28,000 patient visits shows that with access to digital records doctors actually increased the number of tests ordered- from 12.9% of visits without digital records to 18% of visits with digital records. For more advanced tests such as MRI and CT scan the rate was 70% higher. Dr. McCormick says this may be because the new digital technology may have made it easier to order tests.

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Libyans in the Benghazi region in the east and in the rest of the country went to vote for the first time in Libya's history. A historic moment even as the eastern region, which has 60 of 200 seats, is calling for higher representation. Under the present arrangement 100 seats go to the west, 60 to the east, and 40 to the south. The transitional government announced a change that a new election will take place for a smaller constituent assembly to write the constitution, with half the seats going to the east. This is an effort to get the support of people in the Benghazi region, which led the fight against the Gaddafi regime.

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This Wall Street Journal editorial calls for more transparency in disclosing bad debt problems at Spanish and other European banks. It faults recent and upcoming stress tests of EU banks for not being stringent enough and taking into account adverse scenarios. While Spain's central bank says only 20 billion euros are needed to recapitalize the cajas savings banks, other estimates are much higher. Moody's country report says Spain could need upto 120 billion euros to recapitalize its banks. A big problem is European banks exposure in Spain which is over 700 billion euros as of September 2010- Spanish banks have high exposure in Portugal and German banks have high exposure to Spain.

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The 64 mile highway known as the Gardez-Khost Highway has cost $121 million upto this point. The final cost is expected to reach $176 million. At $2.8 million a mile the cost overruns on this projects are over 100%. Parts of the road run through Taliban territory and may never be completed. Security for the project has cost $43.5 million, according to USAID officials. This involves among other things payments to a local figure named Arafat. The road connects two provinces, Paktia and Khost, and runs through rugged mountain terrain at 9000 feet. At the original estimate of $69 million it was considered a good investment for linking these areas to Kabul.

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Electric cars have perfomed well in disaster hit regions of Japan after the earthquake, when oil refineries and gasoline stations were out of operation. 89 Mitsubishi i-MiEVs were put to use in Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures. They were perfect for Sendai say city officials. The cars were driven an average of 30-45 miles a day in Sendai, which is half the distance for a full charge. Each night they were returned to city hall and recharged using 220 volt outlets. Fast recharging stations which replenish batteries to 80% of capacity in 30 minutes were used. The standard 100 volt outlets take 12 hours. This performance should speed up the timetable for electric car development in Japan.

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Zillow's acquisition of Trulia is supported by the need to reduce costs and spending on marketing. The combined firms will spend $100 million on marketing in 2014, according to CFO Aggarwal. Aggarwal says antitrust issues are not a concern as Zillow and Trulia only get about 4-5% of the $12 billion real estate agents spend on advertising each year. As the deal wil close by 2015 this gives the two firms time to absorb recent acquisitions by Trulia of Market Leader and Zillow's acquisition of New York city centred StreetEasy and apartment HotPads. Both sites will continue as different brands servicing different parts of the market and reducing spending on technology and marketing.

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The fragility of the financial system is cited as one of the risks for China by Standard & Poors, and by the IMF in 2014. After 2008 total debt including government, corporate and household jumped by 100% to reach 250% by 2014, according to the Economist. The complacency, poor statistics showing bad debt at low levels, the tendency for local governments to continue old practices, dependence on the state to pick up the tab when companies run into losses, or for bad debt at banks, papering over bad loans with new loans, and corruption with close connections between state owned companies and the state, create a situation in which this problem continues to grow.

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A bill requiring that women make up 30% of nonexecutive supervisory board members of 100 companies by 2016 is likely to pass in the German parliament in Dec. 2014. Women make up 22% of the supervisory board of 30 companies on the DAX. The new bill requires that companies have to leave the positions unfilled if they cannot find women. France requires 20% of nonexecutive director positions go to women, which goes up to 40% in 2017. Women make up 29.7% of the boards of the 40 companies in France's CAC 40 index, which is up from 12.3% in 2011. The European Union has set a goal of 40% women on boards by 2020.

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Lenovo is accelerating the integration of Motorola Mobility operations into Lenovo in 2015. About 40% of the 100 million plus smartphone shipments planned in fiscal year 2015 will be Motorola Mobility phones, compared to 30% of the 85 million shipped in 2014. Motorola phones will be priced in the $400 plus range and Lenovo's own smartphones below that price level. The focus is on reducing costs and sales growth to turn around the Motorola Mobility brand quickly. Lenovo is now in third place after Samsung with 241.5 million shipments and Apple with 169.2 milllion, for the first three quarters of 2014, according to IDC. Lenovo faces intense competition from Xiaomi and Huawei in China and emerging markets.

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Under new CEO, Georges Plassat, Carrefour focusses more on Europe and reduces expansion in emerging markets. As part of this strategy Carrefour buys 127 malls in which it operates stores and forms a separate propoerty company in which it owns 42%. This reverses the decision in 2001 to sell 150 malls partly to finance the push into China, Brazil and Argentina and other European countries. The prior CEO, Lars Olofsson, increased emphasis on hypermarket stores and expanded presence in emerging markets. Carrefour share price took a 60% drop in 2010-2012 and is gradually recovering. Plassat's strategy is to go back to focus on Europe and withdraw from poorly performing places such as Greece, Portugal, Indonesia and Columbia.

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Matteo Renzi wins a confidence vote in the Senate by 169 to 139. His economic plan is to give business a boost. He calls on Italians to free themselves from "cultural subalternity" or inferiority to Europe, and "to dream bigger." The plan is for a double digit cut in Italy's payroll taxes, creating guarantee funds for small companies, and paying all of the money the government owes to suppliers estimated at 100 billion euros. Renzi covered the subject of addressing school repairs costing several billion euros. His new cabinet has half of the ministers as women, some under 40, six from the previous Letta government. The Economy minister is Pier Carlo Padoan, chief economist of the OECD.

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China's prime minister Li Keqiang visited India in May 2013 with a trade delegation to improve trade ties with india. Trade between India and China is growing rapidly, with the growth in imports of telecommunications and power equipment, and consumer manufactured goods. Trade was at $76 billion in the year ending March 31, 2012 and is expected to reach $100 billion by 2015, making China the largest exporter of goods to India, according to Indian government data. The trade is lopsided with India's trade deficit increasing by 42% to about $40 billion in the last fiscal year. India is seeking improved access for its information technology and pharmaceutical companies to the Chinese market to correct the imbalance.

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Gongloff points out that the word exemption occurs on 100 of the 200 pages of the final draft of the Volcker Rule published for comments in September 2011, for a total of 426 times. The banks have 2 years after its introduction in July 2012 to comply with its provisions and are allowed to petition the board for 3 one year extensions taking the process to July 2014 or July 2017. And this whole exercizes resembles some form of kabuki theater as the title of this piece suggests, and makes going through its detail meaningless. Especially since the probability of a new administration in 2014 or in 2017 are high. At that time new rules would be written.

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A critical flaw in the IMF and EU's plan for Greece is the optimistic forecasts for Greece. The IMF forecast was for the Greek economy to decline by 2.6% of GDP in 2011, yet estimates now are for a decline of 6.8%. As a result even with a second bailout for $130 billion the situation is likely to deteriorate as the economy contracts faster than the IMF predicts and the debt continues to remain unsustainable. With no pro-growth policy in place the situation provides little hope for the Greeks. Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard economics professor, says he is astounded by the short term psychology that gives financial markets hope that something will work.

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Pfizer's aggressive promotion of Chantix an antismoking drug. Article by Steinberg and Foulds in the Annals of Internal Medicine, suggesting treating smoking not like alcoholism but like diabetes with lifelong taking of medication like Chantix to curb craving for nicotine after cessation of smoking. The article may have been intended to promote Chantix to insurance companies to cover its use as a drug for treatment of diabetes type lifelong disease. It costs $100 a month for Chantix. The drug can cause depression and psychological disorders so the FDA is considering putting a black box warning on the drug for patients to take due care in using it. Chantix had USA sales of $680 million in 2007.

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In parts of the country like South Mountain near Phoenix the prison rate is 6 for every 100 people. The overall prison rate according to a Pew study is 1 person for 41 for black people 1 for 96 for Hispanics and 1 for 245 for whites. So Black and Hispanic people are the most overrepresented in the nations prison system. Arizona spends $900 million on corrections. Black people between the ages of 17 and 35 are extinct in South Mountain say some older residents of this area who take care of the grandchildren left behind. The emphasis on law enforcement has created safer quieter neighborhoods but it has also created a problem of missing young people.

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Is the new size of Black Rock at $2.7 trillion in assets after the acquisition of Barclay Global Investors reason for concern. Black Rock CEO Larry Fink says that 100% of its assets is not trading for its bottom line but managing assets as a fiduciary responsibility. Its leverage is minimal, using $20 billion, or less than 1% of its $2.7 trillion in assets. He says for every dollar of equity Black Rock has a dollar of assets , and that "you cannot compare the two," referring to the overleveraging that brought down many financial firms like Bear Stearns and Lehman. He added that most of the money from BGI is in stock and bond index funds.