Over the last 12 years, the United States has gone from having the highest share of employed 25- to 34-year-olds among large, wealthy economies to having among the lowest. So reports the New York Times. 

Over one quarter of 25 to 34-year olds are unemployed. The exact percentage is 26.6 percent. That’s up from 18 percent back in 2000. The reason? It’s twofold:

“First, [our long economic slump] has exacted the harshest toll on the young — even harsher than on people in their 50s and 60s, who have also suffered. And while the American economy has come back more robustly than some of its global rivals in terms of overall production, the recovery has been strangely light on new jobs.”

In part, employers are particularly reluctant to add new workers and create new jobs, but economists have yet to figure out why. The best strategy to ensure employment continues to be graduating college, as the official unemployment rate for college grads in that demographic is only 3.3 percent.

In face of the dearth in new jobs, this group has exhibited unprecedented optimism. According to recent polls, they are much more hopeful than older generations that the country’s future will be bright and even better than its past.

That’s right. Thankfully, not here in the good ole’ U.S. of A., but across the ocean in Shanghai, the largest city in China. And who knows where else?

One of the  largest purveyors of lamb in that region has been caught redhanded using meat other than lamb for popular ethnic dishes known as hot pots. The substitute meat included rat, fox and mink.

“After adding gelatine, carmine, nitrate and other substances, he sold the meat as fake lamb rolls [for hot pot] at farmers’ markets in Jiangsu and Shanghai,” reports the Ministry of Public Security.  According to South China Morning Post the government has been cracking down on food product fraud – which includes “meat of diseased animals, steroid-manipulated meat and sewer oil.”

And it’s about time. In 2010, a staggering 300,000 children got sick after consuming melamine-tainted milk products. And recent studies last year showed excessive amounts of heavy metals in rice grown in several regions.

Given the rampant problem with food fraud in that country, even the Agriculture Minister admitted that cleaning up the market will be “very tough.”

H&M, a Sweden-based major global fashion retailer known for it’s cheaper prices, has made a public statement in a very private way. Kind of unusual these days.

It’s showcasing Jenny Runk as the face (and body) of its swimsuit and summer wear collection. Runk, a Glamour Magazine model, has an interesting story of her own. She gained 20 pounds in order to take her place in a growing hierarchy of elite, plus sized-models.

H&M is being lauded for the move of quietly making her their Beachwear queen, posing her in everything from bikinis to shorts to sundresses. While she is admittedly a lot thinner than I consider plus-sized–sizes 14 to 24 and higher are considered under that label–it’s a positive move forward that she’s become the model of choice for an entire collection. While other retailers have used plus-sized models, it’s usually for its plus-sized clothing. Her mother calls her “skinny plus sized,” admitting she is a size 12.

Either way, skinny or not, it’s just a number. But it shows a growing acceptance in an industry that values scrawny that there has to be some outward recognition that the average woman, especially here in America, is not being represented.

The second largest clothing retailer in the world, according to Wikipedia, H&M has 200 stores in 30 states–15 in Pennsylvania, but none is our neck of the woods.

The Consumer Reports cites over 50 percent of the ground turkey sampled tested positive for fecal matter. And even if you were one of the lucky ones who purchased the other half, 90 percent of that tested positive for at lease one of five contaminants.

“Some samples harbored other germs, including salmonella and staphylococcus aureus, two of the leading causes of foodborne illness in the U.S. Overall, 90 percent of the samples had one or more of the five bacteria for which we tested.”

Just because you eat organic ground turkey, don’t think you’re 100 percent safe.

“Ground turkey labeled “no antibiotics,” “organic,” or “raised without antibiotics” was as likely to harbor bacteria as products without those claims. (After all, even meat from organic birds can pick up bacteria during slaughter or processing.) The good news is that bacteria on those products were much less likely to be antibiotic-­resistant superbugs.”

Here’s what Consumer Reports suggests you do if you choose to eat ground turkey:

Such is the premise behind a documentary already released in one Toronto theatre earlier this month and expected to be released next month in Washington, D.C. at the  G.I. Film Festival.

The Toronto Star reports Edmonton filmmaker Michael Jorgenson found Army Sergeant John Robertson, 76, living in a rural Vietnam village “unable to speak English, remember his birthday, or names of the children he left behind in the U.S.” and documented it in his recently released movie, “Unclaimed.”

According to the website trailer: While working in Southeast Asia, a war torn veteran of the Vietnam War discovers a man claiming to be an American MIA and so begins his struggle to prove the lost soldier’s identity.

And Jorgenson does just that. According to the Journal, an Irish newspaper, “Jorgenson told the Toronto Star that he was skeptical when Vietnam vet Tom Faunce came to him and explained a man he’d found in Vietnam was a former “Army brother” listed as killed in action and forgotten. He says he became convinced only after going to Vietnam and meeting Robertson himself.”

The legislation is poised and ready. Senate Bill 528, the Regulate Marijuana Act, would allow adults 21 and over to grow up to six plants and possess the resulting harvest. It would also allow adults to transfer up to an ounce to other adults.

Following months of discussion about whether or not an actual bill would be introduced, the bill sponsored by Sen. Daylin Leach(D- Montgomery/Delaware) now has to make it out of committee in one piece to determine whether or not it’s going anywhere. The battle is said to be an uphill one in this the Quaker State. Leach has introduced legislation twice before to get a medical marijuana bill passed, but failed.

According to the Daily Chronic, the temperature in this state leans heavily towards legalizing marijuana for medical purposes (84 percent in favor) but falls drastically short of an all out measure to legalize it (36 percent). Cost of prosecuting marijuana-related offenses in this state is estimated at $325 million. The bill now sits in the Senate Law and Justice Committee.

Women smokers, even light smokers, run the very real risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, or painful, crippling swelling of the joints, which is considered an autoimmune disorder. (It is different from osteoarthritis, which destroys joints, bones, muscles, cartilage and other connective tissues.)

A new study conducted in Sweden found the link to be more than just a little disturbing. Consider the findings:

1) Smoking just a few cigarettes a day can more than double a woman’s risk of rheumatoid arthritis, research has shown.

2) Compared with never-smokers, women who puffed between one and seven cigarettes a day had a 2.31-fold higher chance of developing the disease.

3) Even 15 years after quitting the habit, the risk was nearly twice as high among former smokers.

According to the online journal, Arthritis Research & Therapy, even light smoking (1 to 7 cigarettes a day) takes a heavy toll on women smokers.

Moral of this story: Quit!

Once again, I was beat out by a famous celebrity married to a rock star. Seems they get all the breaks.

Yes, Gwyneth is the World’s Most Beautiful Woman, according to People Magazine.

I don’t know about you, but I always get a kick out of magazines and media outlets that run basically made-up competitions: World’s Most Influential People (TIME Magazine), World’s Most Admired Companies (Money Magazine) and World’s Best Dressed Men (Esquire), to name a few more titles that have eluded me.

Interesting to note, Paltrow was just on the list of Most Hated Celebrities, inching out even Chris Brown for the dubious spot of most famous person we love to hate. Ah, fame is a fickle mistress indeed.

What cracks me up is that no one has to compete in order to win. These are seemingly random selections of people who are clearly hot today, and most likely, cold tomorrow.

Women everywhere rejoiced when the honor was bestowed on Paltrow, because so many look at her as a kindred spirit; someone just like themselves–a mother, a working woman, a spouse, and a friend with six pack abs. So very much like me.

In the interview about her newly claimed title, she laughingly joked with People Magazine that she spends most of her time at home in jeans and a T-shirt, sans makeup. What a regular gal! Coincidentally, I spend most of my time out in public like that! Heck, we do have a lot in common. She named her children after a fruit and a prophet…and I…hmmm…didn’t. But I did consider renaming my son “Lime” after a particular blurry night with tequila. And “Jesus” was a consideration on the baby name list when I was pregnant. Yet another similarity.

Gwyneth Paltrow, this all-American girl (who lives in France, by the way), is the World’s Most Beautiful Woman, and I am happy for her. At least it wasn’t Kim Kardashian. Talk about someone I have a lot in common with.

I have to call my sister right away. This news could be exactly what she’s been waiting for, since her oldest son, now 9, isn’t enamored with school. But loves playing with Legos. This could be the answer to her prayers: A school that combines learning with Legos.

According to the The Telegraph, the school, scheduled to open this summer, will fuse traditional teaching with its own brand of play-centered learning.

Kind of sounds like Montessori to me. The initial plan is to open the school to what would be considered preschoolers (3-5 year olds) and then unfold more advanced programs in 2015 for up to 16-year olds. But the goal of the school appears to be much grander than just teaching kids with an experiential form of learning. According to billionaire Legos owner, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the new institution to be called the International School of Billund will be based in Billund, Denmark, and is intended to put its on the map and become known as the “Capital of Children.”

The cost to parents for the school is 3000 Kroner, or $455….a month. Plus the cost of relocating to Denmark.

There is evidence suggesting it. It all depends on something called “cognitive vulnerability.” According to the journal of Clinical Psychological Sciences, “people are vulnerable to depression because they have a tendency to generate interpretations of stressful life events (and dysphoric moods) that have negative implications for their future and for their self-worth.”

Basically, the vulnerability exists before the symptoms of a psychological disorder appears. So when someone has a stressful experience, his or her cognitive vulnerability would shape the maladaptive response that would result in depression. So among those who are vulnerable to begin with, depression and other psychological disorders would be contagious.

And if you are vulnerable, it is possible, according to researchers, to have someone else’s depression rub off on you.

Now this is not so farfetched in my mind, especially when you think about bad moods. How many times have you been affected by someone else’s lousy mood? And conversely, when someone is in a great mood?

If depression is indeed contagious, the researchers at the University of Notre Dame also wanted to know if cognitive vulnerability is also contagious. And using a sampling of college freshmen and their roommates, found out that indeed it was.

What’s it all mean? Attitudes and the way we tend to view the world and respond to stressors are contagious, especially among those who live together and/or spend a lot of shared time.

In short: Hang out with people with positive outlooks.