When Michelle Obama became first lady, she stressed that her "No. 1 job" would be "first mom." Following through on that focus, today at the White House, she elevated her personal concern for her own kids' health and eating habits into a massive national campaign aimed at solving the U.S. epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation.

Calling the issue "one of the most serious threats to their future," Obama noted that childhood obesity rates have tripled in the past three decades, and that the excess weight kids are carrying these days increases the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma. As a result, Obama said, she had  "great concern" that too many of today's kids were on track to live shorter and less healthy lives than their parents, even though the problem is "so imminently solvable."

On Friday, NEWSWEEK’s Sarah Ball and Kate Dailey discussed the controversy over the Lindsey Vonn Sports Illustrated cover as part of a rapid-fire roundtable discussion on Tumblr. Excerpts from their discussion (cleaned up a bit, now that we’ve had time to spell-check) are posted here. To read the entire debate—and comment on the opinions expressed—visit NEWSWEEK's Tumblr page or click here.

Dailey: So this is what we’re talking about today:

Is this photo sexist, or is everyone who says it is a hysterical buzzkill who needs to get a grip? You can make the argument—and Lord knows, people have—that this is a stylized image of a very common sports pose. Vonn is a skier, and this is what skiers do. But at the same time, you have to consider that these images don’t exist in vacuums—and when people who question this image raise their voices, they do so taking into account everything else they know about women athletes, women on magazine covers, and the seriousness which is paid to women’s sports. Of all the ski positions, the one that makes the cover is the one in which Vonn’s (super-strong, impressive) glutes are shoved over the masthead? Considering that women are on only 4 percent of SI covers, why does this one, intentionally or otherwise, have to resemble something like this?

Ball: Right you are—this is a head-scratcher. On the one hand, I’m all, “Get it, girl.” If I were a world-class American athlete and as comfortable in my skin-dex as is Vonn, I think I’d want to flaunt it.  And she looks great: muscular, buff, dynamic, feminine.  On the other, what I get most from this cover is strains of Lil Jon.

Here's the bad news: the one unifying theme of this year's Super Bowl ads (aside from panstlessness) was stone cold misogyny. Men trading their wives for tires, men eschewing island rescue in favor of hot tub time with some sexy stewardesses, men unwillingly being dragged away from the electronics section and forced to comment on candle scent with their lingerie-shopping sweeties.

The blogger Melissa McEwan often says that while feminists get labeled as "man haters," it's the seemingly man-friendly, bro-ified depiction of traditional gender stereotypes that disparage men the most. No where was that more apparent than in last night's ads. Take the Dodge charger spot, in which several dead-eyed men stare into the camera. An eerily calm voice (is that TV's favorite serial killer, Michael C. Hall, as the voice of the American man's barely sublimated rage?) lists all the things men are forced to do, leaving driving a car of their choosing as their one final act of free choice. 

According to this ad, were it not for the shrill, domineering harpies in their lives, men would live in filth, never show up to work, grow beards down to their navels. ("Surely there's a limit to your chivalry!" The ad's YouTube copy reads. Seriously. I mean, taking your dog for a walk? What is this, Shakesperian England?).

What's the good news? Find out after the jump. 

by Molly O'Toole

With the Super Bowl approaching, stories of the New Orleans Saints as the ultimate happy ending abound, along with the idea that a victory on Sunday might somehow repair a city that broke with the levees after Hurricane Katrina. Casting Drew Brees, Scott Fujita, and Co. as the stewards of a broken city’s salvation is too juicy an angle for the nation’s sportswriters to pass up. But while Saints as saviors make for a nice metaphor, is it really that simple?

In the new film Extraordinary Measures, a lone, cantankerous scientist, played by Harrison Ford, works day and night over the course of a few years to find a cure for a rare genetic disease. Called Pompe, the real-life illness, if untreated, typically kills children before their first birthday.

Along with Sharon Begley's fantastic look the placebo effect and antidepressants, this week's magazine also has an infographic compiled by Begley and Sarah Kliff on how often the placebo effect makes an appearance in medicine. Turns out: more often than you think. (From the Feb. 8 issue).

In addition to depression, many illnesses show a strong response to placebo treatments. These tend to be conditions for which the body’s own biochemicals, such as opiates and dopamine, act as natural medications. Because placebos trigger the production of these compounds, dummy pills can be almost as effective as real ones. Among the conditions that have been successfully treated with placebos:

• Hypertension
• Pain
• Parkinson’s disease
• Psoriasis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Ulcers

Illnesses that do not respond to the body’s natural opiates and other compounds show little to no placebo response either. These include:

• Atherosclerosis
• Cancer
• Growth-hormone
• Deficiency
• High cholesterol
• Infertility
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

In an unsurprising verdict, a Kansas jury found Scott Roeder guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of late-term abortion doctor George Tiller. The trial was a straightforward and short affair, with Roeder offering 37 minutes of testimony in which he admitted to purchasing a gun, taking target practice, and ultimately shooting Tiller, explaining the sense of "relief" he felt afterward. Roeder now faces life imprisonment with the possibility of parole at 25 years.

The most notable element of the trial was the wrangling over Roeder's pursuit of a voluntary manslaughter defense. A few weeks ago, Judge Warren Wilbert ruled that he would allow Roeder to present a voluntary manslaughter defense, where he could attempt to convince the jury that he acted on "an unreasonable but honest belief that the circumstance existed that justified deadly force." If Roeder had been successful in presenting such an argument, the minimum sentence would have dropped from life to less than five years. Abortion groups were outraged at the possibility of a reduced sentence for a man who admitted to killing an abortion doctor. Warren Hern, a late-term provider in Colorado, called it a "death sentence" for himself and his colleagues. As recently as Wednesday, the ACLU filed an amicus brief asking the judge not to tell the jury to consider voluntary manslaughter as a defense. In the end, though, Wilbert acquiesced, and the jury considered only the first-degree murder charge (alongside two charges of aggravated assault, for threatening two other ushers working at Tiller's church).

By Molly O'Toole

If an Apple a day keeps the doctor away, then Wednesday was an important test for Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and cofounder of Apple, who unveiled the company's tablet computer, the iPad, ending months of speculation.

But buzz about Apple’s newest product could not eclipse renewed rumors surrounding Jobs's current health. Along with detailed descriptions of the iPad’s $499 entry-level price and potential to make print profitable, numerous bloggers and journalists made note of how thin, though energized, Jobs appeared at the San Francisco announcement.

The intensely private Jobs, 53, has guarded his health status even more carefully than he did the secret of the iPad ever since his 2004 surgery for pancreatic cancer. Though he seemed to recover quickly, in 2008 his rapid weight loss sparked rumors. As word got out that he would send a replacement to deliver his 2009 keynote address, the famously private Jobs went so far as to send an open letter addressing the speculation. In it, he attributed his thin frame to a hormone imbalance " 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy." Soon after, Jobs took a five-month leave from Apple, calling his health problems "more complex" than originally thought and causing Apple stocks to immediately fall 7 percent. In June 2009 The Wall Street Journal reported that Jobs had undergone a liver transplant about two months prior. Jobs returned to work about a week after that, and speculation about his health was soon replaced with speculation about Apple’s next big launch.

And while the iPad itself consumed much of yesterday's media attention, reporters did thrown in a few lines about Jobs's gaunt appearance. The New York Post ran an entire article called JOBS LOOKS THIN, AGAIN. The New York Times live blog of the event noted that "he looks disturbingly thin … but there's a sparkle in his eye." The AFP wrote that Jobs looked "thin but healthy." But does a gaunt appearance mean ailing health—or is it just the look of a man under duress to meet a big deadline?

When Karen Carr, director of the Community Coalition for Haiti, left for Haiti last weekend, she sent me a note with a somber signoff:

As we leave our families with heavy hearts, we know that millions in Haiti have even heavier hearts as they bear the burden of this tragedy both personally and as a country.

I had asked Carr, whose organization has partnered with American doctors, nurses, lab techs, and other experts from INOVA Fairfax Hospital in Virginia to train medical personnel in Haitian hospitals over the last 10 years, to keep me updated on CCH’s mission and their efforts to provide medical care to earthquake victims.

On Sunday, Jan. 17, the morning she departed, Karen forwarded me a note she had received from Jared Nikkels, a CCH staff member on the ground in Haiti. Nikkels wrote about the devastation he had seen in Port-au-Prince:

I saw firsthand the destruction and loss of life and it is incredible. I cannot fully describe the scene and I am still trying to process it all myself ... Four large hospitals destroyed, and all hospitals damaged ... I saw two working gas stations but each had run out of fuel by the time we left. I saw dead bodies everywhere, lining streets, lying in rubble, piled on street corners, and being slowly carried away by men with carts. I saw people erupting in joy at the news their loved ones survived and I saw families erupting with grief as they learned of the loss of their family, the scene repeated itself thousands of times all over the city. I saw thousands upon thousands of people sitting and lying in the streets unable or too scared to enter the shelter of the buildings left standing. I slept outside with many people and listened to the sweet sound of relief planes arriving and carrying hope more than anything else. I listened as thousands of people cried out to God and even praised him. I felt ashamed at my lack of faith as they sang, “Tout bagay déjà byen,” "All things are already good.” Unbelievable. I counted people as we stood and waited along the road out of Port au Prince. The average was 81 people per minute heading north, with that average, over 14,000 people passed by me on their way out, many unsure where they will go. I’m sure you have all seen pictures and heard the news stories but the reality is astonishing and will worsen in these first days of this tragedy.

Read more dispatches after the jump ...

In the seven days since a 7.0 earthquake struck the island of Haiti and decimated its capital city, at least 14 aftershocks measuring 5 or above have been recorded by the United States Geological Survey—including a 6.0 quake in Haiti just this morning. The event confirms a new report by Woods Hole seismologists which found that not only would such shocks be likely to continue, but the already devastated island nation would face great risk of significant future calamity.

Haiti and its neighbors sit above two tectonic plates (the North American and the Caribbean) that slide awkwardly past one another in an east-west direction at about an inch a year. The 100-mile border between these two plates, known as the Enriquillo-Plaintain fault line, extends from the Dominican Republic through Haiti all the way to Jamaica. Last Tuesday’s rupture occurred when a segment of the plates that had been stuck together since 1751 (when the last earthquake occurred) jerked themselves free, releasing 250 years of built-up friction from the earthquake’s epicenter and displacing just enough ground to topple Haiti’s fragile and ill-prepared capital.