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Saturday, March 8, 2008

On five everyone ... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... AWWWWWW!

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The sat-nav dog collar that keeps track of Fido wherever he may stray

Dog owners will soon be able to deploy sat-nav technology to track down a missing pet. A high-tech dog collar was previewed yesterday on the first day of the Crufts Show.

The lockable collar, on sale from July, is made of anticut material to deter thieves and sends texts to the owner’s mobile telephone if the dog crosses a preset boundary. The owner can log on to a website where, using the sat-nav technology of the collar, they can pinpoint the pet’s location.

The collar is not cheap at £200, but its makers, Retrieva, insist that it is worth it. Andrew Stuart, the company’s director, said: “Dog theft is out there but it’s not high on the list of police priorities, for obvious reasons. But for owners or families, if a dog gets lost it is a traumatic experience.”

About 23,000 pedigree dogs, including more than 1,160 from abroad, are expected to take part in the annual show, at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The event is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest dog show.

Organisers say that this year will be the second-largest show in Crufts’s 117 years, with only 27 fewer registered dogs than the largest show in 1991.

Over the next three days dogs will compete in more than 2,000 classes and ultimately for the title of Best in Show, which will be awarded on Sunday.

William Hill has closed betting on which breed would win amid talk of a mystery “superdog”. In only a few hours the odds on the winner coming from the “utility dog” category, which includes bulldogs, miniature poodles and Dalmatians, rather than the more traditionally favoured terrier, hound and working dog classes, were shortened from 13-2 to 1-2 after a flurry of large bets.

Rupert Adams, spokesman for William Hill, said: “There must be an exceptional dog out there that we have not heard about.”

Owners can put their dogs forward for additional competitions, such as the international obedience, agility and heelwork to music competition. Dog dance teams performed yesterday to the strains of theFlashdancetheme.

Some dogs are just there to show off. Scooby the dog posed at the PDSA Pet Fit Club stand yesterday to share her weight loss secrets. She had lost 5.5lb (2.5kg) after the fish and chips, curry, pizzas and ice-cream that her owner used to feed her were cut from her diet.

A PDSA spokeswoman said: “Now she enjoys a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, which has much improved her quality of life and will no doubt mean she’ll live a lot longer than she would have done if she had remained dangerously overweight.”

About 153,000 visitors are expected to attend Crufts this year. The whole event occupies almost 20 acres, including five halls, two pavilions and the main arena.

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Toddler Abuse In Car Wash Caught On Tape


Obese girls 50% less likely to attend college than non-obese

Obese TeensObesity is creating a catch twenty-two for a segment of the adolescent population. Girls have been found that they are much less likely to attend college if they are obese throughout high school in the United States. It is well known that a college education helps reduce the probability of obesity and reduces lifetime health expenses. A study released at the Economics of Population Health in 2008, made the claim of a college education impacting the college students life in ways such as reducing obesity, reducing smoking and increasing income. You can read the study here.

With a startling rate of up to half of all females that are obese in high school when compared to non-obese girls not attending college, they are found in a downward spiral of obesity, health problems and low income. It is well documented that low income lifestyles also increase the likelihood of obesity, magnifying the current problem. If a move is not made in American schools to help the growing waistline in females, the statistics will only rise and we will find ourselves with an ever faster growing obese population.

University of Texas at AustinThe study finding that obese girls are 50 percent less likely to attend college than non-obese girls was completed at the University of Texas at Austin. The author of the study was Robert Crosnoe a sociologist at the University of Texas. To read the article from the University press department on the conclusions of the study you can visit here. Mr. Crosnoe said, “Obese girls were less likely to enter college after high school than were their non-obese peers, especially when they attended schools in which obesity was relatively uncommon.” Obesity was derived from calculating the individuals with the highest body mass index (BMI), a ratio of weight to height.

The complete study carried out by Crosnoe used data that was tabulated on around 11,000 adolescents from 128 schools and was completed for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The goal of the research was to study how obesity predicts maladjustment and how that same situation predicts whether the teens attend college. After the study was completed it was lauded as the most comprehensive study completed on teens from middle school to high school.

Class Failure in Obese GirlsBesides finding that the obese girls were less apt to attend college, the study also found that obese girls had higher class failure and self-rejection. The class failure rates among obese girls ran at 24 percent higher than non-obese students in the same schools. As can be expected the self-rejection rates were high among the obese girls which amounted to almost 63 percent more than non-obese students.

A study done by the National Institute of Health in 2004, which you can read here, found obesity rates among girls that are 15 years old are 15.1 percent. As you go up in age the figure climbs to 17 percent of girls in high school. Boys were not left out of the study and were found to have obesity rates of 13.9 percent at age 15.

A quick look at obese adolescent boys in the University of Texas study found that there were no significant changes in their likelihood of college attendance. Researchers feel the lack of effect to boys was due to public images and pressure on girls to be thin and the media presentation of beauty in young girls and women. “That girls are far more vulnerable to the non-health risks of obesity reinforces the notion that body image is more important to girls’ self-concept and that social norms have greater effects on the education of girls than boys,” Crosnoe said in reference to the study.

Education on toleranceSolutions have been discussed on the administrative level at schools. People involved with brainstorming feel that tolerance education needs to be increased in the curriculum’s to help the acceptance of obese girls. While creating a more tolerant attitude is a great step, the real education needs to be done to increase health education and better lifestyle changes. If the chain is not broken, obese girls will find themselves obese women without college educations and passing those values down to their children.

Business Shrink radio show listeners and blog readers, what do you think the solution is? Do you feel money should be allocated into programs for better health education and tolerance curriculum’s? Is this a chain that can be broken? We’d love to hear what your thoughts and solutions are to this growing obesity epidemic that is creating more problems in all areas of adolescent girl’s lives.

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Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Send Her to College

Earth at Night [PICS]

Beautiful photographies of Earth taken from space. Pictures of the Earth’s continents are really amazing.






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Smells Like Teen Spirit

Created by perfumer Antoine Lie for rebel fragrance line Etat Libre D’Orange, Sécrétions Magnifiques features the four “S’s” of raw sexuality: Sperm, Sweat, Saliva, and Sant (French for blood).







The Waldo Ultimatum

His identity erased. His past stolen. His whereabouts unknown. Where the hell is Waldo?!

Modern Day Warrior

AK 47? Check. Ipod? Check. Lip dish that doubles as a target? Check.

















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