Curvy Girls ARE Smarter

I am not usually a fan of Fox News, but that's where I found this story. According to studies at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Santa Barbara, women who have waists smaller than their hips score better on cognitive tests then their leaner counterparts. The study also found that the children of curvy women also do well on cognitive tests. The link to the article on The Sunday Times Online points out that it's not about weight, but body shape. "Such women are not necessarily skinny. What is important is that their waist should be smaller than their hips, with the ideal ratio being between 0.6 and 0.7"

Thank you, Fox News, for reporting on this on a day when I needed to be reminded that curves have their benefits.

What the hell, people?!

I woke up this morning and made the mistake of turning on news radio. What did I hear? There was a shooting at my old college campus! No, it wasn't some massive madman running wild through the school. In fact, there were no injuries. But darn it, when I went there, the scariest things involved illnesses, not bullets. I'm glad I'm not in college now, or have any children of my own attending. Talk about a crazy time to be attending.

Links tothe news story by the local ABC affiliate and an AP article published on philly.com indicate the shooting incident occurred early Sunday morning after an on campus dance in the student center had ended. Public Safety was on the scene to break up the fight in the parking lot, where the shots were fired. No injuries were reported. The campus was on lockdown overnight, and the order was lifted later Sunday morning.

My favorite part of the AP article is their describing Villanova as "the private Roman Catholic school in a wealthy Philadelphia suburb." As if they imply we expect shooting at somewhere like Temple University, but never at Villanova! People with guns are everywhere, and sooner or later they use them.

College is stressful

Amid all the news this week about VT, I heard that one in 10 college students think of suicide and one in 100 actually attempt it. Do you find those statistics alarming? Personally, I'm surprised they aren't higher.

I graduated from college over a decade ago. I've had reason recently to go back to my journals and read entries from that time. They are highly personal and offline, and there is something very tactile about actually having a book and seeing my own handwriting and what color ink I used and how I arranged things on the page itself which I don't get from all my online blogging...

I didn't realize it at the time, but in college, I was extremely depressed. Then again, maybe I did, as nearly every entry includes the phrase "I am depressed."

I didn't do anything about it in terms of seeking help until years later. I didn't have it as bad as some as I was smart and I had a partial scholarship, but I still felt a great deal of pressure and unhappiness. I was under a lot of stress to succeed academically and financially and from some candid conversations with friends my age, I know now I was not alone. Back then, though, it certainally felt like it. My basic hope was that the experience was a necessary means to an end; that after graduation I would no longer have the academic stress and the financial burdens wouldn't be so great once I started a job where I was compensated well. That didn't really work out the way I had planned, which is one of the reasons I fell back on acting. At least my story is happy presently as a result.

However, when I read my own writings from when I was an undergrad, I can see it would not have taken much for me to snap. I doubt I would have gone down in a dramatic blaze of glory harming others physically. But I did contemplate ending it all several times in those years and it would have hurt a lot of people emotionally if I had made an attempt and/or succeeded.

Murders at home

On the AC360 blog today, Randy Kaye mentions that there have been 58 murders so far in New Orleans.

As of this morning, there have been 110 homicides in Philadelphia. The latest victim is a woman about my age shot in North Philadelphia, not too far from where I work at Temple University Medical School.

Violence is everywhere.

Today here in Pottstown, they laid a slain FBI agent to rest. Barry Lee Bush was killed in the line of duty during a bank robbery in Readington Township, New Jersey. I remember when the story broke, because I recognize the location as I drive past it on I-78 on my way to NYC in central NJ. I didn't know he was from Pottstown until I heard the radio stories of his funeral today. It was held at the Hill School to accomidate the crowd. There were numerous cop cars from NJ parked on High Street this afternoon as I drove to the Post Office.

Though I believe I first saw the story on CNN when the agent was killed, I doubt I will see a story about it tonight on the national news. It seems they will be live from NOLA tonight on AC360, focusing on the situation there. I'm sure it's bad and at least it's not Anna Nicole (though her death was the top story the last time they were there) or Don Imus. However, things are bad here locally too.

I've worked with Paris Hilton. Anderson Cooper is no Paris Hilton.

Fox News has called Anderson Cooper "the Paris Hilton of TV News." Now you can see the FNC clips regarding the full page ad on YouTube.

It all started when CNN debunked a false report on Barak Obama last week. Reports from Insight magazine were picked up by several Fox News shows, and CNN sent reporter John Vause in Jakarta, Indonesia to investigate. Vause even posted on the Anderson Cooper 360 blog how he found that the Obama's elementary school was not a fundamentalist Muslim madrassa.
"I spoke with the bosses back in New York and Atlanta and outlined the facts, not entirely sure what they would want me to do next," he writes. "The response was pretty simple: Do the story, report what you find, nothing more, nothing less. So that's what I did."

Vause appeared on both The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (YouTube video clip) and Anderson Cooper 360 that night (Monday, January 22nd). Both called Fox out on the carpet regarding their journalistic integrity.

Blitzer said, "CNN did what any serious news organization should do in a case like this. We conducted a first-hand investigation and we went right to Indonesia to check out the school that Obama attended as a little boy." (from The Situation Room transcripts.)

Cooper said, "Well, that's the difference between talking about news and reporting it. You send a reporter, checks the facts and you decide at home." (from Anderson Cooper 360 transcripts.)

That's when a Fox News spokeswoman, Irena Briganti, was quoted in the New York Times on Wednesday January 24th. Briganti said CNN was mainly looking for publicity in attacking its higher-rated rival. Of Mr. Cooper’s comment, she said, “Yet another cry for attention by the Paris Hilton of television news, Anderson Cooper.” (per the New York Times article by Bill Carter "Rivals CNN and Fox News Spar Over Obama Report.")

And then on Monday, the Fox News ad appeared "Meet the Paris Hilton of Television News".

CNN responded with it's own ratings findings. According the that mediabistro article, CNN Responds To Cooper: "Roger Is Apparently Spinning Out Of Control", "CNN says Anderson beat Greta 40 times in the demo last year, and three times in January.

CNN also points to awards -- A Peabody, DuPont, and three Emmys for 360 in 2006. Greta Van Susteren? Zero."

In addition, CNN released more ratings numbers in this mediabistro article, Jan #s: CNN says Cooper is Closing Gap with accompanying graph "Anderson Cooper at 10pm Has Radically Altered P25-54 Viewing vs. Fox News."

There's also a brief overview article available on tvsquad all about this latest spat between Fox News and CNN.

Seems that Fox News has the same problem Stephen Colbert has with CNN, in that they (CNN) report the NEWS.

And what is Paris Hilton's response to this whole mess?

Sadly, yes, I have worked with Paris Hilton. I loathe to admit it, but I did one day of background work on The Simple Life where I was paid to ride on a Greyhound bus with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Though I've never had the pleasure of working with Anderson Cooper (yet), I can say that at least the folks at Fox got one thing right with their analogy - Cooper is HOT. Not just good looks, but ratings too.

Too much of a good thing

I heard a news story that a woman died from drinking too much water. To me, this was scary because I drink A LOT of water - somewhere between a gallon and a gallon and a half a day. I've been doing it every day for over two decades. How much did this woman drink?!

According to reports, Jennifer Strange of Rancho Cordova, CA died after competing in a radio contest requiring contestants to drink copious amounts of water without relieving themselves. The competition was designed as a winner-take-all elimination style battle of the bladder. The contest was sponsored by KDND 107.9 The End based in Sacramento called "Hold your wee for a Wii." The prize: none other than the coveted Nintendo Wii game station console.

Perhaps this is the saddest part. Ms. Strange was the mother of three. One of the other contestants who participated in the contest with her, James Ybarra of Woodland was quoted as saying she "was doing it for her kids." Mothers are extraordinary people and there's not much they won't do for their children, but is a video game worth dying for? Then again, who would have thought that drinking lots of water would be so hazardous to one's health?

It stands to reason that an excess of anything could be dangerous, but water?! Turns out there is such a thing as water intoxication. From a biological standpoint, it all makes sense. If you pump enough water into your body, you effectively dilute your body's fluids so much that your systems can no longer support your own life functions. The AP news story says "It was not immediately known how much water Strange consumed." All that is known, I suppose, is that it was enough to kill her. It had to be a quite a large amount indeed.

The more disturbing conclusion about this story is that people will die to get a video game. We all thought it was funny on South Park this season when Cartman froze himself so he didn't have to wait to obtain the same coveted Nintendo Wii system Ms. Strange was competing for. But Ms. Strange isn't going to wake up 500 years in the future. She's gone, her children are left motherless and all for the want of a video game.

What kind of a world do we live in where the demand for the latest and greatest new technical wonder-boxes is so high and frenzied that people are willing to do themselves bodily harm at the chance to get them? Perhaps Ms. Strange, the contestants and the radio station didn't realize how dangerous the contest would be, but the contestants weren't forced to drink. Some blame should fall on the video game manufacturers who artificially increase demand by limiting supply. If the Nitendo Wii's were easier to get, it stands to reason that people wouldn't be dying to get them.