A Log of Notes and Observations
A Log of Notes and Observations

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Do We Really Need More Reasons?

Separate reports last week indicated that obese people are more sensitive to pain and at greater risk for death in motor vehicle crashes , and that teenagers who see themselves as overweight get poorer grades in school . All of which suggests we are quickly running out of good reasons to be fat.

Gender Bender?

The Lowell, Mass., company that makes the Baby Gender Mentor has been hit with a class action suit by 16 women who claim that the $275 blood test, the subject of a report in this section last year, is not in fact 99.9 percent accurate in determining the sex of an embryo five weeks after conception . The suit also complains that the company -- which is not responding to press calls at this time -- is stingy about its double-money-back guarantee. One word: ultrasound.

Let's Meet to Discuss This

Workers like meetings a lot more than they're willing to let on, a new survey published in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests. The gatherings were found to be especially popular with those who scored low in "accomplishment striving," which sounds like working . Low scorers associated time in meetings with a greater sense of well-being. Sitting. Pretending to care. Getting paid. Cool!

The Dog Ate My Kid

Certain dog breeds -- German shepherds and Dobermans -- are more likely to bite children than other breeds; children age 1 and younger are most likely to be bitten; and most children are bitten by dogs they knew, researchers reported last week as they urged putting off the purchase of a dog until kids are school-age . And those who must have a dog might want to avoid ones large enough to swallow a toddler.

Don't Blame It on the Tube

Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study suggest that there is no meaningful relationship between exposure to television and symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder . Of course, the researchers didn't turn up any specific benefit from parking the kids in front of the tube, and they did report that very active and inattentive children may use it as a "babysitter" more than do parents of less active and more attentive children.

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