Friday, April 12, 2002
Eating Disorders ‘Epidemic’ Among Teens
The American School Board Journal reports: “Eating disorders among teens and younger children have reached ‘epidemic levels,’ say researchers at the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. The group’s statistical fact sheet shows that 7 million U.S. females and 1 million males are afflicted with eating disorders, and the numbers are rising. Most say their eating-related illnesses began during their middle school or high school years, but 10 percent report their disorders began in elementary school. New studies show that children as young as 7 and 8 years old can be preoccupied — and dissatisfied — with their body image and weight and may show the same symptoms as adolescents and older teens with serious eating disorders.”
I don’t like myself
David Herzog, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and president and founder of the Harvard Eating Disorders Center, says 44 percent of high school girls and 15 percent of high school boys diet. Some students might pass up a cupcake or an extra slice of pizza at lunch, but about one in 20 resorts to more extreme measures, such as using diet pills or laxatives to control their weight. A study of fourth-graders is especially troubling, Herzog says. About 40 percent of 9-year-olds in the study report dissatisfaction with their body shape and, as a remedy, turn to dieting.
1,400 College Students Deaths Linked to Alcohol
Washingtonpost.com says: “About 1,400 college students die and about 500,000 are injured each year in accidents related to alcohol use, according to the first comprehensive estimates of the toll of heavy drinking on campuses. The impact of alcohol is not limited to students who drink, the new research found. More than 600,000 college students are assaulted annually by another student who has been drinking, and more than 70,000 are victims of alcohol-associated sexual assaults or date rapes, according to the study,
whose findings were released yesterday along with the report of a government task force on college drinking. The estimates are for students between the ages of 18 and 24. Here is a site dedicated to the issue of drinking prevention for college students.
Faster Tax Filing Online
Her eis a followup to a recent Morning Meeting from Chip Mahaney, Managing Editor KDFW FOX 4 News, Dallas/Fort Worth Texas
Sites like Intuit.com (there are others) allow you to do all your taxes online. No software installs required. You just fill out the forms and online, like you would for completing a survey or buying something from an online store. Costs to file via internet-entry are about the same as what you’d pay to buy the same software for your PC.
Questions:
• Any concerns over privacy, since you’re inputting all your personal info into someone else’s site, via the Internet?
• Given the choice of offline or online tax preparation, which is faster? It certainly takes time to install the software, but do you make it up as you’re going through the tax preparation itself? (Step-by-step via the Internet might be pretty slow…)