How Fat Is Your State?

Learn the obesity rates in your state—and how they affect your life expectancy

By Kimberly Fusaro Posted July 29, 2009 from WomansDay.com

Plenty of factors contribute to your life expectancy, including your family medical history, habits (ahem—smokers), and even your race. But no matter how you stack up in other categories, if you don’t keep your weight in check, you’re setting yourself up for a host of life-threatening ailments. Want proof? The numbers below tell a scary story: The states with highest percentages of obese adults—including Alabama (31.2%), Louisiana (28.9%) and Mississippi (32.5%)—have some of the lowest life expectancies in the country—74.6, 74.4, and 73.7 years, respectively. Compare those states to Colorado—where only 18.9 percent of adults are obese and the life expectancy is 78.4 years. Where your state falls on the fit-to-fat spectrum shouldn’t be your only health concern, but it’s certainly worth keeping tabs on.
See the map below to learn the obesity stats for each state, and to find out the life expectancy in the five states where it’s highest and the five where it’s lowest.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau and Trust for America's Health
*This data is based on the Census Bureau’s data, which they compiled most recently in 2000.

7 Year Old Steals Car, Leads Cops On Wild Chase (VIDEO)

Police in Weber County, Utah discovered an unusual culprit behind the wheel after a car chase last Sunday.
The car was swerving on the roads and passing through stop signs. When it finally stopped, a 7-year-old boy jumped out.
The boy told cops he had taken the family car to avoid going to church.
Watch:

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Germany Closes Two Flat-Rate Brothels

Police raided four flat-rate brothels in Germany on Sunday and closed two of them due to poor hygiene. The brothels, a new trend, are especially controversial because they offer unlimited sex for a flat rate of between €70 and €100. That breaches the prostitutes' right to dignity, say politicians.

DPA

The "Pussy Club" near Stuttgart is no longer open for business.

A new trend in Germany -- flat-rate brothels that offer unlimited sex and food for a fixed sum -- has provoked mounting criticism from politicians, local residents and women's rights groups in recent months and led to police raids on such establishments in four cities on Sunday. Some 700 officers raided so-called "Pussy Clubs" in Berlin, Fellbach near Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Wuppertal and two of them -- in Fellbach and Heidelberg -- have been closed due to poor sanitary conditions, officials said.
Massage beds and other furniture were found to be heavily soiled and one whirlpool was very dirty, said Christoph Palm, the mayor of Fellbach. The way food had been stored had also broken hygiene regulations, he said. In one case police had found evidence pointing to forced prostitution, he added.
A total of 12 people were detained in the Fellbach raid and the 25-year-old woman who managed the brothel was remanded in custody, together with an associate.
"Sex with Every Woman, As Long as You Want"
The other two brothels raided, in Berlin and Wuppertal, were allowed to remain open. The brothels in Fellbach and Heidelberg, both located in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, advertise with the slogan: "Sex with every woman, as long as you want, as often as you want and how you want."

DPA

Police conducted ID checks on men and women in the flat-rate brothel in Fellbach near Stuttgart on Sunday.

The Justice Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Ulrich Goll, told SPIEGEL: "If one takes their advert seriously, it indicates a breach of the right to human dignity of the prostitutes who work there." He said the woman's right to self-determination had been hurt, which gave authorities the right to take action. Prosecutors said the brothels were suspected of having employed foreign prostitutes illegally and of withholding social insurance contributions. All the prostitutes and all the clients found in the four brothels had their ID checked.
"Pussy Clubs" charge €70 during the day for unlimited sex, drinks, food and access to saunas and other "wellness" facilities. The price rises to €100 in the evenings.

Dig in: Army colonel pops open 40-year-old pound cake, says it tasted good, even moist

Army colonel tries old C-ration pound cake


WASHINGTON — Forty years later, Henry A. Moak, Jr., still loves his pound cake.

The Army colonel popped open a military C-ration can of pound cake from 1969 at his retirement ceremony, and dug in.

Moak got the drab olive can as a Marine helicopter pilot off the Vietnamese coast in 1973. He vowed to hang on to it until the day he retired, storing it in a box with other mementos.

After a formal retirement ceremony, dozens of friends and relatives joined Moak in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes as he opened the can to cheers. Moak joked earlier this week that he hoped the can wouldn’t explode. It let off a whooshing sound as the pressure seal broke.

“It smells good,” Moak said as he put a handful in his mouth. He jokingly staggered back a few feet and loudly cleared his throat, while one person yelled out, “Eeww, gross!”

Moak pronounced the cake “good.”

“It’s even a little moist,” he said, wiping his mouth. He dared anybody “gutsy” enough to join him, and retired Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, who was the U.S. Army Europe commander when Moak served overseas, took an even bigger piece.

“Tastes just like it always did,” Mikolashek mumbled with a mouthful of cake as Moak laughed and clapped.
Moak said he wasn’t worried about getting sick from any bacteria that may have gotten into the old can, because it looked sealed. But the military discourages eating from old rations.

“Given the risks … we do everything possible to ensure that overly aged rations are not consumed,” said Lawrence Levine, a spokesman for the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia.

Levine named the threats as mold and deadly botulism if the sealing on the food has been broken, which isn’t always visible.
Moak says though he warned his children over the years not to touch his pound cake, he did let them eat some other rations when they were growing up in the 1980s, including canned spaghetti and crackers.
And how did those taste? “Fine. Well … not like from our great restaurants.”

Crows shut down Nepal govt headquarters

Kathmandu: Crows brought the activities in the main administrative complex in Nepal's capital, housing the Prime Minister's office, to a grinding halt.

No, it was not an avian attack as seen in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller 'The Birds', but only a mishap. Some crows fell on a high-tension line leading to their electrocution and resulting in a 12-hour power outage in the entire Singhdurbar area in the heart of Kathmandu yesterday.

The complex houses the Prime Minister's Office, several ministries and the Parliament building.

Government employees returned to work yesterday after ending a five-day strike for pay hike, but the offices could not resume functioning as there were no lights, no computers running, no fans operating, no air-conditioning and no fax operating for nearly the whole day.

The power cut started at 6 am in the morning and lasted till 5.30 in the afternoon, when offices were already closed.

This is unprecedented in the history of Singhdurbar Secretariat, an official told The Kathmandu Post.

"There was a short circuit after some crows landed on the main power line," said Khagendra Bhandari from the maintenance division of Nepal Electricity Authority.

The Supreme Court, situated nearby, also suffered power outage and only 25 per cent of hearings were held on the day.

There was no power back-up system in the secretariat as well as in the court. "This has given a lesson to us that a back-up system is required," an official said.

26 Women Drown After Being Spooked By Lightning

MUMBAI, India — Two boats capsized in western India when the passengers panicked after seeing a bolt of lightning, police said Sunday.

Twenty-six women drowned.

Rescuers saved four passengers and two crew from the Wainganga River after the accident late Saturday night, said police Superintendent Suresh Sagar. Eight other women are still missing.

After seeing a massive bolt of lightning, the women _ poor farm laborers on their way home from work _ panicked and the boats capsized in the ensuing chaos.

The boats overturned in the Bhandara district of Maharashtra state, about 575 miles (925 kilometers) northeast of the state capital of Mumbai.

It's not clear why all of the passengers were women. But in many parts of India, women make up most of the farm workers.

Boat accidents are common in India, where many vessels are unsafe and overloaded.