Growing Up, Not Out…So Much
In the rising war on fat in the U.S., there’s some encouraging news on one front: Kids’ obesity rates might finally be shrinking

U.S. obesity rates are on the rise, but there’s some good news: Overweight rates among children might be falling—at least in some groups. In one study, sixth-graders who were given help with nutrition and exercise were less obese by eighth grade than a control group. And in a California survey, it appears that [...]

Time for more social media and Internet news! This time, we’ve got a mixture of links from Baptiste Limb and me.

Privacy setting, regulations, do’s and don’ts—they’re all things you normally don’t like to think about when talking about social media, because social media needs to be quick and efficient. But these topics are becoming more and more important to Internet [...]

Benign Neglect
Recent extreme cases have the U.S. asking if obese children are victims of abuse—or, at the very least, neglect

When two preschoolers were found recently in a filthy home in a small town in Georgia, the conditions in which they were living were deemed appalling, but the issue that really shocked American readers was the girls’ extreme obesity: The 5-year-old weighed 158 pounds, the 4-year-old, 89. And in South Carolina, a mother was arrested and charged with criminal neglect [...]

He Ain’t Heavy, Says His Mother
With more U.S. children than ever being categorized as overweight or obese, parents (especially moms) must address the problem—if they’ll recognize it at all

It’s widely acknowledged that healthy habits start at home. So with about one-third of U.S. women (many of them mothers) overweight, is it any wonder that childhood obesity rates have hit epidemic proportions in the States? There are a growing number of programs aimed at children, including First Lady Michelle Obama’s [...]

“F” Is for Fat
As U.S. public officials try to address the rise of childhood obesity, some schools are issuing “fat report cards.” Does the initiative pass or fail?

Massachusetts recently joined the ranks of U.S. states where schoolchildren receive more than course grades on report cards: Progress reports for kids in 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th grades now indicate their BMI (body mass index) stats as well. Arkansas, under then Gov. Mike Huckabee—who has, notably, lost more than 100 pounds—led [...]

Let’s Redo Lunch
In light of childhood obesity issues, public debate over U.S. school lunches—going on in varying intensity for decades now—is high on the national agenda once again

The quality—or lack thereof—of U.S. school lunches has been a hot potato issue since before today’s schoolchildren were even born; we all remember the Reagan-era wisdom of trying to classify ketchup as a vegetable (just another reason to rue the ’80s). In the last year, growing childhood obesity rates in the U.S. [...]

No Money, Mo’ Problems?
More stores are eschewing greenbacks for plastic

Will it happen that in the future we’ll all have debit cards that we can just wave at a payment center without ever having to put our hands on germy, unhygienic cash? We’re not sure how quickly, if ever, we’ll get to that vision of tomorrow—certainly not tomorrow, but we’re inching closer with a new attitude from merchants, who won’t accept those grungy bills wadded up in your hand. You’d [...]

Ladies’ Might
It was mostly men who got the U.S. into this financial mess (sorry, fellas!), so it makes sense that women have been called in to oversee the fix

Lamentably, it’s true that the financial system that has put so many Americans in tight spots was created—and mostly run—by people of the, um, male persuasion. Now women have been tasked with captaining the recovery, including Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the FDIC; Mary Schapiro, chairwoman of the SEC; and Elizabeth Warren, [...]

Growing Businesses
As companies go green, one initiative some are undertaking is to grow gardens, with employees tending—and harvesting—the crops

Recycling bins, reusable cups, used-computer refurbishing programs…businesses are going green in many ways, and now some are taking their eco-friendly initiatives and running them into the dirt. Corporations such as Google, Yahoo!, PepsiCo, even Kohl’s HQ near Milwaukee, are growing gardens on company grounds (or sometimes on rooftops, as is the case with Trenton Forging, in a town not far from [...]

I’m Hillevi Lausten, PR manager focusing on social media at Euro RSCG ABC, in one of the most beautiful cities in Germany: Hamburg. I will replace Baptiste Limb during the time he’s busy moving.

As social media and PR are getting more connected every single day, let’s first focus on a Mashable blog post about the future of social media and PR. Indeed, when [...]