Watercooler Sensation

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Bad Marriage? Bad Blood Pressure.

• Next time your spouse starts nagging at you or refuses to clean up the bathroom, blame him or her for your bad blood pressure. [Associated Press]
• A new study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine has concluded that a happy marriage is good for your blood pressure, but a stressed one can be worse than being single.
• Study volunteers wore devices that recorded their blood pressure at random times over 24 hours. Married participants also filled out questionnaires about their marriage.
• Analysis found that the more marital satisfaction and adjustment spouses reported, the lower their average blood pressure was over the 24 hours and during the daytime.
• But spouses who scored low in marital satisfaction had higher average blood pressure than single people did. During the daytime, their average was about five points higher, entering a range that’s considered a warning sign. (That result is for the top number in a blood pressure reading).
• “I think this (study) is worth some attention,” said Karen Matthews, a professor of psychiatry, psychology and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. She studies heart disease and high blood pressure but didn’t participate in the new work.
• Few studies of the risk for high blood pressure have looked at marital quality rather than just marital status, she said.

No wonder why we’re single.

Meet The Angel Of New Bedford

• In New Bedford, Massachusetts last March, in the midst of a nation-wide immigration crackdown, federal officers “raided a factory...arresting hundreds of illegal immigrants as they sewed vests and backpacks for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.” [Wall Street Journal] [Boston Globe]
• Hundreds of undocumented workers were arrested and many were set to be shipped far from their families to detention cells in Texas “where they faced rapid deportation unless they could post thousands of dollars in bail — money they didn’t have — to buy time to mount a defense.”
• But then, for 40 lucky souls, Robert Hildreth stepped in.
• Anonymously, the Boston businessman paid over $200,000 to provide their bail and let them go home with their families to let them prepare a proper legal defense.
• His reasons?
• Hildreth said he was “infuriated at the televised images of workers being shipped to Texas.”
• Says Hildreth, “The raid broke families apart...This was extremely un-American.”
• You know what is American? Comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for the hardworking folks who want to be here and make our communities stronger, and relieves pressure on our border officials so they can focus on real threats like terrorism and drug trafficking.
• More here:[American Progress]

Thanks, Angel of New Bedford.

The UK Gets Hot On Global Warming

• Our political leaders should start taking note: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that climate change and pandemic disease threaten international security as much as terrorism and that Britain must radically improve its defenses. [Associated Press]
• Brown listed the greatest threats to Britain’s peace as “war, terrorism and now climate change, disease and poverty — threats which redefine national security.'’
• “Climate change is potentially the greatest challenge to global stability and security,'’ a report commissioned by Brown to outline the new strategy said.
• Brown’s claim was made with good reasons: British officials estimate a flu-type pandemic in the U.K. could cost as many as 750,000 lives, the report said. It also claimed major coastal floods would likely need a military evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.
• Terrorism minister Adm. Alan West, a former head of defense intelligence, said a new focus on climate change and disease comes as the threat of terrorism in Britain eases somewhat.

Hats off to Britain.

By the Numbers

The Hidden Drop-Out Crisis

In states across the country, education policy folks are cookiing the books, using “an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home.” The result: “federal figures obscure a dropout epidemic.” Here are the numbers: [NY Times]

One million

The number of ninth graders that start school in America each year

70%

The percentage of those students who will graduate four years later, according to researchers, a figure at odds with the federal stats

87%

The official graduation rate of Mississippi, as reported to the Feds

63%

The other, more accurate rate, which Mississippi uses “in a campaign to combat a dropout crisis”

83%

The graduation rate of California, as reported to the feds

67%

The graduation rate as reported on a California state web site

4

The number of different graduation rates reported across the state of Delaware’s various web sites

Celebrities: Unfiltered

“Winona had a bag of stuff, but she set off the theft alarm when she left the store. When a security guard stopped her, he found make-up she had not paid for.”

— A security guard at Hollywood CVC Pharmacy, discussing a recent incident during which Winona “Five-Finger-Discount” Ryder set off store alarms. [Daily Mail]

Speed Round

MILE HIGH CLUB

The BBC cuts to the chase: Is plane sex legal, or what? [BBC]

TOUGHEN UP

Teachers across Canada are increasingly being sued for damaging the self-esteems of their students. In a related stories, everything we ever thought about Canada turns out to be true. [National Post]

DON’T EAT YOUR VEGGIES

Hey, mom, put this in your pipe and smoke it: Turns out, washing your vegetables may not be enough when it comes to stopping them from infecting you with deadly bacteria. [Newsweek]

THIS WILL END WELL

The Vatican eyes building its first church in...Saudi Arabia. [Time]

AMERICAN ELECTIONS ARE BORING

Just think...we could be in Taipei, where urinating men and hamburgers light up poll ads. [Reuters]

RUN FOR THE BORDER

“Man gets 30 days’ jail for taco theft [AP]

HANNAH MONTANA IS KILLING OUR CHILDREN

Or, at least, her toys are. Various items in the Hannah Montana line of products, specifically those with vinyl in them, were found by the Center for Environmental Health to contain high levels of lead. [Gawker]

KILL JOY

“A gossipy book by two ex-concierges at Chicago’s luxurious Four Seasons Hotel has been pulled by Three Rivers Press because the authors were legally banned from writing about their experiences.” Boo. [AP]

ANAEMIA

If you’ve got a mild form of anaemia, you could actually be less vulnerable to “more severe anaemia caused by malaria.” Hoorah! [SciDev]

THIRD STRIKE

Turns out that when states have “three strike” laws, that punish criminals harsher for a third offense, folks are less likely to commit that third crime, but when they do, they tend to be more violent. They call it the “going down swinging” effect. [Slate]

OMG

Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson totally might be getting back together. We’re almost famous enough to be crashing that wedding. [Page Six]

WE’RE AVAILABLE

“Key to Happiness: Give Away Money” [Live Science]

YOU HAVE NO IDEA

The science is in: “Young men just find it difficult to tell the difference between women who are being friendly and women who are interested in something more,” said lead researcher Coreen Farris of Indiana University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.” [Live Science]

KEEP LOOKING

Singapore’s most wanted criminal, Mas Selamat Kastari, responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings, escaped from prison in Singapore “after asking to use the toilet.” [Economist]