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Shawn Frances Lee (L), owner of Urban Fertility Dancer, teaches a pole dancing class in Las Vegas, Nevada August 9, 2007. Once confined to strip clubs, thin metal poles are popping up in kitchens, bedrooms and exercise studios across the United States with gym fanatics, moms and even grandmothers using them to get fit. (Adam Tanner/Reuters)

Crocs have been given the presidential seal of approval but this is not necessarily a good thing. George W. Bush was photographed recently in a pair of black Crocs -- Cayman style, $29.99 -- as he was heading out from the White House to ride his bike. He wore the clunky resin clogs -- which have ventilation holes and a heel strap -- with a pair of black shorts, a white camp shirt, a baseball cap with the image of an unidentified Scottish terrier and black bike socks imprinted with the presidential seal. He had the backstraps of his Crocs...

The Real Inconvenient Truth About Global Warming: Skeptics Have Valid Arguments by Tom DeWeese  (December 19, 2006) Imagine living in a world where no one is allowed to think or act independently--only state-approved human responses are acceptable. To break the rule and engage in forbidden thought would result in terrible retribution, perhaps leading literally to ones destruction.   That’s the kind of world apparently desired by the global warming Chicken Littles. It seems they are prepared to do anything to achieve it. Case in point is an outrageous letter to ExxonMobil Chairman Rex Tillerson on October 27, 2006. The letter was sent...

Crocs Shoes Making Great Strides [SNIP] The bulky clog with a strap along the heel and holes across the top and around the toes is winning consumers over with its versatility and comfort. Food service and factory workers, hair stylists and hospital personnel buy them for comfort. Boaters and swimmers buy them for function. And some just think they're fun. [SNIP] Crocs, which got its name because the shoes are water-friendly and tough, now lends its cartoon crocodile logo to more than a dozen styles. There are flip flops, slides, a calf-high boot, a hiking shoe and a Mary Jane...

CHICAGO - Buying organic milk these days - or organic apples, eggs, or beef - no longer has to mean an extra trip to a Whole Foods supermarket or the local co-op. Organic products now line the shelves at Safeway and Costco. And Wal-Mart - already the nation's largest organic-milk seller - says it wants to sell more organic food. Large companies including Kraft, General Mills, and Kellogg own sizable organic- and natural-food brands. Now, they are developing organic versions of their own products, too. Still, while some organic-food fans welcome its broadening appeal and availability, others worry that the...

The teenagers all know what the "stop-snitching" T-shirts mean - even if their parents don't. Waiting outside John F. Kennedy High School after class Thursday, 10th grader Victor Arellano said that even though he doesn't own one, his classmates are still wearing the shirts that were a hot summertime fad. "That means stop telling on other people what goes on the streets - hustling," Arellano said. Some adults, including 1st Ward Councilman Anthony Davis, have voiced concern about the fashion that they say promotes drug dealing and discourages people from cooperating with the police. "It's not a positive thing to...

When Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG bracelets appeared out of nowhere a few years ago, the campaign was a classic win-win: The Tour de France champion and testicular cancer survivor's yellow band raised tens of millions of dollars for cancer research -- while improving the karma of a nearly equal number of consumers. And then, practically overnight, charity transformed into must-have fashion accessory. Take a short walk down Market Street in San Francisco today, and you can find orange and green silicone bracelets that say SAN FRANCISCO, tie-dyed ones with the words PEACE and GROOVY and less tasteful items stamped with PLAYBOY...

A 13-year-old was in critical condition and her mother faced criminal charges Monday for failing to get medical help after the girl's attempt to pierce her own belly button caused a severe infection lasting weeks. By the time Deborah Robinson's daughter was taken to the hospital last week, the former middle school track runner weighed about 75 pounds and was near death, authorities said.

pple and the world's biggest retailer have been expanding their pact to sell versions of Apple's wildly popular digital music player from a test to a full partnership, marking a new development as of the last few months, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Rebecca Runkle. Apple Computer' (Nasdaq: AAPL) stock got a boost today amid upbeat comments by a Morgan Stanley analyst, who said the computer maker's pact with retail giant Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) may be broader than some realize. Shares of Cupertino, Calif., Apple put on US$1.13, or 3.1 percent, to close at $37.13. The stock has ranged...

The Hula-Hoop was a fad. The iPod is having a major impact on markets. It's hard to recall any branded recreational product that ever carried the cultural oomph that the iPod now has. The Hula-Hoop was a fad. The PlayStation, the Prince tennis racket, and the Big Bertha golf club have all had significant competitors. As for the Walkman, the iPod's mobile-music ancestor, it generated massive sales. But it never impacted behavior or peripheral markets quite the way the iPod has. Apple has now sold some 15 million (and counting) iPods worldwide, and contrary to what many Steve Jobs bashers...

. . . The dictionary defines a fad as "a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal." This could just as well be a description of congregational life of many Christian churches today. There is a new book, a new program or a new emphasis every year or so. It's all anyone can talk about; it's all the preacher preaches about - for a while. Then, as quickly as it came, it's gone. As eagerly as it was received, it's abandoned and forgotten. Welcome to the Fad-Driven church. At first this might not sound like a problem....

WOODMERE, Ohio - The nation's food companies are stirring up new recipes for everything from Oreos to SpaghettiOs to get rid of trans fat, the artery-clogging ingredient that must be listed on food labels next year. The companies say they're promoting good health, but they're also looking ahead to the new federal rule and new dietary guidelines urging consumers away from trans fats. Trans fats have been in the nation's food supply for decades, giving products a long shelf life and making goodies like chips and cookies oh so yummy. They are formed when liquid oils turn into solid fats...

The low-carb craze has passed its prime, as companies report a pickup in the sales of starch-heavy food. General Mills Inc., which makes cereals such as Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Wheaties and Trix, said sales climbed almost 3 percent in the third quarter, to $2.58 billion from $2.51 billion a year ago.

A broader focus on health may brush aside low-carbAmericans are always looking for advice on how to eat, and someone is always there to offer it. In 1978, the country was treated to the Scarsdale diet and its 500 calories a day. Three years later, the Beverly Hills diet said go hog-wild for fruit. The early '90s brought a low-fat bonanza — along with the “New Diet Revolution” of Dr. Robert Atkins, though, of course, Atkins invented his low-carb strategy in 1972. In time the weight-loss industry has grown to a $40 billion-a-year giant, according to Marketdata, a Tampa, Fla.,...

Japanese marriages falling victim to 'Yongfluenza' This year is likely to be remembered for the boom set off by "Winter Sonata," the weepy South Korean melodrama broadcast by NHK. The "Fuyu-Sona" series not only achieved a high audience rating during its initial showing; it also generated spinoffs in the form of 330,000 DVDs and 1.22 million copies of the story in book form — generating an estimated 3.5 billion yen in revenues for the network. "My wife spent over 30,000 yen on a set of DVDs," a 50-year-old trading firm employee grumbles. "To watch them, I had to buy a...

"... Children and parents enter into an agreement pledging that the parents will vote according to their children's preference as long as the children have done their homework. ... Youngsters are more true to their convictions than grown-ups. They're also more likely to care about the future and issues affecting the future, including the environment and Social Security."

Medical science has come a long way in the 400 years since William Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood. Anaesthetics, an appreciation of the importance of clean water, penicillin and cracking the human genome are but a few of its more notable achievements. So why has Gwyneth Paltrow turned the clock back 5,000 years to the ancient Chinese to find relief for her physical ailments? The actress caused a stir this week when she turned up at a New York film premiere wearing a low-cut black dress and sporting what appeared to be a row of circles on her...

By Elizabeth Armstrong | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor From the moment guests walk into Bollywood, a restaurant in midtown Manhattan, they know something is different. Two dark-suited hosts push their forefingers to their lips, commanding silence. Couples scribble furiously on notecards instead of sampling from the menu. The oft-inaudible sounds of a Saturday night - ice cubes clinking, throats clearing, chairs scraping as people sit and stand - become almost intrusive in a room as hushed as a monastery. "Have you been to a 'quiet party' before?" whispers one of the dark suits, helping the inexperienced to...

OCALA -- Raymond Andrews had no idea that the bracelets his sixth-grade daughter purchased this summer were related to sex. However, after speaking to other parents, he learned this new fad among middle school students was something he didn't want his kids involved with. His daughter promised to do away with the bracelets, but not before asking some pretty uncomfortable questions. "That gets me concerned," said Andrews, whose children attend Belleview Middle School. "If they need to ban these jelly bracelets, they need to ban them." A new trend, which has some parents and school officials concerned and may very...

OAK PARK, Mich. (AP) — Some people are turning to an inexpensive and controversial way of customizing their cars: applying decals of bullet holes."So real-looking you have to touch them with your own finger to tell," says the Sterling Heights-based Web site bullet1.com, which offers vinyl stickers depicting .50-caliber holes and smaller ones that look like they came from a .22. Doug Rock, 25, buys the stickers from a North Carolina supplier and sells them on the site to help pay his way through nursing school. Rock said he started selling the decals on e-Bay in 2001 and has since...