Free Republic

Radio personality Shavonne Patrice Owens, 37, says she experienced weight discrimination firsthand when she applied for a daycare job in Huntsville, Alabama, two years ago. Despite having all the qualifications for the job, Owens says her friend — a former employee of the daycare center in question (whose employment later terminated) — told her the reason she was ultimately passed over for the job was because of her weight. Owens, who was 525 pounds at 5’11” at the time of her interview with the daycare center, said that this incident “hurt for a second, just for a second… but I...

Stuck woman traps SA cave group   The tourists coped with the ordeal well. Photo: Cango Caves An overweight woman who got stuck in a South African cave trapped 22 fellow tourists for more than 10 hours and had to be prised free with liquid paraffin.The woman became trapped in the Tunnel of Love obstacle in the Cango Caves in Western Cape on New Year's Day. The caves' manager said the woman had been warned she might not be suitable but she insisted on trying. One of those trapped was a diabetic who had to be brought insulin. The...

THE perfume diet may be the next big thing after researchers found men think women weigh less if they smell of flowers than if they smell of pizza. In fact, a 10-year US study has found that pleasant, floral-spice perfume makes women appear 5kg lighter in the eyes of the opposite sex. Other odours, including butterscotch, cigarette smoke, grapefruit and pepperoni pizza don't have the same effect. The floral-spice scent acted as "the olfactory equivalent to vertical lines", said Chicago neurologist and psychiatrist Alan Hirsch, who presented his findings at a meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences in Florida....