Boys may be impacted by body types BOSTON (AP) - Long legs, a tiny waist and a big bust made Barbie the target of critics for giving girls an unrealistic body ideal. Now, chiseled pectorals, abdominals and biceps have put male action figures under similar scrutiny. Researchers who studied boys' favored action figures found they preferred "very muscular figures," said Harrison Pope, a Harvard University psychiatrist and author of the study. The majority of male action figures placed on the market since the 1960s have been beefed up to bulky, inhuman proportions, leading boys to believe muscle equals masculinity, the study said. Before then "people weren't using anabolic steroids so men would lift weights and stay within their natural body size," Pope said. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559621543-8ea> EPA to appeal smog fight rejection WASHINGTON (AP) - EPA Administrator Carol Browner said Thursday the Clinton administration is "pursuing all options available" to overturn an appeals court decision that last week scuttled the agency's controversial smog and soot health standards. "In the interim we will take whatever steps, consistent with the court's decision, so that we can secure these protections for all Americans," Browner said. Afterward in discussions with reporters, she said the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia would be appealed. She said she was heartened that the court did not challenge the rule's scientific underpinning. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559623511-736> Return To Top <#TOP> | The Environment <#category18> Congress pushed to recycle trash WASHINGTON (AP) - A decade of cajoling by recycling advocates did not work, so a House committee on Thursday approved a measure to force lawmakers and their staffs to separate cans and bottles from their leftover lunches. The legislation by the House Appropriations Committee would turn a voluntary program into a compulsory one and send money earned from recycling to the chamber's child care center. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., author of the amendment to the money bill that finances House operations, predicted it would be "embarrassing politically" for anyone to propose deleting the language. The measure goes to the full House and does not apply to the Senate, which has taken no similar action. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559619495-74a> Return To Top <#TOP> | The Environment <#category18> Ecologists urge Mexico about corn MEXICO CITY (AP) - Environmentalists urged the government Thursday to ban imports and use of genetically engineered corn, citing new research that it could contribute to deaths of monarch butterflies, which mainly winter in Mexico. The call was made in a joint news release by Liza Covantes of Greenpeace and Homero Aridjis, head of the Group of 100 leading poets, artists and intellectuals, saying a ban should remain at least until there is more study of the corn's effects. Millions of monarch butterflies spend the winter months in the western forests of Mexico and Michoacan states. The butterflies originate in Canada and the U.S. and fly each year to Mexico. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559621428-795>
