McDonalds' suggestion to Employees: Eat somewhere else

McDonalds' internal employee resource website McResource Line on one of the resource website pages has strongly urged its employees to eat... elsewhere.

The advice is given with graphics depicting the ‘unhealthy choice’ and the ‘healthier choice.’
From the Mail:

The fast food giant has advised employees to avoid meals with burgers and fries and to eat healthier options like salad and sandwiches. The advice was dispensed on the now-infamous McResource Line, the employees-only website that has told workers to sell their things and get second jobs to make ends meet.

Despite featuring a vast array of deep fried delicacies, the Golden Arches reminds employees that ‘avoiding items that are deep fried are your best bet.’
The sensible advice also tells McWorkers to ‘limit the extras such as cheese, bacon and mayonnaise.’ Tasty add-ons that are staples of many menu items they serve on a daily basis.

A hamburger, fries and soda are warned against, because ‘eating a diet high in fat puts people at rick for becoming overweight.’ Many locations offer steep food discounts and short breaks to employees, virtually forcing them to eat the unhealthy food, often forcing the hand of workers without the time or means to eat elsewhere.

 ‘It is hard to eat a healthy diet when you eat at fast-food restaurants often,’ the advice continues. ‘Many foods are cooked with a lot of fat, even if they are not trans fats. Many fast-food restaurants do not offer any lower-fat foods.’

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In the aftermath of these humiliating revelations we find that the McResource site has been taken down and that MCD workers are no longer strongly advised to eat elsewhere.

Cosmetic surgery boom in crisis-stricken Greece and Italy

While the Greek economy remains under the proverbial knife of the Troika, it appears the wealthy are unconcerned by the plight of their fellow countrymen. 

Der Spiegel reports that not only does Greece have the second highest rate of cosmetic surgery per capita in the world but thanks to a slumping economy, surgeons have cut prices by up to 40% while rich Greeks are never as before rushing to improve their looks.

Via Der Spiegel,

The economic crisis has forced thousands in Greece to rely on volunteers for even basic health care services.

Meanwhile, wealthier Greeks are having more facelifts and breast implants than anywhere in the world.

...

Every year, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) performs a survey of the number of plastic surgery procedures performed worldwide. When the numbers are compared to a country's population, the results are surprising for Greece. In 2011, 142,394 procedures were performed in the country, with its population of about 11 million. That means that, on average, one in 79 Greeks has had procedures such as liposuction, eyelid corrections and Botox injections performed on them. Worldwide, the Greeks rank only second to the South Koreans in terms of the number of cosmetic procedures performed per 1,000 inhabitants (see graphic). In Germany, with a population of about 81 million, there were 415,448 procedures in 2011, or one in about 200.

2011 was the year of the economic crisis, and yet Greece rose even higher in the international ranking. Looking good still seems to be important to the Greeks.

Zombie-like disease spreading in Africa

CNN reported a strange disease currently spreading in Uganda that has WHO and CDC baffled:


Called nodding disease, the zombie-like disorder has spread to more than 3,000 children in Northern Uganda, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) are scrambling to figure it out.
The disease causes the affected children to sit and nod—hence the name—but also has some much weirder, and creepier, effects. The disorder causes severe seizures, amnesiac behavior, stunted development and extreme pyromania. Affected children often start fires or wander off, and more than 200 deaths have been reported from incidences caused by the infected, i.e. fires.
One parent, Grace Lagat, said several villagers have taken to tying infected children up to keep them from wandering off. She says her son, Thomas, often bites and gnashes at the rope to try and get free.
"When I am going to the garden, I tie them with cloth," Lagat told CNN. "If I don't tie them I come back and find that they have disappeared."
The disease has been popping up in smaller outbreaks the past four years, though it is now bordering on a regional epidemic.
With everyone from WHO to the CDC on the case, scientists have still not figured out the cause, or a cure. But, they do know that more than 90 percent of cases occur in areas that are home to the parasitic Onchocerca Volvulus worm, which is carried by insects, and vitamin B6 deficiency could be a factor.
"At first we cast the net wide," CDC disease detection director Dr. Scott Dowell said. "We ruled out three dozen potential causes and we are working on a handful of probabilities."
Though experts don't expect a worldwide epidemic—the disorder doesn't appear to be contagious at this point—they are taking some precautions to ensure it (hopefully) doesn't spread beyond the affected regions.
"We know from past experience an unknown disease could end up having more global implications," Dr. Dowell said.