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Thursday, January 5, 2006
Student athlete juggles sport, studies, 3 kids
niE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOZEMAN—Hey, college
student-athlete, think drag
ging your weary tail out of
bed for those 7;40 a m. class
es three days a week is
drudgery? TVy joining T^jdor
Pratt for daily 2 a m. baby
feedings.
Think figuring out how to
juggle classes, studying, prac
tice and road trips is a colos
sal challenge? Try helping
Pratt with his daily trips to
day care, regular diaper
changes and ni^tly bedtime
stories.
Think you’ve got just
enou^ time and energy to
toss a TV dinner into the oven
after practice and before
studying? TVy playing sous-
chef for Pratt, who cares for
his three children after prac
tice while putting dinner on
the table for his wife, Jami,
upon her arrival home fixjm
her full-time job at Boz^uan’s
Wal-Mart.
“It’s hard,” concedes Pratt, a
21-year-old senior on the
Montana State University
men’s basketball team. “I
guess you just get used to it.”
At this point in life, there is
no escaping the draining
cyde.
Jami’s job is necessary to
pay for the diapers, groceries
Rease see STUDENT MB
Obesity surgery soars as people gain weight
Continued from page 1B
The a4justable band has
been available in the U.S.
only since 2001 but far longer
in Europe and Australia
where it is dominant. It
accounted for 17 percent of
U.S. obesity procedures in
2005.
A ring is placed over the top
of the stomach and inflated
with saline to tighten it and
restrict how much food can
ent^ and pass through the
stomach.
Deaths fix)m the procedure
are only 0.1 percent com
pared to about 2 percent for
gastric bypass. One recent
study of Medicare patients
found deaths a year after gas
tric bypass as high as 3 to 5
percent.
The band’s reversibility
makes it a better choice for
children, some doctors say
“It’s becoming more well-
known and more accepted.
Patients like it because it’s
less invasive. It’s an easier
suigical procedure. It’s safer,”
said Georgeann Mallory,
executive director of the
bariatric society
“Tb me it is a very strai^t-
forward decision,” said Dr.
Paul 03rien, director of the
Centre for Obesity Research
and Education at Monash
University in Melbourne,
Australia. “I would stron^y
recommend that the con
sumer consider the safest
effective procedure first,”
which is the band, he said.
American doctors have pre
ferred bypass operations
because they produce faster,
greater wei^t loss. But new
research by O’Brien and oth
ers calls that into question.
Combining results on
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA-The
graffiti ads placed by Sony
Corp. in several Philadelphia
neighborhoods to advertise
its PlayStation Portable
game system have been
painted over, apparently by
members of the community,
city officials said Friday
The city and anti-blight
campaigners had protested
the presence of the black-on-
white cartoon characters rid
ing the PlayStation like a
skateboaixl, licking it like a
lollipop or cranking it like a
Jack-in-the-Box. The stealth
marketing campaign has qui
etly popped up in San
Francisco, New York and
other large U.S. cities.
Philadelphia Managing
Director Pedro Ramos, who
sent a cease-and-desist letter
to the companj' on
Wednesday, said one ad was
painted over as soon as it
went up eariier in the week,
and two others were painted
over late Thursday or early
Friday
None of the work, he said,
was done by city woiicers. In
one instance, workers saw a
man “who indicated he
owned the property” painting
Why read The Post? It’s
relevant to me
I subscribe to Tbe Charlotte Post
because I believe it’s important to
support publications owned
and operated by African
Americans. The Post covers a
variety of issues, including
things that are happening on
the political scene that may
have relevance to people of color, and
it covers the historically black
universities in the community.”
I.inda l.«cknian-BnK>k.s,
president Ixickman-linMiks Marketin)> Services
If it’s news to you, read it in
tetit charlotte
over one of the ads, the dty
said in a statement.
“Whfle we were prepared to
deliver on the threats in our
letter to Sony, it is much more
gratifjdng to hear that the
solution came fiom the com
munities or the owners them
selves,” Ramos said in the
statement.
The company did not
respond to the letter or to a
telephone message seeking
comment, but a spokes
woman told ^Tred News ear
lier this month that Sony was
hiring artists in seven
cities—Atlanta, Los Angeles,
Miami and Chicago were the
others—to spray paint the
pre-drawn designs.
The city could have sought
modest fines allowed by city
code or sued to recover any
profit the ads produced. The
Sony Ccap. reported net prof
it of $246 million for the quar
ter ending Sept. 30, when it
shipped 2.75 million
PlayStation Portables.
On the Net:
Sony:
wwwsonyeom/
Society Created to Reduce
Urban Blight:
wmvjurbanblightjorg/
0
23,638 patients in 43 pub
lished studies, they found
that bypasses beat bands for
the first three years but were
comparable after seven years,
with excess weight loss of 55
percent for bypass and 51
percent for bands.
That impressed Dr. Eldward
Livingston, chief of gastroin
testinal surgery at the
University of Tbxas
Southwestern Medical
Center and chief of bariatric
suigery for the Department
of Veteran’s Affairs national
system.
“I really was not enthusias
tic about bands until I came
to Dallas fixjm Los Angeles
and saw the results fiom the
group that I joined, which
where quite good,” he con
fessed. “What you can accom
plish in a yeiu* with a gastric
bypass you can accomplish in
five years with a laparoscopic
band.”
Results would improve if
Americans copied the
Australians and included in
the price of the band any
future adjustments,
Livingston said.
wo«nof c%on hhoaix:a.stikki nh work
WADE-AM
1340
WADESBORO, NC
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ISOI N. l-flS SERVICE ROAD • CHARLOTTE, NC,2B2I(1
704-393-1S40
Glaucoma testing
Continued from page 1B
Awareness Month, EyeCare America, the public service founda
tion of the American Academy of Ophthalmology will oflfer free
glaucoma eye exams. Tb see if you qualify, call 1-800-391-EYES
(3937).
PlayStation ads
disguised as graffiti
______
H
ope IS mo
re powerful than
a
h u
r r I c a n e