Diet & Exercise: Obesity

The problem of obesity seems to be in the news more and more these days. Probably you have heard that the USA has one of the higest rates of obesity. According to this article, about 119 million, or 64.5%, of US adults are either overweight or obese. This is expected to increase!

Did you also know that Mississippi has one of the highest rates of obese people within America? Click on the following link for a BBC news report dealing with obesity in Mississippi. You can also watch one of Mississippi's residents being interviewed. She weighs 222kg!

Here is another interesting site that lists the top 10 states in the USA in order of how fat they are. As you can see, most state are in the south. According to the article, 30% of the residents there are obese (very fat).

Interesting Information about Laughter
Science of Laughter
Here are some sites dealing with the science of laughter. Why do people laugh? What are some of the benefits of laughter? What makes YOU laugh?
Serious Laughter
New Scientist
Humour
How Stuff Works
Happiness

Laughter Clubs
Laughter Clubs began in 1995 in India, by an Indian doctor. Since then they have spread all over the world. There are now more than 5,000 laughter clubs around the world. There are even some in Japan. I was really surprised when I found one in Nagoya! Click on this link to find information about WHY Laughter Clubs began. Here are some sites from YouTube:
This clip shows a Laughter Yoga Session In Tokyo:

Benefits of Laughter Yoga with John Cleese. Famous British comedian goes to India to find out about Laughter Yoga. Click on this link to see him in action.

Comedy & Funny Stuff
This is my favourite one. It shows Rowan Atkinson (Before he played the character Mr Bean). It's very simple. He walks along the road and notices a Cameraman on the other side of the road. He says "hello" and keeps waving to him. But he doesn't look where he's going. First he accidentally walks into a lamppost, because he is too busy watching the cameraman. In the next scene he almost walks into another lamppost doing exactly the same thing. This time, however, he manages to avoid walking into the lamppost. But instead, he falls down a hole! I think that his facial expression is so funny. Find out what happens by clicking on this link.

Patch Adams
Here are some sites about Patch Adams. Who was he? What did he do? What was his job? Why was he so different to other (conventional) doctors?

I think that it's interesting because Patch Adams was a real doctor that realised the importance of humour in hospitals: he knew very well about the benefits of laughter. Anyway, he became so famous in the USA (and around the world) for his work that his life story was made into movie starring Robbin Willams. This one is a bit difficult, but it's well written and has a lot of interesting information.

Task
Work together as a group collecting important and useful information about "humour", "laughter" and other funny stuff. Copy and paste the links into your Word File. Then write a bit of information IN YOUR OWN WORDS about the links. WHY do you like them? WHY are they fuunny? and so on (See my examples at the top of this page).

Some sites dealing with laughter
(1) INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT LAUGHTER
Science of Laughter
Here are some sites dealing with the science of laughter. Why do people laugh?
What are some of the benefits of laughter?
What makes YOU laugh?
Serious Laughter
New Scientist
Lighten up with Humor
How Stuff Works
Happiness


Laughter Clubs
Laughter Clubs began in 1995 in India, by an Indian doctor. Since then they have spread all over the world. There are now more than 5,000 laughter clubs around the world. There are even some in Japan. I was really surprised when I found one in Nagoya! Click on this link to find information about WHY Laughter Clubs began.

http://nagoyalaughterclub.blogspot.com/

Here are some sites from YouTube:


This clip shows a Laughter Yoga Session In Tokyo:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO4Ak3fYAj8
Benefits of Laughter Yoga with John Cleese. Famous British comedian goes to India to find out about Laughter Yoga. Click on the link to see him in action.http://www.bebo.com/FlashBox.jsp?FlashBoxId=3597648222
(2) COMEDY & OTHER FUNNY STUFF
This is my favourite one. It shows Rowan Atkinson (Before he played the character Mr Bean). It's very simple. He walks along the road and notices a Cameraman on the other side of the road. He says "hello" and keeps waving to him. But he doesn't look where he's going. First he accidentally walks into a lamppost, because he is too busy watching the cameraman. In the next scene he almost walks into another lamppost doing exactly the same thing. This time, however, he manages to avoid walking into the lamppost. But instead, he falls down a hole! I think that his facial expression is so funny. Find out what happens by clicking on this link.

Patch Adams
Here are some sites about Patch Adams. Who was he? What did he do? What was his job? Why was he so different to other (conventional) doctors?
http://www.chy.com.au/patch.htm
I think that it's interesting because Patch Adams was a real doctor that realised the importance of humour in hospitals: he knew very well about the benefits of laughter. Anyway, he became so famous in the USA (and around the world) for his work that his life story was made into movie starring Robbin Willams. This one is a bit difficult, but it's well written and has a lot of interesting information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_Adams
Task
Work together as a group collecting important and useful information about "humour", "laughter" and other funny stuff. Copy and paste the links into your Word File. Then write a bit of information IN YOUR OWN WORDS about the links. WHY do you like them? WHY are they fuunny? and so on (See my examples at the top of this page).

Let's make a blog!

Welcome Integrated English classes! Today we are going to create a blog!