• Doctors from Kansas State University advise that pet owners count calories for their overweight pets. According to Dr. Susan Nelson, treats should only make up 10% of a pet's diet, and owners should follow the serving guidelines provided on pet food packaging. • This summer, 12-year-old Jennifer Valdivia caught the Ryan Howard's 200th home run at a Phillies game. Immediately after the game, Howard asked her to trade the ball for an autographed, brand new baseball. She agreed, but her lawyer, Norm Kent, is suing the Phillies for taking away such a valuable piece of property from an unknowing kid. •  Under a new curriculum, Scottish children as young as four will be learning elements of sex education in school. The program is designed to build upon knowledge year by year, says Maureen McKenna. "What we have is a broad curriculum which deals with emotions, friendships, self-esteem and respect as well as physical development and sexual health." •  Rite Aid has changed their formally paternalistic policy on pregnant women and flu shots and will now allow them access to the vaccine without a prescription. • Australian Labor MP Belinda Neal said that her recent decision to stay with her husband, who, it has been revealed, had an affair with at 26-year-old, is a "feminist" choice. "I made a decision to work within my marriage but certainly I don't see myself as some downtrodden person who is being submissive," she said. "I see it as a powerful decision to take control of my marriage and a joint decision to work to improve it." •  Bill O'Reilly says the reason Michele Bachmann gets criticized so much is because she's so "good-looking." • And not, presumably, because she says things like this: "the American people are looking to voices like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck." • A female religious leader in Egypt has proposed modifying the country's marriage certificate to allow women to list their status as "never been married" in addition to the current categories of "Virgin, "divorced," or "widowed." She says this would protect the honor of rape victims. • Women are much more likely than men to be kicked out of the military under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and the discrepancy is especially pronounced in the Air Force. • A new female condom now available in the US is thinner, cheaper, and less likely to squeak during sex. • According to a recent report released by the World Economic Forum, "No country in the world has yet to eliminate the gender gap." They cite "gender fatigue" as one possible reason that the gender gap persists. Workers are accustomed to thinking that their organization is different, that they do not recognize examples of sexism in the workplace. • 

In the same vein, a new bank in India has opened that caters specifically to prostitutes and sex workers. Women in the country's sex industry have trouble opening bank accounts because of prejudice and lack of identification. (Many of the women are saving money to get out of the business altogether.) Shilpa Merchant, who founded the new bank, says a woman with a savings account is more likely to refuse a customer who does not want to wear a condom, because she doesn't have to worry about where her next meal is coming from. (The government has also recently teamed up with prostitutes to cut down on girls being kidnapped and forced into the sex trade. Profiting by selling a person for sex is illegal, but paying for sex with an adult prostitute is not.)

Meanwhile, in this country, CBS News reports that professor and Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt studied the finances of prostitution. Hookers in Chicago claim 3% of the sex acts they performed over a two-year period were "freebies" given to cops to avoid arrest. In addition, business is better on holidays and condoms are used 25% of the time, with customers paying a small increase in price for unprotected sex. Risky business, indeed.

The Jezebels have decided to pool some cash and loan it to a woman on the Kiva site. We'll let you know how it goes.

Oprah Effect Brings Microlending To Main Street [Reuters]
Bank For India's Sex Workers [Reuters]
India Turns To Prostitutes To Help Beat Trafficking [Reuters]
The Economics Of Prostitution, Analyzed [CBS News]
[Kiva.org]