Slim down ye Elgin!
A cutting-edge obesity research exhibition-‘Fat Body Slim, led by a team of academics from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, will be heading to Elgin next week as part of a six-month Scottish tour.
It is a fun and interactive exhibition, which will be held in Moray Leisure Centre in Elgin on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 October. The team investigates the science behind obesity, body shape and health. Entitled ‘Fat Body Slim: Shape Matters!’ the exhibit has been designed to showcase the University’s obesity research through a series of interactive displays.
The exhibit is being toured until March 2011 following a £25,000 grant from the Scottish Government Science Engagement Fund to deliver a series of workshops to more than 10,000 teenagers in the North and North-east of Scotland.
During this time the public will have the opportunity to learn;
1. How weight distribution impacts their life
2. The role individual lifestyles play in maintaining health and fitness.
The public will also getting to grips with staining fat cells to see what they look like under a microscope, and finding out whether they can differentiate between the myths and the facts about obesity.
Scots economy experience boost in Construction sector
Scotland‘s economy experienced a growth by 1.3% in the second quarter of the year 2010, according to official figures. This is the biggest increase since the spring of 2006 and is a higher rate than the UK as a whole which grew by 1.2% in the same period. 
Compared to other services, the best performing sector was construction which rose by 10.4% while services grew by just 0.3%.
However revised figures for the first quarter of this year show that the Scottish economy contracted by 0.2%.
Over the year to the end of June 2010 GDP fell by 1.7%. During this period, the service, production and construction services all recorded downward trends.
While the Finance Secretary John Swinney said, it showed the Scottish government was right to bring forward capital projects.
Scotland’s Winter Festivals programme unveiled
More than 60 events are to be staged as part of Scotland‘s Winter Festivals Programme. The festivals season begins on St Andrew’s Day (30 November) and includes the Hogmanay celebrations and Burns night on 25 January.
The Ministry of Scotland Culture is set to focus on promoting Scotland’s top produce, with 2010 being Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink. Events will be held around the country, involving 65 visitor attractions.
The Minister for Culture Ms Hyslop said that Scotland’s Winter Festivals programme shows that Scotland is a great visitor destination and the perfect stage for events all year round. With Edinburgh‘s Hogmanay generating an estimated £29m last year, festive celebrations can make a significant contribution to Scottish tourism and economy.
The Winter Festivals are considered to help entice people from home and abroad to explore all areas of Scotland. The celebrations will span the globe year, with a St Andrew’s Day Ball in Doha, in the Gulf, and a Kirkin’ of the Tartans in Hawaii also being staged.
Scheme to help homeless people in Edinburgh
A scheme giving landlords in Edinburgh, the chance to provide accommodation to the homeless through council is established. 
Link Group Ltd will be responsible in delivering the Private Sector Leasing (PSL) scheme. It is aimed to provide a major source of rented accommodation for homeless people in the capital.
“The scheme had supported more than 4,000 people through a network of 1,600 properties since it was launched five years ago”, said Edinburgh City Council.
Schemes like PSL, where the council work with private landlords to free up housing in the private rented market to those people who need it most, is paying dividends.
Scots men better Women in savings
The survey results suggest that Scottish men are better at saving than women. The survey was conducted by the Bank of Scotland. According to them, 36% of men said they had a savings account compared with only 33% of women.
The survey of 1,000 people also found that nearly one in four women (24%) had no savings at all compared with just one in five men.
At least 85% of those women without savings said they had none because they could not afford it. The figure fell to 73% for Scottish men.
Other reasons given for having no money put aside was a lack of time, while a small minority of men claimed to have no savings account because they did not know how to open one.
Nearly all the men asked (92%) said they had a current account, while 89% of women said they had a similar account.
Both the sexes had similar thoughts on the amount to save, with 16% of men and 18% of women planning to put away between £100 and £1,000 in the coming year.
The surveyors found that most of the people think that they need huge amount of money to open an account, because they said ‘no spare money’.