Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias

By SAM DILLON
Published: February 25, 2007

GREENCASTLE, Ind. — When a psychology professor at DePauw University here surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of “daddy’s little princesses” and another as “offbeat hippies.” The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as “socially awkward.”

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

Herr Harper, this is Canada, remember?

PM says he’ll pick judges by ideology

Feb 14, 2007 08:46 PM
Jim Brown
Canadian press

OTTAWA — Steven Harper is frankly admitting that he’s looking for judges who will back his law-and-order agenda — and provoking cries from his opponents that he’s trying to subvert the judiciary for political ends.

Darwin at work?

Female intuition key to correct weather prognostications by Michigan groundhog
Canadian Press
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) - Woody has something most other prognosticating groundhogs don’t.

Female intuition.

No stoning, Canada migrants told

Don’t stone women to death, burn them or circumcise them, immigrants wishing to live in the town of Herouxville in Quebec, Canada, have been told.

The rules come in a new town council declaration on culture that Muslims have branded shocking and insulting.

G** bless you, airline movie censors

January 26, 2007

All mentions of God are bleeped out of a version of Oscar-nominated movie The Queen distributed to Delta and some other airlines.

Jeff Klein, president of Jaguar Distribution, the company that supplied the movie to the airlines earlier this month, said it was a mistake, committed by an overzealous and inexperienced employee who had been told to edit out all profanities and blasphemies. “A reference to God is not taboo in any culture that I know of,” Klein said.

“We excise foul language, excessive violence and nudity.”

Passengers hear “(Bleep) bless you, ma’am,” as one character speaks to the Queen. In all, the word “God” is bleeped seven times. Jaguar has been sending out new, unedited copies.

The employee is still working in the editing lab, Klein said.

Associated Press via The Toronto Star

France proposed U.K. union, papers show

January 15, 2007
Associated Press

LONDON – Would France have been better off under the Queen?

The revelation that the French government proposed a union of Britain and France in 1956, even offering to accept the sovereignty of the British Queen, has left scholars on both sides of the Channel puzzled.

Polish archbishop quits over spy scandal

January 08, 2007
Ryan Lucas
Associated Press

WARSAW–Worshippers filled the pews inside the red-brick walls of St. John’s Cathedral. Outside, faithful sheltered from the rain under umbrellas while huddling around portable radios, waiting expectantly for the formal installation of Warsaw’s new archbishop.

Then, in a blink yesterday, the festive mood transformed into disbelief. Cries of “No, no!” and “Stay with us!” rose from the crowds both inside and out.

Treatment keeps girl child-sized

From the Beeb:

Parents of a severely disabled girl in the US have revealed that they are keeping her child-sized in order to give her a better life.

The nine-year-old, named Ashley, has the mental ability of a three-month-old baby and cannot walk or talk.

Along with hormone doses to limit her growth, Ashley’s parents also opted for surgery to block breast growth and had her uterus and appendix removed.

Britain to pay final World War Two loan instalment

Thu Dec 28, 2006 5:30 PM GMT15

LONDON (Reuters) - The government said it will on Friday pay back the final instalments of loans taken out at the end of World War Two to finance vital reconstruction.

The payments of $83.25 million (42.4 million pounds) to the United States and $22.7 million to Canada will close the final chapter of the war and mean that in total the country has paid close to twice what it borrowed in 1945 and 1946.

‘Paris Syndrome’ strikes Japanese

‘Paris Syndrome’ strikes Japanese
By Caroline Wyatt
BBC News, Paris

A dozen or so Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what’s become known as “Paris syndrome”.

That is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations.

The experience can apparently be too stressful for some and they suffer a psychiatric breakdown.