Abortion hits roadblock on information highway

Apr 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Antonia Zerbisias

If you think that some of the Bush administration’s conservative politics – and Orwellian moves – in the U.S. can’t affect Canada, then you have some research to do.

Ten days ago at the University of California in San Francisco, librarian Gloria Won was running through POPLINE (POPulation information onLINE), billed as “the world’s largest database on reproductive health.” Maintained by Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, and freely available to medical schools, health organizations and the public, it is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Coal mining ravages Appalachia mountains

They’re ripping the tops off mountains in West Virginia coal country to feed our insatiable appetite for power. It’s cheaper that way. And the trees and the animals and the flooding? It may not be pretty, but we’ve got all those dishwashers to run

Feb 23, 2008 04:30 AM
Catherine Porter
Environment Reporter

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA–When you flick on the lights this evening, think of Kayford Mountain. Or what was Kayford Mountain, but now is a sprawling, muddy, trembling construction site 100 metres below Larry Gibson’s home.

Three years ago, Gibson hunted wild boar here, picked gooseberries and peaches, and sat under the shade of white oaks and hickories so thick he couldn’t see the sky.

“Now, you can see the sky below your feet,” Gibson says.

Semi-identical twins discovered

Scientists have revealed details of the world’s only known case of “semi-identical” twins.

The journal Nature says the twins are identical on their mother’s side, but share only half their genes on their father’s side.

They are the result of two sperm cells fertilising a single egg, which then divided to form two embryos - and each sperm contributed genes to each child.

US family tries life without toilet paper

By Kim Ghattas
BBC News, New York

It is mid-afternoon in an airy, lower-Manhattan flat, on the ninth floor of a posh-looking building with a doorman.

It is a bit dark and there are no lights on. There is a strange quiet feel to the flat, perhaps due to the lack of any appliances - no fridge humming, no TV interference, even no air conditioning, though it is hot and humid outside.

Rice vows to probe detention at airport

Rice vows to probe detention at airport

The case of a respected London Muslim leader, detained for hours at the Detroit airport last month, has been brought to the attention of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

Dr. Munir El-Kassem, who was detained, interrogated and fingerprinted for hours in Detroit, met yesterday in Ottawa with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

Oh, those wacky Polaks..

Buffalo’s odd rite of spring

Once a year, pussy willows and water get their very own festival, writes Francine Kopun
April 08, 2007

In Buffalo, N.Y., the mad, last-minute rush to prepare for Easter includes two items that don’t make many shopping lists: pussy willows and squirt guns.

That’s because the city is home to the largest celebration of an ancient Polish rite of spring – Dyngus Day, traditionally held on Easter Monday. That’s when thousands of residents and visitors will gather in community halls and neighbourhood pubs around Buffalo and its suburbs to eat and drink and polka, and – oh yes – sprinkle each other with water and tap each other with pussy willows.

Body parts sent to wrong address

Liver, part of a head mistakenly delivered to house instead of research lab; 28 other packages, intended for medical research, could have gone astray
Mar 03, 2007 04:32 PM
Associated Press

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Two packages containing human body parts – including a liver and part of a head – meant for a medical research lab instead were delivered to a home.

The body parts, sent from China, were mistakenly dropped off Thursday at Franck and Ludivine Larmande’s home by a DHL express driver who believed the bubble-wrapped items were pieces to a table.

“My husband started to unwrap one and said, ‘This is strange, it looks like a liver,’” Ludivine Larmande said. “He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear.

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.

Lawsuit Filed After Songwriter Starves In Hospital

John Slattery
Reporting

(CBS) NEW YORK The family of 50s songwriter, Julius Dixson, has filed suit against a Manhattan Hospital charging the elderly man died of neglect after routine surgery.

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