Teenage girls are now more likely than boys to drink, smoke, steal and take drugs, a survey has shown. Girls are more likely than boys to drink, smoke, steal and take drugs. In a disturbing confirmation of the spread of the ‘ladette’ culture, the study found violence, aggression and self-destructive behaviour has spread alarmingly among girls over the past 20 years. Are girls really more troublesome than boys? Tell us in the reader comments below While boys appear less likely to be drawn towards crime or drugs than they were, psychological and social problems are stacking up among teenage girls, who are now expected to compete on equal terms with boys for educational opportunity and jobs. The study of 14 and 15-year-olds was conducted by questionnaire, in schools under exam conditions, and the results compared with a similar one from 1985. Professor Colin Pritchard, who led the research, said: ‘Girls now significantly smoke and binge-drink more than boys. They truant, steal and fight at similar rates, and start under-age sex earlier than boys.’ He said binge-drinking, which was admitted by nearly a third of girls in their early teenage years, drove other anti-social […]
SAN DIEGO – The vast majority of people caught smuggling immigrants across the border near San Diego are never prosecuted for the offense, demoralizing the Border Patrol agents making the arrests, according to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press. ‘It is very difficult to keep agents’ morale up when the laws they were told to uphold are being watered-down or not prosecuted,’ the report says. The report offers a stark assessment of the situation at a Border Patrol station responsible for guarding 13 miles of mountainous border east of the city. Federal officials say it reflects a reality along the entire 2,000-mile border: Judges and federal attorneys are so swamped that only the most egregious smuggling cases are prosecuted. Only 6 percent of 289 suspected immigrant smugglers were prosecuted by the federal government for that offense in the year ending in September 2004, according to the report. Some were instead prosecuted for another crime. Other cases were declined by federal prosecutors, or the suspect was released by the Border Patrol. The report raises doubts about the value of tightening security along the Mexican border. President Bush wants to hire 6,000 more Border Patrol agents […]
American attitudes toward gays in general continue to improve, but not when it comes to marriage, according to the latest polling numbers released by the Human Rights Campaign in a May 8 conference call with reporters. The Senate is scheduled to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage during the first week of June. A majority of voters (53 percent) support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, while a minority (43 percent) opposes it. The findings were gleaned from an in-depth national telephone survey of 802 registered voters conducted April 10-13 by Peter D. Hart Research Associates. ‘We have not seen much of a change in terms of people’s attitudes toward same-sex marriage, or a Federal Marriage Amendment’ over the last two years, said Jay Campbell, who analyzed the polling data. The change that has occurred has been toward the middle, with less opposition to same-sex marriage and an increase in support for civil unions. 63 percent said they had concerns about amending the Constitution, regardless of their position on gay marriage. Furthermore, the amendment ‘is not a priority for any group of voters anywhere in the country.’ Campbell said […]
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to make English the national language of the United States. Sort of. Moments after the 63-34 vote, it decided to call the mother tongue a ‘common and unifying language.’ ‘You can’t have it both ways,’ warned Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., a fan of ‘national’ but not ‘common and unifying.’ Two dozen senators disagreed and voted for both as the Senate lumbered toward an expected vote next week on a controversial immigration bill. The debate occurred as President Bush traveled to Yuma, Ariz., to dramatize his commitment to curbing illegal immigration. At the same time, the White House sent Congress a formal request for $1.9 billion to cover the costs of steps he announced earlier in the week, including the deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard troops to states along the Mexican border. Bush generally favors the outlines of the Senate measure, a bill that calls for great enforcement, a new guest worker program and an eventual opportunity at citizenship for most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country illegally. Inhofe led the attempt to declare English the national language, a campaign he said began more […]
Monkeys are able to string together a simple ‘sentence’, according to research that offers the first evidence that animals might be capable of a key feature of language. British scientists have discovered that the putty-nosed monkey in Nigeria pictured above sometimes communicates by combining sounds into a sequence that has a different meaning from any of its component calls, an ability that was thought to be uniquely human. Although many animals communicate with one another using calls that have a particular meaning - usually a warning signifying the presence of a certain predator - none has been known to combine these alarm calls into sequences similar to those of human language. The findings suggest that the rudiments of syntax, a basic component of human language, may be more widespread among primates than is generally thought, and could ultimately shed light on the evolution of this most distinctly human of traits. The putty-nosed monkeys, Cercopithecus nictitans, of the Gashaka Gumti National Park, have two main alarm call sounds. A sound known onomatopoeically as the ‘pyow’ warns other animals against a lurking leopard, and a cough-like sound that scientists call a ‘hack’ is used when an eagle is […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
