7:27 AM
ATTENTION EVERYONE: There's a site called spokeo.com and it's an online phone book that has pictures, home phone number, credit score, home value, income, # of children, profession, age. Remove yourself by clicking the Privacy button on the bottom right on their web...site. I checked it...out and just removed my listing. SHARE THIS!!! CUT, PASTE AND REPOST..
The number of women who die in pregnancy or childbirth has dropped by more than 35% over the past 28 years. It is sad that the UK Journal was pressured to delay publishing the report until after several critical fund raising meetings, as maternal health advocates said that their fund raising would be hurt if the facts got out:
http://www.physorg.com/news190462124.html
The high cost of housing has led to married couples deciding to either not have children or just have 1 child in order to be able to afford a home. This is said to be the main factor in Taiwan having the lowest fertility rate in the world (1.05 children for each woman in her lifetime). Right now Taiwan has 6.8 people of working age for each retiree, but by 2056 Taiwan is projected to have just 1.4 people of working age for each retiree and their country will become economically unviable:
http://colebatch.blogspot.com/2010/04/taiwanese-solution-to-soaring-house.html
It is a crime in about 2 dozen states to commit adultery--in Michigan, a judge pointed out that according to the law adultery is a first-degree criminal sexual conduct that could result in a life sentence. Lobbying pressure has made it hard to change the laws--for example, when it was suggested that Minnesota might repeal laws that made it illegal for a single woman to have sex and for a married woman to cheat on her husband, the Minnesota Family Council called for the laws to be *strengthened* instead of repealed. I actually agree with their point that men should be punished just like women are (why is it not a crime for a single man to have sex or for a married man to commit adultery if it is illegal for women?), but if their heavily male legislators thought that the laws could be applied to them, they would probably end up repealing the laws altogether:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-04-26-column26_ST_N.htm
Man from Riverside was arrested after after 45 fire hydrants were stolen or vandalized for their metal. Fire hydrants weight 80-100 pounds each and can sell for $1.60 per pound (he would cut the metal up so the people buying it couldn't tell it was a fire hydrant). Replacing the fire hydrants can cost public agencies between $1,000 and $1,800 each, so the 2 counties that he stole from had to use a lot of tax dollars due to his theft:
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-stolen-hydrants,0,6408988.story
All 7,000 copies of The Pasta Bible had to be destroyed by Penguin Australia after a misprint said to use freshly ground "black people" instead of "black pepper":
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/apr/19/penguin-cook-book