BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Thinking Allowed, 07/04/2010The idea that modernity leads to a lessening religious belief is being abandoned by theorists in America and Europe. Figures like Richard Dawkins and AC Grayling argue that increasingly religion seeks to impinge on science, and now the first systematic study of European cultural groups predicts that fundamentalists of all religions are out-breeding moderates and atheists, and will eclipse them quite soon. In Israel the Ultra Orthodox will form the majority as soon as 2050. Since the birth rate of secular people in the West is way below replacement level (2.1), and the birth rate of religious fundamentalists of practically any stripe is far above (roughly between 5 and 7.7 children per mother), through the sheer force of demography, academic Eric Kaufmann claims they will become a much bigger force in the Western World. Is that inevitable? Should people be worried?
Laurie Taylor discusses the anxieties of atheists and the predictions of demography with three theorists of different perspectives.: The Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, Tariq Ramadan; Eric Kaufmann, Reader in Politics at Birkbeck College and author of Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? and Rebecca Goldstein, philosopher and author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God; A Work of Fiction.
Obama's 'tea party' complex / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.comThe comment – which brought him rousing applause at a fundraising speech in Miami Thursday night – is, on its face, accurate. A New York Times/CBS News poll says only two percent of tea party protesters realize that their taxes have likely gone down this year (compared to 22 percent of the general population who understand that). Given college tax credits, making work pay, college loan relief, and home buyer credits, 90 percent of Americans got a tax break this year. The average tax refund is 10 percent larger than last year.
BBC News - Glee triumphs at gay media awardsUS musical TV series Glee has been named best comedy series at the Glaad media awards in the US for its positive portrayal of gay characters.
Creator Ryan Murphy revealed that Kurt, played by actor Chris Colfer, would have a boyfriend in the next series and the pair would be school prom kings.
Jennifer Knapp Comes Out | Music | Christianity TodaySeven years ago, while at the top of her game, Jennifer Knapp announced what seemed to many a sudden decision: She was stepping away from Christian music, taking an indefinite hiatus. Rumors began to swirl—she was burned out, she needed a rest, she was upset about something, she was gay. Turns out that all the rumors were true, as Knapp reveals in this rambling, exclusive interview with Christianity Today.
On the Outs | The American ProspectBut it's worth stepping away from the cable-news chyrons and juvenile jokes to ask: Who are we really shaming when we mock politicians who are outed as gay? Are we training a spotlight on how America is still so homophobic that politicians in many areas of the country must keep their gay identities under wraps? Or are we doing the opposite and actively fueling a broader, more pernicious narrative that being gay is something to be ashamed of?
The downside of 'friends with benefits' - CNN.comIn Paik's study, published last month in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, he found that 17 percent of men and 5 percent of women had at some point had more than one sexual partner at a time. Seventeen percent of women and 8 percent of men said they'd been exclusive but their partner had not.
The downside of 'friends with benefits' - CNN.comPeggy Giordano, a professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University, studies the sexual behavior of young people, and she's also concerned about the phenomenon of having sex in nonromantic ways.
"It seems more acceptable now to have nonromantic sexual encounters," said Giordano, who's studied the sex lives of 1,300 teens and young adults in Lucas County, Ohio. "When there's no romance, there's no basis for demanding fidelity from the other person."
The downside of 'friends with benefits' - CNN.comShe says it's not just the number of partners at one time; it's that people's behavior seems to be different when they're having "friendly" sex in contrast to romantic sex.
When people have sex with a friend, they tend to be more trusting that the person doesn't have a sexually transmitted disease and therefore fail to use a condom, she says.
"If you've known a person for a while, you don't have that vigilance. You're probably not going to ask them to go and get tested for STDs," Giordano said.
The downside of 'friends with benefits' - CNN.comThis lack of vigilance about STDs is especially true when the sexual partner is a former boyfriend or girlfriend, she adds.
"We're finding that 'sex with the ex' is a very common experience," said Giordano, who's been studying the group of Ohio youth since 2001.
"It's seemingly safe, since they used to be your girlfriend or boyfriend. But of course you don't know what they've done since you broke up. You don't know their full portfolio of partners," she said.
The downside of 'friends with benefits' - CNN.comHerpes
Nearly one in five Americans has herpes simplex virus, according to a 2006 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The rates for women were higher than for men: 23 percent, compared with 11 percent. Rates were especially high among African-Americans.
The downside of 'friends with benefits' - CNN.comHuman papillomavirus
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About one in four U.S. females age 14 to 59 has HPV, according to a 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The HPV rate was highest -- 44 percent -- for women ages 20 to 24.
HPV is not as common in men, according to a 2006 article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, but is still "highly prevalent." The study, which looked at 40 studies on HPV and men, found that 56 percent of the reports found that at least one in five men had HPV.
Sample Chapter for Babcock, L. and Laschever, S.: Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide.To explore this question, Linda conducted a study that looked at the starting salaries of students graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with their master's degrees.1 When Linda looked exclusively at gender, the difference was fairly large: The starting salaries of the men were 7.6 percent or almost $4,000 higher on average than those of the women. Trying to explain this difference, Linda looked next at who had negotiated his or her salary (who had asked for more money) and who had simply accepted the initial offer he or she had received. It turned out that only 7 percent of the female students had negotiated but 57 percent (eight times as many) of the men had asked for more money. Linda was particularly surprised to find such a dramatic difference between men and women at Carnegie Mellon because graduating students are strongly advised by the school's Career Services department to negotiate their job offers. Nonetheless, hardly any of the women had done so. The most striking finding, however, was that the students who had negotiated (most of them men) were able to increase their starting salaries by 7.4 percent on average, or $4,053--almost exactly the difference between men's and women's average starting pay. This suggests that the salary differences between the men and the women might have been eliminated if the women had negotiated their offers.
Hispanic and Latino Americans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaAs employed by the Census Bureau, Hispanic or Latino does not include Brazilian Americans,[3][4][24] and specifically refers to "Spanish culture or origin";[3][4] Brazilian Americans appear as a separate ancestry group.[25] The twenty-eight Hispanic or Latino American groups in the Census Bureau's reports are the following:[4][26][27] Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican Republic; Central American: Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Honduran, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran, Other Central American; South American: Argentinian, Bolivian, Chilean, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Uruguayan, Venezuelan, Other South American; Other Hispanic or Latino: Spaniard, Spanish, Spanish American, All other Hispanic.
Hispanic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe U.S. Office of Management and Budget currently defines "Hispanic or Latino" as "a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race".[12] This definition excludes people of Portuguese origins, such as Portuguese Americans or Brazilian Americans. However, they are included in some government agencies' definitions. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation defines Hispanic to include, "persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Central or South American, or others Spanish or Portuguese culture or origin, regardless of race."[13] This definition has been adopted by the Small Business Administration as well as many federal, state, and municipal agencies for the purposes of awarding government contracts to minority owned businesses. Still, other government agencies adopt definitions that exclude people from Spain, since there is a distinct ethnic difference (indigenous American or European American). Some others include people from Brazil, but not Spain or Portugal. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission encourages any individual who believes that he or she is Hispanic according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget definition (any Spanish culture or origin) to self-identify as Hispanic.[14] The United States Department of Labor - Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs encourages the same self-identification.[15] As a result, any individual who traces his or her origins to part of the Spanish Empire may self-identify as Hispanic, because an employer may not override an individual's self-identification.[16]
Who’s Hispanic? - Pew Hispanic CenterQ. What about Brazilians, Portuguese, and Filipinos? Are they Hispanic?
A. They are in the eyes of the Census if they say they are, even though these countries do not fit the official OMB definition of "Hispanic" because they are not Spanish speaking. For the most part, people who trace their ancestry to these countries do not self-identify as Hispanic when they fill out their Census forms. Only about 4% of immigrants from Brazil do so, as do just 1% of immigrants from Portugal or the Philippines.3 These patterns reflect a growing recognition and acceptance of the official definition of Hispanics. In the 1980 Census, about one in six Brazilian immigrants and one in eight Portuguese and Filipino immigrants identified as Hispanic. Similar shares did so in the 1990 Census, but by 2000, the shares identifying as Hispanic dropped to levels close to those seen today.
Who’s Hispanic? - Pew Hispanic CenterQ. But the Census also asks people about their race and their ancestry. How do these responses come into play when determining if someone is Hispanic?
A. They don't. In the eyes of the Census Bureau, Hispanics can be of any race, any ancestry, any country of origin. The result is that there are varying patterns relating to where people come from and how they choose to identify themselves on the Census. For example, some 99% of all immigrants from Mexico call themselves Hispanic. But just 87% of immigrants from Venezuela adopt this label, as do 86% of immigrants from Argentina, 70% of immigrants from Spain, and only 67% from Panama. As for race, 54% of all Hispanics in the U.S. self-identify as white, 1.5% self-identify as black, 40% do not identify with any race and 3.8% identify as being two or more races.
