Not to be outdone by The Daily Mail and the New York Times, The Economist  has pronounced on the engagement of Britain's Prince William and his girlfriend of many years, Kate Middleton. 

"The monarchy needs a combination of stability and glamour," says the transAtlantic magazine. "It is a tricky balance to maintain." On the stability side, Kate's stable family background should help:

Unlike Diana, who was disadvantaged not just by warring aristocratic parents and a tiresome stepmother, but also by a faintly ludicrous stepgrandmother who wrote 664 romantic novels and always wore pink, Miss Middleton comes from a stable background. Her parents met working for British Airways; she was brought up in a two-parent, three-child family. Since people from stable families are more likely to produce them, she has a better chance of making a go of her marriage than Diana had.

This… click here to read whole article and make comments

This is the sort of story you wish would turn out to be a sick and tasteless hoax. Here is the UK Daily Mail version:

A married couple has sparked fury by setting up a website to let the public vote on whether or not they should have an abortion.

Pete and Alisha Arnold, both 30, say they launched birthornot.com because they are unsure if they want to be parents.

The couple, from Minneapolis, have uploaded regular scan images of the foetus, which is a perfectly-healthy boy they have nicknamed "Wiggles".

The story is disturbing on a number of levels. It immediately strikes one as shocking and vulgar, but then again, we live in the age of Facebook and Twitter, where a person can’t have an insipid thought, a disordered desire, or, for that matter, a bodily function, without wanting to broadcast it over… click here to read whole article and make comments

Life seems to have imitated art in the life of child film star Baby Marie Osborne, according to an obituary for her in the New York Times. “She was cast as an orphan, a child of social climbers, the charmer of a crotchety millionaire, a diplomat, a cupid,” but her real life was equally eventful.

With its triumphs, setbacks, poignant struggles and unpredictable turns, her life churned with the stuff of silent films. She was born Helen Alice Myres in Denver on Nov. 5, 1911, the daughter of Roy and Mary Myres. She soon became — under mysterious circumstances — the child of Leon and Edith Osborn, who called her Marie and added the “e” to the surname, apparently to obscure the adoption.

When the Osbornes Found work in Hollywood in 1914 they took baby Marie along to the studios with them and the… click here to read whole article and make comments

Teens who are constantly texting are much more likely to have experimented with sex, alcohol and drugs than those who don’t send as many messages, a US study shows. And all this “risky behaviour” is linked with -- you guessed it -- slack parents.

Researchers analysed paper surveys filled in by more than 4200 students at public high schools in Cleveland last year and found that one in five were hyper-texters, sending messages 120 times a day or more.

The study found those who text at least 120 times a day are nearly three-and-a-half times more likely to have had sex than their peers who don't text that much. Hyper-texters were also more likely to have been in a physical fight, binge drink, use illegal drugs or take medication without a prescription.

About one in nine were hyper-networkers, spending three or more hours a day on Facebook… click here to read whole article and make comments

Some places might be tiring of it but in Spain the gender revolution rolls on. The socialist government’s latest move is to legislate against the priority traditionally given to the father’s surname in birth registers.

The Guardian reports:

Spaniards have two surnames, and under current law either can come first. Traditionally, however, it is the father's, and in cases of a dispute the father's name automatically takes priority.

Under a law proposed by the country's socialist government, however, registrars will be told to put the surnames in alphabetical order - unless otherwise instructed by the parents.

The rule would have altered some of the most famous names in Spanish history. The man who ruled as a dictator for 36 years, General Francisco Franco, would have become General Bahamonde, and the architect Antoni Gaudi would have been known as Antoni Cornet.

… click here to read whole article and make comments

A former Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, once famously quipped: “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.”

Unless, it would seem, the “nation” means schoolchildren ages 12-17, and the “state” is local school board bureaucrats and/or the provincial Ministry of Education. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (Ontario, Canada) plans to issue a survey which asks, among other things, for children to disclose their gender (four choices) and sexual orientation (nine choices). Proponents claim the survey is voluntary, but rather than requiring parental permission for the survey to be administered, the onus is on parents to opt out in writing (by Nov. 19), if they do not wish their child to participate.

Not surprisingly the survey, which runs Nov. 22 - Dec.10, has sparked controversy:

Some parents say the survey—which also asks about students' religion, their ethnic backgrounds, who they live with at… click here to read whole article and make comments

A young relative recently found true love in South America, although only after two months of climbing up and down mountains in several countries. And his fiancée is not from Peru or Argentina but from Canada.

Travelling to exotic destinations is one way of finding romance and even a spouse, but increasing numbers of people turn to the virtual world. I know at least two people who have married someone from the other side of the world as a result.

According to the lead technology writer for The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal, an estimated 74 per cent of singles looking for a mate now turn to dating sites like eHarmony, Match.com, and OkCupid.

These sites use algorithms to pair people up based on answers to sets of questions. In pursuit of the perfect match, they continue to “mine” information about would-be lovebirds, tracking everything they do. But while the software… click here to read whole article and make comments

“Contraception could be free under health care law”, announced a pre-election Washington Post headline. A “panel of experts” is supposed to be meeting this month “to begin considering what kind of preventive care for women should be covered at no cost to the patient, as required under President Barack Obama's overhaul.” Up front in the push to make all birth control free is, not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood.

But what part of “health care” don’t these people understand? Isn’t birth control a personal lifestyle choice? And if so, why should the public purse pay for it? Well, because it‘s just good for the country, said Cecile Richards, PP’s president (pictured) on the Bill Press Show:

"I think it's important, Bill, to understand that unlike some other issues of cost, birth control… click here to read whole article and make comments

Who knew that video games could be such a big deal? Currently the United States Supreme Court is weighing arguments in favour of banning the sale of graphically violent video games to minors, but the case is not as straightforward as some of us might think.

It boils down to the issue of whether these games are “free speech” as protected by the US Constitution, and if so, whether they are in the same class as sex magazines that were restricted 40 years ago because of the ethical and moral harm they could do young people. It is a question of making an exception to First Amendment rights.

Several states and local governments moved to restrict access to videos involving very graphic violence in the wake of school shootings such as the one at Columbine High School in Colorado. However, federal appeal courts have declared the proposed… click here to read whole article and make comments

One of the most studied aspects of childhood in recent decades is early, non-maternal childcare. Research tends to show benefits for a child’s cognitive development but not for emotional wellbeing and behaviour. Now a study has found that youngsters are less likely to succeed at school if their mothers return to work within a year of their birth.

Researchers at Macalester College, Minnesota, and the University of California reached this conclusion by reviewing 69 separate studies carried out worldwide since the 1960s. They also found significant differences according to class and family structure.

In fact, children of middle class and two-parent families are likely to do worse at school if their mothers return to work during the first three years.

This is because in wealthier families, the benefits of a mother working ‘may not outweigh the negative effects of decreased maternal attention and supervision and risk of poor-quality… click here to read whole article and make comments