(REUTERS) 29 May 2008:

According to a recent study, the more children a woman has, the more teeth she will lose during her lifetime. The knee-jerk reaction is to say that women in the lower socioeconomic groups tend to have more children and also can’t afford to go to the dentist.  The surprising thing about the study, however, is that the tooth loss occured at all socioeconomic levels.  Why? Well scientists say it could be because women are more prone to gingivitis during pregnancy. Women may also be less likely to see a dentist while pregnant. It’s also hard to go sit in a dentist’s chair for an hour when you are primary caregiver for several children.

(MSNBC.COM) 22 May 2008:

The American Idol audience brings posters and signs for the show tapings with names of their favorite contestants. One such sign at a recent taping read “Cougars for Cook.” Yes, that’s right, Cougars. Think Demi Moore and any woman of a certain age that would rather be with a man of a much younger age. Think May-December romance except the woman in the relationship is the December.  Soccer moms love David Cook, the latest American Idol winner.  42-year old Linda Sharp from Texas voted 473 times for Cook after his final performance. She said, “The biggest thing: He’s legal, and that goes a long way. He’s 25. That’s old enough that we can openly ogle him, and we can drool over him, and it doesn’t make us feel like we could be his mother.”

(MSNBC.COM) 9 April 2008:

A woman in Chile recently had to give birth in a hospital bathroom after waiting two hours to be seen by a doctor. Her partner was ultimately the one who assisted her in giving birth. Chile’s government has publicly apologized for the incident.

“We are very sad about what has happened and worried about this incredible incident, and we are going to take the appropriate measures,” Health Minister Maria Soledad Barria told Radio Cooperativa.

“We must check what happened and ask forgiveness from the family,” she added.

(MSNBC) 6 March 2008:

A woman who called in a bomb threat to an airport in an attempt to break up with her boyfriend will spend two years in jail and pay almost $20,000 in restitution. She called the airport saying there was a bomb on the flight her boyfriend was on. She thought that when he found out she made the calls, he would break up with her. Mission accomplished.

(FINANCIAL POST) 9 February 2008:

Some say that economists are the people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Thus, when they try to calculate the value of love we might expect them to get very confused, for we know that the value of the love of a good woman is beyond rubies.

However, by studying accident statistics it has been possible to see the value that people place on their spouses from a financial standpoint. Looking at accidents in which either the driver or the front seat passenger died, if that passenger was the spouse of the driver then the driver was more than 4 times more likely to be the person who died than when the passenger was unrelated. The assumption is that when an accident happens a driver is more likely to put themselves at risk in order to protect their spouse.

That driving your spouse incites suicide is an alternative explanation, one thought rather less likely. After all, we do have those divorce laws.

(FOXNEWS.COM) 18 January 2008:

“A transgender woman in California has gone to court, claiming that a Catholic-affiliated hospital discriminated against her when it denied her request for breast augmentation surgery.The man-turned-woman, Charlene Hastings, filed the complaint in December and said she wants to have the surgery because it will make her look more feminine, but the hospital has refused to operate because she was not born a woman.

Hastings completed gender reassignment surgery in fall 2006 to become female at another hospital. Shortly after, she requested the breast augmentation surgery be performed at Seton Medical Center because her surgeon was affiliated with the hospital. The hospital denied her request and an official told her that “God made you a man,” according to the complaint.”

(THE BELLINGHAM HERALD) 2 January 2008:

In many areas throughout the world, New Year’s Day means a polar bear swim, where mostly men take dips in freezing cold water.

A swimmer in British Columbia swam his last polar bear swim on New Year’s Day 2008.

According to The Bellingham Herald:

“One swimmer in this southeastern British Columbia city died after diving into some rapids.

The man, believed to be between 30 and 40, was not immediately identified Tuesday. His body was found a few hours after he disappeared.

The man was seen and photographed by many in the Gyro Park crowd. He was wearing a large fluorescent green inflatable octopus.

He ran into the water with the other 115 swimmers and then swam out to some rocks just beyond the beach area.

“He climbed up on the rock, took the inflatable off and sat for a minute looking at the water,” said witness Steve McVicar. “He then dove in and we saw him swimming back and forth across the rapids and we wondered what he was doing.”

Within seconds, the man disappeared and didn’t resurface. He never called for help.

A woman on the beach said she saw him kiss the inflatable octopus before he went into the water.”

(KITSAP SUN) 25 December 2007:

A 19-year-old woman who beat up her ex-boyfriend Monday after he drunkenly urinated in a closet told officers she hoped he would bail her out of jail because it was the right thing to do for their baby.

Bremerton police were called to the residence after receiving initial reports that the 25-year-old had assaulted the woman, reports said.

When met by officers, the woman explained that the man had been drinking and was extremely intoxicated when he went to bed. At some point he woke up to use the restroom, but was so confused he urinated in the closet.

“I attacked him,” she told the officer, reports said. “He was so drunk that I beat the (stuff) out of him.”

During the “wrestling,” as the man described it, she “repeatedly” kicked him in the face.

When police arrived, they arrested the 19-year-old woman and booked her into the Kitsap County jail for investigation of fourth-degree assault, third-degree malicious mischief and unlawful imprisonment.

The woman told officers she hoped her ex-boyfriend would come to the jail and bail her out because they “always did what was best for their child,” the report said.

(NATIONAL ENQUIRER) 20 December 2007:

The National Enquirer is reporting that presidential candidate John Edwards has fathered a love child. They say that a woman linked to Edwards in a cheating scandal earlier this year, “is more than six month pregnant–and she’s told a close confidante that Edwards is the father of her baby.”

Edwards has denied having an affair with Rielle Hunter, and she has publicly denied the baby is his or that she had an affair with him. The Enquirer reports:

“[We have] now confirmed not only that Rielle is expecting, but that she’s gone into hiding with the help of a former aide to Edwards. The visibly pregnant blonde has relocated from the New York area to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she is living in an upscale gated community near political operative Andrew Young, who’s been extremely close to Edwards for years and was a key official in his presidential campaign.”

And in a bizarre twist, Young — a 41-year-old married man with young children — now claims HE is the father of Rielle’s baby! But others are skeptical, wondering if Young’s paternity claim is a cover-up to protect Edwards.”

(THE SCOTSMAN)  2 July 2007:

Something rather odd appears to be happening with telephone habits in the UK. Men are now greater users of telephones than women are.

The average man is now on the phone 32 minutes a day, up from 22 five years ago, while the average woman is down to 26 minutes from the previous 35. So the old stereotype of women nattering away seems to have disappeared. Other such has remained though, 70% of men spend most of their time talking about sport, women or money.

Women seem to have replaced many of their previous calls with texts or emails: perhaps this simply shows that women are more literate than men?