Lots of little babies...
Oh yeah, abstinence-only sex ed totally works. It's stopping teen pregnancy and STD transmission left and right.
...oh wait, it's doing the exact opposite of that! Silly me.
After falling steadily for more than a decade, the birth rate for American teenagers jumped last year, federal health officials reported yesterday, a sharp reversal in what has been one of the nation's most celebrated social and public health successes.
The birth rate rose by 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 among 15-to-19-year-old girls, after plummeting 34 percent between 1991 and 2005, the National Center for Health Statistics reported.
"This is concerning," said Stephanie J. Ventura, who heads the center's reproductive statistics branch. "It represents an interruption of 14 years of steady decline. Now unexpectedly we have an increase of 3 percent, which is a significant increase."
Ventura said it is too soon to know whether the increase was an aberration or the beginning of a trend. But she said the magnitude of the rise, especially after many years of decline, is worrisome.
More of the article available for free at the link above.
Wonder if this'll affect the $176 million abstinence-only programs get annually?
For a bit of nice fresh perspective, the Arecibo Observatory - as seen in such films as Goldeneye and Contact, and including the largest, most powerful radio telescope in the world - is in danger of being shut down, because its annual budget was slashed from $10.5 million to $4 million.
One of the most potent tools in humanity's possession for viewing the universe is endangered, because it was getting less than a tenth of the funds we spend trying to keep high school kids from screwing - and apparently that's too much money for it.
I think we have an Honorary Mention for the "Dumbest People on Earth" award...
...oh wait, it's doing the exact opposite of that! Silly me.
After falling steadily for more than a decade, the birth rate for American teenagers jumped last year, federal health officials reported yesterday, a sharp reversal in what has been one of the nation's most celebrated social and public health successes.
The birth rate rose by 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 among 15-to-19-year-old girls, after plummeting 34 percent between 1991 and 2005, the National Center for Health Statistics reported.
"This is concerning," said Stephanie J. Ventura, who heads the center's reproductive statistics branch. "It represents an interruption of 14 years of steady decline. Now unexpectedly we have an increase of 3 percent, which is a significant increase."
Ventura said it is too soon to know whether the increase was an aberration or the beginning of a trend. But she said the magnitude of the rise, especially after many years of decline, is worrisome.
More of the article available for free at the link above.
Wonder if this'll affect the $176 million abstinence-only programs get annually?
For a bit of nice fresh perspective, the Arecibo Observatory - as seen in such films as Goldeneye and Contact, and including the largest, most powerful radio telescope in the world - is in danger of being shut down, because its annual budget was slashed from $10.5 million to $4 million.
One of the most potent tools in humanity's possession for viewing the universe is endangered, because it was getting less than a tenth of the funds we spend trying to keep high school kids from screwing - and apparently that's too much money for it.
I think we have an Honorary Mention for the "Dumbest People on Earth" award...