A new decade, a new kind of creepy crime:

A California man faces six years in prison for using personal information found on women’s Facebook profiles to take over their e-mail accounts, steal nude pictures of them and sometimes even blackmail them. One victim likened it to “virtual rape.”

George Samuel Bronk pleaded guilty in Sacramento Superior Court Thursday to seven felony charges, including computer intrusion, impersonation and possession of child pornography.

The charges stem from a nine-month period ending in September, during which Bronk hijacked the e-mail accounts of hundreds of women across 17 states and in England, the Sacramento Bee reported.

A press release from the office of Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general, says Bronk targeted his victims by searching Facebook for women who posted both their e-mail addresses and also personal information such as their favorite foods, their father’s middle names, their high-school mascots and their favorite colors.

Such details are routinely used in “identity challenges” when changes are made to online personal accounts. “Social engineering” scams, such as phishing scams, are designed to trick the victim into revealing this sort of information — but Bronk found it all right there on Facebook.

With it, Bronk could pose as a legitimate e-mail user, hit the “Forgot your password?” button, pass the identity challenge, change the password to one of his own and take over the e-mail account, locking out the victim.

And then the problems would begin.

Bronk, 23, searched hundreds of “sent mail” folders for any nude photographs or videos.  If he found any, he’d often sending the most scandalous or pornographic pictures to the women’s contacts lists, or would contact the victims directly and threaten to make the pictures public unless they sent him even more revealing ones.

In some cases, he’d go back for seconds. After he’d taken over an e-mail account, he’d e-mail Facebook from it and tell the company he’d forgotten the victim’s Facebook password — and then take over the woman’s Facebook account as well.

In October, when police confiscated Bronk’s computer and arrested him, they found more than 170 files of explicit photographs stolen from e-mail accounts he had hijacked.

Here’s the part I *really* don’t get: Why do people keep nude and/or explicit pictures of themselves on web-based servers? Are they trying to get in trouble? I don’t know about you, but my sympathy switch is broken. If you’re going to post explicit pictures of yourself online, you deserve to be embarrassed publicly.

What is it about women feeling like they must be perfect all the time?

Almost one-quarter of mothers admit they cover up how much television their kids watch, and one in five lie about how long they spend playing with their kids, according to a new survey of 5,000 people by website Netmums. Mothers often make each other feel “inadequate,” it notes, and the pressure to seem like a perfect parent leads many to lie. Almost two-thirds of moms also said they’d told white lies to other mothers about how well they were coping, and almost half cover up financial concerns. More than nine out of 10 admitted they compare themselves to other mothers.

What if we just chilled a bit and realized that having kids isn’t perfect and we don’t need to be, either?

The federal government is looking for ways to stop honour killings in Canada.

TORONTO — They are disturbing stories of fathers trying to kill their daughters, of brothers murdering their sisters.

Long prevalent in certain Muslim, Hindu and Sikh cultures in South Asia and the Middle East, “honour killings” have increasingly been making headlines in Canada in recent years.

Now, the federal government is urging more community groups to come forward to help fight the rise of such crimes.

Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose first called for a pitch from organizations for projects targeting this type of violence in July.

Since then, the department has received a couple of dozen formal applications but says it still has more funding that can be put toward helping eradicate these “intolerable” acts.

Women still don’t know much about baby-making… That’s the conclusion I get from an otherwise very long and tediously non-judgmental article on egg freezing.

Women are born with a finite number of eggs. At birth a woman’s ovaries contain approximately one to two million oocytes — immature eggs; by puberty, the count drops to 400,000. During each menstrual cycle, about 1,000 oocytes begin to develop but only one becomes a mature egg. The others left behind die. Not only does the supply shrink but egg quality decreases over time as well, since the best eggs are used up when young, so that each egg now offers less chance of pregnancy and a higher risk of miscarriage.

By the time a woman reaches age 39, “there aren’t many (follicles) left that have got enough strength to raise their hand,” says Dr. Al Yuzpe, co-founder and co-director of the Genesis Fertility Centre of Vancouver.

“My usual response is, ‘You may not look 40, you may not feel 40 but your ovaries don’t know it,’ ” Yuzpe says. He frequently encounters women who had no idea of the limits of their fertility. “They’re not only shocked, they’re tearful, they’re angry. ‘Nobody told me that I wasn’t going to be able to get pregnant at 48.’ ”

I don’t expect everyone to know every detail about the production of eggs in female humans. And I speak as someone who knows fairly little, beyond the basics. But I always knew that if I waited too long, I wouldn’t be able to have children. What do you mean, nobody told you that you weren’t going to be able to get pregnant at 48? There’s not much point “educating” people who just won’t listen.

I will make no comment…

LONDON — Feeding solid food earlier and not relying solely on breastfeeding for the first six months might benefit babies, a team of researchers say in a new study.

Waiting to wean a baby could increase the occurrence of food allergies and iron deficiency, the BBC reported, citing the study in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers said weaning could begin as early as four months, instead of the current recommendation of six months adopted by many countries, the BBC report said.

The World Health Organization issued the six months guideline nearly a decade ago, and the research team said this recommendation should stand for mothers in developing nations, as access to clean water and appropriate baby food can be limited.

“When you look at the figures, there are a lot of babies being weaned before six months anyway – and that’s probably the most important thing in terms of hard evidence,” lead researcher Dr. Mary Fewtrell, of the University of London Institute of Child Health, was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Bombarded with a gambit of DIY television, people in the UK may have a utopian image of what doing something yourself entails. The UK’s “largest single abortion provider”, bpas, wants to extend this DIY spirit into the medical field. For most medical abortions, a woman is given mifepristone (RU-486) in a clinic, then returns to the clinic in a day or so to be given a second drug, misoprostol. The bpas doesn’t want women returning to the clinic for that second visit.

British abortion provider BPAS has launched a legal challenge to a United Kingdom abortion statute requiring that medication abortion drugs are prescribed and administered in a clinic, the London Telegraph reports. The legal challenge seeks to change the interpretation of the law by amending the requirement that the drugs be “prescribed and administered in the clinic” to state that they can be “prescribed and issued” in a clinic.

At issue is the administration of the second drug in the two-drug medication abortion regimen[…]

Doctors have said it is unnecessary for women to return to the clinic for the second drug, as research shows it is safe and effective for women to take the medication on their own (Smith, London Telegraph, 1/13). BPAS and other abortion-rights advocates argue that the U.K.’s 40-year-old Abortion Act must be updated to recognize the latest medical science. Most countries, including the U.S., allow women to take the second pill at home, which many women find more private and convenient.

According to BPAS CEO Ann Furedi, the group provides 17,500 medication abortions annually. Furedi added that many women express concern about bleeding on the trip home from the clinic after receiving the second drug. BPAS has been trying to persuade the health department to change the requirements for 10 years (Boseley, London Guardian, 1/13).

Furedi said abortion services “should be shaped by best clinical practice,” adding, “It is wrong to compromise women’s care through unnecessary restrictions imposed by officials who fear criticism from those who oppose abortion in principle.”

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Brigitte adds: Not to be overly cynical or anything (more than usual, I mean), but I get way more professional attention than that from my dentist. What is it about “Take this pill, go away, bleed your baby out by yourself and don’t bother us with possible complications” that women find empowering?

We don’t exactly shy away from highlighting abuses of women and young girls in Afghanistan. (See a sample of stories here.) The more I learn about the socio-political culture of that country, the less I like it. And I wasn’t wild about the place to begin with. I blame the multiculturalists for trying to get the rest of us to ignore egregious abuse in the name of – oh, does it matter why they do it? I don’t think so.

Older, powerful men boosted their social status by keeping boys as sexual playthings and the practice was celebrated in song and dance, a military study claimed.

“To dismiss the existence of this dynamic out of desire to avoid western discomfort is to risk failing to comprehend an essential social force underlying Pashtun culture,” the report said.

British officers in Helmand requested the study to help them understand the sexual behaviour of locals and Afghan comrades after young soldiers became uneasy they were being propositioned.

American social scientists employed to help troops understand the local culture reported that homosexual sex was widespread among the Pashtun ethnic group in southern Afghanistan.

Strict separation of men and women, coupled with poverty and the significant expense of getting married, contributed to young men turning to each other for sexual companionship.

The study, called ‘Pashtun Sexuality’, said that as well as willing sex between young men, “boys are appreciated for physical beauty and apprenticed to older men for their sexual initiation”.

The practice of ‘bache bazi’ or boy play, is known throughout Afghanistan, but is particularly renowned in the city of Kandahar next to Helmand, where prepubescent boys are widely admired.

Western soldiers often report feeling unease at the attentions of their Afghan comrades, who are affectionate with each other and sometimes wear make-up.

British troops have also talked of their disgust at police or militias keeping young boys as hangers on.

Look. I don’t care what people who are over the age of sexual consent do willingly. But the business with the kids is not something Western troops (and Western citizens in whose names the troops do their work) should tolerate. Full stop.

Unhappy news in the U.S.:

NEW YORK — The long-term decline in the U.S. abortion rate stalled as the recession took hold, according to the latest comprehensive survey of America’s abortion providers.

The Guttmacher Institute, which periodically surveys U.S. abortion providers, reported Tuesday that there were 1.21 million abortions in 2008 and a rate of 19.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44.

Both figures were up slightly from the previous 2005 survey, ending a steady decline since 1990, when U.S. abortions peaked at 1.6 million and the abortion rate was 27.4.

And in China:

While comprehensive data are hard to come by, official figures show abortions are increasing, and Chinese media and experts say many, if not most, of the abortion-seekers are young, single women.

That’s a change from the past, when abortion was used mainly to enforce the government’s one child per couple limit. Today, students are clearly a client base: The Beijing Modern Women’s Hospital offers a government-subsidized “Safe & Easy A+” discount abortion package at 880 yuan ($130). Others advertise in college handbooks.

According to a government tally, 9.2 million abortions were performed in 2008, up from 7.6 million in 2007. But the count only includes hospitals, and state media report the total could be as high as 13 million. If accurate, that would give China among the highest abortion rates in the world.

Nobody with their heart in the right place can be happy to read these stories. What horrible, senseless waste of human potential. If we cared half as much about the lives of those mothers and babies as we care about the lives of spotted owls and bald eagles, the world would be a much better place.

The article Why Chinese Mothers are Superior has been a hot topic in Internet-parenting circles, blogs and news sites. The response to the article has been heated to say the least. I enjoyed reading this level-headed analysis for a change.

Anybody who has children in violin or competitive gymnastics  knows that Asian children are, on the whole, better. They are emotionally stronger under pressure and technically superior. To say that we, as “Western Parents,” are not ready to go to the lengths of hard work that “Chinese Mothers” put their children through is obvious. Equally obvious is that any skill requiring technique to succeed, like music or gymnastics, will be mastered through repetition. Practice makes perfect. It’s a  fact, not only a convenient catch phrase. Natural talent will only take you so far.

So what? If I have learned one thing in my parenting career, it’s that there is 24 hours in a day for everybody. The sun sets everyday for Western, Chinese or Questioning mothers. What you do with your 24 hours is up to you. I have accepted the fact that my children will never be as good as those who practice their music 4 hours a day; as rested as those who sleep 12 hours a night or as literate as those who read all the time. On the flip side, my children are more pleasant in society than those who read all the time; have more friends than those who practice their music all the time and are more helpful around the house than those who sleep all the time (chores oblige…). I have chosen to raise well-balanced children and steered away from extremes: they will never be known for their prowess at anything but they will likely grow to become competent, responsible, considerate, and generous men and women who are committed to live by principles of integrity (h/t to educator James Stenson for the catchy phrase).

That’s what I do with my 24 hours. How about you?

I cannot tell you how many articles I’ve received about this MTV 16 and Pregnant special that covers “the abortion option.” Pro-choice fanatics heralded it as the greatest thing ever, which meant my guard was up. But pro-lifers jumped in and asked how the special could be seen as cheerleading for the pro-choice cause given how torn up the mother was.

I don’t love “reality TV” and was resisting even taking the topic on as a result.

But I’m breaking down. The special can be viewed online here. I’ve seen only the first little bit at time of posting but I’ll probably watch the whole thing and update with my personal views later.