Word: french
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...around the world - including funky chicken, space monkey, sleeper hold and the blackout, choking or fainting game - the activity involves applying pressure to the neck to stop the blood flow to the brain and then releasing the pressure to create a temporary sense of euphoria. It isn't new: French medical books mention the scarf game as early as the 18th century, and deaths in Britain, Canada and the U.S. have occasionally made the headlines over the years. What is new - and frightening - is that teenagers are now uploading instructional videos to the Internet that glamorize the potentially deadly practice...
...between the U.S. and Europe doesn't just exist at the top: 49% of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center in 2007 believed that society should "accept" homosexuality. Contrast that with attitudes in Europe where more than 80% of French, Germans and Spaniards had such a view. Only Catholic and conservative Poles felt as uncomfortable with the idea as Americans. Denis Dison, a spokesman for the Victory Fund, says those attitudes can make it difficult for gay people to campaign - let alone obtain office. "In places where the climate isn't friendly, it's hard for them to even...
...Many pundits have denounced the dramatic stiffening of rules, saying it has coincided with the conservative-led government's recent obsession with immigration, the place of Islam in French society and the current state of French national identity. Critics argue that conservatives are trying to stoke nationalist sentiment to gain the support of right-wing voters. "In recent years, France has stopped its offensive of exporting its universal values globally, and shrunk into a defensive position that views everything outside it as threatening and corrupting," Naulleau says. "That now even includes most foreign-born French people, though clearly...
...Read "What's Wrong with a Museum of French History...
...Take England-born Sophie Giraud, a 39-year-old marketing executive in Lyon, for instance. French officials insisted that she obtain official birth certificates for several family members, which they said the government should accept as proof of their citizenship - and, by extension, hers. "I had my expired passport, my identity card and proof of my parents' nationality before their eyes, and they didn't hesitate to become more absurd by asking for proof of my grandparents' citizenship," says Giraud, who had planned a trip abroad and ended up obtaining a British passport by mail in a week...