January 22, 2008
Longer skirts and fewer fights for airline soap
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The producer of a sexy Thai soap opera about young air hostesses promised longer skirts and fewer catfights Tuesday after real flight attendants complained the show was sexist and should be yanked from the airwaves.
The makers of "The War of Angels," which portrays stewardesses fighting for the attention of male pilots at a fictional airline, apologized to staff at national carrier Thai Airways who said the show was demeaning.
"There won't be any more catfight scenes between flight attendants while they are on duty or in uniform in public," Takonkiet Viravan, managing director of production house Exact, told a packed news conference.
"The skirts our actresses wear are not shorter than those worn by hostesses at other international airlines. But we will make our skirts longer," he said.
Airline staffers had complained that the fictional flight attendants wore a too-revealing skirt cut above the knee with a front slit.
The airline's union complained to the Culture Ministry on Tuesday that the prime time show, which has a PG-13 rating, insulted its members and demanded the show be dropped from an army-run television channel.
"Such distortions could mislead society, especially youths, to misunderstand or hate people in this profession in every airline, including Thai Airways," acting union president Somsak Srinual said in a statement.
Ministry officials said they had no authority to force the producer or the television channel to scrap the show, but would bring all sides to a Friday meeting to resolve the dispute.
Exact said it was willing to talk to the union, but pulling the show would violate "the rights of television producers."
"This soap opera does not encourage people to have an affair. Our message is -- faithfulness to your partner will help the family survive," director Nipon Pewnane told reporters.
Posted by ronnie at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2007
Sexy walk could be misleading message: scientists
PARIS (AFP) - A woman who walks with a seductive sway of her hips is unlikely to be ovulating, a finding that sheds light on the complex sexual signals that women give to men, New Scientist reports.
A team at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, dressed female volunteers in suits which had light reflectors placed on the joints and limbs and filmed them walking in order to analyse their gait, the British weekly says.
The women also gave a saliva sample to assess their hormone levels.
Women who were in the fertile period of their menstrual cycle walked with smaller hip movements and with their knees closer together, the scientists found.
Forty male volunteers were shown the footage of the women and were asked to rate those with the sexiest walk. The winners were those who turned out to be in the least fertile part of their cycle.
The study appears to run counter to recent research that found men respond more readily towards women at ovulation. A US paper published last month found that lap dancers earn more tips during their fertile period than during the non-fertile part of their cycle.
But, the Canadian researchers believe, there is no contradiction, because a fertile woman gives out "come-hither" signals at close range rather than at a distance.
These signals come through scent molecules called pheromones and facial expressions. The proximity means a woman can vet a potential mate for fitness before allowing him to come close to her.
In contrast, men can pick up the attractiveness of a woman's walk from a long distance -- and a "sexy" walk, visible from afar, could therefore act as an unwitting signal to less appealing males.
So, having a less sexy walk at the time of ovulation gives a woman an evolutionary advantage: she can hide her fertile period from an undesirable man who might want to take advantage of her at the time.
The research, by Meghan Provost, is to be published in the US journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, says the report. It appears in this Saturday's issue of New Scientist.
Posted by ronnie at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2007
Orang-utan prefers blondes
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Sibu the orang-utan has miffed his Dutch keepers by refusing to mate with females and showing sexual interest only in tattooed human blondes.
Apenheul Primate Park hoped Sibu would become its breeding male when he arrived two years ago, but orang-utans aren't his type.
"He chases them, or ignores them, but he doesn't do what he should do," said a spokeswoman for the park.
Instead, Sibu fancies his female keepers, especially blondes. That, the spokeswoman said, was common for orang-utans but Sibu has a fetish for tattoos, harking back to a heavily tattooed keeper who reared him.
"Orang-utans have special interests in special subjects. Sibu happens to like tattoos," she said.
The park hasn't given up on Sibu, 31. He showed an amorous interest in a female orang-utan while living in England and keepers hope he will find love when reunited with her in a new enclosure in Chester, England.
Posted by ronnie at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2007
Hey, big boy! Any interest?
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian banks must stop using attractive women to persuade customers to open accounts, Senate President David Mark was quoted as saying in Thursday's newspapers.
Mark said that despite a consolidation of the sector in 2005 that reduced the number of banks to 25 from 89 and was supposed to make them more efficient, many banks still used women to attract new business.
"Banks have made it a policy to employ beautiful ladies and give them targets to meet," Mark said during the inauguration of the new Senate committee on banking and insurance Wednesday.
"This is unacceptable and must stop. You ordered the consolidation, so I think you must do something to stop it," he said, addressing officials of the central bank.
"We thought that with the consolidation in the banking sector, the banks will have enough money and capacity to get customers. Why is it that all these girls are now moving around hustling as if they are looking for something other than money?"
The consolidation, triggered by the central bank's decision to raise the minimum capital base for banks twelvefold, has been hailed by the Nigerian government as one of the major successes of a broader program of economic reforms.
Banking stocks have boomed on the Lagos stock market since the consolidation, but analysts say many of the banks remain weak because they are reliant on deposits from government agencies and do little retail business.
Posted by ronnie at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2007
Women wear the pants in Australia
SYDNEY (AFP) - Women attending this weekend's APEC leaders summit in Sydney need not hide behind their skirts -- according to an updated Australian etiquette guide it's no longer wrong for them to wear trousers.
The latest edition of Australian Protocol & Procedures, the first revision of the guide in nearly 20 years, says it is no longer "wrong" or "daring" for women to wear trousers to official functions.
Dress standards for males have also become more relaxed, with white tie rarely invoked and greater acceptance of men wearing long-sleeved shirts and tie without a jacket.
"In Australia I think we really have gone a long way towards evolving our own style of protocol," author Helen Pringle told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"It's more egalitarian in style, on the whole."
Her advice, which comes as 21 world leaders and their partners congregate in Sydney for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, could help dignitaries negotiate schedules filled with formal engagements.
In the book, she notes that official dinners are now less elaborate in Australia, with three courses served rather than five.
And sex, politics and religion are no longer banned from dinner table conservation.
"The host, however, should watch for any signs that these or any other subjects are beginning to upset guests and should in such cases unobtrusively divert the conversation to another topic," she writes.
Posted by ronnie at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2007
No sex please, we're Swedish, underwear firm told
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A competition launched by German underwear maker Sloggi to uncover the world's most beautiful bottoms has been slapped down in Sweden after media protests against the "pornographic" event.
"Alas, our goal of finding the most beautiful backsides has been misunderstood by certain sections of the media" in Sweden, the German firm said in a statement Tuesday.
Several Swedish newspapers have slammed the competition as a pornographic event. The company had invited women and men to send photographs of themselves in their underwear which would then be put to an Internet vote.
"Although we are convinced that the complaints do not reflect reality, we respect the opinions of others," the company said.
Sloggi makes both figure-enhancing dowdy undergarments as well as svelte peekaboo numbers.
Sloggi spokesman Mads Byder said several buyers had called up about the campaign but did not really express outrage.
"They were asking questions (like) why Sloggi was promoting underwear like this, they were not complaints as such," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2007
Study: Men view faces in sexy photos
ATLANTA - Contrary to popular opinion, men are more likely to look at a female's face before other areas when looking at pictures of naked women, according to a study by Emory University researchers. And women will gaze at pictures of heterosexual sex longer than men, the study found.
Both findings, published in the journal Hormones and Behavior, shed light on sexual attitudes that really aren't all that mysterious when considered in a scientific light, Emory psychologist Kim Wallen said.
Wallen and his former graduate student, Heather Rupp, showed still photos of couples having sex to 30 women and 15 men between the ages of 23 and 28. Each was rigged up with a high-tech eye-tracking device to measure where his or her gaze went first, and how long it stayed there.
Men went straight to the face and lingered awhile, but most of the women were more interested in the sexual activity. How much so depended on whether they were taking hormone-filled birth control pills.
Those who were, Wallen said, were interested in the overall view of the photos and "background" items like jewelry, but women not on the pill were more interested in areas normally covered by clothing.
"Eye-tracking data suggested that what women paid most attention to was dependent on their hormonal state," said Rupp, now at Indiana University's Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.
Wallen and Rupp said their study suggests that men's increased attention to faces may be related to higher activation in the amygdala, a portion of the brain that processes emotional information and excitement.
Women can tell by looking at naked men whether they are aroused, Wallen said, but female bodies don't reveal much.
"It's cryptic, but facial expression is one way of showing an indication of interest in and enjoyment of sex," Wallen said.
Posted by ronnie at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2006
Iran to launch women-only taxi company for Tehran
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will launch a women-only taxi company in Tehran aimed at women who feel uncomfortable riding in close proximity with members of the opposite sex, a newspaper reported Saturday.
"The Ladies' Safe Trips" taxi company, due to open for business in the next few weeks, will be the first such private sector firm in the capital. Similar taxi lines have been operating in some provincial cities for several years.
The company will only employ female drivers who will wear uniforms and must be married, the Tehran-e Emrouz newspaper said.
Mansoureh Sarkheil, a driver for the company, told the newspaper: "My main motivation for driving in this company is to create ... security for other women who always have to sit stressfully in taxis."
Due to Islamic rules, men and women travel in separate sections in public transportation systems like buses. But in the shared taxis that abound in most cities, women and men are often forced to squash together in cramped conditions, something that many Iranian women find stressful and awkward.
Posted by ronnie at 09:05 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2006
Town to enforce ban on "sexy" dress
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 (Reuters Life!) - A town in Muslim-majority Malaysia has threatened to fine non-Muslim women for wearing "sexy" clothes, infuriating some women's organizations.
Authorities in northeast Kota Baru, which calls itself an Islamic city, will slap fines of up to 500 ringgit ($140) on women who expose navels, wear body-hugging outfits, mini-skirts or see-through blouses, the Star newspaper said on Tuesday.
"Such outfits are prohibited here as it smears the reputation of Kota Baru and affects its status as an Islamic city," the Star quoted municipal council spokesman Azman Daham as saying.
Some women's groups have voiced anger over the council's decision to use an existing by-law against indecent dress to curb non-Muslim fashions. In Malaysia, almost half the population is non-Muslim and national government is secular.
"It is not the job of the council to become the 'moral police'," Honey Tan, head of the All-Women's Action Society, told the Star.
Kota Baru is capital of Kelantan state, which is run by opposition Parti Islam se Malaysia, whose official platform is to turn the country into an Islamic state.
Posted by ronnie at 07:34 AM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2006
Officers keep record of beautiful women
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Two Swedish border control officers risk disciplinary action for keeping a photo collection of "exceptionally beautiful" women that passed through their checkpoint, police officials said Tuesday.
The officers, who were working at a ferry terminal near Stockholm, made photocopies of the women's passport photos and placed them in a binder. They also noted the date of birth next to each entry, the Stockholm police department said.
The binder contained instructions on how to compile the collection, and orders to make backup copies in case the binder would go missing or be confiscated by "evil-minded bores," police said.
The instructions also stated that only "exceptionally beautiful" women belonged in the collection and that no personal data, aside from the date of birth, should be included.
The men's employer found the binder and reported them to police, but the matter was dismissed because the compilation was not considered illegal.
Stockholm police passed the matter to the national police's disciplinary board, which recommended the men get away with a warning.
Posted by ronnie at 07:24 AM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2006
Pretty woman, you may be an election winner
PARIS (Reuters) - Good looks can help win elections, especially for women, research by Nordic economists suggests.
Beauty can tip the balance if a contest is closely fought, Panu Poutvaara of the University of Helsinki told Reuters.
He and two Swedish economists organised an Internet survey of 2,772 people in Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark and the United States to test how gender and appearance affect politics.
The basic result?
"Beauty is not determining the outcome but it helps on the margin," Poutvaara said. Beauty alone accounted for only a few percentage points but weighed more than other traits sensed in pictures.
The figures showed the theory applied much more strongly in the case of women. The data also suggested young men were at a natural disadvantage in polls, be it against older men or women, a finding the economists are still evaluating, he said
Poutvaara and his colleagues asked survey respondents to rate the faces on campaign photographs of 1,929 politicians who ran in elections in Finland in 2003 and 2004, 52 percent of them men and 48 percent of them women.
Participants were asked to evaluate photographs of two male and two female candidates each time and rate their impressions on several fronts -- beauty, how likeable they appeared, trustworthiness, competence and intelligence.
By using Finnish politicians, there was little chance of the respondents knowing anything about the people they saw, said Poutvaara, now finetuning findings first published in September.
More intriguing still was the discovery that people who are pretty are seen as smart, rather than empty-headed.
"People evaluated to be more beautiful are also evaluated to be more intelligent, within both sexes," Poutvaara said. "So on average it's not the phenomenon that people who are beautiful cannot be very intelligent."
Posted by ronnie at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2006
Victoria's Secret and Timberlake say sexy is back
LOS ANGELES, Nov 17 (Reuters Life) - Justin Timberlake helped bring sexy back for Victoria's Secret, as the lingerie line brought its titillating fashion show to Hollywood in a racy, body-baring runway fantasy.
With a shimmering silver catwalk and "SEXY" spelled out in huge gold letters decorating the Kodak Theater, home of the Academy Awards, the Thursday night crowd, warmed up by pop singer Timberlake, knew what was coming next.
Celebrity supermodel Gisele Bundchen, the first model of the evening, strolled onstage in a lace push up bra and panties with an elaborate plumage trailing her, as Timberlake eyed her, singing his popular new hit whose chorus proclaims: "I'm bringing sexy back."
Backlit dancers did the bump and grind in a retro tick-tack-toe grid reminiscent of Hollywood Squares, as the parade of underclad yet elaborately accessorized beauties took to the runway.
Brassieres, panties, tap pants, corsets in all colors but only one size body-revealing, were accessorized with red vinyl stockings, bustles, and plenty of angel wings, Victoria's Secret's signature marketing motif.
The show, which is to be broadcast December 5 on CBS, is all about spectacle, flesh and excess. Usually held in New York, the fashion show was scrapped in 2004 amid a wave of broadcasting modesty that followed singer Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl that year.
Any such modesty was not in sight Thursday night. Following a bagpiper onstage, models outfitted in tartan lingerie showed off something you may not want to wear on a chilly Scottish evening, while others pranced down the runway done up as sexy stewardesses and cheerleaders.
Showcasing Victoria's Secret casual PINK line, one scantily clad model dragged a pink comforter behind her as she walked the runway, in a look straight out of a young man's dorm room dream.
As a crowd including Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Quincy Jones looked on, the evening's dancers were replaced by gospel singers, fake snow fell from the ceiling, and a white-clad and fully clothed angel descended for the finale.
Posted by ronnie at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2006
Canadian women's gym gets OK to bar men
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov 21 (Reuters Life!) - A Canadian women's fitness gym was cleared on Tuesday of charges that it illegally discriminated against a man by barring him from becoming a customer.
A British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal said Ralph Stopps was not unfairly hurt by being refused membership in Just Ladies Fitness, which markets itself to women who do not want to use coed facilities.
"In the circumstances of this case, treating Mr. Stopps the same as these women would actually result in an adverse consequences for these women," the tribunal wrote, saying that Stopps had the option of using other coed gyms.
Stopps said he tried to join the gym because it was near his home in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, but the tribunal said there was a coed facility that was actually closer.
The gym is part of a fitness chain that has 40,000 women members. Of its 300 employees only four are men -- one of whom is the company's president and founder.
Posted by ronnie at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2006
Fertile women dress to impress?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women dress to impress when they are at their most fertile, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study they say shows that signs of human ovulation may not be as mysterious as some scientists believe.
A study of young college women showed they frequently wore more fashionable or flashier clothing and jewelry when they were ovulating, as assessed by a panel of men and women looking at their photographs.
"They tend to put on skirts instead of pants, show more skin and generally dress more fashionably," said Martie Haselton, a communication studies and psychology expert at the University of California Los Angeles who led the study.
Writing in the journal Hormones and Behavior, Haselton and colleagues said their findings disproved the conventional wisdom that women are unique among animals in concealing, even from themselves, when they are most fertile.
Some animals release powerful scents when ready to mate, while others display skin color changes, but human ovulation is notoriously difficult to detect. This is attested to by the frequency of unintended pregnancy, as well as test kits marketed to women wishing to become pregnant but unaware of the likeliest time to conceive.
Haselton's team said their study showed the cues are there, even if men and women are not consciously aware of them.
Women usually ovulate on the 15th day of their menstrual cycles, and this day is when they are the most fertile. Ovulation is easily detected using urine tests, and Haselton's team used such a test to check fertility in their study.
They asked 30 university students to come to their lab for a test, without letting them know the nature of the experiment. "We asked them some things about food, for example," Haselton said in a telephone interview.
The women came back several times over the course of a month and were photographed twice -- once in their fertile phase and another time in their least-fertile phase. The faces in the photographs were blacked out.
WHO LOOKS HOT?
The researchers asked 42 men and women, some older than the volunteers, to assess these photographs by asking, "In what photo is the person trying to look more attractive?"
The judges chose the photograph taken during the women's fertile phases 60 percent of the time, Haselton said. "This is well beyond chance. They were pretty consistent," she said.
"One of the things we found pretty interesting is that people sort of have their personal style, almost like their uniform," she added. "The women would show up to the lab wearing something pretty close to what they wore before, but embellished."
For example, one woman wore loose knit leggings and a tank top in both photos. "In her high fertility photograph, she would be wearing a very pretty tank top and she was wearing more jewelry. The difference was quite subtle," Haselton said.
The fertile women did not necessarily dress more provocatively, Haselton noted. "We did see a little bit more skin. It was my impression that the women were just dressing a little bit more fashionably but not sexier."
Haselton also was interested to note what did not happen.
"There's a popular notion that when women approach menstrual onset, they get out their bloated clothes and they pull out their sweats," she said. "But we didn't find that to be the case."
Haselton's team had earlier reported that women were more likely to flirt and look at attractive men when ovulating.
Posted by ronnie at 07:14 AM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2006
Sexy dressing blamed for harassment in China
BEIJING (AFP) - Sexual harassment is widespread at workplaces in China and women who are provocatively dressed are to blame, state media has said, citing an online survey.
According to a survey of more than 4,000 professionals conducted by a job-hunting company, 43 percent of the respondents think sexual harassment is "widespread" and 54 percent say it happens occasionally, the China Daily said.
An overwhelming 90 percent said women who dress provocatively in the office were inviting harassment, it said.
About 45 percent believe the perpetrators tend to be the victims' bosses.
The concept of male supremacy is still deeply ingrained in most Chinese people's minds and sexual harassment is not an issue generally given great social concern.
The paper did not say how many of the 4,000 respondents were male or describe how the survey was carried out.
Posted by ronnie at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)
June 02, 2006
China officials barred from sexy clothes
SHANGHAI (AFP) - Female civil servants in an eastern Chinese province have been banned from wearing "sexy" clothes, while their male counterparts will not be allowed to grow beards, state media said.
Women in the Zhejiang provincial government's communications department will have to refrain from clothes that bare their backs or are deemed too sexy, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Their male colleagues will not be allowed to grow beards, go bare-chested or wear inappropriate shirts.
The dispatch said the regulations were necessary to build up a more serious government image.
"If officials dress too casually, it will be inharmonious with the atmosphere and professionalism of a government department," the report said.
Posted by ronnie at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2006
Clerk says scanty attire was distraction
HAUSER, Ore. - Well, she LOOKED 21 anyway, maybe older, and what's more the clerk at the small store in this Coos County town says he was much distracted by what he called the young lady's scanty attire. So distracted, he said, that he didn't see the "Minor until 2007" stamped on her driver's license. She got the six-pack, and store owner David Cardwell got a $1,320 fine. The clerk had to pay $750.
Cardwell is hollering "Entrapment," "Draconian" and more.
Rather than pay, Cardwell says, he will take the alternative and close the store for a week. He says it doesn't make than much in a week in any case.
His clerk had been stung by an Oregon Liquor Control Commission decoy sent to test for underage sales.
His two clerks will be jobless until June 7.
Cardwell is not denying his employee erred, but says it was hardly fair.
"This young woman was dressed in very provocative clothing more suited for the bedroom," Cardwell said in a letter to the OLCC. "I would not allow my daughter to leave the house dressed in such a way."
He says the law should target clerks and servers, not the owners.
"We feel we did everything right," Cardwell wrote. "We trained (our clerk) correctly. We tested him correctly."
But Gary Francis, the local OLCC agent who coordinates the stings and hires the decoys, isn't persuaded.
"Maybe he should have been looking at her driver's license," Francis said of the clerk. "It was a straight-up deal. By the numbers. No trickery at all."
He said the decoy was dressed in a tank top, attire many woman her age wear.
People who serve or sell alcohol in Oregon are required to card anyone who looks 26 years old or younger, Francis said. He wants the decoys to look like 18-, 19- or 20-year-olds, not a 40-year-old.
"We are out there to see who is doing their job and who is not," he said.
He said female decoys can't wear makeup or doctor their hair to look older.
"This guy wasn't paying attention," Francis said. "If he would have looked at that young lady's ID, he would have seen the big red box on her ID that said she was a minor until 2007.
"DMV makes it easy. But if you don't use the tools that the state provides, then you deserve to get caught."
Cardwell disagrees.
"They're baiting. They're disguising. They're camouflaging them. They are trying to create a situation and trying to induce someone into taking the bait."
The store had never been similarly fined before.
"There's a first time for everything," said Francis.
Posted by ronnie at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2006
Video game "booth babes" forced to cover up
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Missing: scantily-clad females hawking the latest in electronic toys for the boys.
The video game industry's annual trade show in Los Angeles opened its doors to its exhibitors on Wednesday with organizers ordering women staffing the booths to cover up or face a $5,000 fine.
Banned are nudity, partial nudity, bikini bottoms or any sexually explicit or provocative conduct, according to the handbook from The Entertainment Software Association, or ESA, which owns and operates the E3 Expo.
Pauline K, who declined to give her last name, wore a white shredded tank top with an exposed midriff, short mini skirt and knee-high leggings as she handed out fliers for a company that makes custom face plates for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 game machine.
She said another of the models received a warning from show organizers for showing too much skin. "Apparently her cleavage was a little too distracting," she said.
In January, the ESA outlined tough new penalties to enforce decency rules. Exhibitors get a verbal warning for a first violation and a second violation carries a $5,000 fine.
"Last year there were a lot of complaints about how the models were beyond, in many cases, what was decent," said ESA President Douglas Lowenstein on Monday.
Despite the new rules, there was no shortage of exposed skin, patent leather and knee-high boots. Many exhibitors dressed women like video game heroines and there was a group of women wearing sexy nurses' outfits.
"They're wearing slightly more clothes this year," said Gail Salamanica, an exhibitor at the show, "But not much."
Posted by ronnie at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2006
Russian women "too strong and big" for figure skating
TURIN (Reuters) - Russia has a string of young male prospects ready to plunder future Olympic gold in figure skating but top coach Alexei Mishin says his countrywomen are fit only to work on the railways.
"Russian women are not very good for figure skating," Mishin told Reuters on Friday. "They are good for building rail tracks in Siberia, for example. They are just too strong and big."
Mishin, a former medal-winning figure skater whose top pupil Yevgeny Plushenko won gold in the men's figure skating on Thursday, said he has a new generation under his charge ready to take over when the champion decides to quit.
"There will be another champion and he will be a great one," he said. "You'll just have to wait."
Posted by ronnie at 09:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2006
University Steers Students to 'Hot Girls'
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Applications sent by Seton Hall University to prospective students overseas unwittingly contained a toll-free number offering the opportunity to chat with "hot, horny girls."
The Catholic university, founded in 1856, said it accidentally transposed numbers in admissions application sent to possibly tens of thousands of applicants.
"Spark up your days and nights with stimulating talk," the recording says. It then refers callers to a second 800 number, a phone-sex line selling conversations with "students, housewives and working girls" for 99 cents to $2.99 a minute.
Seton Hall spokesman Thomas White told the Star-Ledger of Newark for Thursday's newspapers that the error was in both the online and print applications, and may have been present for several years.
"I'm surprised that we didn't catch it before now," White said. "This was a very unfortunate typo, and we apologize to any of our international applicants who were affected by this."
The phone number was supposed to connect students with World Education Services, a New York-based firm that screens international academic credentials.
As of Thursday morning, the university was in the process of removing all the references online, although nothing could be done about print applications already mailed out.
World Education Services is phasing out its 800 number and refers students to its Web site, http://www.wes.org.
Similar typos have caused embarrassment for other institutions recently. Last year motorists looking for special license plates were accidentally sent by brochures and the Web site of New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission to a phone-sex line. In December, seniors calling a toll-free number to ask questions about Medicare were directed to a similar service due to a misprint in 20,000 letters sent by insurer Humana.
Posted by ronnie at 06:48 PM | Comments (0)