February 2011
Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So... →
MoJo associate editor Nick Baumann lays bare the stealth GOP agenda in Congress. Prepare to be appalled.
A Very Classy Move by U.S. Marine Corps General... →
A Quiet, Little, But Very Important Legal Victory... →
Homophobic Christian Voice Leader Stephen Green... →
Caroline Green, who was married to the anti-gay extremist and leader of the Christian Voice, Stephen Green, for 26 years, says she has come forward now because “the people who support him financially and morally should know what he is really like”. Mr Green leads Christian Voice, which is a small protest group of around 300 members. The group rails against violence, abortion, immorality and drugs,...
“As an Arab-American raised in Middle East, I was always baffled by America’s...”
– — Adil E. Shamoo, indicting both the government of the U.S. and the media
(via azspot)
How a Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis →
Julius Fromm saw a market he could tap into and founded his company in 1914, opening a small workshop in the Bötzow area in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin. With World War I and the liberalisation of sexual values in the Weimar Republic, the demand for condoms exploded and Fromm’s business quickly expanded, and he established factories near the Spree River in Berlin-Mitte.
“[Writing is] like standing on the edge of a cliff. This is especially true of...”
– — Peter Carey
(via theparisreview)
Satire of Neuroscience Journalism - "Seeing a... →
Scientists at the Institute for Studies have finally established that when human eyes see a thing the brain will often generate a thought that is in some way related to the thing that has just been seen.
(thanks to my friend, Andrew, for this yummy morsel)
January 2011
BREAKING: Judge rules entire health care reform... →
Florida judge strikes down Obama health care law →
A federal judge in Florida has struck down the Obama administration’s requirement that all Americans buy health insurance, and questioned the constitutionality of the entire health care law.
“From what I can see, the rightie blogosphere is divided between those who think...”
– — Israel Sides With Mubarak?
(via azspot)
This would be very funny — even silly! — if it weren’t true.
What happened to CNN? →
In 1991, I sat glued to the television watching Bernie Shaw and Peter Arnett broadcast from a hotel room in Baghdad while the city was being bombed. At that moment, I thought CNN was the most incredible thing that had happened in my entire life. Time magazine went on to name Ted Turner Person of the Year, in no small part because of that broadcast.
This weekend, I am traveling. Cairo is...
Your Hospital Rights →
You, the patient, at any U.S. hospital receiving any Medicare or Medicaid funding (which is most of them!) will now be allowed to decide who has visitation rights and who can make medical decisions on your behalf — regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or family makeup — under new federal healthcare regulations that took effect 18 January....
Star Trek's Lack of Gay Characters: "Not a... →
Despite having produced more than a dozen feature films and 726 episodes over the course of six series (including the 22-episode animated series), the Star Trek franchise, which broke both gender- and race-barriers on TV, has never managed to include an openly gay character.
At this month’s Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles, AfterElton’s Michael Jensen had an...
Czech Trans Family Interest Experts →
Before they started dating two years ago, Dominik Sejda, 45, and Andrea Kajzarova, 32, both underwent sex changes, one of just a handful of similar couples in the Czech Republic.
But a boy named Radim, whom Dominik gave birth to 25 years ago, makes their family even more special — he is now becoming a woman named Viktoria.
Czech sexologist Petr Weiss:
I think there has only been one case of a...
A deficiency of dietary omega-3 may explain... →
The authors of a new study published in the online version of the journal Nature Neuroscience estimate that their results provide the first biological components of an explanation for the observed correlation between omega-3 poor diets, which are very widespread in the industrialized world (due to the consumption of processed foods), and mood disorders such as depression.
Scientists Find Nicotine Addiction Mechanism →
The study appeared January 30, 2011, in an advance, online issue of the journal Nature.
In the study, the scientists examined the effects of a part of a receptor (a protein molecule to which specific signaling molecules attach) that responds to nicotine in the brain. The scientists found that animal models with a genetic mutation inhibiting this receptor subunit consumed far more nicotine than...
Chick-fil-A is a Homophobic, Right-Wing Christian... →
The Chick-fil-A sandwich. But never on Sunday, when the chain is closed.
Nicknamed “Jesus chicken” by jaded secular fans and embraced by Evangelical Christians, Chick-fil-A — whose hand-breaded chicken breast and a couple of pickles squished into a steamy, white buttered bun is a staple of some Southern diets — is among only a handful of large American companies with conservative religion built...
The Death of Passwords →
Imagine sitting down at a public PC, surfing the Web, visiting Facebook, checking your online bank account and buying something on Amazon.com — all without entering passwords or credit card information.
It gets better. You get up and leave without even logging out. Some shady criminal type sits down at the same PC and finds his attempts at cracking your password foiled at every turn. Your...
What Is Reality? →
The latest gift to us from Horizon, the BBC’s iconic popular science documentary series, deals with one of the most fundamental questions of human existence: What Is Reality? — an inquiry so deep and complex it has occupied the seemingly insufficient minds of brilliant scientists and philosophers for eons.
“It’s one of the simplest yet most profound questions in science: The search to...
7 Must-Read Books on the Art & Science of... →
Books numbered 1, 2 and 6 are good science, while book 4 is a blend of good science and speculative science. Books 3, 5 and 7 have little to do with science. Another highly readable book on Happiness that’s not on this list is Barbara Frederickson’s Positivity.
Hawaii Senate Approves Same-Sex Civil Unions →
In an attempt to placate gay and lesbian semi-citizens, without offending full-citizens who are homophobic Christians, the Hawaii State Senate approved, by a vote of 19-6, to allow gays and lesbians some of the rights granted to their heterosexual fellow-citizens. If the Hawaii State House of Representatives, and Governor Neil Abercrombie approve the measure, Hawaii would become the sixth state to...
Gay Marine’s Husband Surprised at Respect Shown by... →
John Fliszar had a heart attack in 2006 and was rushed to Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
“When I was in the emergency room with him, he asked me to promise him, if he died, to make sure his ashes were interred in the Naval Academy,” said Mark Ketterson. “He loved that place. He very much wanted to be there.”
Fliszar, a Marine aviator who served two tours in Vietnam, survived that heart attack....
America's History of Intolerance →
“Live and let live” would appear to be a simple, sensible guide to social life, but obviously many Americans reject this creed with a vengeance.
They find toleration so unpleasant that they support the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of individuals whose personal behavior they regard as offensive.
Why do so many Americans favor the use of coercive sanctions to enforce repression?...
“Why are Americans such wusses? Threaten the Greeks with job losses and benefit...”
– — Barbara Ehrenreich
(via azspot)
Why the Word “Marriage” Matters →
… Same-sex couples are currently recognized by means of marriage, common-law marriage, civil union, civil partnership, domestic partnership with full equality, limited domestic partnership, registered partnership, unregistered partnership, life partnership, PACS, law of same-sex relationship, reciprocal benefits, itemized specific rights, and (most frequently) not at all. It’s no wonder that it is...
Arundhati Roy: India's bold and brilliant daughter →
In [Arundhati Roy’s] bag was the manuscript of a first novel that was to make her famous and (by the standards of writers) rich, and though some of that future could have been predicted (the manuscript had caused a stir among publishers), no one could have foreseen the Booker prize and editions in 40 languages. What has happened since the success of The God of Small Things is even more...
Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness (or,... →
Every so often Al Frances says something that seems to surprise even him. Just now, for instance, in the predawn darkness of his comfortable, rambling home in Carmel, California, he has broken off his exercise routine to declare that “there is no definition of a mental disorder. It’s bullshit. I mean, you just can’t define it.” Then an odd, reflective look crosses his face, as if he’s taking in...
The Shocking Truth about the Electric Chevy Volt →
So this won’t be a conventional automotive review. First, I’m not qualified to write a conventional automotive review, inasmuch as I know next to nothing about automobiles. Second, I am nakedly biased. I very much wanted to hate this car. It challenges my worldview. Life is bewildering — essentially, it’s a fatal disease of uncertain course and unknown duration. If we are to make any sense of...
Is the Game Really Over? →
According to a report published by Reuters on July 13, 2009, 77 million of the 80 million Egyptians live on less than $1 a day. Around 30% of the workforce is unemployed, 7% of children miss schools because of poverty. There are over 100,000 homeless youth. Egypt’s official foreign debt is around 12 billion dollars, yet several of Mubarak’s corrupt ruling elites have stolen almost half this...
The Hot Spotters →
For a thirty-year-old with a fever, a twenty-minute visit to the doctor’s office may be just the thing. For a pedestrian hit by a minivan, there’s nowhere better than an emergency room. But these institutions are vastly inadequate for people with complex problems: the forty-year-old with drug and alcohol addiction; the eighty-four-year-old with advanced Alzheimer’s disease and a pneumonia; the...