Linketies

[moominmuppet]

Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating! I'm at work with hot cocoa and half a loaf of Becca's homemade soda bread as well as other goodies and a rewatching of The Color of Magic and my laptop loaded with Ticket to Ride (my favorite online board game). This is generally the quietest day of the year on the phones. Just talked to the family, and looking forward to going home to the Doctor Who Christmas Special and Coco-cuddling tonight (we're petsitting her for the next five days while Christina goes skiing).

US First Lady Michelle Obama has surprised children by answering their calls to [the NORAD Santa tracker].

Blood vessel looks like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Weirdest and Most Inventive Holiday Greetings of the Season

Brighter Days? Congress Was Most Effective Since 60s, Obama's On Upswing Too

Working America's 5 Best and 5 Worst Moments of 2010

Poop powered Christmas tree!

In a series of free videos distributed widely to military families and to those who support them, Elmo and his Muppet parents and friends, together with real humans, figure out how to talk through anguishing situations, how to find the words to use to express grief, fear, anger, and how to harness the healing power of love.

These festive London sewermen would like you to remember to throw away your cooking fat rather than running it down the drains, lest it form sclerotic poo-streaked fatty cake that chokes the city's vast cloacae. "It's not every day you get to see a rough-and-ready performance of a Christmas carol by a bunch of guys knee deep in poo."

This Day in History: 12/25/2002 Katie Hnida is first woman to play in Division I football game

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) have filed a lawsuit challenging the government's asserted authority to carry out “targeted killings” of U.S. citizens located far from any armed conflict zone.

Plastics Converted into Oil!

Tennessee anti-terrorism officials put ACLU on map of "terrorism events and other suspicious activity"

Cambridge university refuses to censor student's thesis on chip-and-PIN vulnerabilities

Whoopi Takes On Bill Donohue: "Yes I had abortions, so what?!"

Pope’s child porn 'normal' claim sparks outrage among victims

"We're hoping to be able to expedite the process ... of disease development ... " -- Drug company manager Darby Stephens

Ruin a Republicans' Holiday shopping schedule, and bizarrely you'll be told must be a very poor Christian indeed.

Rape victim arrested for refusing TSA pat down

School outed teen to parents, said it was ‘legally obligated’: lawsuit

Obama's Liberty Problem: Why Indefinite Detention by Executive Order Should Scare the Hell Out of People

Alcoholics May Stop at One Drink With Lundbeck Pill

WATCH: Pat Robertson Says Decriminalize Weed
Related: TV evangelist Robertson's remarks on marijuana please legalization camp

Media Ignore Shocking Details of Right-Wing Domestic Terror Case

Obama Set for Staff Makeover in 2011, Bans Word "Triangulation"

Dems Say Yes to Busting the Filibuster

The 5 Smartest Policies Enacted by American Cities in 2010

L.A. Museum’s Destruction of Anti-War Art Disrespects Veterans

Star Trails in the North

Gorey-esque post-it doodles

5 Things You Didn't Know About the Death Penalty

FBI Expands Probe into Antiwar Activists
Democracy Now! speaks with two of the antiwar activists being targeted and two former FBI agents.

Top 8 Drug Stories of 2010: Momentum Is Building to End the Failed Drug War

Al Franken: The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time

CNN Tries to Outfox Fox With Tea Party Deal

Have a very Muslim Christmas -- fascinating piece on secular celebration of Christmas in Kuwait

This is big: New ELEPHANT species discovered

Joe Biden: Gay Marriage Inevitable

The Perils of Charging Rape

Andrew Haynes kicks off 2010’s Christmas miscellany with reports of rampant reindeer, sozzled starlings and junkie monkeys, and a look at how goats seem to be the cause of many of man’s sins

Ghost Bus spotted in Manhattan

Pearl in man's ear for 41 years -- At least the popcorn kernels musicalchaos shoved in my ear when he was 3 all came out on the same day!

The gap between the rich and the middle class is larger than it has ever been due to the bursting of the housing bubble.

Storm lashes Southern California (pics)

The under-appreciated heroes of 2010

ImpactEarth: Throw things at the planet!

The 75 Best Cute Animal Lists Of 2010

How low can Oprah Winfrey go? Promoting faith healer John of God to the masses

Thirty years after it introduced some of the world’s most sweeping population-control measures, the Chinese government continues to use a variety of coercive family planning tactics, from financial penalties for households that violate the restrictions to the forced sterilization of women who have already had one child, according to a report issued by a human rights group.

TORONTO - Immigrant settlement service funding cuts decried by the Liberals as "draconian" are necessary to ensure taxpayer money is used efficiently, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday.

Holocaust-denying creep works WITH Wikileaks, originated CIA-rape-honeypot rumor

Centuries before black holes became accepted science, a fat little man in 1780s Yorkshire imagined stars so massive that even light could not escape. He predicted black holes. This is the incredible story of John Michell and his "dark stars."

African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable Power

With a GOP Congress, Obama's social side starts to thaw

Suicide bombers: fanatics, or suicidally depressed?

Wright's Falling Water in gingerbread

Female marine snails living off the Perth coast are growing male sex organs on their heads after exposure to the chemical TBT, according to local researchers.

Rural women in remote areas are often left out of family planning programs aimed at large population centers. Some biodiversity wildlife programs are showing how to step into the breach.

Secret history of Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic game

Pilot raided for YouTube video exposing airport security flaws

Condom Sabotage Isn't A Joke

The Year in Food: 2010's Best, Worst and Most Delicious Food Stories

Ben Goldacre: bad science kills

$385 Million TSA Program Fails to Detect Terrorists: Behavioral Profiling Program Is Pseudoscience

Fighting for Justice in 2010: Heroines and Heroes We Admire (reproductive health focus, and the ED at our incredible local clinic gets a shout out!)

Congress approves defense bill, sends to president

National Geographic's Photography Contest 2010

Wash. State Pharmacy Board Preserves Rule Prohibiting Pharmacies From Refusing To Dispense Legal Drugs

U.S. Births, Birth Rates Continue To Decline, CDC Says

Federal Govt. Files Lawsuit Against Ky. Abortion-Rights Protester

Pope's Comments Did Not Condone Condoms for Contraceptive Use, Vatican Says

Thousands of Gestational Diabetes Cases Go Undetected, Study Says

American gets nearly 20 years for sexually abusing Haitian boys

The airport was briefly shut down as authorities investigated a suspicious package that turned out to contain a frozen chicken and a head lamp, said Lt. Craig Stansbury, spokesman for the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office.

A public servant injured while she was having sex on a work trip can't get any compensation.
She has been told she should have let her employer know she planned to get frisky if she wanted to be able to claim worker's compensation.

Mere days after the Council of Conservative Citizens launched a boycott of Marvel Comics’ movie ‘Thor’ for casting a black actor as a Norse God, anti-Islam conservatives are taking aim at Batman for recruiting an Algerian Muslim to help fight crime. Though the cases are strikingly similar, there’s one nefarious difference.

Risky Business: EPA Builds List of Potentially Dangerous Chemicals

Reform of Toxic Chemicals Law Collapses as Industry Flexes Its Muscles

Obama administration issues guidelines designed to ensure 'scientific integrity'

FDA Approves Gardasil for Prevention of Anal Cancer in Both Sexes

Nativity scenes are in full display today as Christians prepare to celebrate Christmas. But visitors to Catalonia might be caught off guard the Spanish region’s twist on the scene. Besides Jesus, Mary and Joseph there’s an oddball in the creche: a squat little farmer in a red hat, pooping by the manger.

How We Twist Victims’ Words - The Misogynistic Left (TRIGGER WARNING for sexual assault)

When Getting Baked Means More than Just a Bun in the Oven (on hyperemesis during pregnancy and medical marijuana)

Comments

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Poop powered Christmas tree!

WHICH ALSO DOES DESALINATION. Good grief, with the world as short of fresh water as it is, why isn't that the headline?

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* Really, it should be. Christmas trees for all!

[keelywolfe.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who went through two pregnancies with hyperemesis, I would have been grateful for some medical pot. I lost over 30 lbs when I was pregnant with my daughter, spent weeks in and out of the hospital getting IV fluids and I still have some post-traumatic stress from it. I could barely read the article without feeling sympathetic nausea.

Zofran didn't do much for me, either, and it was expensive as hell. I ended up toughing it out and if I had to do it again, I would be scrounging for some marijuana, oh, yes.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*nod* I remember when you were going through that, and you were one of the people who crossed my mind. When it comes to trade-off of risks, I definitely think it's a worthwhile one in those kinds of cases; certainly as reasonable as taking any other med for nausea, given what we know so far about the really minimal dangers of marijuana.

[musicalchaos.livejournal.com]

A brief thought touching on The Colour of Magic... I finally got dad to sit down and watch Hogfather (both parts) today. His thought was that while he missed quite a few jokes, he greatly enjoyed it. I am amused and pleased.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* Very glad to hear it!

[musicalchaos.livejournal.com]

My next objective is to get him to read the book. Upon questioning, he admitted he could see why I so avidly collect and read that series.

Doesn't hurt any that it was a Death/Susan installment. While I was never fond of Mort (the book... or the character, come to think of it), it's my favorite sub-series. Many of my friends like the Night Watch, and I understand why, but there's just something about Death's demeanor that I find appealing. Perhaps the hope that pervades the finality of it all, compared to the significantly more dour outlook on the human (and dwarven, and trollish, and etc. etc.) race presented by the Night Watch.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

While I was never fond of Mort (the book... or the character, come to think of it), it's my favorite sub-series.

Likewise.

[jajy1979.livejournal.com]

I love the image of the presents opening the children. Given the horror stories I'm hearing about spoiled brats today, I think it would be good for them to consider this alternative to whining about everything not being perfect.

The ACLU is right to challenge the government. The government has long been overstepping it's bounds on the argument of security/terrorism and it needs to be reigned back it.

(sigh) Not surprised. I'll try and make Tennessee a better place, but there's a lot of work to be done, and much of it hinges on the reactionary politicians with the xenophobic and racist people who vote for them.

May science forever decry the special interests, the politicians, and the potentates of the world. May it forever make those in power uncomfortable in their deceptions. Cambridge was absolutely right to reject that "request". Censorship be damned, information should never be quashed merely because it shows, ahem, an inconvenient truth to those in power.

More proof that Republicans simply do not understand Christianity, even though the vast majority claim it as their religion.

Where on earth are they getting the idea that their treatment of citizens and foreign nationals is "with dignity and respect"? I see no such sign of said respect, in fact I distinctly note that they neither respect nor trust us, even though it is for our interests that they claim to be working.

(sigh) Coaches like that should be drummed out of the school system and made an example of. The school district should lose this case, and with them backing these assholes I hope they lose big.

I actually knew about the Oregon case, but they're right, no one is talking about it.

CNN lost the title to most watched news ages ago, and in doing so I think it completely lost what little journalistic integrity it had. It's now trying to stop a death spiral and in doing so it is trying to emulate FOX to the detriment of the American Public.

We knew about the elephant split ages ago. It's just in held up in a lumper vs. splitter argument until the genetics could be worked out because the physical differences were assumed to be environmentally enforced, not genetically. Further they can and do interbreed (albeit rarely) and thus would not qualify for a separate species label under the older taxonomic system. It's was a subspecies issue. Same is true of some of the zebras.

I've loathed Oprah and her cult for years, the stupid newage shit she foists off on the guillible public just makes it that much more obnoxious. This latest with the faith healing? I'd say she went round the bend, but that was several bends ago. This is more like off the cliff.

I'm all for population control, but China is the poster child (pun intended) for "FAIL".

Oh look, more holes in TSA logic / security / reality. The pilot was absolutely right to air this to the public.

Birth control sabotage goes both ways. I know more than a few cases where women sabotage condoms with the intent of getting pregnant to force the man to stay in a relationship or otherwise extort him. In any case, it's a disgusting and unethical practice.

Behavioral patterning was bunk, and I said so when they initiated it. People who are going to commit crimes do not just stand out or have particular ticks that are always there. It's junk science at it's worst and it needs to go, just like the stupid scanners.

About time that the feds started throwing the law at some of these anti-choicers.

The activity wasn't work related, I side with the employer on this one. You getting violent in bed, even while at a company location, doesn't make the injury the company's responsibility.

TSCA needs and should be updated, but again we have the rich blocking safety for their profit. *headdesk* It's just stupidity to allow the lobbyists to control this process.

The scientific community definitely needs protection right now given the statement I just made about TSCA. Never mind all the problems at the FDA and CDC with politicians interfering with science.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

We knew about the elephant split ages ago. It's just in held up in a lumper vs. splitter argument until the genetics could be worked out because the physical differences were assumed to be environmentally enforced, not genetically. Further they can and do interbreed (albeit rarely) and thus would not qualify for a separate species label under the older taxonomic system. It's was a subspecies issue. Same is true of some of the zebras.

*nod* Definitely a taxonomic discussion, not a matter of finding a new population. Still pretty cool, though.