Life

So my "weekend" was actually pretty awesome. Wednesday started ridiculously early (for someone who normally works second shift), but the first real day of SANE training went really well, with some lessons for fine-tuning next week. I'm very pleased about all that, and it consumed most of Wednesday for me. Also, happy news about the stray dog the nurses found last week! He found his home; he'd been missing for two weeks, they'd given up hope. His owner was about 16, had him since she was 3, it was apparently a wonderful and tearful reunion. So yay for that! Also, apparently my folks have been adopted by a puppy. I'm pretty pleased about this; I think it's really good for Dad to have a dog, even if he's been hemming and hawing about taking on the responsibility again. Typical Dad, he slipped it into the end of an almost totally unrelated email forward from one of his favorite theologian bloggers. Her postscript was
"I would add:
If you can love unconditionally,
If you can greet your loved ones with joy everyday without fail,
If you can find Christmas happiness every time you take a walk...
Dogs do teach us a great deal if we will observe them..."

His bit at the end:
Your addition seems almost prescient for me.
Went for my daily walk yesterday morning and a puppy came bounding after me.
After the usual search for the owner, we have come to the conclusion this pup was "dropped by the side of the road".
So I am observing her: eat the cat's food, chew my slippers, and work her way into our hearts and home.

Hee! Had to call him immediately to find out what the hell was going on!

The rest of the weekend was mostly household project work. I did some cleaning, some yard work, reterminated all the network cables Cat had chewed through, and repaired the bathroom doorknob. I'm feeling moderately accomplished but very tired. I've been almost entirely offline the past couple of days (I often am on my weekends), and am doing some catching up today. I'm also working on some project stuff, though, since we're rolling out some new helpdesk software in the next weeks, so I don't know what I'll get through in terms of Linketies.

Also, currently reading Evolution's Darling, and enjoying it quite a bit. It's a recommendation/loan from serpentseye, and she doesn't generally steer me wrong.

Linketies

HR3 has passed the House 251-175.
As Shaker Mod Scott Madin just said on Twitter: "Shorter House of Representatives: 'We're pretty sure owning a uterus and being a person are mutually exclusive.'"
The fight now goes to the Senate. Contact your Senators and ask them not to support the Senate version of the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act."
More: THE BENEFITS OF ACTIVISM: Slightly More Covert Rape Redefinition, Woo-Hoo
More Info: A Huge Step Back
And more: More on HR3, The Anti-Women GOP Bill Whose Sponsor Wants to "Re-Enfranchise The Unborn"

Coast Guard Closes Stretch of Mississippi

Have you heard about the next planned 'Survivor' TV show? -- *snerk*

Celebrate International No Diet Day!

GLORY HOLE -- Worksafe and thoroughly giggle-worthy if you know what you're looking at.

Matt Dean Apologizes to Neil Gaiman

History of science considered as a London Underground map.
although PurpleCthulhu has a very relevant critique of the format

Last WWI combat vet Claude Choules dies aged 110

Nashville rape examinations are limited to one hospital -- Thanks to my brother for bringing this to my attention (this is pretty directly related to the new training I'm working on; we're training Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners for the same purposes up here in Cleveland). Only one hospital offering rape exams is a travesty.

Six More Names Added to Vietnam Wall

John Ashcroft has joined the company formerly known as Blackwater

What Sex Is, And Isn't.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have discovered a 'molecular hoover' with the potential to prevent autoimmune conditions.

Prism 200c Through-Wall Radar Backpack Clearly Designed For Cool, Nonchalant Spies

CERN scientists confine antihydrogen atoms for 1000 seconds

Remember SurveyFail?
You can submit questions for the people behind all that on the Freakonomics blog. -- The questions are pretty awesome. Do NOT piss off your entire subject group, especially when they're well-organized and spend lots of time online. For those who want the quick version, do not bother with "A Billion Wicked Thoughts" by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam. They are unethical, aside from being lousy scientists, and do not deserve financial success from this book. You don't deserve to be misinformed like the book will do.

Oddities in the rotation of Saturn's largest moon Titan might add to growing evidence that it harbors an underground ocean, researchers suggest. -- Yay! I so hope it turns out that it does.

The (Shy) Woman Whose Words Accidentally Became Martin Luther King's
More: Related and giggle-worthy

Fairy Tale Fest: Fairy Tales in Context (fascinating look at historical context)

Naming, shaming, and victim blaming.

Under the Osmanthus Tree: So the "Rape Workshop" which our local police delivered today to the girls

Genre and gender

$45,000: The amount of money the Supreme Court has agreed, by virtue of declining to hear an appeal of the lower court's decision, that the cheerleader forced to cheer for her rapist must pay in restitution to the school district for filing a "frivolous" lawsuit against it. -- *rage*

Researchers at Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at Austin will team up with representatives from the criminal justice system in Houston to establish protocols to determine when sexual assault kits need to be tested by crime labs.

"There are so many things that trouble me about the obsession with regulating women’s bodies. But as a man, I am particularly exasperated at the assumption that lies beneath the insistence on modesty: the myth that men cannot control themselves. As feminists often point out, the real “man-haters” are those who promote modest dress for women out of the belief that men lack self-control. There is nothing more contemptuous than the suggestion that those of us with penises and Y chromosomes are prisoners of our biology, liable to rape or commit infidelity at the first sign of cleavage. The myth of male weakness sells us woefully, heartbreakingly short.”

Are You Talking to Me? What We Know about Men and Bystander Intervention

Pillbox: NIH site for identifying mystery pills -- the ability to search for inactive ingredients could be especially helpful for folks with allergies to some of those ingredients.

So there's this article in Time titled "Masculinity, a Delicate Flower," which is all about how men are obliged to establish, assert, and constantly maintain their masculinity throughout their lives.

Fairy Tale Fest: Ten Postmodern Pop Fairytales For Your iPod, Part One!

Abortion in the United States (youtube vid)

Doctor, Patient and Politician

The other day I noticed a picture on Facebook of a young (white, middle-class, Tea Party-supporting) man that I know proudly/happily holding a sign which reads: Men Regret Lost Fatherhood.

Accounting for Middle-Earth -- Especially for my brother, the accountant and Tolkien fan.

Garrett Lisi Responds to Criticism of his Proposed Unified Theory of Physics

Failbook: The History of the World: Part 1

Celebration of Henna Belly Art

The Plus-Size Pregnancy Website
Empowering Information for Women of Size (and women of all sizes) -- Great to see this out there!

Are Georgia's anti-obesity ads unfair to fat kids?

LGBT Adoption Bill Introduced In The House

Anti-gay groups plan increased spending, activity through 2012

It's quite clear to many concerned Americans that a Democratic President who - finally - accomplishes "the mission" is promoting a crass, obscene and grotesque political stunt if he goes to the Ground Zero to honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks and their families. -- *chuckle* nicely snarky piece.

WI Democrats File Formal Challenge Against Suspicious Recall Petitions Submitted by Republicans

Breaking: Ahmadinejad Could Resign as President of Iran; Top Aides Arrested and Charged With Sorcery

Richard Burr Introduces Bill To Abolish The EPA

The National Day of Prayer: Encouraging Christian Supremacists Since 1952

First GOP Debate Is Mostly a Boring Waste of Time, But Good Fodder for Stephen Colbert

Frankentoys

6 Myths About Famous Places You Believe (Thanks to Movies)

After Roasting, Trump Reacts In Character

5 Unexpected Downsides of High Intelligence

The 5 Most Terrifying Side Effects of Exercise

4 Recurring Myths We Apparently Really Want to Believe

Bahraini Doctors and Nurses Charged With the Equivalent of Treason

Who's Afraid of Planned Parenthood?: The Newman Society

Victoria's Secret Destroys Returned Clothing

10 Odd Things to Say to Someone with Breast Cancer

MN Rep.: Abortion Exists Because Some Men Are Perverts [VIDEO]

Is a Low Salt Diet Really Good For You? -- I'm curious to see more research on this. Could swear I saw something in recent years that only a certain percentage of HBP was actually salt-sensitive, and that it mattered relatively little for everyone else, but I thought there were some ethnicity-related markers regarding that (more common among people of african descent, iirc).

Maryland Suspends Autism Doctor's License

Wasserman Schultz Coverage Shows The Double Standard of Women In Politics

Indiana Cutting Funds for Women’s Clinics

50th Anniversary of the First Freedom Ride: New Documentary Recounts Historic 1961 Effort to Challenge Segregated Bus System in the Deep South