Bisexual slug sex
It’s a lot weirder, and more beautiful even, than it sounds.
HSB’s reading list for 03/01/2009
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Such, Such Was Eric Blair – The New York Review of Books
And George Orwell? It would surprise, and doubtless irritate, him to discover that since his death in 1950 he has moved implacably toward NT status. He is interpretable, malleable, ambassadorial, and patriotic. He denounced the Empire, which pleases the left; he denounced communism, which pleases the right. He warned us against the corrupting effect on politics and public life of the misuse of language, which pleases almost everyone. He said that “good prose is like a window pane,” which pleases those who, despite living in the land of Shakespeare and Dickens, mistrust “fancy” writing. He distrusted anyone who was too “clever.” (This is a key English suspicion, most famously voiced in 1961 when Lord Salisbury, a stalwart of the imperialist Tory right, denounced Iain Macleod, secretary of state for the colonies and member of the new reforming Tory left, as “too clever by half.”)
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TPMMuckraker | Talking Points Memo | Jindal Admits Katrina Story Was False
This is no minor difference. Jindal’s presence in Lee’s office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story’s intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn’t there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.
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A majority of African-Americans surveyed in a nationwide poll this week reported feeling “deeply disturbed” and “more than a little weirded out” by all the white people now smiling at them.
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Aquatic Sex: Pregnant Fish Fossils Found – CBS News
The fossilized remains of two pregnant fish indicate that sex as we know it – fertilization of eggs inside a female – took place as much as 30 million years earlier than previously thought, researchers said Thursday.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
HSB’s reading list for 02/06/2009
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To deprogram a Jihadist – Featured World – Macleans.ca
News last week that Said Ali al-Shihri, a former inmate of Guantánamo, has emerged as al-Qaeda’s deputy leader in Yemen intensified debate on how to deal with prisoners held at the U.S.-run detention camp in Cuba. But al-Shihri’s narrative raised other interesting questions as well. In 2007, the U.S. released him to Saudi Arabia, where he underwent a much-trumpeted religious “deradicalization” program for jihadists that clearly didn’t take. In the past, Saudi authorities have consistently claimed that none of the program’s graduates have returned to terrorism in the five years since the program was established. But after al-Shihri’s story began unfolding, authorities admitted that nine others have been rearrested. Despite the failure, Time has reported, the Pentagon won’t change its policy on repatriating Gitmo’s most dangerous detainees to the kingdom even though the Saudi program has been called into question.
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Godless watch, continued | Democracy in America | Economist.com
Interesting. I’m not sure if Mr Obama isn’t trying a little too hard to please everyone here, but the fact that he is trying to please everyone—and remember that a major presidential candidate said not long ago that “freedom requires religion”—is striking.
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NYTimes Exposes 2.8 Million Articles in New API – ReadWriteWeb
What do you do when your industry is shifting under your feet? Taking the lead with radical steps is one strategy. The New York Times did just that this afternoon when it announced that it has released a new Application Programming Interface (API) offering every article the paper has written since 1981, 2.8 million articles. The API includes 28 searchable fields and updated content every hour.
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Joe the Plumber is now doing political strategy with Republicans.
The line between Republicans’ approach to governing and satirical performance art blurs just a little more.
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Teen accused of male-on-male sex assaults in web scam | 365 Gay News
This won’t make us smarter, but it’s still interesting:
An 18-year-old male student is accused of posing as a girl on Facebook, tricking at least 31 male classmates into sending him naked photos of themselves and then blackmailing some for sex acts.
“The kind of manipulation that occurred here is really sinister in my estimation,” Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel said Wednesday.
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U.S. soldier argues for asylum in Germany – Los Angeles Times
Shepherd, of Cleveland, was among 71 soldiers to desert European bases in 2008, but he is the first known to have sought asylum in Germany. If he succeeds, it could open a new door for soldiers looking to escape the military, supporters say. Rejection could find him handed over to the U.S. military or deported to the United States.
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Is the solar system unique? – space – 03 February 2009 – New Scientist
Since the first discovery of a planet orbiting another star in 1992, some 280 alien solar systems have been identified. Most look quite unlike ours, and for good reason. Planets are mainly spied by the way their gravity makes their host star wobble as they orbit. The smaller the planet, the smaller the wobble: lightweight planets like Earth produce effects too small to detect with current technology.
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In Bolivia, Untapped Bounty Meets Nationalism – NYTimes.com
In the rush to build the next generation of hybrid or electric cars, a sobering fact confronts both automakers and governments seeking to lower their reliance on foreign oil: almost half of the world’s lithium, the mineral needed to power the vehicles, is found here in Bolivia — a country that may not be willing to surrender it so easily.
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ASA : White House Responds to DEA Raids, Vows to End Policy
White House Spokesman Nick Shapiro reacted to new Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raids at medical cannabis collectives in California, saying he expects President Obama to end that policy when a new DEA Administrator is seated. “The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,” Shapiro said.
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Coffee lovers face lower dementia risk – Aging- msnbc.com
The study found that among 1,400 Finnish adults followed for 20 years, those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in middle-age were two-thirds less likely than non-drinkers to develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
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Future Watch: A.I. comes of age
“Stair, please fetch the stapler from the lab,” says the man seated at a conference room table. The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot, standing nearby, replies in a nasal monotone, “I will get the stapler for you.”
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Home | Who Profits from the Israeli Occupation?
sraeli and international corporations are directly involved in the occupation: in the construction of Israeli colonies and infrastructure in the occupied territories, in the settlements’ economy, in building walls and checkpoints, in the supply of specific equipment used in the control and repression of the civilian population under occupation.
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Cramps Singer Lux Interior Dead At 62 – News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News
Lux Interior, lead singer of influential garage-punk act the Cramps, died Wednesday morning (February 4) due to an existing heart condition, according to a statement from the band’s publicist. He was 62.
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BBC NEWS | Politics | Ministers face torture pressure
UK ministers must answer allegations that Britain was complicit in torture, a senior Conservative MP has said.
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A rant from a soon to be laid off T-Shirt Hell employee:
(In response to a select group of assholes and their self righteous reaction to us going out of business)
I would like to say something to all the idiots who think we’ve poisoned society. And I’m not talking about the religious nuts or the militant [whining minority here]. I’m talking about this new wave of douches comprised primarily of twenty- and thirty- something white people who feel like they have to defend the little guy, despite the fact that in 2009 the little guy no longer exists, and if he does he isn’t even aware there’s a fight going on.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Cool shit: Magnetic Movie on Vimeo
Nothing to do with Prague, or porn, or politics, but pretty damn cool nonetheless. For more info.
more about “Cool shit: Magnetic Movie on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod
If only we were more like the animals…
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Bisexual Species: Unorthodox Sex in the Animal Kingdom: Scientific American
“Animals don’t do sexual identity. They just do sex,” says sociologist Eric Anderson of the University of Bath in England.
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Boys who would be girls
How Boys Become Boys (and Sometimes Girls): Scientific American
I like to shock people when talking about human sexuality by declaring that far more humans are born hermaphrodites or of indeterminate sex than is generally known. At least as late as 10 years ago, it was common practice for doctors to make the determination without even consulting the parents. We’ve occasionally read about the unfortunate and painful results of such basically arbitrary decisions when these folks reach puberty. Cases where orthodoxy, often religious ideology tries to cover up basic biological facts. Funny how such cases usually involve sexuality, as Kinsey knew too well.
Science, as it does, may not clear things up but at least stating the facts may alleviate some panic. Now, it seems clear that 1 in 20,000 humans who are genetically male, that is, with one Y chromosome, end up growing ovaries because another gene – the one that triggers testes growth – is defective. Of what gender are such people, and does it really matter? It will matter to them, and it certainly matters to society, even its subcultural components.
God, er, nature sure is ruthless, ain’t she?
When I attended Bible college, one of my progressive teachers – I use that adjective relatively – allowed us to question why our church insisted that girls wear dresses and not pants. He said, and this may be one of the reasons he got fired, that what sort of clothing was worn was not the important part. The principle of gender separation was. Ah hah! So should a little boy with ovaries wear a dress? Is that what God wants? How can we know what god wants when it seems he doesn’t even really know what he wants. As usual, biology and science make it harder to cling to fundamentalist belief systems.
Gender is important to me, I won’t deny it. Even if my boys have ovaries, they still have to be butch.
via 3quarksdaily
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