Reactions

Children involved in the Beslan School Number One terrorist attack a year ago are still plagued by their reactions. One boy says he lost religion: "There is no God. There is only military force. I believe in Russia and in our armed forces. That's what I believed in during the terrorist attack." (BBC) On the other hand, a girl was reborn:

"I found a little cross on the gym's floor. I kept it on me for all of the three days. It helped me to survive.

"I had a dream that I was running out of the school and I saw a pram. I ran up to it and I saw myself in there. I asked my Mum what it meant, and she said 'You were reborn'.

"I understood that when I escaped from that hell, I was reborn."

(BBC)

It's really interesting to me the role that religion, or lack thereof, plays in people's lives. Two people, two CHILDREN, in the same situation will have entirely different reactions.

Staying Behind

A man in Biloxi told CNN affiliate WKRG-TV he believed his wife was killed after she was ripped from his grasp when their home split in half.

"I held her hand as tight as I could," the man said. "She told me, 'You can't hold me.' She told me to take care of the kids and the grandkids ... we ain't got nowhere to go. I'm lost. That's all I had."
...
CNN's Adaora Udoji, monitoring the rescue efforts, said authorities had ferried at least 500 people from their homes, flooded with as much as six feet of water. Some residents reported water rose so fast they did not have time to grab their shoes.

(CNN)

Perhaps I'm cold hearted, but I believe that if there's a mandatory evacuation, and someone STILL doesn't leave their house, emergency crews shouldn't be oligated to rescue them. I'm not saying this out of hatred of their stupidity (though I admit it's there), but out of sheer economics and time prioritization. There are 1 million people without homes right now. The time and money spent saving the 500-odd idiots who disobeyed the evacuation order could be better spent helping the people who DID do the right thing. I hope the city/state sues those assholes for the cost of their rescue, and a little extra to start rebuilding the city.

Fragile

Climate modelling now shows that a 10-30 Cº change in average surface temperature could kill 95% of marine species and 75% of land species. More accurately and less dramatically, this probably is what happened some 250 million years ago. We know for sure that many species died out, and new models show that a rise in CO₂ leading to global warming could do it.

OK Bush, try and write that one off as alarmism and say that car manufacturers don't have to do anything. Someone remind me, how much has the temperature risen this century? Since the industrial revolution? Within the last millenium? 250 million years ago vulcanism was the ultimate cause, but does it really matter WHY there's more CO₂? Once you've risen 5 Cº and killed off a tenth of the land species you'd do well to worry.

Loophole

According to Dutch police,

"The law doesn't say you can't make love on the bonnet of a police car.

"But the policemen have to be available for duty. If the two lovers had left when they were told, nothing would have happened."


(Ananova)

So the couple were arrested for failing to obey police orders, and not for screwing on the hood of the cop car with the cops still in it. Or is the "boot" the trunk?

Men smarter than women; researcher disappointed

Men are more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average, making them better suited for “tasks of high complexity”, according to the authors of a paper due to be published in the British Journal of Psychology.

Genetic differences in intelligence between the sexes helped to explain why many more men than women won Nobel Prizes or became chess grandmasters, the study by Paul Irwing and Professor Richard Lynn concluded.

They showed that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. There were twice as many with IQ scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees.

When scores rose to 155, a level associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.

Dr Irwing, a senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Manchester University, said that he was uncomfortable with the findings. But he added that the evidence was clear despite the insistence of many academics that there were “no meaningful sex differences” in levels of intelligence.

“For personal reasons I would like to believe that men and women are equal, and broadly that’s true. But over a period of time the evidence in favour of biological factors has become stronger and stronger,” he said.


(CNN)

Who needs voting rights anyway?

Georgia has signed into law, and it's been approved federally, to require photo ID at polling stations from anyone wishing to vote.

On the pro- side, this would help decrease voting fraud.

"Requiring valid, photographic identification is a common sense step to ensure voter integrity and sound elections," Gov. Sonny Perdue said Friday in a written statement. ...

Perdue, like other Republicans, has said the measure is aimed at preventing voter fraud. "It will not be a hardship on any voter," Perdue said when he signed the bill.

The new Georgia law also allows people to vote absentee without an excuse, and for a longer period. Those votes by mail would not require a picture ID.


(CNN)

On the con- side, who do you know that doesn't have a photo ID? Most likely no one. And most likely your acquaintances are young professional whites.

Most of Georgia's black lawmakers walked out at the state Capitol when it was approved.

Democrats had argued the idea was a political move by the GOP to depress voting among minorities, the elderly and the poor -- all traditional bases for Democrats.

The measure would eliminate the use of several currently accepted forms of voter identification, such as Social Security cards, birth certificates or utility bills.

... Perdue signed the measure in April, and it needed the Justice Department's approval before taking effect. Under the Voting Rights Act, Georgia and other states with a history of suppressing minority voting must get federal permission to change their voting laws.

Nineteen states require voters to show identification, but only five request photo ID's, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Those states -- Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and South Dakota -- allow voters without a photo ID to use other forms of identification or sign an affidavit of identity.

... "This decision takes us back to the dark past of literacy tests and other insidious devices that were carefully devised to hamper the participation of all of our citizens in the political process," [Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, a veteran of the civil rights movement] said.

... Political observers say Republicans tend to benefit the most from absentee balloting.

(CNN)

I never realized how political just the whole process of voting is!

Teenagers prevent morning after pill from going to market

Man, I wish they'd just make up their fucking minds already!

Contraceptive advocates and doctors groups say easier access could halve the nation's 3 million annual unintended pregnancies. ...

The agency's independent scientific advisers overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales for everybody, not just adults, in December 2003.

FDA rejected that recommendation, citing concern about young teens' use of the pills without a doctor's guidance.

CNN

The good news? Seven states currently have legal OTC morning after pills, and Massachusetts is set to be the eighth, once the legislature overrides Romney, as usual.

Tweens increasingly into BDSM

It just occurred to me while reading this installation of Seattle BDSM Misstress Matisse's column "Control Tower" that CNN's recently reported "choking game" shows that BDSM is alive and well in suburbia.

Children have likely been playing the "choking game" for a long time, Connecticut-based child psychologist Dr. Lawrence Shapiro told The Associated Press.

...Gabriel loved the sensation, his mother said.

"It was almost like a drug," she said. "They crave it; they crave the high that they get from the lack of oxygen."


(CNN)

Most types of BDSM aren’t life threatening...

But breath play—limiting or denying someone the ability to breathe, either by suffocation or strangulation—is unquestionably the type of edge play with the highest potential for harm and the lowest controllable margin of safety... Cutting off someone’s breathing can make them have a heart attack, and there is no way to really know if that’s just about to happen. Watching your partner closely, or telling them to signal you if they’re about to pass out, will not prevent a disaster.

...Pretty much everyone who does breath control mentions that it increases the intensity of their orgasm. That’s why some of those breath control deaths happen when guys (and a few women) strangle themselves while masturbating. They think they’ll be able to stop in time. But you can’t reliably know if you’re about to get into trouble, any more than a partner would. And passing out alone, with a noose around your neck? Well, I hope you checked the “organ donor” box on your driver’s license.


(Control Tower)

So, BDSM in suburban tween bedrooms? Or is it just another jump-rope game? You decide!

Fundies

Eric Rudolph in 1996 bombed an Olympic stadium in Atlanta, GA. He got away with it at the time, and continued on to bombing a lesbian night club in 1997, and two abortion clinics in 1997 and 1998. "He has said he considered the bombings a 'moral duty' to stop abortions from being performed, because the U.S. government 'is no longer the protector of the innocent.'" (CNN)

And just because I'm a liberal and love to make comparisons that conservatives find bizzare but fellow liberals inherrantly agree with, anyone else feel Rudolph has similarities to militant Islamic fundamentalists? For example, killing people based upon their beliefs, in their own country, and not caring if bystanders or law enforcement officials get caught. I bet even most conservatives would agree with that much. Ok then Mr. Conservative, answer me this: Why then, do you condemn all of Islam and the Middle East based upon the actions of some terrorists, while you do not condemn all of Christianity and North America based upon Rudolph's actions? My opinion is that it's simply because you do not understand Islam and feel that the terrorists' actions are representative of all of Islam, while you yourself are a Christian living in the US of A.

States Reject Bush's "Intelligent Climate Change" Bullshit

"Despite what the Bush folks say, more people are realizing that global warming is a problem that we need to begin to address," said ... Rob Sargent of the Boston-based National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups.

CNN

California currently has the toughest emission laws in the nation, and other states can choose to adopt their standards, or federal standards. Oregon and Washington State are in the process of adopting CA's; most of the North-East already did adopt a previous year's and are looking to update to this year's; and PA, IL, and NC are thinking about it. The West and East Coasts control a third of the nation's car purchasing.

(Oregon Governor Ted) Kulongoski, a Democrat, said Oregon and the other states need to act because the Bush administration has failed to take steps to curtail global warming.

"If the federal government doesn't want to move forward on global warming, then the states are going to have to do it," the governor said in an interview.

CNN

Fuel Efficiency?

Like many of the fuel efficiency schemes for cars, including hydrogen fuel cells, this article on putting extra batteries in the Toyota Prius fails to acknowledge the expenditure of fossil fuels required to create the alternative energy source. For example, plugging in the Prius and using wall electricity merely moves the burning of fuels to coal in mid-west plants, rather than gas in the car's tank. Similarly, isolating the hydrogen in a fuel cell car currently takes more energy that we can produce in the fuel cells. Perhaps someday that'll be more efficient, but I'm not sure. I'm not against alternative methods of energy production, I just think we're barking up the wrong tree--cars in Europe are at least twice as fuel efficient as those in the US. Why don't we start with that?

Similar site

I just discovered that Tor's Rants is linking to Strange Musings. Man, where do these people find me? ;) Tor seems to comment on the news a lot on his blog, so thought I'd throw up a link here. Thanks Tor! :)