Eating veggies shrinks the brain

New research says that eating veggies can shrink the brain:

MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.

The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87.

When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.

Many Britons not worried; 12 percent of them do not eat any fruit and vegetables at all, the research found.

Two new primes discovered

Scientific American reports:

Prime numbers have long held a special appeal among the mathematically minded, from the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes, who devised a method for finding primes some 2,200 years ago, to the cryptographers who made them the foundation of today’s encryption protocols. Primes, each of which is divisible only by 1 and itself, have even been subject to claims of numerical ownership: California computer consultant Roger Schlafly patented two of them in 1994.

The actual values of the Mersenne primes have not been announced yet.

Dad chases nude boy from daughter's room with pipe

Florida news:

DELTONA, Fla. (AP) -- An angry Deltona father whacked his teenage daughter's boyfriend with a metal pipe after finding the boy naked in his daughter's room. ...

When he heard noises coming from his daughter's bedroom Thursday morning and saw a stranger standing naked on the girl's bed, he swung a metal pipe. He then chased the teen out the front door and called police.

The boy was taken to the hospital where doctors closed a head wound with staples.

The father was charged with aggravated battery on a child and bonded out on $10,000.

Battery on a child? It appears that the father stopped a statutory rape.

UCSC tree-sitters unphased

I am glad the Santa Cruz tree-sitters are unphased. Full text here.

Alien programmers replace Americans

Clayton Cramer writes:

I was prepared to believe the explanation for why HP was letting hundreds of engineers go -- that laser printers turned into commodities a bit faster than expected, they didn't need all the staff that they had, and so on. I was disappointed, especially because one of the reorganizations we did three years ago was obvious, even at the time, to be a terrible mistake.

Seeing that they seem to be looking to hire foreign software engineers using the H1B visa process at the same time that they are laying off software engineers is pretty galling. What adds to this is the human costs.

He is a programmer who just got laid off by HP, and now HP is hiring foreigners with H-1B visas to replace him. Don't believe the lie that we need to import programmers to fill a shortage. Companies hire H-1B visas to depress wages and save money. That's all. We have plenty of programmers.

Sex Without a Condom is the new Engagement Ring

Here is a report on college trends:

For a lot of my friends, the transition from having sex with -- to sex without -- a condom is seen as a symbolic engagement," says Pendarvis Harshaw, junior telecommunications major and Freelance Content Producer for National Public Radio's (NPR) Youth Radio organization.

"It shows trust, commitment, and the prospect of a shared future," he adds.

It used to be that you could just look at the girl's finger.

Orthorexia: Obsessing Over Health Food

ABC News reports:

What Righini and Andersen are struggling with is a kind of an obsessive compulsive disorder focused on health food called "orthorexia." The term was coined by Dr. Steve Bratman, author of the book "Health Food Junkies."

Bratman spent years in the health food movement, but became one of its critics after he realized he had started to become orthorexic.

"I suffered from a psychological obsession with food," he said. "When I was involved with this, it took up way too much of my life experiences when there were other things I could have been doing."

I think that most of the USA population subscribes to weird and unsubstantiated theories about what food is healthy.

Step reveals orgasmic ability

New research claims:

In the sample of healthy young Belgian women (half of whom were vaginally orgasmic), history of vaginal orgasm (triggered solely by penile-vaginal intercourse) was diagnosable at far better than chance level (81.25% correct, Fisher's Exact Test P < 0.05) by appropriately trained sexologists. Clitoral orgasm history was unrelated to both ratings and to vaginal orgasm history. Exploratory analyses suggest that greater pelvic and vertebral rotation and stride length might be characteristic of the gait of women who have experienced vaginal orgasm (r = 0.51, P < 0.05).

In other words, you can tell whether a woman has vaginal orgasms by how they walk. The orgasmic ones wiggle their hips more and take bigger steps. News to me.

The NewScientist mag theorizes:

Further analysis revealed that the sum of stride length and vertebral rotation was greater for the vaginally orgasmic women. "This could reflect the free, unblocked energetic flow from the legs through the pelvis to the spine," the authors note.

There are several plausible explanations for the results shown by this study. One possibility is that a woman's anatomical features may predispose her to greater or lesser tendency to experience vaginal orgasm. According to Brody, "Blocked pelvic muscles, which might be associated with psychosexual impairments, could both impair vaginal orgasmic response and gait." In addition, vaginally orgasmic women may feel more confident about their sexuality, which might be reflected in their gait. "Such confidence might also be related to the relationship(s) that a woman has had, given the finding that specifically penile-vaginal orgasm is associated with indices of better relationship quality," the authors state. Research has linked vaginal orgasm to better mental health.

The story still sounds like a joke to me.

News from Europe:

The days of watching scantily clad models dancing on distant beaches to promote the latest perfume could be numbered.

Any ads that promote women as sex objects should be banned, acc­ording to an EU report.

And it is not just the eye candy for men that faces the chop.

Any kind of gender stereotyping – from the Oxo mother cooking in the kitchen to the Ronseal man creos­oting a fence – should also be cut out, it suggested.

They restrict ind­ividuals to roles that are 'often deg­rading, humiliating and dumbed down for both sexes,' said Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson.

The report could also bolster moves to ban the use of extremely thin women, who Ms Svensson said were poor role models for girls.

The report was written by the EU's Women's Rights Committee and adopted by the European Parliament on Wednesday.

The most sexist ads are aimed at women, not men.

Palin is the younger Schlafly

Feminist Gloria Steinem writes in the LA Times:

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. ... She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

Funny. Palin not only opposes some majority views, she also opposes some minority views!

Some of those points are disputed here.

Steinem ends with this plug for Obama-Biden:

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.

No, Obama-Biden is the most anti-father ticket in many years. It was for Obama's anti-father Fathers Day speech that Jesse Jackson called him a nigger and said he wanted to cut his nuts off. Biden's main accomplishment is some anti-father laws.

Caught With His Pants Down

The Smoking Gun reports:

The Florida man, 29, was arrested yesterday for wearing baggy pants. Smith was busted by Riviera Beach cops for violating a city ordinance governing low-slung trousers (or, legally speaking, "exposure of undergarment in public").

He is also black.

Update: A judge ruled that the kid was within his constitutional rights.

Vote American

From Sen. Joe Lieberman's endorsement speech:

What, after all, is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?

The answer is simple.

I'm here to support John McCain because country matters more than party.

I'm here tonight because John McCain is the best choice to bring our country together and lead our country forward.

I'm here because John McCain's whole life testifies to a great truth: being a Democrat or a Republican is important.

But it is not more important than being an American.

That sums it up. America needs a real American for a leader.

UK book tells women how to get a man

A UK paper reports:

A self-help guide that tells women to follow their man’s orders if they want to keep him has become an unlikely hit.

The book, titled The Re-education Of The Female, also says women should wear sexy clothes while doing the cooking and cleaning.

'The Re-Education of the Female', by single father Dante Moore, puts the blame for women being unable to find a good man squarely where he says it belongs: 'On the female'.

Stay skinny, cook, clean, wear sexy clothes, and do whatever he says because men are here to command - that is the way to catch yourself a good man, says Moore.

Women are reading this book.

Hillary disses Bill

I could only stand to listen to the first minute of Hillary Clinton's speech:

I am honored to be here tonight. I'm here tonight as a proud mother. As a proud Democrat. As a proud senator from New York. A proud American. And a proud supporter of Barack Obama.

My friends, it is time to take back the country we love.

The notable omission is that she failed to say that she was proud to be Bill Clinton's wife.

Bill Clinton is one of the most widely admired men in the world. He was the American President for eight years. Hillary was First Lady. She owes everything to him. Her whole campaign was based on a promise "to take back the country" to the time of her husband's presidency. Why is it that she can credit her daughter, but not her husband?

I think that she is creepy. She gives the impression of a coldly calculating feminist who will use her husband for whatever gain that she can get, but never credit him for anything.

I tuned in some Democrat pundits later, and all they could talk about was speculation about whether Hillary was sincere in her endorsement of Barack Obama. In other words, they were practicing mindreading. I prefer to pay attention to what she actually says.

Update: The next night Bill Clinton started his speech by saying that he is proud of Hillary. He is loyal to her, but she is not loyal to him. Biden also thanked his wife. Hillary is the oddball.

George writes:

You don't know what private agreeements Bill and Hillary have. Maybe Bill approved that speech.

Right. Not only that, I don't know what they were thinking. Politicians often say things that are at odd with their personal feelings. I am just commenting on what Bill and Hillary say publicly. Her public speech showed disloyalty to her husband.

Mindreading McCain

AP reports:

McCain not sure how many houses he and wife own
Thursday, Aug 21, 2008 - 10:58 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Days after he cracked that being rich in the U.S. meant earning at least $5 million a year, Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged that he wasn't sure how many houses he and his wealthy wife actually own.

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," McCain responded to a question posed by Politico, according to a story Thursday on the publication's Web site. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you."

It is funny how these political reporters claim to have mindreading capabilities. McCain dodged a question, and people somehow infer that McCain does not know the answer.

The most obvious interpretation is that McCain regarded the question as ambiguous because a condominium may or may not be considered a home. The second most obvious interpretation is that he did not want to waste valuable campaign time answering a lot of detailed questions about his wife's personal finances. It is more efficient to refer all of those questions to his staff.

Whoever wrote that AP story lacks critical thinking skills. Ditto for Barack Obama, who immediately ran a TV ad that falsely claimed:

How many houses does he own? John McCain says he can't even remember anymore.

No, McCain did not say that.

Update: I just watched McCain on the Tonight Show, and he dodged Jay Leno's question about how many houses he has. Will the mindreaders again say that McCain still doesn't know how many houses he owns? I think that Obama and the other mindreaders have a serious cognitive problem.

Finding Phelps' dad

Yahoo tracks down Phelps' dad:

During Michael Phelps' races, camera shots of his mother Debbie were a fixture on NBC. The network showed endless replays of her falling to her seat after that memorable 100 butterfly finish. ... Where was Dad?

It's been well-documented that Debbie and Fred Phelps divorced when Michael was 9.

The article goes on to take some cheap shots at his dad. The fact is that Phelps is a 23-year-old adult who makes $5M a year from endorsements. He paid for his mom's trip to Peking, but did not invite his dad. It appears that his mom used the family court to cut his dad out of his life.

I had the impression from the Olympics broadcast that Phelps swam for the Univ. of Michigan swim team. But while he took some Univ. of Michigan classes, he has dropped out of college and he never swam for the team.

There is a conspiracy theory about how he won one medal here.

Men, Women and Speed

Some scientists are finally admitting the obvious:

Women are slower than men in running, in swimming, in cycling. Whether it is a 100-meter race on the track or a marathon, a 200-meter butterfly swim or a 10-kilometer marathon swim, the pattern holds.

And even though some scientists once predicted that women would eventually close the gender gap in elite performances — it was proposed that all they needed was more experience, better training and stronger coaching — that idea is now largely discredited, at least for Olympic events. Researchers say there is no one physiological reason for the gap, although there is a common biological thread.

“To a large extent, it’s a matter of testosterone,” said Dr. Benjamin Levine, ...

The hormone affects everything from muscle size and strength to the size of the heart to the amount of oxygen-carrying blood cells in the body to the percentage of fat on an athlete’s body. Every one of those effects gives men a performance advantage.

Polygamy is the key to a long life

NewScientist reports:

Want to live a little longer? Get a second wife. New research suggests that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones.

After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations, says Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Lummaa presented her findings last week at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology’s annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.

Rather than a call to polygamy, the research might solve a long-standing puzzle in human biology: Why do men live so long?

It seems more likely to me that women marry healthy men who are likely to live a long time. A man with several wives only has those wives because they think he is healthy. The wives may not be making him live longer.

How to get annoying cell calls

My local county wants my cell telephone number for Reverse 911:

Examples of uses may be:

Request for community assistance in locating missing children
Evacuation notices due to emergency situations
Be-on-the-lookout notices for dangerous criminals in your area

I would like to hear about true emergencies, but I am disturbed that their first item on the list is to intervene in child custody disputes. We have Amber Alerts in this state, and they are nearly always just some disagreement between the parents about spending time with their kids, and not a real kidnapping. I would rather not have some county bureaucrat call me on my cell phone just to tell me about some minor parental dispute.

Illegal to refuse to inseminate lesbians

You would think that a physician has a right to refuse to inseminate a woman. Fatherless children cause many of America's problems, and yet courts are mandating more of them:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's highest court on Monday barred doctors from invoking their religious beliefs as a reason to deny treatment to gays and lesbians, ruling that state law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination extends to the medical profession.

Justice Joyce Kennard wrote that two Christian fertility doctors who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian have neither a free speech right nor a religious exemption from the state's law, which "imposes on business establishments certain antidiscrimination obligations."

In the lawsuit that led to the ruling, Guadalupe Benitez, 36, of Oceanside said that the doctors treated her with fertility drugs and instructed her how to inseminate herself at home but told her their beliefs prevented them from inseminating her. One of the doctors referred her to another fertility specialist without moral objections, and Benitez has since given birth to three children.

I wonder whether she is even in this country legally, and whether welfare money is supporting these inseminations.

Feminist Columbia demonizes men

The NY Daily News reports:

Anti-feminist lawyer Roy Den Hollander sued Columbia University Monday, accusing it of turning feminism into the school's religion - and teaching that men are "the primary cause for most, if not all, the world's ills."

Hollander says Columbia discriminates against men by teaching a doctrine that scapegoats men for all of history's troubles.

In a suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court, he complains that the Ivy League school in Morningside Heights uses federal money to fund a "religionist belief system called feminism." The class-action suit argues that Columbia's women's studies program demonizes men and exalts women to justify discrimination against men based on collective guilt. ...

He refused to give his age, claiming it would hinder his chances of picking up younger women at city nightspots.

Funny. He has a point, but the court will not listen to him.

Military funds mind-reading science

AP reports:

LOS ANGELES - Here's a mind-bending idea: The U.S. military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts. The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals.

But the research also raises concerns that such mind-reading technology could be used to interrogate the enemy.

Concerns? I would be concerned if the military was funding research without looking at the obvious military applications.

The article says, "They're still in the proof of principle stage". Mindreading is still science fiction.

Fattest children to be taken away from their parents

UK news:

Dangerously overweight children will have to be taken from their parents and put into care because of Britain's worsening "obesity epidemic", council leaders have warned.

One million children will be clinically obese within four years on current trends, storing up future problems from heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure and diabetes.

There is a long list of other problems that will result from a million kids being taken from their parents.

These health problems occur in adults, so why don't they go after the fat adults instead? Perhaps they could start by cutting off welfare benefits to fat people.

Update: As British official denied this, the newspapers have reported that it is already happening.

Jesus convicted of murder in Idaho

AP reports:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The crime was meticulously planned, the killer choreographing every step from his surveillance of the doomed family to the videotaped torture of one of his youngest victims.

Yet something as simple as a locked back door, or fiercer family dogs, might have turned Joseph Edward Duncan III away.

Duncan's federal sentencing hearing opened Wednesday with U.S. Attorney Thomas Moss outlining how the convicted pedophile terrorized the Groene family, all because he wanted to "live out his fantasy" and exact revenge on society for perceived wrongs.

This story is filled with weird and creep stuff. Have you ever wondered whether it would any good to lock the back door? Surely a rapist-kidnapper-child-molester-murderer would just break the lock or the window, and not be deterred by a simple door lock. But in this case:

"He made a decision: `If that back door is locked, I'm going to abort,'" Moss said Duncan later told police.

When he turned the handle, it opened. Then the terror began.

The dogs scurried away when they saw Duncan's gun, Moss said. Duncan bound the family, took the youngest children outside and beat the others to death.

Then he drove away with Dylan and Shasta, making sure they knew he had killed their relatives as he headed into the Montana wilderness.

Have you ever heard of guard dogs who were intimidated by a gun? Maybe in Idaho, where everybody has dogs and guns, the guns understand what guns can do.

Not that Duncan would hurt a dog. He liked to kill people, but not dogs:

Duncan had researched police investigation procedures and took steps to avoid getting caught, Moss told jurors. He bought too-large tennis shoes at a thrift store so no bloody footprints would lead police to him. He wiped down shotgun shells before loading them so there'd be no fingerprints. He loaded the first shot with BB pellets because he thought he'd have to shoot the family dogs and didn't necessarily want to kill them.

Duncan also refused a lawyer and insisted that the court record be accurate:

Duncan, who is representing himself, told the jury Wednesday that most of what Moss said was fair and accurate "up to the point of what occurred at the campground."

He said he would testify so he could try to "clarify things."

Perhaps most bizarre is the courtroom sketch above that makes Duncan look like Jesus. Is this some kind of sick joke?

Why US gymnasts wore red

I wondered why the USA girls gymnast team wore red just like the Chinese team, until this explained it:

With a delightfully simple but beautifully crafted experiment, Norbert Hagemann at the University of Munster found that refs have a tendency to award more points to red-garbed competitiors.

Obama is probably not the Antichrist

The Wash. Post reports:

The debate over the debate has gotten so intense that Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the authors of the "Left Behind" series, issued a statement clarifying that Obama is likely not the Antichrist in the Book of Revelation. "I've gotten a lot of questions the last few weeks asking if Obama is the Antichrist," Jenkins told Christian Newswire. "I tell everyone that I don't think the Antichrist will come out of politics, especially American politics."

That should reassure voters. Also:

"I can see by the language he uses why people think he could be the antichrist," adds LaHaye, "but from my reading of scripture, he doesn't meet the criteria. There is no indication in the Bible that the antichrist will be an American."

I cannot argue with that last sentence. But I am wondering if there is any indication in the Bible that Obama should be considered an American. He was born to a Kenyan father in Hawaii, and grew up in Indonesia. Yes, Hawaii is now an American state, but it only became a state long after the Bible was written.

Burger ban is weighed in San Jose

The Si Valley paper reports:

Three San Jose City Council members Thursday proposed a one-year citywide moratorium on new fast-food restaurants, arguing that the prolific eateries are fattening people - especially kids - with unhealthy fare.

The proposal is similar to a moratorium the Los Angeles City Council approved last month for south Los Angeles. The San Jose proposal also calls for an indefinite ban on new fast-food restaurants within 1,000 feet of schools.

"Obesity is a huge problem within our society and among children," said Councilwoman Nora Campos, who was joined by councilmen Forrest Williams and Kansen Chu. ...

The San Jose proposal does not yet define "fast-food" restaurants and instead asks the city attorney to come up with language. Reed said that may prove difficult.

"Nobody has any idea what fast food is and how you define it," Reed said. "Are we going to ban the taquerias? Chinese food places?"

Los Angeles decided on certain characteristics: "a limited menu, items prepared in advance or prepared or heated quickly, no table orders and food served in disposable wrapping or containers."

Note that the definition does not involve whether the food is healthy or fattening.

Internet sting nabs teacher

The San Jose paper reports:

Police arrested a San Jose high school teacher Tuesday afternoon on suspicion he tried to arrange a meeting with a teenage girl he'd met on the Internet.

The 13-year-old girl was actually a Santa Cruz police detective. ...

"The entire conversation and the entire desires were initiated by Mr. Barany," Santa Cruz police spokesman Zach Friend said. "It was very transparent that it was a 13-year-old girl and it was very transparent that he was engaging in this conversation to at some point engage in a lewd act with her." ...

Friend pointed out that no actual children were involved in the investigation. He also said Barany did not have a history of similar crimes.

I am all in favor of nabbing child sex predators, but I really don't see how it could have been "transparent that it was a 13-year-old girl" when no such girl was involved.

Groom Arrested for Getting Too Close to Bride

Fox News reports:

BATAVIA, N.Y. — A New York state man has been arrested for getting too close to his bride on their wedding day.

Timothy Cole quarreled with a wedding guest at a party Friday after wedding his ex-wife in Batavia, police said.

Officers knew the 45-year-old Cole from previous arrests and realized his bride had an order of protection against him. Cole was charged with first-degree criminal contempt, a felony, and ordered jailed without bail.

These orders ought to be abolished.

More lesbian divorce

The Fresno paper reports:

A same-sex couple who were married in Fresno County on June 27 -- just 10 days after county clerks in California started issuing marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples -- has filed for divorce.

The couple, Theresa Ramirez and Adelita Guajardo, are among more than 100 same-sex couples who applied for a marriage license in the county since June.

Three days after their marriage, Ramirez filed for divorce, court records show. The court petition says there were "irreconcilable differences" between her and Guajardo. ...

Same-sex couples, Fletcher said, may have lived in a "siege mentality" prior to the California Supreme Court ruling in May legalizing same-sex marriage.

"In a way, gays and lesbians had a common enemy in the form of the state and society," Fletcher said. "People who have common enemies tend to stick together."

But once same-sex marriages were legalized, he said, "it's no longer you and me against the world -- it's you and me against each other."

I guess all the gays and lesbians will be fighting each other now.

The Human Element

The Dow Chemical company has been running TV image ads for years on the human element. About a month ago, they were rescripted with this (audio here):

We have only to look into each other's eyes to see the story of our planet. A few simple truths -- the way hydrogen bonds with oxygen, the cadence and order of things -- have lived there from the beginning. But if we move a little to the left, change perspective, and consider the notion of adding the human element to the periodic table of the elements, we see the world for the first time. And it is world which responds to touch. We worked the new chemistry element by element, and in turn we learn the secret to a better life; the story of a planet where chemistry embraces humanity.

At first I thought that it was some sort of left-wing Obama propaganda.

Apparently people must have complained, because Dow Chemical has dropped "move a little to the left" from the script. It still shows a dark-skinned person turning a huge mask to the left, but leaves in a gap in the audio at that point. It also omits the line about seeing the world for the first time, and responding to touch.

I am really surprised that no one has commented on this. The ads are very well done, but I can do without the leftist propaganda.

Dow Chemical is also running a similar ad that says this:

For as long as there was memory, the world was seen as man against the elements. That carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are the very same elements from which we are made. They are the bond btween us all. And when our view of the world includes the human element, chemistry is suddenly found on the same page with humanity, and climate change relinquishes to change more fundamental.

It still sounds like leftist propaganda to me.

All Americans could be getting fat

Research news:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects.

The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight. ...

Already, she and her colleagues point out, some groups of U.S. adults have extremely high rates of overweight and obesity; among African- American women, for instance, 78 percent are currently overweight or obese.

The new projections, published in the journal Obesity, are based on government survey data collected between the 1970s and 2004.

If the trends of those years continue, the researchers estimate that 86 percent of American adults will be overweight by 2030, with an obesity rate of 51 percent. By 2048, all U.S. adults could be at least mildly overweight.

Weight problems will be most acute among African-Americans and Mexican- Americans, the study projects. All black women could be overweight by 2034, according to the researchers, as could more than 90 percent of Mexican-American men.

This could spell the end of our civilization.

Watch out for lesbian assumptions

The Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper reports:

SANTA CRUZ - In the days prior to her suicide, late-UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Denice Denton was making plans to move to Texas where her mother and three siblings live.

Denton also hadn't lived with her partner, Gretchen Kalonji, since the couple moved from Washington state to Santa Cruz in 2005 and their relationship was "tumultuous," according to Denton's mother, Carolyn Mabee.

Mabee, the executor of Denton's estate, made the statements in court documents filed last week in preparation for a hearing Monday about the $2.25 million lawsuit Kalonji filed against the estate in January 2007.

Denton left nothing to Kalonji, who was her partner for more than a decade, according to legal documents.

Kalonji has stated in court documents that she did her best to support Denton in the months leading up to her suicide. Denton died after she jumped from Kalonji's high-rise San Francisco condo on June 24, 2006. ...

Kalonji, who was hired by the UC Office of the President when Denton was named chancellor, claims the couple had made oral agreements to care for the other should something happen to one of them, however, Denton's will, signed in 1985 before she met Kalonji, left most of her assets to her three siblings.

"Assuming such agreement or agreements existed, neither Denice nor Kalonji did anything to implement it or them," Mabee stated in a court document signed July 23. "Kalonji never made Denice the beneficiary of any life insurance or retirements benefits, nor made her the beneficiary of any will or trust."

According to Kalonji, it was assumed the women would care for one another. ...

The couple did not register as domestic partners when they moved to California.

Denton got UCSC to give Kalonji a cushy $200k job. That should be enough for her. They did not even live together or have sexual relations. Kalonji's claim has no merit, but Denton's estate will have to pay $250k to fight the case in court. UCSC never should have had an affirmative action program for crazy lesbians in the first place.

Cohabitation not necessarily a divorce risk

USA Today reports:

Teachman's analysis of federal data on 6,577 women whose first marriages occurred between 1970 and 1995 found that a woman who has lived only with her future spouse has no greater risk of divorce. But for women who lived with someone else in addition to the eventual husband, there is a greater risk of divorce, found the study, published in 2003.

Those aren't the only studies reflecting changes — researchers across the country, including at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Minnesota, Pennsylvania State University, Cornell University and others, are studying cohabiting couples. Among other recent findings:

• The odds of divorce among women who married their only cohabiting partner were 28% lower than among women who never cohabited before marriage, according to sociologist Daniel Lichter of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

• Divorce rates for those who cohabit more than once are more than twice as high as for women who cohabited only with their eventual husbands, says Lichter's study, to be published in the Journal of Marriage and Family in December.

I have heard Michael Medved and others say that cohabitation before marriage increases the risk of divorce. Apparently there are big differences among female cohabitators.

Fast food ban

LA news:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles City Council has approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a low-income area of the city. The moratorium unanimously approved Tuesday is a bid to attract restaurants that offer healthier food choices to residents in a 32-square-mile area of South Los Angeles. Councilwoman Jan Perry says residents at five public meetings expressed concern with the proliferation of fast-food outlets in a community plagued by above-average rates of obesity. Nearly three-quarters of the restaurants in South L.A. serve fast food. That’s a higher percentage than other parts of the city but the restaurant industry says the moratorium won’t help bring in alternatives.

This will not reduce obesity.

Ballot description changed

California is going to have this Proposition 8 on the Nov. ballot:

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

It was scheduled to have this official ballot description:

Amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: The measure would have no fiscal effect on state or local governments. This is because there would be no change to the manner in which marriages are currently recognized by the state.

Now AG Jerry Brown wants to change it to this:

Changes California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. Provides that oOnly marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Fiscal Impact: Over the next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact on state and local governments.

The LA Times reports:

Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for the attorney general, denied that there was any political motivation for the move.

Instead, he said, the change was necessary because of the dramatic turn of events that have taken place since the petitions were circulated: namely that the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage and thousands of gay couples have since wed.

Of course it is political. The new description makes it sound like the California Constitution had a clause saying that same-sex couples had a right to marry. In fact Prop. 8 just affirms the existing law, before the California Supreme Court meddled with it in May.

Prop. 8 will not affect the ability of same-sex couples to form domestic partnerships and file joint state tax returns, adopt children, and enjoy the other state benefits of marriage. It only affects whether the partnership will be called "marriage" by the state.

Larry Summers was wrong, or maybe right

Janet Shibley Hyde claims that boys and girls are just the same in almost everything, and published some research on math test scores. As a statistician blogger points out, the NY Times reported this as disproving Larry Summers, and the Wall Street Journal said that it confirmed what Summers said.

Update: Heather Mac Donald makes similar points.

Hitler did not snub Jesse Owens

The lead story on Page 1 of the San Jose Mercury News says:

John Lysak, the Bay Area's oldest former U.S. Olympic athlete, ... you can shake the affable 93-year-old hand that once shook the hand of Jesse Owens - unlike, say, the hand of Adolf Hitler, who snubbed Owens, the great American sprinter. It happened at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

Hey, you can read about it in the history books. Or you can talk to Lysak, who was there in the stadium. He was taking a break from his kayak competition to watch some track and field.

"I saw it happen," Lysak said of the infamous Olympic moment.

Hitler walked down from his seat to participate in the ceremony after Owens had won the first of his four gold medals. But after Hitler warmly greeted the German athletes, he ignored the African-American who was the finest runner on the planet.

"Afterward," Lysak said, "I ended up on the same ship back to the United States as Owens. I asked him about it. He told me that the snub didn't hurt his feelings because as a black man, that kind of thing had been going on his whole life. He'd gotten used to it."

The story is false. Adolf Hitler shook a few hands on the first day of track and field competition, and none after that, at the request of Olympic officials. Owens won his first medal on the second day, and was treated as warmly as any other athelete. You can read about it here or many other places.

About a week ago, the newspaper announced on Page 1 that Microsoft was definitely going to take over Yahoo. The paper needs some fact checkers.

Save the males

A UK paper reports:

American author Kathleen Parker's courageous thesis is that initially, through extreme feminism, then via its craven implementation into society, women have demonised men and trivialised their contribution, especially to family life. ...

She argues: 'As long as men feel marginalised by the women whose favour and approval they seek, as long as they are alienated from their children and treated as criminals by family courts, as long as they are disrespected by a culture that no longer values masculinity tied to honour, as long as boys are bereft of strong fathers and our young men and women wage sexual war, then we risk cultural suicide.'

It's enough to set a feminist's hair on end.

UK schools ban cheese

A UK newspaper reports:

Schools in Plymouth banned from putting cheese on jacket potatoes

Thousands of schoolchildren were yesterday stopped from eating cheese on jacket potatoes for lunch.

Education chiefs ordered all 17 primary school canteens in Plymouth not to put the topping on baked spuds in a bid to improve pupil health.

The city council claimed it had been forced into the ban in an bid to meet new Government nutrition standards.

Cheese is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. I don't know what they are trying to do.

Local eccentrics

The local paper reports:

Walking in the buff down Pacific Avenue

SANTA CRUZ -- Fresh off a flight from North Carolina, Gwen Baine and her family were enjoying the warm Santa Cruz sun Wednesday afternoon when she couldn't believe what she was seeing -- a woman sauntering down Pacific Avenue wearing nothing but a smile. ...

The woman, who appeared to be in her mid-30s and may have been wearing a wig, walked very "ladylike" past Kianti's outdoor patio where Baine's granddaughter Sophie said, "Oh my goodness that woman doesn't have any clothes on." ...

But Santa Cruz police spokesman Zach Friend said, "If we gave a citation for every one of Santa Cruz's idiosyncrasies, we'd be swimming in an ocean of citations."

I'd like to say that the locals here are very tolerant, but they are not. More later.

Female preacher wants same-sex marriage

The letter to the San Jose paper complains about the California ballot initiative to restore the definition of marriage to being between a man and a woman:

Proposition 8 would deny the civil freedom to marry to many of our residents. I can speak for many local clergy, who have done extensive research into the biblical witness and know that the Bible does not even address our current situation: same-gender adults who freely choose a lifelong commitment to love and care for each other. Jesus says nothing about these relationships, but he certainly does support fidelity. I think most of us do. We should vote accordingly.

Rev. Margo Tenold
Co-director Council of Churches of Santa Clara County

No, that is not the current situation. California marriage is not a lifelong commitment; either party can bail out unilaterally. Maybe Jesus supported fidelity, but California law does not. Adultery is entirely legal in California, and the same-sex marriage debate won't change that. It would be nice if the same-sex marriage nuts would actually address the current ballot situation.

Embarrassing to women and rappers

The LA Times reports:

Social stigma drives some women to remove tattoos

Tattoo It appears sexism is alive and well when it comes to tattoos. Although just about as many women as men get tattoos nowadays, a new study shows that women seek removal of tattoos more than men because of negative social fallout.

About 25% of people ages 18 to 30 have tattoos, and that number is expected to rise to about 40% in the next few years, according to the study, published today in the Archives of Dermatology. Previous studies have shown that about 20% of people end up dissatisfied with their tattoos, and about 6% seek tattoo removal using laser treatment. ...

But in the 2006 survey, women also reported that they felt stigmatized by the tattoos. For example, 93% said having to hide the tattoos on occasion was a factor in the removal compared with 20% of men. About 40% of women endured negative comments at work, in public or in school compared with 5% of men.

Gosh, who would have guessed?

Meanwhile, rapper Rick Ross is embarrassed by just the opposite. Despite his denials, it has not been proved that he once worked in law enforcement.

Frustrated parents have to teach math to their kids

CNN reports:

NEW YORK (AP) -- On an occasional evening at the kitchen table in Brooklyn, New York, Victoria Morey has been known to sit down with her 9-year-old son and do something she's not supposed to.

"I am a rebel," confessed this mother of two.

And just what is this subversive act in which Morey engages -- with a child, yet?

Long division.

The schools are unlikely to teach math properly to your kids.

Psycho drug cartoon

Healthy to add fat to diet

Yet another study shows that a high-fat diet is better than a low-fat diet:

The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques.

A bigger surprise: The low-carb diet improved cholesterol more than the other two. Some critics had predicted the opposite.

There are many studies like this. Physicians who say that fat is bad for you just don't know what they are talking about.

Here is another:

ScienceDaily (July 20, 2008) — Scientists have long been puzzled by how the Masai can avoid cardiovascular disease despite having a diet rich in animal fats. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet believe that their secret is in their regular walking.

There is strong evidence that the high consumption of animal fats increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Many scientists have therefore been surprised that the nomadic Masai of Kenya and Tanzania are seldom afflicted by the disease, despite having a diet that is rich in animal fats and deficient in carbohydrates.

Maybe the Masai have more energy because they have healthier diets.

Update: Tierney and Taubes at the NY Times point out that this study showed that eating a lot of saturated fat leads to better cholesterol profiles. Conventional medical wisdom says that saturated fat is unhealthy. It appears that physicians are wrong about saturated fat being harmful.

21 Reasons Why Gender Matters

Here is a good essay on the importance of fathers and mothers.

Global warming causes kidney stones

SciAm magazine reports:

Add kidney stones to the growing list of possible consequences of global warming. A new study warns that as many as 2.3 million more people may develop these mineral deposits in their kidneys by the year 2050 as the result of a warming world. The reason? There's a greater risk that they will be subject to dehydration in more sultry climes, which is believed to be a major contributor to stone formation, according to research published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

They are really getting desperate to find scare stories about global warming. It is more likely that people will drink a little extra water, if they get too hot.

Study claims fat folks don't know they are fat

A BMJ study (criticized here) found that, among people with a BMI of 26, 60% said that they were overweight in 1999, but only 40% said so in 2007. The study concluded that millions of people were too stupid to know that they were fat. Official charts say that anyone with a BMI over 25 is overweight.

A 2005 JAMA study found that folks with a BMI of 27 live the longest. Maybe 20% of the population has wised up to current research, and it is the official BMI tables that are out of date.

Apes now have rights in Spain

The cartoonist is an animal rights freak who explains his beliefs:

I don't personally believe that cruelty to any species of animal is less immoral than cruelty to our fellow humans. To me, we are all the same in our desire to be pain free, happy, and alive. I don't believe this because I am vegan, I am vegan because I believe this.

Spain has just granted animal rights to great apes:

Ingrid Newkirk, a founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, considers Spain’s vote “a great start at breaking down the species barriers, under which humans are regarded as godlike and the rest of the animal kingdom, whether chimpanzees or clams, are treated like dirt.”

Other commentators are aghast. Scientists, for example, would like to keep using chimpanzees to study the AIDS virus, which is believed to have come from apes.

Mr. Singer responded by noting that humans are a better study model, and yet scientists don’t deliberately infect them with AIDS.

“They’d need to justify not doing that,” he said. “Why apes?”

Because apes are less valuable than humans, and the medical research could save a lot of human lives. This should be obvious.

Use it or lose it

Here is some obvious research. A new study in the American Journal of Medicine has thisabstract:

Regular Intercourse Protects Against Erectile Dysfunction: Tampere Aging Male Urologic Study

Background
Erectile dysfunction is common among men aged more than 60 years. Its cause involves both physiologic and psychosocial factors.

Methods
To evaluate the effects of coital frequency on subsequent risk of erectile dysfunction, data were analyzed from a population-based 5-year follow-up study that was conducted in Pirkanmaa, Finland, using postal questionnaires. ...

Results
The overall incidence of moderate or complete erectile dysfunction was 32 cases per 1000 person-years ... The risk of erectile dysfunction was inversely related to the frequency of intercourse. ...

Conclusion
Regular intercourse protects against the development of erectile dysfunction among men aged 55 to 75 years. This may have an impact on general health and quality of life; therefore, doctors should support patients' sexual activity.

You can also find the abstract here, and the full article here. It is not a joke.

The authors claim to have found a cause-and-effect relationship, and not just a correlation. That is, lack of intercourse causes ED, and not the other way around.

Maybe next someone will do research to show that people who do regular push-ups are less likely to lose the ability to do push-ups.

US Census Bureau won't count same-sex couples as being married

The lead story on Page 1 of the San Jose newspaper reports:

Tens of thousands of same-sex couples are expected to marry legally in California by 2010, if a constitutional ban on gay marriage doesn't pass at the polls in November.

But no matter what the voters decide, the official government count of the number of married same-sex couples in California is not in doubt. It will be zero. ...

Critics say the census plan will mask the records of legal, same-sex, married couples and therefore degrade the quality of the government's demographic data.

No, it is just true (in this context) that we'll have thousands of legally married same-sex couples. The California Supreme Court said that same-sex couples could register and call themselves married under California law, but everyone agrees that they will not be married under federal law or under the laws of nearly all the other states.

It is incorrect to call a couple "legally married" unless there is a marriage that is recognized under the applicable laws. In the USA, a California same-sex couple can have a marriage recognized under some laws, but not others. The US Census is doing the correct thing.

Pediatricians push more harmful guidelines

Here is another attempt to get your kids on drugs:

The nation’s pediatricians are recommending wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems.

The advice is debunked here. The advice is bad for adults, and untested on kids.

Why German is less offensive than Spanish

Ruben Navarrette Jr. writes in a newspaper op-ed:

Twenty-three years ago, on the night I graduated from high school, one of my co-valedictorians wrote into his speech a single sentence welcoming his grandparents, who had traveled to the United States to attend the ceremony. The sentence was in his grandparents' native language.

The night before, at the eighth-grade graduation across town, a young girl, another valedictorian, did something similar. She included a single sentence thanking her parents - in their native language - for their support.

The line in the high school speech was in German; the one in the speech for the junior high school was in Spanish. Guess which speech caused a fuss?

I think that there is a big difference. No one is forcing anyone to learn German. Germans come to this country and learn English. They don't complain about they would have controlled part of the USA if only they had won the war.

The law requires my ballots to be printed in English and Spanish. The same law prohibits ballots being printed in German. Speaking Spanish is a threat to Americanism, and speaking German is not.

The right to say Yuck

UK news:

Toddlers who say "yuck" when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says. The London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to "recognize different people in their lives."The bureau says to be aware of children who "react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying "yuck".

We grown-ups also want the right to occasionally say "yuck".

Obama is embarrassed that Americans speak English

Here is Backtrack Obama, giving yet another reason why he is embarrassed to be an American:

You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English- only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

You know, no, I'm serious about this.

I want a President who is not embarrassed to be an American. I also want one who will do something about the immigration problems, and not just tell me that my kids will need to learn Spanish.

Update: Another columnist addresses the issue.

Professor badmouths hot dogs

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

[Joey] Chestnut, who clocked in at 210 pounds before the contest, downplayed his win, which carries a $10,000 prize.

"I'm just a normal guy eating hot dogs on the Fourth," he said. "You can't overcomplicate it."

Then he burped. He was clearly tired. The hot dogs had staggered him. No doubt he'll need recovery time, said Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor at the New York University School of Medicine.

"Hot dogs are extremely unhealthy, especially when eaten at high volume. They're really processed. They have high cholesterol and too much salt," he said.

And thanks to the quantities the competitors ate, they'll likely suffer nausea, bloat, headache and possibly high blood pressure for several days as the body slowly digests the food.

"One is bad for you, five's worse and 50 is terrible," he said.

You would think that the newspaper could find a medical professor who knows more about food than the clerk in a natural food store. Food does not become unhealthy just because it is processed, or contains cholesterol and salt.

Letting kids have their own way

The UK Sunday Times newspaper reports:

As the mother of two young daughters, Ruth Appleton is used to doling out praise for almost everything they do. Even she was taken aback, however, when her younger daughter, Rachel, now 5, arrived home from nursery clutching a certificate for “sitting nicely on the carpet”.

“It made me wonder what she was doing the rest of the time,” said Appleton, from Porthcawl, Wales. “I thought it was a bit over the top rewarding her for something so routine. But it’s part of a whole culture of stickers and smiley faces and ‘celebration assemblies’.”

Anyone with children at primary school will instantly get the picture: no child’s existence is complete without “circle time”, or “show and tell” sessions at which they are encouraged to parade their achievements and examine their feelings. The received wisdom on child-rearing says nothing should be allowed to damage a child’s sense of self-worth: just last week the Football Association (FA) decided to ban teams including children under eight from publishing their results, for fear of putting the kids under too much pressure if they lost a match.

As parents, we are encouraged to nurture our children’s sense of “self”, but are we unwittingly doing them more harm than good? ...

It is becoming a worldwide trend. A recent production of Snow White at a primary school in Japan featured 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch, as parents objected to one child being picked out for the title role. In Sweden a boy was prevented from handing out invitations to his birthday party at school because he was “discriminating” against the two classmates he did not invite.

This nonsense has infected American schools also.

Obama flip-flops on same-sex marriage

The San Jose Mercury News prints this editorial:

John McCain's support for the initiative to ban gay marriage in California - Proposition 8 - was predictable, ...

Obama and McCain both have said they believe marriage should be between a man and woman. They part company on the impulse to legislate their personal belief ...

Make no mistake. This is a civil rights issue. Under law, only marriage confers certain legal rights of inheritance, medical decision-making and child custody.

The newspaper is mistaken. Same sex couples can get all of those "legal rights" under California law, regardless of whether Proposition 8 passes or not. All they have to do is to register as domestic partners. The editorial is as wrong as it can be.

Obama is trying to be both for and against same-sex marriage at the same time. He has flip-flopped on many other issues as well, ranging from the Iraq War to wearing a flag lapel pin.

Hot dog-eating champ heads for Coney Island

Not me. I finished in second place.

Eating hot dogs

I just took second place today in the Nathan's Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest Qualifier in San Francisco. If I had won, then I would be at the national championship at Coney Island next week.

I previously complained that I was unable to sign up, but I complained and they let me in yesterday.

Your Brain Lies to You

Neuroscientists Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt write in the NY Times:

False beliefs are everywhere. Eighteen percent of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth, one poll has found. Thus it seems slightly less egregious that, according to another poll, 10 percent of us think that Senator Barack Obama, a Christian, is instead a Muslim. The Obama campaign has created a Web site to dispel misinformation.

There are some good reasons for confusion on that last point. Barack Obama has a Mohammedan name. His father and step-father were both Mohammedans. His mother was an atheist. He spent some of his formative years in Indonesia, a Mohammedan country. Mohammedan doctrine is that once he is a Mohammedan, he is always a Mohammedan.

Obama claims to have converted to Christianity as an adult, but he did it by joining a racist and anti-American church that seems foreign to American Christians. He is reluctant to criticize Mohammedan terrorists, and he fails to support American efforts to contain violent Mohammedan jihadists. He seems insincere as he panders to his political constituents. There is no way to know for sure what his beliefs are. I don't think that poll is so wrong because Obama certainly does have some peculiar Mohammedan sympathies.

Women Have Not Adapted To Casual Sex

Science Daily reports:

The sexual and feminist revolutions were supposed to free women to enjoy casual sex just as men always had. Yet according to Professor Anne Campbell from Durham University in the UK, the negative feelings reported by women after one-night stands suggest that they are not well adapted to fleeting sexual encounters.

My guess is that this is no surprise to non-feminists.

A Beautiful Mind

When the movie A Beautiful Mind came out in 2001, there were many complaints about its accuracy. Most of the complaints had to do with omitting embarrassing details of his life. But many of those details were just unverified rumors that did not belong in the movie anyway. I found it odd that this mostly-accurate movie was so criticized, when other supposedly-factual movies like the recent 21 are gross fabrications that are horribly misleading in every scene.

The biggest fiction in the movie was the display of visual hallunications, when Nash actually heard non-visual voices.

But here is a distortion that is deliberately misleading. A Beautiful Mind shows the hero recovering from his mental illness, and saying, "I take the newer medications." In fact he hated the forced psychiatric drugs that he had to take in the 1960s, and he never took any after that. The director said that he wanted to promote psychiatric drugs. What most people don't know is that the drugs are really not very effective.

Is Tiger Woods juicing?

I think that athletes like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire should be considered innocent until proven guilty, but I am wondering why no one is accusing Tiger Woods of taking steroids. His muscles are now huge, he has gotten a series of improbable injuries, and he took the year off rather than submit to the new PGA drug tests.

How to nap

The Boston Globe explains. I recommend afternoon naps.

Harm caused by same-sex marriage

Some people have asked how same-sex marriage could possibly harm non-homosexuals.

Harm to regular marriage is just one reason to oppose the recent California court decision mandating same-sex marriage. There are other reasons for wanting marriage law to reflect the popular will on how marriage ought to be defined, and for opposing supremacist judges who want to impose their values on us.

One of the main functions of traditional marriage law was to provide a way for a couple to make a binding agreement to be jointly responsible for any resulting children. For thousands of years, civilized societies have depended on the family unit, with each child being the responsibility of one father and one mother.

But marriage law has evolved. Divorces are granted unilaterally. Non-married fathers can gain child custody rights, and married fathers often lose them. Civil marriage has been reduced to a financial contract, and judges assume authority over the kids in case of divorce.

Same-sex marriage is one more unfortunate step in the long list of legal changes that separate children from marriage. The harm from same-sex marriage is slight, because few gays will marry anyway. But there is harm when it convinces people that nothing else matters as long as two people are in love and committed, as an LA Times poll just reported. The next generation may not even realize that marriage was once a way to take responsibility for children.

Proposal would change rules for bicyclists at stop signs

The local newspaper reports:

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Bicyclists, who often raise the ire of drivers and pedestrians for their loose interpretation of traffic laws, could be allowed to roll through stop signs and travel through red lights after halting.

The “stop and roll” proposal is patterned after a state law in Idaho in which bicyclists are legally able to treat stop signs as yield signs, and interpret red stoplights as stop signs. Currently, California bicyclists must stop and put one foot on the ground at stop signs, and follow the same stoplight rules as drivers. ...

Bicyclists said they were in favor of the idea, especially because it is difficult to start pedaling from a dead stop and stoplights occasionally do not recognize bikers because of their size.

“Bicyclists are already perceived as outlaws who never stop at stop signs,” said Andy Thornley, program director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, who added that bicyclists see drivers as aggressive and pushy.

About a month ago, I was riding my bicycle and had to make a left turn at a stop light. There was a local cop who stopped on the shoulder and watching the intersection. A left turn requires a left turn arrow, and I happened to know that the intersection has a car detector in the left turn lane. It was not going to turn green for me. It was a lightly-travelled intersection, and I could have waited as long as 20 minutes for a car to enter the left turn lane and trigger the green left arrow.

So I just did a stop and roll, and the cop did not say anything. It would be nice if the bicycle stop and roll were actually recognized in the Vehicle Code, because it is a practical necessity.

Why organic milk tastes different

Sci Am magazine explains:

Organic milk lasts longer because producers use a different process to preserve it. According to the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, the milk needs to stay fresh longer because organic products often have to travel farther to reach store shelves since it is not produced throughout the country.

The process that gives the milk a longer shelf life is called ultrahigh temperature (UHT) processing or treatment, in which milk is heated to 280 degrees Fahrenheit (138 degrees Celsius) for two to four seconds, killing any bacteria in it. ...

So why isn’t all milk produced using UHT?

One reason is that UHT-treated milk tastes different. UHT sweetens the flavor of milk by burning some of its sugars (caramelization). A lot of Americans find this offensive ...

UHT also destroys some of the milk’s vitamin content—not a significant amount—and affects some proteins, making it unusable for cheese.

In other words, organic milk has been cooked to completely sterilize it. It tastes different because it is sterile.

I thought that organic milk was marketed to the kind of people who believe in fresher foods, because fresher foods were tastier and more natural, and because processing destroys nutrients. I would think that those folks would hate UHT-treated organic milk. It is like buying canned vegetables instead of fresh vegetables, just because the can says "organic" on it.

News: kids sometimes annoy other kids

Ms. Magazine reports:

A study released this month reports that 90 percent of girls between the ages of 12 and 18 reported experiencing sexual harassment. The study found that girls who had a better understanding of feminism from the media, their parents, or teachers were more likely to recognize sexual harassment. ... The most commonly reported forms of sexual harassment were unwanted romantic attention, demeaning gender-related comments, teasing based on their appearance, and unwanted physical contact.

I am wondering where they ever found kids who had not been harassed, according to that definition.

Indiana supreme court approves spanking

From an Indiana court case:

Sophia Willis is a single mother raising her eleven-year-old son, J.J., who has a history of untruthfulness and taking property belonging to others. ... Willis warned that if he did not tell the truth he would be punished. J.J. again gave the same story. In response Willis instructed J.J. to remove his pants and place his hands on the upper bunk bed. J.J. complied, and Willis proceeded to strike him five to seven times with either a belt or an extension cord. ...

Willis was tried in a bench trial for felony child battery; ... The Indiana Supreme Court reversed the conviction.

She should not have had to go all the way to the supreme court to justify giving the little stinker a whooping.

A rolling stone

I was watching the great 1975 movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and there is a scene in which some shrinks are trying to decides whether Jack Nicholson is crazy. One shrink asks:

Have you ever heard the old saying, A rolling stone gathers no moss? ... Does that mean something to you?

Jack responds:

It's the same as don't wash your dirty underwear in public. ... It's hard for something to grow on something that's moving.

The question is one that shrinks really use to test for mental illness. The idea is that schizophrenics will not grasp the abstract thinking that is required to understand a simple proverb.

The advantage of this particular proverb is that no one knows what it really means. It dates back to some Roman slave 2000 years ago. The rolling stone appears to be some sort of metaphor for someone who moves around a lot, but it is not clear whether growing moss is supposed to be good or bad. Jack's answer is brilliant because he not only answers the question, but also throws back his own abstract and meaningless analogy.

High IQ correlated with atheism

A UK newspaper reports:

Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.

A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.

Professor Lynn said most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started to have doubts.

He told Times Higher Education magazine: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God."

He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.

Or maybe atheism is causing people to be more intelligent.

How to fly without ID

John Glimore once sued because he refused to show ID and was not allowed on an airplane flight. Now the secret policy has bee revealed:

Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

It is a common myth that photo ID is required. People fly without photo ID all the time.

Tech analyst fears Apple Computer

The LA Times reports that Steve Jobs has lost weight:

After his keynote address, investors and Apple fans scrutinized Jobs' appearance almost as closely as they did the new iPhone. One tech analyst (who declined to be named out of fear of angering Apple) told me that after seeing photos of Jobs from the event, his clients were so worried that they searched the Web for old pictures of him. Their conclusion: If he were a boxer, he'd be fighting in a lower weight class.

Wow, he fears angering Apple? Just what does he think that the lean-and-mean Steve Jobs is going to do to him for mentioning the weight loss?

Hot dog contest is a scam

The biggest food eating competition is Nathan's Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. They have 13 qualifier contests in the preceding 2 months. But I tried to sign up for one about a month ago, and discovered that they are by invitation only!

I emailed someone in the company, and was told that all the contests were booked up, and I could only get on the waiting list. It seems to me that they ought to be able to accommodate anyone who wants to enter the contest. Is there some shortage of hot dogs?

Whoever wins is not really the champ. He will only have beaten those who were allowed to compete.

Learning from gay unions

The NY Times pretends that research supports same-sex marriage:

A growing body of evidence shows that same-sex couples have a great deal to teach everyone else about marriage and relationships. ...

Notably, same-sex relationships, whether between men or women, were far more egalitarian than heterosexual ones. In heterosexual couples, women did far more of the housework; ... With same-sex couples, ... the partners tended to share the burdens far more equally.

So what exactly does this teach us? That wives should adopt the same interest (or lack of interest) as their husbands? That same-sex marriages are better because they are more egalitarian? If they find that same-sex couples often wear each other's clothes, will they say that regular husbands and wives should do the same? This is wacky stuff.

18 million cracks

I am still waiting for the wise-cracks about Hillary Clinton saying:

Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it.

I guess that she is saying that she got 18M primary votes, but only about half of them were women.

California ballot measure could ban same-sex marriage

A long article in the Wash Post about legal uncertainty in California same-sex marriages says:

The language of the measure does not seem to suggest revoking marriages that take place between June and November, legal experts say. But such a move would depend on the courts' interpretation of the proposed amendment.

Experts say that if the measure passes, the state may choose to recognize the marriages, creating a pocket of married same-sex couples.

What the article does not include is the actual text of the Nov. ballot measure:

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

So how do they find legal experts to say that this requires recognizing same-sex marriages? If the measure passes, the plain language says that no same-sex marriages can be recognized in California.

No California same-sex couples will be inconvenenced, no matter what happens. They can always register as domestic partners, and still be effectively married even if the ballot measure passes.

The mindreading astronomer

The Bad Astronomer blogger has this tirade against a proposed Oklahoma law:

Let’s be very clear here: this legislation is not well-intended. It is intended to undermine the Constitution. It’s that simple. These people want religion taught in the classroom, and they want to do it at the expense of science and of reality. For them to say anything else is dissembling at the very least. Do you really think they want kids ...

It is amazing how unscientific these scientists are once they stray from their core expertise.

He bases his whole attack on his supposed ability to infer the intentions of the bill's sponsors. But his readers are scientists who are unlikely to believe that he has any mindreading skills. Why not simply explain the harmful effects of the law?

Better to repress feelings

Physorg reports:

It's okay to keep those feelings inside, new study suggests

Contrary to popular notions about what is normal or healthy, new research has found that it is okay not to express one's thoughts and feelings after experiencing a collective trauma, such as a school shooting or terrorist attack.

In fact, people who choose not to express their feelings after such an event may be better off than those who do talk about their feelings, according to University at Buffalo psychologist Mark Seery, Ph.D., lead author of a study to appear in the June issue of Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

The study investigated the mental and physical effects of collective traumas on people who are exposed to a tragedy but who do not experience a direct loss of a friend or family member. It focused on people's responses to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but the results may generalize to include responses to other collective traumas.

If the assumption about the necessity of expression is correct -- that failing to express one's feelings indicates some harmful repression or other pathology -- then people who chose not to express should have been more likely to experience negative mental and physical health symptoms over time, the researchers point out.

"However, we found exactly the opposite: people who chose not to express were better off than people who did choose to express," Seery says.

Moreover, when the researchers looked only at people who chose to express their thoughts and feelings, and tested the length of their responses, they found a similar pattern. People who expressed more were worse off than people who expressed less.

Freudians promote the idea that repressing feelings causes them to smolder in the unconscious mind, causing neurosis many years ago. Research shows the opposite. The Freudian view is wrong.

Sales tax measure had misleading description

My local county just passed a sales tax measure with this ballot description:

Countywide Library Improvement/Continuation Measure.To support and maintain local public libraries and library services through acquiring books, children’s educational materials, computers and technology; increase and improve children’s reading, adult literacy, senior and other educational programs; and upgrade local library facilities, shall Ordinance No. 1 of the Santa Cruz County Public Library Authority be amended to continue the existing ¼ cent sales tax for libraries with no increase?

The official pdf is here.

I think that voters were deceived. It was really a measure to make a temporary tax permanent. Ten years ago, we passed a sales tax increase to support libraries, instead of supporting them out of general funds. The tax was scheduled to expire in fifteen years. The vote this week was to prevent the expiration five years from now.

I guess that it is debatable whether to call this a tax increase or not. My real problem with the description is that it claims that the measure will increase library services and upgrade facilities, and do it at no increase in taxes. It makes it sound like we are getting something for nothing, and only a fool would oppose it.

It uses the word "increase" to have two opposite meanings. We are only going to get that increase in library funding five years from now, when we get the tax increase. Meanwhile, we get neither the increased funding nor the increased taxes. The deception is that the measure brags about increased funding that only happens five years from now, and then brags that there is no tax increase, hiding the fact that the tax increase kicks in after five years.

The libraries must have bribed whoever wrote the ballot summary. Someone should sue to void the election.

What did you do to provoke him?

Here is the latest from a bad advice column:

DEAR ABBY: My children and I were living with a maniac who threatened to kill me if I took the kids and ran. We reached out to his family, ...

His father said, "What did you do to provoke him?"

That was a fair question. The writer did provoke her husband by threatening to kidnap his kids. It sounds like she wanted her father-in-law to do something without hearing the whole story.

Men are slobs unless they are gay

The main character in the first episode of the new TV show In Plain Sight gives this inspirational speech:

Okay, look. Here's the thing. Men lie, they cheat, they start wars, they're slobs unless they're gay, and there are precious few of them walking the planet that are worth putting on lipstick for.

I guess that is why Hollywood likes gays so much -- they are the only men who are not slobs!

Why boys do better at math

For decades, researchers and educators have debated why boys tend to perform better than girls in math. ... Girls living in countries where there is more gender equality perform better in math, sometimes outpacing boys, than girls who live in countries with more male-dominated societies. ...

According to Sapienza, she and her colleagues were somewhat surprised by the findings.

"At some level, we were looking for it," she said. "We were surprised at how strong the correlation was."

What she is trying to say is that she was hoping that the points in the above chart would fall in a straight line, and she was surprised at how close it is to being a line. Does it look like a line to you?

A comment says:

"In Turkey, which scored low in gender gap equality, girls performed the worst: on average, 22.6 fewer points than boys." Maybe there really is a big disparity between the genders in mathematics. What else could explain the researcher being unable to interpret her chart correctly (hint: Brazil has a bigger gap than Turkey)?

Dietary fat does not cause cancer

More reseach debunks another myth about fat causing cancer:

There were no statistically significant associations between intakes of total fat, the subtypes of fat, of the P:S ratio [polyunsaturated to saturated] and risk of prostate cancer.

Thus, the totality of the evidence indicates that a higher intake of dietary fat is not a risk factor for prostate cancer.

Texas tries to justify its raid

Here is how the Texas CPS justifies seizing kids from the FLDS YZR. In its own brief before the Texas Supreme Court, it cites its own experts:

Angie Voss, supervisory investigator of the Department... The girls refused to answer questions ... The children gave no explanation ...

Ms. Voss testified it would not be safe for "any child to return to the ranch" because the adults on the ranch expressed that they "aren't doing anything harmful to their children", and that the "practice of children being united and having children is part of their culture and belief system".

Dr. Bruce Duncan Perry is a child psychiatrist who specializes in child maltreatment and child development. ... Dr. Perry testified that when you are raised in an environment where it is a blessing to have children and to be compliant to your father and the prophet, free choice is not really possible.

I think that it is clear that the authorities want to shut down the cult for its beliefs. If they could prove criminal charges, then they would do so, and skip these other bogus arguments.

Texas cult kids to be released

USA Today reports:

Children removed from the polygamous sect in West Texas will start going home Monday, under an agreement reached today.

An attorney for Texas Child Protective Services said parents will need to show identification, pledged to take parenting classes and stay in the state, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The agency is to be allowed access to the children 12 hours a day.

Okay, but the Texas Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal to seize the kids. Why haven't they been returned immediately? Why are there any conditions? The parents should not have to attend classes to assert their constitutional rights.

School reports mom as abuser for missing a meeting

The NY Post reports:

May 25, 2008 -- Bronx HS of Science senior Michel Dussack has a "B" average, an 1890 SAT score and an almost full college scholarship for the fall.

But Dussack's mother was accused of "educational neglect" two weeks ago and was reported to the city's child-services agency - because she missed a scheduled meeting to discuss her son possibly failing gym.

Karen Dussack, 40, is now under investigation by the Administration for Children's Services, the city's welfare agency that protects kids from neglect and abuse.

These agencies are out of control. There is no law requiring attendance at parent-teacher conferences.