Literally Hitler, World War II Stories; WWIII; War on Terror, Money in the Military

Literally Hitler

• White Rose: The Germans who tried to topple Hitler
• Hitler assassination plotter Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist dies
• Hitler's Food Taster: One Bite Away from Death—"Each meal could have been her last, but Adolf Hitler's food taster Margot Wölk lived to tell her story."
• When Dr. Seuss Took On Adolf Hitler—"The children's author drew more than 400 fantastical political cartoons in the early years of World War II."
• Hitler Speeches with accurate English subtitles

World War II Stories

• An 80 year old, British man secretly saved 669 children during WW2, never telling anyone. When his wife found the documents years later in his attic and submitted them to the BBC. They then organised this... Sir Nicholas Winton is a true hero.—Here's a little more.
• Two enemies discover a 'higher call' in battle
• Agent who sabotaged Nazi atomic program honoured in London
• Dr. Mengele's Victim: Why One Auschwitz Survivor Avoided Doctors for 65 Years
• 'Our Mothers, Our Fathers': Next-Generation WWII Atonement
• A Son's Quest for Truth : The Last Battle of a German WWII Veteran
• 'Blood Must Flow': Searching for the Perpetrators of a WWII Massacre—"A German prosecutor is involved in a race against time as he searches for enough proof to bring charges against former SS troops responsible for the gruesome World War II massacre in the French village Oradour-sur-Glane. Proving the utterance of a single quote might be enough."
• Alberta students help WWII vet get new war medals
• Three Reichs, You're Out—"The amazing story of the U.S. military's integrated 'World Series' in Hitler Youth Stadium in 1945."
• Book Returned To Library 69 Years Late

WWIII

• Why North Korea loves to threaten World War III (but probably won't follow through)
• Soviet officer who 'saved the world from WWIII' gets Dresden Peace Prize
• How the Aurora Borealis Nearly Started World War III

War on Terror

• How Boston exposes America's dark post-9/11 bargain—"Why did this story drive the whole country nuts? Because we traded rights for "security," and didn't get either." Salon
• Some force-fed captives are cleared for release from Guantánamo—"At least four of the captives being force-fed at Guantánamo were cleared for release years ago.
• National Security Brief: Pressure Mounts On Obama To Investigate Torture
• Homeland Security's proposed new Canada-U.S. border fee prompts alarm in New York
• Man with 4th Amendment Written on Chest Wins Trial Over Airport Arrest
• Malden woman attacked by man accusing Muslims of Marathon bombings
• Drones

Money in the Military

• Pentagon claims $757 million overbilling by contractor in Afghanistan
• Army says no to more tanks, but Congress insists—On this issue, Republicans and Democrats are on the same side.
• Outcry erupts over 1% pay raise proposed for military—Waste money on weapons, sure! But invest it on soldiers? Fuggedaboutit.

Marriage Equality, International; Politics and Media; Scouts, Religion

Marriage Equality

• Rhode Island Becomes 10th State To Approve Marriage Equality
• Nevada: Gay Senator Comes Out As State Approves Same-Sex Marriage
• Anti-Gay Iowa Bill Would Reduce Pro-Marriage Equality Justices' Pay By 85 Percent
• Ninth Circuit Court judge: Oregon gay marriage ban is 'unconstitutional'
• Minnesota bill would institute universal civil unions, leave marriage to churches—"In the ongoing debate about equal rights for gay families, a Minnesota lawmaker takes a different approach." Salon
• TX Man: After 34 Years My Partner's Sister Forced Us Apart, Took Our Home Because We Weren't Married
• NOM Rebuffs Fourth-Grader’s 'Perfect Argument' For Marriage Equality

International

• New Zealand: Same-sex marriage legalised—Give it up for Maurice Williamson MP.
• Confused anti-gay marriage politicians accidentally vote in favor of gay marriage—And now let's hear from French Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira, one of the prime-movers of the bill. Salon
• Cook Islands PM rules out marriage equality—"The prime minister... says he respects the sanctity of marriage as provided for under Christian beliefs and faith."

Politics and Media

• Why NBA center Jason Collins is coming out now
• Ian McKellen on Margaret Thatcher
• Physical excercise prevents you becoming gay, claims UK councillor candidate
• Raymond Buys: 15 years old, dead for not being manly
• Flipside: Ex-Nebraska star sentenced for lying—"A former University of Nebraska basketball star convicted of lying to police about being attacked in her home by masked men who carved anti-gay slurs into her skin was sentenced Thursday to a week in jail and two years' probation."

Scouts

• Leaders of Boy Scouts endorse allowing gay boys but not adults
• Mormon Church approves of Boy Scouts proposal to end gay youth ban
• An Anti-Gay Scoutmaster Gets A Hard Life Lesson From A Straight Eagle Scout And A Gay News Anchor

Religion

• Watterson Teacher Wants Job Back: "That's All I'm Hoping For"—"Hale is gay. And she said that is the reason the Columbus Diocese fired her, for what it said was a violation of moral law."
• Another Christian Owned Business Uses Jesus As Excuse To Discriminate
• 'Ex-gay' leader says sorry for harm caused, he's still gay—"John Paulk, the former chairman of Exodus International, has apologized for saying religion will cure homosexuality."

Every Child Needs a Teacher, Educamation, School Budget, Testing, Zero Tolerance, Racism; Parenting, Think of the Children, Family

Every Child Needs a Teacher

• Teachers: Will We Ever Learn? Salon
• Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession … no longer exists'
• The Exhaustion of the American Teacher

Educamation

• Why conservatives hate college—"The right's decades-long war on academia and 'liberal professors' is about defining an elite 'populists' can oppose." Salon
• Notes From an Employed Philosopher—"McCrory can hide behind the claim that this is about creating jobs, but it's not. It's about class, it's about power, and it's about who has access to education."
• In Wisconsin, Voters Reject ALEC/Walker Education Agenda

School Budget

• Chicago closing 54 schools; union leader blasts 'outrageous' plan
• West Virginia Republican: Make Kids Work As Janitors For School Lunches
• Jon Stewart ridicules bill linking welfare to good grades

Testing

• 3 Dozen Indicted in Atlanta Cheating Scandal
• Michelle Rhee and the unproven teacher evaluation
• What Michelle Rhee doesn't want you to know—"What's good enough for other people's kids apparently isn't good enough for the daughter of Michelle Rhee."

Zero Tolerance

• Newtown, Conn. residents reject budget with extra school security
• With Police in Schools, More Children in Court—"Youth advocates and judges say more children are being sent into the criminal justice system for acts like scuffles and truancy that are better handled in the principal's office." NYT
• Teacher Sues School over Suspension for 'Weapons' Charge: Showing Students Garden Tools

Racism

• Writing Assignment at Albany High School: Explain Why 'Jews Are Evil'
• Dress witches in pink and avoid white paper to prevent racism in nuseries, expert says
• Esther Irene Stokes, 'Racist' Teacher, Denies Molestation Charge, Claims She Doesn't Touch Black Kids

Parenting

• Weird Parents, Normal Children—"Does looking to the past help us become better parents?"
• Parental ethnotheories and how parents in America differ from parents everywhere else
• Poor parenting -- including overprotection -- increases bullying risk
• Kids With Low Self-Esteem: The Parental Praise Paradox—"From the journal: 'Person praise contributes to a self-perpetuating downward spiral of self-derogation.' D'oh!"
• Baby dies from whooping cough in Orange Co.—"Whooping cough, also called pertussis, and other diseases are making comebacks, because so many parents are deciding not to vaccinate their kids."

Think of the Children

• The Hell of American Day Care—"An investigation into the barely regulated, unsafe business of looking after our children.
• Toddlers becoming so addicted to iPads they require therapy
• Twenty percent of New York pre-teens have mental issues
• Why fake ID is an American rite of passage—"New York is pioneering 'unforgeable' driving licences in a bid to clamp down on fake IDs - currently used by millions to buy alcohol before the legal age of 21."
• 15 Mid-Century Modern Dream Homes that will Kill Your Children—Child-proof everything!

Family

• Telling the Inlaws We're Pregnant
• Korean twin sisters separated at birth find each other via Facebook
• Reasons my son is crying

Sex Studies; Online Love; Men vs. Women; Male Factor, Penis; Pr0n, Religion, History

Sex Studies

• In sex, happiness hinges on keeping up with the Joneses, CU-Boulder study finds
• Expert: Guys don't want casual sex!—"Most men aren't sex-crazed Casanovas, a researcher argues. They're in search of relationships, not one-night stands." Salon
• Wait, men fake orgasms?—"A new book delivers surprising news about male sexuality -- including that, yes, some guys are really fooling you." Salon
• On Romance and Psychosomatic Sneezing
• Making sex "normal"—"A new blog attempts to normalize everything from vulva puppets to rainbow-clad llamas." Salon

Online Love

• Why it's really possible to fall in love online
• The Lie Hollywood Loves to Tell—"The state of online dating--for the uninformed--is shit, at best. And a lot of us have tried it, so we know. We just don't talk about it, because society (Hollywood) told us it's wasted effort."
• This Facebook-Twitter Marriage Proposal Shows Social Media Might Not Be Killing Romance After All
• Propose and cons: 'Will you marry me' meets social media
• How Grindr Is Changing the Way We Connect

Men vs. Women

• The divorce from hell, the battle for alimony and emptied pockets—"Five years, four judges, six lawyers, $400,000 in attorney and expert fees and costs, a child yanked back and forth, the petty arguing — all for a net payment of about $1,000 a month."
• Sex-deprived woman attacks boyfriend over Xbox addiction
• Woman Chokes Boyfriend for Singing "Thrift Shop" Over and Over
• Man convicted for hijacking ex-girlfriend's MySpace account
• Epic Rap Battles of History Season 2: Adam vs Eve—Profanity-laced; sign-in required.

Male Factor

• Heavy Stubble Makes Men More Attractive
• Male attractiveness: Abs-olutely fabulous—"Women’s expectations of the opposite sex are at least as unrealistic as men's"
• Men ejected from Saudi festival, deported for 'being too handsome'—They weren't kidding.

Penis

• Penis Size Study Shows Women Find Men With Big Genitals More Attractive
• Giant-Dicked Jon Hamm Really Wishes All Of You Would Stop Talking About His Giant Dick
• Video: Lil Dicky - Ex-Boyfriend

Pr0n

• The world's top porn search terms revealed—Browse the list interactively.
• The big question that the generation raised on porn must answer—"Porn often shows a submissive woman, stripped of all of her body hair, undergoing ritual humiliation in the name of sexuality, and twentysomethings must ask whether that has wider implications about how our peers view us socially, politically and professionally."
• My stepson is a porn star. Help!
• Blood, Sweat and Sex: My Hard Life in Porn—"The performers may look like they're in ecstasy, but the physical pain and endurance that goes into sex for the camera would make an NFL linebacker weep."
• Museum's 'whale bone porn' leaves Vancouver mother 'extremely disturbed'; demands its removal—Oh, won't someone think of the calves!

Religion

• What porn do they watch in the Vatican?
• Verizon turns in Baltimore church deacon for storing child porn in cloud
• Religious group names Holder top 'pornography facilitator'—The American Taliban plays morality cop.

History

• Prehistoric pornography: Chinese carvings show explicit copulation
• Lowbrow in High Places: When Lederhosen Porn Was King
• National Sex Museum: Not your grandma's museum

War of Words, Curses, Language, Naming Conventions

War of Words

• Ebonics: Ain't No Reason—"A mother tongue spoken by millions of Americans still gets no respect."
• Sweden axes new word after Google intervenes—Wonder if Google will program ogooglebar to be ungoogleable.
• Why Do We Hate Certain Words?—"The curious phenomenon of word aversion."
• 14 words that are their own opposites
• Penny Arcade - The Lexiconnoisseurs

Curses

• Rutgers coach fired after abusive video broadcast
• Student says f-word outside of class, college nearly ruins his career —Barbara Pyle's prudishness is fucked up.
• A.J. Clemente, rookie TV anchor, says he's fired for profanity on air
• Swearing at work - a guide
• AT&T Bans Obscene Passwords

Language

• Utopian for Beginners—"An amateur linguist loses control of the language he invented."
• Dialect Map of American English
• How English differs from other languages

Naming Conventions

• How We Should Name Hurricanes
• What baby names say about everything else—"A private choice? Not exactly. Social scientists turn to names to understand changing tastes, class, and how ideas spread."
• Blast from the Past: Inmates accused of copyrighting own names in jail release scheme

Unfriendly Skies; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; On the Road

Unfriendly Skies

• Reid Tests GOP Outrage Over Airport Delays With Plan To Pay Down Sequestration For Five Months —Lines have been getting longer.
• At United Airlines, Is Polite Disagreement Becoming Grounds For Removal From A Flight?
• African-American passengers sue US Airways for asking them to change out of hoodies
• Berlin airport fiasco an embarrassment for Germans
• Jetstar apologises to shark victim's mum

Planes

• How Airline Ticket Prices Fell 50% in 30 Years (and Why Nobody Noticed)
• FAA: 'No, you CAN'T hijack a plane with an Android app'—"A simulator, as it turns out, is just that."
• Airports in China Hew to an Unswerving Flight Path—"New arrivals are whisked on electronic walkways through a bright, spacious airport terminal that features elegant lounges, free Wi-Fi, speedy security checks and an efficient baggage handling system." NYT

Trains

• Landowners drop lawsuit against high-speed rail
• Japan Is Working On A 300 MPH Floating Train
• China rewrites global high-speed rail pattern in six years

and Automobiles

• Cell phone tracking system reveals how traffic jams start
• To Fight Gridlock, a City Synchronizes Every Red Light NYT
• New Jersey cops go undercover for pedestrians—"Motorists who failed to yield for people crossing the street in Fort Lee paid the price recently when cops went undercover to nab rude drivers at one of the city's most dangerous intersections."
• Ten-year-old invents light-up crosswalks, IBM makes them real
• 'Smart Highways' in the Netherlands will glow-in-the-dark

On the Road

• Why aren't younger Americans driving anymore?
• Booming Sales of Novelty Helmets Boost Toll of Motorcycle Deaths
• Top Gear April Fool's prank shuts Dutch motorway (but Jeremy Clarkson's not to blame)

Fat Tuesday; Big Pharma, Bill of Health; Health Issues; Mental, Psych; Sleep; Food Insecurity

Fat Tuesday

• Social Media Sites Fight "Thinspo"—"Instagram and other websites take aim at content that triggers or promotes eating disorders."
• Modelling scouts target anorexia patients
• Goodbye To The King Size: Mars To Downsize Candy Bars In 2013
• Airbus Is Installing Special Big Seats For Fat People — And Shrinking All Other Seats
• People in the South are not so fat after all -- and they lie less
• Vietnam bans short, fat Hanoi traffic police
• Are Happy Gut Bacteria Key to Weight Loss?

Big Pharma

• Big Pharma Company Jacks Up Price of Overdose Life Saver by 1100%: Now, More People Will Die
• Big Pharma made $711 bln overcharging seniors and disabled
• FDA Let Drugs Approved on Fraudulent Research Stay on the Market
• Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India—"By rejecting patent applications, developing countries have kept down the costs of much-needed medications. Can they continue to do so without harming efforts to develop new drugs?"
• U.S. consumers pay more for drugs

Bill of Health

• About the Obamacare 'train wreck'
• The Reason Health Care Is So Expensive: Insurance Companies
• Inside India's 'No-Frills' Hospitals, Where Heart Surgery Costs Just $800

Health Issues

• Checks Find Unsafe Practices at Compounding Pharmacies—"Federal regulators said they had found problems like black particles floating in vials, rust and mold in clean rooms and improper air flow at about 30 compounding pharmacies." NYT
• Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell's Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story—"The dead babies. The exploited women. The racism. The numerous governmental failures. It is thoroughly newsworthy."
• Man dies after pea trapped in lung diagnosed as cancer—"An English family grieving over a man's death has lashed out at doctors after they confused a pea in his lung for a cancerous tumour."

Mental

• Obama budget includes $235 million in new mental health spending
• Nevada buses hundreds of mentally ill patients to cities around country
• Mentally ill patients in Indonesia held in chains

Psych

• News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier—"News is bad for your health. It leads to fear and aggression, and hinders your creativity and ability to think deeply. The solution? Stop consuming it altogether." In related... news: Breaking News is Broken.
• TV Is Heroin Crossed With Hypnosis
• Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Can Be Contagious—Misery loves company.
• Patient people mull over future rewards

Sleep

• Sleep: Everything You Need To Know
• The end of sleep?—"New technologies are emerging that could radically reduce our need to sleep - if we can bear to use them."
• Is sleep the new sex?—"When we we aren't doing it, we're talking about it. But we also love to boast about how little we need." Salon
• Can you train yourself to get by on less sleep?
• Why teenagers really do need an extra hour in bed
• Less sleep leads to more eating and more weight gain, according to new CU-Boulder study
• Study: Listening to Certain Sounds Seems to Improve Sleep—"Participants played 'pink noise' that was synchronized to their brain rhythms slept more deeply and had increased memory retention."
• Clicky noises may help you memorize during sleep
• What Is Paradoxical Intention?
• Rural risk for sleep disorder Scots
• Spain Holds First Annual Siesta Championship

Food Insecurity

• The Privatization of Water: Nestlé Denies that Water is a Fundamental Human Right
• How Monsanto Went From Selling Aspirin to Controlling Our Food Supply—"Monsanto controls our food, poisons our land, and influences all three branches of government."
• Judge: Iowa State U. Must Shield 'Pink Slime' Data—"A judge has blocked Iowa State University from releasing documents about food safety research conducted for the beef-processing company that makes the product dubbed 'pink slime' by critics." NYT
• What government tests found in your meat—"When you shop for turkey burgers for dinner tonight, you may be buying more than meat for your dinner. A federal investigation found 'Superbugs' in meat test."
• The Curse of Fertilizer—"If we don't watch out, agriculture could destroy our planet. Here's how to grow all the food we need with fewer chemicals."
• Horsemeat scandal: Minister urged to reveal Sodexo supplier
• Mislabelled fish slip into Europe's menus

Happy Chemistry and Earth Day! Solar, Wind, Fracking; Global Warming, Climate Deniers; Ecology; Pollution, BP

Happy Chemistry Day!

• Periodic Table of Cupcakes
• The Periodic Table Table: all the elements, in carved wooden glory
• Chemical Warfare
• It's Elementary
• Chemical Party
• xkcd: Elements
• xkcd: The Universal Label

Earth Day

• From homemaker to hell-raiser in Love Canal—"The woman who helped free an entire community from a toxic dump, literally rewriting environmental laws in the process, was so shy at the start of the struggle she tried to hide behind a tree when neighbors called on her."
• Two convicted of Amazon activists' murders—"The court stirred up anger by acquitting the farm-owner who was accused of paying for the killings."
• Anti-Keystone billionaire rattles Democrats
• Canadian govt demands a 10-page questionnaire & CV in order to seek permission to comment on oil pipeline
• Kansas State Bill Would "Ban" Sustainable Development

Solar

• Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities
• With Help From Nature, a Town Aims to Be a Solar Capital—Mayor Parrish: 'I may be a Republican. I'm not an idiot.' NYT
• IBM solar collector will concentrate the power of 2,000 suns, keep its cool

Wind

• America's First Offshore Wind Farm Closer To Reality After Receiving $2 Billion From Japanese Bank
• Researchers team up with architects to create bladeless wind electricity generator
• Scottish government approves windfarm opposed by Donald Trump—"Billionaire property magnate attacks decision to build experimental offshore windfarm near his golf course as 'purely political.'"
• BP to sell US wind assets, renew focus on petroleum
• Governor LePage: Maine Wind Turbine Runs On 'A Little Electric Motor That Turns The Blades'—Probably like the hamster that turns the wheel inside his skull.

Fracking

• Oklahoma earthquake linked to oil extraction wastewater
• Disputes over environmental impact of 'fracking' obscure its future
• You Have to See It to Believe It: What It's Like to Have Fracking in Your Backyard—"Residents in industry-friendly West Virginia share their experiences, photos and videos."

Global Warming

• Global warming predictions prove accurate—"Analysis of climate change modelling for past 15 years reveal accurate forecasts of rising global temperatures."
• 1,600 years of ice in Peru's Andes melts in 25 years
• Clean energy progress too slow to limit global warming - report
• Last 30 years were the warmest in the last 1,400 years
• Research supports global warming theory
• World Bank chief says global warming threatens the planet and the poorest
• Kiribati: A Nation Going Under—"Running out of options, and water, a nation's leader enters an end game against climate change. The President of Kiribati urges an orderly evacuation — 'migration with dignity.'"
• To See What Climate Change Feels Like, Go to Texas
• A sensitive matter—"The climate may be heating up less in response to greenhouse-gas emissions than was once thought. But that does not mean the problem is going away."
• Scientist says volcanic eruption behind 'perfect storm' that kicked off Dark Ages

Climate Deniers

• Rep. Joe Barton: Biblical 'Great Flood' shows climate change isn't man made—Bet he believe the flood also formed the Grand Canyon.
• Limbaugh rewards child climate skeptic with an iPad—"The radio host explains that science has become a 'branch of the Democrat Party.'" Salon
• Billionaire pledges to "destroy" climate skeptics—"Obscenely wealthy retired hedge fund manager will use strength of money in politics to environmental ends." Salon

Ecology

• Thailand: Smuggler Caught With 10 Percent of an Entire Species
• Boat filled with protected species hits coral reef—"A Chinese boat that ran into a coral reef in the southwestern Philippines held evidence of even more environmental destruction inside: more than 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) of meat from a protected species, the pangolin or scaly anteater."
• Gold and poaching bring murder and misery to Congolese wildlife reserve
• Detective work uncovers under-reported overfishing—"Excessive catches by Chinese vessels threaten livelihoods and ecosystems in West Africa."
• Japan whaling haul a 'record low', plans to keep whaling regardless

Pollution

• ExxonMobil Opening Wallet to Homeowners after Mayflower Oil Spill
• Choking on China: The Superpower That Is Poisoning the World
• Muddy Waters: Mining Legacy Pollutes East German Rivers
• Fish deformities linked to oil pollution in U.S. and Alberta
• Balloons Blow

BP

• Three years after BP oil spill, USF research finds massive die-off
• Florida becomes 4th state to sue BP over 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill
• US witness claims BP gas explosion cover-up—"Massive oil spill in Gulf of Mexico in 2010 caused one of world's worst environmental catastrophes."

420, Law and Disorder, Legalization and Decriminalization, Oh, Canada; War on Drugs, War on War on Drugs; Boston Bombing

420

• Noam Chomsky - Why Marijuana is Illegal and Tobacco is Legal
• Meet Mark Kleiman, the Man Who Will Be Washington State's Pot Czar
• Sen. Paul: Obama, Bush 'lucky' they weren't arrested for smoking pot as kids

Law and Disorder

• Massachusetts Court: Marijuana Smell Not Enough for Traffic Stop—"Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules a police officer may no longer search a motorist merely on the basis of smelling pot."
• Kansas couple: Indoor gardening prompted pot raid—"Two former CIA employees whose Kansas home was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables." Hope they win their lawsuit against these thugs.
• Police stakeouts hurt hydroponics shops, critics say
• Sheriff's bust legal pot-grower
• Parrish man growing medical marijuana rejects plea bargain —"Robert Jordan, who grows marijuana to help treat Cathy Jordan's Lou Gehrig's disease, said he refused the state's plea deal because it required him to give up his right to a fair trial or stop cultivating the plant."

Legalization and Decriminalization

• Yes We Cannabis: The Legalization Movement Plots Its Next 4 Years
• Medical Marijuana: Illinois House passes pro-dispensary rules
• Rhode Island Decriminalizes Minor Marijuana Possession—"[P]ossession of less than one ounce of marijuana will be punishable only by a $150 fine... with no associated jail time."
• St. Louis reduces penalty for marijuana possession—"Small amount would be penalized same as a traffic ticket."
• Indiana: Criminal-sentencing overhaul may get tougher on pot—And there are the ones stuck in the past.

Oh, Canada

• UNICEF rates Canadian teens No. 1 at smoking weed
• 8000 suspected pot cookies found in White Rock home—RCMP: "It was a bit like a bakery in there."
• Opinion: The conservative pro-pot argument—"If you want smaller government and you want the government out of people's private lives, you need to support the legalization of marijuana. It's the logically consistent viewpoint for a conservative."

War on Drugs

• Financial crisis caused by too many bankers taking cocaine, says former drugs tsar—"David Nutt, the former Government drugs tsar sacked after claiming that horse riding was as safe as taking ecstasy, has said that the banking crisis was caused by too many workers taking cocaine."
• Her Name Was Rachel Hoffman
• The Wildly Disproportionate Cruelty of Drug Sentences
• The trouble with using police informants in the US—"Some law enforcement agencies in the US use informants in as many as 90% of their drug cases. But there are surprisingly few rules on how informants are used and a groundswell of calls for the system to be reformed."
• Judge again orders stop to Missouri college drug tests

War on War on Drugs

• 'The War on Drugs Is a Failure'—"The Gregory Brothers' musical mash-up features Gov. Chris Christie, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and former Congressman Ron Paul, who argue for the reform of United States drug laws." NYT
• The War on Drugs Is Far More Immoral Than Most Drug Use—"A prohibitionist says libertarians dismiss moral considerations when they call for legalization. The truth is quite the opposite."
• Brad Pitt: America's war on drugs is a charade, and a failure
• The War On Drugs Is Still Not Working
• 'This Is Working': Portugal, 12 Years after Decriminalizing Drugs

Boston Bombing

• Why Should I Care That No One’s Reading Dzhokhar Tsarnaev His Miranda Rights?—"When the law gets bent out of shape for him, it’s easier to bend out of shape of the rest of us."
• Boston bombing: How internet detectives got it very wrong
• GOP Lawmaker On Manhunt: 'How Many Boston Liberals Spent The Night Cowering…Wishing They Had An AR-15?'

Journalism and Terrorism; Science Under Siege; Fake Science; Hadron; That's Hot; Big Bang Theories

Journalism and Terrorism

• Teen Stunned at Portrayal as Boston Bomb Suspect
• Jon Stewart Tears Apart CNN For ‘Completely F*cking Wrong’ Boston Reporting: ‘Human Centipede Of News’
• Richard Jewell Cannot Accept Our Apology

Science Under Siege

• NASA Suspends All Education and Public Outreach—Hit by the sequester.
• There's No Such Thing As the Liberal War on Science—"Michael Shermer argues that when it comes to not believing in science, Dems and Republicans are created equal. Here's why he's wrong."
• Determinism and Its Enemies Are Still Waging War over the Soul of Science
• The Ph.D Bust: America's Awful Market for Young Scientists—in 7 Charts
• Why I Study Duck Genitalia—"Fox News and other conservative sites miss the point of basic science."
• Muzzling of scientists subject of 'unique' probe by Canada's information watchdog—"Wide-ranging investigation, which will look into six different federal departments, is to review incidents in which the media was thwarted when trying to speak to Canadian government scientists about their work."
• Canada shutters research lakes facilities
• On the flipside: Vatican seeks to rebrand its relationship with science—Oh my.

Fake Science

• Scientific Articles Accepted (Personal Checks, Too)—"A parallel world of pseudo-academia, with prestigiously titled conferences and journals that will print seemingly anything for a fee, has the scientific community alarmed." NYT
• Scientists Are Struggling to Wade Through the Bullshit of Fake Academic Publications
• The Future of Publishing—"After nearly 400 years in the slow-moving world of print, the scientific publishing industry is suddenly being thrust into a fast-paced online world of cloud computing, crowd sourcing and ubiquitous sharing. Long-established practices are being challenged by new ones – most notably, the open-access, author-pays publishing model. In this special issue, Nature takes a close look at the forces now at work in scientific publishing, and how they may play out over the coming decades."

Hadron

• Large Hadron Collider May Have Produced New Matter
• LHC cements Higgs boson identification
• LHC upgrade to open up 'new realm of particle physics'
• A bike ride in the Large Hadron Collider as revamp begins
• The Man Who Coined 'The God Particle' Explains: It Was A Joke!

That's Hot

• What is a Flame?
• Physicists produce highest man-made temperature: 7 trillion degrees
• In Space, Flames Behave in Ways Nobody Thought Possible

Big Bang Theories

• Swedish man arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen; says it was only a hobby
• Inventor blows off the roof of his house after experiment to make vodka goes wrong
• Guy Builds Solar-Powered Death Ray In His Backyard (Yawn)

Gitmo, War on Terror, Soldiers, Money in the Military, Guns

Gitmo

• Gitmo is killing me—"No charge. No trial. And I'm being force-fed while bound to a chair." NYT
• Gitmo Defense Lawyers Say Somebody Has Been Accessing Their Emails
• Guantanamo legal files mysteriously disappear from PCs—"Legal documents by lawyers representing detainees charged with plotting 9/11 vanish, while hundreds of thousands of e-mails also land on the computers of prosecuting attorneys."
• Clashes at Guantanamo over hunger strike prisoners
• Obama, Guantánamo, and the enduring national shame

War on Terror

• 'No plan for after the invasion': How an effort at rebuilding destroyed Iraq
• "Indisputable" that U.S. practiced torture after 9/11—"A lengthy independent review (NYT) found that the country's highest officials and president condoned torture." Salon
• How a Single Spy Helped Turn Pakistan Against the United States—"What really happened after Raymond Davis killed two men in the street in Lahore." NYT
• Hagel Cancels Creation Of New Medal For Drone, Cyber Warfare
• 'I Am a Bomb': Mother Acquitted over Child's 9/11 Shirt—"A French court has dropped charges against a mother accused of glorifying terrorism by sending her 3-year-old son to kindergarten wearing a 9/11-themed T-shirt. The decision has infuriated officials."

Soldiers

• After Years Of Struggle, Veteran Chooses To End His Life
• Wars on Drugs—"The military has been increasing prescriptions of psychoactive drugs for soldiers in combat at an alarming rate." NYT
• Bank Of America To Pay $36.8 Million To Military Members For Improper Foreclosures

Money in the Military

• Cheney's Halliburton Made $39.5 Billion on Iraq War
• World military spending declines, a first since 1998—What do you think?
• What Would a Fighter Jet Buy 60 Years After Eisenhower's Speech?—"In his famed 1953 Chance for Peace speech, President Dwight D. Eisenhower outlined what armaments cost in human terms. Applying his methodology toward today yields interesting results." NYT

Guns

• In blow to gun control backers, background check compromise falls 6 votes short
• Major Gun Rights Group Splits With NRA, Endorses Increased Background Checks
• Tactical Response CEO James Yeager: I Got My Gun Permit Back

Boston Bombing; Economy; Class War; Corporatocracy; Wall Street; Vote Machinations; Republicans; Racism; Politics

Boston Bombing

• Boston Marathon head: Race will go on in 2014—They've got 'one hell of a city.'
• Runners pay tribute to Boston victims
• Patton Oswalt: "The good outnumber you, and we always will."
• The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On—"It is easy to feel scared and powerless in the wake of attacks like those at the Boston Marathon. But it also plays into the perpetrators' hands."
• The Boston bombing privacy lesson—"The surveillance state thrives on acts of terror. All the more reason why we need more protections for our rights." Salon
• The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions—"As usual, the limits of selective empathy, the rush to blame Muslims, and the exploitation of fear all instantly emerge."
• Tea Party Officially Blames Obama For Boston Marathon Bombing
• Dozens of fake websites pop up after the Boston Marathon bombings to scam people trying to help victims—When in doubt, there's always the Red Cross.
• Yes, There Will Be Marathon Truthers—"More photos, more videos, and more witnesses mean more fodder for loony conspiracy theorists."
• The Onion (channeling The New York Post): This Is A Tragedy—Does It Really Matter Exactly How Many People Died Or What Any Of The Details Are?

Economy

• Shocking Paper Claims That Microsoft Excel Coding Error Is Behind The Reinhart-Rogoff Study On Debt—Thanks to this egregious error (NYT), did the ramifications of debt and necessity of austerity get blown out of proportion and trigger massive unemployment?
• The GOP's policy nihilism—"Mark April 11th, 2013, down on your calendars as the day that the GOP’s fiscal ruse was finally unmasked with total clarity: Republicans don’t actually want entitlement cuts. Or, to put it another way, they say they want entitlement cuts, but they want Dems to own them."
• How The GOP Demand For A Democratic Budget Just Backfired Big Time—"Now that Republicans have gotten their way, and the Senate has passed a budget, suddenly they’re the ones squeamish about 'regular order.' Instead of promptly appointing negotiators to convene a so-called conference committee and iron out the differences of the two wildly different budgets House Republicans are eager to either return to the smoke-filled back rooms of legend, or kill the budget process altogether."

Class War

• The Terrifying Reality of Long-Term Unemployment—"It's an awful catch-22: employers won't hire you if you've been out of work for more than six months."
• Paycheck Fairness Act Vote Blocked By House GOP
• Math problems are a problem for job-seekers, employers say—Are schools even able to train students for today's jobs?
• The Pay Disparity Between CEO and US Worker is 354 to 1 and "Austerity" Will Make It Worse
• Bill Moyers Essay: The United States of Inequality

Corporatocracy

• The corporate 'predator state': How we can neutralize corporate greed
• The Corporate Betrayal of America—"Multinational corporations have built their businesses on the backs of American taxpayers. Yet they've turned around and mocked us with declining tax payments, low wages and dwindling retirement support."
• Taking the 'service' out of the service sector—"The Wal-Mart model of employment."
• Big Corporations Won't Be Sweating the IRS This Year—"According to a new report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, in the current fiscal year, the IRS plans to devote 18 percent less effort to auditing companies with more than $10 million in assets than it did just two years ago."
• Criticism of Sen. Roy Blunt’s role in agriculture provision illustrates concerns about Congress—"It's clear that Monsanto was lobbying for this and it's clear that Blunt went to bat for them.
• Carnival responds to Senator: No way we're paying for Triumph rescue—Why is the public footing the bill?
• T-Mobile, Wireless Carriers, and the Way to Fight Oligopolies—"The real problem in America isn't monopolies, it's oligopolies. Here’s how the F.C.C. and other government agencies should fight them."

Wall Street

• Note to New S.E.C. Chief: The Clock Is Ticking—"For a lot of cases involving questionable practices and disclosures arising from the mortgage bust of 2008, time is running out." NYT
• OCC Asks for Enforcement Powers Against Banks' Consultants—Elizabeth Warren said, "People want to know that their regulators are watching out for the American public not for the banks, and the only way that we can evaluate whether or not you're doing your job is if you make some of this information publicly available and so far you're not doing that."
• The Fed messed with the wrong senator—"If foreclosure victims get justice, trace it back to a bad decision to stonewall Elizabeth Warren last week."
• Goldman's Big Guns Fire Dud To Defend Megabanks
• Former KPMG Partner Is Charged With Insider Trading NYT
• Big Banks Attempt Secret Coup Against Cheap Loans
• Insider Trading in DC Just Got Easier

Vote Machinations

• Who Donated $11 Million to Proposition 30?—Follow the money.
• The Federal Election Commission Is Mocked—"Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS highlighted the F.E.C.’s impotence when it rebuffed the agency’s inquiry on its campaign spending." NYT
• How conservatives invented "voter fraud" to attack civil rights—"Phony complaints of voter fraud are the essence of a decade-long effort by the right to reverse civil rights law." Salon

Republicans

• 70 Percent Say GOP Not ‘In Touch With Most Americans’
• The 'Emerging Democratic Majority' Isn't Assured—Unless the GOP Refuses to Change
• Miffed by court decisions against them, GOP lawmakers want to limit impact of rulings—Legislative attack on the judiciary.
• Rep. Michele Bachmann Completely Baffles John Brennan With Bizarre Questions During CIA Hearing—You know she's more than a little bit dangerous.
• Ann Coulter "jokes" about killing Meghan McCain, Fox News deletes the blog post Salon

Racism

• Rand Paul tries to spread GOP gospel to black students —By engaging in some revisionist history where the GOP "has always been the party of civil rights and voting rights."
• Georgia's Republican governor won’t endorse town's first racially integrated prom—"This is a leftist front group for the state Democratic party and we’re not going to lend a hand to their silly publicity stunt," his spokesperson said. Tell that the four friends who put this together.
• County commissioner apologizes for 'n*gger rigging' remark
• Police sergeant fired for Trayvon Martin shooting targets
• Brad Paisley's Awkward and Earnest Song Accidental Racist

Politics

• The Problem of Ignorance: The Decline of Critical Thinking—"[T]he majority of any population will pay little or no attention to news stories or government actions that do not appear to impact their lives or the lives of close associates. If something non-local happens that is brought to their attention by the media, they will passively accept government explanations and simplistic solutions." In other words, "Fuck you, I've got mine."
• I was a political astroturfer—"The next time you see what looks like a grassroots rally, you may really be watching a form of performance art." Salon
• Magic trick transforms conservatives into liberals—"'Choice blindness' can induce voters to reverse their party loyalty."

Boston Bombing; "Always on", EA, Game Over, Videogames, Tetris

Boston Bombing

• FBI to probe Marathon bombings that killed child, 2 others, hurt 140
• 'No detail too small' in hunt for marathon bomber: FBI
• Heightened security across the country

"Always on"

• Following Twitter Tirade, Creative Director Adam Orth No Longer With Microsoft—Guess he got dealt with.
• Your tweets are always on: Adam Orth leaving Microsoft proves personal twitter accounts are dead
• Microsoft Xbox 720 criticism: always-on requirement would be suicidal
• Gears of War creator comes out in support of an always-online gaming future
• Xbox Live outage knocks gamers offline, renders Netflix and other apps useless

EA

• EA Makes Worst Company In America History, Wins Title For Second Year In A Row!
• EA executive responds to "worst company" poll: "We owe gamers better performance."—Dorkly.com has brings another perspecttive.
• EA Updates The Simpsons: Tapped Out With Origin Syncing, Deletes Some Players' Entire Towns
• EA selling advertising space in Sim City
• EA lays off employees to 'streamline operations'

Game Over

• Call of Duty "has almost ruined a generation of shooter players"
• January sales show continued rough tides for the Wii U
• Disney closes Lucasarts
• Lucasarts' Closure Convinces Developers To Release Awesome Star Wars Source Code
• EA shutting down The Sims Social, SimCity Social, and other Facebook games

Videogames

• What Games Are: The Shady Side Of Games
• This AI "solves" Super Mario Bros. and other classic NES games
• 24-year-old Total War fan immortalised in Rome 2 shortly before losing battle with cancer
• Sega forced to admit wrongdoing in Alien: Colonial Marines advertising."
• 'Bioshock Infinite': A First-Person Shooter, A Tragic Play

Tetris

• Playing Tetris in Stop Motion Chalk Art Is A Lot Harder Than You Think
• Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Is So Awesome At Tetris He Was Once A Champion At It
• The Weirdest And Most Exciting Tetris Lookalikes
• Tetris music theme in major
• First Person Tetris

Memes, Tech Culture, Internet; CISPA, Privacy; Open; Copyfight; Trouble with Telcos; Customer Service; Interfaces

Memes

• The Overly-Attached Girlfriend Explains What It's Like Being A Wildly Popular Internet Meme
• You didn't make the Harlem Shake go viral—corporations did
• Memes: Has The Time Come To Monetize Them—Here's a snapshot of what's been trending over the past few years.
• 7 Memes That Went Viral Before The Internet Existed
• The man who created internet memes — before the internet

Tech Culture

• How the Banner Ad Was Born
• The Dangers of Trusting Wikipedia With Your Life
• Police Search For Mugger For 3 Weeks, Internet Finds Him In An Hour
• You can now tell Google what to do with your account in the afterlife—"Google's Inactive Account Manager lets users set up plans for 'inactivity' periods."
• Frequent texters tend to be shallow, research suggests—"Those who text 100+ times a day more interested in wealth and image, psychologists say."

Internet

• How the internet is making us poor
• Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet—"When people don't see stuff on Google, they think no one can find it. That's not true."
• Just Because It's On The Internet Doesn’t Make It True
• The Internet map—"is a bi-dimensional presentation of links between websites on the Internet."
• Cracked.com: If Famous Websites Were People

CISPA

• White House knocks amended CISPA bill for not addressing civil liberties concerns
• CISPA's Sponsor Can't Even Keep His Story Straight About NSA Having Access To Your Data
• Privacy protections booted from CISPA data-sharing bill—"Committee overwhelmingly votes down privacy amendments that would have curbed National Security Agency's access to private sector data."
• CISPA 2013: Google, Apple Top Massive List Of Supporters Favoring The Controversial Cybersecurity Bill
• What is CISPA, and what does it mean for you? FAQ

Privacy

• IRS claims it can read your e-mail without a warrant—"The ACLU has obtained internal IRS documents that say Americans enjoy 'generally no privacy' in their e-mail messages, Facebook chats, and other electronic communications."
• NSA data center front and center in debate over liberty, security and privacy
• Delete This When You're Done: Snapchat and the Power of Deletion—"Snapchat highlights the power of deletion in resisting the gentle totalitarianism of endless sharing."
• Google chief urges action to regulate mini-drones—"How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their backyard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?"
• Facebook and State Attorneys General Team Up to Educate Teens and Parents about Privacy

Open

• The Empire acquires the rebel alliance: Mendeley users revolt against Elsevier takeover—"Mendeley, an open collaboration platform for scientiffic research, has promised that it won't become less open after being acquired by journal publisher Elsevier, but some prominent users aren't waiting around."
• Opinion: Antitrust complaint against Android is an attack on open source
• Napster.fm Is An Open Source Social Music Player That Can Be Hosted By Anyone In Case Of Shutdown
• CFAA: Internet Activists Win First-Round Victory In Fight Over Anti-Hacking Law
• Open access gains momentum in Washington—"White House takes action to increase access to the results of federally funded scientific research."

Copyfight

• Australia To Propose Copyright Reform That Includes Fair Use
• The Copyright Monopoly Was Always Intended To Prevent Freedom Of Expression—"When Queen Mary I created the copyright monopoly on May 4, 1557, it was a purebred censorship mechanism: in exchange for a lucrative monopoly on printing, the London Company of Stationers agreed to let anything printed first pass by the royal censors."
• Blast from the Past: Stevie Wonder lobbies UN over audiobooks for the visually impaired

Trouble with Telcos

• Time Warner Cable: You Don't Really Need Google Fiber
• Don't let Verizon, AT&T run roughshod over smaller carriers, DOJ warns—"Spectrum auctions should boost competition, antitrust officials tell FCC."
• Cable Companies Can Now Force You to Rent Set-Top Boxes. Here Are Your Alternatives.
• Time Warner Cable (TWC) charges customer a wireless services fee for his own home—Customer rep claims that the "wireless signals are sent from the modem to the router, which then sends out WiFi signals at your home."
• Wouldn't It Be Smarter For ISPs And Cable Companies To Take Good Care Of Their Customers In The First Place?

Customer Service

• Stuffed Giraffe Shows What Customer Service Is All About
• Boy Reunited With Long Lost Toy Thanks to eBay
• BMW makes 4-year old's dream come true by designing a 19-engined race car
• RadioShack's epic PR win
• Why Amazon Is One Of The Most Successful Companies In The World

Interfaces

• How 'Minority Report' Trapped Us In A World Of Bad Interfaces
• We've Reached Peak Infographic, and We're No Smarter for It
• Checkboxes that kill your product
• Skeu.it
• Blast from the Past: An Interface of One's Own