Random links

Is Your Diet Making You Bald?
"Since 2009, three major studies—in Mexico, Taiwan, and Turkey—reached the same conclusion that a groundbreaking 2000 Finnish study did: that men with insulin resistance, a condition that leads to diabetes and obesity and is linked to heart disease, were much more likely to be bald. The most common cause of insulin resistance? A diet laden with sugar and refined carbohydrates."
In Harper decade, a big jump left
"Harper’s critics fret that the country has moved to the right. Really? Harper has convinced fewer than a million Canadians to move right in the last decade, while Jack Layton convinced a whopping 3.4 million Canadians to move left to vote NDP in same period."
Muslim community calls PQ alarmist over halal meat
"We don’t ask that methods for slaughtering the animals be changed. ... The only difference is that I conduct a prayer before the slaughter begins.... In other abattoirs ... the practice may be slightly different. An employee of Islamic faith or a practising Muslim man will perform the prayer and conduct the bleeding out of the animal in accordance with supervised practices that may include stunning." - how normative is this particular view of halal slaughter? I'd always heard that stunning pre-slaughter wasn't typically thought to be halal. I also thought that halal slaughter normally could be done by any of the "people of the book" (Christians, Jews, etc.) as Wikipedia seems to agree.
Italy fact of the day
"Italy has a total net, real corporate tax rate of 68.6 percent" - look at the report to compare other countries
In NIMBY Sentiments, a Gender Divide
"A consulting firm that conducts an annual poll on public attitudes toward development has come up with a new twist on Nimbyism: women are far more likely than men to fight proposals to build new power plants, shopping malls and big-box stores." Not quite sure how to interpret this one. I was wondering if it might have something to do with traditional gender roles, but then the greater female opposition to things like shopping malls wouldn't seem to make sense.