Rotundus.com

Does lip balm dry out your lips?

"The active ingredients in some lip balm products actually dry out some people's lips, causing them to constantly re-apply. ...
Dermatologists say camphor, phenol and menthol are the culprit ingredients in balms that can leave your lips thirsty with chronic cracks. ... Vaseline, or petroleum jelly... often isn't a popular choice, but doctors say it's the least expensive, the least likely to irritate, and puts the most moisture lock on your lips." The article also has a bunch of other stuff to say about problem ingredients.

Lessons from France on Defending Marriage

"Unlikely characters, including gay men, are leading the French people in protest against redefining marriage. A repeating refrain is 'the rights of children trump the right to children.'"

Less than half of Canadians support the Idle No More movement: poll

If the polling data here is accurate opposition to the Idle-No-More protests is actually stronger amongst those of First Nations ancestry than amongst the general population.

Cops Nab Five-Year-Old for Wearing Wrong Color Shoes to School

"In Mississippi, if kindergarteners violates the dress code or act out in class, they may end up in the back of a police car.
A story about one 5-year-old particularly stands out. The little boy was required to wear black shoes to school. Because he didn't have black shoes, his mom used a marker to cover up his white and red sneakers. A bit of red and white was still noticeable, so the child was taken home by the cops."

Guns don't kill dictatorships, people do

"the country ranked last on the [Small Arms] survey -- with only 0.1 guns per 100 people -- is Tunisia, which as you'll recall was still able to overthrow a longtime dictator in 2011. With only 3.5 guns per 100 people, the Egyptian population that overthrew Hosni Mubarak was hardly well armed either. On the other hand, Bahrain, where a popular revolution failed to unseat the country's monarchy, has 24.8 guns per 100 people, putting it in the top 20 worldwide. A relatively high rate of 10.7 guns per 100 people in Venezuela hasn't stopped the deterioration of democracy under Hugo Chávez."

Gammas don't get girls

A response to the BBC piece The battle against 'sexist' sci-fi and fantasy book covers which makes the hilarious observation that of the book covers targetted for including scantily clad woman which "draws the heterosexual male eye but may turn away women readers" a seemingly-above-average number of them actually have female authors and Amazon reviews from primarily female readers.

Lecture to Oxford Farming Conference, 3 January 2013

A guy previously opposed to genetically modified crops changes his mind after focusing on the climate got him more interested in looking at the underlying science.

Choose your n-words carefully when interviewing Samuel L. Jackson

Frankly the movie seems ridiculous, but books like To Kill a Mockingbird have also occasionally gotten much the same treatment.

From the Economist:

Morgan Stanley has an interesting (but, alas, privately distributed) research note on the debt crisis arguing that most developed governments are effectively insolvent. It draws up a stylised balance sheet for a government: its assets are the ability to tax (the discounted value of future tax revenues), plus real assets (buildings, equipment), equity stakes and cash. On the liabilities side, there are the market debts (bonds and bills) and the net present value of future "primary" expenditure (items such as pensions and health care). Now, one could surely push tax revenues up a bit in some countries (where they are lower than average) and bring down spending on the health and pensions items. But Morgan Stanley reckons the shortfalls are so large (between 800% and 1,000% of GDP in the US and UK) that the situation is hopeless.