Rotundus.com

New Zealand seems to be providing an example of that:

Even with a huge shakeup of social welfare announced last week, strict rules around government support for teenage parents means Liam and his partner Sheridan are better off financially if they live apart and raise their young son separately. If they lived together as a family Sheridan would not be eligible for the Domestic Purposes Benefit.

And why wouldn't they? It worked so "well" in the US after all:

... that’s exactly what the United States did with its welfare system back in the 1960s and 70s. In order to qualify for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a mother couldn’t have a man in the house with her and the kids. In other words, the government paid the mother to keep the dad away. That explicitly encouraged the marginalization of poor fathers in the lives of their children. Many still regard the AFDC rules as greatly responsible for the wholesale breakdown of African-American families that still plagues us today.

Your diet: 20 everyday things and the calories they burn

You could maybe spend some time doing home maintenance and cleaning instead of going to a gym if you're looking for a workout. A gym membership is probably cheaper than the workout of owning a car though.

Traveling Light in a Time of Digital Thievery

How worried should you be about your electronics getting hacked during international travel?

Sexually Rejected Flies Turn to Booze

"Offer a male fruit fly a choice between food soaked in alcohol and its nonalcoholic equivalent, and his decision will depend on whether he's mated recently or been rejected by a female. Flies that have been given the cold shoulder are more likely to go for the booze, researchers have found. It's the first discovery, in fruit flies, of a social interaction that influences future behavior."

Patent reform bill approved by Senate

Patent reform in the US from September 2011. In what conceivable universe is the following a good idea? "The America Invents Act switches the U.S. patent system from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file nation." It may perhaps boost the employment of lawyers, but seems to damage some others. Would also seem to promote the interests of larger firms (who have lower percentagewise overhead when it comes to filing patent applications) over smaller ones.

Japan Population Decline: Third Of Nation's Youth Have 'No Interest' In Sex

"... 36% of males aged 16 to 19 said that they had "no interest" in or even 'despised' sex. ... If that's not bad enough, The Wall Street Journal reports that a whopping 59% of female respondents aged 16 to 19 said they were uninterested in or averse to sex." Given the mention of virtual girlfriends in the article (amidst I'd imagine a few other things as well), I'm not sure that the "sex" is the right word here - "relationships with real people" seems a bit more accurate.

They've been spitting out reams of articles on this "Republican War on Women" on a more or less daily basis for quite some time now. What do you get though if you actually ask women their thoughts about some current US political issues?

If the Times says women were “split,” you know that must mean they were actually narrowly against the NYT‘s preferred position. Sure enough, when asked, “Should health insurance plans for all employees have to cover the full cost of birth control for female employees or should employers be able to opt out for moral or religious reasons?” women favored opting out by a 46-44 margin. The margin increased to a decisive 53-38 for “religiously affiliated employers, such as a hospital or university.” (Source: The Daily Caller)

That first result might be well within the margin of error for polling but it's at worst a close call. With a 15-point spread though, it seems fairly clear though that American women seem to favour an exemption to mandated birth control coverage for religiously-affiliated institutions.

How Ready Are We for Bioterrorism?

Graham Allison of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government: "Nuclear terrorism is a preventable catastrophe, and the reason it’s preventable is because the material to make a nuclear bomb can’t be made by terrorists. But in the bio case — oh, my God! Can I prevent terrorists from getting into their hands anthrax or other pathogens? No! Even our best efforts can’t do that. I think the amazing thing is that one hasn’t seen more bioterrorism, given the relative ease of making a bioweapon and the relative difficulty of defending."

A feminine face for the antiabortion movement

"Recent news stories about the new vitality of the antiabortion movement ... have glossed over one crucial fact. The most visible, entrepreneurial and passionate advocates for the rights of the unborn (as they would put it) are women. More to the point: They are youngish Christian working mothers with children at home."

The Forgetting Pill Erases Painful Memories Forever

The sort of things that science seems to have figured out...

The True Cost of Commuting

Consider the economic costs of distance commuted to work vs. (potentially) increased house prices nearer by...