Rotundus.com

Afghan boy suicide bombers tell how they are brainwashed into believing they will survive

"In the past year, insurgents have used a wave of child suicide bombers, some as young as 10, on the ruthless assumption that small boys can pass through checkpoints and security cordons more easily than men. ... the boys are also assured that they will miraculously survive the devastation they cause." (Mix in other reports of sexual abuse during their training).

Black Babies, Boys Less Likely to Be Adopted

"For non-African-American babies, for example, the probability that a prospective adoptive parent expresses interest in such a baby is 11.5 percent if the baby is a girl and 7.9 percent if the baby is a boy. The probability that a non-African-American baby will attract the interest of an adoptive parent is at least seven times as high as the corresponding probability for an African-American baby."

Shocking example of unintended consequences: Mandatory domestic violence arrests raise death rate 400%, study finds

To quote Lawrence Sherman of Cambridge University: "It remains to be seen whether democracies can accept these facts as they are, rather than as we might wish them to be"

Chickens Laying Organic Eggs Eat Imported Food, And It's Pricey

"The U.S., a soybean superpower, ships conventional soybeans all over the world to feed animals in places like China. Meanwhile, in China, farmers are growing organic soybeans and sending them here. The U.S. now gets more than half of its organic soybeans from abroad. ... Last year, for the first time, the U.S. imported significant amounts of organic corn, too. This also went for animal feed."

March against police brutality declared illegal, broken up

Interesting to me that this is in Canada.

New York Might Be First State To Ban Facial Scrub Microbeads

The author of a study cited: "We found more small plastic pieces in the Great Lakes than in the ocean garbage patches, and the majority were microbeads" - if you're curious how much plastic is in the oceans

The half-million dollar club: See who ranks on the public sector's highest-paid list

... and investment banking takes over the Canadian public sector: "Six of the 10 highest paid public servants in B.C. ... work for an agency many British Columbians have probably never heard of: the B.C. Investment Management Corporation." (It's in theory merit-based pay but remember that this is the industry wherein monkeys throwing darts at random score about as well as the typical investment banker)

Liberals May be More Morally Invested on Climate, but Conservatives Are More Likely to be Energy Efficient at Home

"Aside from the purchase of energy efficient light bulbs, Republicans are just as likely or, at times, significantly more likely to be taking these energy efficient measures in their own lives." Reminds me of the Bush vs. Gore comparison in energy efficiency.

I came across the following in an Atlantic article on Ursula Franklin, a female scientist who'd also consider herself a feminist:

I constantly emphasize that the issue is not essentially gender. The issue is patriarchy. I must say that I myself have been surprised at the rapid rise of lady patriarchs. And of course there are lady patriarchs. I was surprised how easily young women who have all options open for patriarchy become as much the patriarch in a hierarchical structure as any man does; and conversely, how many men—how many men, not that many—have found a collaborative structure convenient and don’t pull rank.

... And when you say “lady patriarchs,” what do you mean?
I mean women who behave as if they are generals or bishops. It makes no difference in many ways if it’s a woman or a man. In particular positions, a woman can be as inconsiderate a lady patriarch as a male patriarch would have been. So the issue is the hierarchical structuring; the issue is patriarchy.

I tend to view feminist use of "the patriarchy" similar to how I view use of the term "the bogeyman"(and with about as much substantiating evidence). What's interesting about Franklin's definition of "patriarchy" is that it's not all that close to how a place like Dictionary.com or Google defines the term. It seems a lot closer to aristocracy. Had she used this latter word I don't think that I'd have as much to disagree with.

I don't think it's possible to run massive organizations without at least some people acting as leaders in a certain official (and inevitably to-an-extent-hierarchical) capacity. To me the main question is how (and to what extent to push) to ensure that selection for these roles is based on merit as much as possible - having both the skills and demonstrated willingness to put in the effort required. My notion of merit for leadership position tends to incorporate effort-based criteria which I make no apologies for - as I've mentioned before leadership positions tend to require putting in a lot more hours than the average person.

For the Jews who fought for Hitler, discomfort still — despite rejecting Nazi Iron Cross for saving German lives

"Skurnik was far from the only soldier to be awarded the Iron Cross during the Second World War. ... But ... he was Jewish. And Skurnik was not the only Jew fighting on the side of the Germans. More than 300 found themselves in league with the Nazis when Finland, who had a mutual enemy with Hitler in the Soviet Union, joined the war in June 1941."

Allegations of CIA spying on the Senate deserve investigation

"California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, has been an ally of Obama and a staunch defender of the administration during the controversy over the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. So her credibility could not be questioned when she went public, reluctantly, to accuse Obama’s CIA of illegal and unconstitutional actions: violating the separation of powers by searching the committee’s computers and intimidating congressional staffers with bogus legal threats."

Want to build muscle? It’s not what you eat, but when

"In Canada, the vast majority of people easily consume enough protein during the day – the problem is how it’s distributed. Whenever you eat protein, your body responds by firing up its anabolic (muscle-building) processes. The more protein you eat, the more muscle protein you synthesize – up to a point. ... if you eat more than 20 to 30 grams of protein at a time, you don’t get any further anabolic boost. Any extra protein is simply burned for energy"

How many healthy animals do zoos put down?

"When Copenhagen Zoo put down a healthy male giraffe earlier this month, much of the world was horrified. But those in the know say it's quite normal - a fate that befalls thousands of zoo animals across Europe every year."