Rotundus.com

Government chemist tampered with 40,000 cases, locking countless innocent Americans in prison

"Hundreds of 'convicts' and defendents have already been released, and there are potentially thousands more waiting to be set free. Dookhan used her position to forge results for nearly a decade. 'I don’t think anyone ever perceived that one person was capable of causing this much chaos,' said Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey."

Archie Comics co-CEO accused of gender discrimination by male employees

"Nancy Silberkleit is accused by her male employees of gender discrimination such as referring to them as 'penis' instead of by name, but Silberkleit contends that the case should be tossed out because white males are not 'a protected class'."

Student Arrested for Burping During Class

"A 13-year-old student in Albuquerque, N.M., was allegedly arrested for burping during class. According to his lawsuit, after he 'burped audibly' his teacher called the school resource officer, who in turn called the authorities to have him arrested for 'interfering with public education.'"

Honesty is the best policy

From the article's description of a Unitarian church's search for a pastor: "I mentioned [some stuff described in the article] in a discussion about the candidate by the congregation, and many of them were also surprised. But the search committee said the candidate had met other important criteria, and they didn't feel it would have been appropriate for them to ask him about his religious beliefs. "

Researchers discover new category of boredom

"A new study of students in Germany reveals that there are five distinct types of boredom. That's one more than researchers had expected."

The Determinants of Punishment: Deterrence, Incapacitation and Vengeance

"victim characteristics are important determinants of sentencing among vehicular homicides, where victims are basically random and where the optimal punishment model predicts that victim characteristics should be ignored. Among vehicular homicides, drivers who kill women get 56 percent longer sentences. Drivers who kill blacks get 53 percent shorter sentences."

University physicists study urine splash-back and offer best tactics for men

"The team also report that they also found that many detergents used to clean urinals tend to make the problem of splash-back worse because it reduces surface tension. Thus dirtier urinals might be less messy." So cleaning the bathroom makes things worse? Does this explain male bachelor cleaning behaviour?

Are Women Really Less Corrupt Than Men?

"They found that 'there is little difference in corruption tolerance between men and women for countries that rank lowest on the Polity scale,' a popular measure of the level of democracy, but 'in more democratic countries… men are considerably more tolerant of corruption than women.'" Is this an example of women paying more attention to social pressure than men?

Lately I've been seeing a fair number of commercial for Delivery Man, a English language remake of the French-Canadian film Starbuck. That film touches on results of sperm donor in a comedic way, but here's a more serious-looking documentary on the subject:

I think I've linked to Eggsploitation before, a film looking at the related issue of female egg-donors.

Gynecologists Run Afoul of Panel When Patient Is Male

"About two months ago, Dr. Elizabeth Stier was shocked to learn that she would lose a vital credential, board certification as a gynecologist, unless she gave up an important part of her medical practice and her research: taking care of men at high risk for anal cancer. ... Though most of her patients are women, Dr. Stier, who works at Boston Medical Center, also treated about 110 men last year, using techniques adapted from those developed to screen women for cervical cancer. "

In Miami Gardens, store video catches cops in the act

"Miami Gardens police have arrested Sampson 62 times for one offense: trespassing. Almost every citation was issued at the same place: the 207 Quickstop, a convenience store on 207th Street in Miami Gardens. But Sampson isn’t loitering. He works as a clerk at the Quickstop." In line with other recent stories like Anal probe and a medical bill: The worst traffic stop ever?

Implanting platinum jewelry in eye

"It's an eye-opening new procedure being done in New York for the first time: a woman is getting a piece of platinum jewelry placed in her eye." High-heeled shoes tend to be bad for feet, but this seems to take silliness for the sake of fashion to a new level.

Under the Cover of Darkness: Using Daylight Saving Time to Measure How Ambient Light Influences Criminal Behavior

As much as I despite daylight savings time this follow bit was interesting: "Our preferred specification ... shows robbery rates decrease by an average of 51% during the hour of sunset following the shift to DST in the spring. We also find large drops in cases of reported murder (48%) and rape (56%)."