A school reveals it has a “Fantasy Slut League” No big deal. It was just a high school’s secret “Fantasy Slut League.” One in which female students, “unbeknownst to most of them,” would be drafted and “male students [would] earn points for documented engagement in sexual activities” with them. One in which “participation often involved pressure/manipulation by older students that included alcohol to impair judgment/control and social demands to be popular, feel included and attractive to upper classmen.” Or, as Piedmont, Calif.’s, school superintendent, Constance Hubbard, explains it, “The main thing is that I don’t want to blow this out of proportion. I don’t want to make it something that is some horrible big event that we found out about.” You can give credit to the Piedmont High administration for taking a shot at addressing a sickening revelation in a straightforward way. He adds that many students “were aware of it and participated” and “felt pressure to participate.”
How government spending has changed in the last fifty years [graph] Everyone has an opinion when it comes to spending at the federal government level, whether it’s a matter of priorities, amount or a combination of the two, so it’s worth a moment to consider how this spending has changed since the 1960s. Using numbers from the Office of Management and Budget, Lam Thuy Vo at NPR compiled this graph, but one interesting tidbit to throw in is that government spending has grown with the economy, with federal spending being 18% of GDP in 1962 and 24% in 2011. Defense still takes up a huge chunk of change, but spending on Medicare, Medicaid and safety net programs have risen significantly in the last half century, but particularly because of the recent recession. Full story at NPR. Get the news at NPR.
Vertical Farming: Coming to a City Near You? | Endless Innovation Finally, we now have a viable proof-of-concept for the vertical farm idea that has excited environmentalists for more than a decade. Last week, Singapore opened the world's first-ever commercial-scale vertical farm, capable of producing 500 kilograms of vegetables every day. That farm, if it proves to be successful, could give much-needed momentum to similar types of vertical farm projects designed for densely-populated urban centers around the world - even in places in like New York City that we don't typically associate with food shortages. Back in 1999, Columbia University’s Dickson Despommier proposed the idea of the “vertical farm” as an environmentally-friendly, economically-viable way for densely populated areas to feed themselves. As might be imagined, the whole concept of the vertical farm has been somewhat quixotic from the outset. Singapore's Sky Green Farms project could change all that if it convinces people that vertical farms are, indeed, viable. image: Sky Greens Farms
Legalize Gay Marriage in the State of Arizona Name not displayed, AZ Oct 31, 22:45 By not legalizing Gay marriage, you are creating a second class citizen. Mr. Oct 12, 02:52 This is the 21st century! send a green star bernadette chacon, AZ Oct 09, 11:05 send a green star Name not displayed, NC Oct 03, 05:44 Ms. whitney west, AR Aug 15, 19:18 For more impact, add a personal comment here send a green star Aug 02, 11:09 Mr. Jul 01, 15:42 i think that every person should have the same right as another person...including letting gays marrie boundless of religion. send a green star Mr. Jun 16, 13:13 I love the Lord and know He loves all...and gay marriage is the right thing to do!!! send a green star Mr. Jun 16, 01:00 Why this is not happening is Corrupt to the Core!!! send a green star Mr. Jun 11, 13:42 As a true conservative, one must understand the importance of the minimal role of government in personal affairs. send a green star Jun 10, 21:06 Who is anyone to tell you who you can or cannot love? Name not displayed, Finland Jun 10, 03:57 Jun 10, 02:32 Mr. Ms.
Newsha Tavakolian's creates photos of Iranian women banned from singing for men. Newsha Tavakolian Photographer Newsha Tavakolian has grown up in an Iran where a woman is banned from singing alone on a stage for a general audience. She has seen her country grow more repressive throughout her lifetime; the morality police moving to control more of women’s lives (women cannot go skiing without a male guardian as of last year or study English literature or business as of last month). Ironically all this has occurred at the same time that women attend universities at unprecedented rates, outnumbering men at institutions of higher learning in Iran. From this emerges, “Listen.” Tavakolian’s subjects are all professional singers whose lives are limited by Islamic tenet. Tavakolian, who has been working a as a photographer since age 16, is part of Rawiya, a collective of female photographers from the Middle East. Welcome!
Pennsylvania Wiretap Act: Leave it alone By Reggie Shuford In the 2002 science fiction film “Minority Report,” the government eliminates crime by arresting people for “pre- crime.” Humans with the ability to see the future detect crime before it happens, allowing police to arrest a person for a crime before it occurs. Apparently, some prosecutors in Pennsylvania seem to think the film was a documentary. Proposed changes to the Pa. They are urging the General Assembly to pass revisions to the commonwealth’s Wiretap Act that would allow Pennsylvanians to secretly record each other when they think they will find evidence of a past, present or future crime. This exception to what’s known as “two-party consent” is one of multiple proposed changes to state law that, in totality, would disintegrate the privacy protections in current state law and would move Pennsylvania closer to becoming a surveillance society. Unfortunately, some government officials want to break down that wall. Reggie Shuford The late Sen.
Those Pungent Smells Oozing Out of Marijuana Buds Are Actually Giving You Clues About What Their Effects Will Be Like Scientists are now formally acknowledging something that Cannabis consumers have long taken for granted: aroma is associated with effect. Shop ▾ Plant cannabinoids —21-carbon molecules found only in Cannabis— are odorless. It’s the terpenoids —components of the plant’s “essential oils”— that create the fragrance. The aroma of a given plant depends on which terpenoids predominate. Evidence that “phytocannabinoid-terpenoid interactions” enhance the therapeutic effects of cannabis was presented by Ethan Russo, MD, at a conference in Israel in 2010 and published in the August 2011 British Journal of Pharmacology. Both terpenoids and cannabinoids are secreted inside the Cannabis plant’s glandular trichomes, and they have a parent compound in common (geranyl pyrophosphate). The “Entourage Effect” The conference at which Russo presented his paper was held at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, where Raphael Mechoulam directs a lab, in honor of Mechoulam’s 80th birthday. 1. 2. 3. Terpene Factoids
BREAKING: President Obama endorses marriage equality May 9, 2012 Community/Meta Marriage equality By Jacob Combs and Scottie Thomaston In an interview with ABC News, President Barack Obama has officially endorsed marriage equality for gay and lesbian Americans. ABC News’s Rick Klein has the full article here. “I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married “It’s interesting, some of this is also generational.
How abusers get away with targeting Indian women “We have serial rapists on the reservation — that are non-Indian — because they know they can get away with it,” said Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center in Lake Andes, S.D. “Many of these cases just get dropped. Nothing happens. And they know they’re free to hurt again.” Asetoyer was talking about the loophole that prevents tribal authorities, who have jurisdiction over crimes committed on Indian territory by Indians, from having any authority over non-Indian male abusers. A provision in the Senate version of the reauthorization Violence Against Women Act, which has been languishing in partisan deadlock since the spring, would change that. “It’s immoral that the Congress of the United States would stand there and say that Indian women are less than their white counterparts, that we shouldn’t have the same equal protection under the law,” said Asetoyer.
Tony Blair At the Leveson Inquiry: No Surprises (Almost) A documentary filmmaker, David Lawley-Wakelin, broke into the long-running Leveson Inquiry as former Prime Minister Tony Blair was testifying and accused him of being paid by JP Morgan Chase when he sent British troops to support the American forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Lawley-Walkin shouted “This man should be arrested for war crimes” and called Blair a “war criminal.” Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson told Blair that he was “sorry for that” and that he did not have to respond to the protester; Blair denied the accusations, commenting that it was his “experience that if you had 1,000 people in an event and somebody got up and shouted something, then it’s as if the other 999 needn’t have bothered showing up.” The morning intrusion in the court lasted only about a half a minute of the seven hours set aside for the former Labour leader to testify. Blair on Murdoch, the Press and Politicians “Despite all this stuff about me being godfather to one of his children.