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I'm so glad we got that circumcision debate over with since there is no evidence of a benefit from circumcision, except maybe that 70% reduction in the risk of HIV infection....
comment posted at 12:38 PM on Jul-6-05

How do you attack the monster that is hype/commersialism/advertising, a monster that turns every rebellion into a profitable fashion? The preferred answer seems to be: with a practical joke. Practical jokes as media criticism is a current trend in art and documentary movies. An early example is Michael Moore's TV Nation. But there's always the bigger prank. Two Czech filmmakers made a huge advertising campaign for the opening of a new supermarket which didn't exist. 3,000 people showed up on an empty field. This is their story. Thanks, dabitch!
comment posted at 12:26 PM on Jun-15-05

Michael Jackson verdict. Not guilty on all ten counts. Obligatory MeFi thread.
comment posted at 3:30 PM on Jun-13-05

The world's 100 largest newspapers by circulation Japan and China take 9 of the top 10 spots; Greece enters at #17, the United States at #19. Newspaperindex now also has the list broken down by continent. [An updated top 100 list has been posted here] [via Cynical-C]
comment posted at 2:11 PM on Jun-12-05

african dress traditions as shown in a collection of old photographs ... (some photos show bare breasted women)
comment posted at 9:31 AM on Jun-4-05

Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant - Richard Dawkins talks about how the Fundamentalists distort science.
comment posted at 3:10 PM on Jun-3-05
comment posted at 1:24 AM on Jun-4-05

Leaving the left. "I departed with new clarity about the brilliance of liberal democracy and the value system it entails; the quest for freedom as an intrinsically human affair; and the dangers of demands for conformity and adherence to any point of view through silence, fear, or coercion." Keith Thompson
comment posted at 11:39 PM on May-22-05

We recognize the inherent right of all human beings to an intact body. "The prepuce of the male infant should be left in its natural state". Not everyone would agree with that. Ritual circumcision is found amongst many African peoples, but also elsewhere and is of considerable antiquity. Ashley Montagu wanted you to sign a petition against it. But what is it all about? A form of phallic worship? Or a snake divinity? Or just another form of body art? What discoveries did Ishmael make when Queequeg jumped into his bed?
comment posted at 11:47 AM on May-20-05

Nobel winner GÜNTER GRASS about Germany on the anniversary of the end of WWII (NYT).
comment posted at 3:03 AM on May-8-05
comment posted at 7:14 AM on May-8-05

FDA to ban sperm donations from homosexuals. Claims the rate of HIV among gay men is statistically high enough to warrant the exclusion. Gay community suggests discrimination. See also: Gay blood ban (in effect since 1985).
comment posted at 2:19 AM on May-6-05

Meet Vernon | "I designed this blog to allow you to meet Vernon Lee Evans, the next person to be executed on Maryland’s death row. I will print out the emails and mail them to Vernon who is currently in a maximum security cell in Baltimore, Maryland. Vernon will mail me back his responses and I’ll post them here." TalkLeft enthuses: "Meet Vernon even has a blogroll, and TalkLeft is proud to be included on it. This is an experiment, but wouldn't it be great to see every death row inmate with a blog?" In 2003, imprisoned serial killer Jack Trawick taunted his victims from a website published with the help of an admirer. Other prison blogs here and here. [via BuzzMachine]
comment posted at 3:59 PM on Apr-9-05
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comment posted at 12:24 PM on Apr-10-05
comment posted at 2:48 PM on Apr-10-05
comment posted at 3:04 PM on Apr-10-05

Are you ugly or handsome? So Much for That Merit Raise: The Link between Wages and Appearance. Hey what about the phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder?
comment posted at 8:31 AM on Apr-9-05

Oh Wolfie! Wolfie! Invade me like you invaded Iraq! Pegged to head the World Bank, is Wolfowitz' lover, Shaha Riza, one of the reasons we invaded Iraq? Critics say it would be impossible for Wolfie - as he is nicknamed by Bush - to make independent decisions when his lover, who works on Middle Eastern and North African issues, is so committed to overthrowing Middle Eastern regimes. "His womanising has come home to roost," a Washington insider said. "Paul was a foreign policy hawk long before he met Shaha but it doesn't look good to be accused of being under the thumb of your mistress."
comment posted at 2:18 AM on Mar-27-05
comment posted at 2:24 AM on Mar-27-05

Africa. Lol.
comment posted at 5:46 AM on Mar-13-05
comment posted at 8:09 AM on Mar-13-05
comment posted at 8:19 AM on Mar-13-05

You humans have been around a lot longer than you were thought to have been here-- since at least 190,000 years ago. In 1967, the Omo fossils were thought to be about 130,000 years old.
comment posted at 12:16 PM on Feb-17-05

Libertarian "Girl" (previously snarked at here) -- Russian mail-order bride, or Libertarian Man of Mystery? We report, you decide. [via w.i.h.d.c]
comment posted at 5:10 PM on Feb-17-05

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed Monday in a massive car bomb attack in Beirut. The billionare was Lebanese PM from 1992 until 1998 and then again from 2000 until 2004 when he resigned after Syria pressured the Lebanese parliament to amend the country's constitution to permit pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud to remain in office. The resignation of the once friendly Hariri, a Sunni, coupled with the alienation by Damascus of Druze leader Walid Jumblat has isolated Syria in Lebanon and diminished the influence of France. Through the Hariri foundation, Rafik Hariri was, as a Lebanese friend remarked "pretty much single handed in rebuilding Lebanon, making it a descent place to visit, developing programs from schools to hospitals, … much of it is his own money." Fingers point at Syrian involvement and the US has recalled it's envoy from Damascus.
comment posted at 3:48 AM on Feb-16-05

Yulia Timoshenko (her personal website) is the new premier of Ukraine (bio). She is the hippest politician I've ever laid my eyes on. Here is a picture of her giving a speech to the Ukrainian parliament when it approved her nomination to the premiership. Here's another picture of her being insufferably hip. Russia has issued an international arrest warrant for her through Interpol, but who cares when she's this cool? Don't you wish you had politicians who dressed like that? Strike that. Don't you wish you had politicians who could dress like that?
comment posted at 1:28 AM on Feb-6-05

Elections on the US model? Now that the voting is done, questions are starting to arise . . . Sunni Moslems in Kirkuk had an exemption from the boycott of the vote. But of 38 designated polling centres in the Hawija district, only 19 actually opened, and the electoral commission had only sent 50,000 ballots to the district, even though more than 100,000 voters were on the rolls. Of course, things like that happen often in places new to voting, like Ohio. But wait, there's more! Kurdish Christians were not able to vote when balloting materials arrived inexplicably late, and Iraq's interim president said a shortage of ballots at some polling places may have kept tens of thousands from voting. There's been a lot of news about suspicious elections all over the world during the last few years. How can we restore our faith in the democratic process?
comment posted at 11:56 AM on Feb-3-05

A Natural Solution for a Tighter Vagina Dry sex is extremely popular in Africa due to the sensation of tightness and additional friction it provides, despite the fact that it is associated with higher rates of HIV transmission. But if you don't have access to mutendo wegudo (soil with baboon urine), Scott and Cynthia Koss have the product for you.
comment posted at 4:28 PM on Jan-27-05

Architecture of Density, by Michael Wolf • Dizzying photos of Hong Kong high-rise buildings. Think of bamboo stalks, Lego pieces, spinal columns, circuit boards...
comment posted at 6:15 AM on Jan-23-05

Abandoned call girl messageboard circa 1998 The unprotected internal board of a call girl service. Wow. [via]
comment posted at 2:20 AM on Jan-12-05

Is this a library or a Borders? A Denver Post writer laments the availability of CDs, DVDs, and not so intellectually stimulating reading material at the Schlessman Family Branch Library (part of the Denver Public Library system), and calls into the question the library's purpose. Should libraries give the people what they want, if what they want is an Ashlee Simpson CD?
comment posted at 12:09 PM on Jan-9-05

Rumor has it: Six Apart is buying Live Journal. via Waxy
comment posted at 3:02 AM on Jan-5-05
comment posted at 12:37 PM on Jan-5-05
comment posted at 12:40 PM on Jan-5-05

Losing the War, an insightful memoir by writer and journalist Lee Sandlin. Note: It's not about Iraq. Or is it? "A year later, in the second winter of the invasion, as the army inched forward on a final, desperate push into Stalingrad, a daring joke began making the rounds in Germany, a mock dispatch from Stalingrad HQ: 'Today our troops captured a two-room apartment with kitchen, toilet, and bathroom. They have succeeded in retaining two-thirds of it despite fierce counterattacks by the enemy.' Few of the tellers realized just how accurate this description was. John Keegan, in his book The Second World War, quotes a German officer's description of the fighting in the city: 'We have fought for fifteen days for a single house with mortars, grenades, machine-guns and bayonets. Already by the third day fifty-four German corpses are strewn in the cellars, on the landings, and the staircases. The front is a corridor between burnt-out rooms; it is the thin ceiling between two floors.' This was where Hitler's vision of the world finally foundered. After striding like a colossus over a continent, the German army was in the end unable to force its way up a flight of stairs."
comment posted at 1:55 PM on Dec-28-04

It's Kwanzaa! Today begins the seven day celebration of the principles which make the African People and their descendants, and ultimately Humanity, great. While I don't celebrate, I will take the opportunity to learn more about the holiday and to hold the Seven Principles in mind.

Now it's back to watching my new In Living Color and Chappelle's Show DVDs.
comment posted at 4:20 AM on Dec-27-04
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comment posted at 2:55 AM on Dec-28-04

"China's Records In the Eyes of Foreigners" Pick your favorite China statistic. Is it "GDP of the Shanghai region is equivalent to that of Brazil;" is it "Foreigners invest about $1 billion in China every week;" is it "China has the largest online gaming population in the world;" is it "China produces 2.3 billion condoms each year." NB article from the "People's Daily Online", although original source claimed to be the "French L'Express weekly".
comment posted at 3:04 PM on Dec-23-04
comment posted at 3:09 PM on Dec-23-04

Behzti (Dishonour) a play by sikh author Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti has been dropped because of violent protests from members of the birmingham sikh community.

Catholic archbishop feels that violation of the sacred place of the Sikh religion demeans the sacred places of every religion.

As an aside at least enoch was wrong.

Once again folks - in the right corner it's religion , erm.. running round in circles like a scared fool its freedom of expression.
comment posted at 12:55 PM on Dec-21-04

Cousin Marriage Conundrum [...]By fostering intense family loyalties and strong nepotistic urges, inbreeding makes the development of civil society more difficult. Many Americans have heard by now that Iraq is composed of three ethnic groups -- the Kurds of the north, the Sunnis of the center, and the Shi'ites of the south. Clearly, these ethnic rivalries would complicate the task of ruling reforming Iraq. But that's just a top-down summary of Iraq's ethnic make-up. Each of those three ethnic groups is divisible into smaller and smaller tribes, clans, and inbred extended families -- each with their own alliances, rivals, and feuds. And the engine at the bottom of these bedeviling social divisions is the oft-ignored institution of cousin marriage[...]
comment posted at 11:42 AM on Dec-17-04
comment posted at 3:14 PM on Dec-17-04
comment posted at 3:21 PM on Dec-17-04

20,000 genes and splices: the Colonel's Secret Recipe revealed! Even the fanciest chickens won't be able to ignore their genetic cousins now.
comment posted at 7:20 AM on Dec-13-04

Math + test = trouble for US economy For a nation committed to preparing students for 21st century jobs, the results of the first-of-its-kind study of how well teenagers can apply math skills to real-life problems is sobering. American 15-year-olds rank well below those in most other industrialized countries in mathematics literacy and problem solving, according to a survey released Monday
comment posted at 5:04 AM on Dec-7-04
comment posted at 5:09 AM on Dec-7-04

Our nation so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrial population, should be able to devise ways and means of insuring to all our able-bodied working men and women a fair day's pay for a fair day's work . - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937

Chapter 1 [PDF] of Ending Poverty as We Know It - Guaranteeing a Right to a Job at a Living Wage. Here is a Q&A with William Quigley, its author.
comment posted at 4:42 PM on Dec-3-04