President Obama Becomes the First American President to Back Same-Sex Marriage
“I’ve just concluded, 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,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News.
Obama, who had previously backed strong protections for gay and lesbian couples, said his position had evolved partly after talking to his two daughters Malia and Sasha who had some friends who had same-sex parents.
“It wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective,” Obama said in the interview.
Florida politicians and civil rights leaders joined calls for the firing of a police chief in the case of a neighborhood watch captain who killed an unarmed black teenager, as new details emerged on Wednesday about police handling of the investigation.
“The reality is that people in this community have lost faith in the police chief’s ability to keep their children safe,” Benjamin Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), told Reuters.
Florida congresswoman Frederica Wilson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, echoed the call in an appearance on CNN. “Not only would I like to see it happen, but I’m joining with them to make sure it happens,” Wilson said.
Speaking in the U.S. House of Representatives, Florida congresswoman Corrine Brown criticized the police investigation of the shooter, George Zimmerman, who remains free almost a month after gunning down 17-year-old Trayvon Martin outside a gated community in Sanford, near Orlando.
“No drug tests. No alcohol tests. No lie detector tests. It’s just his word that he felt threatened, so therefore he shot to kill. That is unacceptable,” said Brown, who is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Read more: Florida police chief under fire in case of slain teen
For many California students, Harvard is now cheaper than state schools (GOOD) ⇢
good:
A 300 percent increase in tuition and lackluster financial aid from state schools is making elite private universities look more appealing. As the state has cut billions of dollars from education budgets over the past few years, California’s universities have begun admitting more out-of-state students, who pay triple the tuition. This makes private schools resting on billion-dollar endowments appear way more attractive to their accepted students.
California has a prestigious history of post-secondary education, and it is currently in ruins. At one point, the UC system was the crown jewel of university systems and was a shining example of high quality public education. Costs have now skyrocketed, admissions and classes are being cut, professors are underpaid and overworked while presidents are making more money than the POTUS.
(via latimes)
Tumblr bans self-harm blogs ⇢
Tumblr will begin banning and removing self-harm blogs. Are you in favor of the censorship? Do self-harm blogs actually increase the practice of self-harm, or are we taking away avenues for sufferers to express their disorder and see that they are not alone? I’m not arguing whether or not Tumblr has the right to censor, obviously they possess that right. I’m thinking more about the experience of the followers of those blogs and actual damage caused or therapeutic value to those followers. I hate that PsyPORT linked a article from Fox.
Tumblr said that while it is committed to supporting and defending freedom of speech, it does draw some limits.
“Some specific kinds of content aren’t welcome on Tumblr,” the staff wrote. Blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm behaviors will be removed.
In addition to taking down blogs that support eating disorders, cutting and suicide, Tumblr will refer readers to appropriate help organizations when they search for self-harm content. For instance, when a Tumblr user types in tags that are associated with support tips for anorexics such as “thinspiration,” “thinspo” and “pro-ana,” Tumblr will show a public service message such as:
“Eating disorders can cause serious health problems, and at their most severe can even be life-threatening. Please contact the [resource organization] at [helpline number] or [website].”
However, some Tumblr bloggers are concerned that the new policy will do more harm than good. “Self- harm blogs are helping me know that I’m not alone in this world,” a Tumblr user wrote. “Without my blog and everyone else’s blogs, I’d probably be dead by now.”
A London-based user has launched an online petition to stop the ban. She said that self-harm bloggers post this content because it is an accurate representation of feelings that they would otherwise not be able to express. To them, Tumblr is a form of therapy, she said.
Her petition has been signed by more than 1,650 supporters. It urges Tumblr to consider an alternative to the ban. Bloggers posting self-harm related content could be required to include a disclaimer that the author cannot be held responsible for how viewers interpret the content they post along with links to recovery sites.
Appeals court rules Prop. 8 unconstitutional!
”Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” said Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the majority opinion.
The patient uploaded his x-ray to Facebook in the ambulance between hospitals.
A suburban Chicago man accidentally shot a 3.25in (8.25cm) nail into his skull but is recovering after doctors successfully removed it from the centre of his brain.
Dante Autullo, 34, was in his workshop when a nail gun recoiled near his head.
But he had no idea the nail had entered his brain until the next day, when he began feeling nauseous.
Doctors told Mr Autullo that the nail came within millimetres of the area used for motor function.
Automated Imaging Speeds Whole-Brain Mapping
A new technology developed by neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) transforms the way highly detailed anatomical images can be made of whole brains. Until now, means of obtaining such images – used in cutting-edge projects to map the mammalian brain - have been painstakingly slow and available only to a handful of highly specialized research teams. By automating and standardizing the process in which brain samples are divided into sections and then imaged sequentially at precise spatial orientations in two-photon microscopes, the team, led by Assoc. Prof. Pavel Osten and consisting of scientists from his CSHL lab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has opened the door to making whole-brain mapping routine.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Automated-Imaging-Speeds-Whole-Brain-Mapping-011612.aspx
Duh! 11 Obvious Science Findings of 2011 ⇢
Awesomely funny list of things that you already pretty much figure were true but we decided to spend money researching anyway. Hey, we have a glut of PhD students to keep busy!
Highlights:
- Drinking increases the likelihood of unsafe sex
- Smoking pot and driving isn’t safe
- Shoppers don’t read nutrition labels
- People aren’t really doing anything on the internet
(via Scientific American)
Tram passenger who hurled racist abuse arrested
A woman has been arrested for allegedly making racist comments to other passengers on a packed tram. The incident was filmed and posted online, prompting police to investigate.
The clip (which contains explicit comments some viewers may find offensive) had been viewed more than 124,000 times by Monday afternoon after being uploaded to YouTube on Sunday, and shows a woman with a child on her lap shouting abuse at passengers. The incident happened on the Croydon to Wimbledon tramlink. British Transport police said a 34-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.
The video footage, which sparked a Twitter trend with the hashtag #MyTramExperience on Monday, shows a woman complaining about ethnic minorities living in Britain. She starts by saying: “What has this country come to? … with loads of black people and a load of fucking Polish. You ain’t English either. None of you are fucking English. Get back to your own fucking, d’you know what?
“Sort out your own countries. Don’t come and do mine. Britain is nothing now. Britain is fuck all.”
One of the passengers on the tram asks her to mind her language, saying: “There are little kids on the tram.” The woman points to the child on her lap and says “I’ve got a little kid here.”
Several other passengers complain about her use of language and racist comments, but the tirade carries on for more than two minutes.
Police launched an investigation after the video was brought to their attention on YouTube and Twitter. A spokesman said: “At present it is not entirely clear which tram stops the offence took place between and when it occurred.
“As a result, we need anyone who witnessed this incident, or with any information that could assist our investigation, to contact us.”
absolutely disgusting!
Wow. I’m glad a few people stood up and said something, this is horrid. Should racists be accused of child abuse or child maltreatment?
Amid ill and dying inmates, a search for redemption: Tending to the men in a prison hospice helped John Paul Madrona do penance for a terrible deed in his youth. But perhaps the work was not enough.
Madrona is serving time for the murder of the brother of a former Times business reporter. Powerful story on our state’s prison hospice. Part two is coming Monday.
Photo: Pastoral Care Worker John Paul Madrona, serving a prison term for a 1993 murder, keeps an eye on Steven Thomas as he bathes in the hospice wing. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
Brian Nguyen, photographer for UC Davis’s student newspaper The Aggie, captured the events of yesterday’s protests from beginning to end, and was kind enough to submit them for publication here at The Political Notebook. Above are a selection of photos capturing the police in riot gear, arresting and pepper spraying the student protesters. What an intense group of shots.
You can follow Nguyen’s Flickr stream or follow him on Tumblr.
(via latimes)
Cave Paintings: Behind the Artists
Reaching back tens of thousands of years into human history, cave paintings, petroglyphs and other forms of ancient art show the roots of our innate desire for self-expression. But exactly who were the Stone-Age artists whose hands collectively painted, molded or carved what remains of their efforts today?
Here’s a look at the artists behind some of the longest-lasting examples of human creativity ever found.
High IQ linked to drug use
The “Just Say No” generation was often told by parents and teachers that intelligent people didn’t use drugs. Turns out, the adults may have been wrong.
A new British study finds children with high IQs are more likely to use drugs as adults than people who score low on IQ tests as children.
Researchers discovered men with high childhood IQs were up to two times more likely to use illegal drugs than their lower-scoring counterparts. Girls with high IQs were up to three times more likely to use drugs as adults.
“We suspect they may be more open to new experiences and are more sensation seeking.”
Hmmmmm…
Google X, a Secret Product Lab, Revealed for First Time
The lab is reportedly run “as mysteriously as the C.I.A.”