Ways in which Ann is cooler than us

You go in, pick a song or artist that you like and then they create a radio station for you!

Grey's Anatomy

So I am ridiculously in love with Grey's Anatomy. Some of you may be aware of my previous fascinations with Buffy and sadly 90210. But this, this is maybe the one. I like Veronica Mars and even like Battlestar Gallatica when I get a chance, but Grey's Anatomy is something else entirely. All the characters are problematic and engaging. The storylines are funny and sad. It is great, fantastic and swell. It makes me happy on Sunday night when there is a new episode. It is great storytelling with no epic promised, no evil defeated. Just the kind of stories that drive us out of bed in the morning when we would maybe prefer to crawl back under the covers.

Also, I went to Mexico today because I needed to see the water. Only once before have I been so disoriented that seeing where water met land let me get my bearings again. I love walking on a beach more than nearly anything. Sand in your toes and a map telling you where that sand is on the globe, is sometimes the only way to know where you are.

Reasons to be Lesbian

More brilliance from Ann

Reasons to love American and Canadian men!

In the United States and Canada, humor was considered the most important trait by both men and women, getting 63 and 73 percent of the vote respectively.

Still proud to be American

?

War

On January 22 2006, Two explosions occurred on the main branch and a reserve branch of the Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline in the Russian border region of North Ossetia at around 0300 local time (2400 GMT).
The electricity transmission line in Russia's southern region of Karachayevo-Cherkessiya - also near the Georgian border - was brought down by an explosion just hours later.
The explosions suspended gas supply to Georgia and Armenia, at a time when the weather conditions were particualry severe. Georgian authorities claimed the explosions were a delibarate act of sabotage in order to blackmail the nation into surrendering its pipelines to the Russian state owned monoply Gazprom. Russians dissmiss those accusations claiming the charges were set by Chechen terrorists; this is however inconsistent with the Kremlin's previous claims that Georgia is aiding the Chechens.

Frankestein potatoes

Oh Ireland, what are you thinking?

Unclear on the concept

More Democrats get behind Alito: This

"My considered judgment from his record, from his answers to my questions,
and from his obvious intelligence and sincerity, leads me to believe him to be
an honorable man who loves his country, loves his Constitution and will give of
his best. Can we really ask for more?" said Byrd, the senior Democrat in the
100-member Senate.

from the man who once said:

REPEATEDLY, West Virginia’s Sen. Robert C. Byrd has warned that the Bush White House is amassing ever-stronger power over America, treating Congress and the Supreme Court as puppets — thereby damaging the heart of America’s democracy, the checks and balances between executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Laurel Hester

I don't know if any of you have been following the story of the woman in NJ trying to leave her benefits to her partner, but if you have here is a heartwarming update of one person actually changing the world to be a kinder gentler place.

AIDs gel

The Gates foundation is funding a lot of this research due to the fact that in places where AIDs is most prevalent, women are not allowed to demand condoms and they realized they needed a method where women could protect themselves without the man knowing. Awesome if it works!

Yup they are talking bout us, kids

A college education, the initial marker of easing into "young adulthood," is an indicator of future success - both professionally and personally - but in ways you might not have considered.

A college degree "will determine the size of their paycheck, the safety of their
neighborhood, the reliability of their car and ... the opportunities they will
be able to provide for their own children." However, it is that education,
increasingly required for even low-paying jobs, that is hard to finance and can
take more than a decade to pay off.

Drew Barrymore

making fun of her boobs, heh heh:)

Not light reading

Abortion rights are on a lot of people's minds right now. This is a particularly painful article on the reality as it currently exists on the ground.

You go girl!

Totally cheesy, but I love it!

Another example of

our idiotic administrations inability to see the writing on the wall.

We love British men.

This is a post on a letter to the Guardian, which is an English paper. Here is a sampling:

I sat beside my wife when our child was born and when I realised it was a
girl, my feeling of disappointment was acute. Of course, I hid it from everybody
around me with false joviality and exaggerated pride, but nevertheless it was
there, and coincided with a growing feeling that the sands were shifting.

New Browser for new web

WEB 2.0 is supposed to be awesome as far as ease of use. Here is a browser for it!

Oh Africa

I have been involved with this group for awhile, but I just discovered today that they are responsible for the heinous cover by Bone and Alicia Keys of Peter Gabriel's song "Don't Give Up". Of course, one still needs to be active and care about the abject poverty in Africa. One does not have to care by purchasing said horrid song. That is all I am saying.

Animals and Personality

I have long wondered whether humans would ever actually be able to communicate with animals.
It is has always struck me as odd that we didn't acknowledge that animals have
their own verson of family and society. So the NYTimes did this article and some
of the quotes are fantastic.

You'd expect animals to be doing smart stuff," Sih told me
one evening over dinner. "The whole tradition in most of evolutionary ecology
has been to emphasize adaptation where organisms do smart things. But I've been
making the case for a while that the most interesting behaviors are actually the
stupidest."

It's typically the males of a given species that seem to figure most prominently in the stupid-behavior department - the militant, mayhem-causing water striders and sticklebacks, for example, or
fierce male Western bluebirds, who spend so much time defending nests or
courting females that they completely neglect their own offspring. But perhaps
the most glaring instance of dumb-animal doings is to be found in the female
North American fishing spider. Studies have shown that a good number of female
fishing spiders are from a very early age highly driven and effective hunters.
It is a trait that serves them well most of their lives, particularly in lean
times, but it wholly backfires during mating season, when these females can't
keep themselves from eating prospective suitors.

We humans, on the other hand, tend to think of our personalities as protean, mutable entities that, unlike our physical selves, we can shape to suit shifting circumstances. Sih disagrees. He says he thinks that our behaviors, no matter how complex the human social contexts that help to shape them, are not nearly as pliant as we believe them to be.

Dolly Turns 60!

From Broadsheet's Thanks:

Thank you for writing over 3,000 songs.
Literally. Thank you for "Little Sparrow," an album that Broadsheeter Lynn
Harris writes "got me through the worst. time. in. my. life." Thank you for
creating an eagle preserve at Dollywood. Thank you for
"Coat of Many Colors," which makes my friend Heather cry, even if she's in the
middle of getting lunch at a salad bar or getting her nails done or shopping at
Target. It's really one of the strongest Pavlovian reactions I've ever
witnessed. ......Thank you for, as Salon's Katharine Mieszkowski's friend
Noadiah says, showing "absolute admiration for Jolene, the woman who is stealing
[your] man. [You] couldn't even say a discouraging word about her. [You're] very
pro-woman."

Globalisation, not as fun as once portrayed

Global imbalances are growing, cross-border financing needs are increasing
and a smooth-functioning financial system is now essential for this," said
Nouriel Roubini, professor at New York University and a former U.S. Treasury
official.
"People are getting nervous about all sorts of asset classes," he
added. "It's not inconceivable that mishaps on the Tokyo stock market like the
one this week or this event is Iran could lead to the sort of sudden panic
everyone fears."
And there is a palpable sense of unease among top
policy-makers and financiers that one or a series of these seemingly random
events could turn the whole environment ugly

Really hope this is Genuine

Big Pharma to Africa's aid? Really?
Intellectual Property Watch is
reporting that Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche announced this week that it would help drug
manufacturers in poor countries make generic versions of its AIDS drugs.

seriously?

Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot
handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to
comparing the cost per ounce of food

Seriously..Gmail ads

Labiaplasty - www.ImagineYou.com - Cosmetic Surgery Resources
& More! Look Beautiful - Labiaplasty

Updates on blogging

Hello all,

Just some things I have noticed. Comments are really slow to appear. I have posted comments that haven't shown up in numbers until the next day, but if you click comments, they are there. So if you post something, click on comments even if it says zero in case soemone left something. Also there is spellcheck. I am editing any ones I find, but in case I miss something.

Finally, I would like to welcome officially some new posters to the blog in case anyone is unfamiliar with who they see posting.

Anne B.-living and working in the Emerald City (Seattle) after an exciting life in the Big Apple
Ann Z-Living in Durham, pondering questions about anatomy that may make other people, a little squeamish:)
Fe-My very nifty sister who is an excellent resource for issues you might be having with the blog because I think my view is very different than yours.
Jess-Living in the fabulous town of Maynard and well known for her excellent taste and appreciation of the funky.

Well said point on where the US is going wrong

There is no shortage of economists who will
argue that the benefits of free trade for the American economy outweigh the
inevitable pain, but numbers like those quoted in the Bloomberg article are
impossible to ignore. Globalization is exerting downward pressure on worker
wages in the developed world. It is likely of little comfort to a downsized auto
worker that, at the same time, hundreds of millions of people are moving out of
poverty in India and China. A lowering of the standard of living in the United
States demands a political response, and the longer it continues, the more
inevitable that response becomes.
The question is: What kind of response?
For months, congressional leaders have been making protectionist noises,
mouthing off about slapping huge tariffs on goods manufactured in China,
demanding a revaluation of the Chinese yuan, or otherwise looking to close the
barn door long after all the livestock have fled. Never mind that the majority
of economists blanch at such steps. Something's got to be done, right?
Absolutely. But how about reinforcing the traditional strengths of the U.S.
-- its leadership in science and technology, its ability to create new markets
and innovate -- instead of trying to close out the rest of the world? If
Congress and the Bush administration really want the U.S. to flourish, they
should be pouring billions upon billions of dollars into education, job training
and the funding of basic research. Instead of approving obscene tax cuts and
immoral wars, they should be ensuring that American citizens have every
advantage in a competitive landscape that will only get more cut-throat. And
then, as nations like China and India, with their huge populations, mature into
affluence, the United States will be there to sell them the advanced products
and services that those countries will no doubt crave with historically
unprecedented hunger.

I can see my Dad getting that smug smile on his face

But wouldn't you get bored? Wrong again. Dr.
Gilbert's research also indicates that people who indulge in "false variety
seeking" - that is, incessantly trying something new for variety's sake - are
generally less happy than people who stick to their tried-and-true favorites.
"The joys of variety are vastly overestimated in every domain of pleasure,"
he said.

Other things to pay attention to

Good morning. I always pay attention when Warren Buffet does a speech. He is the Oracle of omaha. That said there is also this:

Beer Pong Champs

Gmail ads

We have all seen funny ads pop up on gmail, but this is one of the funnier ones I have seen. Cuz its the security of the transaction that is most worrisome.

Fart Spray only $1.79 - Zymetrical.com - Qty. discounts
available. Why pay more? Secure online ordering.

Damn Felicity, you rock

I don't know if you guys are able to access video dog, but if you can, there is a snippet of an interview with Felicity Huffman and Leslie Stahl that is awesome.

Be fruitful and multiply!

"It's another link between profligacy and power," Bradley told Reuters.
"We're the first generation on the planet where if you're successful you don't
(always) have more children."

Finally Someone is saying it aloud

Yesterday The Graduate posted about Paul Hackett's comments in the Columbus Dispatch. Of note was this one:

"The Republican Party has been hijacked by the religious fanatics that, in my opinion, aren't a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden and a lot of the other religious nuts around the world," he said. "The challenge is for the rest of us moderate Americans and citizens of the world to put down the fork and spoon, turn off the TV, and participate in the process and try to push back on these radical nuts - and they are nuts."

It's what people do when there is no 24 on?

Too much info

I sat in Barnes and Noble for awhile last night and read Business Week, Scientific American and the Economist shortly before scanning most the End of Faith. I don't recommend this for anyone who wants to stay sane and feel like the world isn't just spinning wildly out of control.
In the Business Week article, they detail how increasingly complex algorithms are being used to map all the data we all feed into the internet. There was another article, I think in Scientific America, that wondered whether Google's real end goal is to create a functioning artificial intelligence from the dynamic data its users provide.
The real fun one is summarized below. Hopefully we have all seen Gattaca. It appears to be coming in our lifetime.
So grab your loved ones, feel those emotions. We live in interesting times.

American: Genomes for All [ BIOTECHNOLOGY ]
Next-generation technologies that make reading DNA fast, cheap and widely accessible are coming in less than a decade. Their potential to revolutionize research and bring about the era of truly personalized medicine means the time to start preparing is now

If only the lady in the cafeteria..

at college had seen this. She wouldn't let me change out the milk, cuz it would hurt my insides:)

One of the most surprising findings "was the reversal of the age-old belief that high-volume exercise would be harmful to the reproductive system of women" and hurt their bones, Friedl said.

Quote of the day

"With quantum mechanics, an object can be in two places at the same time, as long as you don't look at it," he said.

More fun gossip from ted

"Leo is doing great single. And he's so not gay. I don't know why people always say that."
--Lukas Haas' response when I asked him what was in store for his buddy Leonardo DiCaprio in '06. We were hangin' by the dance floor at Mood, natch...

Reuters can be funny

No seriously..save the world

go on with your bad self.

Gay as the new hip hop?

Not sure I really get this.

Um...crapolla

We don't have the resources to fight this.

My other favorite

place on the web currently is Wikipedia. Their top article is Game Theory. I first learned about the prisoner's dilemma in a college comparative politics class. As you read more about behavior science and game theory and the limbic system , it seems to imply that the universe really is far more ordered than our notions of personality, free will and individuality would have us believe. We just can't see the order/pattern.

Somewhere in the above system exists power. Power and maybe love and definitely sex seem to be the chaotic variables that prevent us from seeing an otherwise obvious pattern?

Calorie restriction for long term health

I have been seeing articles about this theory for awhile now. I actually used to know someone who practiced this. While I feel fairly confident saying I do not have the discipline necessary to execute it, it is fascinating to think you could tweak your longevity and quality of life so concretely.

Lyrics

I am far too late, but roomie just gave me new music and now I am obsessively listening. Here are the lyrics that are particularly resonant for entirely obvious reasons. It is late and I should be asleep, but it really is the twilight hour that lets me think in these terms.

Soul Meets Body
Artist: Death Cab For Cutie
Album: Soul Meets Body

I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun rap its arms around me
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what it's like to be new
Cause in my head there is a Greyhound station
Where I've sent my thoughts to far off destinations
So they may have a chance of finding a place where
They're far more suited then here

Someday You'll be loved

I once knew a girl
In the years of my youth
With eyes like the summer
All beauty and truth
In the morning I fled
Left a note and it read
Someday you will be loved.
I cannot pretend that I felt any regret
Cause each broken heart will eventually mend
As the blood runs red down the needle and thread
Someday you will be loved
You'll be loved you'll be loved
Like you never have known
The memories of me
Will seem more like bad dreams
Just a series of blurs
Like I never occurred
Someday you will be loved
You may feel alone when you're falling asleep
And everytime tears float down your cheeks
But I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
Someday you will be loved
You'll be loved you'll be loved
Like you never have known
The memories of me
Will seem more like bad dreams
Just a series of blurs
Like I never occurred
Someday you will be loved
You'll be loved you'll be loved
Like you never have known
The memories of me
Will seem more like bad dreams
Just a series of blurs
Like I never occurred
Someday you will be loved
Someday you will be loved

Gossip you should know from Ted

Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake are officially engaged! Yes, it happened seconds after the goofy yet hot duo returned from their holiday ski trip in Telluride, Colorado. Maybe the snow got to them? I dunno. What I can tell you is that this was hardly the stuff of Katie Holmes' visions. See, Cam is not into all that "take me to Paris and fill me with diamonds" brouhaha.


"She's a lousy tipper."
--Georgetown servers who have approached me, en masse, regarding First Daughter Jenna Bush's restaurant gratitude habits. Jeez. Guess ya have to leave it to the liberals to be loose with the loot, huh?

What makes us love

This is another blog Ann got me into reading. Every now and then I think she is full on brilliant. I thought you all would enjoy as well.

And you mocked me

That's right, they are catching on!

Creepy

Talk to the plants,maybe they aren't listening.

This so happens to me

I love when science backs up real life experience.

History rewritten

Ann sent me the above article. It is on MLK's last years and why they never show footage from it. It's a great article, but it is also great at reminding us how true it is that history is written by the winners. Will this change with the internet and disseminated media?

China and India

More and more articles come out about the shift of economic power to India and China. This is likely to affect us in our lifetime (already is really) and definitely will affect the next generation. Here is a link to a cool blog Salon has going on globilisation. He has several relaly good links.

Salon Tech Blog

Yearly Kos

I really, really want to go to this.

It just keeps coming

Italians, really different?

And then you realize....

Normal is just where you come from.

Peter Gabriel

Did someone do a Peter Gabriel tribute album. I was coming to work this morning and heard Erasure covering Solsbury Hill. Horrible, Terrible heinous, almost as Heinous as the U2 Alicia Keys cover of Don't give up. Leave Peter alone!

Yo Massacusetts, famous people in the house

Everett?

Catholics and Mormons

I am not saying there is competition between organized religions, but you know there is a sense of wanting to belong to the one with the most sane ideas, yes? So when you read that the Mormons, who actively support large families, are saner about birth control than those crazy Catholics...well it's just a little sad.

Icebergs

What will people say when there aren't any icebergs?

Tip of the Iceberg

A review of the book by a NYTimes reporter discussing how deep the law breaking went in George Tenet's CIA. Totally disturbing.

Updates

Hello, OK so a couple of you have joined the list and Ann even commented:) Thanks Ann! I hoping some more of you feel compelled to post articles you have found or just general commentary period. In the meantime, here are a couple of fun links for you.

Scoop on Poop
Awesome T-shirts
Boondocks

Some links on China and missing Females

There are several links talking about how extreme the problem of female infanticide is in China. I have picked a couple that are both scientific, but also speak to scale.

Pub Med article

US Embassy Reporting

Progress?

Missing Females

I saw an aritcle from the UN a couple of eyars ago where this problem was also causing serious issues in China. The suggestion that this disproportion would benefit women was quickly squashed as there was well documented increases in kidnapping and trafficking as a result.

Bird Flu

I am fascinated by the idea that we could theoretically, watch in real time, on the internet, the spread of a modern plague. It seems surreal and yet somehow you imagine that access to real time information will keep you and yours safer....Even though it won't if this becomes human to human.

kinda sad

They actually seemed really good together:(

Good News

I firmly believe that when you read the news, you should actively look for hopeful news as well as news to be well informed. SO I offer the following:

The Norweigen way
Cooking as Community Nothing I would know about personally, but I hear it is true.

Only the paranoid survive

I make jokes about only the paranoid survive all the time. Then you read crap and remember the follow up...It's not paranoid if they really are after you.

Africa

The above links to a report on how millions of Africans are going to starve due to a new drought. I saw a movie called "The Girl in the Cafe" a while ago. It was story about the politicians who talk about relief and the will of politicians to see beyond the political posturing to the human toll of their actions. I think it is impossible to really grasp what it means for millions of people to die because of lack of access to food. It seems an insurmountable problem, especially in today's climate of suspicion and fear. I think we still have to pay attention.

Places you can go to try to help:
Darfur Action
Millennium Goals
International Red Cross

From Broad Sheet

Now I ain't saying she a gold digger ...
Thanks to Broadsheet reader Paola Scommegna, posting in letters, for pointing out this interesting demographic study about Americans' marriage habits over the past 60 years.

Marrying up or down is growing rarer among Americans, according to the study by two researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles published in the peer-reviewed journal Demography last month. In sum, between 1940 and 1970 Americans became much less likely to marry outside their own educational level, and since then the trend has only become more pronounced. From the mid-'80s to the mid-'90s, the study documented a sharp increase among newlyweds with the same educational backgrounds, suggesting this trend will continue.

Education level and income are tightly correlated, so, Christine Schwartz, one of the authors of the study said: "As women's earnings have increased, men may have begun to compete for high-earning, highly educated women as women have traditionally competed for high-earning men."

Gee, is it finally time to bury that old slur "gold digger?" Or, at least apply it gender neutrally?

-- Katharine Mieszkowski

Depression

I had issues with t he idea of depression being a truly chemical thing, but it does seem mroe and more that it is really a chemical flux. Which of course leads to harder questins about personality.

Awesome

If you clink on the link you get sucha perfect story on cognitive dissonance. Seriously it is a gift I want to have.

Today's selections

Good Gossip today: MSN Gossip

A good article on the lonley successful women stories: Check the source

Finally my favorite article from last month's Atlantic:) Is God an Accident?

Beginnings

I started this in the early hours of 2006 utterly unclear on what it was I wanted to do with it, but in agreement that is was worth trying to aggregate my perspective on all the crap I read on an ongoing basis. So I am starting with this link since it is such a cool idea and so in line with what I think needs to start happening to make a dent in the way people perceive the world.

This selection is particularly interesting: www.idealog.us

It started with Kong

Last Year a friend of mine told me I should write the stuff I think. I don't think I can really write, so I didn't. I have heard more people say it and then last week I was explaining why I was so disappointed in Kong to a co worker. She also seemed to think I should try to publish. So for New Year's, I am starting this blog. We'll see how it goes.