Emotions

• New camera looks at faces and can detect when we’re lying just by our emotional appearance.

Environment

• More evidence for evolution: Dinosaur feathers have been found stuck in amber.  It’s Jurassic Park style.

Ethics

• Chart on abortion per state based on number of restrictions and categories of restrictions.  I was really surprised that Indiana had the most.

Gender

• Australia has opened up doors by allowing a third option for gender on passports.

Health

• There’s some speculation that the reason why our fingers wrinkle up when they get wet is because it helps us grip things better when one is surrounded by water.
• Re-engineering immune cells to attack cancer cells.  Simply amazing:
  

  “Doctors removed a billion of his T-cells — a type of white blood cell that fights viruses and tumors — and gave them new genes that would program the cells to attack his cancer. Then the altered cells were dripped back into Mr. Ludwig’s veins.  At first, nothing happened. But after 10 days, hell broke loose in his hospital room. He began shaking with chills. His temperature shot up. His blood pressure shot down. He became so ill that doctors moved him into intensive care and warned that he might die. His family gathered at the hospital, fearing the worst.  A few weeks later, the fevers were gone. And so was the leukemia.”

  The article continues by saying that Mr. Ludwig could hardly get out of bed, now a year later, he’s out playing golf and does yard work.  Again, simply amazing.

• Bioethics professors offer $10,000 if anyone can prove Michelle Bachmann’s HPV vaccine story.

Love

• Answer is finally found to the question, what is love: 

Middle East

• More than 90% of Afghans have never heard of 9/11, even after a decade of US troops being there [h/t Muhammad Harris]: 

Politics

•  and you thought he was the most interesting man in the world.  Heh, this guy has got him beat by riding a horse, driving a race car, tagging a tiger, practicing judo, diving in archeological discoveries (and finds two archeological discoveries), looking at leopards, posing on a boat with an island in the background, arm wrestling at a youth camp, attempting to bend a frying pan, riding a snowmobile, flying a fighter plane, hugging a dog, riding a motorcycle in a bike festival, talking to climate scientists, looking at bears, riding a horse in Siberia, swimming the butterfly in Siberia, autographing for kids, shooting a whale with a crossbow, tagging a whale, playing the piano in St. Petersburg, feeding a moose, talking to the leader of a biker gang, steering a boat toward a bear, walking through brush with a gun, sitting in a tank, blacksmithing, playing hockey, going on an expedition for snow leopards, diving for almost a mile in a submersible, and finally adjusting his sunglasses at an air show.

Sexuality

• Vietnam is revamping is sex education for the next generation.
• Once you become a father, your testosterone levels drop.  Longer article here.
• Mormon psychotherapist encourages young Mormon women to embrace their desire, but within the confines of the church.
• “Stayover” Relationships are becoming more popular among college students and college graduates.
• Some schools in Texas will be taught a full comprehensive sex education, for the first time.
• There will be a new book coming out on Christian Sexual ethics.  You can see the table of contents here.  To get a glimpse of the essay, you can read some of it here.  [h/t to Greg Spendlove]

Vegetarianism

• Afraid that a vegan diet gets in the way of body building?  Here’s a site where you can have your (vegan) cake and eat it too.  (now in blogroll)