Children
Culture
- Amazon.com is teaming up with USPS to deliver mail on Sundays, at least in LA and NY. Next year, they’ll delve into more cities.
- UK to ban all traveling circus animals in 2015.
- Five-year-old Miles is battling leukemia. His wish was to be Batkid for Gotham city. Make-a-wish foundation made it happen.
- Milwaukee is the most segregated metro area in the USA.
- The American family is changing.
Economics
- Western nations with social safety net are happier. What a surprise.
- We really need to increase the minimum wage.
- It seems that increase in wealth is proportional to decrease to charity.
Feminism
- Very good discussion of the Christian Right incorporating feminism. What a strange brew!
Health
- An explanation on why you wake up five minutes earlier than your alarm. Taken from the article:
There’s evidence you can will yourself to wake on time, too. Sleep scientists at Germany’s University of Lubeck asked 15 volunteers to sleep in their lab for three nights. One night, the group was told they’d be woken at 6 a.m., while on other nights the group was told they’d be woken at 9 a.m..
But the researchers lied-they woke the volunteers at 6 a.m anyway. And the results were startling. The days when sleepers were told they’d wake up early, their stress hormones increased at 4:30 a.m., as if they were anticipating an early morning. When the sleepers were told they’d wake up at 9 a.m., their stress hormones didn’t increase — and they woke up groggier. “Our bodies, in other words, note the time we hope to begin our day and gradually prepare us for consciousness,” writes Jeff Howe at Psychology Today.
Moreover, the snooze button is the worst way to start your day.
Gender
- Hijras now a separate gender.
- Women find sexually explicit ads unappealing—unless the price is right.
- Single white guys have fewer friends.
Marriage
- Marriage does not set us free. What’s really good is the sex hierarchy diagram within it.
Politics
Race
Science
- An evolutionary account of “sexual regret.” In short, ” men are more likely to regret not taking action on a potential liaison, and women are more remorseful for engaging in one-time liaisons.”
Sexuality
- Apparently, there’s a link between depression and casual sex. I don’t buy it because this presumes some cultural attitudes that casual sex a form of self-destruction.
- Long-term oral contraceptive users are twice as likely to suffer from glaucoma.
- Actress Maria Bello comes out as a modern woman who has realistic views of love, sex, and relationships. Perhaps the best line is when she says she’s uncomfortable with the word “partner” because it’s too restricting.
- Couples in Utah are challenging the same-sex marriage ban.
Shaun Miller's Ideas 