"A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer." - Robert Frost (attr)

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Variation in Risk Taking Behavior Among Female College Students as a Function of the Menstrual Cycle - "There is some evidence that women are less likely to be raped during the mid-portion of the menstrual cycle. In order to determine if women might be behaving in ways to decrease their chances of sexual assault when they are most likely to conceive, female college students were asked to complete a questionnaire about their activities during the past 24 hours and indicate the first day of their last menstruation. A statistically significant decrease in risk taking behavior during the ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle was obtained for respondents who were not taking birth control pills."

Maintaining the Characteristics of Fitrah - "Since it is obligatory on Muslims to following the commands of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and give him peace, as the previously mentioned verses from Qur'an clearly state, all Muslims should make every effort to comply with and maintain the characteristics of fitrah as described by God's Messenger, may God bless him and give him peace, when he said: "Five practices are characteristics of the fitrah: circumcision, shaving the pubic hairs, cutting the mustaches short, clipping the nails and plucking the hair of the armpits." (Reported in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.)"
One comment: "Ive heard some people suggest that a lot of the really strange religious laws are for the purpose of enforcing segrigation - to keep the faithful from associating with the heathens. The dietary laws, for example, make it extremally difficult for a follower to even share a meal with a non-believer. The pubic shaving just makes the non-believers laugh, and not want to be near the crazy people."

Incidents may mar Malaysia's tourism bid - ""I was walking in Chinatown," he told the BBC, "when a gentleman in very scruffy type clothes, nothing that you would associate with police or anyone in authority, walked up to me and asked me, "Can I see your passport?"." Fearing a scam, Mr Wright refused and tried to move away. "At that point he essentially lunged at me, grabbed me, put handcuffs on me really tightly and called for a few other people out in the crowd," he explained. Mr Wright, a serving US Navy lawyer, says he protested that he was a US citizen and told the men who had grabbed him that his passport was in his hotel room, a matter of a few hundred meters away. He was taken, shackled, through Chinatown and put into a caged truck used by the Malaysian immigration department."

10 myths -- and 10 truths -- about atheism - "Pretending to know things one doesn't know is a profound liability in science. And yet it is the life-blood of faith-based religion. One of the monumental ironies of religious discourse can be found in the
frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility, while claiming to know facts about cosmology, chemistry and biology that no scientist knows. When considering questions about the nature of the cosmos and our place within it, atheists tend to draw their opinions from science. This isn't arrogance; it is intellectual honesty."
Amazingly, this seditious article was republished in the Shitty Times. Has anyone been fired yet?

Polygamy and the Marriage Market: Who Would Have the Upper Hand? - "The traditional argument against plural marriage is that it harms women, particularly younger women who may be coerced to enter such marriages. Needless to say, society should prohibit forced participation in any marriage, whether plural or monogamous. But mature women who freely choose plural marriage reveal a preference for that arrangement. So if plural marriage harms women, the victims must be those who prefer monogamy... In short, the logic of supply and demand turns the conventional wisdom about plural marriage on its head. If the arrangement harms others, the most likely victims are men, not women."

Johann Hari: The intriguing tale of the gay sheep - "Whatever happens in 2007, we already have the most surreal headline of the year: "Sheep have right to be gay, says Martina Navratilova"... The latest US poll found that 79 per cent of people who think human beings are born gay support full gay equality, while only 22 percent who believe homosexuality is a choice agree... Some black and Asian groups understandably objected to research into the genetic differences between ethnic groups, but they have led to breakthroughs in the investigation of diseases that afflict mainly them, such sickle cell anaemia. The path of scientific progress is jagged; this may well produce advances as well as dangers for gay people."

Benjamin Libet - a short delay. - "However, research carried out in 1965 by Kornhuber and Deecke showed that when subjects were asked to move their wrist of fingers at a moment of their choosing, the act was preceded by a measurable electrical change in the brain... The RP [Readiness Potential] appeared some 500 milliseconds before the reported awareness of a decision to move... The research (subsequently repeated and corroborated by others) seemed to provide a scientific proof that free will was a delusion. How could we consider ourselves responsible for decisions we were not even aware of until after they had been made?"

A girl's guide to eating and drinking - "While men want a concise menu, something to the point and well signposted like a PowerPoint presentation (bacon and eggs; sausage and mash; liver and bacon; chicken in a basket; hog in a bun; that sort of thing), women prefer to slow-dance through the dishes in a manner similar to the way in which we buy shoes, with leeway for thinking, 'Oh, shall I? Shall I? Ooh maybe', et cetera. This window-shopping could take some time. Almost as long as a nice cold bottle of Chablis... Restaurateurs should also note that Making Menus for Girls involves a certain amount of sophistry. Thus, if a pudding involves 'churros' or 'beignets', we will order it. If you call them 'doughnuts', we won't."

Bad argument - "I've noticed a formulation frequently employed by anarcho-libertarians to explain why there is nothing the state is justified in doing. It goes something like this: 1. My theory predicts that in general any positive outcome achieved by the government will be achieved by voluntary effort in the absence of government. 2. This "in general" principle applies to all particular circumstances. 3. Therefore the government shouldn't do anything at all."

Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter - "Worried about how much time your children spend playing video games? Don't be, advises Johnson—not only are they learning valuable problem-solving skills, they'd probably do better on an IQ test than you or your parents could at their age. Go ahead and let them watch more television, too, since even reality shows can function as "elaborately staged group psychology experiments" to stimulate rather than pacify the brain. With the same winning combination of personal revelation and friendly scientific explanation he displayed in last year's Mind Wide Open, Johnson shatters the conventional wisdom about pop culture as pabulum, showing how video games, television shows and movies have become increasingly complex. Furthermore, he says, consumers are drawn specifically to those products that require the most mental engagement, from small children who can't get enough of their favorite Disney DVDs to adults who find new layers of meaning with each repeated viewing of Seinfeld. Johnson lays out a strong case that what we do for fun is just as educational in its way as what we study in the classroom (although it's still worthwhile to encourage good reading habits, too)."