"Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity." - Albert Camus

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The Straight Dope: Do mice fear the scent of a cat? Do mice really love cheese? Why isn't there mouse flavor cat food? - "Another exception that proves the rule is the case of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, discussed here a couple years back when the topic was a possible link between cat poop and schizophrenia. A quick recap: T. gondii infects a variety of mammals, including rats, but can reproduce only when the host animal is a cat; one of its evolutionary tricks is to make infected rats act weird, improving their odds of being caught by cats and thereby allowing the parasite to spread. A key form of said weird behavior: T. gondii-infected rats not only fear cat odor less, they're actually drawn to it... Which isn't to say there aren't plenty of people who can tell us what mouse tastes like. In his Never Cry Wolf (1963), Canadian naturalist Farley Mowat writes of eating mice, calling the flavor "pleasing, if rather bland." Vermont biology professor Bernd Heinrich, who apparently acquired a taste for mouse as a child in postwar Germany, has described treating his students to breaded mice braised in olive oil"

Lack of findings for the association between obesity risk and usual sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in adults - "The relationship between obesity risk and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption was examined together with multiple lifestyle factors... Analytical results indicate that obesity risk was significantly and positively associated with gender, age, daily TV/screen watching hours and dietary fat content, and negatively associated with smoking habit, education and physical activity; obesity risk was not significantly associated with SSB consumption pattern, dietary saturated fat content and total calorie intake. No elevated BMI values or increased obesity rates were observed in populations frequently consuming SSB compared to populations infrequently consuming SSB... Conclusion: multiple lifestyle factors and higher dietary fat intake were significantly associated with obesity risk. Populations who frequently consumed SSB, primarily HFCS sweetened beverages, did not have a higher obesity rate or increased obesity risk than that of populations which consumed SSB infrequently. "

High heels 'may improve sex life' - "An Italian urologist and self-professed lover of the sexy shoe set out to prove that high heels were not as bad for women's health as some suggest... She said her study of 66 women under 50 found that those who held their foot at a 15 degree angle to the ground - the equivalent of a two inch heel - had as good posture as those who wore flat shoes, and crucially showed less electrical activity in their pelvic muscles."

Muslim doctors refuse to 'scrub up' in U.K hospitals - "Muslim women training in several hospitals in England, have objected to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands, because it is regarded as immodest in Islam... According to a report in The Telegraph, the measure has been deemed necessary to stop the spread of infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile, which have killed hundreds... the Islamic Medical Association insisted that covering all the body in public, except the face and hands, was a basic tenet of Islam. Dr Majid Katme, the association spokesman, said exposed arms could also pick up germs. He said there was evidence to suggest skin is safer to the patient if covered."
I'm sure the Jehovah's Witnesses Medical Association has a lot of information on the peril of receiving blood infusions.

Catholic nuns and monks decline - "Newly published statistics showed that the number of men and women belonging to religious orders fell by 10% to just under a million between 2005 and 2006... Of the total, 753,400 members were women, while 191,810 were men, including 136,171 priests and 532 permanent deacons."
The gender imbalance is no surprise, given the female gender defects.

John Conroy, Excerpt from Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000) - "Psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane wondered if Genovese might have fared better had there been fewer onlookers. The two psychologists then designed a series of experiments to test the hypothesis that the greater the number of people who witness an emergency, the less likely it is that anyone will do anything about it... Darley and Latane's theory about bystanders proved to be correct... Surprisingly, Darley and Latane did not find that the subjects who stayed in their seats were apathetic or unconcerned; in fact, those who did not respond to the emergency seemed more upset than those who did, often asking the experimenter who entered their rooms if the victim was all right... Darley and Latane concluded by saying that individuals are not "non-interveners" because of some flaw in their personality, but rather because responsibility is diffused. As in the murder of Kitty Genovese, isolated individuals, knowing that others were also aware of the emergency but not knowing how those others were responding, did not attempt to intervene because they did not feel personally responsible."
I remember someone criticised the Kitty Genovese example, but this study seems to show that the 'bystander effect' holds.

Wikipedia Islam Entry Is Criticized - "An article about the Prophet Muhammad in the English-language Wikipedia has become the subject of an online protest in the last few weeks because of its representations of Muhammad, taken from medieval manuscripts... Paul M. Cobb, who teaches Islamic history at Notre Dame, said, “Islamic teaching has traditionally discouraged representation of humans, particularly Muhammad, but that doesn’t mean it’s nonexistent.” He added, “Some of the most beautiful images in Islamic art are manuscript images of Muhammad.” The idea of imposing a ban on all depictions of people, particularly Muhammad, dates to the 20th century, he said. With the Wikipedia entry, he added, “what you are dealing with is not medieval illustrations, you are dealing with modern media and getting a modern response.”"

YouTube - Hawaii Chair Infomercial

A Penis-shortening Device Described by the 13th Century Poet Rumi - "With great interest, I read Kompanje’s (2006) clinical case report about a remarkable penis-shortening device invented in 1593 by the surgeon Hildanus. With this letter, I want to point your readers to an even older description of a similar device—not by a medical scholar, but by the great Persian humanist, philosopher, and poet Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–1273). In his poem, “The Importance of Gourdcrafting,” Rumi vividly describes the sexual interactions between a women and a donkey."

The Nazis Invented the Sex Doll - "Hitler's war machine created the world's first sex doll: Borghild. The "field-hygienic project" was an initiative of Himmler, who regarded the doll as a "counterbalance" to the sexual drive of his storm troopers. In one of his letters, he mentions the "unnecessary losses" the Wehrmacht had suffered in France, inflicted by street prostitutes. "The greatest danger in Paris are the wide-spread and uncontrolled whores, picking up clients in bars, dance halls and other places. It is our duty to prevent soldiers from risking their health, just for the sake of a quick adventure". One assumes Himmler also wanted to stop any racial dilution of the great German army."

My Life as a Real Doll - "Chicago artist Amber Hawk Swanson explores the relationship of marriage and gender inequality through video and photographic performance with a life-size Real Doll made in her own image."
'She's doing something that if a guy did, would be seen as kinda skeezy, but because she's a woman, she's taking charge of it, and just kinda owning it for herself'... 'She may continue to be more popular than me'

Wanton women cry that men jerk their shot and miss the real target - "Japan is in dire straits. The population is declining, people are marrying later, having fewer children, if any at all. And Spa! (1/29) says one of the major reasons for the dilemma is that as many as 70 percent of younger men are unable to achieve vaginal ejaculation... a soapland brothel worker the magazine gives as its source says over her many years of servicing male clients, it would have to be around 70 percent. "Young guys in particular. I'd say for every 10 guys, only about three come inside," the woman says. "There has definitely been an increase in the number of guys who'll finish themselves by hand, guys who leave without coming and guys who only want to talk."... Pshrink Katsumi Harima agrees with Nagao that mental issues are involved with the onset of vaginal ejaculation disorder. "Sex is too accessible for young people nowadays, what with adult movies and Internet porn," Harima tells Spa! "They're too used to the virtual world, which means when they find things like a woman who doesn't have porn star looks, is sweaty, or doesn't moan as loud as they're expecting, they become unable to ejaculate.""
'have you seen the culture and society section in mainchi news? just about every article is about some form of sex or the other'