"Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others." - Samuel Johnson

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The Food Lab: The Importance of Resting Meat - "Asides from over/under-cooking/seasoning, not resting meat properly is probably the cooking blunder that we are all most guilty of... Ideally, no matter how well-done you've cooked your meat, you want to allow it to cool down until the very center has reached 120°F (49°C). At this stage, the muscle fibers have relaxed enough that you should have no problem with losing juices"

US university links exam success to weight loss

Gropenhagen Conference: Prostitutes Offer Free Climate Summit Sex - "Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard sent postcards to city hotels warning summit guests not to patronize Danish sex workers during the upcoming conference. Now, the prostitutes have struck back, offering free sex to anyone who produces one of the warnings"

Sexy Girls Have It Easy - "Does being sexy mean that life is financially easier? One girl goes on a mission to find out... 'This really really lovely man just gave me a piece of cake. Offered himself to me as well. I haven't taken him up on the idea'"
All of the people she tried were men. I wonder how women would've reacted. I actually prefer the normal her

'Accidental' Download Sending Man To Prison - "Matthew White... discovered that some of the files he had downloaded were images of children. Matt claims he quickly erased the files... Investigators later were able to recover the deleted images from deep within the hard drive... The FBI could not comment on this specific case, but said if child pornography is ever downloaded accidentally, the user needs to call authorities immediately. They may confiscate your computer, but it's better than the alternative"

Mom blames son's death on air freshener

Boys who go to single-sex schools 'more likely to be depressed and divorced in their 40s' - "'There is a need to avoid an intimidating atmosphere for other boys, which can be generated among all-boys’ classes, and to be alert to the dangers of generating a homophobic environment. There is also a need to beware of girls becoming aggressive towards each other.'... the study found that girls who studied at single-sex schools were no more likely to suffer marriage break up or separate from their partners when they were older... Dr Leonard's study was also unable to confirm the belief that children from single-sex schools are more likely to have a homosexual lifestyle. 'Only 21 men and 22 women reported living with same-sex partners at age 42,' says the research... Men were also more likely to speak of a 'dislike' for their school days if taught in a boys-only school."

Loneliness can be contagious, study finds - "The data showed that lonely people “infected” the people around them with loneliness, and those people moved to the edges of social circles... Previous work suggested that women rely on emotional support more than men do, and in this study women were more likely than men to report “catching” loneliness from others”... Research also shows that as people become lonely, they become less trustful of others, and a cycle develops that makes it harder for them to form friendships. Societies seem to develop a natural tendency to shed these lonely people, something that is mirrored in tests of monkeys, who tend to drive off members of their groups who have been removed from a colony and then are reintroduced, Cacioppo said"

Book Review - 'What the Dog Saw - And Other Adventures,' by Malcolm Gladwell - Review - "When a writer’s education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong... The common thread in Gladwell’s writing is a kind of populism, which seeks to undermine the ideals of talent, intelligence and analytical prowess in favor of luck, opportunity, experience and intuition. For an apolitical writer like Gladwell, this has the advantage of appealing both to the Horatio Alger right and to the egalitarian left"

New Paper journalist Joanne Soh got rapped for remark that “All men are pigs” - "'If men are pigs….then who are the asses that married us?'... 'Can we call women bitches, sluts, crows if they commit adultery?' Not surprisingly, the women-folk are supportive of Joanne and jumped to her defence"
While those who condemn sexism (at least when it's in the other direction) will doubtless, when pressed, disavow such statements, I am reminded of moderate Muslims who only condemn their extremists when asked why they don't