A 19th-Century Mathematician Finally Proves Himself : NPR

h/t Steve T.

A 19th-Century Mathematician Finally Proves Himself : NPR

Charles Babbage, the man whom many consider to be the father of modern computing, never got to complete any of his life's work. The Victorian gentleman was a brilliant mathematician, but he wasn't very good at politics and fundraising, so he never got the financial backing to finish any of his elaborate machine designs. For decades, even his fans weren't certain whether his computing machines would have worked.

But Doron Swade, a former curator at the Science Museum in London, has proven that Babbage wasn't just an eccentric dreamer. Using nothing but materials that would have been available to Babbage in the 1840s, Swade and a group of engineers successfully built Babbage's Difference Engine — and a version is now on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

AFP: New Jersey shelves gay marriage vote: report

AFP: New Jersey shelves gay marriage vote: report:

(AFP) – 2 hours ago

NEW YORK — New Jersey's legislature has shelved a vote planned for Thursday on allowing gay marriage in the state, media reports said.

Advent Conspiracy

h/t Christopher T.

Advent Conspiracy:

Christmas can [still] change the world.

The story of Christ's birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love.

So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.

And when it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?

Welcome to Advent Conspiracy."

Debate Over Gay Marriage Shifts to New Jersey - NYTimes.com

Debate Over Gay Marriage Shifts to New Jersey - NYTimes.com: "TRENTON — The battle over same-sex marriage in New Jersey headed toward a legislative showdown Monday night, when a bill that would allow such unions narrowly cleared a key legislative committee and was set for a vote by the full State Senate."

The Good Raised Up: Approved minute on marriage equality

The Good Raised Up: Approved minute on marriage equality:

The following minute from Twin Cities Friends Meeting was approved last month. The approval came after several months of threshing, discussion, and prayerful consideration.

Quaker group stops certifying marriages until gay marriage legal | Minnesota Public Radio NewsQ

Quaker group stops certifying marriages until gay marriage legal | Minnesota Public Radio NewsQ:

St. Paul, Minn. — A group of Twin Cities Quakers has decided to stop signing marriage certificates for opposite-sex couples until the state legalizes gay marriage.

'We're simply trying to be consistent with the will of God as we perceive it,' said Paul Landskroener, clerk of the Twin Cities Friends Meeting, in an interview with MPR's All Things Considered on Monday.

Cats are trainable — and that’s not a punchline - Pet health- msnbc.com

Cats are trainable — and that’s not a punchline - Pet health- msnbc.com:

Storm is a cat who does some of these things for a living. He helps Connelly train lost pet search dogs in Maryland by hiding and waiting to be found.

But training cats isn’t just for professionals — human or feline. The Michigan Humane Society has a Pawsitive Start program that uses volunteers to train cats in their shelter in useful and fun behaviors like the high-five and walking into a carrier.

“A lot of people look kind of funny at us when we say we train the shelter cats,” says CJ Bentley of the humane society. Cats need more than just playtime outside the cage to be well-adjusted in the shelter environment, she says.

‘Whitening’ the R�sum�- NYTimes.com

‘Whitening’ the R�sum�- NYTimes.com:

Tahani Tompkins was struggling to get callbacks for job interviews in the Chicago area this year when a friend made a suggestion: Change your name. Instead of Tahani, a distinctively African-American-sounding name, she began going by T. S. Tompkins in applications.

...That seemed startling somehow, maybe because of the popular perception that affirmative action still confers significant advantages to black job candidates, a perception that is not borne out in studies. Moreover, statistics show even college-educated blacks suffering disproportionately in this jobless environment compared with whites, as that article reported.

In the Military, Different Rules for Patient-Therapist Confidentiality - NYTimes.com

In the Military, Different Rules for Patient-Therapist Confidentiality - NYTimes.com:

Pfc. Jeffery Meier, who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and drug addiction after two deployments to Iraq, got an appointment in August to see a psychiatrist at Fort Carson, Colo.

But when he arrived for his first session, he was asked to sign a waiver explaining that under certain circumstances, including if he admitted violating military laws, his conversations with his therapist might not be kept confidential. He refused to sign.

Private Meier, who is seeking a medical discharge from the Army, was given counseling anyway. But he says he never opened up to his therapist, fearing that actions taken in the heat of battle might be disclosed to prosecutors. “How can you go and talk about wartime problems when you feel that if you mention anything wrong, you’re going to be prosecuted?” he said in an interview.

Deployments Taking Toll on Military’s Children - NYTimes.com

Deployments Taking Toll on Military’s Children - NYTimes.com:

After eight years of war, children with parents in the military are reporting signs of emotional wear and tear from long and repeated deployments, a new study shows.

The study by the RAND Corporation found that children in military families were more likely to report anxiety than children in the general population. The researchers also found that the longer a parent had been deployed in the previous three years, the more likely their children were to have difficulties in school and at home.

...Anita Chandra, the primary investigator, said she was surprised by the correlation between the months a parent was deployed and the problems reported by their children. “We thought the challenges of deployment would wane as the deployment went on,” Ms. Chandra said in an interview.

Editorial - A Bishop’s Words - NYTimes.com

Wow. Powerful editorial about what the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport's reaction to child abuse by members of its clergy -- and that of the archdiocese of Dublin -- say about the church and child abuse.

Editorial - A Bishop’s Words - NYTimes.com

Government Offers Data to Miners - NYTimes.com

This is very cool. But I do worry about the government thinking that if industry offers a service, the government no longer has to/has an obligation to.

Government Offers Data to Miners - NYTimes.com:

SAN FRANCISCO — A big pile of city crime reports is not all that useful. But what if you could combine that data with information on bars, sidewalks and subway stations to find the safest route home after a night out?

In Washington, a Web site called Stumble Safely makes that possible. It is one example of the kind of creativity that cities are hoping to mobilize by turning over big chunks of data to programmers and the public.

Many local governments are figuring out how to use the Internet to make government data more accessible. The goal is to spawn useful Web sites and mobile applications — and perhaps even have people think differently about their city and its government.

Op-Ed Columnist - An Affordable Truth - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - An Affordable Truth - NYTimes.com:

Action on climate, if it happens, will take the form of “cap and trade”: businesses won’t be told what to produce or how, but they will have to buy permits to cover their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. So they’ll be able to increase their profits if they can burn less carbon — and there’s every reason to believe that they’ll be clever and creative about finding ways to do just that.

As a recent study by McKinsey & Company showed, there are many ways to reduce emissions at relatively low cost: improved insulation; more efficient appliances; more fuel-efficient cars and trucks; greater use of solar, wind and nuclear power; and much, much more. And you can be sure that given the right incentives, people would find many tricks the study missed.

The truth is that conservatives who predict economic doom if we try to fight climate change are betraying their own principles. They claim to believe that capitalism is infinitely adaptable, that the magic of the marketplace can deal with any problem. But for some reason they insist that cap and trade — a system specifically designed to bring the power of market incentives to bear on environmental problems — can’t work.

Well, they’re wrong — again. For we’ve been here before.

New Jersey lawmakers to vote on same-sex marriage | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/04/2009

h/t David A.

New Jersey lawmakers to vote on same-sex marriage | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/04/2009:

'This is not the New York legislature,' Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D. Union) declared to a large crowd of same-sex marriage advocates who gathered in front of the Statehouse shortly before noon yesterday. 'The New York legislature is dysfunctional. We're better than that. We're New Jersey.'

Proponents of the bill are urgently pushing for its passage in the next few weeks. While Gov. Corzine has said he will sign it if it reaches his desk, Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie, who takes office Jan. 19, has said he would veto it, which means the issue would most likely be a nonstarter at least until Christie leaves office.

Heroine Alert: Diane Savino, NY State Senator - Gay Marriage - Jezebel

Awesome excerpts. Listen to her speech. Wow.

Heroine Alert: Diane Savino, NY State Senator - Gay Marriage - Jezebel

New Device Desirable, Old Device Undesirable | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

This, on the other hand, really did come from The Onion. h/t Terry M.

New Device Desirable, Old Device Undesirable | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "SEATTLE—With the holiday shopping season officially under way, millions of consumers proceeded to their nearest commercial centers this week in hopes of acquiring the latest, and therefore most desirable, personal device."

Tragedy Miraculously Averted! � FreeRangeKids

h/t Kay BG.

Tragedy Miraculously Averted! � FreeRangeKids: "I’m sorry for what happened to this kid, but is it NEWS? And did we NEED that last line? And as the guy who sent this to Free-Range Kids said: “I thought this a headline from The Onion.” But no. It’s from Gainseville, Fla:"

Dame Maria Boulding: nun and author | Times Online Obituary

What a strong, powerful woman. h/t Clare.

Dame Maria Boulding: nun and author | Times Online Obituary: "The 4th-century Desert Father Evagrius defines a monk as one who is separated from all, yet joined to all. Dame Maria Boulding, the enclosed Benedictine nun whose life and writings have touched thousands across the globe, epitomised this monastic ideal. There was something of the Desert Elder in her: short, spare and vigorous, single-minded in her search for truth, and uncompromising, she could look rather forbidding until a radiant smile transformed her whole being."

Is Your Facebook Personality Genuine? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com

Is Your Facebook Personality Genuine? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com:

Anyone who has ever spent time on a dating Web site like Match.com knows that the online profile often doesn’t match the person in real life.

So when University of Texas researchers began studying Facebook friends, they expected that users also would exaggerate accomplishments and offer an enhanced version of themselves. To their surprise, they discovered that Facebook profiles typically gave an accurate and realistic impression of the user’s real-life personality.

'Road Rage' Case Highlights Cyclist Vs. Driver Tension : NPR

'Road Rage' Case Highlights Cyclist Vs. Driver Tension : NPR: "'I'm happy that justice was served,' Peterson told reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict. 'I think all of our hope is that this brings to light just how vulnerable cyclists are out there.'"

How December 25 Became Christmas - Biblical Archaeology Review

Fascinating! h/t Johanna R.

How December 25 Became Christmas - Biblical Archaeology Review: "In the end we are left with a question: How did December 25 become Christmas? We cannot be entirely sure. Elements of the festival that developed from the fourth century until modern times may well derive from pagan traditions. Yet the actual date might really derive more from Judaism—from Jesus’ death at Passover, and from the rabbinic notion that great things might be expected, again and again, at the same time of the year—than from paganism. Then again, in this notion of cycles and the return of God’s redemption, we may perhaps also be touching upon something that the pagan Romans who celebrated Sol Invictus, and many other peoples since, would have understood and claimed for their own too.16"

Daily Annoyances: Consumer Reports Surveys

Daily Annoyances: Consumer Reports Surveys:

In a nationally representative survey conducted in late September, we asked 1,125 Americans to score 21 gripes on a 1-to-10 scale, 1 meaning an experience 'does not annoy you at all' and 10 meaning it 'annoys you tremendously.'

Hidden fees scored 8.9 overall; inability to reach a human, 8.6. Mean scores for all the gripes are in the chart below.

This is Go-To Girl: Barbara Ehrenreich Takes Fundamentalist Pinkianity To Task

This is Go-To Girl: Barbara Ehrenreich Takes Fundamentalist Pinkianity To Task:

With the new guidelines on mammography and Pap smears (short version: they're not as necessary as we thought) kicking up a firestorm of conservative idiot behavior (Fox News: 'Healthcare Rationing Begins!!!'), Barbara Ehrenreich helpfully takes to task the 'pink ribbon breast cancer cult,' an unnecessary obsession with breast cancer, that she claims has excluded legitimate women's health concerns from public debate.

Culture of Old Europe Is Uncloaked in an Exhibit at N.Y.U. - NYTimes.com

Culture of Old Europe Is Uncloaked in an Exhibit at N.Y.U. - NYTimes.com:

Before the glory that was Greece and Rome, even before the first cities of Mesopotamia or temples along the Nile, there lived in the Lower Danube Valley and the Balkan foothills people who were ahead of their time in art, technology and long-distance trade.

...The striking designs of their pottery speak of the refinement of the culture’s visual language. Until recent discoveries, the most intriguing artifacts were the ubiquitous terracotta “goddess” figurines, originally interpreted as evidence of the spiritual and political power of women in society.

...

Many of the figurines represent women in stylized abstraction, with truncated or elongated bodies and heaping breasts and expansive hips. The explicit sexuality of these figurines invites interpretations relating to earthly and human fertility.

An arresting set of 21 small female figurines, seated in a circle, was found at a pre-Cucuteni village site in northeastern Romania. “It is not difficult to imagine,” said Douglass W. Bailey of San Francisco State University, the Old Europe people “arranging sets of seated figurines into one or several groups of miniature activities, perhaps with the smaller figurines at the feet or even on the laps of the larger, seated ones.”

Others imagined the figurines as the “Council of Goddesses.” In her influential books three decades ago, Marija Gimbutas, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, offered these and other so-called Venus figurines as representatives of divinities in cults to a Mother Goddess that reigned in prehistoric Europe.

Although the late Dr. Gimbutas still has an ardent following, many scholars hew to more conservative, nondivine explanations. The power of the objects, Dr. Bailey said, was not in any specific reference to the divine, but in “a shared understanding of group identity.”

Patrick Stewart: the legacy of domestic violence | Society | The Guardian

Powerful. h/t Kay.

Patrick Stewart: the legacy of domestic violence | Society | The Guardian:

Patrick Stewart: the legacy of domestic violence

As a child, the actor regularly saw his father hit his mother. Here he describes how the horrors of his childhood remained with him in his adult life

D.C. Council Votes in Favor of Gay Marriage - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

D.C. Council Votes in Favor of Gay Marriage - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com: "The Washington D.C. Council signaled its initial approval for a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage on Tuesday, paving the way for a final vote on the measure that is expected later this month."

Think Progress � Houston toy drives check the immigration status of families before handing out gifts.

Think Progress � Houston toy drives check the immigration status of families before handing out gifts.: "Several charities in the Houston area are checking the immigration status of needy families before giving out toys this holiday season. The charities claim that given the jump in demand this year — over 30,000 children have registered with the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, an increase of over 20 percent from last year — they want to be “good stewards” and get the donations to people who are in the country legally. From the Houston Chronicle:"

Some Biologists Find an Urge in Human Nature to Help - NYTimes.com

Some Biologists Find an Urge in Human Nature to Help - NYTimes.com:

The somewhat surprising answer at which some biologists have arrived is that babies are innately sociable and helpful to others. Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help.

When infants 18 months old see an unrelated adult whose hands are full and who needs assistance opening a door or picking up a dropped clothespin, they will immediately help, Michael Tomasello writes in “Why We Cooperate,” a book published in October. Dr. Tomasello, a developmental psychologist, is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

7 Things You Didn't Know About Senate Health Bill : NPR

7 Things You Didn't Know About Senate Health Bill : NPR: "Pay attention: The 'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act' — better known as the Senate health care overhaul bill – is chock full of interesting but little publicized provisions affecting consumers. Sure, the bill is mainly a blueprint for overhauling the insurance system. But look closely and you'll see a variety of items that would affect people from the cradle to old age – from breast pump use to retiree health benefits. It's a congressional tradition, adding pet interests that otherwise might not pass to a big bill that at least will be put up for a vote."

Cop-Killings Suspect Fatally Shot, Police Say : NPR

Holding everyone involved in the Light.

Cop-Killings Suspect Fatally Shot, Police Say : NPR: "The man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban coffee shop was shot and killed by a lone Seattle patrol officer investigating a stolen car early Tuesday, a sheriff's spokesman said. Four other people were arrested for allegedly helping the suspect elude authorities during a massive two-day manhunt."

BBC - Earth News - Hammerhead shark mystery solved

BBC - Earth News - Hammerhead shark mystery solved

Why do hammerhead sharks have such a famously strange-shaped head?

...The mystery may now be solved by a study showing that a hammerhead gives sharks outstanding binocular vision and an ability to see through 360 degrees.

� no Method to my madness! | Lunapads Blog

� no Method to my madness! | Lunapads Blog:

*EDIT: Due to the overwhelming response from the blog community expressing their outrage over the commercial, Method has since taken the “Shiny Suds” commercial down *

An Alternative Family Thanksgiving Dinner

An Alternative Family Thanksgiving Dinner

That is the central dilemma that plagues so many of us who are black and LGBT. The closet is a dark and lonely place, and even in the gay pride decade of Wanda Sykes, Adam Lambert, Rachel Maddow, The L Word, Ellen and Portia, Brokeback Mountain and Milk, many of us remain stuck inside. Whether we call it on the down low or undercover, large numbers of us are still sitting in the darkness wondering and worrying, will I still be invited to Thanksgiving if my family, my black family, knows I’m gay?

This is the crisis many of us face, and the huge disconnect that keeps the LGBT movement from reaching its full potential. Gay marriage or any LGBT-rights initiative or agenda cannot move forward without the support and alliance of other so-called “oppressed communities.” This means other people of color. To be more precise, I’m talking about straight black folks.

We need you to be on our side. We need your support in the state-by-state fight for our right to marry, to care for each other and to raise our children. We need you to speak up when somebody makes a comment about fags, dykes, queens, homos or sinners, whether it’s some drunk fool at a party or a minister from the pulpit. We ask you—our sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, friends and neighbors—to join us in the struggle to assure that lesbians and gay men have all the rights, protections and respect that we are owed and that we deserve.

The Case for Skipping Breast Self-Exams | Newsweek Voices - Sharon Begley | Newsweek.com

h/t Sarah WH.

The Case for Skipping Breast Self-Exams | Newsweek Voices - Sharon Begley | Newsweek.com

Maybe we can move beyond the paranoia and hysteria to ask why neither mammograms nor breast self-exams save many lives. (How many lives are saved by mammograms? The task force estimates that 1,904 women in their 40s would have to be screened for a decade in order to save a single life. The numbers aren't much better for women in their 50s: to save one life, you have to screen 1,300 for a decade. I'm not aware of a similar calculation for BSE, but the numbers are undoubtedly equally abysmal.) A good part of the reason why screening asymptomatic patients (which is what screening is: looking for cancer in people with no symptoms of the disease) is not more effective, I am sorry to say, is that even breast cancers caught super-early might not be treatable. That is, they have already dispatched malignant cells into the lymph system, through which they travel to the bones and brain and kill you, as I explained in a column earlier this year.

Dear Members of the House Who Voted for Stupak-Pitts, - MOMocrats™

h/t Susan KT. This is totally amazing. (And the stuffed toy is just... something.)


Dear Members of the House Who Voted for Stupak-Pitts, - MOMocrats™:

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and accept the enclosed package. In it you will find my uterus. I believe you’ll see that the tag on the bottom says, “Please return to original owner, the United States House of Representatives, when not in use.” Per those instructions, here it is.

FreeRangeKids

FreeRangeKids

The backlash against over-parenting - TIME

The backlash against over-parenting - TIME

The insanity crept up on us slowly; we just wanted what was best for our kids. We bought macrobiotic cupcakes and hypoallergenic socks, hired tutors to correct a 5-year-old's "pencil-holding deficiency," hooked up broadband connections in the treehouse but took down the swing set after the second skinned knee. We hovered over every school, playground and practice field — "helicopter parents," teachers christened us, a phenomenon that spread to parents of all ages, races and regions. Stores began marketing stove-knob covers and "Kinderkords" (also known as leashes; they allow "three full feet of freedom for both you and your child") and Baby Kneepads (as if babies don't come prepadded). The mayor of a Connecticut town agreed to chop down three hickory trees on one block after a woman worried that a stray nut might drop into her new swimming pool, where her nut-allergic grandson occasionally swam. A Texas school required parents wanting to help with the second-grade holiday party to have a background check first. Schools auctioned off the right to cut the carpool line and drop a child directly in front of the building — a spot that in other settings is known as handicapped parking.

I won't sit for a holiday photo with my in-laws. - - Slate Magazine

I just thought pretty much all of today's Dear Prudence letters and answers were delightfully snarky.

I won't sit for a holiday photo with my in-laws. - - Slate Magazine

How Sarah Palin gets away with being feminist and traditional.

How Sarah Palin gets away with being feminist and traditional.:

Aside from all the swell Alaska trivia (salmonberries, moose eyeballs, baleen etchings), Sarah Palin’s new memoir has enlightened me about one important thing. For at least a decade, I have puzzled over this new type that showed up on the political scene in the mid-'90s—the Republican “mom” politician. Here was a creature who could work fiendishly, have many children, and still smugly call herself traditional and anti-feminist. Honestly, it makes no sense. It’s like when my kid says he didn’t eat the Oreos but the crumbs are right there on his face. In Palin’s book, Going Rogue, this worldview still makes no sense but it does appear to, thanks to these few tricks:

Chatelaine � Blog Archive � 10 Things Not To Say To Someone With Cancer

h/t Susan M. These are also things not to say to someone with chronic, sometimes debilitating, disease, or to trauma/violence survivors.

Chatelaine � Blog Archive � 10 Things Not To Say To Someone With Cancer: "You’d think having breast cancer would give me some idea of how to react or what to say when I hear that someone I know has cancer, but it doesn’t seem to work like that. I’m still sometimes just as mute and aghast as the next guy. But — at the risk of paralyzing you further when you are next faced with talking to someone with cancer — I can help with what not to say. Here are some pointers:"

Are men really more competitive than women? - By Ray Fisman - Slate Magazine

h/t Michelle.

Are men really more competitive than women? - By Ray Fisman - Slate Magazine:

Illustration by Mark Alan Stamaty. Click image to expand.'You've lost the warrior instinct,' explained my friend's boss as he fired her after years of 100-hour work weeks. Delivered to a female employee, the comment contained an undercurrent of sexism and, when combined with some of her on-the-job experiences, probably constituted what civil rights lawyers call an 'actionable statement.' My friend, however, chalked it up to the macho, hyper-competitive environment of her chosen profession: investment banking.

...

Why Khasi women are relatively competitive is a matter of speculation. The authors suggest that it may stem from the relatively uncommon practice of female-directed household decision-making and inheritance. In the Khasi society, women who learn to compete for resources get to keep the fruits of their efforts, and also pass on the wealth they generate to their daughters. Regardless of the underlying cause, the work of Gneezy, Leonard, and List proves that the Western stereotype of the male competitor isn't universal: The male "warrior instinct" is a matter of socialization rather than instinct. (More recent work by Jane Zhang, an economics doctoral student at the University of California-Berkeley, further bolsters this view—in a set of experiments she ran in China last summer, Zhang found that neither gender had a stronger preference for competition in the communities she studied.)

Postal Service Cancels Letter To Santa Program : NPR

Postal Service Cancels Letter To Santa Program : NPR:

Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season very likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.

Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.

Think Progress � Interloper tricks Tea Party audience into an anti-European immigrant chant of ‘Columbus go home!’

h/t Marshall. "Columbus, go home!"

Think Progress � Interloper tricks Tea Party audience into an anti-European immigrant chant of ‘Columbus go home!’:

On Saturday, a few dozen anti-immigration activists gathered on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol for a Tea Party, part of the nationwide effort by Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). But somehow, one of the counter-protesters, a “concerned citizen from Minneapolis” named “Robert Erickson,” manged to get on the speaking list. His address started with the standard anti-immigrant rhetoric, but then revealed that he was talking about European immigrants. By this time, however, the crowd was in a frenzy and joined him in his chants of “Columbus go home!” and “Europeans out!”:

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | In praise of real darkness

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | In praise of real darkness: "A spot in Scotland has picked up an international award, confirming it as one of the best places for stargazing in the world. But what is the importance of being able to see the stars?"

Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High - NYTimes.com

Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High - NYTimes.com:

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who lacked reliable access to sufficient food shot up last year to its highest point since the government began surveying in 1995, the Agriculture Department reported on Monday.

In its annual report on hunger, the department said that 17 million American households, or 14.6 percent of the total, “had difficulty putting enough food on the table at times during the year.” That was an increase from 13 million households, or 11.1 percent, the previous year.

BBC NEWS | UK | Victim meetings 'cut' youth crime

BBC NEWS | UK | Victim meetings 'cut' youth crime:

Bringing young criminals face-to-face with their victims can cut crime and re-offending, campaigners suggest.

A Northern Ireland restorative justice scheme run since 2003 has proved more effective at changing behaviour than custody, the Prison Reform Trust says.