(no subject)

Overeating and indigestion blamed for 1,000 turtle doves falling dead in Italy with strange blue stain on their beaks

Snow present in 49 of the 50 U.S. states

The Dark Side of Oxytocin, the Hormone of Love (NYT) -- "The love and trust it promotes are not toward the world in general, just toward a person's in-group. Oxytocin turns out to be the hormone of the clan, not of universal brotherhood. Psychologists trying to specify its role have now concluded it is the agent of ethnocentrism."

(no subject)

Arizona shooting: Bill OK'd to create buffer for funerals -- "Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill Tuesday evening, saying, 'Despicable acts of emotional terrorism will not be tolerated in the state of Arizona.'" One of the few stances by her of which I completely agree.

Palin accuses critics of 'blood libel' for blaming her for Tucson shootings -- I don't think that is called cooling down the rhetoric. Also, you know, it's all about her.

In N.C., a new battle on school integration -- "[A]s the [Raleigh school] board moves toward a system in which students attend neighborhood schools, some members are embracing the provocative idea that concentrating poor children, who are usually minorities, in a few schools could have merits - logic that critics are blasting as a 21st-century case for segregation."

Public strongly opposes debt ceiling increase: Reuters/Ipsos -- "Some 71 percent of those surveyed oppose increasing the borrowing authority, the focus of a brewing political battle over federal spending. Only 18 percent support an increase." These people are fools who obviously don't understand the implications of defaulting on our national obligations. This isn't like an individual declaring bankruptcy.