RuffBlog

black and white

I absorb and discard a lot of cool, interesting, important, or outrageous "stuff" as I surf the internet... and simply don't make the effort to point it out.

A few days ago, I encountered the controversial dutch advertising for playstation. Somewhere, a debate was raging on whether this was ignorant racism, or well-executed 'disruptive' advertising courtesy of ad firm TBWA.

Anyway, I didn't blog it. Until now, when I encountered something elsewhere:

Ota Benga (c. 1884 – March 20, 1916) was a Congolese pygmy who was featured in a 1906 exhibit at the Bronx Zoo alongside an orangutan as an example of the evolutionary "missing link" between humans and apes.

The end of his story:

Ota Benga was caught between two worlds, unable to return to Africa, and viewed mainly as a curiosity in the U.S. On March 20 of 1916, at the age of 32, he built a ceremonial fire, chipped off the caps on his teeth, performed a final tribal dance, and shot himself with a stolen pistol. The death certificate listed his name as "Otto Bingo."

mothers ARE making us gay.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060701/fob1.asp

Birth order may steer some men toward homosexuality in a process that perhaps begins before birth. A new study finds that homosexuality grows more likely with the greater number of biological older brothers—those sharing both father and mother—that a male has.

Men display this tendency toward homosexuality even if they weren't raised with biological older brothers, finds psychologist Anthony F. Bogaert of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. No gay connection appears in men raised with half-brothers, stepbrothers, or adoptive brothers, all deemed non-biological by Bogaert.

"The mechanism underlying this fraternal birth-order effect remains unknown," Bogaert says. It's possible that succeeding pregnancies with male fetuses trigger a maternal immune response. A mother's immune system may treat male fetuses as foreign bodies, attacking them with antibodies that alter sex-related brain development, the Canadian psychologist suggests.

Scientists haven't yet looked for any specific immune reaction during pregnancy that targets later-born boys who become homosexual.

Dixie Chicks Video: I'm Not Ready to Make Nice

Technorati Tags: bush, censorship, dixiechicks, expression, music, witchhunt

Do I have to think of everything around here???

Here's the plan:

It would be like trying to save a sandcastle when the tide is rising... you just channel a place for the water to go.

If it was built in desert areas, it would cool down neighboring areas, helping against drought and famine.

It would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, spurring lasting economic development.

And... create more beaches?

The Free Information Society - Propaganda

The Free Information Society - Propaganda:

Posters! Lots of 'em.

Being Mikey Brown

CNN.com - Brown to start emergency planning consulting business - Nov 24, 2005:
"I'm doing a lot of good work with some great clients," Brown said. "My wife, children and my grandchild still love me. My parents are still proud of me."

Toxic Slick Contaminates Water Supply Of Chinese City

Toxic Slick Contaminates Water Supply Of Chinese City:

BEIJING, Nov. 24 -- A 50-mile-long slick of toxic pollution in the Songhua River glided through the major Chinese city of Harbin on Thursday, contaminating the water supply for several million people and setting off panicked buying of bottled water.

This is article is written as if the China is just an anthill full of frenzied, scrambling, and inherently meaningless insects. Is it because journalists in China (foreign or not) have no choice but to cram their stories full of "officials did this, officials did that"... de-emphasizing the individuals.... (in America, meanwhile, it was "Michael Brown did this, Brownie didn't do that"...)

Or is this some kind of structural racism on our The Washington Post's part?

A Prison Makes the Illicit and Dangerous Legal and Safe - New York Times

A Prison Makes the Illicit and Dangerous Legal and Safe - New York Times:
Canada has begun a pilot program to allow prisoners to tattoo one another in a safe, sterile environment.

Light Poles Are Vanishing, and Baltimore's Police Are Baffled

Light Poles Are Vanishing, and Baltimore's Police Are Baffled:
The poles, which weigh about 250 pounds apiece, have been snatched during the day and in the middle of the night, in poor areas and in affluent neighborhoods.

Rita

Dear George,

I heard about how your fourth largest city might flood this weekend. We have a Rita up here too, and she's a big girl...

But I have an idea. Houston needs more reservoirs. If you nuke a man-made canyon in the parking lot of a defunct Wal-Mart, all the water can go there, and everyone will be so impressed that you used nuclear power for non-evil, that you can start "helping out" out other countries with similar safety projects....