meghan

Thanks Mike (from Spain)

 

A gun bill currently rests on Gov. Jay Nixon’s (D-MO) desk, after passing the Missouri legislature by a veto-proof margin. Should it actually take effect, it would neutralize three generations of federal gun regulation, invite firearms into elementary schools and hold the First Amendment at the barrel of a gun. Here are four of the most bizarre ideas packed into this bill:

• Returning Gun Laws To The Hoover Administration: Not only does the bill claim the power to declare federal gun laws “null and void and of no effect in this state,” it then lists a long list of longstanding laws that it purports to nullify. Among them are “the federal Gun Control Act of 1934,” “the federal Gun Control Act of 1968,” and “any act forbidding the possession, ownership, or use or transfer of any type of firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition by law-abiding citizens” — so a federal ban on machine guns would cease to exist in Missouri if this bill took effect. Nullification bills such as this one conflict with the express language of the Constitution, which provides that duly enacted federal laws “shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.”
• Armed Kindergarten Teachers: The bill also permits school districts to “designate one or more elementary or secondary school teachers or administrators as a school protection officer,” a designation that authorizes them to carry a concealed firearm on campus. These armed educators also gain a limited power to detain people — “[a]ny person designated as a school protection officer may detain, on view, any person the officer sees violating or who such officer has reasonable grounds to believe has violated any law of this state, including a misdemeanor or infraction, or any policy of the school.” Such detention may only last up to four hours, however, before the person being detained must be turned over to real police.
• No Gun Buybacks: Although the bill ostensibly permits counties and muncipalities to maintain gun buyback programs to try to reduce the number of guns on the street, it neuters those programs by virtually ensuring that those guns will return to circulation. All guns purchased by such buybacks “shall be offered for sale or trade to a licensed firearms dealer.” Only after two gun dealers have refused to buy the guns can the firearms be destroyed.
• Gun Gag Rule: Finally, the bill purports to turn journalists who exercise their First Amendment right to report on gun owners into criminals: “No person or entity shall publish the name, address, or other identifying information of any individual who owns a firearm or who is an applicant for or holder of any license, certificate, permit, or endorsement which allows such individual to own, acquire, possess, or carry a firearm.” Anyone who violates this provision can be charged with a class A misdemeanor.

State lawmakers who embraced private prisons as a cost-cutting measure are starting to have trouble ignoring their abysmal conditions. Corrections Corporation of America, the largest and most powerful private prison company in the nation, lost four prison contracts in the past month after extensive reports of abuse, neglect, and even fraud within their operations.

Idaho cut ties with the corporation on Wednesday, which turned the state’s largest prison into a violent hellhole inmates called “Gladiator School.” Earlier this year, CCA was caught understaffing the prison and using prison gangs to control the population. The company admitted to falsifying nearly 4,800 hours of staffing records to squeeze more money out of the state for nonexistent security work. Shift logs at the prison showed the same security guards working for 2 to 3 days at a time without breaks.

Last week, Texas closed two CCA prisons, including one with a history of suspicious prisoner deaths. One lawsuit alleges prison staff ignored an inmate’s cries for medical assistance, forcing her to give birth in a prison toilet to a baby that died four days later.

CCA was also booted from Mississippi earlier this month after multiple deadly riots over poor food and sanitation, lack of medical care, and mistreatment by guards. Mississippi is hiring another private prison company, MTC, to take over CCA’s contract — even though MTC runs another prison with the highest inmate assault rate in the state. Mississippi already terminated contracts with the other major private prison company, GEO Group, after it was found guilty of turning a juvenile facility into “a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts.” Despite this record, the state is apparently not ready to give up on private prisons.

There is no reason to believe these human rights abuses are isolated. CCA has faced numerous lawsuits and investigations in virtually every state in business with them. Most recently, the company had to pay $600,000 to settle a lawsuit over abuses in a Colorado prison. Another CCA prison in Ohio has flunked multiple audits due to its filthy and overcrowded facilities. Riots are common in private prisons all over the country.

The industry and its Republican allies have touted private prisons as a cost-saving alternative for cash-strapped states. But these companies have not actually saved money and even cost more than state-run prisons in some cases; CCA and others have been caught overcharging states by millions of dollars and extracting guarantees of 100 percent occupancy.

Though states are not seeing much fiscal benefit from these deals, the industry is thriving. Many of these companies are enjoying record profits. CCA has done especially well, rebounding from the verge of bankruptcy in 2000 to boast net profits of $162 million in 2011. However, the obvious violations and bad publicity may start to tip the scale against these companies, perhaps even outweighing the massive sums the industry has spent lobbying lawmakers.

Happy summer!^*

At 05:04 UTC (01:04 a.m. EDT) on June 21, the Sun reaches its northernmost point in the sky, which we call the summer solstice. It also means in general it’s the longest day of the year. Since this happens in the middle of the night for us in the United States, it means Thursday and Friday are about the same length; in fact the difference is too small to worry about. For me, in Boulder, Colo., the day is 15 hours and one minute long; compare that to the dead of winter when it’s only about 9.3 hours long!

I’ve written about this about a bazillion times, so check Related Posts below for more info on how this all works. I’ll note that the length of the day depends on your latitude; if you live in Alaska, your days are longer than mine, and if you’re at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, it’s been nighttime for a few weeks now. Living on a great spinning tilted ball is weird, but that’s the hand we’re dealt.

^*Well, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, that is. For the 10 or so percent of you below the equator, happy winter!

Related Posts:

Happy Winter Solstice (2012)! (This is a pretty complete description)
Space Station Solstice
Summer Solstice 2011 (with lots of cool pix of the Sun)
Winter Solstice 2006
… or you can just search the blog for the word “solstice”

The Kansas State Board of Education voted Tuesday to adopt a multi-state science curriculum that gives new emphasis to evolution and climate change science in K-12. Developed by 26 states over the past two years, the Next Generation Science Standards include teaching climate change science to children as young as middle school. Kansas, Rhode Island, and Kentucky have already approved them.

Creationists have cried foul, and one state representative distrusts education standards as a whole because he viewed them as a form of federal overreach. At a school board meeting that discussed Common Core reading and math and Next Generation Science Standards, state Rep. Allan Rothlisberg compared these education benchmarks to the IRS, which is under scrutiny for targeting Tea Party groups.

“We’ve seen in the news lately, obviously with the IRS spying on us,” Rothlisberg told the Lawrence Journal-World. “Why on Earth would we expect the (U.S.) Department of Education — which is not constitutionally authorized — to look out for our children? That’s our responsibility.” Rothlisberg serves on the House Education Budget committee.

While the board approved the standards by a firm majority, 8-2, Kansas lawmakers have worked to move science backward in the state. Even though Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution says the state board has authority over public education, the Kansas Senate passed a bill last month to block funding for both Common Core standards and Next Generation Science Standards, which ended in a narrow defeat in the House. If it had passed, it would have resulted in a lengthy lawsuit to determine which branch had authority. This spring, the Kansas House Education Committee also introduced a bill that eventually died in committee mandating that teachers question the scientific basis of global warming in the classroom.

More states are moving ahead with approval, even as elected climate deniers and creationists threaten they may respond with anti-science legislation.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who helped draft the PATRIOT Act, is exploring options to narrow a provision of the law that allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to obtain telephonic metadata on nearly all Americans. The comments are the first indication that Congress may act to restrict the government’s ongoing data collection since the Guardian published a secret court order compelling Verizon to turn over its records on a “on an ongoing daily basis” and the Wall Street Journal reported that AT&T and Sprint are also sending their records to the government.

“I have a big problem because the business records part of the Patriot Act, which is what was used to justify this, was designed for specific investigations,” Sensenbrenner told Fox News on Friday. “We’re seeing big government in action, just like George Orwell predicted but maybe a few years later,” he added.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the government to order businesses to turn over “the production of any tangible things” if it can prove that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” that the tangible things sought are “relevant to an authorized investigation . . . to obtain foreign intelligence information. . . or to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” The government has been obtaining metadata records from telephone companies for years and has used three-month secret warrants fromt the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) court since 2006.

Sensenbrenner indicated that he will draft legislation to “change that part of the business records part of the Patriot Act before it expires in 2015″ to more narrowly tailor it and will question FBI Director Robert Muller about the program when he appears before Congress next week. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also plans to offer a bill designed to close the “business records” provision.

“This is a dragnet. It is an overreach and we’ve got to find out this is justified, simply because the NSA wants to do some data mining,” Sensenbrenner said. On Thursday, he wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder complaining that, “I do not believe the released FISA order is consistent with the requirements of the Patriot Act.”

The congressman initially dismissed critics who warned of government abuse of the Patriot Act in 2005 and 2006, but first admitted that the FBI may be abusing the law in 2007.

In 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama sponsored a bill to require the government to prove it has “specific and articulable facts” that a targeted individual is an “agent of a foreign power” before accessing records.

The Steubenville rape case, in which two high school football players were convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl at a party, helped spark a national conversation about consent, victim-blaming, and rape culture. The case gained national attention after the “hacktivist” group Anonymous leaked significant social media evidence implicating the assailants — including tweets, Instagram photos, and a 12-minute video of Steubenville high schoolers joking about the rape. But it turns out that working to expose those rapists may land one Anonymous hacker more time in prison than the rapists themselves will serve.

As Mother Jones reports, 26-year-old Deric Lostutter — who has been known as “KYAnonymous” throughout his role in the Steubenville rape case — could face up to 10 years of jail time if he’s convicted of hacking-related crimes. The FBI raided Losuetter’s home in April. The internet hacker told Mother Jones that he believes the FBI investigation was motivated by Stebenville officials who want to send Lostutter a clear message: You shouldn’t have gotten involved.

“They want to make an example of me, saying, ‘You don’t fucking come after us. Don’t question us,’ ” Lostutter explained. Those type of power dynamics played out over the course of the sexual assault trial in the tiny Ohio town, where many leaders in the community — like the high school football coach — played some role in covering up the rapists’ crimes because that was easier than disrupting the status quo.

The two teens who were convicted of rape, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, face up to two years in a juvenile detention facility. Because they’re both minors, neither of them will spend as much time behind bars as Lostutter potentially faces. Lostutter is preparing for a costly legal fight, and crowdsourcing outside donations to help him fund it.

The site soliciting donations points out that “Deric had the courage to stand up against rape.” And he says he would do it again, despite the potential consequences.

Anonymous continues to involve itself in exposing sexual crimes. After the intense harassment leveled against a Canadian teenager following her alleged gang rape led her to take her own life, Anonymous stepped in to demand justice, claiming their hackers were quickly able to identify the assailants.

Note: Larger version HERE in case you want to know where the Galapagos Islands used to be. SPOILER: No clue. This is the Pangea supercontinent imagined with current national borders. Was anybody else surprised to see that the US used to be neighbors with Canada and Mexico? Blows my mind. Of course the fact that people actually believe that all the continents used to fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle blows my mind too. Like, hundreds of years from now that's going to sound as ridiculous as still believing the earth is round. It isn't round though, is it? "It's shaped like a turtle." Just any old turtle? "Michelangelo." Congratulations, that was a test and you passed. Thanks to Brad C, who once got so angry at a tropical island that he kept kicking sand off the beach into the water until the whole thing disappeared.

Beatriz, the 22-year-old Salvadoran woman who has been close to death as she has been forced to carry a fetus without a brain, received an emergency Caesarean section on Monday. Beatriz’s 27-week-old fetus, which has a fatal birth defect that has left it without a brain and parts of its skull, will likely not survive outside the womb for very long.

Over the past several months, Beatriz’s doctors warned that she would die if she was not allowed to end her pregnancy — but she was unable to get a legal abortion in her deeply conservative country, where terminating a pregnancy can lead to up to 30 years in prison. Her doctors took her case all the way to the Supreme Court, hoping to receive an exception to the country’s total abortion ban. The case stretched on for three months, and Beatriz’s health got worse every day.

Last week, the Supreme Court finally handed down its ruling, choosing to deny Beatriz the critical abortion care she needed to stay alive. Even though a team of Beatriz’s doctors repeatedly warned that the young woman — who suffers from multiple health conditions that worsen when she’s pregnant — would likely not survive if she was forced to carry the nonviable pregnancy to full term, the court decided that her health “was not yet in absolute danger.”

After weeks and weeks of waiting for a conclusion to the legal proceedings, Beatriz was already at the end of her second trimester when she was officially denied the right to a life-saving abortion. Since she was so far along in her pregnancy, El Salvador’s health minister determined that her case no longer fell under the country’s abortion laws. The country’s health department could therefore decide the best course of action to safeguard Beatriz’s life, including ending the pregnancy early by inducing birth.

“At this point, the interruption of the pregnancy is no longer an abortion. It is an induced birth,” the health minister, María Isabel Rodríguez, explained on Thursday. She said it could be either “an abdominal or vaginal birth.”

Late on Monday, the Associated Press reported that Beatriz received a C-section. She is currently recovering from surgery, and her pre-term baby is not expected to survive very long. “No one can say how long she will live,” one source told the AP in reference to Beatriz’s baby girl. “It was painful to see the little creature. That’s what the grandmother told us, and the doctors confirmed it.”

Essentially, Beatriz was forced to carry a nonviable fetus for months — all while her health deteriorated, and she remained in a hospital room separated from her husband and young son — until she could end her pregnancy with a type of reproductive care that makes El Salvador comfortable. The outcome will end up being exactly the same, since her baby will not be able to survive long without a brain. But, because El Salvador’s government claims that this type of C-section is not considered to be an abortion, it’s an “intervention of the pregnancy” that is allowed.

In fact, as RH Reality Check points out, the type of procedure that Beatriz received is actually more accurately described as a “form of abortion carried out through c-section.” It is so risky that it’s never performed in the United States. RH Reality Check’s editor, Jodi Jacobson, writes that El Salvador is “engaging in linguistic gymnastics” to make it appear as though Beatriz did not receive a medical service that could be considered abortion care. The medical experts who spoke to RH Reality Check explained that the C-section that Beatriz received was extremely invasive, and not the preferred method of ending a pregnancy at 27 weeks.

Permitting some types of reproductive health care but not others, even if the outcome will ultimately be the same, is clearly not based in any type of medical logic. If Beatriz had received a less invasive abortion when she was in her first trimester of pregnancy, when her doctors first began asking for one, her health may not have devolved further — and she perhaps would already be back at home with her one-year-old son. But anti-choice advocates have successfully segregated abortion care from the rest of women’s health care without considering cases like Beatriz’s, in which a woman’s life hinges on the semantics of what’s considered to be an “abortion.”

That dynamic isn’t unique to conservative, Catholic-dominated countries like El Salvador. Here in the United States, a pervasive stigma surrounding this aspect of reproductive care has ensured that abortion services — as well as the women who have abortions — remain largely in the shadows. By obscuring the medical realities of abortion care, U.S. politicians have created an atmosphere in which Americans assume that birth is always the best choice for women and abortion is always the wrong choice. But, just as in Beatriz’s case, giving birth can actually be more dangerous for some women than having an abortion. Until lawmakers trust women and their doctors to make the best decisions about their own reproductive health, women will continue to face arbitrary barriers that don’t have anything to do with the medical care that’s best for them.

I love this piece from my Slate colleague Laura Helmuth on why, following the announcement that Matt Smith will be leaving Doctor Who, the next Tardis-traveling Time Lord should be a woman. She argues that there’s nothing about the Doctor that is essentially male, and that finally flipping the Doctor’s gender during one of his reincarnations would help solve one of the show’s most significant flaws, its use of women as companions to the Doctor, who in recent years have become more in need of rescue on ever level. She writes:

The Doctor’s essential characteristics, the ones that show up in every reincarnation, are intelligence, courage, cleverness, adventurousness to the point of recklessness, and a sentimental affection for humans. The Doctor also has two hearts, but there’s no reason he has to have a penis.

We know it’s possible for Time Lords to switch genders when they are reincarnated. When the Doctor woke up in Smith’s body, he patted down his legs and face to get a feel for his new form, and he confirmed that he was a male by grabbing his … Adam’s apple. This would have been funnier if he hadn’t seemed so relieved.

There’s one point she left out that strikes me as important. If the Doctor is traveling around time and space in part in search of new experiences, it’s awfully incurious for him to keep reincarnating as a man, and as a white person. Wouldn’t he be curious, after all this time, to wonder what it’s like to occupy a woman’s body and to see what it’s like to live with a different set of gender roles (really, many different sets of gender roles)? Aren’t there some circumstances and societies where it might be more advantageous for the Doctor to be female or non-white? If the doctor was set up as an explicit exploration of masculinity, cycling him through all kinds of men’s bodies would make more sense, though it wouldn’t explain the Doctor’s continuing whiteness. But it’s not. And keeping the Doctor white and male over and over again is a contradiction to the show’s sense of wonder and exploration.

Mrs. Brown traveled down to Byrd's Beauty Shoppe in Dayton, Ohio. She was being honored by the local PTA, and she wanted to look her best. She strolled in and requested a shampoo and a haircut. A salon worker suggested that she try Lash Lure, a heavily-marketed product intended to permanently tint ones' eyelashes an eye-catching, darker color.

Source: http://eyelashesinhistory.com/20th_century_III.html

The year was 1933 and mascaras were pretty much shit. Cake mascaras were drying and caused brittle eyelashes. Cream mascaras, essentially a mix of Vaseline and dye, were messy and difficult to apply. Liquid mascaras stank of turpentine. Regardless of type, all mascaras were a single application away from giving the women who used them clumpy spider lashes. As Teresa Riordan notes in Inventing Beauty, "Adding a new coat of mascara, unlike nose powdering and lipstick freshening, was potentially dangerous to one's beauty."

Source: http://www.maybellinebook.com/2011/02/maybelline-cosmetics-was-investigated.html

Mrs. Brown, well-aware of the problems associated with mascara, consented to using Lash Lure to boost her eyelashes. The procedure, messy and uncomfortable, took longer than expected. As Mrs. Brown drove way from the salon, her eyes began to water up, filled with a burning sensation. She was so uncomfortable that she began to apply ointments of boric acid and mercury oxide, hoping to find a solution. Although she attended the PTA dinner, she was forced to leave early due to the pain. Mrs. Brown's eyes began to ulcerate, eventually sloughing off her own corneas. She was left completely blind.

The aniline compound in Lash Lure was a paraphenylenediamine, which darkens as it oxidizes in the air. Although they were commonly used as hair dye in the 1920s and 1930s, Lash Lure contained up to 30 times the aniline used in hair dye, and used it for the sensitive eye area.

p-Phenylenediamine Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-Phenylenediamine

After the case of Mrs. Brown became publicized, a wave of new information about Lash Lure's casualties was made evident. One 52-year-old woman, whose beautician daughter had dyed her lashes and brows, not only experienced severe burning and swelling, she was unable to open her eye a mere hour later. The next day, her fever was measured at 104 degrees. Her face was covered in ulcers, her lymph nodes were notably enlarged, and her heartbeat was irregular. Eight days later, she was dead.

Source: http://eyelashesinhistory.com/20th_century_III.html

In response, states began to create bans on aniline dyes. Unfortunately, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s hands were tied. They had no authority to prevent the sale of Lash Lure or to correct the misleading ads released by the company.

What's more, there were a myriad of products causing similar harm. Susan E. Wilson-Sanders outlines the case of "Anti-Mole, a remedy, [that] contained 50% nitric acid and 25% glacial acetic acid. It took off the moles along with the side of the victim’s face! Berry’s Freckle Ointment contained 12% mercury and produced mercury toxicity. Some unsuspecting people purchased Bleachodent to whiten their teeth and burned their gums and tongues because of the high content of hydrochloric and sulphuric acid. Carbon tetrachloride, which we know today is carcinogenic and produces hepatic toxicity, was a common ingredient of 'dry' shampoos. Is your scalp itching? Use Dr. Dennis’s Compound which 'prevents and stops the itch in one minute' because of its concentration of chloral hydrate, or Dewsberry Hair Tonic which stops an itching scalp with copper chloride and pyrogallic acid."

Teddy Roosevelt is concerned about your safety. Source: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcgqralYV01rf1jvro1_r1_1280.jpg

The public was protected from some unscrupulous claims by the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This law, signed by President Teddy Roosevelt the same day he signed the Federal Meat Inspection Act, required manufacturers of food and drugs to list potentially dangerous ingredients such as morphine, opium, and cannabis. The law also led to the creation of the Bureau of Chemistry and, subsequently, the FDA (the known as the Food, Drug, and Insecticide organization) in 1927.

Although this was an important step forward, products like Lash Lure demonstrated how limited the FDA's powers truly were. In addition to Lash Lure, journalists highlighted radioactive beverages like Radithor (this radium-laced water claimed to boost virility; unsurprisingly to us, using it led to painful deaths), which were permitted under the Pure Food and Drug Act, and other potentially dangerous quackery. Additionally, new drugs were not required to be tested. In 1937, a sulfanilamide medicine called "Elixir sulfanilamide" resulted in the deaths of over 100 people. Due to lax legislation, the long legal trouble that the company faced was a small fine for calling a product without alcohol an "elixir".

Source: http://periodictable.com/Samples/090.8/s13.JPG

In response to these egregious oversights, Congress put together the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. It was signed into law by the other Roosevelt: FDR. It significantly boosted the FDA's power and created substantially more legislation for drug companies to adhere to. For example, animal testing became mandatory for new drugs, to help ensure that tragedies such as the Elixir sulfanilamide disaster were never repeated (any reasonable animal test would have easily demonstrated its toxicity). These laws have been updated many times since the 1938 law as additional tragedies (such as thalidomide birth defects in 1959) have demonstrated the need for more stringent animal testing.

When it comes to cosmetics, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act prohibits the sale of makeup that contains substances or color additives known to be harmful, anything that's decomposing, or anything that has been exposed to unsanitary conditions (these are referred to collectively as "adulterated cosmetics"). Additionally, it requires honest labeling that contains certain required information. The FDA is also authorized to inspect cosmetics manufacturing, and to take and test samples during inspections or after receiving complaints. They monitor imports to assure that imported cosmetics are also up to snuff. And, of course, they can pursue legal action against companies who break the law by selling adulterated or otherwise unsafe cosmetics.

Put your mark on that perfect piece of meat — no that's not what we mean — with the DCI BBQ Branding Iron ($18). This metal and wood branding iron...

Visit Uncrate for the full post.

The Australian kids cartoon SheZow will debut this Saturday here in the United States on The Hub (formerly Discovery Kids). It features a 12-year-old boy who finds a magic ring that transforms him into a legendary crime-fighting superhero, SheZow, who happens to be a girl. Focus on the Family is not happy about this gender-bending message for kids, as explained by the organization’s resident ex-gay, Jeff Johnston:

JOHNSTON: SheZow presents at a pop-culture level what transgender activists believe and what some academics have taught for years: that gender is completely socially constructed and that people can change genders… Instead of giving kids good role models to follow, this cartoon reflects our culture’s confusion about the two sexes, and kids don’t need that confused message.

Johnston regularly uses his platform at Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink outlet to trash transgender identities. He believes that trans identities are not “healthy” and are “problematic psychologically,” even suggesting that gender variation can be caused by sexual abuse. He also denies that gender is socially constructed and separate from sex, merely because none of the “other genders” can “replicate itself.” Focus on the Family regularly promotes ex-trans ministries, encouraging the use of shame to reject trans identities.

Despite its gender-bending premise, SheZow is not even about a transgender character. Instead, it simply sends the message that it’s okay to stray outside the rigid lines of gender norms, a sentiment which could go far to help reduce anti-LGBT bullying. Watch the show’s descriptive intro:

In an op-ed published on Wednesday, an Oklahoma Republican sharply criticizes his fellow party members for focusing on enacting unnecessary legislation to limit women’s access to abortion and contraception. “What happened to the Republican Party that I joined?” state Rep. Doug Cox (R) wonders, pointing out that the mounting pile of reproductive restrictions represents a government intrusion into women’s personal lives.

Cox, who is a practicing physician, writes that the GOP-led pushes to eliminate women’s health resources don’t work in the “real world,” as the U.S. continues to face high rates of unintended teen pregnancy. Instead of expanding access to contraception to help address that reality, his fellow Republicans are working to do the opposite — pushing to eliminate Medicaid coverage for Plan B and allow pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions for any reason. The state lawmaker doesn’t believe those legislative priorities reflect the fundamental issues at the heart of the Republican Party:

What happened to the Republican Party that I joined? The party where conservative presidential candidate Barry Goldwater felt women should have the right to control their own destiny? The party where President Ronald Reagan said a poor person showing up in the emergency room deserved needed treatment regardless of ability to pay? What happened to the Republican Party that felt government should not overregulate people until (as we say in Oklahoma) “you have walked a mile in their moccasins”? [...]

What happened to the Republican Party that felt that the government has no business being in an exam room, standing between me and my patient? Where did the party go that felt some decisions in a woman’s life should be made not by legislators and government, but rather by the women, her conscience, her doctor and her God?

This isn’t the first time that Cox has spoken out against his party’s stance on women’s health issues. In February, when Oklahoma was considering additional abortion restrictions that would make it harder for minors to get an abortion without parental consent, Cox testified in opposition to the legislation. “We keep passing stuff like this, they’ll be done in back alleys with coat hangers, people,” he pointed out. At the same hearing, Cox also explained that, despite Republicans’ attempts to construe abortion care as inherently unsafe, abortion doctors don’t actually need to be burdened with additional regulations.

This year, Cox was the recipient of Planned Parenthood’s Barry Goldwater Award, which is presented to “outstanding” public officials in the Republican Party who have demonstrated their support for reproductive health issues. “As a highly regarded member of the Oklahoma State House, Rep. Cox has tirelessly and effectively argued against more than 160 anti-women’s health measures,” the women’s health organization noted.

But the other lawmakers in Oklahoma — a state that is already particularly hostile to women’s reproductive rights — have certainly kept Cox busy. Earlier this session, one state lawmaker advanced a measure that would allow employers to deny their workers birth control coverage for any reason. Another legislator has repeatedly pushed to outlaw all abortions and some forms of contraception with a “personhood” initiative that would endow embryos with the full rights of U.S. citizens. And just last week, in the wake of two deadly tornadoes that ravaged the state, the Oklahoma Senate voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

Over the weekend, protesters marched in 436 cities in 52 countries to protest the biotech giant Monsanto Company’s tightening grip on the global seed market. As hundreds of thousands of people rallied against a range of issues, including Monsanto’s treatment of farmers, the much-publicized Monsanto Protection Act, and the ubiquity of genetically modified ingredients, one overriding concern became clear: how people can identify, let alone avoid, Monsanto products.

Outside of Connecticut and Vermont, GMO labeling efforts have been trounced time and again in Congress, in state legislatures, and even on ballot initiatives. Though companies will not be legally required to disclose GMOs on a national scale anytime soon, the tech industry is rising to the challenge to help consumers find out for themselves. A slew of new mobile food trackers are proving that, as always, there’s an app for that.

One mobile app, Buycott, recently caused a stir among people looking to make more informed purchases. Buycott lets users scan a product before they purchase it to see its connections to companies with certain agendas. Users can sign on to campaigns to help them avoid the Koch Industries, Monsanto, companies that lobbied against GMO labeling, companies that contribute to the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and many more. There’s a wide range of right-wing causes, too — if they wish, users can support Koch Industries or companies that have pushed for looser gun laws. The app also lays out the network of corporations, exposing how seemingly unrelated companies are linked.

On Tuesday, Food Safety News highlighted a number of other apps dedicated to tracing food back to its source. HarvestMark has the most extensive database thus far, tracking five billion fresh food items (vegetables, fruits, and meat) from major companies like The Kroger Company, Driscoll’s Berries, and Coleman Natural, as well as international companies shipping food from China, Mexico and Taiwan. The app lets shoppers scan a product or type in a label to pull up a full profile of the farm it came from, how it was grown, and whether or not the farm has had any foodborne illness issues. The app has already helped limit foodborne illness outbreaks — during one recall, 15 percent of consumers who used HarvestMark discovered their leafy greens had been flagged for health risks.

Food companies are also sensing marketing opportunities in the push for greater transparency. One organic meat company, Applegate, has started using scannable labels called QR codes that let consumers watch videos about the farmer that raised their meat. Top 10 Produce, a tracing company, is working with small independent farms to help them promote their products via mobile technology. In Seattle, a shellfish company is rolling out QR codes to let customers know where each oyster they buy came from.

Though the technology is advancing rapidly to provide consumers with more and more detailed information about their food, individual boycotts face daunting odds: Monsanto, for example, owns the patents for roughly 90 percent of the seeds grown in the US, and virtually all processed foods contain GM corn or soybeans. Many families cannot afford to exclusively buy organic or well-sourced food. And boycotts alone likely won’t be enough to break a few companies’ monopoly over American grocery stores. Regulatory agencies like the FDA and the USDA have been rendered more or less toothless by special interests, frequently citing food producers for violations yet taking no meaningful action to prevent dangerous products from reaching the market. Instead, regulators often look the other way — with sometimes fatal consequences. Meanwhile, government officials are actively helping Monsanto and other food giants to drive out all other competition and stifle food diversity.

On the other hand, the five-year Farm Bill that’s currently being debated in the Senate and the House could make all the difference if it includes more support for small farmers, cuts subsidies for corn and soy giants, and encourages crop diversity. In order to truly change the food landscape, individual consumer choices will need to translate to calls for concrete policy action.

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Frozen mosses that were buried under glaciers 400 years ago have now been regrown. Surprisingly, the hardy "bryophytes" required no special techniques to regenerate. That means they might be candidates for colonizing extreme environments — even in space.

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You know what your dining room table is missing? Hopefully not a leg. Hopefully it's just missing some $15 - $18 Lord of the Rings salt and pepper shakers. Thankfully, our prayers have been answered. Well maybe yours at least, I prayed for a missile launcher for an arm and UNLIMITED AMMO. Apparently it's gonna take more than one night of prayer though, but hopefully by the end of the week. Hit the jump for four other sets.

Earlier this month, a Tennessee high schooler recorded an abstinence education assembly spearheaded by two right-wing leaders — and after details emerged about the topics discussed at the public school event, medical experts confirmed that they weren’t “completely accurate.” Health officials refuted some of the material, and local politicians expressed surprise that Tennessee’s public school students have been receiving false information.

As the Tennessean reports, the conservative speakers included Joi Wasill — who founded a nonprofit organization with strong religious, Republican, and anti-abortion ties — and Beth Cox, a member of a Tennessee county school board. The two women delivered an hour-long presentation for the freshmen and sophomores at Hillsboro High School. Wasill and Cox told students that all medical textbooks confirm that life begins at conception, there’s a new STD spreading around the country that’s worse than AIDS, contracting STDs will leave women infertile, and having sexual relations with eight different partners is the equivalent of drinking a whole classroom’s spit.

Cox told the young women in the room that if they became single mothers to boys, their sons wouldn’t have the necessary male role models in their lives to teach them “hunting, fishing, playing ball, all those things that teach them how to be a man.” During the second half, after Wasill took over, she asserted that “fetus” means the same thing as “baby” and adoption should always be assumed as the best option. If a girl is pregnant, send her straight to the nurse and give her prenatal vitamins, Wasill recommended. She also warned that abortion carries the risk of internal bleeding and death.

Dr. Mary Romano, the assistant professor in Vanderbilt’s Division of Adolescent Medicine, told the Tennessean that Wasill and Cox don’t have all of their facts straight. Many of their assertions are taken out of context — for instance, STDs only lead to infertility if they go untreated, and there’s no medical consensus about when life begins. Similarly, a spokesperson from Tennessee’s Department of Health said the agency is unaware of any new STD that is “worse than AIDS.” Wasill was likely referring to widely-debunked reports of a new strain of gonorrhea that health experts do not believe is actually comparable to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Another local school board member, Michael Hayes, told the Tennessean that he was “surprised” by the information imparted to students at the abstinence assembly. “Fortunately, I believe the Hillsboro High School kids are smart enough to separate fact from fiction and that some of the opinions and scare tactics used in the presentation they will know are incorrect,” he wrote in an email.

But even if students are able to discern the presentation’s factual inaccuracies, they’ll still be left unequipped with the actual knowledge they need to safeguard their sexual health. Romano pointed out that scare tactics intended to dissuade teens from becoming sexually active don’t actually work, because young adults tend to believe they’re invincible from any negative repercussions. Instead, teens need factual information about prevention methods.

“What you want to do is have the teen walk away with knowledge and skills. Teach me skills to negotiate that situation. If I’m going to have sex, who do I go to for information?” Romano explained.

Nonetheless, Tennessee students aren’t receiving those skills in their health classes. The state’s sex ed classes aren’t required to be medically accurate, and there’s nothing preventing public schools from hosting the type of conservative presentation that took place at Hillsboro High School this month. Last year, the state Senate actually pushed to make Tennessee’s abstinence-focused curricula even more conservative by proposing a ban on any mention of “gateway sexual activity,” like hand-holding.

Notably, details about Hillsboro’s recent abstinence assembly are coming to light only because a high school student had the foresight to record it. That’s true for similar abstinence programming across the country, which often goes unchecked until students begin speaking out. In West Virginia, one public high schooler made national news after protesting an abstinence speaker who imparted “slut shaming” messages and misinformation about sexual health during her presentation. She received backlash from members of her conservative community, including her principal.

The Flogsta Scream occurs every night at 10 p.m. when university students living in Uppsala's Flogsta neighborhood stop what they're doing and let out a collective scream from their windows, balconies, and rooftops.

It's a tradition that dates back to the 1970s, though details regarding how or why the tradition started are difficult to come by. The most extensive account of the Flogsta Scream comes from Wikipedia, which postulates that the Flogsta Scream may have started as a way to blow off steam during exam periods or possibly to commemorate a student who committed suicide. The article, however, cites no sources and additional information is scarce.

Still, it's a useful thing to know, should you find yourself on a nighttime stroll in Uppsala, that the spontaneous shrieks from the nearby dormitories are no cause for alarm.

There’s not a single right way to set up a filing system; the right system is one that works for you, where the time you spend filing pays off in ease of finding your documents when you need them.

Let’s assume you’ve already decided which papers you need to keep. The following are additional questions to consider:

1. Does someone else need to share your files? If so, be sure to answer these questions with whomever else will be filing things away or retrieving things from your filing system.
2. How much do you want to scan? If you’re comfortable with digital files, you may want to scan many of your papers and then discard or shred the originals (the ones that are legal to shred). Sometimes, you may want both a scanned copy (for backup and easy access) and a paper one.
3. For papers you’re keeping, do you prefer binders or file folders — or some combination thereof?
4. For action papers, are you comfortable using a tickler file? Action papers are those that need attention versus reference papers (such as your insurance papers) and archives/historic papers (such as your tax returns from 3 years ago). A tickler file creates a space for papers associated with actions, based on when you’re planning to take that action. There’s a section for each day of the current month and a section for each of the next 12 months. If you don’t want to use a tickler file, you could create files labeled by type of action needed (pay, call, enter into address book, etc.), or by urgency.
5. How many files do you really need? Don’t be afraid to create a file for a single piece of paper, if it really doesn’t fit with anything else. But don’t go overboard with subdivision either, if it doesn’t help with retrieving your papers.
6. Do you really hate to file? Could you get by with the “one box” approach from the Simple Productivity Blog? Here’s how that works: “Grab a small, empty box. … Throughout the year, toss in the things you need to hang on to for financial and tax reasons: paid bills, tax documents, bills. At the end of the year, go through it and shred what you can. Then stick it on a shelf with an appropriate label and start a new one.”
7. Are you more of a “piler” than a “filer”? If so, you can still organize your piles to make things easier to find, for you and others; consider the Pendaflex PileSmart products. You could also use a series of baskets or bins on a shelf to hold your various piles.
8. Where do you want to keep your files? Action files need to be close at hand to where you work. Many people prefer to keep them in some sort of step file, desktop file box or wall-mounted file — but some people prefer to keep them in a file drawer. Reference files need to be convenient to get to, but not as close by as action files. And historic files can go anywhere you have secure storage space; you don’t need easy access to them on a regular basis.
9. Do none of those filing options sound quite right? Get creative. Keep important papers on a wall, using a series of clipboards. Use a collection of transparent bags hanging on racks. Go wild!

If you decide to use file folders:

• Are you OK with basic manila file folders and green hanging folders? Or, do you want something snazzier? You’ve got lots of choices, from a rainbow of solid colors to a huge range of patterns.
• Do you want file folders inside of hanging folders or just hanging folders, or just file folders? If you’re going with file folders inside hanging folders, you may want what’s called “interior folders,” which won’t obscure the labels on the hanging folders. You may also want box bottom hanging folders to hold a large number of file folders.
• Do you want folders made from recycled materials? If this matters to you, look for folders with a high percentage of recycled and post-consumer material content.
• Is color-coding useful to you, or just one more thing to worry about?
  You can always use colored folders just because you like them, without assigning any specific meaning to a color.
• Do you want folders with the normal 1/3 cut tab (left, center, right) or with straight-cut tabs? Straight-cut tabs, which go the whole length of the file folder, give you room for longer labels. In either case, if your file folders will get a lot of use, look for ones with reinforced tabs.
• Do you want to use a label maker, or just hand-write your labels? Labels made with a label maker are very easy to read — especially helpful for those of us with older eyes — and have a nice polished look. But plenty of people are happy with hand-written labels, too. In either case, I suggest avoiding dark-colored plastic tabs on hanging files, because these make the labels hard to read.
• Do you want to use straight-line filing, or staggered? For my own files, I use straight-line filing with all the tabs in a single position; I like not worrying about messing up my staggered tabs (left, center, right) when I add a new file. (I use a new tab position to indicate a new grouping of files.) But others find staggered files easier to use.
• Do you want to group related files, and, if so, how? Some prefer a simple A-Z filing system, while others prefer to have groupings: financial papers, family member papers, etc. Do you want to put all your insurance papers together? Do you want to put all your car-related papers together? Where does the auto insurance go?

Got your answers? Now you’re ready to create your filing system. As you work with your files, you may change your answers to some questions; that’s normal. Keep adjusting your system, so it keeps working for you.

Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today.

[Photograph: Alexandra Penfold]

Every Arrested Development fan knows that there's always money in the banana stand...but what kind of bananas are there? Well, thanks to the Bluth's Original Frozen Banana Stand wiki I was able to track down the menu. The recipe below is for basic chocolate dipped frozen bananas with or without nuts, but check out the slideshow to see some make-at-home versions of the Bluth creations and feel free to let your creativity guide you. I used peanuts here, but you can use your favorite nut or mix and match.

About the author: Alexandra Penfold is mild-mannered literary agent by day, food ninja by night. Never one to skip dessert she's the Brownie half of Blondie & Brownie, a Midtown Lunch contributor, and co-author of New York à la Cart: Recipes and Stories from the Big Apple's Best Food Trucks. You can follow her on Twitter at @blondiebrownie.

Every recipe we publish is tested, tasted, and Serious Eats-approved by our staff. Never miss a recipe again by following @SeriousRecipes on Twitter!

Special equipment: 12 popsicle sticks

Ingredients

serves Serves 12, active time 30 minutes, total time 2 hours 30 minutes

• 6 large bananas
• 12 ounces dark chocolate, melted in the microwave or double boiler
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cups nuts, medium coarsely chopped (optional)

Procedures

1. Slice bananas in half and carefully mount on Popsicle sticks. Place bananas on a tray, plate or baking dish in the freezer for 2 hours or until firm. You can freeze up to overnight. Do not cover bananas as this will cause ice crystals to form.

2. In a medium bowl whisk together melted chocolate and coconut oil until thoroughly combined. Place nuts in a wide, shallow plate or pie plate (if using).

3. Remove bananas from freezer. If ice crystals have formed on the bananas use a paper towel to gently brush them off. Dip banana in chocolate and swirl to cover. Alternately you can use a spoon to help cover and ensure even chocolate distribution.

4. Roll bananas in chopped nuts. Let cool for 1 minute, Then place on a serving platter. If you don't plan on serving the bananas immediately, return them to the freezer for up to a few hours. If serving from freezer, place on plate and allow to thaw for 10 minutes before serving.

From Drinks

Black Whiskey currently has 60-70 whiskies [Photographs: Brian Oh]

One of the latest additions to the booming 14th St. corridor in Washington, DC is the newly opened Black Whiskey, from the team behind Kushi Izakaya. It pulls double duty as a mixed-use event and live music space on the first floor and a small craft whiskey bar on the second, the latter of which is run by bar manager Jack Caminos (formerly of Black Jack and The Brixton). With 60 to 70 whiskies behind the bar, Caminos wants people to explore the complex array of flavors that whiskey can offer.

A crash course in a few of Camino's notable bottles at Black Whiskey

Caminos freely admits that he hates cocktail menus. "I think the cocktail menu has destroyed drinking in America," he says, expressing his exasperation for "this constant need to create and reinvent." Instead, Caminos wants people to "appreciate the core ingredients" that people have put so much time and effort into creating and curating. "You don't want to cover it up with too many other flavors." In that vein, Caminos can easily prescribe a particular whiskey (or whisky) for your tastes on a given day.

From the affordable end of the spectrum, the $7/glass Lexington Bourbon, Caminos says, is "just a well-made Kentucky Bourbon," great for people trying to get familiar with whiskey without breaking the bank. On the more expensive side is a whisky that Caminos describes as "just magical." Blackadder Raw Cask whisky is bottled straight out of the cask. This non-chill filtered whiskey contains particulate matter from its casks that Caminos says allows the "flavor to evolve while in the bottle. It's the same difference," says Caminos of the comparative depth of flavor, "as a salami versus a hot dog."

Other notable bottles that Caminos pulls from the shelves include Breaking and Entering Bourbon from St. George Spirits. "It's a whiskey for people that call themselves whiskey aficionados; it's got smoke, but it's not too challenging." He even has a handful of corn whiskies, including a bottle of Hirsch Kentucky Corn Whiskey that's made of a 100% corn mash bill. "It has the sweetness of a corn liquor," says Caminos, "but with the distillate harshness."

Caminos does draw up a small cocktail menu that changes every day, and is considering establishing a seasonal menu of around five cocktails. He would still, though, much rather prepare a drink for you based on your conversation with him. "If people come in and know what they want, that's great; if they don't know what they want, that's great too," Caminos remarked, but laments the kind of drinker that has a pre-established agenda, such as drinking all whiskey neat indiscriminately, even if it calls for a splash of water.

The Bitter Death.

When I asked for something bitter and citrusy, Caminos poured a concoction called "Bitter Death," a rye cocktail with Cynar, lime juice, and Maraschino liqueur. The drink was herbaceous and bitter, but with an acidic undertone from the lime. When my drinking companion expressed an affinity for Moscow Mules, Caminos whipped up his version of a Negroni Sbagliato, which he dubbed a "ballsy Negroni." Proving that there are at least a few non-whiskey bottles in the building, it contained barrel aged Old Tom gin, Campari, Dolin sweet vermouth, and topped off with tonic.

The Ballsy Negroni.

Caminos believes that the lack of an established cocktail menu isn't a deterrent even for the uninitiated. He hopes the interaction required will help guests discover the wonders of whiskey: "If you serve something to people in a knowing way, they'll appreciate it."

Hang out at Black Whiskey and you're likely going to need something to soak up all of that whiskey, so it's also worth noting that Black Whiskey is also a "carvery pub." Kushi owner and chef Darren Norris have installed a carving station at one end of the bar to serve $18 carving plates featuring items like bacon wrapped pork loin. And if your stomach needs a break altogether, there's a pool table in the back and live music on select nights downstairs.

Black Whiskey

1410 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 (map)
202-682-3123; facebook.com/pages/Black-Whiskey

[Photograph: Shutterstock]

House and Senate Propose Farm Bills

This week, the House and Senate released their respective drafts of the Farm Bill. The Bill was scheduled to be passed in September, but the two Agriculture Committees couldn't reach an agreement. The new drafts are not quite compatible—the Senate version is 1,102 pages with $23 billion in budget cuts and the House version is 576 pages with $40 billion in budget cuts. The Senate Agricultural Committee approved their version of the bill in a 15 to 5 vote; the House Agricultural Committee will hold the same vote on their bill on Wednesday. For more details on the bills and their proceedings, check out Food Politics.

Proposed Cuts to SNAP Program

About 80% of the Farm Bill's cost to taxpayers is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. The program spends $80 billion each year on over 47 million participants. In the Senate Agriculture Committee's proposed Farm Bill, there are $4 billion in cuts to the SNAP program over the next 10 years. That could mean $90 less per month for hundreds of thousands of families receiving benefits. The Bill also includes heft stipulations to eliminate benefit fraud and ensure only qualified applicants receive benefits.

Supreme Court Decision Favors Monsanto

The Supreme Court passed a ruling in Bowman v. Monsanto Co., a case that many in the agricultural community have been watching closely for several months. Hugh Bowman, a farmer from Indiana, was sued by Monsanto for re-planting patented seeds. He appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court, who ruled unanimously in favor of Monsanto on May 13th. Justice Kagan wrote the opinion, which stated that Bowman couldn't replant and harvest patented seeds without the patenter's permission. The case further solidifies Monsanto's control of the seed market.

Food Reforms Halted in Congress

Two food reforms that have been floating around the Hill for several months—and that we've covered on this site—are being slowly shut out of political debate, according to The Salt. One is a piece of legislation that would set standards for living conditions of egg-laying hens. The legislation is a collaboration between the Humane Society of the United States and United Egg Producers, an industry group. Another is President Obama's plan to reform America's food aid program. His plan would increase the efficacy of food aid distribution abroad and increase the amount of food aid being bought from local farmers. Neither item made it into the drafts of the Farm Bill produced by the House and Senate Ag Committees.

FDA Considering Caffeine Regulation

The FDA announced plans to investigate better regulation of the sale and consumption of caffeine. The agency is particularly interested in looking at the safety of caffeine consumption for children and young adults. This announcement came in the same week that Wrigley's pulled plans for its caffeinated gum after FDA reluctance to approve the product. Michael Taylor, the head of the FDA, said that setting a minimum age for caffeine consumption is not in the plans, but that the agency will set boundaries on consumption "if the science indicates that it is warranted."

About the Author: A student in Providence, Rhode Island, Leah Douglas loves learning about, talking about, reading about, and consuming food. Her other work can be found at her website.

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Molag Bal, the God of Schemes, threatens all of Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls Online. Watch this new video to visit his Oblivion plane of Coldharbour and learn more about his plans.

We’re taking you straight to Molag Bal’s realm in this new video. Watch it to get a glimpse of Coldharbour and some of its inhabitants and to learn more about this malevolent Daedric Prince’s plans for Tamriel—and your soul.

Power Rangers was made for children, in the ‘90s, and had a terrible small budget. Can someone really take a show to task for not being brilliant when it operated under such severe limits? When the episode is titled “A Chimp in Charge,“ I would posit you can and should.

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