Even my lab couldn't do this...

Mila's Daydreams

Check out the cute photos on Adele Enersen's blog.

I love NPR.

But clearly not as much as this guy!

San Francisco is only the 11th gayest city in America??

The Advocate has ranked America's gayest cities and San Francisco came out at #11, between St. Louis and Cleveland. The formula they used to calculate this ranking is pretty awesome though. They added up the city's number of gay.com profiles, gay wedding officiants, openly gay elected officials, Tegan and Sara performances over the past five years, lesbian bars and Yellow Pages entries with the word gay in them. It then divides the total by the city's population and then multiplies that by 100,000. That, in itself, is pretty gay.

The caption on this pic says it all:

The Backstreet Boys headlined our Gay Pride Parade last year. Enough said.

Duh.

According to a new poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, Fox News is the most DIStrusted news outlet in America. It's also the second most trusted network, behind PBS, but that's not the point - Fox's DIStrust numbers have actually gone up this year from last, which is a hopeful trend!

50% of those polled trust PBS, 30% distrust.
42% trust FOX, 46% distrust.

Public health greatest hits.

Facebook obsession.

What's your sign? **Read this before answering**

So, apparently Earth's magnetic poles have shifted, changing the field of astrology. They've added a 13th sign, Ophiuchus, and shifted the others to accomodate it. Here's the new breakdown:

Capricorn: Jan. 20 - Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 - March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18 - May 13
Taurus: May 13 - June 21
Gemini: June 21 - July 20
Cancer: July 20 - Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10 - Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16 - Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30 - Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23 - Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29 - Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17 - Jan. 20

One of my all time favorite funnies!

The fascinating story of the author of Peter Pan

I heard this on Radiolab (to which everyone should be listening!), and had to share...

Basically, there is evidence that when children are exposed to extremely stressful events they temporarily stop growing. This is likely due to their stress hormones telling their body, "Save your growing for tomorrow! There are more important things to take care of today!". Usually, however, when the events pass the child resumes their maturation.

Which brings us to J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. When he was a child he witnessed the death of his brother David, his mother's favorite son. Barrie was left to care for his mother after she became bedridden with grief and was was made to feel horribly that it was his brother who died and not himself or one of his other siblings. One day, his mother said that the one solace she found was that David had died as a child, before he had the chance to become a man who no longer needed a mother. This apparently inspired Barrie to stunt enter what is known as psychogenic dwarfism and to remain short, childlike, and asexual through his adulthood!

Read the wikipedia of J.M. Barrie here.

Gluten free friendly hotels.

If you eat a gluten free diet, you know how tough it is to find food options sometimes, especially when you're on the go or out of town. If you can afford it, look no further! The Fairmont Hotel and Resort chain has created new menus for their restaurants and room service that cater to different dietary restrictions including gluten free, diabetic, macrobiotic, and raw diets. To find hotel locations, look here.

Too little, too late.

The angry rhetoric and hate speech espoused during the healthcare debate and the midterm elections were called out as dangerous and potentially inspiring of real acts of violence. Sharron Angle of Nevada suggested that people might take to "second amendment remedies" if their candidates lost elections. Sarah Palin covered her PAC website with a map of the United States marked with crosshairs detailing congressional districts whose representatives had voted for the health care bill. The man who shot Arizona Congresswoman Giffords this weekend may have been apolitical and just plain crazy. However, I still think that the suggestive imagery and rhetoric endorsed by (nearly exclusively) right wing politicians and pundits plays a role in elevating the anger level in this country past the point of it being a call to civic engagement. The saddest part about their propaganda is that it's not even based on fact.

Christmas trip to India.

Skate trick double entendre.

Little do the groms know, that styled ollie they're trying to land is named after Oliver North, a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Marine Corps. And why does he matter? He served on the National Security Council during the Iran Contra affair, an arms trade deal during the Reagan administration that ended up funding civil war in Nicaragua. Know your history, kids! And keep skating...

This is NOT how I want my donation used.

Do some research before you make your next charitable donation. A recent article shed light on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which raises money to fight breast cancer, for spending donor funds on lawsuits against organzations who also use the phrase "for the cure". Although it's always a good idea to look into how your chosen philanthropic organization spends the money donated to them, it's a shame that now we have to watch out for this sort of thing as well.

There are plenty of websites out there to help you figure out how much your charity spends on things such as administrative costs and political contributions, Charity Navigator and Charity Choices being two options.

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