Ha! I had no idea that this was a thing; Bikini Baristas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlyFh97zy7M

More power to them. And it's great that there are even male versions.

Oh, and those protesting them are the "lumpy mashed potatoes."

Hah -- in ev psych this is called "derogation" of the competition.

Just posted a paper by Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair and Mons Bendixen that talks about sexual competitor derogation at the Applied Evolutionary Psychology site I'm president of. It's "Sexual Harassment Is About Wanting Sex, Not Wanting Power Over Women."

http://aepsociety.org/wordpress/2016/01/18/sexual-harassment-is-about-wanting-sex-not-wanting-power-over-women/

New Fed law says it's OK for kids to walk alone... or at least that's the hope... http://www.fastcoexist.com/3055107/federal-law-now-says-kids-can-walk-to-school-alone

Imagine -- if I never had to hear "Imagine" again. I am just sick to death of that song. Am I alone?

In the "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed" category: http://www.nature.com/news/italian-papers-on-genetically-modified-crops-under-investigation-1.19183

Cattaneo noted what looked like problems in all three papers: sections of images of electrophoresis gels appeared to have been obliterated, and some of the images in different papers appeared to be identical but with captions describing different experiments.

She then commissioned Enrico Bucci, head of the biomedical services and information consultancy firm BioDigitalValley in Aosta, Italy, to carry out a forensic analysis of all three papers. The analysis suggested that the papers did indeed contain manipulated and reused images. Cattaneo contacted the journals concerned in September last year, and in November forwarded the analysis to the University of Naples. The university rector, Gaetano Manfredi, an engineer, immediately launched the university investigation, which is nearly complete. He says that the university will probably announce any resulting actions by the end of February.

In the "may you live in interesting times" section:

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/01/18/rumors-swirl-around-the-saudi-throne/

Unnamed U.S. diplomats are said to be speculating that the Saudi King Salman will abdicate in 2016 in favor of his son Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the current Defense Minister.

The current successor is the king's nephew. On the other hand, they are unnamed diplomats, so maybe they're just stirring the pot. Particularly given the current US government's love affair with Iran.

@"Bikini Baristas"

I unashamedly love this idea :)

Amy, you are going to love Hot Mess Gilligan, the chinese crested.

http://barkpost.com/hot-mess-gilligan/?utm_campaign=barkpostfb&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

Amy, you are going to love Hot Mess Gilligan, the chinese crested.

http://barkpost.com/hot-mess-gilligan/?utm_campaign=barkpostfb&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/12105935/Gourmet-Burger-Kitchen-ad-campaign-sparks-angry-backlash-from-vegetarians.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/19/inspector-general-clinton-emails-had-intel-from-most-secretive-classified-programs.html

Meanwhile, the DoD is contemplating retroactively reducing General Petraeus in rank for...far less. Had any of us done what Hillary has, we'd have been stripped of our clearances and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Oh, right. Laws are for little people.

http://hotair.com/archives/2016/01/19/salon-rubios-disqualified-because-of-his-bizarre-religious-faith-catholicism/

Salon's gotta Salon, but I thought the Know Nothings were so...18th century.

"if I never had to hear 'Imagine' again. I am just sick to death of that song. Am I alone?"

No you're not. "Imagine" was one of the worst songs Lennon ever wrote, combining the lyrical hippy-drippy-trippyness of 1960s folk with overblown production that would have made Phil Specter blush. There, I said it.

The song's one redeeming feature (and this is damning with faint praise) is: Yoko didn't sing on it.

'Imagine' is the leftist manifesto. It defines what the movement stands for and what it's priorities are. In all their sad sappy idiocy.

I'd also like to ditch 'The Logical Song'. Oh no, they taught you how to be logical, responsible, practical, and dependable. The horror. Now you might not end up a homeless drunk. What could be worse than that!

Not two weeks into the new year, the frocked and beanied capo dei capi of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, chose to impose upon humanity a book of his own authorship, The Name of God Is Mercy.

This Tayler guy's an idiot. Francis did not "impose upon humanity a book of his own authorship...." He wrote a book and it is up to each person whether he or she wants to purchase it.

That's like saying Al Gore imposed upon humanity a book of his own authorship, Earth in the Balance - which would actually be more correct since Al insists on campaigning for laws and regulatory guidelines that force us to live according to the pseudo-science precepts of his book.

Francis, on the other hand, is content having published a book for Catholics to use as a guidepost for their faith.

Certified Professional Midwives practice medicine with virtually no medical training - and babies die.

http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/when-home-birth-goes-wrong

"Imagine"

I can remember when Imagine was first released. I thought it was crap then and it still is.

The lyrics struck me as very sad and somewhat fatalistic; basically saying "nothing matters."

Well, if that is the case why didn't Lennon give away all his money, why didn't he let others play/record his songs for free?

And Cousin Dave; yea, I never thought of that! Thank goodness Yoko Ono didn't sing it. ha!

There is one redeeming feature of Imagine, and it is worth mentioning. In NYC's Central Park, they built a memorial in a small area renamed "Strawberry Fields" which has a marble inlay with the word "Imagine."

Yoko One donated money to have it built; and she also donated money to create an endowment to pay for its upkeep. It is paying for the upkeep endowment which is rather a nice touch. Too often folks donate money for the creation of a memorial; but, neglect to realize that it has to be maintained. Sure, Yoko, no doubt, did it so that it wouldn't fall into disrepair; but, still a nice gesture.

I cant really feel sorry for people who didnt bother to check out the person they were paying thousands to to deliver their baby.

And I may just be being cynical here, but $20 bucks says this lady's husband thought this was a load of shit from day one but let it go cuase she wouldnt shut up about it.

Its like people who buy into get rich quick schemes after bitch you out for twenty minutes after you told them it was a scam. How sorry can you really feel for someone who ignores every warning?

Home birth has been romanticized, as if it is 'special' in some way that a hospital birth is supposedly not.

Quoting important stats from Amy's link for the 'tl;dr' crowd:

"In December 2015, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that followed the outcomes of 80,000 births in Oregon during the years 2012–13. The study showed that planned home births had a higher likelihood of neonatal seizures and carried twice the risk of neonatal death than did in-hospital births. These findings ... follow on the heels of a 2014 paper in the Journal of American Obstetrics and Gynecology, which found that planned home births with CPMs (Certified Professional Midwives), despite making up only 0.46 percent of total births in the study, resulted in four times as much neonatal death as did hospital births attended by nurse-midwives"

It boggles my mind that anyone is willing to gamble their own baby's life like that.

There are probably at least a thousand things that can go wrong during a birth (for both mother and infant) - many of these are relatively simple to fix IF AND ONLY IF you happen to be in a hospital with the necessary equipment and trained professionals to deal with those things.

But Lobster, "Imagine ..."