"A disfigured lizard of monopolized violence."

Ensuring international financial support remains the #1 priority of the Liberian government.  So dysfunctional.  UPDATE 1-Liberia has upper hand over Ebola but support must continue-president | Reuters: "Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Wednesday that her government has the upper hand in the fight against Ebola, but warned against complacency or any reduction in international support...

The sustaining of anti-Ebola measures over the last two months has meant that in Liberia we now have the upper hand," Sirleaf said in a statement. "But our government remains concerned that progress in this battle will lead to complacency on the part of the international community," she added."

  

"You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and took their land. That's what conquering nations do. That's what Caesar did, and he's not goin' around saying, 'I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it.' The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons and you massacred them. End of story." - Spike, BTVS

 Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion by Mark Ames: "The idea that spree shooters aren’t simply deranged wackos is a little more acceptable now today than when Going Postal was originally published back in 2005, but it’s still largely anathema to both sides of the political spectrum. The left wants to pretend that banning guns will somehow solve the problem; never mind that as Ames demonstrates, workplace and school shootings were essentially nonexistent before the 1980’s. The right thinks that violent video games and death metal are driving kids to ventilate their own classmates, as if teenagers are brain-dead automatons who can be turned into murderers with the flip of a switch...

Ames’ thesis in Going Postal is that workplace and school shootings are a modern form of slave revolts, every spree killer a Nat Turner for the Information Age. That mere sentence is enough to generate a kneejerk reaction from even the most limp-wristed peacenik liberal: “America’s standard of living is the greatest in human history! You work a cushy office job, live in an apartment with central AC and can afford to spend your free time jacking off and playing video games! Your ancestors had to shovel shit for fourteen hours a day just to put food on the table, so quit bitching, you pussy!”

...Ames contends that the reason why the U.S. had so few slave revolts compared to other countries in Latin America or the Caribbean is because American slave owners developed foolproof psychological techniques for making their slaves docile and obedient. Their methods of psychological control are virtually identical to the ways that modern corporations condition their workers, including making slaves believe that their masters’ interests are the same as their own...

But if spree shootings are the same thing as slave revolts, why the sudden uptick in the past three decades? The answer: Ronald Reagan. When Reagan became president in 1981, his administration transformed the American workplace—and to a lesser extent, public schools—into a cutthroat competition, where workers are forced to work longer hours for less pay, all to make the rich richer. He crushed unions (literally in the case of PATCO), supported outsourcing and downsizing, and encouraged corporations and employers to slash their workers’ pay and benefits. And as it turns out, there was absolutely no rational basis for this, as the conservative/libertarian claim that the economy was ailing under Jimmy Carter was a complete and utter lie.

…The truth of the matter is that on a macroeconomic level, the difference between the Carter era and the Reagan era was minimal. For instance, economic growth during the Carter administration averaged 2.8 percent annually, while under Reagan, from 1982 to 1989, growth average 3.2 percent. Was it really worth killing ourselves over that extra .4 percent of growth? For a lucky few, yes. On the other key economic gauge, unemployment, the Carter years were actually better than Reagan’s, averaging 6.7 percent annually during his “malaise-stricken” term as compared to an average 7.3 percent unemployment rate during the glorious eight-year reign of Ronald Reagan. Under Carter, people worked less, got far more benefits, had greater job security, and the country grew almost the same annual average rate as under Reagan. On the other hand, according to the Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1996, under Reagan life got worse for those who had it worse: the number of people below the poverty level increased in almost every year from 1981 (31.8 million) to 1992 (39.3 million). As it turns out, the only people who were suffering during Carter’s presidency were the rich.

The indignity of only being able to afford two summer homes instead of three was too much for them to bear, so they pushed for the election of a president who would let them rape and loot as much as they wanted. And we’re living in the world they created, a world in which 90 percent of college grads are forced to move back home, where health insurance is increasingly impossible to obtain, and where sociopaths like Donald Trump and Jack Welch are regarded as folk heroes for humiliating their employees and firing them in mass layoffs. The spree shooters are the people who’ve decided that they’re not going to take it anymore. Workplace shootings began among Postal Service employees (hence the phrase “going postal”) because the USPS was the first victim of Reagan-style slash-and-burn economics. Under Richard Nixon, the Postal Service was forced to become profitable (a requirement never imposed on any other government agency), which resulted in a series of employee benefit cuts and a new crop of sociopathic managers seizing control. Post office shootings were blithely dismissed by the public until 1989, when Louisville, Kentucky-based Standard Gravure employee Joseph Wesbecker became the poster boy for workplace rage..."

This is, in fact, false advertising.  Far from "Super" and much more "Oh god, oh god, this place is horrible."  Two notes, 1 - not my pic, but it's weird what you come across in random internets places & 2 - the places you'll go into to appease visitors in Thailand, I swear.

Pretty adorable. Bane Grimm:

"Epic" - it's in his name.

Ridley Scott to produce miniseries on rocket scientist, occultist Jack Parsons - Boing Boing: "Parsons championed the then derided idea of rocketry. After establishing an off-hours collaboration at Caltech, Parsons worked to create liquid fueled rockets which he launched from Pasadena's Arroyo Seco. The group won a wartime government contract to invent jet assisted take off (JATO), which would enable airplanes to launch from aircraft carriers using shorter runways. Parsons's creation of a solid fueled engine with uniform burn properties was key to the project's success. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory was established in the Arroyo shortly thereafter...

While Parsons as the passionate outsider driving technological advancement is in itself a compelling story, the plot twists of his personal life make it truly fascinating. As was the case for many intellectuals in the 1930's Parsons frequented communist gatherings, though he never joined the Party. His quest for alternative viewpoints led him to attend a Gnostic Mass at Hollywood's Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis, run by followers of Aleister Crowley. Parsons came to join and eventually lead the Lodge. He moved it to Pasadena, in a residence whose rooms he rented to other lodge members, including L. Ron Hubbard. The Lodge was the scene not only of many occult rituals, but also hedonistic parties involving alcohol and orgies. Hubbard would soon seduce Parson's girlfriend, convince him to invest in the new couple's sham yacht transporting business, and use those funds to found the Church of Scientology."

Mission creep always happens/continued erosion of the 4th Amendment.  'Sneak and Peek' Warrants Intended for Terrorism Mostly Used in Drug Cases - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "When the security state types pushed for passage of the Patriot Act, one of the measures on which they insisted was the inclusion of "sneak and peek" warrants. In the war against terrorism, they absolutely had to be able to go searching first, and provide notice to suspects later. Of course, it didn't take long for law enforcement to discover this security state tool and start putting it to very different use—mostly in the enforcement of drug prohibition. In fact, that's mostly how sneak and peeks are now used." 

So Much Facepalm.  You Look Too Calm. What Are You, a Terrorist? Now You Look Nervous, Terrorist. - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Look too calm, you're suspicious. Look too nervous, you're suspicious. These contradictory assumptions are just several transportation guidelines on "reporting suspicious activity," revealed by an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. They comes from an employee document for Amtrak, which is publicly funded. These are signs that you should be paranoid of your fellow Americans, and call the police on them"

 When does Amy Poehler watch porn?  Whenever she can.: "Stern asked Poehler if she’s ever watched lesbian porn, to which she replied, “Yeah. But that’s not really my thing.” Regarding her taste, she revealed, “It’s not too crazy. I like my porn like my comedy: Done by professionals, women who are at the top of their game. So, I like professional ladies who are enjoying themselves. I’m not an amateur person. I want everybody to look good and be good at their jobs.” When does she watch porn? “Whenever I can,” she joked. “Whenever I find the time.” “Oh my god! I just remembered my dad’s listening to this! Sorry, dad!” Poehler laughed. “I just called him this morning and was like, ‘I’m gonna be on Stern this morning!’ Shit! Sorry, dad! Love you, pop!”"

I'm going to be so busy the next few years.  This is Marvel's plan to compete with the upcoming DC Comics movies - Batman News:

Did Western Aid Create the Breeding Ground for Ebola? - Reason.com: "Ebola is an awful disease... Preventing its spread requires not sophisticated equipment or know-how that developing countries don't have—but quick and aggressive steps to isolate, track, and monitor patients, all of which is common knowledge in African public health circles. This is precisely what Nigerian authorities did when an infected Liberian-American man collapsed in Lagos airport. They quickly isolated him once his condition was diagnosed. They also mounted an immediate campaign to track down and monitor about 900 people who came in contact with him. They tapped staff from the country's polio-eradication program to help run an emergency operations center. Ultimately, despite its dense population, Nigeria kept its outbreak to a grand total of 19 cases with only seven casualties—a mortality rate of 37 percent. 

Liberia, however, is another story. Unlike Nigeria, Liberia's immediate reaction was not to marshal its domestic resources but to hold press conferences and appeal for international aid, points out Johannesburg-based Yale World Fellow Sisonke Msimang. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate, even penned an open letter to the "world" this week, plaintively crying that Ebola wasn't a domestic problem but a global one that "governments to international organizations, financial institutions to NGOs, politicians to ordinary people in the street in every corner of the world" had a "duty" to combat through "emergency funds, medical supplies, or clinical capacity."

But the "world" has been supplying all of this and more to Liberia in spades. Indeed, Liberia is among the largest aid recipients on the continent, with about 75 percent of its budget supplied by aid agencies. It receives $139 per capita in loans and grants, according to World Bank figures, compared with Nigeria's $11 per capita. Liberia's capital, Monrovia, where 305 new Ebola cases were reported last week alone, is practically crawling with NGOs and aid workers. More stunningly, the U.N. is already spending $500 million to maintain a peacekeeping force. "The virus has managed to escape from a country that has one of the largest concentration of 'helpers' in the world," Msimang writes. This might seem surprising, but it is actually perfectly predictable. Western aid, though aimed at helping Liberia recover from decades of brutal civil wars, has created a hopelessly dependent political class that stays in business by ignoring good governance and appealing to its Western benefactors.

Liberian authorities therefore have neither the wherewithal nor the trust of their citizens to mobilize an action plan. In fact, Monrovians in a slum initially attacked crisis responders who approached them about the disease because they believed that Ebola was a government ploy to shake down international agencies for more aid. Efforts to cordon off affected slums have resulted in deadly clashes with authorities by locals who fear that far from helping them, the government will consign them to certain death. "They were saying, in no uncertain terms, that the hand that feeds them is also the hand that pinches them," notes Msimang."

Kevin Smith Shaved His Beard, Is Unrecognizable: 

Adama gets it. 

Experts in subjective subjects aren't.

Pranksters Trick Foodies Into Praising McDonald's: "In a setup that would make Jimmy Kimmel green with envy, two Dutch pranksters visited a major culinary convention to show off their new line of delicious, organic food—actually bog standard McDonald's fare, just cut up and skewered with toothpicks. Predictably, everyone at the food expo in Houten claimed they loved the "new organic meal." The food got positive marks for its complex flavors, with eaters declaring it tastier and much better for you than Mickey D's."

Still doing it wrong, Liberia.  Gay community under attack in Liberia over Ebola outbreak | Reuters: "Leroy Ponpon doesn't know whether to lock himself in his flat in Monrovia because of the deadly Ebola virus, or because he is gay. Christian churches' recent linking of the two have made life hell for him and hundreds of other gays. Ponpon, an LGBT campaigner in the Liberian capital, says gays have been harassed, physically attacked and a few have had their cars smashed by people blaming them for the hemorrhagic fever, after religious leaders in Liberia said Ebola was a punishment from God for homosexuality."

Sexy |: "...most women also lack a fundamental understanding of the male sexual impulse. As I’ve stated in prior threads, until women are steeped in 17 times their normal testosterone levels, they will never understand the male experience with regards to sex. When a woman utters the words “I don’t understand why sex is such a big deal for guys”, she’s speaking the truth. She can’t know, but along with that comes a disconnect between her lack of understanding the male sexual impulse and her fem-centric social conditioning of what sex should be like for him. “I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing.” 

She doesn’t understand how to be sexy, but few women do because it is Men who’ve classically defined what is sexy and feminine in women. What has historically worked as sexy, and what has been historically confirmed as feminine is defined by the response and effect that particular behavior set evokes from Men. What we consider today as sexy behaviors and appearance were characteristics ‘selected-for’ that endured to become gender indicative aspects of being feminine. The inverse of this is true for women; women define what is sexy in men. The problem women have with being sexy in the last 50+ years is illustrated in Emma’s next point: “I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt. But that’s not me. I feel uncomfortable. I’d never go out in a mini-skirt. Personally, I don’t even think it’s that sexy.” On a rudimentary biological level, Emma actually does know what is sexy (i.e. what turns Men on about women), but she is “uncomfortable” in being so. 

Her refusal or discomfort in being so is where the feminine imperative picks up the banner and runs with it...  Like all contemporary women, she wants to define what sexy should be for men using metrics that she is comfortable with. The problem, as with all things fem-centric, is that this social push to redefine for men what they should find sexy slams headlong into Men’s biological imperatives...

Quite honestly I think seduction is a lost art for women... so seduction practices aren’t reinforced for her. Now add to this the feminine priority westernized culture has placed on women’s sexuality. Any woman feeling a need to be seductive for a man is cast in the role of putting his sexual value above her own. Remember, according to Cosmo and Oprah it is he who needs to be sensitive to her needs. Her sexuality is a GIFT he qualifies for, not something she should ever feel a need to sell to him by means of seduction.  Women don’t need to seduce men anymore. The feminine-priority dynamic has put a default value on women’s sexuality. Those hot enough to simply wear something revealing never need seduction, and those not hot enough can’t sell it anyway. And the girls who’re in between – the one’s who’d benefit most – are discouraged from learning seduction since it’s denigrating to women who should already be on a pedestal to begin with.  Ever since the sexual revolution there’s been less and less motivation for women to develop seduction skills. If anything there’s a resentment for ever having needed them in the past. "

The Department of Homeland Security Goes on a Panty Raid - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "In 2002, the Bush administration issued a formal proposal outlining the reasoning for the creation a new, cabinet-level bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "The changing nature of the threats facing America requires a new government structure to protect against invisible enemies that can strike with a wide variety of weapons," the proposal explained. "America needs a single, unified homeland security structure that will improve protection against today’s threats and be flexible enough to help meet the unknown threats of the future." Without DHS, America would never be safe...

Flash forward to 2014. The Department of Homeland Security has a $39 billion annual budget. It is fighting the fight against our invisible enemies, and taking on the unknown threats of the future. By confiscating baseball-themed women's underwear from enthusiastic local retailers. The Kansas City Star reports on Peregrine Honig, who created the design for "Lucky Royals" women’s boyshorts, featuring the words "take the crown" and a "KC" logo emblazoned on the rear, in honor of the Kansas City Royals baseball team making it to the World Series. Honig was going to sell the boyshorts in her store, Honig’s Birdies Panties. Then a pair of DHS agents stopped by...

She thought that since the underwear featured her hand-drawn design that she was safe. But the officers explained that by connecting the "K" and the "C," she infringed on major league baseball copyright. (The officials involved could not be immediately reached for comment.) They placed the underwear in an official Homeland Security bag and had Honig sign a statement saying she wouldn’t use the logo. Don't you feel safer now?" 

College Bro Comes Out To His Best Friend Via Text Message, Friend Reacts Like A Total Bro: 

Torture May Not Be So Bad When You're Using the Bamboo Splinters, Obama Administration Decides - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Like so many other things Barack Obama thought were so terrible about his predecessor in office—war in Iraq, executive orders, lack of transparency—he may have decided that torture isn't so bad when you're on the delivering end...

Note that the president issued an executive order in 2009 formally banning the use of torture. Then, in August, he shrugged his shoulders and admitted, "we tortured some folks" in what was taken as a suggestion that this nasty stuff was no more on his watch.  But after the State Department proposed at this half-way point through the second term of an administration nominally opposed to torture to formally repudiate the Bush administration's legal rationale for the practice, it apparently occurred to administration officials that doing so would mean they'd really have to stop. Which is awfully commitment-y for a White House that has settled so comfortably into many policies it once opposed."

"Are you saying you don't have feelings?"

Proof That Dennis Reynolds From 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' Is A Hilarious Sociopath And Sexual Predator: "The world didn’t need to go out and make a video to prove to everyone who watches It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia that the man –nay, the mastermind — who birthed the D.E.N.N.I.S. system is a sociopath and a borderline sexual predator. That being said, this makes for one hell of a highlight reel."

I take issue with "normal functioning."  Ebola is ‘devouring everything in its path.’ Could it lead to Liberia’s collapse? - The Washington Post: ""The deadly Ebola virus has caused a disruption of the normal functioning of our state.""

Religion, making everything worse since always.  Video - Ebola Epidemic Tests Faith of Liberian Church - Wsj.com: "The Ebola epidemic has sparked a crisis of faith for one Liberian church that has lost several prominent members after practicing hands-on healing."

Sleepwalking Toward Armageddon : Sam Harris: "President Obama delivered the following rebuke (using an alternate name for ISIS): ISIL speaks for no religion… and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day.

...As an atheist, I cannot help wondering when this scrim of pretense and delusion will be finally burned away—either by the clear light of reason or by a surfeit of horror meted out to innocents by the parties of God. Which will come first, flying cars and vacations to Mars, or a simple acknowledgment that beliefs guide behavior and that certain religious ideas—jihad, martyrdom, blasphemy, apostasy—reliably lead to oppression and murder? It may be true that no faith teaches people to massacre innocents exactly—but innocence, as the President surely knows, is in the eye of the beholder. Are apostates “innocent”? Blasphemers? Polytheists? Islam has the answer, and the answer is “no.”

...No doubt many enlightened concerns will come flooding into the reader’s mind at this point. I would not want to create the impression that most Muslims support ISIS, nor would I want to give any shelter or inspiration to the hatred of Muslims as people. In drawing a connection between the doctrine of Islam and jihadist violence, I am talking about ideas and their consequences, not about 1.5 billion nominal Muslims, many of whom do not take their religion very seriously...

But a belief in martyrdom, a hatred of infidels, and a commitment to violent jihad are not fringe phenomena in the Muslim world. These preoccupations are supported by the Koran and numerous hadith. That is why the popular Saudi cleric Mohammad Al-Areefi sounds like the ISIS army chaplain. The man has 9.5 million followers on Twitter (twice as many as Pope Francis has). If you can find an important distinction between the faith he preaches and that which motivates the savagery of ISIS, you should probably consult a neurologist...

The reality of martyrdom and the sanctity of armed jihad are about as controversial under Islam as the resurrection of Jesus is under Christianity.

...experts claim that one can’t take Islamists and jihadists at their word: Their incessant declarations about God, paradise, martyrdom, and the evils of apostasy are nothing more than a mask concealing their real motivations. What are their real motivations? Insert here the most abject hopes and projections of secular liberalism: How would you feel if Western imperialists and their mapmakers had divided your lands, stolen your oil, and humiliated your proud culture? Devout Muslims merely want what everyone wants—political and economic security, a piece of land to call home, good schools for their children, a little leisure to enjoy the company of friends. Unfortunately, most of my fellow liberals appear to believe this. 

In fact, to not accept this obscurantism as a deep insight into human nature and immediately avert one’s eyes from the teachings of Islam is considered a form of bigotry. In any conversation on this topic, one must continually deploy a firewall of caveats and concessions to irrelevancy: Of course, U.S. foreign policy has problems. Yes, we really must get off oil. No, I did not support the war in Iraq. Sure, I’ve read Chomsky. No doubt, the Bible contains equally terrible passages. Yes, I heard about that abortion clinic bombing in 1984. No, I’m sorry to say that Hitler and Stalin were not motivated by atheism. The Tamil Tigers? Of course, I’ve heard of them. Now can we honestly talk about the link between belief and behavior?

...Yes, many Muslims happily ignore the apostasy and blasphemy of their neighbors, view women as the moral equals of men, and consider anti-Semitism contemptible. But there are also Muslims who drink alcohol and eat bacon. All of these persuasions run counter to the explicit teachings of Islam to one or another degree. And just like moderates in every other religion, most moderate Muslims become obscurantists when defending their faith from criticism. They rely on modern, secular values—for instance, tolerance of diversity and respect for human rights—as a basis for reinterpreting and ignoring the most despicable parts of their holy books. But they nevertheless demand that we respect the idea of revelation, and this leaves us perpetually vulnerable to more literal readings of scripture...

The idea that any book was inspired by the creator of the universe is poison—intellectually, ethically, and politically...

Among all the harms caused by religion at this point in history, this is perhaps the most subtle:  Even when it appears beneficial—inspiring people to gather in beautiful buildings to contemplate the mystery existence and their ethical commitments to one another—religion conveys the message that there is no intellectually defensible and nonsectarian way to do this. But there is. We can build strong communities and enjoy deeply moral and spiritual lives, without believing any divisive nonsense about the divine origin of specific books."

12 Ways Bob Ross Improved Your Childhood: 

Well played.

Classic/Always Funny/Forever ReBlog. 

 

 

Oh, Feynman.  Richard Feynman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, he gives advice on the best way to pick up a girl in a hostess bar. At Caltech, he used a nude or topless bar as an office away from his usual office, making sketches or writing physics equations on paper placemats. When the county officials tried to close the place, all visitors except Feynman refused to testify in favor of the bar, fearing that their families or patrons would learn about their visits. Only Feynman accepted, and in court, he affirmed that the bar was a public need, stating that craftsmen, technicians, engineers, common workers, "and a physics professor" frequented the establishment. While the bar lost the court case, it was allowed to remain open as a similar case was pending appeal." 

This is excellent.  Joe Rogan Experience #469 - Dr. Carl Hart - YouTube: "Carl Hart is an associate professor of psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University. He is known for his research in drug abuse and drug addiction. Hart was the first tenured African American professor of sciences at Columbia University."

What is reality?

Response to Michael Pollan | Terry Wahls MD | Defeating Progressive MS | Terry Wahls MD | Defeating Progressive Multiple Sclerosis without Drugs | MS Recovery | Food As Medicine: "...all these diets have some commonalities, and this is the notion which the modern Paleo diet works with. Traditional diets are all packed with many more vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids because they rely on natural whole foods. The typical westernized diet is filled with processed foods, like white flour, high fructose corn syrup, and other refined sugars. It contains minimal vegetables and fruits, as well as far fewer vitamins and minerals in comparison 1-5. It is not a “natural diet” because most of the foods in it have been processed and are no longer in whole-food form. Many critics of Paleo-style diets miss this point. Modern Paleo diets are not meant to replicate ancient diets. They are meant to emulate ancient diets, and this is a critical difference—it is what takes the Paleo diet from the realm of theory into a practice in reality.  The Paleo diet emulates as closely as possible in our contemporary world the foodstuffs and manner of eating practiced by our Paleolithic ancestors, and this in itself, apart from quibbling about how accurate it may or may not be, is a great improvement over what most people are doing now. Accuracy is not the point. Health is the point.

...another common criticism is that people didn’t live very long in the Paleolithic era. This is also true, but shortened lifespans of our ancient ancestors had nothing to do with their diets. In the Paleolithic era, the mean age of death was somewhere in the mid-30s, but this is because there was a 38% to 45% mortality rate for those under the age of 15. Those who survived childhood actually did quite well. Gurven and Kaplan studied this question extensively and published their findings in 2007. The results might surprise you. Hunter-gathers historically (and now in the current hunter-gatherer societies that have not yet adopted western lifestyles) often lived past 60 years of age6. These people were and are physically and mentally fit without medication, and many thrive into their 70s and even 80s. The transition from hunter-gatherer societies was associated with loss of height, increased risk for degenerative arthritis of the spine, and tuberculosis. Fertility increased, leading to an increase in population, but it was a less healthy one..."

Chris Pratt, still winning everything.

“Fantasy is sometimes dismissed as childish, or escapist, but I take what I am doing very, very seriously. For me fantasy isn’t about escaping from reality, it’s about re-encountering the challenges of the real world, but externalized and transformed." - Lev Grossman

Weekend Link Love – Edition 309 | Mark's Daily Apple: "Antiperspirants change your pit flora and probably make you smell even worse. Also, go ahead and avoid antibacterial soaps while you’re at it. They cross the placenta, show up in fetal blood, produce antibiotic resistant bacteria, and just make things worse overall."

'Text Neck’ Epidemic Stems from Hunching Over Devices : Discovery News: "The way we text and use technology is having a negative effect on our health, warn experts. “The problem is the posture,” Dr. Dean Fishman, a chiropractic physician who created and trademarked the phrase “text neck,” told FoxNews.com. The Plantation, Florida-based doctor believes text neck is a global epidemic that is literally changing the way our bodies should grow. Fishman says the phenomenon is most apparent in X-ray images. In patients who suffer from "text neck," the first few bones of the cervical spine perch forward. This would be considered abnormal, according to Fishman, noting that neck pain, headaches, arm and shoulder pain and arthritis are all side effects of text neck...

Anything that puts you in that posture, whether it’s reading, typing, or texting -- everything on your backside is getting stretched out. Over time, the ligaments get weak. This leads to bulging discs, nerve compression, burning and tingling down the arms,” said Sparkville, Mississippi-based physical therapist Dr. Brian Kirby...

Fishman adds that it’s not just a texting problem. “This is also a gaming issue. Fifty-two percent of kids from 0 to 8 years old spend about 43 minutes a day on these mobile devices that mimic our cell phones. And that equates to five extra hours a week in this ‘text neck’ posture putting pressure on back of the head and neck.”"

Why Liberia can't have nice things.  Ebola facility in Liberia attacked, police say - CNN.com: "Ebola patients fled during an attack at a health care facility in Monrovia, Liberia, on Saturday, said Liberian National Police spokesman Sam Collins told CNN Sunday. All patients who ran away had Ebola, and some chose to stay at the facility, Collins said. The assailants stole mattresses and equipment, he said, adding that no one was injured in the incident and the attackers "were not trying to free the patients." The assailants were using weapons but not wielding guns, according to Collins. "It was an attack from people afraid of Ebola," Collins told CNN. "Everybody is afraid.""