Blah, blah, blah

Two researchers from the University of Cambridge studied the testosterone and cortisol levels of 17 men trading on the London stock exchange. The findings? High levels of testosterone are associated with risky decisions and higher earnings. Cortisol with stress, caution and loss.

Of course, all traders are men. And of course, that means they’re controlled by testosterone. And thus, the market is controlled by testosterone.

The researchers found that the economy’s “bubbles and crashes are coming from these steroids.”

So it was testosterone that led many of these men to a house-load of money from the housing market crash that cost many people their homes.

The researchers suppose, “If more women and older men were trading, the markets would be more stable.”

Gee thanks. I love it when science uses a social characteristic to understand a biological concept that then is used to explain that very social characteristic.

Men are aggressive and testosterone is the “male” hormone, so testosterone causes aggression. If testosterone causes aggression, men are aggressive because of testosterone.

It’s circular, just like balls, that’s where testosterone comes from, so these men scientists use circular reasoning because they’re dicks!

“I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this [climate change] problem,” Barack Obama said today. [CNN Political Ticker]

I wonder if he’d ask Gore to head the EPA. Wouldn’t that be a major change for environmental health?

This latest information from CNN adopts a slightly different tone from MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann’s ramble a few nights ago. The credulous Olbermann spent considerable time supposing a Gore victory in the democratic primary — as if it were in any way acceptable for delegates to throw away popular opinion and vote for someone who is not even running for office.

“If it goes into the convention,” said Representative Tim Mahoney (D-FL) last week, “don’t be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket.” [The Daily Mail]

“What? Does Olbermann smoke crack?” In the words of my friend, “Not a single democrat would be happy about that.”

During the San Francisco antiwar protests on March 19, a security officer outside of a closed Bank of America branch flicked off a protester for taking photographs. The bank was closed because of the protests that marked the five year anniversary of the Iraq War.

I love it. The state protecting capitalism reduced to using the finger against resistance.

from Toronto, Canada

Naked dude running on public streets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

A doctor saw Andrew Croulet, 27, of Brookline, PA running on snowing streets outside his home. He called 911 and offered Croulet his sweater. Officials say he was under the influence of some substance. He got hypothermia and faces charges of disorderly conduct, public lewdness, and resisting arrest.

Naked dude on store rampage in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Nicholas Hadzick, 28, of Freeland, PA (closer to Pittsburgh) got drunk and naked and went on a rampage. He drove a fork lift into a wall of the resort where he was staying. Then he went across the street to the store in the video to do an additional $40,000 worth of damage.

They looked like the same guy to me, but they’re different people. What’s up with white men getting naked during winter in the Pennsylvania?

“We need a cleaning in the white house. And we need a woman to clean it up.”

“We don’t need no bling. We have the real thing.”

Once again, Clinton supporters are not helping.

The future–meaning the past–of border control is being dug in Yuma, Arizona. Part of a greater Medieval revival in the US (torture, church & state, oligarchy), the city is borrowing from 14th century Europe in attempt to deter immigration through increased risk of death by drowning.

“The moats that I’ve seen circled the castle and allowed you to protect yourself, and that’s kind of what we’re looking at here,” Yuma county sheriff Ralph Ogden told the Associated Press.

The city is building a “security channel” along the border by replenishing a two-mile stretch of the Colorado river. The excavated soil would form two 15-foot high walls on both sides of the 400-foot wide area.

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i knew creator of facebook was wealthy, but i didn’t realize that he’s the world’s youngest billionaire. Of the six billionaires under 30, he’s the only one who is self-made.

harpers

From the suppliers of Wal-Mart’s Sams Club soda, comes the first bottled water specifically for dogs. Cott Corp. has introduced FortiFido, which comes in four different flavors–peanut butter, parsley, spearmint, and lemongrass. One and two liter bottles go for $1.39 and $2.29.

Cott Corp. must be really hurting after Wal-Mart cut back on its purchases. Their stock is at a nine-year low., but this new product wont help. Dog water is really a specialized product with a narrow market. And it’s stupid.
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Hillary Clinton attacked Barack Obama for borrowing from Deval Patrick’s speeches. She said, “If you look at the youtube of these videos, it does raise questions.” Oh, those definitive articles. How they make old people sound silly.

And now Obama’s even backtracking on his “I’ll meet with any world leader without preconditions” position, which was supposed to be one of the main differences between him and Clinton. Now it’s “I’ll meet with any world leader but first…”

Now he and Clinton have the same position. He’s compromised too many key issues in order to seem moderate: healthcare, palestine, and now diplomacy. But he still has the best position on immigration, even though he wont pull the majority of Latin@ voters.

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Does this validate or ameliorate K-dog’s UFO siting?

To add critique would be too excessive for something which speaks so clearly for itself.

But really, how is that not satire? “You don’t have to be ugly in heaven.” HA. All that false earnestness = hilarious!

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“Tanzanian women wear outfits bearing the image of U.S. President George W. Bush during his arrival ceremony at the State House in Dar es Salaam February 17, 2008.”

what would triumph say?

Hillary Clinton launched an all out negative ad in Wisconsin against Obama–a declaration of war to take back the lead (she only plays nice when she’s winning):

Obama responded, “I understand Senator Clinton periodically [pauses] when she is feeling down [pauses] launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal. But I think this kind of gamesmanship is not what the American people are looking for.”

Did Obama really just go there? Is Obama claiming that Clinton is PMSing? Oh no, he didn’t. Strategic word play, and Obama is an amazing orator. I have no doubt that it is intentional.

Hillary Clinton supporters have highlighted Clinton’s missing youth vote in this video endorsing her candidacy:

CubbyChaser on the Indecision 2008 blog points out the video’s key advantage over Obama’s popular “Yes, We Can” video: it “illuminat[es] what would happen if the Jackson 5 and a late-stage Alzheimer’s patient collaborated on a campaign song for your candidate.”

mike huckabee wants to “abolish the IRS”–but how will republicans (and democrats) fund their wars without taxes?

He makes this proclamation on his campaign ad. Is he stretching to get some support? He’s pretty much out of the race now, so he can say whatever he wants?

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“Evangelical donations to Israel are disturbing.” From Haartz

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein efforts have contributed to the increased donations from US conservative Christians. He founded International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), which now boasts a $74 million budget to support Israel and Jewish immigration to Israel.

Evangelicals support Israel because they believe that the second coming of jesus cannot happen without a Jewish state. Despite all the propaganda about Israel in media, the influential televangelist Pat Robertson admitted, “[M]ere political rhetoric does not account for the profound devotion to Israel that exists in the hearts of tens of millions of evangelical Christians.”

Robertson said, “We believe that the emergence of a Jewish state in the land promised by God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was ordained by God.”

Not every Israeli is comfortable with their donations:

Yet I find the idea of evangelicals donating large sums of money to Israel disturbing, both because of their belief in the “Second Coming” and because of their stated mission: “We know that we must wait for God to bring about the fullness of the kingdom at Christ’s return.”

Why exactly would that be disturbing?
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Fox News just interviewed a senator from South Carolina about Codepink’s recent success at a marine recruiting center in Berkeley, CA. The City Council recommended that the recruiting center leave and they allowed codepink to protest and operate a loud speaker from a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station.

Fox News and Senator DeMented (SC-R) said CodePink and the City Council were not only disrespecting the military (by allowing freedom of speech) but also promoting “the homosexual agenda” (by not supporting the war). Senator Demented said he was working to take away federal funding from the city as punishment for acting on “special interests.”

It’s as though Fox and DeMented just threw together everything neocons hate in attempt to demean the action. It’s all non sequitur, and of course, they didn’t interview City Council officials or Codepink members.

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Come on. Clinton may have clapped at Bush’s assessment of the surge, but McCain was the one who pushed Bush to deploy the surge that Clinton was applauding.

Edwards called the troop surge in Iraq, “The McCain Doctrine.”

This wasn’t an endorsement of Clinton, but of Romney.
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From the people who brought you the Creation Museum comes the thrilling new online journal, Answers Research Journal–your news source for “cutting edge creation research.”

The Creation Museum
An exhibit at the Creation Museum juxtaposes two animals–dinosaurs and humans–that are separated by almost 65 million years of evolution. Approximately 65 millions years elapsed between the death of the last dinosaur and the birth of the first human. No, they did not coexist.

These people believe that the Earth is 6000 years old. Yep. Just 6000. But the journal must be valid because its peer-reviewed. …
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I wish my laptop would go on a diet.

They took it a bit too far at the end.

as we were coming home a few minutes ago, i flicked off the capitol building as an acknowledgment of the state of the union address.

and now i wonder if i should hesitate before expressing myself in the future. haven’t we all been known to grumble obscenities at the president under our breath? apparently, it’s an arrestable offense:

today at 2pm a man was arrested on penn. ave for “uttering threats against the president.” supposedly, he also had a suspicious package with him, but that was later deemed not dangerous. It kind of looks like his suitcase to me:

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Things I like:

• Marijuana vending machines in the US

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Bush is trying to sneak a bill through congress that would pardon himself for war crimes committed against detainees (torture and treatment). Such crimes are possibly punishable by death.

Mike wonders if we should support Hillary Clinton because she is the only candidate who would execute Bush–in order to prove her masculinity as President.

Mitt Romney celebrates MLK day by briefly posing with black people and asking, “Who let the dogs out?”

The song, by the way, is a best selling single by the Baha Men from 2000. Romney is probably familiar with it from the Rugrats.

Does it make it all the more bizarre? Mike explains to me, “He was trying to relate to black people.”

The new anti-choice movement attempts to revive an earlier time when men made all the decisions for women:

“As a sidewalk counselor, I wait outside abortion clinics until the men come out to use their cellphones. I tell them I’m not there to judge them. I’m there to help,” said Valentine, 20, one of about 800 participants in the District yesterday for the annual conference of Students for Life of America. “Sometimes they break down and cry and go back and bring out their girlfriends to reconsider.”

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NYT: “Generation Me vs. You Revisited”

A study released last year by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press dubbed Americans age 18 to 25 as the “Look at Me” generation and reported that this group said that their top goals were fortune and fame.

“There’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Kali H. Trzesniewski, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario. Ms. Trzesniewski, along with colleagues at the University of California, Davis, and Michigan State University, will publish research in the journal Psychological Science next month showing there have been very few changes in the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of youth over the last 30 years.