Mark H

"A recent survey by the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics finds that over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA,” about the same number as support mandatory labeling of GMO foods “produced with genetic engineering.”" - Mark H

Murica. :( - Jenny H.

My parents bought a set of encyclopedias when I was born - the Merit Students Encyclopedia - and I have strong memories of using them extensively growing up to simply learn things, read for the sake of reading, or helping with schoolwork. I'm pretty certain with hindsight that because they were an American publication they were not on the radar of most of my teachers which is why a lot of my homework that copied whole sections was marked highly. - Mark H

My mum and dad also bought a book of 365 stories/poems to read at night. I can remember seeing my mum or dad reading to me from the book for a few years in a row and I can remember the book itself - a large, thick book with a pale purple, textured cover - but I can't remember any of the stories. - Mark H

I'm finding lately, I have to use social media to remember important dates. I definitely remember almost anything before 2007, but after that it's almost mush. - Anika

"The party was founded by retired businessman Mike Buchanan, who told BuzzFeed News it’s his party’s ultimate aim to “make feminism a dirty word”. Buchanan used to work as a business consultant for the Conservative party, but quit in 2009 when David Cameron backed all-women parliamentary candidate shortlists. He has since dedicated his life to anti-feminism, writing three books, Feminism: The Ugly Truth, The Glass Ceiling Delusion, and David Cameron – The Heir to Harman?" - Mark H

Anti-feminism as a political stance? Maybe Monty Python is still active: This sounds like something from the Ministry of Silly Walks. Now, if only Great Britain had ever had a right-wing woman as a leader...oh, wait... - walt crawford

"I am Abubakar Shekau and I am the one who canceled dancing, along with everything else, in your town. We have fired rocket grenades into your general stores, we have burned your empty dancing factories, machine gunned your pets, torn your drapes, bayoneted your giclee prints, smashed your TVs and we have annihilated the house of lies you call a high school. Your sons have been machine gunned. Your husbands have been machine gunned. Wives also machine gunned. Some daughters have been sold into sex slavery of the least enjoyable form and the rest have been scheduled for machine gunning." - Mark H

"The Bombay High Court has refused to grant divorce on the ground of cruelty to a man who alleged his wife often went to pubs leaving their child in the care of domestic help and also often insulted him and his parents." - Mark H

""In our view, the Family Court has appreciated the evidence and come to justifiable findings that the appellant (husband) has failed to prove that the respondent (wife) has treated him with cruelty," the Bench said, while hearing an appeal filed by the man. The instances of cruelty cited by the husband were rude behaviour by his wife, excessive socialising, going to pubs and discos, neglecting their child, hitting him with a vase, hurling hot cup of tea, making false accusations and throwing tantrums during their honeymoon. "As far as visits to discos and pubs is concerned, it has come in the cross-examination that they both visited pubs and discos even during the period of courtship. We are of the view that evidence does not reveal the respondent has treated the appellant with cruelty. At the best it establishes inappropriate and intemperate behaviour that is not expected in matrimonial relationship," the Bench noted." - Mark H

"NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced today that the league’s divisional round playoff games will not look nearly as pre-determined as last week’s wildcard round games did, most notably the Cowboys-Lions match-up." - Mark H

"Dean Blandino, the NFL’s director of officiating, said he has been working all week with the crews working this week’s games to make sure their game-changing calls are made “more in the flow of the game.” “I don’t want anyone just overturning calls with zero explanation this week,” said Blandino. “To the untrained eye, this weekend’s playoff games will appear to be above board. That is our promise to NFL fans: We will strive to make sure that the NFL seems good and pure to our fans, no matter how bad and rotten it is at its core.”" - Mark H

"In unrelated news, the league also announced the songs that Katy Perry will sing during next month’s Patriots-Cowboys Super Bowl." - Mark H

"“We should closely examine the situation in which we are in. It does not make sense that the thought we sanctify pushes this entire nation to become a source of apprehension, danger, murder and destruction in the entire world,” Sisi said in a Thursday speech before Egypt’s top religious leaders on the occasion of the Birth of Prophet Mohamed." - Mark H

"“I am not saying the religion. I am saying this thought that has been sanctified; texts and thoughts that have been sanctified for hundreds of years. And disagreeing with [these texts and thoughts] has become very difficult. To the extent that [this thought] makes an enemy of the whole world,” Sisi added. [...] Al-Azhar’s newly formed Monitor of Infedilizing Fatwas Dept., which responds to radical Islamists’ fatwas labeling other Muslims apostates, has already issued many articles slamming the “extremist opinions” of “non-specialized” sheikhs that receive the attention of a segment of Muslims. “You cannot feel what [this thought] is when you are inside it. You have to get out of it, inspect it, and read it with a real enlightened thought. You need to take a strong stance. I am reiterating, we need a religious revolution,” Sisi said in his speech." - Mark H

Positive moves in Egypt; good to see and interesting to see where it leads. - Mark H

Happy New Year Mark H. - Mike Nencetti

Happy New Year, Mark! - Anne Bouey

"How about some truly amazing pictures of bookshelves? What follows are ten of our favourite pictures of the beautiful interiors of libraries from around the world." - Mark H

wow - Heleninstitches #teamff

Oh, wow, that's gorgeous. My grandmother used to do pictures like that, and the amount of time (and skill!) needed is just staggering. - Jennifer Dittrich

I zoomed in so I could see it better, then I thought I had zoomed in too much because it was all pixilated. Then I realized the pixels were the stitches. EDIT: Wow. That's a lot of stitches. - bentley

"A Soyuz 2-1B rocket was rolled to the launch pad at Site 31/6 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday in preparation for the final launch of the Soyuz workhorse in 2014 which will be the 22nd launch of the Soyuz rocket family this year - remaining the most flown launch vehicle across the globe followed by the Chinese Long March family, and the Atlas V and Proton launchers." - Mark H

Live launch in about half an hour: http://www.spaceflight101live.com/soyuz-2... - Mark H

"Now, you might be wondering: Do Scientologists celebrate Christmas? Of course they do, silly-billy! According to this website, "Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard honored the great religious leaders of the past for the wisdom they brought to the world, writing that Scientology shares 'the goals set for Man by Christ, which are wisdom, good health and immortality.' It is in this spirit that Scientologists celebrate the holiday season, whether Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, or any other religious or cultural tradition."" - Mark H

Heavy handed hate doesn't ring as funny, nor as effective, as it could without so much vitriol. - Michael W. May

The $400 discman is by far the best buy in that catalog. - Eivind

... - WoH: Professor MOTHRA

"Working as a taxi driver for 4 years gave me a great insight into the people and community of Neath. Thousands of people travelled in the small transient space of the taxi, and each journey had it's own unique interaction and narrative." - Mark H

"I wanted to document the lottery of people that occupied the taxi space, and the experiences that taxi driving gave me. Whether it be rushing a pregnant woman to hospital or being regaled stories of World War II by an elderly passenger, the taxi provided a space to meet, converse with, and learn from people." - Mark H

"The array of people that journeyed in the taxi were diverse. The shop and call centre workers, tradesmen, policemen, pensioners, prostitutes and lawyers, the publican, millionaire, undertaker and pauper, the school teacher, drug dealer, drunkard and postman - the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the sober and the high. The taxi passengers represented a small cross-section of society, and these photographs hope to visually document a slice of Welsh culture from 2010." - Mark H

And that's why I'm never going to that pub again. - Mark H

We're bringing along two bottles of strawberry wine as we altered the sugar/water mix slightly in one of the two demijohns we've had going and it's produced two subtly different types. These we're calling Slightly Cloudy and Clearing Up; weather-related names based on their appearance in the glass. It would be fair to say both wines have one hell of a kick to them. We've never gone in for all that "measuring the alcohol content" malarkey, instead relying on how much it clings to the glass and how much it warms the brain to guesstimate. We're guesstimating it's pretty pokey. - Mark H

Other drinks that turned up were a rhubarb vodka, a lemon/ginger vodka, chilli vodka, a "port" made from blackberry, elderberry, sloe, and banana, some sloe gin, and chocolate beer. Felt surprisingly okay when I woke up but the hangover has started to claw its way into my skull as the day's wore on. It was such a clear night that we also got to see meteors both on the walk to and from the do which was a pleasant bonus. - Mark H

I bought a 1960s-published book in a charity shop showcasing photography of Virginia by A. Aubrey Bodine which might be of some interest to anyone from around that area of the world. The book itself isn't just a great collection of imagery but a fantastic source of historical information and it's fascinating to also see the things that have changed since its publication. - Mark H

I grew up on Bodine's photos of Baltimore and Yardley's cartoons. - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

"In nutshell, for rape cases afflicted segregation of 4th house is for distorted… self – fidelity… 7th… is for conjugal fidelity disrupted in equality and legality. 8th is seen for conjugal relation in inequality with force or forgery and intrusion,and lastly 12th house is seen for conjugal relationship with illegality and unsocial i.e. bed pleasure is shared with others… Moreover, weak Venus or its affliction in addition to this… prove fatal in female horoscopy for rape and sexual abuse…" - Mark H

"[W]hen we see any house wife or daughter is rape prone we have to see the 4th house at first… 8th house females suffers sex relationship based on inequality and intrusion… male violence to 8th or its lord is very important to signify the rape prone chart…" - Mark H