Madness, Murder and Castration: The Crazy Origins of Your Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary was crowdsourced from a paranoid, schizophrenic doctor

Andy Warner in The Nib 

If you really want to know the whole story, click here.

Stand Proud NRA

America Has Highest Gun Deaths Of 27 Developed Countries

By Leslie Salzillo

In the wake of last weekend’s, 2014 NRA/NRAAM Annual Meetings and Exhibits , I came across a study conducted eight months ago by two New York City cardiologists. 

Their research discovered there are more guns and gun deaths in the United States, than in 27 other developed countries. Dr. Sripal Bangalore and Dr. Franz Messerli claimed they conducted the study to see which side of the gun debate was stating facts (biting my tongue):

“I think we need more of what I would call evidence-based discussion and not merely people pulling things out of their hats,” Bangalore said. “We hear time and time again about these shootings, especially in the last year or so. A lot of claims are made…so we wanted to look at the data and see if any of this holds water.”

They gathered their information from World Health Organization (a fascinating interactive site) and Small Arms Survey.

This Voting Measure Has Got to Go

The biological need to pee just trumped the political right to vote in the Sunshine State.

By Jim Hightower

No one can deny that voting is a civic duty, right?

Well that depends on who you are. The reality is that many powerful people don’t want certain folks to vote. They go to extremes to discourage those folks from voting and even harass them to keep away from the polls.

In 2012, Florida’s highest officials disgraced their offices by engaging in this thuggish electoral thievery. Republican Gov. Rick Scott and his party’s legislative henchmen officially rammed voter suppression into law, targeting Latino, African-American, student, elderly, and other voters likely to favor candidates running on the Democratic Party’s ticket.

Florida officials are making such people use broken-down voting machines and purging them from voter rolls. Many folks in Democratic-leaning precincts faced procedural chaos and up to six-hour waits. That rigmarole deterred at least 200,000 Floridians from casting their ballots.

But now this discouragement has hit a new low.

Companion animal of the week

Meet Reilly!

By the Animal Rescue League of South County

Hi, my name is Reilly!  I am a handsome relaxed cat who loves to get comfy and enjoy the day.  

A little secret about me is that I love a good meal and it sure would be nice to enjoy a meal in my forever home.  

I can be your best friend when you need one and we all know we can never have enough friends.  

I am ready to find a place to call home and I am hoping you can give a low maintenance cat such as myself a chance, you won't regret it, I promise!

Charlestown's "Local Catch" among the winners

$210K Awarded to Grow Local Food System

By ecoRI News staff

The Local Catch of Charlestown won a $7,500
grant from RIDEM

PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) recently awarded a total of $210,030 in grant money to 17 Local Agriculture and Seafood Act (LASA) recipients. The program reviewed 92 applications for this first year of funding, totaling $1,474,822 in requested funds.

“Rhode Islanders are eager to grow, eat and promote local food. The Local Agriculture and Seafood grants program is focused on supporting the growth of our local food sector to meet the growing demand of consumers,” said DEM director Janet Coit, who recognized the winners at the annual Rhode Island Agriculture Day program at the Statehouse on May 1.

The LASA of 2012 established a grants program within DEM’s Division of Agriculture to support the growth and marketing of local food and seafood. The program was made possible by a public-private partnership with $100,000 in funding from the state of Rhode Island and $210,000 in funds from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, the Henry P. Kendall Foundation and the Rhode Island Foundation.

Here is the list of the LASA recipients:

Lucky Duck wins again

State of Denial

By Ruben Bolling

Click here to see how Lucky Duck gets all the breaks.

Are you ready? Probably not.

Engineering Away Consumer and States Rights

A new bill would block efforts to mandate the labeling of genetically engineered foods.

By Jim Hightower

In 79 A.D., a volcanic eruption buried Pompeii in ash. Nearly 2,000 years later, an eruption of hot legislative ash is spewing from Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) is threatening U.S. consumers.

Pompeo is the right-wing Congress critter from the Ideological Republic of Kochistan. A businessman firmly woven into the Koch Industries fold, this Republican from Wichita, Kansas, became the billionaire brothers’ personal congressman in 2010, when their money squeegeed him into a House seat.

A former Koch Industries lawyer was dispatched to run his office, and the Kansas Republican dutifully mouths the company line in Washington.

How to get people to buy green

Unleashing the inner green consumer

From: Click Green Staff, ClickGreen, More from this Affiliate 

Academics have uncovered a key influence in the consumer's decision to go green, whether it's recycling, composting or buying environmentally friendly products. Research from Concordia University's John Molson School of business, proves that even just asking ourselves, or predicting, whether we will engage in sustainable shopping behavior can increase the likelihood of following through — especially when there's an audience.

Lead author, marketing professor Onur Bodur explains that, "this is because asking people to predict whether they will undertake a certain behavior increases their probability of actually doing so. It's what's called the 'self-prophecy effect.' Our research shows that that effect is even stronger for a person who defines him or herself by social ties and peer opinions." 

Uh, oh, allergy sufferers...

Charter School segregation in Connecticut

Wendy Lecker: Why So Many Segregated Charter Schools in Connecticut?

By Diane Ravitch

Civil rights attorney Wendy Lecker calls out the charter sector of Connecticut for its unabashed practice of racial segregation.

A new report from Connecticut Voices for Children finds that charter schools are hyper segregated and that they exclude children with disabilities and English language learners.

Don’t expect the State Commissioner of Connecticut to care: he was co-founder of one of the state’s most segregated charter chains.

GRAPHIC: How capitalism works

Meanwhile, the War on Tobacco Limps Ahead

Nicotine is a legal and addictive drug.

By William A. Collins

Smoking isn’t in the news much these days, but maybe it should be. Nearly half a million Americans still die from it each year. As the leading preventable cause of death in our country, tobacco kills way more people than guns, car accidents, and drug overdoses combined.

And sure, smoking is gradually declining, but powerful players are fighting mightily to sustain its deadly impact on the world.

Voodoo and glucose monitoring

The usefulness of voodoo dolls in studying blood sugar and aggession

By Marc Abrahams in Improbable Research

The Associated Press tells of the new study by Ig Nobel Prize (for the study “‘Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder’: People who think they are drunk also think they are attractive“) winner Brad Bushman and colleagues:

The researchers studied 107 married couples for three weeks. Each night, they measured their levels of the blood sugar glucose and asked each participant to stick pins in a voodoo doll representing his or her spouse. That indicated levels of aggression.

Have a good one!

At least one day of reason per year would be very nice, I think