Couple Finally Reveals Child’s Gender, Five Years After Birth | Parenting – Yahoo! Shine.
For years, Becks has been referring to her child, the youngest of three, as “the infant” on her personal blog. But guarding the public from her son’s gender was only part of her quest to let her kid just be a kid.
Sasha dresses in clothes he likes — be it a hand-me-downs from his sister or his brother. The big no-no’s are hyper-masculine outfits like skull-print shirts and cargo pants.
As early as last July, he added, a poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers revealed something pleasantly surprising: “When asked specifically which they would be more likely to support, a candidate who supports ethanol subsidies because they are important to the Iowa economy, or a candidate who opposes them because they want to get spending under control, caucus goers prefer the candidate who opposes ethanol subsidies by a margin of 56 percent to 31 percent.”
Controversial Marine Tiltrotor Fights Its First Gun Battle | Danger Room | Wired.com.
Landing near the embattled Marine infantry, the V-22 immediately came under fire — a terrifying prospect for an aircraft with very little armor. …
The V-22 couldn’t really fire back on its own: It had just a single machine gun (either a .50-caliber or .30-caliber model) fitted to the rear ramp, covering an approximately 120-degree arc behind the aircraft — an arc that, at the moment, was blocked by Marines rushing to and from the cabin. …
Before the June battle, Tiltrotor Squadron 264 had specialized in “night inserts,” speeding small groups of Marines deep into Taliban territory under the cover of darkness.
The Osprey accomplished these missions despite an accident rate several times higher than the Marines will admit, and despite engines that wear out faster than expected, resulting in a recent 60 percent increase in maintenance costs. For all the Osprey’s faults, the Corps loves the ungainly bird — so much so it wants to spend at least $8 billion on another 120 of them from manufacturers Bell and Boeing.
I suspect that the next batch of V-22s won’t be accident prone, nor will the engines wear out as fast. That’s the benefit of field experience.
» In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011 – Big Government.
Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.
Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts – Yahoo! News.
At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn’t afford, especially toys and children’s clothes set aside by impoverished parents.
Why the Proposed Car Cellphone Ban Is Wrong – Popular Mechanics.
The fact is, drivers function despite all sorts of distractions: car radios, passengers, weather, roadside signs, intentionally distracting highway billboards, erratic behavior from other drivers, and so on. Learning to focus on the task at hand despite all that noise is an important part of learning to drive, and if we’re hiring school-bus drivers who have trouble paying attention to the road and maintaining proper following distances, we’ve got bigger problems than those posed by the proliferation of gadgets.
Christmas at the Obama White House is a highly-decorated affair. by Andrew Malcolm – Investors.com.
“We have 37 Christmas trees here at the White House–37!” Michelle Obama excitedly told a recent group of visitors. “That’s a lot, right? Yes, that’s a lot of trees. And we also have a 400-pound White House gingerbread house.”
Virtually every room has also been decorated for the holidays with some kind of a replica of the Obamas’ dog, Bo, who’s being made into a kind of first family Christmas canine symbol.
The Bo’s are made of all sorts of materials and come in all sizes. There are Bo’s made of pom-poms (750 of them), Bo’s made from about 2,000 pieces of licorice, Bo’s made from some 35 yards of wool felt and Bo’s made from nearly 7,000 feet of plastic trash bags. There’s even a nine-inch Bo made from hundreds of buttons.
Climategate 2 Emails Loaded with Bombshells | Heartlander Magazine.
… the Climategate 2 emails show scientists at the forefront of global warming activism acknowledging serious flaws in alarmist global warming theory, working together to hide data contradicting alarmist global warming theory, and taking concerted and nefarious action to ruin the careers of scientists and peer-reviewed science journal editors who publish studies and data that undermine alarmist global warming claims.
Saudi report: Women driving spurs premarital sex – Yahoo! News.
The report by Kamal Subhi claims that allowing women to drive will threaten the country’s traditions of virgin brides, he said. The suggestion is that driving will allow greater mixing of genders and could promote sex.
Benetton’s Latest Camping of World Leaders Kissing Sparks Outrage | Ology.
The “United Colors of Benetton” ad campaign has often used provocative imagery of social norm-challenging advertising since the 1980s. This most recent campaign has, however, provoked a backlash from at least some of the targeted world leaders.
Hip-hop artist and clothing designer Jay-Z is being scrutinized for allegedly profiting off of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Last week, friend and fellow business mogul, Russell Simmons tweeted a backstage photograph of himself standing next to Jay-Z, who was wearing a T-shirt that read, “Occupy All Streets.”
The episode features 23-year-old Occupier Bryan, who rallies his kinfolk to clean up the park in the wake of an eviction showdown with the NYPD.
We can only hope that by the episode’s end, the Southern homophobic protester will learn to accept his openly gay tentmate’s pornography past.
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Steve Jobs: Obama’s focus on excuses “infuriated” him – Political Hotsheet – CBS News
Jobs told Isaacson he was not impressed with the president after their meeting, in part because of Mr. Obama’s focus on what is not possible, rather than what is possible.
“The president is very smart. But he kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done,” Jobs told Isaacson. “It infuriates me.”
US police raid Occupy camp in Oakland, arrest 75 – US news via Mail.com.
City officials had originally been supportive of protesters, with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan saying that sometimes “democracy is messy.” But the city later warned the protesters that they were breaking the law and couldn’t stay in the encampment overnight. They cited concerns about rats, fire hazards, public urination and acts of violence at the site, which had grown to more than 150 tents and included areas for health care, child care and cooking.
California Adopts Cap-and-Trade System to Limit Emissions – NYTimes.com
Fifteen months after a similar effort died in Congress, California regulators adopted a system on Thursday for combating climate change that sets limits on greenhouse gas emissions…
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The board members seemed keenly aware that they were giving the state a policy prescription regarded as poison in some parts of the country.
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California’s ambitions are in striking contrast to those of much of the rest of the nation. A conservative political rebellion against cap and trade helped the Republican resurgence in 2010.
Taking a Bite out of Nuclear Reactors | EnergyBiz
Altogether, NuScale says that by taking its smaller modules and ultimately forming a 540 megawatt plant it would cost between $2.2 billion and $2.5 billion. That’s marginally less expensive per unit of output than a traditional plant.At a few billion, the company says that utilities would not be taking the kind of risks they might otherwise have to if they built a larger and centralized $10 billion facility. For most companies, the amount of money is too great, especially in the aftermath of a recession, credit crunch and Japanese nuclear crisis.
Fisker Karma Solyndra on Wheels | Fantastical Andrew Fox.
Fisker is manufacturing these gorgeous Leonardo DiCaprio toys in Finland. And the kicker, for those of you who would still claim that the risk of half a billion tax dollars is justified by environmental gains… contrary to the company’s initial hype, the Karma will only run for thirty-two miles on its electric motors before its turbocharged gasoline engine needs to kick in (as opposed to the initial estimate of fifty miles). Once that occurs, the Karma gets about the same mileage as a Ford Explorer. Not the new Explorer, even. The older, gas-hog, body-on-frame model. We’re talking twenty miles per gallon, folks. So much for your “green investment.”
Some Business Owners Ramp Up Distaste For ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters « CBS New York.
“They want to take showers, want to wash up and use the toilet paper to dry up. It becomes … you gotta have one person assigned just to clean the bathrooms,” said Steve Zamfotis, manager of “Charley’s” restaurant. …
“They expect everything, everything for free, nothing to pay,” Zamfotis said.
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