bea arthur leaves $300,000 to homeless queer youth

it was just revealed that she left $300K to a homeless queer youth center in NYC. now, there's just another reason to love this woman.

read the full article on feministing

your brain on lsd

could LSD be the cure for a crippling disease for which there is no known cure?



read the full article on discover discoblog here

droid vs. iphone

the droid is going to drive iphone into the ground with its ican't campaign.



read the full article here on the next web

underwater city off coast of greece being explored

an underwater city was discovered off the coast of greece 40 years ago, and divers are finally getting the chance to explore it.



read the full article here on aol

low -cost ways to cozy up your home

don't turn up the heat! here are some eco-friendly tips for keeping your house warn this winter.

read the full article on green living

obama's new pro-pot policy

obama is telling the feds to lay off of medical marijuana users and dispensaries. thanks, obama!



read about obama's new pot-friendly policy on gawker

female force comics

here is a series of comics featuring powerful female political figures. it's about time! women are rarely seen in comics as "superheroes," (there are a few exceptions- wonderwoman and supergirl come to mind) and i think this is a great thing for young women to have. it's important for women and girls to be able to identify with women who are powerful for something other than being sexually attractive.



also featured are michelle obama, condoleeza rice, and caroline kennedy.

you can see them here at blue water productions

national ocean policy

it's about time for a national ocean policy. thanks, obama.



read the full article on discover magazine

miraculous medical moment

gordon moore required the implementation of a metal plate into his head because he lost part of his skull in an automobile accident. fifty years later, he no longer needs the metal plate- because his skull has grown back.

read the full article at discover magazine here

the 7 p's of men's violence

from xyonline:

for a moment my eyes turned away from the workshop participants and out through the
windows of the small conference room and towards the Himalayas, north of Kathmandu. I
was there, leading a workshop, largely the outgrowth of remarkable work of UNICEF and
UNIFEM which, a year earlier, had brought together women and men from throughout South
Asia to discuss the problem of violence against women and girls and, most importantly, to work together to find solutions.

As I turned back to the women and men in the group, it felt more familiar than different: women taking enormous chances – in some cases risking their lives – to fight the tide of violence against women and girls. Men who were just beginning to find their anti-patriarchal voices and to discover ways to work alongside women. And what pleasantly surprised me was the positive response to a series of ideas I presented about men’s violence: until then, I wasn’t entirely sure if they were mainly about the realities in North and South America and Europe – that is largely-Europeanized cultures – or whether they had a larger resonance.

read the full article here on xyonline

role of men and boys in the lives of children

from xyonline:

Indeed, the rights and well-being of the child are best served when relations between men and women in the household are based on mutual respect, equal rights and shared responsibilities. In line with this reflection and taking into account its past experience, UNICEF must broaden its research and programme focus to include men and boys as important actors in programmes of cooperation.

This background paper is part of an ongoing effort to better understand the role that men can play in the lives of children and women. Arguments for UNICEF’s support to activities focused on men and boys are discussed. This is supported by UNICEF’s previous and ongoing initiatives to involve men in development programmes for children and women as well as a general review of current literature.

read the full article on xyonline here

working together to end abuse

from xyonline:

In recent years most of the children'’s and women’'s wellbeing and gender equality programmes have largely focused on women and girls as beneficiaries and agents of change. However, the conceptual shift from Women in Development (WID) to Gender and Development (GAD), which has been taking place since the 1980s, was partly borne out of recognition of the inadequacies of focusing on women and girls in isolation. GAD approaches necessitate a focus on men/boys as well as women/girls. Since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, international programmes have had a broad mandate to serve the needs of women and men of all ages and to address gender inequities. The belief that it is desirable to involve boys and men in efforts towards gender equality is now becoming institutionalised in the philosophies and programmes of the UN and other international and national organisations.

read the full article on xyonline

dual screen laptops are in the works!

isn't that a gorgeous machine?

here's proof from mashable that dual screen laptops are in the works.

scientist learn from robots and schools of fish how to prevent traffic jams

this is pretty cool. scientists at nissan are looking at schools of fish to learn how to reduce traffic jams and accidents. this is the second time nissan has attempted to study animal behavior and how it can be implemented in a crash avoidance system.

read the full article at discover magazine

coke vaccine?

researchers have found a vaccination for cocaine users to be effective in 40% of those treated.

read the full article here on abc health

jonestown massacre photos

i just finished reading "seductive poison," a survior's account of the jonestown massacre. i had known about the tragedy, but this book revealed details so horrid that i often thought i was reading a work of fiction.

you can see photos of the horrible tragedy here

mr. magic dies

the man that brought hip hop to the mainstream (as in he had the first hip hop radio show anywhere, ever) has died.

read the full story on gawker

gender equitable education in preventing HIV/STI risk

from the xyonline website:

there is growing evidence that HIV/STI and violence risk for both young men and young women is linked to early socialization that promotes certain gender roles. the horizons program and instituto promundo examined the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve young men's attitudes toward gender norms and to reduce HIV/STI risk.

read the full article here on xyonline

involving adolescent boys in reproductive health

from the website xyonline:

a short slideshow discussing the benefits of working on gender equitability earlier in a boy's life, before becoming a man.

read the full article here on xyonline

essentialism as exhibited in bathroom signs

check out this amazing post on feministing about what signs we use to designate single-gendered bathrooms. it's pretty disgusting. it's cissexist, heterosexist, and clearly leaves trans people in a gray space.

the hpv vaccine for men

i have always heard of women getting the hpv vaccine, in fact i have accompanied a girlfriend or two to get her shot. i wondered at the time why guys weren't vaccinated as well, since men can carry the hpv viruses on our penises, and also hpv can cause penile cancer.

anyways, last month an fda panel recommended males age 9-26 get vaccinated for hpv. personally, i am all for this and will look into getting vaccinated myself.

read the article on feministing

coke is deadlier than ever!

beware fans of the white lady, she's deadlier than ever.

read the full article here on gawker

the impact of your cheeseburger

i found this really interesting blog post at green living tips that breaks down the CO2 emissions of food and their impact on the environment. i was always curious about this information and am glad green living tips made a post about it.

read the original post here at green living tips

the recession makes the heart grow fonder

to paraphrase a famous quote, "distance makes the heart grow fonder." many couples are finding themselves in long term relationships due to the recession. the good news? they say that techonology "makes it easier to be apart." oh, skype. what would we do without you?

read the full article at the wall street journal

celebrities and self injury

i recently read an article about celebrities cutting themselves. while self injury is a social problem that definitely needs to be addressed, i do not like the way megan fox so lightly described all teenage girls as "dabbling" in cutting, as if this was a healthy, normal thing that all teen girls go through. i wish she didn't have such a casual attitude about it.

check out the original article here on thefrisky.com