links: Katrina, abuse, Bible, Steele; RNA, abortion, Norway; genomics, Trek, burger geishas

Depressing
* Troops weren't deployed to help with Katrina
* Systematic child abuse in Irish reform schools
* Obama seeking indefinite detentions
* Blackwater tries to rebrand as "Xe"
* Creepy Bible briefings, the better to manipulate Bush with.
* Steele's latest brainstorm for opposing gay marriage: it'll cost small business money. Unlike, say, hetero employees getting married. Will the GOP oppose marriage on the grounds that it costs too much? That'd be hilarious.

Abortion opinions
* 538 summary, linking back to two earlier posts, and to this which is way more detailed and useful than the recent Gallup "more pro-life" poll that's causing these posts.

Cool
* Progress in RNA Genesis
* From Pakistan to San Francisco: the voyage of bondage gear
* How Norway's coping with the recession. Quite well, thank you.
* Zhao Ziyang's memoirs -- this is the leader ousted for opposing the Tiananmen Square massacre
* Health cost fallacies
* Having daughters makes parents liberal, maybe.

* Personal genomics. 23andMe and Bioresolve seem both cheapest and giving the most holistic and scientifically ambitious results.
* Star Trek as a Mage game
* Star Trek movie as twinks vs. bears, once you get past the "I don't watch SF" rant.

* Surrogacy boom in India
* Heart Attack Grill. Burger joint with a "we're really unhealthy" theme, burgers in lard, all you can eat fries in lard, and "burger geisha" waitresses in skimpy nurse outfits. "Poised in the art of conversation" (from the French Documentary video).

Growth in health care spending

(source article)

And remember we don't live as long as all the lower curves.

First post

Lala, just staking a claim.