So I was crunching the numbers yesterday, and, once I’m in my new place, I should only go into the hole by about $30 a month – as long as I bury and/or burn my garbage, don’t drive more than 10 miles a day on the weekends, and don’t renew my lottery subscription. That’s assuming there are never any repairs to make, and no vet and/or medical bills. Oh, and that Governor Blinky or the next Governor don’t decide to lay me off. So, I guess I need to make some changes. Showtime is definitely not gonna make the cut (I’ll miss Dexter, Weeds, and The Big C – though I predict this will be the last season of Weeds anyway), and HBO may not survive the move, either. I hope Granny is ready for a cold, dark winter. There’s a cheery thought.
There are no statistics about how many Afghan girls masquerade as boys. But when asked, Afghans of several generations can often tell a story of a female relative, friend, neighbor or co-worker who grew up disguised as a boy. To those who know, these children are often referred to as neither “daughter†nor “son†in conversation, but as “bacha posh,†which literally means “dressed up as a boy†in Dari.
snip
Afghan families have many reasons for pretending their girls are boys, including economic need, social pressure to have sons, and in some cases, a superstition that doing so can lead to the birth of a real boy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/world/asia/21gender.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
New Caledonian crows, found in the South Pacific, are among nature’s most robust nonhuman tool users. They are well known for using twigs to dislodge beetle larvae from tree trunks.
And there’s a good reason. By foraging for just a few larvae, a crow can satisfy its daily nutritional needs, which explains the evolutionary advantage of learning how to use tools, researchers report in the journal Science.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/21obcrow.html?adxnnl=1&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1285095610-+/4ukhmjuL+FuRsFkxbxqg
Lawrence Summers is stepping down
:dancers:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/after_summers_comes_the_fall_20100914/
:fu: Lawrence Summers and :fustrate: Obama for ever letting this snake inside
I wish this was going to change anything but I think it’s too late 🙁
Offering big bonuses to teachers failed to raise students’ test scores in a three-year study released Tuesday that calls into question the Obama administration’s push for merit pay to improve education.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/teacher-bonuses-dont-affe_n_733592.html
Jon Stewart on Oprah, today. Video