This week the annual Perseid meteor shower is peaking as the Earth passes through the remains of Comet Swift-Tuttle. Image courtesy of Sean Parker Photography, copyright, used with permission.
Once upon a time there was a decade called the '70s. It was a mix of good and bad, but on the good side, women's health made some real strides. Cancer screening, fertility counseling, and birth control became widely available and affordable, the rate of unwanted pregnancies dropped, a phenomenon that arguably echoes down the decades clear into the new millennia in the form of lower crime rates. One of the key players in all that was Planned Parenthood. And you know what that means, right?
Shut it down!
If you oppose abortion and you're not ready to promote the most effective ways of preventing unwanted pregnancies, you're not serious. If you call for "defunding" Planned Parenthood -- as virtually the entire Republican Party does -- you are attacking a leading purveyor of contraceptives and information about how to use them for women of limited economic resources. You're also threatening to shut down 700 clinics that provide crucial preventative health measures like pap smears and refer women for mammograms.
This is how you can determine these control freaks are full of shit: birth control and abortion are seesaw phenomenon: affordable, accessible birth control means fewer unplanned pregnancies which lowers the need to end them. It really is that simple.
- Scientists have sequenced the genes of a cephalapod for the first time.
- Beer!
- Absurd Creatures is kind of a cross between freak Internet video and nature programming, see here for example. And congrats to the show, they've made it to season two.
- Can't say a ton of people here and associated with many progressive and science orgs didn't try to warn them ...
The risk of global food production shocks and price spikes is rising due to increasingly intense storms and more frequent flood and drought events associated with warmer temperatures, U.S. and British researchers said Friday. By 2040, the danger of a 1-in-100-year food production crisis is likely to rise to a 1-in-30-year probability ...