It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s another edition of your Weekly Reader! As always, if you have something you’d like to share, drop a link in the comments! The more articles, the better! Because “to share is to care”, as the Quintessons once said by accident. 😉
How Herpes Became a Sexual Boogeyman (from Slate): “If herpes is such a minor deal, why does it come with such a pervasive stigma? In the first half of the 20th century, genital herpes was not on the public radar, and it wasn’t even recognized as a discrete type of herpes infection until the 1960s. But by the 1980s, it was slapped on the cover of Time with headlines like “Herpes: The New Sexual Leprosy.” What happened in the intervening years shows how a public sex panic is made. What’s still happening—herpes shame, fear, and confusion even now—shows how that panic can morph and persist. One of the oddest subplots of the stigma’s endurance has to do with who’s been falsely blamed for making herpes a boogeyman in the first place: drug companies.”
Your Glorified Ignorance Wasn’t Cool Then, And Your Scientific Illiteracy Isn’t Cool Now (from Forbes): “This is not an easy situation to be in, regardless of your education or background. It’s human nature to want to save face and appear like we knew the right answer all along. But, if we’re being honest with ourselves, that isn’t a real solution.”
This country with a colonial history has a blackface problem (from CNN): “Belgium has a blackface problem. The country shares in the Black Pete tradition, albeit less enthusiastically than the Netherlands. But around Belgium, few seasons pass without folkloric festivals revolving around characters in the racist garb — and while its use has become polarizing around the world, Belgium has a casual approach to the tradition that is jarring to many outsiders.”
A New Anti-Abortion Bill Could Require Death Certificates for Fertilized Eggs (from Vice): “The sponsor of the bill, Pennsylvania Rep. Francis Ryan, a Republican, maintains that the provisions in HB 1890 are “strictly voluntary for women” who want to be able to bury their own fetal remains, and don’t require a death certificate.
But reproductive health advocates say those claims are misleading. They argue that the language of the bill is deliberately vague, obfuscating an extreme proposal: that providers and hospitals treat fertilized eggs as they would the remains of pregnancies that end in the second trimester.”
Ohio bill orders doctors to ‘reimplant ectopic pregnancy’ or face ‘abortion murder’ charges (from The Guardian): “Ohio’s move on ectopic pregnancies – where an embryo implants on the mother’s fallopian tube rather than her uterus rendering the pregnancy unviable – is one of the most extreme bills to date.
“I don’t believe I’m typing this again but, that’s impossible,” wrote Ohio obstetrician and gynecologist Dr David Hackney on Twitter. “We’ll all be going to jail,” he said.”
‘Black Friday’ becoming a shadow of its former self in US (from Yahoo! News): “Companies in the retail, entertainment and tourism industries once again tried to entice shoppers after Thanksgiving with a bevy of offers on a day synonymous with American consumer culture and notorious “doorbuster” sales that start at the crack of dawn.
But US consumers aren’t buying Black Friday the way they once did.”
Regulators Allege Christian-Based Health Care Provider Broke State, Federal Rules (from NPR): “One New Hampshire customer who signed up for Trinity’s health care sharing ministry is Keith Meehan, 49, an international rice salesman whose company doesn’t provide health insurance.
After his doctor recommended back surgery for a disk issue, Aliera and Trinity HealthShare assured Meehan the procedure didn’t require preapproval. But after the surgery, it declined to pay approximately $200,000 in medical bills, contending his back pain was a preexisting condition.”
Ever wonder what dinosaur meat tasted like? Try eating this bird (from CNN): “That prompted us to wonder: If it’s possible to create a dino-chicken in a lab, would dinosaurs have tasted like chicken? Well, not exactly.
Dinosaurs were strong, formidable animals, Bhullar explains. Based on the velociraptor claw specimens that scientists have preserved, Bhullar speculates they would taste more like birds of prey, such as hawks or eagles.”
A private equity firm is buying all of the .org domains. Here’s what that means (from CNN): “The current price of a .org domain is approximately $10 per year. A statement from the Internet Society states that Ethos plans on keeping the .org domain accessible and reasonably priced, but the price could increase it up to about 10% annually.”
Mister Rogers was a Thanksgiving heretic (from The Los Angeles Times): “In the early 1970s, Rogers stopped eating turkey — and meat, fish and other fowl — altogether. It was right around the time that Frances Moore Lappé penned “Diet for a Small Planet,” a vigorous argument for vegetarianism. But unlike Lappé, Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister who used spiritual language to explain his commitment to a plant-based diet.”
I Have to Tell You Something Very Important About Honeybees (from Gizmodo): “While bees can float, they cannot fly with wet wings, and worse, they aren’t strong enough to free their wings from the water’s surface. That might sound like a death sentence should they accidentally fall into a pool or puddle. But never fear. They’ve figured it out.”
Hana’s Story (from Slate-Warning! May be disturbing to some; tread carefully!): “When one of Carri’s biological daughters reported that Hana was lying facedown, Carri came outside. Upset by Hana’s immodest nakedness, Carri fetched a bedsheet and covered her before asking two teenage sons to carry her in. She called her husband, Larry, who was on his way home from a late shift at Boeing, then finally dialed 911, telling the operator, “I think my daughter just killed herself. … She’s really rebellious.””
That’s all for now. Stop by again for more informative articles that will tickle your brain’s fancy. Until then, happy reading!
Iacon East 