Daily Blend: Saturday, June 12, 2010

Woman smiling Don’t be fooled, honey; she may be cute, but she doesn’t mean that smile (and yes, I’m certified to tell, now) [click for full size]

Huh. And I thought aspies were supposed to be incapable of discerning emotions? And yet, here I am, an apparent master at telling natural smiles from fakes. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice … revert to blaming neurological impairments. (Hey, I do.)

• Alice Hawley, a Mississippi high school teacher who’s been conducting prayers in her classrooms for 17 years fired … only to be rehired the very next day. Good example, Franklin County High School.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• More meshing of disasters and religion: fringe Christianists use their Möbius strip-like logic skillz to apply Biblical end-of-times prophecies to the Gulf oil spill.

• Greta Christina at AlterNet argues that which liberals know and understand and which conservatives so vehemently try to deny: that all in all, liberalism truly is morally superior to conservatism. Read the piece for the full context.
  (via Diaphanitas)

• How good are you at determining whether a smile is genuine or forced [pictured: fake smile]? Take this test. (Bragging moment: I got 17/20 correct. Thanks to one little trick. Can you guess which?)

• Interesting and thought-provoking article in the Scientific American about the psychology of zoosexuality, or the sexual attraction – even preference – towards (non-human) animals.
  (via Gene Burmington)

• Tweet! Tweet! Tweet! Roger Ebert describes how he went from Twitter-basher to an addict, and why you should, too. (Honestly, it’s just tons of fun and even more useful.)

• Two rights in short order: Having recently left the GOP, Gov. Charlie Crist (F-I) has now vetoed an anti-abortion bill that would’ve required women to pay for ultrasounds before terminating a pregnancy.

• More reason to move to Iceland: they’ve unanimously voted to legalize same-sex marriage. I suppose having an openly lesbian prime minister might be a contributing factor and the sign of a healthily tolerant population. Meanwhile, Americans can just make sweet bitter love to their Bibles.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

• Oy, BP morons: Stop worrying about your god-fucking image and do what it takes to clean up the spill – including allowing divers to wear respirators!
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Former US Military analyst and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg expresses his well-founded worries for the safety of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, fearing he could be targeted for assassination by the Pentagon. Or, rather, be “suicided”.
  (via @wikileaks)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.