In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Abduction; terrorism; misogyny; abuse] The 234 girls abducted from their school in Nigeria, who have reportedly been married off to the terrorists who abducted them, are still missing. Yesterday, "women from around Nigeria gathered in the capital to demand answers as to just why the full force of the government has not been brought to bear in finding their missing daughters, nieces, and sisters." Some of the girls managed to escape their captors and return, but, in the two weeks since they were kidnapped, none have been rescued: "Nobody rescued them," a government official in Chibok said of the girls who made it back. "I want you to stress this point. Nobody rescued them. They escaped on their accord. This is painful."

[CN: Homophobia] A new challenge to marriage inequality in Ohio: "A group of same-sex couples from Ohio escalated the challenges to the state's ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday, filing a federal lawsuit directly attacking the ban as unconstitutional. Other suits this year have chipped away at the nearly 10-year-old, voter-approved ban, but the latest suit is the first in the state to challenge it head-on. The 12 Southwest Ohio residents listed as plaintiffs represent six couples 'who live here, who love here and who want to get married here,' said lawyer Jennifer Branch, who filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati." Right on and good luck! May you swiftly prevail!

[CN: Sexual assault; video may begin playing automatically at link] Jameis Winston, the Heisman Trophy winner who was not suspended from college athletics after being accused of sexual assault, has been suspended for shoplifting crab legs. Which is an almost perfect indication of how much women are valued in this culture.

[CN: Severe weather; damage; death] The latest major storm system has been dumping rain all over the eastern US, resulting in flash floods and a lot of damage, and, yesterday, "a block-long sinkhole opened up in a residential neighborhood in northeast Baltimore, sucking in several cars and forcing the evacuation of several houses." Extensive flooding may also have contributed to an explosion at a jail in Pensacola, Florida, which killed at least two inmates and injured more than 100 other people.

[CN: Animal testing] A new study has found that lab rats and mice "experience more stress in the presence of men than of women. Rodents left alone in a room with a man, or presented with a T-shirt worn by a man, had a sharp spike in the stress hormone corticosterone. And because the hormone acts as an analgesic, they also showed less response to pain. The rodents showed no such reaction to women; they were also less stressed when given a woman's shirt together with a man's. The amount of stress felt by the rodents was 'massive,' said Jeffrey Mogil, a psychologist at McGill University and an author of the study."

Hey, remember those inexplicable holes forming in a sand dune at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore? Geologist Erin Argyilan, who is studying the dune holes, says: "We're seeing what appears to be a new geological phenomenon." Whoa!

Oprah might be joining a group of investors interested in buying the LA Clippers. "You're getting a basketball team! You're getting a basketball team! Everyone here is getting a basketball team!"

Michael McKean has joined the cast of Better Call Saul. OKAY! Quit teasing me and just get the show in my face already!