Link round-up for 27 January 2013
A 10-day-old baby takes his first swim.
If they ever do ban guns.....
A mother talks common sense about God (found via Lady Atheist).
What would Jesus do?
Hillary Clinton is more popular than ever.
Reason Being looks at the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church -- and the joy of atheism.
Yes, there is a systematic campaign to silence women on the internet.
Another poll confirms that Americans overwhelmingly support keeping Roe v. Wade.
Use a credit card? Watch out for surcharges.
There's new hard evidence supporting the view that many gay-haters have repressed homosexual urges. And these guys sure don't seem to like women much.
Arizona Republicans propose an unconstitutional religious oath as a condition of receiving a high-school diploma (sent by Leslie Parsley).
Chemicals banned in Europe are still used in food in the under-regulated US.
Gary Bauer whinges that minorities are abandoning the fight against gay marriage (found via Republic of Gilead). Hispanics in particular are abandoning social conservatism.
Boycott Terry Lee Forensics of Cedar City, Utah.
Lady Atheist looks at two books which make the case that Jesus never existed -- one of which got its author fired.
Interest in gun ownership runs high among young people.
Evidence emerges of a sex-abuse cover-up at Bob Jones University (found via Republic of Gilead).
Conservative austerity policies push Britain back into recession.
Here's an unusual photo from the 1941 bombing of London.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. In Warsaw, an archive of memories survives.
A regional food fight breaks out in Berlin (found via Mendip).
Green Eagle looks at Israel's shift to the left.
As Argentina threatens war over the Falklands, a destroyer which played a major role in the 1982 war sinks while moored at its dock.
Morocco may soon stop forcing rape victims to marry their rapists. In Afghanistan, a victim is re-raped by the authorities.
Here's a look at marital bliss in India.
Is Kim Jong Un the most dangerous Kim yet? (And why can't a man with all that power get a better haircut?)
Indonesian judge Muhammad Daming Sanusi would make a great Republican.
A soccer game brings out offensive superstitions about women (sent by Ahab).
A dolphin entangled in a fishing line appears to ask for human help.
The humble spotted salamander is the first known solar-powered vertebrate.
This huge ancient riverbed is of interest mainly because of where it is.
Neurobiology is starting to understand what speaking in tongues is.
A 2,000-year-old mass grave in Denmark sheds light on ancient Germanic warfare.
Chilean scientists are working on a vaccine for alcoholism.
[Image at top found via Reason Being.]
posted by Infidel753 at 10:02 AM
4 Comments:
Regarding credit card fees: As a former banker I have had this discussion with merchants in the past; they chaff at paying the 3% fee for credit card transactions but forget that what they are receiving in return for that fee is GUARANTEED payment. Accepting checks, rather, contains risk of non-payment due to bounced checks. I have asked merchants what their losses have been in accepting checks, their losses often are substantially over 3% - I would try and impress on them that the 3% they pay the bank is 'insurance' that they are not taking the same risk as they would accepting a check.
Today, however, fewer people pay by check so merchants may now be wondering why they have to pay this transaction fee. Though most banks do not allow the addition of a surcharge for credit card transactions, merchants ARE ALLOWED to 'discount' the price of a product or service for their cash-paying customers.
There are also incentives for people to use credit cards which may outweigh being charged a surcharge; my wife and I use our credit cards for almost all of our regular monthly purchases, food, utilities, fuel - we often go months without writing a single check (or using a debit card). We pay off the credit card balance each month, never paying a cent of interest. Our credit card earns airline miles which we have used to obtain FREE airline tickets to DC, Hawaii, Florida... all this just because we use the credit card instead of checks or debit card for our normal monthly expenses.
The heading art is really tight, I thought I'd like to have a bumper sticker of that or better yet, a t- shirt.
But what is mind blowing to me too, is that photo of the Mars surface, my first reaction was "is it ligit?" ... I havent seen that before, but clearly it is detailed enough to give you a picture of what once was, eh? I have had suspicion for a long time, that we may have evolved from Martian's ... I know that sound's kind of silly, but the reason is because I seen some scientific theories about early when this solar system was forming and bodies were still colliding big time ... that when Mars got hit ... debris from it may have came here and "that" is what sparked "life" under of course the condition's needed here too. I would give just about anything to go back in time a few billion year's and see a video playback of some of the bodies/ planet's/ rock's in motion, colliding, etc ... or to be able to see a reinactment video of sort, of one for that meteor that hit the Yucatan Peninsula ... just to see what kind of bloody tidal wave that created. Must have been kick f'n ass! : )
But Thanx for the link up deal Infidel ....
On the unusual photo from the 1941 bombing of London, I see that in the Salvation Army vs the German Air Force, the Salvation Army lost.
RtS: The convenience of credit cards is hard to beat, and as you say, they give sellers security as well. I suspect very few places will actually implement these surcharges.
RC: It'd like to see that image as a billboard -- across the street from any fundie church.
It's very possible that Earthly life originated on Mars. The conditions on early Mars may have been more favorable to the early emergence of life than the conditions on early Earth (though obviously Earth was a better environment for its further development), and Martian rocks thrown into space by asteroid impacts do strike Earth frequently enough. Microbes in the deep interior of a Martian rock could well survive the heat of passage through Earth's atmosphere, and it would only take a few to get life started here.
If we find bacteria on Mars and discover that it has similarities to Earthly life such as DNA in somewhat familiar patterns, it will be strong evidence in favor of the idea.
Blurber: True, though it's interesting that the Salvation Army still exists, while the regime the Luftwaffe was fighting for does not.
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