Repeal Of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Paves Way For Gay Sex Right On Battlefield, Opponents Fantasize

This May, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised voters he would do everything in his power to prevent gays from serving openly in the armed forces, and on Thursday, he told reporters that the role of the military is to defend American freedoms, not “the rights of, you know, those people some of us stay up all night thinking about as we toss and turn.”

“Imagine you’ve got a boat full of sailors out cruising the Gulf of Aden when all of a sudden they’re attacked. Some of the homosexuals lock themselves below deck and begin touching themselves,” said the 73-year-old senator and Vietnam War veteran, his breath quickening. “One of their names is Ricardo. Unbuttoning his pants, he throws his gunner’s mate down on the cot and penetrates him, his big, beautiful dick shimmering with power, his dog tags bouncing up and down as he’s pounding, and pounding, and pounding.”

Added McCain, “What I’m trying to say is: It all boils down to combat effectiveness.”

Antimatter deep underground may be key to predicting quakes

A massive particle detector located a mile underground has found bits of antimatter known as geo-neutrinos deep inside the Earth. The find proves the Earth derives most of its power from radioactivity and could help us predict volcanoes and earthquakes.

Your brain makes your eyes dumb

Fantastic optical illusion.

We’ll pay you $6 to actually behead someone

BoingBoing has the original print ad for the Milgram experiments.

Greatest comic of all time unleashed worst overused design meme of all time

I find this highly disturbing.

Report: Poor People Pretty Much Fucked | The Onion (who else?)

This doesn’t work.

Actually, this is a damn good idea.

Really, is any comment needed?

Some things never change….

Image design 100 years out of date. Picture of girl playing with gun in bed 100 years out of date. Message that you need a gun because OMG what if someone tries to harm you? Timeless.

U.S. public libraries: We lose them at our peril

LA Times essay, worth reading. Via Benton.

A Very Scary Light Show: Exploding H-Bombs In Space

Back in the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in outer space, some 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean. It was a weapons test, but one that created a man-made light show that has never been equaled — and hopefully never will.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning.

Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life. The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect.

Fresh Air | Jeffrey Gettleman: Reporting From Mogadishu

Jeffrey Gettleman calls Somalia the “most dangerous place in the world.” The East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that the country — where violent rebels fight for control and wreak havoc in villages nationwide — is just as hopeless as it was in 1991, when the central government collapsed.

Rural telco serves 17 people, rakes in $300K (of your money)

Ars Technica with an interesting takedown of federal subsidies for rural telco service.