It’s Monday! Already? I know. I KNOW. May the Sixth be with you.
In today’s news: Kentucky Derby, more Republicans do more things to hurt women, and violence is happening everywhere. Let’s hope things get better throughout the week.
I just found out you can buy a horse for $35,000 and after a few steps of something in between, you can make $1.5 million. I’ll have another! I mean, I’ll Have Another. That’s the horse’s name that won the Kentucky Derby, and I am a jealous, jealous person because of the return on that investment. (CNN)
Two bodies were found in the case of the missing mother and three daughters from Tennessee, and the main suspect, Adam Mayes, was a friend of the family. Police are on the lookout for him, and fuck this world is fucked up. (CNN)
There is a test that can increase the success rate of IVF by 65%, which is all sorts of amazing. (BBC)
France elections: Sarkozy is out, socialist Francois Hollande is in. (CNN)
Greece’s parliamentary elections were also Sunday. The European debt crisis has really wreaked havoc on European politicians. (CNN)
Arizona has banned funding that goes to Planned Parenthood, because, well, nobody wants women to have access to health care. Under the guise of anti-abortionism, of course. Bull. Shit. (CNN)
Putin starts his third presidential term in Russia today. The Russia of this term is different than the Russia of his previous two terms, and he acknowledges this, saying that the Post-Soviet era is over. Things are not looking as good for him this time around, though, with protests against him throughout Russia.
Obama formally opened his re-election bid in Columbus, Ohio. Remember four years ago when I could not find a parking space in any parking lot in all of Ohio State because he was having a rally there? And it was snowing, and I was late to a class that I was teaching? I almost didn’t vote for him out of spite. Hopefully nobody had that experience this year. (CNN)
The 9/11 suspects are being really shitty in court, which…I can’t really blame them. I mean, it sounds highly annoying. But being annoying is all the power that they have at this point. An example: making paper airplanes and covering the microphones with them. (CNN)
James Brown of Michigan has been arraigned in the death of four escorts that used Backpage.com. I hate the world. (CNN)
This is weird to me. Up to 90% of Asian students are experiencing near-sightedness, as opposed to 20-30% in the UK. Experts are blaming it on a commitment to education and lack of sunlight by young people. Can that really be true? Is that why I am near-sighted, because I was a huge nerd? (BBC)
Based on Facebook, the Super Moon was a-ma-zing and rare. According to the CNN article, it happens every year. (CNN)
Speaking of Facebook, the IPO is estimated at $90 billion-ish. Why didn’t I invent Facebook? (BBC)
17 replies on “News Appetizers: I’ll Have Another wins Derby, Arizona defunds Planned Parenthood”
I want a job where I just make up names for horses.
Waaaait! Can I ask: what did/do you teach at OSU? I only ask because I did my undergrad there. And parking is almost always pretty disastrous on campus.
I guess I will have to throw more money PP’s way and tell Arizona to smear butter in its hair.
Honestly, is there any area arizona has left unturned? I mean, the banning of ethnic studies, the re-writing of history text books, defunding PP, Jan brewer. Being from Georgia, I’ve been so used to apologizing for the whackness that we proliferated. But I think Arizona has officially passed our rank.
well played assholes. well played.
The Super Moon was pretty, but I wouldn’t have known it was super if I hadn’t checked Facebook.
As for the near-sightedness…I always thought it was genetic. Everyone I know who wears glasses has parents who wear glasses. Those with eagle-eyes, seem to come from a long line of eagle-eyes. Who knows!
I think it’s combined. I got my bad eyes from my dad, but I remember in grad school my eye doctor tell me that I shouldn’t get Lasik done while i was still in school because I’d still be doing so much close reading. I still haven’t done Lasik, but it just lets me know that there are probably environmental things that play a role.
The news always seems depressing.  But your newcaps make it easier to digest (in the reading of it not in the icky messed up-ness of it all)
Well, that makes me feel a little better about the depressingness of it all. Â I was thinking about this as I wrote this up – is it because ickiness is sensational, and that’s why those are the biggest stories? Â Probably.
That could be a part of it. But I wonder if the bad has really increased as much as we feel it has.
Ooh, that IVF test sounds exciting! Too bad there was nothing on how soon until it’s commonly available though, seeing as my brother and his wife are currently starting out on the IVF route.
My sister got pregnant on her first round of it – she’s due in October. Â :)
Super Moon is pretty awesome whenever it happens, the super-ness is not diminished by the fact that it will happen again next year.
I am probably just bitter because it looked like the same old moon to me.
As much as I would like to be all gung ho and caught up in the magic of the Tipple Crown races, I’ve known waaay to many psychotic ex-race horses. Mostly horse racing makes me uncomfortable. Also, if it makes you feel any better upkeep on horses is mad expensive. See also, transportation fees. With a horse that cost that little to begin with, you might be getting some back out of the race winnings, but more likely you start to make your money back in the stud fees you can charge for a Derby winner. (Which is why, btw, race horses are normally male. You can make a lot more money off of studding your stallion out than from selling foals from your mare).
Also, as crappy as the fact that James Brown may have killed a bunch of women, I’m glad that they have brought in a suspect. It is not so nice to have a serial killer running around loose near where you live.
Oh yeah, definitely on the James Brown thing. Â I just – I hate that escorts and prostitutes make such a (tempting? Â handy? Â I don’t know) target for serial killers.
And to be honest, horse racing makes me nervous, and I know next to nothing about it. Â The stakes are so high.
But I would sure not mind having a couple extra million dollars today.
Racing can induce a lot of health issues on a horse, both mental and physical. Race horses are prone to leg injuries, which are hard to treat. Even when they try sometimes the horse develops laminitis, or foundering in their healthy leg due to the added stress, where the bone in the leg will drop down into the hoof. It’s wicked painful and exceedingly difficult to treat. More often the horse is put down.
Racing also does not foster an environment for happy well adjusted horses. There is a lot of isolation, and horses don’t particularly like being alone. The better class of owner will keep a companion animal for their race horse, but this isn’t an across the board practice. Like I said, many of the ex-race horses that crossed my path were super nutsy.
The racing industry makes me cry, because duh: at two years old, of course these animals are not prepared for this level of physical strain – they’re not done growing yet! And yet, when legs break, we act like it’s a shocking tragedy. Hey, maybe we could wait to race these magnificent creatures until they’re old enough? Oh shit, that’s gonna make it how much more expensive?
I love horses; I love racehorses; I love the power. And I’ll always get choked up for “My Old Kentucky Home.” But the industry. Ugh.