Welcome to the newest edition of the Variety Hour, a collection of eclectic posts gathered from all over the internet. Some of the links this week are especially heart-wrenching, and others are simply fascinating, so grab some tissues and a cup of tea, and get ready to open way too many browser windows. There’s something for everybody. Enjoy!
End Bullying
- Town Turns Tables On School Prank. High school student Whitney Kropp was named to homecoming court as a joke–and now, local businesses have provided her free services and thousands are rallying in her support.
- Reddit Users Attempt To Shame Sikh Woman, Get Righteously Schooled. This piece on Jezebel includes a beautiful response written by a Sikh woman after a photograph of her–facial hair and all–was posted on Reddit. Her religious belief is that the body is a gift from the Divine Being, and should remain unaltered–and she explains this in a very classy and non-defensive way.
Trivia
- Sorry, Girls, Titanic Doors Were Made of Oak. In case you’re wondering why Jack and Rose couldn’t both fit on the door…this explains everything.
- The Lingerie Football League Announces That It Fired “A Couple Crews Which Apparently Are Now Officiating In The NFL” Because Of Incompetence. Glad it’s over?
- Quick, Intuitive Decisions Foster More Charity And Cooperation Than Slow, Calculated Ones. So stop thinking, already!
- The Grauer School. Okay, this isn’t really trivia, but it looks like such a neat school! I wonder if we’re related…
Science
- Study Shows Gender Bias in Science is Real: Here’s Why It Matters. This would be a randomized, controlled experiment. The findings may surprise you.
- Is Medical Science Built on Shaky Foundations? How come so many studies can’t be replicated?
- 7 Things You Wouldn’t Believe Science Says Makes You Happy. An eclectic list.
Good News
- Farmer Acquitted in Minnesota Raw Milk Trial. Whether you think raw milk is worth the risks or not, you’re probably not opposed to the right of people to buy and sell it without getting put in jail.
- Regular Chocolate Eaters Are Thinner, Evidence Suggests. Finally, some good news!
- Spring 2013 Beauty Trend: Messy Braids. Finally, my inability to style hair will help me look cool!
- You Won’t Need A Driver’s License by 2040. Good, because I have a family history of driving past the age where you can do it properly.
- America’s 50 Best Cities . The bad news is that winter’s coming. The good news is that St. Paul and Minneapolis both made the top 15 on this list. Also, I’m saving up for a SAD lamp.
Human trafficking
- Retired MMA Fighter Fights Human Trafficking. A nice piece about my friend Cameron Conaway, who’s an award-winning author and activist.
- Advocates Seek to Help Fight Human Trafficking, Good work.
- Speaking of Trafficking… We’ve already raised over $1500 for Children of the Night, and the fundraiser is live until this Saturday. Please click on the link to donate.
Politics and Social Media
- A 61-Million-Person Experiment on Facebook Shows How Ads and Friends Affect Our Voting Behavior. Written by the amazing Ed Yong.
- Does Romney Have a Better Facebook Strategy than Obama? Well? Does he?
- If Your Friend Writes A Political Rant on Facebook, Will It Make You Change Your Mind? The answer may surprise you.
Health and Fitness
- Quitting E-mail Is Good For Your Heart; Makes You More Productive. Not that you could even if you wanted to, but the research findings are fascinating.
- Expert Answers on Multivitamin Boosts, Agility Ladders and More. Experience Life fitness editor Jen Sinkler’s column in Experience Life always rocks, and this month is no exception… not least because it’s got a great diagram on how to foam roll your TFL.
MMA and BJJ
- UFC Looking Like A Jugger-Not. The article Dana White was dissing in the UFC 152 post-fight press conference.
- Weekly Women’s MMA Wrap-Up: My weekly Fightergirls column.
- Beating the Odds: UFC 152. My Sherdog column on which fighters beat the odds on the most recent PPV card.
- I’m A BJJ Practitioner, and a Girl. BJJ brown belt Jen Flannery makes a very good case for people erring on the side of not hurting their smaller training partners.
Media
- In New Policy, Times Forbids After-The-Fact Quote Approval. This is quite interesting…
- Writing Process. A funny, if gruesome, .gif a writer friend sent me.
- The Best Correction From Chelsea Clinton’s Vogue Profile. This correction made me feel better about dumb mistakes I’ve made.
- $100 Startup and Firestarter Sessions Vancouver Book Launch. Chris Guillebeau and Danielle LaPorte, two of the most amazing people ever, speak about freedom, hustling and serving others in this short video.
Recipe
- Asian Ground Beef, Mushroom and Broccoli Slaw Lettuce Cups are on my yum list this week.
The Shameless Self-Promotion Section will be back next week, with links to 2 new magazine articles I wrote, as long as some SEO-related blog posts. In the meantime, I did link to some of my MMA writing above.
As always, thank you for reading! I’m already corralling up some posts for next week.
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