A substantial portion of young women in the U.K. would choose breasts over brains, according to a recent online survey….
In addition, 44 percent of the respondents would rather have a “slim figure” than high intelligence, with 29 percent of those women saying they felt being slim would make them feel “more confident.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Hope and change.
Transparency.
The Obama administration, which promised during its transition to power that it would enhance “whistle-blower laws to
protect federal workers,” has been more prone than any administration in history in trying to silence and prosecute federal workers.
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/
Fixing and expanding underground drinking water systems will cost over $1 trillion in the next 25 years and users will get socked with the bill, according to the American Water Works Association.
Washington Examiner
http://washingtonexaminer.com/
Twenty years ago, 80 percent of shrimp consumed here came from domestic wild fisheries, with imports supplying the rest. Today, we’ve more than flipped those numbers: the United States imports 90 percent of the shrimp consumed 
here. We now bring in a staggering 1.2 billion pounds of it annually, mainly from farms in Asia. Between 1995 and 2008, the inflation-adjusted price of wild-caught Gulf shrimp plunged 30 percent.
Mother Jones
http://motherjones.com/tom-
A burgeoning population of huge pythons — many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big — appears to be wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, a study says.
http://news.yahoo.com/pythons-
A report from the Turtle Conservation Coalition states that 75 percent of Asia’s turtle and tortoise species are threatened as a result of overharvesting.
“……..scientists said stricter [Alabama] regulations, including a total ban on the commercial take of wild-caught turtles, would be the only way to lessen or eliminate the threat.”
“That’s why China wants our turtles,“ said Mark Sasser, non-game wildlife coordinator with the state Conservation and Natural Resources department. “They’ve eaten all of theirs.”
http://blog.al.com/live/2012/
A new report by the Pew Center on the States finds that more than 1.8 million dead people are currently registered to vote. And 24 million registrations are either invalid or inaccurate. NPR
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/14/
“By 2030, the global middle class is expected to grow by two-thirds. That’s 3 billion more shoppers. They’ll all want access to goods, including water, wheat, coffee and oil. Is there enough for everybody?” Bloomberg
http://topics.bloomberg.com/
A 2009 report for Natural England showed that only 10% of children now experience woodland play, as opposed to 40%
of their parents’ generation.
“More children go to hospital having fallen out of bed than having fallen out of a tree,” Fiona Reynolds, National Trust (UK)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
In the latest report, scientists at the CDC found that nearly every person they tested was packing a host of nasty chemicals, including flame retardants stored in fatty tissue and Bisphenol A, a hormone-like substance found in plastics, excreted in urine. Even babies are contaminated. The average newborn has 287 chemicals in her umbilical cord blood, 217 of which are neurotoxic (poisonous to nerves or nerve cells). Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
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Don’t forget our loyal Backbone members!
Hey Stiles…. How is it going long time no hear from you? Hope things re good. We have stayed in Alaska for awhile now plan to get back to Moab next fall.
Send me your email and I would like to hire you to draw an add for me to use in the local paper here, if you would. Good help is hard to find.
Paul