Boys Club

When A Great (New) Wife Just Isn’t Enough

Report: Anthony Weiner coached woman to lie Politico

Anthony Weiner’s new wife Huma Abedin is THE top aide to Hillary ClintonTMZ’s claim that NY Dem Representative Anthony Weiner coached a former X-rated performer Ginger Lee on how to handle the press interest in his case are moving to the mainstream media. TMZ has obtained the sexual emails which last for a long period of time.

Weiner asked Lee if she needed assistance in crafting a message to put out to the press and public. “Do you need to talk to a professional PR type person to give u advice? I can have someone on my team call. (Yeah, my team is doing great. Ugh).”

It’s not clear who Weiner was referring to on his team.

Nancy Pelosi calls for Ethic Committee to investigate Rep Anthony Weiner LA Times

Imaginary Eavesdropping on Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin NY Magazine

Photo-illustration: Jed Egan; Photos: Getty Images, iStockphoto.comIt’s a given — as Palin would say it’s self-evident — that Hillary Clinton has been counseling her chief aide Huma Abedin. NY Magazine’s Daily Intel just released an imaginary conversation among the players in Weinergate. Note, besides her very top level duties, it’s widely known that Huma is in charge of Hillary’s Altoids.

Huma: Hillary, will you let me handle this? I’m an adult. Now, open wide. [Hillary pouts for a moment, then opens her mouth.] Here’s your Altoid.
Hillary: Thank you.
Huma: [Back on phone.] What? There are shirtless pictures of you now? Are they the ones you sent me after you got your chest waxed? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T SAY WITH CERTITUDE?
[Hillary spits out her Altoid and snatches away the phone.]
Hillary: Listen here, pencil neck: If it comes out that any of this is real, you’re going to wish you were hiding in a bunker in Tripoli. DO YOU COPY? [She throws phone across the room, where it ricochets violently behind a couch. Huma watches it despondently.]
Huma: That was my third smartphone this month.
Hillary: Anything that’s smart enough to fuck you is not worth replacing for $499.

More Boys

After Strauss-Kahn’s Arrest, Frenchwomen Speak Out NYTimes

RedTracker

Speed Dating and Decision Making: Why Less Is More Scientific American

Alison Lenton and Marco Francesconi recently published an article in the Royal Society of Biological Letters in which they analyzed over 3,700 human dating decisions across 84 speed-dating events. The authors found that when the available dates varied more in attributes such as age, height, occupation and educational background, people made fewer dating proposals. This effect was particularly strong when people were faced with a large number of potential partners. In fact, when both conditions were present, participants were more likely to make no decision at all.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s Wife: How Anne Sinclair Acquired Her Fortune The Daily Beast

Green Beings

Environment | Screw Science

Report: Opponents of EPA Climate Action Dominate TV News Airwaves Media Matters

In 2007 the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The Court stated that “EPA can avoid taking further action only if it determines that greenhouse gases do not contribute to climate change or if it provides some reasonable explanation as to why it cannot or will not exercise its discretion to determine whether they do.”

Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans have pushed legislation that would take the unprecedented step of repealing the EPA’s scientific finding and prohibit the agency from “promulgat[ing] any regulation concerning, take action related to, or take into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change.”

FOX News is the only media source with a serious interest in repealing laws that protect the environment. Media Matters analyzed the FOX coverage from December 2009 through April 2011.

… in 76 percent of those appearances, the guest was opposed to EPA regulations while 18 percent were in favor. Of the appearances by elected officials, 86 percent were Republican. Only one guest in 17 months of coverage across nine news outlets was a climate scientist — industry-funded Patrick Michaels.

Americans overwhelmingly support governmental regulation of emissions. Until recently, so did many Republican senators — Senator Lindsey Graham for example. Republican presidential candidate Arizona Senator John McCain made climate change a key issue in his campaign.

On a positive note, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has affirmed his position that global warming is real and humans are contributing to it.

Romney reaffirms stance that global warming is real The Boston Globe

Romney has made clear that he opposes cap-and-trade, a system that would combat climate change by limiting total emissions and forcing polluters to pay for the greenhouse gases they produce. Instead, he said yesterday, he wants to wean the country from its dependence on foreign oil by seeking alternative sources of energy, and he said Americans should do more to conserve.

“I’m told that we use almost twice as much energy per person as does a European, and more like three times as much energy as does a Japanese citizen,’’ Romney said. “We can do a lot better.’’

Green burials are gaining traction in Washinton are Washington Post

Speed Demons!

World’s Fastest Bird? Chubby Snipe Snaps Nonstop Record National Geographic

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman. No … it’s a great snipe, and this is no ordinary carrier pigeon. We’re talking Concorde class.

Scientists have tracked great snipes in a two-day, nonstop flight across Europe, from Sweden to sub-Saharan Africa. Without resting, these amazing birds traveled roughly 4.200 miles (6,760 kilometers) at an average speed of 60 miles (97 kilometers) an hour.

Ironically the great snipe isn’t considered to be well designed for long flights. The opposite of long and lean, these birds are chubby.

“They almost double their body weight before the flight,” Ray Klaassen, a biologist at Sweden’s Lund University and study leader, said. “And all this fat will be burned during the flight, and they will arrive lean and exhausted in Africa.”

Because they travel over land, the great snipes could stop for a snooze, but choose not to. Their choice to fly nonstop to Africa is even stranger because the birds make several stops on the way home to Sweden in the spring. Perhaps a female great snipe is the leader of the pack.