I hate wasting food. I really hate it. Hence I also hate things like food fights, sculptures made of butter and other foods, and any other occasion where people use food for things other than providing nourishment or eating pleasure. My strong feelings may be due to growing up a country where access to food was not taken for granted. [Read more…]

An Australian nurse who spent years working in palliative care looking after dying people during the last twelve weeks of their lives, recorded their epiphanies at the end of life and has compiled a list of their top five regrets.

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard (most often expressed by men)
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier

[Read more…]

Celebrity chef Paula Deen is being sued by a former employee for sexual harassment and the use of the N-word. In a deposition, Deen freely admitted that she did use the word and added: “It’s just what they are — they’re jokes…most jokes are about Jewish people, rednecks, black folks…I can’t determine what offends another person.” [Read more…]

I totally agree with P. Z. Myers, that this business of making fun of the answers given by women who take part in beauty pageants has to stop. I had do so myself before I realized how unfair it is. The latest victim of this is Marissa Powell, the Miss Utah contestant for Miss USA. [Read more…]

Some time yesterday, this blog passed the two million pageviews mark since I started blogging at FtB on January 10, 2012. Before that I was blogging at my previous home since January 2005, so a lot of words (I estimate about 3,000,000) have emerged from my keyboard since the very beginning.

Thanks to all who read and those who comment. My goal has been to create a community of people who are interested and want to engage in important issues thoughtfully and respectfully, and I think that has been largely achieved.

In the process I feel like I have got to know many of you quite well, even though the interactions haste been entirely online.

Although by now most everyone knows what LGBT stands for (and many even know the expanded LGBTQQIA), it is clear that the transgender community has not reached anywhere near the levels of acceptance that the gay and lesbian (or even bisexual) community has. They still face all manner of serious discrimination, apart from the other complications of living in a society that is not being prepared to deal with this issue. [Read more…]

I have written before that I find the practice of tipping to be distasteful, since it seems to encourage servile behavior and has overtones of the master-servant relationship. Of course, I still tip 20% because the people doing those jobs are almost never paid a decent salary and need the tips to survive. But I wish that they were paid decent wages and benefits so that they were not dependent on tips to make a living. [Read more…]

Watch this dramatic video from security cameras of a narrow escape by two people and a dog from a runaway car that was careening along the sidewalk behind them. What tipped off one of the people to look back and see the danger was the signal given by the guide dog.

You can read the full story here.

When the original NASA Mercury program to train astronauts was set up, a group of women who wanted to be part of the program were subjected to the same physical tests as the men. The result? [Read more…]

Whenever I have seen a ship being launched in the past, it has always slid into the water stern first and it is usually pretty smooth and graceful. In this video, the ship was launched sideways and went into the water like a diver’s belly flop, splashing water over a vast area that not only soaked spectators who tried to run away but sent debris flying dangerously toward them. It is a wonder no one was hurt. For a moment I thought that the ship had actually capsized. [Read more…]