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POPSWhat Modern Men Want in Women? Researchers at the University of Iowa find that men increasingly are interested in intelligent, educated women who are financially stable — and chastity isn't an issue ;-)
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POPSNew Math Theory Explains Toddler's "Word Spurt" A bell-shaped word distribution and a steady child learning rate turn out to be enough to bring about the extraordinary explosion seen in children's vocabularies around this age. McMurray notes that languages have only a small number of very easy-to-learn words and many more intermediate words. So when a baby has been exposed to enough language to learn the easy words, she will acquire just a few words. As she is exposed to more language, she begins to learn the medium words. And because there are a lot of medium words, she is likely to pick up a lot of words at this stage. This, McMurray says, is the vocabulary explosion.
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POPSWant to be President? Kill some birds. Who cares!?!? We're electing someone to be President of the United States. Someone who will be empowered with massive authority who will make decisions that impact the lives of everyone. The fact that they can shoot birds is just entirely irrelevant to me. Scratch that...the fact that they enjoy shooting birds makes me think they definitely should not be president. And i really despise Huckabee referring to killing birds as "knowing the culture of being outdoors." For me, being outdoors consists of activities such as having a catch, lying on the beach, skiing, walking in the park and a lot of other things that don't result in the death of any living being.
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POPSOrigin of State Names GEORGIA. Named after King George II of England, who charted the colony in 1732. HAWAII. An English adaptation of the native word owhyhee, which means "homeland." IDAHO. Possibly taken from the Kiowa Apache word for the Comanche Indians. ILLINOIS. The French bastardization of the Algonquin word illini, which means "men." INDIANA. Named by English-speaking settlers because the territory was full of Indians. IOWA. The Sioux word for "beautiful land," or "one who puts to sleep." KANSAS. Taken from the Sioux word for "south wind people," their name for anyone who lived south of Sioux territory. KENTUCKY. Possibly derived from the Indian word kan-tuk-kee, meaning "dark and bloody ground." Or kan-tuc-kec, "land of green reeds", or ken-take, meaning "meadowland." LOUISIANA. Named after French King Louis XIV. MAINE. The Old French word for "province." MARYLAND. Named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of English King George I.
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POPSThe Power of a Handshake: How Touch Sustains Personal and Business Relationships Recent research from Zak's neuroeconomics lab has shown that the human brain uses oxytocin to unconsciously assess if a person is trustworthy using our memory of past encounters and all of our senses, including touch. If the stranger is a good match for other trustworthy people, the brain releases oxytocin, telling us it is safe to trust. Interesting read.
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POPSGrandually Gaining Legal Ground The reason religious conservatives have largely failed in their crusade to treat gays and lesbians as second-class citizens speaks to what Americans are all about. We may be far from perfect but every attempt at lasting discrimination in this country has failed because--bottom line--when confronted with the basic choice of equality or inequality, the vast majority of Americans will choose equality.
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POPSMediastorm Each photograph represents a different project and a different story...
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POPSAttempted suicide bombing in Iowa According to a Detroit Free Press article on September 14, McMenemy told police he did indeed plan on dying in the explosion he hoped to cause. Via Jill at Feministe
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POPSEdwards has a point: Hillary is Wrong Edwards raises a very good point, something Democrats have an amazing capacity to over look. In 2000 the Democrats ran Al Gore, and he wasn't able to generate enough enthusiasm to secure the white house. In 2004 they ran John Kerry as the "Bush-beater" candidate, and he didn't generate enough enthusiasm to even make people bother noticing the blatant fraud in the election. Dukakis, Mondale, McGovern, and Stevenson were no better. The democrats have run an outstanding array of losers since the mid point of the 20th century. As long as Hilary Clinton remains an establishment candidate with no clear ideological positions and delicately structured plans that only go half way, she won't be winning anything. Also, seriously, if the election came down to Hillary (Bomb Iran) v. Guliani (BOMB IRAN) then we would be looking at a contest where the Daisy Girl add would be considered positive PR!
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POPSAmerica is Hungry for Change The number of Democrats turning out is certainly impressive. And while the Dems opted for change it seems the Republicans are satisfied with the status quo. Keep appealing to that neo-con base during elections and generally ignore them the rest of the year. It seems everyone except the neo-cons are laughing at the naked emperor.
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POPSThe real threat to marriage ... But many of the religious folks would have you believe two guys living together in Iowa is the real threat to marriage ... while somehow a single, teen mother is now the poster child for abstinence education (which obviously didn't work). Am I missing something here, or is this just really stupid.
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POPSAsperatus: gathering storm to force new cloud name No new cloud type has been officially classified since 1951 but Gavin Pretor-Pinney who runs the Cloud Appreciation Society believes that there is a new cloud that deserves international recognition. He calls it asperatus, which means rough in Latin, and he is working with the Royal Meteorological Society to have it officially classified by the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva
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POPSFred Thompson Shakes Up the GOP Primary So, from the conservatives I talk to, here and elsewhere, I get the impression that Fred Thompson would really energize the GOP. The Republicans aren't running as disciplined of a process as they usually do, so it seems this could shake up a rather sloppy field. Who do you think stands to lose the most from F. Thompson's candidacy? Who do you think stands to gain the most? (I see a boost for Tommy Thompson, riding a wave of twin Thompson confusion...)
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POPS California Prop H8 Dishonor Roll Wow. Check it out at the source. I wonder why these folks from other states spent so much money to stop we Cali Queers from marrying, with Iowa and Vermont seeing no H8 $$? Crazy! Lot's of interesting info at the site.
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