Links to Your World, Tuesday June 21

Old Trees Around the World


"As an estimated 70.1 million fathers prepare to celebrate Father's Day in the U.S., recent research shows that their distinct style of parenting is particularly worth recognition: The way dads tend to interact has long-term benefits for kids, independent of those linked to good mothering." (Sue Shellenbarger explains why)


Gallup: “U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25% of Americans are gay or lesbian. More specifically, over half of Americans (52%) estimate that at least one in five Americans are gay or lesbian, including 35% who estimate that more than one in four are. Thirty percent put the figure at less than 15%.” Actual percentage: Around 2 percent.


Read "The War Against Girls" and discover where sex-selection abortions are leading the culture in China and India, now overwhelmingly male after decades of aborting females. And discover the quandry this puts pro-choice feminists: They have no basis for arguing against the bias against baby girls because they have made "reproductive choice" the very definition of feminism. 


"I'm not saying you have to keep up. But at the moment you choose to stop growing, your world will begin to shrink. You'll be able to communicate with fewer people, especially the young. You will only see reruns. You will not understand how to pay for things. The outside world will become a frightening and unpredictable place" (Daniel Wilso for the WSJ, in an article about staying current with technology). 


"A new study suggests that when people don't think critically about their media consumption, they're in danger of assimilating some of the mental characteristics on display. Specifically, researchers found that if the main character in a screenplay was a total imbecile, and people weren't expressly asked to identify differences between themselves and that protagonist, the participants' own cognitive skills were compromised." (story)


Top 10 Myths About Introverts


Pray for Michael Glatze, whose opposition to gay identity is now as famous as his advocacy of it once was.  He'll take a lot of heat for this. 


This guy was so bothered by the wart on his finger that he decided to remove it--with a shotgun. He removed half his finger.