1/11/2014::Snooze ya lose, and I was snoozing,,,

How poverty stupefies

The U.S. government spends more than $400 billion a year on a massive safety net meant to keep Americans out of poverty. Although maintaining this social insurance is essential, the needlessly ad hoc and complicated way it “helps” those in need could be making it harder in some respects for them to improve their lives.

This is not to say that the War on Poverty, which President Lyndon Johnson launched on Jan. 8, 1964, in his State of the Union address to Congress, has entirely failed. The poverty rate is about 15 percent now, down from about 19 percent then. All told, safety-net programs kept 25 million people out of poverty in 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

At the same time, old problems and new challenges take their toll. The minimum wage is $7.25, down from the equivalent (in 2013 dollars) of $10.77 in 1968. In the wake of the Great Recession, more than 4 million people have been jobless for 27 weeks or more, twice as many as 10 years ago. There are vast and widening income and asset gaps between rich and poor, and Horatio Alger rags-to-riches myths aside, one study has found that upward mobility is easier to achieve in Canada, Australia or Scandinavia than it is in the United States

From jetpacks to wolf innards, see science's really awesome stuff

If you've been trapped inside these past few days while the polar vortex swooped through North America, you've probably burned through your bookmarked YouTube clips and binge-watched "Breaking Bad" on Netflix. We don't blame you.

But next time you're holed up and have a laptop or smartphone handy, let us be your guide. Here, we have compiled some of the best science YouTube channels:

What Happens When A Language's Last Monolingual Speaker Dies?

Emily Johnson Dickerson died at her home in Ada, Okla., last week. She was the last person alive who spoke only the Chickasaw language.

"This is a sad day for all Chickasaw people because we have lost a cherished member of our Chickasaw family and an unequaled source of knowledge about our language and culture," Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby said in a news release. The has about 55,000 members and is based in the southern part of central Oklahoma.

Dickerson, 93, was one of about 65 people fluent in the Chickasaw language, which has seen its number of speakers shrink from thousands since the 1960s.

Pr. George’s trial in fatal police chase tossed because of juror’s religious beliefs

A Maryland judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of a man accused of causing the death of a 23-year-old Prince George’s County officer during a police chase, after a juror declared that she could not participate because of her religious beliefs.

The juror sent a note to the judge about 1 a.m. on the day deliberations were supposed to resume in the trial of Kevon Neal, 24, of Fort Washington. Neal is facing manslaughter and other charges in the death of Officer Adrian Morris, who was killed Aug. 20, 2012, when his cruiser crashed during the chase on Interstate 95 in Beltsville.

[,,,]
When asked to elaborate, the juror told Circuit Court Judge Michael R. Pearson that “she didn’t have a dog in this fight” and that she wasn’t sure whether there was enough evidence and she didn’t want to be involved, Alsobrooks said. The juror then said she didn’t alert the court sooner because she needed to “do research about her beliefs to discover what her beliefs are.”

Lebanese Library Torched After Blasphemy Accusation

A huge library of books collected by a 72-year-old Greek Orthodox priest but used by the whole community was torched in Lebanon on Friday after he was accused of insulting Islam.

There have been different reports regarding the source of the accusations against Father Ibrahim Sarrouj, who has managed the Al-Saeh (Travellers’ or Pilgrims’) Library in Tripoli, near Lebanon’s northern border with Syria, since 1972.

Lebanon’s Daily Star reports that a fatwa was issued against Fr. Sarrouj because of an article allegedly published by the priest on a Danish website in 2010. However, AFP reports that a pamphlet was discovered inside one of the library’s books, which was considered blasphemous, and that a “sectarian scuffle followed” which ended in the torching of the library. [Trying to leave the snark out, but can we say irony. Thinking the Library at Alexandria and Hypatia.]

Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ tops ebook sales

Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is ranked as the second most downloaded item from the online University Library Project. The 1925 controversial manifesto has also been one of the top-selling political books on iTunes and Amazon throughout this week.

One electronic edition ranked 12th in the Politics section of the iTunes bookstore, with another version ranking 15th. On Amazon, it has been the number one bestselling book in the Propaganda & Political Psychology section.

One possible explanation is that readers feel more comfortable with the level of privacy provided by ebook readers. While readers might not want to have Hitler’s writing on their bookshelves, electronic books allow them to read books like "Mein Kampf" in secret.

Journalist Chris Faraone told ABC News that the phenomenon may be similar to that of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which sold more than 1 million copies on Amazon’s Kindle. While most book titles earn 20 percent of their revenue from ebooks, “Fifty Shades of Grey” has drawn 50 percent of its earnings from digital sales. [Might it be that people are trying to determine for themselves whether President Obama is Hitler reincarnate as some on the right have proposed? There isn't a day that goes by that he isn't compared to Hitler,,,just sayin'.]

Obama Is Paving The Way For The Antichrist,

Claims Pastor Robert Jeffress In New Book 'Perfect Ending' Though Pastor Robert Jeffress insists that he doesn't think that President Obama is the Antichrist, he does make the assertion that Obama's policies are opening the door for the Antichrist in his newest book, Perfect Ending. The Dallas, Tex., based pastor of First Baptist Church has been warning his congregation about Obama for years. "Although President Obama is certainly not the Antichrist, his policies are paving the way for the Antichrist," explained Jeffress in a press release from his publisher. According to the release, the book "focuses on understanding the often-confusing topic of Bible prophecy and explains how Christians can recognize prophetic events that may be taking place in our world—and America's government—today." [Or the anti-Christ.]

Bill de Blasio, New York’s new ‘spiritual but not religious’ mayor

From its historic black churches to large Jewish enclaves to landmark Catholic and Protestant churches, New York City is the ultimate religious melting pot. And now, overseeing it all is a new mayor whose only religious identity seems to be “spiritual but not religious.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio is now perhaps the nation’s most visible “none,” an icon of one of the nation’s fastest-growing religious groups — those without any formal religious identification.

His election could reflect a new kind of American politician — one who is shaped by religion and religious values but is not expected to talk about or bow to religion as in years past, said Jennifer Jones Austin, co-chairwoman of de Blasio’s transition team and the daughter of a pastor.