Went downstairs to talk to Jenn, panicked when she wasn't up yet.

Turns out that she gets Presidents' Day off. That's a relief!

Planning my no kids menu for the week, get to eat all the foods they don't like at all. Any suggestions? (Well, of course, you don't know what they don't like. Any suggestions anyway?) I have three days planned for dinner, and I just need three more light meals in case the leftovers run out.

********

The story behind CandyCrush just gets more and more appalling.

http://m.tickld.com/x/i-cant-believe-they-are-doing-this-its-disgusting

Venezuela orders three U.S. diplomatic officials out of the country

http://cnn.it/1j3KPyD

U.N. commission of inquiry likely to condemn North Korea on human rights

http://cnn.it/1nGMqe0

Deep-sea mining 'must responsibly respect ecosystems'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25638838

Prince William orders destruction of Buckingham Palace ivory as part of conservation campaign

http://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/140303/1402171234-lbci-news

Ukraine amnesty comes into force after protesters retreat

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26220905

'Snake Salvation' star Jamie Coots dies from bite

http://bit.ly/1eFvtv2

New lawmaker pushes for more culturally-relevant meals-on-wheels

http://nydn.us/1kNPKGU

Cool Roofs Might Be Enough to Save Cities from Climate Overheating

http://bit.ly/1c94vPO

Career education classes explode in variety

http://usat.ly/1f5Um98

Why Manhattan's Green Roofs Don't Work--and How to Fix Them

http://bit.ly/1j4gmk0

Scientists debunk conservative myth of global warming ‘pause’

http://bit.ly/NYIdrD

Bullying impacts children even after the abuse stops

http://bit.ly/1gv7OCh

New York, California move to ban beauty products containing microbeads

http://bit.ly/1iZAtzI

All you need is love - and some genetic luck

http://bit.ly/Mk0X3E

In World's Best-Run Economy, House Prices Keep Falling -- Because That's What House Prices Are Supposed To Do

http://onforb.es/1ekyd6Q

A few weeks back I read an... interesting homophobic set of screeds in a comment section.

(Oddly enough, reading comment sections can distract me when I'm feeling depressed, and I think we can all agree that I was feeling more or less depressed a few weeks ago.)

This poster was insistent that we shouldn't legalize gay marriage on evolutionary grounds. After all, gays can't reproduce, and that makes them an evolutionary dead end, and we shouldn't encourage evolutionary dead ends. There is so very much wrong with that "logic" that it's hard to see where to start untangling the knot, but what particularly irked me is that everybody who was trying failed to see that his central premise was wrong. (My pointing that out earned me the dubious distinction of being, as near as I can tell, the only person he didn't reply to.)

It seems counter-intuitive, but for a social species - and as a rule, humans are about as social as it gets - failing to reproduce can actually be part of an excellent reproductive strategy. Your mission, after all, is to see that your genes get passed on. That means you want your offspring and that of your siblings to have the best possible chance in life. And for some species, that means limiting competition and maximizing the adult to offspring ratio - which means that only one or two members of the group reproduce, and the others all join together to raise the young. The young get way more caregiver attention, they get more food (because they have more adults to provide it and also because Mom and Dad can get away while the other family members babysit), the death of the parents is not necessarily a death sentence for them (because they have lots of caregivers), and when they are grown they aren't competing with all their cousins for a bite to eat.

It's not the only successful reproductive strategy, but it's not that uncommon. I can think of several species that do that, starting with wolves and moving from there. (Okay, I know I've read of others, wolves are the only ones I can consistently name.)