I woke up at 5 to use the bathroom.

[conuly]

This woke up the young cat, Tommy, causing him to start mrowing for love and attention. This woke up everybody else, including Mama Cat, who started mrowing for us to get rid of the intruder. Tommy was ultimately shut in the bathroom, alone, with a pillow that smelled strongly of him and one of the nice humans who gave him three cans of cat food yesterday. All alone, with the smell of other cats all around, and one such cat clearly disliking him, he peed on the pillow.

Well, yeah. So Ana, sobbing, put him out for the day. All the drama was completely unnecessary. In this house he has plenty of doting attention (it was easy to smuggle him in yesterday because he was absolutely exhausted from all the snuggling) and people keep plying him with food. Cats aren't that stupid, they know a food thing when they see one.

I think Ana might even have fed him again just this morning, on the porch.

****************

Ukraine detains 12 riot police on suspicion of 'mass murder'

http://reut.rs/1lpJNhA

Palm oil fuels Indonesia deforestation

Indonesia is the world's top palm oil producer, but that has led to land grabs and violence against indigenous people.

http://aje.me/1kxhpc6

CRIMEA SIDE-EFFECT: ADDICTS DEPRIVED OF METHADONE

http://bit.ly/1dY3CwA

Nigeria GDP rebase on Sunday likely to make it Africa's No. 1

http://reut.rs/OhD1hR

NASA Suspends Some Ties With Russia Over Ukraine Crisis

http://n.pr/Px0CMs

Pakistan: Nine-month-old boy accused of planning murder

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-26887186

Ugandan police raided the offices of a United States-funded project known to offer AIDS services to homosexuals, a government spokesman said Friday, in what appeared to be the first public action by police to enforce a new law that strengthened criminal penalties against gay sex.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/uganda-police-raid-us-project-assisted-gays

Germany opens hearings on U.S. spying

http://wapo.st/1gSJqvu

No, A Super Volcano Is Not About To Erupt In Yellowstone

http://time.com/49654/yellowstone-volcano-eruption-denied/

Two AP journalists shot in Afghanistan, one fatally, ahead of elections

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/04/world/asia/afghanistan-journalists-shot/

Anti-Syrian hostility in Lebanon spawns social media backlash

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26871736

Bobby Jindal Will Take Away Your Insurance, and He’ll Enjoy Doing It

http://nym.ag/1q0dPIU

McDonald's 'temporarily closes' Crimea restaurants

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26882704

Mozilla Co-Founder Brendan Eich Resigns as CEO, Leaves Foundation Board

I'm... actually uncomfortable with this.

Yes, I think anti-gay views are pretty abhorrent, and spending money to promote them is just as bad. And yes, if he has the right to spend his money to promote his views (and he does), the rest of us have the right to spend our money or not in support of our views.

But that doesn't mean I am happy with people having to "voluntarily" resign because of their beliefs. Even if our beliefs are the better ones, which of course I believe they are.

http://on.recode.net/1h906Qz

Graham cracker manufacturer Honey Maid recently ran a commercial titled "This is Wholesome" that depicted many kinds of families, including gay and racially mixed. Said commercial evidently sparked the ire of social conservatives and prompted at least one letter writing campaign denouncing it. As sweet as the original commercial was, Honey Maid's response was just beautiful.

http://www.metafilter.com/137995/A-wholesome-response

The Way You’re Born Can Mess With the Microbes You Need to Survive

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/missing-microbes-antibiotic-resistance-birth/

BORDERLAND

We Took A 2,428-Mile Road Trip Along The Mexico Border: Here's What We Saw

Lots of clicking and pictures, it took me 7.5 minutes to finish. I know, because they told me so.

http://apps.npr.org/borderland/#_

How the secret police tracked my childhood

Fighting the system used to be dangerous anywhere in Eastern Europe. For one protester from a small Romanian village it was disastrous - and also for his family, whose every word was recorded by the secret police. Carmen Bugan, who found the transcript of her childhood, tells their story.

As the article mentions, the transcripts write down every word of, among other things, family fights. Some of the transcribers would even take sides, leaving notes in the margins.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26838177

45-Year-Old Subway Surfer Dies Riding Atop 6 Train, NYPD Says

http://dnain.fo/1fz2qOW

Hummingbird Evolution Is Booming
The successful, 22 million-year-old group could double in its number of species before leveling off

http://bit.ly/1i7oFsh

Climate Deniers Intimidate Journal into Retracting Paper that Finds They Believe Conspiracy Theories

http://bit.ly/1dW3Jsl

Not news, but nifty: HabitRPG

"A free habit building app that treats your life like a game."

https://habitrpg.com/static/front

Warren: Supreme Court clearly hadn't read the newspaper as they struck down campaign contribution limits

Even though voters gave Washington's mayor the boot over money, the court insisted that more money will benefit the system of American democracy.

http://nydn.us/1otqmt1

White House: ‘Cuban Twitter’ not a covert program

http://wapo.st/1kxvYMQ

A new Pew survey out today provides yet another illustration of the failure of America's drug war. By a nearly five-to-one margin, Americans agree that alcohol is worse for you than marijuana. However you slice the data up demographically, majorities say the same thing.

http://wapo.st/1gox7lT

Inequality Kills

http://www.bostonreview.net/us/stephen-bezruchka-inequality-kills