Tiger mom, sure, but don't mess with a walrus either. When a Russian navy landing boat got too close to her calves, a mama walrus sank it for them, CNN reports.  

The Russian navy did their best to salvage their pride, writing, "Serious troubles were avoided thanks to the clear and well-coordinated actions of the Northern Fleet servicemen, who were able to take the boat away from the animals without harming them."

A recent analysis of Board of Director's political makeup of S&P 1500 firms found that in 276 cases of financial misconduct, those whose members donated to conservative politicians (a reasonable proxy for their own proclivities) were 3X more likely to dismiss a CEO than liberal Boards.

The implication is that, at least when it comes to financial matters, the primary reason companies exist, conservatives will demand more ethical conduct.  The authors believe they have addressed sample‐induced endogeneity and alternative explanations with additional analyses.

If this holds up, how else might the ideology of board members influence critical actions companies take?

Given a choice between eating brown rice or white rice, many people pick brown, citing the clean, natural, brown rice as a way to be healthier while white rice has been marketed as unhealthy because it is more "processed."

That's a meaningless marketing designation, though not as dumb as "ultra-processed." All food is processed. If you have ever tried eating rice or wheat out of the ground, you know that.

When it comes to calorie, protein, carb, fat, and fiber content, they are nearly identical and the difference between them is almost as biologically meaningless as eating non-GMO pumpkin whatever (there is no GMO pumpkin.)

The number of birds in North America has declined by 3 billion, according to one group's estimate, and New York Times is sounding the alarm over it, like they sound the alarm over everything.

But this was written by Carl Zimmer, who's not usually prone to hyperbole, so it's surprising to see him taking an estimate based on amateur logs as fact, and then quoting Rachel Carson, author of the activist Bible called "Silent Spring."  (1)

When the political debate about abortion was the rage there was concern by some that it was modern day eugenics. Federal abortions would overwhelmingly impact minorities, they said, while others argued that abortions controlled by states meant only wealthy people got them.

A few years ago, the Obama administration disclosed what must have been painful - the Russians were using donor-advised funds to send "dark money" donations to American environmental groups who were being "useful idiots" for them - the term Communists use for western liberals von Mises described in 1947 as "confused and misguided sympathizers."

On Slate, Rich Juzwiak recounts a situation where a man with a persistent depressive disorder who had sex with a transgender guy said the transgender man worried about sexual transference of gut microbes and transmittal of depression thereof.

Well, it's on YouTube and that has authority to a lot of people, and it involves gut microbes and claims of studies in mice, both of which are so abused by (a) unethical researchers and (b) hucksters selling fancy supplements it's hard for the public to know what to trust.

"Numerous studies have indisputably demonstrated that particulate inhalation results in health problems far beyond the lungs," write the authors of an article in Nature Communications saying they can detect small micron particulate matter in a few placentae and therefore, what, that birth defects are probably happening?

The weather has always been political, writes Jeva Lange in The Week. The ability to anticipate and react to weather-related events separate leaders from has-beens.

But only very recently has the uncertainty of weather prediction also started to be exploited for political gain. And both sides do it. Warmer than 1980? Blame climate change. Fewer hurricanes? Blame climate change. And opponents of climate science engage in the same cherry-picking.