National Review scribe Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, tackles the PNAS study I discussed in Women In Science: No Discrimination, Says Cornell Study and comes to the same conclusion virtually everyone except people who refuse to believe in any data at all accepts - while discrimination was obviously once endemic in academia and everywhere else, it is no longer there.   

The most fit will survive to reproduce, passing on their genes to the next generation. This, of course, is Darwin's theory of natural selection. An individual pursues the most genetically fit partner to pass on favorable traits to offspring, increasing their chance of reproductive success.

But it is 2011, and with hair gel and a dearth of natural predators, humans function outside of these bounds. Fathers do not hunt for food, and mothers do not fight off tigers. The act of survival simply is not that difficult — most everyone lives to reproductive age. So how do humans choose a mate?

Lady Gaga may seem outrageous but everything about her is meat dresses and crazy hair is so pre-planned it's downright...conservative.

Conservatives like the way it was and, for everyone who has listened to "Born This Way", her new single, she likes the way it was too - namely when Madonna did "Express Yourself."

Tris McCall at the Star-Ledger says what everyone has been thinking yet radio (and music) people won't say, lest she last as long as Madonna and ignore them in the future for present-day slights:

We can complain about the knowledge of Americans (while simultaneously complaining that modern school efforts 'teach the test' and focus on facts rather than on critical thinking) but Russians are farther behind.   

One in every three Russians thinks Sol revolves around the Earth, rather than the Earth orbiting the sun.  29% believe man and dinosaurs co-existed.

Maybe they are really good at critical thinking, though, and just don't know some facts.

Pas de Calais was the smart choice for an invasion by the Allies in 1944 - it had a port that could easily be used for the largest ships and was a short distance to England.

Kathy Weston's personal tale of how a promising academic career gradually went off the rails as her interests changed.   No discrimination, she has no white, male privilege to blame, the job ending up being different than what she wanted as she matured.

It's interesting stuff.  Give it a read.

The early reviews of the iPhone on Verizon are that it's much better if you use the iPhone as a phone.    Data may be something else.    Solution: Wait for the iPhone 5 unless you truly want this thing or use it all of the time and hate AT&T.

Sample - Laptop Mag's Mark Spoonauer:

The iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless delivers the reliable data and voice coverage AT&T has failed to provide, making this device a dependable partner for work and play. Everything we love about Apple's smart phone

Government-sanctioned, drug-fueled raves?  Sure, if it makes sense to have elementary school children putting condoms on bananas, it certainly makes sense (this is L.A. we are talking about) to issue fliers to rave participants on how to not off themselves taking the illicit, schedule 1 drugs they are not legally allowed to take.

Dennis Romero at the LA Weekly Blog was kind enough to post a copy so all of you responsible parents in less progressive parts of the nation can teach kids how to roll without overdosing.

You might think Romania is famous for vampires (and in the later part of the 20th century, hot female spies) but witches are getting some attention too.

Just not the good kind.   First, they started getting taxed.  Yes, to practice witchcraft they have to pay a fee but now they can be fined if they make predictions that do not come true.