Trump ordered that the term Homo sapiens be changed to Hetero sapiens. In history books and on websites, the airplane from which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima will no longer be identified as the Enola Gay, but rather the Enola Straight. Trump also ordered billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, to change his name to Mark American. If he does not do so, he will be charged with terrorism.   read more

Constituents tended to support gay marriage and universal health care by 10% more than their representatives had assumed. The disconnect was even greater among conservative politicians, who tend to be 20% more conservative than the people they represent.   read more

This is the second time a President of the Fifth Republic has been indicted. After Jacques Chirac was accused of embezzlement while he was mayor of Paris, in a mild surprise, Nicolas Sarkozy, after five years of proceedings, has been accused of taking advantage of Liliane Bettencourt’s mental weakness.   read more

An estimated 110 tons of deadly DDT, lying for years on the ocean floor off the coast of Palos Verdes, California, has been recalculated to be around 14 tons, according to a report in Environmental Health News. And no one is quite sure what happened. The contamination could have been overestimated before, underestimated now or unexpectedly dechlorinated into something harmless. Or the pesticide could have dissipated into the water where it would be absorbed by all manner of creatures.   read more

The switch gets the companies out of certain reporting requirements by the Food and Drug Administration—like revealing any deaths or ailments associated with the products. Bad publicity has caused Monster Energy’s stock value to plunge more than 40% in a year.   read more

The bra measures heat patterns and breast shapes, and its built-in computer can compare the data to stored information about cancerous tissues, according to the company, which claims a 90% accuracy rate for the product. Clinical trials have been performed on the bra, and First Warning Systems hopes the FDA will approve it in time for the bra to go on sale within a year.   read more

Vance-Cooks joined GPO in 2004 and has held a succession of senior management positions. She was named chief of staff in January 2011, and was promoted to deputy public printer in December 2011 by Public Printer Bill Boarman, whose recess appointment expired at the end of 2011 when Senate Republicans blocked a vote on his nomination.   read more

That rider (referred to by some opponents as the “Monsanto Protection Act”) authorizes the USDA to nullify any federal court decision that bans the use of GE crops. Critics also noted that the provision was approved without any vetting in the agriculture or judiciary committees. The only good news for opponents of the rider is that it can only be in effect for the life of the continuing resolution, which is about six months.   read more

Forty-three percent of travelers who have visited the United States told surveyors that they will recommend others avoid a trip to the U.S. because of the entry process, and one in seven travelers said they missed a connection because of long delays at Customs, causing them to cancel hotel reservations, car rentals and other activities.   read more

Federal regulators have busted Neiman-Marcus and two other retailers for selling products marketed as containing fake fur, when in reality the fur was real. Why would businesses sell the real deal, which presumably is worth more, as something fake and less valuable? Because demand for real fur has declined, while stores have had trouble keeping fake fur in stock, leading at least these three companies to do what would have been unthinkable years ago.   read more

City administrator Sandra Underwood was accused of instructing male public works employees to bring their own TP, claiming the workers were using far more paper than female employees. Underwood denied the charge. The town’s mayor and aldermen only learned of the decision after a local citizen raised the subject at a council meeting, and suggested starting a fundraiser so the male workers wouldn’t have to pay for their own toilet paper.   read more

In arguing that GPS vehicle tracking be a warrant-free tool of law enforcement, the Obama administration is claiming that the prevention of terrorism in the U.S.—in addition to fighting conventional crime and drug trafficking—is a primary reason that the court should rule in its favor. It also requests a lower standard that would allow police to attach GPS devices—merely “reasonable suspicion” rather than the Constitutional requirement of “probable cause.”   read more

Respondents were told that a nuclear attack on the lab would be twice as likely to succeed as a conventional attack. However, while 100 innocent bystanders would be killed in the non-nuclear assault, 25,000 people would die in the nuclear strike. In spite of the huge loss of life, 39% of the respondents chose the nuclear option. And 52% said they would approve of it as well if they learned about it after the fact.   read more

In total, these wars are costing the government $40 billion a year to compensate veterans and survivors. World War I still costs taxpayers $20 million a year, World War II $5 billion and the Korean War $2.8 billion. The total cost of the Vietnam War, estimated to be more than $1 billion in current dollars, includes $270 billion paid out in benefits.   read more

The institutionalized abuses in Iraq owe much to the abuses committed by U.S. and Iraqi forces during the U.S.-led occupation of the country, according to Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The abuses set in motion over 10 years ago by the Bush administration’s ‘torture memos,’ and the brutal detention policies that followed, facilitated Iraq’s creation of a system that is today either unwilling or incapable of delivering justice to its citizens.”   read more

Big Business hasn’t paid anywhere near 35% because of tax breaks. One analysis showed that from 2008 to 2012, the largest corporations paid an average of 8.1% in federal taxes. Meanwhile, they have seen a doubling of profit in less than 10 years. In some cases, major companies, like General Electric, paid no taxes, while others, such as ExxonMobil, paid just 2%.   read more

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll (pdf) found that 58% back same-sex marriages, which represents quite a change from only three years ago when opponents still outnumbered supporters on the issue. The shift in support occurred in part because of a change of opinion among some conservatives. A slim majority of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents under the age of 50 now support gay marriages, according to the survey.   read more