All about me

Better sit down for this one:

War and politics are largely ignored by American teenagers, according to a Harvard University study released on Tuesday, which found that 60 percent of them pay little attention to daily news.

Well, I am stunned:

Muscular men really do get the girls more often than their less brawny brothers — at least in the short term, research suggests.

The well-muscled are twice as likely to have more sex partners, flings and affairs than those with less toned and chiseled physiques. But in the end, the research suggests, women tend to choose the less buff for long-lasting love.

A few days late, but a shout-out on the 100th birthday of Robert Heinlein. He is considered somewhat of a godfather of modern libertarianism, so it's approrpriate that he's remembered by Reason magazine:

Florida was the first state to make its no-retreat law apply outside the home (Indiana is now one of at least 13 others), creating an automatic assumption that the use of deadly force is justified in warding off an attacker in just about any public place. The gun-control lobby warned that we would see a shooot-first mentality and a wave of vigilante justice. Instead, what seems to have happened is that prosecutors say they are confused by the laws and think others are, too.

The folks at Pew Research, apparently bored with divining our opinions of Iraq, illegal immigration and the 2008 presidential race, turn to something truly important, how we feel about our pets:

Fully 85% of dog owners say they consider their pet to be a member of their family, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

And most cat owners (78%) feel the same way.

Aw, people still care about us baby boomers:

Though Indiana employers recognize that their workforce is getting older, few are taking concrete steps to manage the transition as the baby boom generation begins to reach retirement age, according to a new report from the University of Indianapolis' Center for Aging & Community.

Turning back the, er, wheels of progress:

LEESBURG, Va. - Drive-through service windows soon could be banned in parts of Leesburg if two members of the town council get their way.

Why I am a wine drinker:

Put samples of half a dozen or so mass-market American beers before a panel of drinkers in a blind taste test, and even the most confirmed quaffers would be lucky to match two to the right brand.

None of you is probably quite the newspaper freak that I am, but you could still have a lot of fun at the Newseum's "Today's Front Pages" site that I link to on my blogroll. A search function is coming soon, but already there are some interesting features. There is, for example, an analysis of the day's front pages. The one for yesterday, surprise, surprise, notes that a lot of newspapers had a lot of photos of American flags.

Let's go smirting:

FORGET speed dating, blind dates and the web