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A Pakistani couple was jailed this week because the husband had undergone sex reassignment surgery to become a man before he married his wife:
A Pakistani court has jailed a married couple for three years for perjury after a dispute over the husband's sex.
Last week the court ruled that the husband was, in fact, a woman, despite sex-change surgery and that the couple had lied about his sexual status. [BBC]
A camera billed as the world's oldest fetched 600,000 EU (approx. $870,000 US) at auction:
The daguerreotype camera, made by French firm Susse Freres no later than 1839, was found in a German attic and sold at a Vienna auction house.
Bids came from around the world for the daguerreotype, said by an expert to be the only remaining Susse Freres model.
The daguerreotype process, only perfected in 1839, was judged the first viable form of commercial photography. [BBC]
Self-styled anti-obesity crusader MeMe Roth told Neal Cavuto that 17-year-old Jordin Sparks didn't deserve to win American Idol because of her weight. [Watch.]
Who is this delusional scold, and how did she she get on TV?
Google tells me that MeMe Roth is the founder of a group called National Action Against Obesity.
She also has a blog called Wedding Gown Challenge on which she exhorts people to maintain their college weight throughout their lives. That's not necessarily such bad advice for people who a relatively healthy lifestyle in college. It seems more reasonable to use each individual's lowest stable adult weight to estimate that person's ideal weight, as opposed to some arbitrary height-weight ratio.
However, Roth doesn't seem prepared to apply that standard when she can elevate her public profile at the expense of a healthy-looking 17-year-old girl like Jordin.
According to NAAO's website, the group has trademarked the term "Secondhand Obesity™" to denote 'obesity handed down from one generation to the next, as well as from citizen to citizen.'
That's right: MeMe Roth's group asserts that obesity is a communicable condition. Hence Roth's willingness to berate Sparks, I suppose. According to Roth's crackpot theory, Jordin is a vector for fatness. A veritable typhoid Mary, scarcely afflicted herself, but suppressing national leptin levels over the airwaves.
Notice how this "Secondhand Obesity" metaphor frames weight as a matter of personal culpability. I agree that bad environments predispose people to be sedentary and badly nourished.
However, the NAAO's concept of secondhand obesity makes it sound like obese people themselves are endangering others, as opposed to the modern living conditions that make everyone less healthy and some people fat.
The NAAO is trying to make it sound like parenting or performing with a few extra pounds is akin to chain smoking in a daycare center.
Because nothing fights obesity like berating healthy people until they stay very quiet and still. Good thinking, MeMe!
Roth was nearly arrested for attempting to confiscate confiscate sprinkles and other goodies from a Pennsylvania YMCA. She decided that the folks at the fitness center were too fat:
Roth cites an overrepresentation of obesity among employees and volunteers, including the Philadelphia Area Spring Valley YMCA in Limerick, PA where she had come to exercise Tuesday. She assumes the membership falls closely in line to the U.S.'s national obesity figures: two-thirds of adults overweight -- one-third of children overweight. The YMCA recently completed its own version of The Biggest Loser. [PRnewsnow]
Roth also engineered a boycott of the women's magazine Redbook in retaliation for a March cover story entitled "We Love Your Body From Size 2 to 20."
What drives MeMe? She says that Eddie Van Halen made her promise never to get fat.
HT: Zuzu.
The Washington Post reports that Blackwater security contractors have opened fire on Iraqis twice last week.
Surely, that's not newsworthy in and of itself. Surely, Blackwater contractors shot at Iraqis every day. There, after all, at least 20,000-30,000 of these heavily armed mercenaries operating in Iraq, doing some of the most dangerous jobs.
Here's the more interesting part:
Matthew Degn, a senior American civilian adviser to the Interior Ministry's intelligence directorate, described the ministry as "a powder keg" after the Iraqi driver was shot Thursday, with anger at Blackwater spilling over to other Americans working in the building.
Degn said he was concerned the incident "could undermine a lot of the cordial relationships that have been built up over the past four years. There's a lot of angry people up here right now." [WaPo]
Sounds like Degn is hinting at the potential for a much larger backlash against Blackwater in Iraq.
According to the article, Iraq's Interior Ministry is nominally responsible for regulating private security firms and investigating complaints against security contractors. The ministry has recieved four complaints about Blackwater shootings in the past two years, but until recently, the Iraqis couldn't investigate because of a CPA order granting Blackwater immunity from the Iraqi legal system. Blackwater still refuses to register with the Interior Ministry, as required by Iraqi law.
Today's FlickrFind.
Uncle Hank, Nana Christine, and Dad celebrate their birthdays together.
My uncle, my dad, and my grandmother had a joint birthday party in Vancouver this week.
I made their birthday cake. Recipe follows.
Nana Belle's Pound Cake
Have all ingredients at room temperature:
2 cups sifted cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
5 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Butter and flour the cake pan.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
4. The bowl of a large mixer, cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Keep the speed low on the mixer.
5. With the mixer running, add an egg. Beat until incorporated, add about 1/5 of the flour. Alternate eggs and flour until both are done.
6. Spoon mixture into prepared pan.
7. Bake at 350 until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean, approximately 45 minutes-1 hour for a loaf pan, a bit less for a round cake. Start checking after 30 minutes to get a sense of how the cake is progressing.
8. Cool on a wire rack.
9. Serve with strawberries and whipped cream.
Earlier this month an obscure Florida-based firm called Odyssey Marine Research hauled up $500 million in sunken treasure from an undisclosed location in the Atlantic ocean.
Brett Arends of the Street did some exploring of his own and learned that John Edwards may be among the beneficiaries of OMR's haul:
Biggest shareholder: New York-based Fortress Investments, a private equity and hedge fund manager. Senior adviser and major investor: John Edwards.
Edwards' personal financial disclosures show he's an investor in the exclusive Drawbridge Global Macro Fund, which owns the 9.9% stake in OMR.
Ten percent of $500 million. After costs, of course. [TS]
