Today In Mildly Interesting Trivia

The above is what results when you microwave Ivory soap.

Bill Nye On Climate Change

And he takes the Fox News host to school along the way.

Snake Oil

I consider most dietary supplements to be useless scams. (Including 99% of everything on the shelves at GNC.) Give me hard serious chemistry, not hippie-inspired hooey. Hit the link for a giant version of the above assessment.

The Changing Face Of AIDS

Hit this link for a huge interactive version of the above image. Definitely worth a few minutes of your day.

Mark King Attends The ADAP Conference

JMG reader Mark King sends us his recap of the AIDS Drugs Assistance Program (ADAP) conference, boiling the entire event down into a few minutes.

Tony Perkins On Gay Dick Size

"As a pro-family organization, we would prefer not to use R-rated language in reporting the news--but in our current culture of sexual dysfunction, sometimes it can't be helped. Fiscal and social conservatives should have no trouble uniting in outrage over the news that federal taxpayer money from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was used to subsidize a researcher studying the size of the male sex organ in homosexual men. The researchers wanted to see what difference size made for the men's 'sexual health.'

"The main difference they found was in the positions assumed when such men engage in a certain sexual act, which former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop rightly called 'simply too dangerous to practice.' Men having sex with men is a high-risk activity that should be discouraged altogether, not subjected to bizarre research at taxpayer expense. Let's tell President Obama, Congress, and the NIH: We'd like to keep our own money and use it to raise our own families." - Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, reacting to a NIH study of gay male penis size.

Another Penis Size Study

A 2009 NIH study of penis size and gay men is just now getting publicity. The study reveals little unknown to most of you, I'm betting.

This particular research resulted in a 2009 report titled, "The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men." The study reported, among its findings, that gay men with "below average penises" were more likely to assume a "bottom" sexual position, while those with "above average penises" were more likely to assume a "top" sexual position. Those with average penises identified themselves as "versatile" in the bedroom. Though it's difficult to trace exactly how much federal funding went to the project, the study was one of many linked to an $899,769 grant in 2006. The grant was administered by NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, and went first to a group called Public Health Solutions and a researcher with the National Development and Research Institutes before going to individual researchers.

The wingnuts are rushing out of the woodwork to denounce the study, of course.

OHIO: Catholic Bishop Bans Raising Money For Breast Cancer Research

Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair has banned his parishes and schools from participating in any fundraising for breast cancer research. Because one day, maybe, some of that money might be used for stem cell research.

Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair sent a letter banning the fundraising for Susan G. Komen for the Cure to all priests and parishes in the 19-county diocese over the weekend. Cincinnati's archbishop earlier this year decided that schools and parishes in the 19-county Cincinnati Archdiocese cannot raise funds for Komen for the same reason. Scientists say research on embryonic stem cells, which are usually taken from discarded embryos at fertility clinics, may lead to cures for diseases. The Catholic Church maintains that the destruction of the embryo amounts to the killing of human life.

The Komen Foundation says it has never funded stem cell research.

One-Eyed Baby Albino Shark

The jury is out on whether this is photoshopped, but either way I'm seeing a new Disney character.