A Very Natural World Tour

In honor of my encounter with a very open and maternal FC Barcelona fan, I present to you some highlights of strange things from cultures besides our own:

Trying to teach your daughter (or son, for that matter) about the joys of nursing? Fear not! Baby Glutton is here, complete with nipple jet pack and sound effects! Thank you, Spain!

For those skittish about the idea of urination, the Baby WeeWee is designed to ease your way into a world free of diapers. Thank you, Britain!


But wait - Worried that little Baby WeeWee is going to kill the environment every time he flushes? Don't worry! SOS Mata Atlantica, a Brazilian environmental group, has a new ad campaign that it says can save 1,157 gallons of water a year! Thank you, Brazil!

Just Dance?

Proving for once and for all (one hopes) the age-old saying about books and covers: Presenting Susan Boyle.

Saletan summarizes a British Medical Journal piece recapping stuff we've heard before, but the numbers bear repeating: 124 boys born to every girl. 32 million more males under age 25 than girls. Why? "Sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males."

Gallup has a treasure-trove of social science polling data on its site, none particularly inspiring. To wit:

• "Attendance among Roman Catholics dropped from 75% to 45%" from 1955 to the present day. "Whatever the causes, it is clear that U.S. Catholics' once-nearly uniform obedience to their church's requirement of weekly mass attendance has faded, and Catholics are now no different from Protestants in their likelihood to attend church."

• In a similar (and I don't think unrelated) vein, "Despite the Roman Catholic Church's official opposition to abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, a Gallup analysis finds almost no difference between rank-and-file American Catholics and American non-Catholics in terms of finding the two issues morally acceptable."

[Click to see full polls.] More probably to come as I come across them.

Crossing my Ts and dotting my Irish eyes

For those who are hoping for an exciting football season next year, team profiles by MSNBC/The Sporting News and ESPN.com can not help but raise anticipation and excitement a little.

I apologize for the following heft. My virtual post-it is groaning under the weight of so many abandoned links.

"I think me and the person I do it with will both profit greatly from the deal." - I can't see how that $2.5 million investment is worth it for any sane male at any stage in life, but what do I know...After all, America's consumed with an irrational obsession with purity, apparently. So what better to do than turn it into a game? Rah rah capitalism!

In the mood for music? Zap! Jesus is a friend of mine that has got to get into my life. Two for one! The accompanying videos are what basically make the both of them, though. Please share.

***PARTISAN INTERLUDE*** "Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits." In 1999.

"In another [study,] a white rat in a maze repeatedly beat groups of Yale undergraduates in understanding the optimal way to get food dropped in the maze. The students overanalyzed and saw patterns that didn’t exist, so they were beaten by the rodent." Innnnnnnteresting.

From your local Heritage automaton: A Doctor's Right. But seriously, though, why can't we just let them do what they think is right? Please?

That's enough for now.