The Homeland Security Department and the FBI on Saturday issued a joint intelligence bulletin to law enforcement agencies around the U.S. following the Chattanooga shootings that killed five U.S. service members, saying that the shooter’s motive remains unclear.

It’s Dylann Roof all over again. The killer makes it as clear as possible why he kills, yet the fear of accepting the social consequences of recognizing what the motive was leads to these silly proclamations. As if people were so stupid that they didn’t understand the motives of these killers well enough even in the face of these denials.

You know what’s really great in the UK? Greek yogurt. It’s nothing like the kind we get here in the US. The British Greek yogurt is actually delicious.

It was first discovered by an American colleague at the conference who started approaching everybody with “Oh God, you have got to try this!” One by one people started trying it and turning into happily moaning creatures.

I have no idea why we can’t get any of the good Greek yogurt here. The only brands of Greek yogurt I’ve tasted in the US have this really harsh taste that I detest. And the British kind is creamy and gentle.

More often than not, abusers hide behind proclamations of love. But here is the key to seeing through their lies: Love is the ultimate form of acceptance and understanding. Do you feel 100% understood and accepted by a person? No? Then this person doesn’t love you. Try this test in your own life and you’ll have your answers.

“”There’s a suburban myth that women’s brains are inherently suited for multitasking; something men cannot understand.” Yes, I’ve heard this bizarre myth, and just like any other proclamation about the non-existent gendered brain, it is a mistake to uphold it.

Small but spectacular discoveries from the Victorian classroom.

Childhood obesity in the US is such an obvious and tragic problem that I don’t see why people need to produce endless screeds trying to convince themselves it isn’t true.

The Nation‘s Putinoids never rest in their attempts to promote their idol’s interests.

“West Virginia University is hiring a “Wikipedian-in-residence” to help close the online encyclopedia’s gender gap. The one-year position, to be filled this fall, will aim to increase the number of Wikipedia articles on West Virginia women and in the field of gender studies by 25 percent, the university said.” I believe it’s actually a great sign that few women are interested in the unpaid work of contributing to Wikipedia. Enough already with giving away our labor for free.

What’s in a prison meal? Photos.

Why did people wear powdered wigs? You’ll never guess the answer.

Very interesting revelations about the Tim Hunt scandal. That story was a lot more complex than we’d been led to believe.

How very pathetic: “ESPN has come under fire for awarding Caitlyn Jenner the prestigious Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs Wednesday night. But RadarOnline.com has learned, it wasn’t initially their idea! According to an insider, Jenner’s reps approached the network suggesting she receive the award — and offering PR plugs on her upcoming docuseries in return.” The whole thing has become simply shameless.

The war on our culture is raging on.

Sharing economy is fleecing economy.

“The policy choice to set minimum floors on universal education is just that, a choice. We could decide that a postsecondary degree is as much a right as a high school diploma. In each era the cost of providing universal education seems exorbitant first, and then normal. Who balks now at finding some way to pay for a public secondary degree? Universal postsecondary public education in the 21st century will become as standard, and as widely acceptable, as universal secondary education in the 20th.” Yes, yes, and YES!

Canadian slang terms.

By God people have sheltered lives: “The final season of Mad Men reminds us how exhausting the “high-quality cable drama” can be — how much pressure there is to watch, to have an opinion, to be up to date on the online dialogue.” Exhausting, pressure – all that about some silly TV show. I wonder what it must feel like to live a life where the only hardship is of this kind.

Worst cell phone case design ever.

Our favorite single blogger has discovered that there is a shortage of women in this society, so it makes zero sense to get too hung up on a single pair of pants. And good for her!

The curious case of Professor Buchanan.

While the Russians are trumpeting their non-existent nano successes to the skies, Israeli researchers created a teeny-tiny nano Bible.

Karen Kelsky’s most stupid article. Just do the opposite of what she suggests here and you’ll be fine.

Fathers’ rights are in the toilet in this country.

[Spanish] Mediterranean cuisine is disappearing! And what a shame.

Michael Jackson’s brother is also a freak. Must run in the family.

Finally somebody is discussing the demands for trigger warnings from the Right.

Extreme bizarredom happens very often: ““Great” books, as defined by the Western canon, didn’t contain female protagonists I could admire. In fact, they barely contained female protagonists at all.” I have no idea how this strange creature managed not to find female protagonists in the Western canon. There is a hundred novels titled with a female name for every single one titled with a male name. How can one miss Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Emma, Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa, Pamela, Effi Briest, Fortunata and Jacinta, Alice in Wonderland, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Rebecca, Moll Flanders, Little Dorritt, Daisy Miller, Mary Barton, Agnes Grey, La Regenta, Manon Lescaut, Thérèse Raquin, Eva Luna, Eugenie Grandet, Belinda, Evelina, Nana, and so on and on. And hey, these are just the titles that contain female names. Actual female protagonists are innumerably more because novels where there are only male characters are very limited in number. You may hate all of these characters – although that’s just weird but managing not to notice their existence and centrality to the Western canon is simply insane. And by the way, I’m really well-read.

U of Toronto slips towards anti-scientism and promotes courses by an anti-vaxxer.

As we there weren’t enough stinky, panting, dribbling dogs, scientists create a robotic one.

Inside Higher Ed defends pedophilia.

An abandoned space ship. Majestic and sad photos.

[Russian] An African-Ukrainian soldier is defending Ukraine from the Russian invaders.

Weirdos abound: people who want to reside in a livable city move from London. . . to Los Angeles! This is the height of freakdom.

“Government regulations and managerial micro-management are escalating pressures on academics, insisting they function as “small businesses” covering their own costs or generating profits. Highly paid university managers (and even more highly paid “management consultants”) are driving these processes, with little regard for, or understanding of, the teaching and research process in higher education. Yet these outdated models of “competitiveness” and “efficiency” have long since been rejected not only by those who believe in quality education as a force for social change but also by progressive business thinking worldwide.” Exactly.

Everything Wrong (Including Yes, Journalistically) With The HONY Gay Schoolboy Photo.

The editor of Charlie Hebdo says that the magazine will not be publishing any more cartoons featuring Mohammad. His colleagues have died in vain, barbarity has won, the values of enlightenment and reason have been discarded.

Tsipras kicked out of his government the ministers who opposed the agreement. It turns out he’s much smarter than I thought. Contrary to the opinions of the childish anti-EUers, failure to reach an agreement would have been an absolute catastrophe for Greece.

Tsipras is finally doing the right thing, and now Greece has a hope for the future. Of course, things would have been easier without the fiasco of the referendum but it’s better to see the light of reason late than never.

What’s curious is how many infantile people  (Ian Walsh is a great example) project their childhood trauma on Greece. They describe the EU as if it were a strict, controlling, even abusive parent and cheer for Greece to effectuate a liberation from this oppressive mandate that they never managed to achieve on their own. And when it turns out that this will not happen, they feel the rage that’s amplified by the realization that once again their hopes of liberation have been dashed.

The situation in Alberta is not good:

One of the largest leaks in Alberta history has spilled about five million litres of emulsion from a Nexen Energy pipeline at the company’s Long Lake oilsands facility south of Fort McMurray.

When will we finally break our tragic dependence on fossil fuels? I’ll be a happy person when we never have to hear the words “oil and gas” ever again.

Today is the first-year anniversary of the crash of flight MH17 that was shot down by Russia’s terrorists in Ukraine. I’m kind of frustrated with the American news cycle where everybody discusses some entirely inane article by David Brooks but nobody has even a glimmer of interest in this tragedy. There have been massive developments in the investigation, by the way.

The tragedy is not forgotten in Ukraine, of course. People are talking about it, writing poetry, demanding that the results of the investigation be made public. Today I watched the recently released video that shows the terrorists who shot down the plane walk around the site of the crash, sifting through the luggage and discussing how they made a mistake and took down a civilian plane.

These victims don’t fit in with anybody’s talking points, they don’t support any reductive worldview, they serve no partisan interests here in the US. And that’s why everybody around here prefers to forget about them.

It’s always very curious to observe how actively people reject any information that doesn’t allow them to repeat some string of trivialities they’ve said a hundred times before.

Both my sister and N love the idea of Uber. They haven’t used it but love the idea of it. So now they are both making fun of me for enjoying its services and betraying the working class.

What’s really weird is that there’s no Uber in St Louis, yet there is Uber in my tiny town close to St Louis. I’m not planning to use it here but I checked out of curiosity.

The sunflowers started getting petals!

This is the one I planted in front of the house to let everybody know that Ukrainians live here.

We have a colibri who visits our house (there is an American word for colibri but I can never remember it). I got a very beautiful feeder for the colibri and filled it with sugary water. The colibri used to like the feeder but now that the sunflowers are in bloom, it prefers to feed from the sunflowers. N says it’s a good thing because the colibri pollinates them.

It’s so good to be home, people. N and I are so in love that even a week away from each other was excruciating. He cleaned the entire house top to bottom to distract himself from loneliness, poor fellow. If I traveled more often, we’d have the cleanest place in the region.

Whenever I hear about yet another “naturalized citizen” who shoots up, blows up, or freaks out, I always wonder how come my husband and I have to experience constant drama with our immigration documents in spite of our utter peacefulness.