CULTURE/SOCIETY: Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Thanksgiving

While you're preparing, eating or sleeping off your Thanksgiving meal, ponder these bizarre Thanksgiving facts...

http://ti.me/WlSrz0

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: Give Thanks? Science Supersized Your Turkey Dinner

Your corn is sweeter, your potatoes are starchier and your turkey is much, much bigger than the foods that sat on your grandparents’ Thanksgiving dinner table.

Most everything on your plate has undergone tremendous genetic change under the intense selective pressures of industrial farming. Pilgrims and American Indians ate foods called corn and turkey, but the actual organisms they consumed didn’t look or taste much at all like our modern variants do.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/turkeytech/

HUMOR: Pocho History 101: Undocumented Pilgrims of Thanksgiving (video)

The Pilgrims, after all, were boat people fleeing religious oppression, ordinary families seeking freedom in a new land. But no one expects the Algonquin Migra.

http://pocho.com/pocho-history-101-the-undocumented-migrants-of-thanksgiving-video/

CULTURE/SOCIETY: No Thanks for Thanksgiving

Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers.

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

http://www.alternet.org/culture/no-thanks-thanksgiving

HISTORY: Thanksgiving Myths: Give Thanks And Acknowledge The Truth

You are going to have to push aside your turkey (or tofu) leftovers if you are going to learn what really happened at the time of the first Thanksgiving in America. In fact, you may not be able to stomach any food for a while after you learn the truth.

http://www.manataka.org/page2334.html

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Transgender Day of Remembrance: Why We Remember

Transgender people are those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. In 1999 a handful of transgender people sought to highlight the need for awareness around anti-transgender violence, which refers to attacks against people who are perceived as transgender -- regardless of how one may personally identify. To that end, we held the first Transgender Day of Remembrance event in the Castro district of San Francisco, holding the names of those we'd lost in silent testimony.

That was 13 years ago. Today, Transgender Day of Remembrance will be presented in the United States and Canada, Australia, Poland, Russia, the Philippines, South Korea and many other locations across the Earth. The notion of remembering our dead reaches into places that those few who gathered in 1999 could hardly have envisioned.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/gwendolyn-ann-smith/transgender-day-of-remembrance-why-we-remember_b_2166234.html

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Transgender Day of Remembrance: More Than a List of Names

Each observance is different, representing the uniqueness of the local transgender communities that organize them. Some are very formal, others more folksy; some feel like a church service, while others are more like a civil rights rally. However, almost all share one element in common: a reading of the names of people murdered over the last 12 months simply because they were transgender or someone believed them to be. This year's list has 256 names on it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/allyson-d-robinson/transgender-day-of-remembrance-more-than-a-list-of-names_b_2159093.html

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

POLITICS: What The 2012 Election Would Have Looked Like Without Universal Suffrage

A look at the electoral college if only white men voted and another pic if only white men AND women voted. Noticed something different in the middle? Iowan women, I love you!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/what-the-2012-election-would-have-looked-like-with

Sunday, November 11, 2012

ENTERTAINMENT: Donald Duck and his days in The Army

It’s Veterans Day today in the United States. It’s a day where we honor any veteran who have served in the military in our country. My dad, Charles Smith, and his father Charles Smith senior are both vets. My dad served in the Coast Guard for 25 years and my grandfather served and fought in the Korean War. Second to them, obviously, my favorite vet is Donald Duck; and in his honor and everyone else who has served here are some Disney animations featuring Donald Duck and his time served in the Army.

http://theanimationarchive.com/post/35503399755/fall-out-fall-in-1943-directed-by-jack-king

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Sunday Funnies: Veteran’s Day

Today is Veteran’s Day in America. This is a holiday where we show thanks to our military service-people for fighting in wars to protect our freedoms. I’m thankful that I have the freedom of speech. If I were not permitted to voice my opinions, I think I would lose my mind. So this SF we are celebrating our holiday with a few funnies. Enjoy!

http://lezgetreal.com/2012/11/sunday-funnies-veterans-day/

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Veterans Day 101: How Did it Start and What It Means

Veterans Day is a solemn and thoughtful time where we give thanks to all of those that have served in America's military forces. A day where we can hopefully take a brief respite from our partisan bickering to pay homage to those that made it all possible.

Because while the war in Iraq is essentially over, Afghanistan begins to wind down, and we start using drones for everything from surveillance to attacking nothing can replace the efforts of our veterans past and present. And let's hope we can make the right decisions as a country for the sake of the veterans of the future. Here are four things to know about Veterans Day.

http://www.policymic.com/mobile/articles/18928/veterans-day-101-how-did-it-start-and-what-it-means

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

ENTERTAINMENT: Neil deGrasse Tyson ‘finds’ Superman’s homeworld

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s . . . Superman’s home planet!

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has pinpointed a real location for the fictional planet of Krypton.

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/chart-obama-conspiracy-theories