Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here

Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here (NY Times 2-27-12)

The wholesome image of yoga took a hit in the past few weeks as a rising star of the discipline came tumbling back to earth. After accusations of sexual impropriety with female students, John Friend, the founder of Anusara, one of the world's fastest-growing styles, told followers that he was stepping down for an indefinite period of “self-reflection, therapy and personal retreat.”

Hatha originated as a way to speed the Tantric agenda. It used poses, deep breathing and stimulating acts—including intercourse—to hasten rapturous bliss. In time, Tantra and Hatha developed bad reputations. The main charge was that practitioners indulged in sexual debauchery under the pretext of spirituality.

Early in the 20th century, the founders of modern yoga worked hard to remove the Tantric stain. They devised a sanitized discipline that played down the old eroticism for a new emphasis on health and fitness.

Top five regrets of the dying

Top five regrets of the dying (UK Guardian 2-1-12)

There was no mention of more sex or bungee jumps. A palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days has revealed the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. And among the top, from men in particular, is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'.

'Mein Kampf' Extracts To Be Sold in Germany

'Mein Kampf' Extracts To Be Sold in Germany (Der Spiegel 1-17-12) LINK BROKEN

The Bavarian Finance Ministry takes a similarly strict view of the planned publication of “Mein Kampf.” It declared: “Permission to publish volumes isn't granted in Germany or abroad.” It added that Bavaria would use “all means at its disposal” to fight copyright infringements. Their aim was to prevent the spread of National Socialist propaganda and to send a “clear signal” of opposition to its content, it continued.

McGee regards that as nonsense. “Mein Kampf is an extremely bad book, it is badly written, has awkward language and no internal logic,” he says. “The thoughts are strewn across the whole book.” But he adds that one can only recognize its insanity if one confronts the text.

In McGee's edition, each page contains a column of original text alongside critical commentary. “We're aware of the dark power of this book but it stems from the fact that no one has read it. The aura of being forbidden accounts for its myth,” said the publisher.

Joe Paterno's first interview since the Penn State-Sandusky scandal

Joe Paterno's first interview since the Penn State-Sandusky scandal (Wash Post 1-14-12)

How Sandusky, 67, allegedly evaded detection by state child services, university administrators, teachers, parents, donors and Paterno himself remains an open question. “I wish I knew,” Paterno said. “I don't know the answer to that. It's hard.” Almost as difficult for Paterno to answer is the question of why, after receiving a report in 2002 that Sandusky had abused a boy in the shower of Penn State's Lasch Football Building, and forwarding it to his superiors, he didn't follow up more aggressively.

“I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was,” he said. “So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way.”

Can Sex Ever Be Casual?

Can Sex Ever Be Casual?

(Psychology Today)

Hedy Lamarr's World War II Adventure

Hedy Lamarr's World War II Adventure (NY Times 12-15-11)

That a glamorous movie star whose day job involved hours of makeup calls and dress fittings would spend her off hours designing sophisticated weapons systems is one of the great curiosities of Hollywood history. Lamarr, however, not only possessed a head for abstract spatial relationships, but she also had been in her former life a fly on the wall during meetings and technical discussions between her ­munitions-manufacturer husband and his clients, some of them Nazi officials. Disturbed by news reports of innocents killed at sea by U-boats, she was determined to help defeat the German attacks. And Ant­heil, arguably the most mechanically inclined of all composers, having long before mastered the byzantine mechanisms of pneumatic piano rolls, retained a special genius for “out of the box” problem ­solving.

Teen who had world's youngest sex change op at 16 reveals she has a boyfriend

Teen who had world's youngest sex change op at 16 reveals she has a boyfriend (UK Daily Mail 12-2-11)

Facing life as a man was so unbearable for Jackie Green she tried to commit suicide four times and even attempted to slice off her own genitals.

But now Jackie, who became one of the youngest people in the world to have a sex change at the age of 16, is embracing her new life as a woman and has revealed she has a boyfriend.

The teenager, now 18, was born Jack, but since she was a toddler she acted like a female, wearing girls' clothes and playing with girls' toys.

Charles Darwin the economist

Charles Darwin the economist (LA Times 10-18-11)

With good reason, most contemporary economists regard Adam Smith as the founder of their discipline. But I would instead accord that honor to Charles Darwin, the pioneering naturalist.

Although Darwin had no formal training in economics, he studied the works of early economists carefully, and the plants and animals that were his focus were embroiled in competitive struggles much like the ones we see in the marketplace. His observations forged an understanding of competition that is subtly but profoundly different from Smith's. The celebrated invisible hand theory that Smith developed holds that unfettered markets will ultimately channel self-interest to serve the common good. But this idea is really just an interesting special case of Darwin's more general theory.

Extraordinary love story of couple married for 72 years who died holding hands

Extraordinary love story of couple married for 72 years who died holding hands just an hour apart - and how wife's heartbeat kept her dead husband's heart monitor going (UK Daily Mail 10-20-11)

After 72 years of marriage they had only an hour's separation between them in their passing, yet their locked hands never let go.

The family of the Iowa couple say their life together was a real-life love story, never separated, even after their tragic car accident which sent them both to the hospital.

'They believed in marriage,' Dennis Yeager, the youngest son of Gordon Yeager, 94, and wife Norma, 90, told MailOnline. 'They chose each other and once they had committed, that was it.'

Skinned alive to make fake Uggs

Skinned alive to make fake Uggs: Horrific footage reveals slow, sickening deaths of raccoon dogs (UK Daily Mail 10-4-11)

The original footwear is made from high-quality Australian sheepskin, taken from animals slaughtered humanely, but this footage shows the brutal treatment of creatures in China whose fur is used to make the fake boots.

The raccoon dogs are shown skinned, but still alive and moving, in the distressing scenes filmed by animal rights campaigners. Thrown on a pile, they can take up to three hours to die.