As IF Times

link NBAs Jason Collins says U.S. ready for openly gay player – ESPN.

Dateline: San Francisco:  Local hairstylist Federico Assange says he has gotten ‘incredible’ support since coming out as the first openly straight hairstylist in this liberal city, known for its predominantly gay hair salons.   Assange hopes that his revelation will make it easier for other straights to follow his path.

Assange sat down for an interview that was aired by ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, one day after the veteran hair stylist revealed his sexuality in a first-person story posted on Hair Illustrated’s website.

“I think, I know, in my personal life, I’m ready, and I think the country is ready for supporting an openly straight hair stylist,” Assange told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“I hope that every stylist makes a decision that leads to their own happiness, whatever happiness that is in life,” Assange responded. “I know that I, right now, am the happiest that I’ve ever been in my life.”

Assange said he went through something akin to a 12-step program while deciding to come out, dealing with emotions such as anger and denial.

“But when you finally get to that point of acceptance, there’s nothing more beautiful than just allowing yourself to really be happy and be comfortable in your own skin,” Assange said.

Dozens of San Francisco stylists sent messages to Assange after the story was posted Monday, many doing so through social media. The support didn’t stop there, with President Barack Obama also calling to offer his support.

“It’s incredible. Just try to live an honest, genuine life, and the next thing you know you have the president calling you,” Assange said. “He was incredibly supportive and he was proud of me, said this not only affected my life but others going forward.”

While Assange thinks that the world is ready for an openly straight stylist, former icon Vidal Sasoon said Tuesday that  he doesn’t think the fashion and hair industry is ready.

“I don’t think the fashion world is ready, there’s too many gays in the salon rooms and, you know, gays play around too much,” he told NBC Style Radio.

Asked by Stephanopoulos what his story could mean to youth who style hair and are worried about their futures because they are straight, Assange offered a simple piece of advice.

“It doesn’t matter that you’re straight. The key thing is that it’s about great hair,” Assange said. “It’s about working hard, it’s about sacrificing for your client. It’s all about dedication. That’s what you should focus on.”

link Scientists Push “Doomsday Clock” Back a Minute – ABC News

As if. These guys are scientists or closet politicians? This august body which includes 19 Nobel laureates have calculated that the threat of nuclear war is lessened because of the election of Barack Obama. There appears to be a bit of nepotism involved here because they just made Obama a fellow club member, but that’s a coincidence.

It appears that solely because of Obama’s residency in the White House, this group decides that an aggressive U.S. implementation of nuclear war is less likely. Oddly, after long google searches, there is the sum total of, zero, that is none, nada and zip instance of the U.S. ever threatening to embark upon nuclear annihilation of another country. Compare this to recent events where the statesman at Iran’s helm threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and coincidentally is ramping up their nuclear program for ‘peaceful’ purposes. Taking these two facts into consideration, the Nobel gang thinks nuclear war is less likely.

I suppose if Iran began firing off nukes, it would not lead to nuclear warfare worldwide because in the west, tsk tsking is the preferred defence strategy. Fully armed with strong words of condemnation and columns of legal soldiers ready to fight the rhetorical war, the west has refined their methods of engagement. Any conflict would be much more civilized and instead of needless bloodshed by atomic bombs, the worst that could happen are paper cuts on a large scale by the legal protagonists. In which case, vinegar could be the scariest weapon. Judged by this standard, the U.S. is still the most powerful nation on earth based on lawyer count.

Nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy at news conference held at the National Academy of Sciences overlooking the World Trade Center site, said there had been “a shift in world opinion” recognizing that nuclear weapons are “no longer useful to fight wars and are not effective as deterrence.”

If that’s the case, why does the world care whether or not Iran is enriching uranium? Why threaten sanctions against their economy if nukes aren’t effective? If this is a case of them using bullets, while we have ray guns, let ’em have the bullets. Someone should tell North Korea too because I think they’re still playing with radioactive stuff over there.

BAS board member Lowell Sachnoff added, “Global warming is more of a threat than nuclear war.”

!!!!

Ok, now we’re suspicious. He had us going until he went there.