HOMESTEAD, Fla. — An international competition to pave the way for a new generation of rescue robots was dominated by a team of Japanese roboticists who were students in the laboratory of a pioneer in the design of intelligent humanoid machines. The early roboticist, Hirochika Inoue , began work in the field almost a half-century ago at the University of Tokyo, and in the mid-1990s led the design of robots that could both walk […]
NEW DELHI — The police in Bangladesh charged the owners of a garment factory and 11 of their employees with culpable homicide in the deaths of 112 workers in a fire last year that came to symbolize the appalling working conditions in the country’s dominant textile industry. The case is the first time the authorities have sought to prosecute factory owners in Bangladesh’s garment industry, so powerful that the state has long sought to […]
Earlier this month we talked about 19th century doctors who treated women for hysteria with vibrators. Well, Vice has the latest on this today…
In the late 19th century, doctors used vibrators to treat women suffering from hysteria, a fake medical condition that was actually a sexist way of saying, “This lady is very nervous, and she can only be healed by a giant phallic-shaped device.” Thankfully, by the the early 20th century, women were choosing to use vibrators, and in 1952, the American Psychiatric Association stopped seeing hysteria as a medical condition—which is why it initially seems odd that Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a leading Yale University obstetrician and gynecologist, is prescribing vibrators to Yale Cancer Clinic’s cancer patients to help increase their blood flow, give them a great sex life, and combat menopause’s side effects.
Nicole Flatow from Think Progress has been a guest on our show. She writes about the latest Stand Your Ground travesty in the travesty that we call Florida…
A Florida judge dismissed murder charges under the state’s Stand Your Ground law for a man who shot dead a mentally ill acquaintance after he told him he was going to beat him up.
Florida lawmakers have continued to reject moves to repeal or limit the law, and have instead advanced a bill this year to expand Stand Your Ground immunity to warning shots.
A week later, Wagner was doing work outside another unit when Elkins pulled up in his car and allegedly mumbled something about running Elkins over with his car, began to drive away, and then drove forward again to say he was going to beat him up. There is a dispute about whether Elkins had begun to get out of his car, with a witness testifying that Elkins was sitting in the car with the door closed when he was shot, but a blood splatter analysis suggesting the door was partially open. Wagner pulled a gun out of his car and shot him dead.
Here’s that story our Lady Doctor talked about on last week’s show…
The Number of Diagnoses Soared Amid a 20-Year Drug Marketing Campaign After more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith Conners could be celebrating. Severely hyperactive and impulsive children, once shunned as bad seeds, are now recognized as having a real neurological problem. Doctors and parents have largely accepted drugs like Adderall and Concerta to temper the traits of classic A.D.H.D., helping youngsters succeed in school and beyond. […]
GREENVILLE, Ill. — A lifer with a pen sat in the 65-square-foot cell he shares. A calendar taunted from a bulletin board. He began to write. Dear President Obama . He acknowledged his criminal past. He expressed remorse. And he pleaded for a second chance, now that he had served 18 years of the worst sentence short of execution: life without parole, for a nonviolent first offense. Mr. President, he wrote, “you are my […]