Via the BBC:

“When you are actively in your eating disorder, you desperately want someone to understand, and a lot of time you find groups like the pro groups on Facebook that are supportive of you continuing your eating disorder,” she says.

The article mentions that some people go on to seek treatment, making me wonder if this phenomenon isn’t some type of elaborate bait-and-switch, but my first reaction to the idea of a ‘pro-ana’ group was to file them under NAMBLA-ish whackjobs. But unlike NAMBLA, these people seem to be more naive than predatory. Case in point, from the article:

“Hearing girls your weight or smaller say they are fat makes you feel worthless. Ana tips can push you to take it too far and thinspirational pictures give you an unattainable goal.”

Really? Wouldn’t have thought…

In Dusty Archives, a Theory of Affluence, an article in the NY Times has some interesting thoughts on the history of the industrial revolution:

Generation after generation, the rich had more surviving children than the poor, his research showed. That meant there must have been constant downward social mobility as the poor failed to reproduce themselves and the progeny of the rich took over their occupations. “The modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages,” he concluded.

It is fascinating to me that we still do not have a true handle on how we got where we are, and by extension, what it has/is costing us. For, what are we really?

Found via Slashdot

Slate has an interesting discussion on a bill before the US Congress. While many, including myself, would initially cheer such a development as a step towards dis-entanglement from a ‘bad influence’, there is reason for temperance, as is pointed out in the comments of the article.

In the realm of things I don’t understand that other people do, I welcome Zentai.

The one below is purple. And old [circa Dec. 2006].

Procurement of a green one may be necessary for the Jubi Show, however, I don’t know who we would size for one. Maybe Jamma. Maybe Guitar Tom. 😉

Courtesy RW.

UPDATE – Turns out the guy is from Iowa, currently at Pizza Hut in Cedar Falls. Might be time for an interview on the show?

Iowa related politics. Jim’s having difficulty getting his new job.

Found via a DKos article.

Not sure how often you will see these political things. Probably just when they are about Iowa.

Just think of it, man. [MP3, right click-save as]

I know…