Wednesday evening roundup

Britain is skittish about immigration.

The fact that it's f*ing freezing does not defy the reality of climate change.

Gamma ray bursts and neutron stars or black holes, oh my!

Drivers, too, can be better at sharing the road.

Small fish are no longer generally sustainable as people food.

Watch out for food fraud.

Don't buy the hype; eat wheat. 

This is so true in general, and it's also true that "Russians are die-hard askers." My mother breaks the asker rule, though, by not being willing to take "no" for an answer; askerism is contingent upon the asker respecting the 'no' the first time around. And I've had to 'no' another Eastern European more than once on the same ask and found it highly annoying. Anyway, I was horrified a few months ago when a friend missed his plane out of National and didn't directly ask whether he could crash here (I told him, next time call, don't text, so I definitely hear it, but he explained that he wanted to give me the option of pretending not to have gotten the text). Conversely--I'm (usually) an asker but also an offerer--when I offer something, especially food, I only get annoyed when people hesitate to take it out of politeness (not taking it because they don't want it is fine). But yes: I've found this dichotomy (or spectrum) to be an issue with dating.

I'd like to add my two cents (no pun intended) to the Android-is-not-just-less-expensive argument. I love my SII and I do not want an iPhone, based on my experiences using other people's iPhones as well as using an iPad now. I've thought about it, but I just like Android that much more.

This column is generally hilarious but it brings us back to the issue at the heart of Facebook: it's a medium made for sharing $hit (no pun intended, again) no one else cares about. If you're on Facebook and you, too, share your own $hit, don't complain when other people share theirs or their kids.
Also: does anyone else think it's awesome that Jezebel has a "poop" tag?

Speaking of over-sharing and ironic tags, I thought about creating a tag on this blog for posts that address the size of my ass, but I thought better of it. I'm hoping we (mom, the GH) can just stop talking about it.

I don't eat anywhere fancy enough that photographing food is an issue.

I'm going to try washing my hair with baking soda.

What's your courtesy style?