Friday evening roundup

Elephants have souls. Yes I know I already linked to this, but it's adorable.

They're more than their ivory.

In other animal news: that's one phallic worm. Also, for what it's worth, male chimps prefer older females.

Sigh. More body wars. Carolyn took the side of the letter-writer entirely, but I would have said something about how these friends are perfectly entitled to prefer smaller "paunches" on themselves without it being an issue for the letter-writer. Isn't she taking their preference too personally? I guess this is analogous to porexia: I know I have pretty good skin, comparatively, but can't I still want smaller pores?

My primary excitement about the Galaxy S4 is that its launch will make the S3 cheaper by the time I'm eligible and/or ready for an upgrade. I agree that most of these features are solutions looking for a problem.

The last part of Hugo Schwyzer's piece resonated most:

[A]s long as we believe that men are uniformly incapable of being exciting, reliable, and emotionally aware life companions, we'll continue to mock and shame young women who make romance a priority in their lives.

I'm increasingly sick of dating advice--and I read it for the sociology, not the advice--that puts all the responsibility on the women: "learn the one trick that will make men commit." It could be "the one thing" that chases them away. The one secret. The one key to a man's heart. F* these men. It's their f*ing loss.