Tuesday evening roundup

Egypt's got some creative conspiracy theories going.

The Frisky once again calls out other feminist media for reading too much into an ambiguous image.

Wow, that woman should run far away from a man with no balls and his shallow family.

You'd think that Richard Cohen's poignant column about being cuckolded would have inspired compassion, and it did, until the "but I get it because, I mean, she is hot" part.

Oh, contrary to what my mom and one of my friends continuously tried to beat into my head last year, guys apparently do care how smart you are (and I agree, it's about intellectual curiosity, not 'plain' knowledge).

American Airlines flight attendant makes a big, unnecessary deal out of nursing on account of another passenger who didn't seem to care. Maybe flight attendants could turn their attention to calling out parents who don't try to shut up their screaming kids, rather than the parents who are actively working on keeping them quiet?

If you're a lazy drunk, go with whiskey; it takes less energy.

Bitchy Resting Face has gone even more mainstream! (Hat tip to Jay.) And OMG I hate "are you okay? why are you so quiet?" Shut the f* up.

I can't wait until this lab-meat thing dies down because I'm already sick of it, but I know (all three of) you expect me to keep covering it, so here it is:

• This is what I was talking about yesterday--no matter what some people think of lab-grown meat, its invention brings them to discuss the apparently "obvious" problems with traditional meat:

There’s no question that our current system of industrial animal agriculture is damaging to the environment, harmful to animals, dangerous for workers, and creating a potential crisis for public health.

•  Tom Philpott's take:

I don't care if tech barons lavish their cash on grand, unlikely techno-fixes. I just hope the effort doesn't distract from the necessary, difficult task of convincing people to eat much less meat—and when we do eat meat, to relying on meat from animals that feed on stuff we can't eat directly, like cows that live and munch on well-managed grasslands.

This is kind-of revolutionary, at least to me: people are talking about our "current system of industrial agriculture" as a clear-cut, unambiguous debacle.

Meanwhile, in Germany, some people think it's crazy to go a day without meat.

Oh, and this comment pretty much sums up my take on vegan purity contests, as discussed yesterday, but here's a more reasoned approach to the issue.

On the claim that gluten-free solves everything:

The problem with this premise is that there’s little evidence to support it.

“It’s really a small group of people who have a pathological response to gluten,” Cheskin says. “And for them it’s absolutely essential to eat a gluten-free diet. Everyone else may be limiting their choices unnecessarily.”

Limiting those choices may not always be a bad thing, however, Katz says. “If you cut out crackers and cookies and cakes, you’re taking in a lot fewer calories, and you may lose weight,” he says, “but it has nothing to do with the gluten.”

The article goes on to say that paleo is not a bad diet if done right, but note that if you look closely, that's centered around its elimination of processed foods, which is the key throughout the assessments of all the diets.