Friday morning roundup

China's reeducation camps essentially reexploit prostitutes.

Is AA's exclusively cold-turkey model hurting recovery efforts?

David Brooks wrote under a misguided definition of science. I've been thinking about that as I scroll through my Twitter feed: I enjoy the images from @SciencePorn (and others), but they're only incidentally science-related, in that everything is science-related. Science isn't just beautiful images. I guess that's why it's called "science porn."

Do you have a Jay (or whatever you call your gay husband)?

Have I already told you to chill the f* out about gluten? Also, heed Dr. Bellati:

Don't get too caught up on the "superfood du jour". All whole foods are superfoods. #wellnesschat
— Andy Bellatti MS, RD (@andybellatti) January 3, 2014

Gail Collins' impressive end-of-year quiz.

Keep in mind that this Cracked post is geared toward dudes in their 20s, so it's harsher than it would need to be for a general-public audience; nonetheless, it's spot-on in its message to "nice guys":

So on our message boards and in my many inboxes I read several dozen stories a year from miserable, lonely guys who insist that women won't come near them despite the fact that they are just the nicest guys in the world...

So, what do you bring to the table? Because the Zooey Deschanel lookalike in the bookstore that you've been daydreaming about moisturizes her face for an hour every night and feels guilty when she eats anything other than salad for lunch. She's going to be a surgeon in 10 years. What do you do?

"What, so you're saying that I can't get girls like that unless I have a nice job and make lots of money?"

No, your brain jumps to that conclusion so you have an excuse to write off everyone who rejects you by thinking that they're just being shallow and selfish. I'm asking what do you offer? Are you smart? Funny? Interesting? Talented? Ambitious? Creative? OK, now what do you do to demonstrate those attributes to the world? Don't say that you're a nice guy -- that's the bare minimum. Pretty girls have guys being nice to them 36 times a day. The patient is bleeding in the street. Do you know how to operate or not?

"Well, I'm not sexist or racist or greedy or shallow or abusive! Not like those other douchebags!"

I'm sorry, I know that this is hard to hear, but if all you can do is list a bunch of faults you don't have, then back the fuck away from the patient. There's a witty, handsome guy with a promising career ready to step in and operate.

Does that break your heart? OK, so now what? Are you going to mope about it, or are you going to learn how to do surgery? It's up to you, but don't complain about how girls fall for jerks; they fall for those jerks because those jerks have other things they can offer. "But I'm a great listener!" Are you? Because you're willing to sit quietly in exchange for the chance to be in the proximity of a pretty girl (and spend every second imagining how soft her skin must be)? Well guess what, there's another guy in her life who also knows how to do that, and he can play the guitar. Saying that you're a nice guy is like a restaurant whose only selling point is that the food doesn't make you sick. You're like a new movie whose title is This Movie Is in English, and its tagline is "The actors are clearly visible."

Yup, that sums it up, and from a different angle than that with which we've previously addressed "nice guys."