The Yes! Digest -- May 4th, 2010

This is: International Respect for Chickens Day. This "annual project of United Poultry Concerns" is "designed to celebrate the dignity, beauty and life of chickens and to protest the bleakness of their lives in farming operations." Honor it by A) not eating any poultry and/or B) watching all six parts of The Natural History of the Chicken on Youtube. (If you have only five minutes, watch part 3 from 5:00 on so you can see Cotton the Japanese Silkie Bantam rooster luxuriate in his swimming pool and then get coiffed.)

Spirit food:

Brain food:

• Do any of those old wives' tales about pregnancy have any truth behind them? Read Linda Geddes's Bumpology column to find out. (via Boing Boing)
  
  
• Hewlett-Packard envisions a "Central Nervous System for the Earth" using "smart dust" technology. (via CNN)
  
  
• Want to build a time machine? Stephen Hawking would be pleased to help you out.
  (via The Daily Mail)

Young adults today...: are "fauxting" to to avoid embarrassment in awkward social situations. (via Jezebel)

UU news: In this past Sunday's St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, Unitarian Universalist Association president Rev. Peter Morales engaged in a Q&A about UUs and UUism with (UU!) reporter Bill Maxwell. (via Facebook---many thanks to Rev. Victoria Weinstein for the link!)

UU voices: At Sassy Southern Scribblings, Melissa explains how her Unitarian Universalist values lead her to support the legalization of gay marriage.

A joy: "Through a project and contest launched last year by the Anne Frank Center USA, a New York-based educational nonprofit working with the museum in Amsterdam, 11 sites in the United States will see Frank's tree blossom." (via CNN)

A concern: Yeardley Love, a 22 year-old senior at the University of Virginia, was found dead in her off-campus apartment early Monday morning. Another UVA senior, George Huguely, has been charged with her murder. Please keep them---and their loved ones---in your hearts. (via The Washington Post)

Churchy things: "When we fall under the spell of a charismatic figure, areas of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less active. That's the finding of a study which looked at people's response to prayers spoken by someone purportedly possessing divine healing powers." (via New Scientist)

Unchurchy things:

• What does the term "organic art" make you think of? Is it this? (via The New York Times)
  
  
• Someone's finally admitting what young adults have always known: "Mousetrap Never Works." (via The Daily What)

Young adults of note: 26 year-old Clay Grant Jr., an off-duty sheriff's deputy, was picking up some paper towels on Monday evening in a West Hollywood, California Target when a woman entered the store and began attacking shoppers with knives. Although four people were injured, there were no fatalities and "[O]fficials praised Grant for his quick thinking, saying he might have prevented the situation from getting far worse." (via The Los Angeles Times)