Germany has definitely been an adventure but difficult because I have a partner but he's in the US. I'm definitely becoming more of a romantic as a result of this though. I always thought that I would do academia no matter what but I've realized that relationships (not just romantic relationships) are more important…

I don't know about the Princeton program (I'm a political scientist, so public policy is sort of the obvious companion to my degree) but I have a friend who I think got an AAAS fellowship. He's a biologist and now works at the CDC. His fellowship might have been through the NIH though. I know he had worked a lot in…

Thanks! My back up is public policy/thinktank or consulting, so it wouldn't be the worst if the academic thing didn't work out. Hope you can stay in Newcastle but you're absolutely right that more scientists would be really useful in public policy.

Ugh, the academic life is not conducive to those types of friendships that are both deep and near. I'm finishing a post-doc in Germany as an American and I was very lucky to find a really good group of friends after about 6 months. Now I'm leaving to go back to the US with the expectation that I'll be moving again in…

Of course Neil Malhotra wrote that. Of course. How does that guy publish so damned much? It really makes me feel bad about myself.

I got 5 somehow! I just kept thinking "which one does he look younger in? OK, click that as the older one" Seriously, how can someone be that handsome, talented, and never age a freaking day?! That man has made some sort of pact with the devil.

Yeah, but he still got to dehumanize her by not naming her. Hooray for dehumanizing our opponents (and a special bonus for dehumanizing women)

I think this is pretty standard political rhetoric. You don't want to bring the human characteristics of your opponent to supporters (or potential supporters) minds. For instance, during the campaign Pres. Obama would typically refer to "my opponent" instead of "Gov. Romney" in his stump speeches. You want the focus…

In fairness to Jennifer Aniston, I have no desire to live anywhere but Southern California either. I don't have the means to live there anymore (since I refuse to move back in with my mom and dad) but if I did I would move back in a second!

I like that one of them is a freaking swimsuit model. For crying out loud, of course she looks good in a bathing suit, she does it for a living.

You obviously haven't spent much time in Riverside. I grew up there and there is shit all to do. There are a few more bars than when I was last living there (for instance, we now have a Cheesecake Factory, a YardHouse, and a PF Changs) but if this place is generally nice and has good cocktails, it might be one of the…

Well, now I have someplace to not go out drinking the next time I visit home. Riverside, making me proud as always! *facepalm*

I would add that there are some disorders that do not become apparent until around 20 weeks, even though the pregnancy is still viable. I have friends who found out their daughter would have really serious health problems at their 20 week appointment. They kept her and she lived a really painful life, mostly in the…

With regards to your last thought: this is why I love online shopping! I will browse a store's online shop, put things in my basket, imagine how I would look in them (or I might have even tried it on in a store before) but I only rarely pull the trigger. I like that I can think about buying all of these things but…

I had my hair like this until recently and it's a combo of blow-drying and adding a bit of styling wax when wet and again once it's dry. For me it took about a month until I could get it to stay over there because it isn't my natural part, but it worked eventually and it didn't look bad during that month either.…

Seriously! I should be wearing like a 30C or 30D but a) that shit doesn't exist in almost any store and b) when I find them online they are crazy expensive and I have to ship from the UK. Ugh.

I think it depends. A friend of mine got divorced in California last and they had to be legally separated for 6 months before they could actually begin divorce proceedings (though it took more than another year before her ex finally signed everything. He kept "forgetting" to sign them or "realizing" something that had…

So there are two major blocks: The Liberals (combined with the National party, they are technically separate parties that always form a coalition and do not compete in the same constituencies) and the Labour Party. Liberals/Nationals are right, Labour is left. There are also a number of other smaller parties that…

Your MIL is how I imagine my mother behaving when I have kids. She's already worried that I like his family more than he likes mine (which is maybe a little bit true, but that is because my mom will have long conversations where no one else ever gets a word in and my SO finds it difficult to listen to for various…

So I'm from the US but my dad's family is Swedish (though he's effectively American too) and my mom was raised by my Nana and Baba (my great-grandmother). I moved back to Sweden for a while and I like the idea of walking down together with my future husband, but the only weddings I've been to where people did that…