Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Breakfast News
—–
Blast rips up busy bus station in Nigerian capital
An explosion blasted through a busy commuter bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, before 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) Monday as hundreds of people were traveling to work.
Many are feared dead. Reporters saw rescue workers and police gathering body parts.
The blast ripped a hole 4 feet deep in the ground of Nyanya Motor Park about 16 kilometers from the city center and destroyed more than 30 vehicles, causing secondary explosions as their fuel tanks ignited and burned.
Palm Sunday: Pope Francis poses for mass selfies
Pope Francis has let loose with an unusually casual performance to mark Palm Sunday, spending more time posing for selfies with young members of the crowd in St Peter’s Square than he did delivering a prepared homily.
In what was reported to be a remarkable departure from normal practices on one of the most important days in the Christian calendar in the week before Easter, the Pope abandoned his planned speech and improvised for around 15 minutes.
Abdullah leads in first official results from Afghan vote
Initial election results put Afghan opposition figure Abdullah Abdullah in the lead on Sunday, but with less than 10 percent of votes counted and widespread allegations of fraud, there was no clear indication of who would succeed Hamid Karzai.
Results based on 10 percent of votes from 26 out of 34 provinces showed Abdullah with 41.9 percent and Western-leaning academic Ashraf Ghani second with 37.6 percent. A third candidate, Zalmay Rassoul, backed by two of Karzai’s brothers, trailed far behind with 9.8 percent.
Mass DNA tests at French school over rape
French police are taking DNA samples from more than 500 male students and staff at a school in La Rochelle where a girl was raped last September.
The 16-year-old was assaulted in dark toilets at Fenelon-Notre Dame, a private Roman Catholic school in the Atlantic port city.
Investigators hope to find a match for DNA traces found on her clothing.
Businesses embrace drones despite buzz of worry
Realtor Brandon Doyle stood in the middle of a Maple Grove subdivision and fired up his surreptitious selling machine – a remote-controlled drone equipped with a tiny HD camera hooked to its belly.
The helicopter-like gizmo rose 20 feet into the air. Unnoticed, it snapped bird’s-eye views of Doyle’s new listing, capturing the home’s sprawling wooded yard and wetlands. “We want to do anything extra that we can to draw the buyer’s attention,” Doyle said after a recent visit to the property. “It is much easier to visualize 40 acres of land from the air than it is standing on the corner.”
A growing array of businesses are rushing to explore how to use drone technology in a variety of ways - from real estate and commercial photography to crop management and product delivery. But that charge is sparking a significant legal skirmish with the Federal Aviation Administration, which has banned drones for most commercial enterprises, citing concerns over safety and privacy.
Judge set to issue key Ohio gay marriage ruling
A federal judge is set to issue what could be the most sweeping ruling yet on gay marriage in Ohio, despite a statewide ban.
Judge Timothy Black has indicated that he expects to rule on Monday, ordering Ohio to recognize out-of-state gay marriages.
Ohio man sits at corner with ‘`I AM A BULLY!’ sign
An Ohio man spent his Sunday morning sitting on a street corner with a sign declaring he’s a bully as part of his sentence for harassing a neighbor and her children with disabilities.
A South Euclid Municipal Court judge ordered 62-year-old Edmon Aviv to sit by a sign for five hours. The sign read: “I AM A BULLY! I pick on children that are disabled, and I am intolerant of those that are different from myself. My actions do not reflect an appreciation for the diverse South Euclid community that I live in.”
I guess Colorado is the Shiznit.
Marijuana Vending Machine Unveiled In Colorado
An automated pot-selling machine was unveiled at an event held at an Avon, Colo., restaurant Saturday, promising a potential new era of selling marijuana and pot-infused snacks from vending machines directly to customers.
Its creators say the machine, called the ZaZZZ, uses biometrics to verify a customer’s age. The machine is climate-controlled to keep its product fresh.
—–
Pilot Captures Crazy-Surreal Photo Series By Basically Just Sticking His Camera Out The Cockpit
—–
Eating disorders in young men ‘are being overlooked’
Men are underdiagnosed and undertreated for anorexia and other eating disorders, despite making up about a quarter of cases, a UK study suggests.
Frontline health workers have a key role in identifying eating disorders in young men, they report in BMJ Open.
Men are under pressure to have the “ideal” body image, says a charity.
—–
Must Read Blog Posts
Forgiving the unforgivable in Rwanda
Meanwhile, in college campuses across America
Sunday Train: Transport Cycling and Austin’s Awesome Bike Plan
—–
The Daily Wiki
Another widely misused term:
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.
Loyalty to the group requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the “ingroup” produces an “illusion of invulnerability” (an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made). Thus the “ingroup” significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making, and significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the “outgroup”). Furthermore groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the “outgroup”.
—–
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
—–
Breakfast Tunes
—–