Yesterday, I discovered just how different two very similar concepts could be when I was sent two separate emails attempting to sell me beer and beer-related products as a Valentine’s Day present.

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• This is what a scientist looks like – A great tumblr full of photos of scientists in their natural habitats. From Laika.
• Can the US Army embrace atheists? – The BBC interviews Justin Griffith. From Donnie.
• Support breast cancer screenings by buying science fiction books – In response to the Susan G. Komen foundation pulling its support of Planned Parenthood, John Scalzi is donating his profits from his books to Planned Parenthood.
• Study links low IQ to prejudice, racism, conservatism – From Charlene who says, “Easy to imagine the media-sharpened soundbite, “Are right wingers prejudiced because they’re stupid?”
• Cute Animal Friday! 22 baby coatis. Boys with beards and cats (ignore the hipsters, admire the kitties). And it’s not just cats that try to get into too-small boxes.

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Drug addicts and their non-addicted siblings share certain features in the brain, suggesting a susceptibility to addiction is inherited but is also a flaw that can be overcome, scientists said on Thursday.

“If we could get a handle on what makes unaffected relatives of addicts so resilient we might be able to prevent a lot of addiction from taking hold,” said Paul Keedwell a consultant psychiatrist at Britain’s Cardiff University.

So let’s get all up in your business . . .

Do you think you’re susceptible to addiction? Are any of your family members? What are you/could you be addicted to? If some people with the “addiction flaw” can overcome it (apparently relatively easily), should addiction be treated as a disease? Is that just a function of the language? Where did I leave my keys?

The Afternoon Inquisition (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Skepchick community. Look for it to appear Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 3pm ET.

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Whenever I see the term ‘self-healing’ my bullshit meter immediately alarms, however Nissan has produced a self-healing iPhone case with some awesome materials science to back it up. The case is expected to be distributed later this year, so I haven’t gotten my wanting (and clumsy) hands on one myself. To me this is a ‘when I see it, I will believe it’ situation, but the science is intriguing.

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• On being unexpectedly crummy at breastfeeding – “You really did not think this was going to happen, partly because you spent nine months being practically Gisele about EVERYONE SHOULD DO IT and WOMEN WHO SAY THEY CAN’T ARE LIARS BECAUSE EVOLUTION (not out loud, or anything, because you’re likable), but quietly and fatuously in your head.”
• The 5 most ridiculously sexist superhero costumes – From Mark.
• Tennessee restaurant owner refuses to serve anti-gay politician – The state senator believes that it’s impossible to get HIV from heterosexual sex. From Billy Clyde Tuggle.
• Mass Media Attention Psychogenic Syndrome – Steve Novella covers the case of 15 children in LeRoy, NY who have developed a “mystery illness”, as the media has been calling it.

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Smashley, a contributor to our sister site Mad Art Lab, just posted an awesome interview with Quiet Company, a band that provided a lot of great music for our old podcast, Curiosity Aroused. Here’s a taste:

 Taylor: I like to think that if you look at all of our albums chronologically, you can see a progression. Because in Shine Honesty, I’m still very much Christian. I write about heaven as a person who actually believes he’ll go there. But then by our second record, Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon — my buddy Cameron calls that the “writing on the wall” record. There are elements of someone going “What if this is all bullshit?” you know? And so by the time we made this record, it was very much a “Okay, this is all bullshit” type record. So I like to think that it’s not necessarily new, but it’s the first time we’ve come out and said anything about it. Every time before, it was kind of dripped in metaphor.

Read more at Mad Art Lab…

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Happy February, everyone! Jen is busy hunting down groundhogs for her annual feastday tomorrow, so I’ve taken over the Quickies.

• Susan G. Komen for the Cure has bowed to internal pressure from anti-choice advocates and defunded Planned Parenthood. You can yell at Komen yourself on their forums, if you’d like, but also maybe consider donating more to Planned Parenthood. (via a lot of you!)
• 10-year old Clara Lazen randomly discovered a new molecule, which was published in a paper by her 5th grade chemistry teacher.
• Conspiracy theorists are more likely to believe factual contradictions, like how aliens and the government caused 9/11. FTR, I don’t agree with Mooney that this study is about facts correcting false beliefs. (Thanks, Roger!)
• A bistro owner asks Senator Stacey Campfield to leave the premises due to his suggestions that gay issues be banned from public schools and that it’s “virtually impossible” for HIV to be spread by heterosexual sex. Cue conservatives complaining that this act validates their desire to push LGBT people out of the public sphere.

Featured image via Joshua Roberts/Reuters /Landov

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Today I’m proud to announce the new African Americans for Humanism campaign, just in time for Black History Month!

Billboards and transit shelter ads featuring historic and contemporary black humanists are going up—in black neighborhoods!—in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington DC, and Durham NC. The ads highlight historic black humanists Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as eight contemporary activists and organizers representing local AAH-affiliated groups in each city.

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