For those of you who don’t know, Pandora is a free online radio service that plays music for users based on their individualized preferences.

Pandora is a wonderful, easy to use website.  To get started, you type in the name of one of your favorite songs or artists, and the radio begins playing similar music.  To fine tune the player, you can add more songs or artists, or mark a song with a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to indicate your preferences.

Pandora is also very good at finding good music, for me at least.  When I initially went to Pandora, I typed in my favorite artist, Ben Kweller, and was instantly showered with some of my other favorite artists including Weezer, Ben Folds, and the Barenaked Ladies.  In addition, I discovered more great artists I had never heard of before including Sherwood, whose first CD “Sing But Keep Going,” is on my list of all time favorite CDs.

But due to pressure from the RIAA, Pandora, along with many other similar online radio services such as Last.fm and Slacker, may be shut down.  From Pandora’s Founder:

Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Northern Virginia.  It’s a very beautiful place.  The yards in my current neighborhood (OK, well, I’m living in my parents’ house during law school) are large, there are plenty of trees, and it is quiet and far away from any major roads, so children can play on the streets without fear.

However, it takes me an hour and fifteen minutes to get to work.  Some people that live in this neighborhood spend even more time commuting.  Northern Virginia is also fairly spread out, so to drive to the store, or to a mall, a lot of time is spent in the car.

So is it worth it?  Is living in a pretty house with a nice yard and a car worth giving up 2+ hours a day commuting to work plus even more time driving to the grocery store, the mall, and the gas station instead of spending time with friends and family?  Is it worth being dependent on a machine that could break down at any point and leave you stranded?  Or being dependent upon a fuel that could increase in price significantly at any moment (see: now) and strain your budget?

Often, the word “gay” is used in high schools as slang for something bad. When high school freshman Rebekah Rice said “that’s so gay” in 2002 she claims, now as an 18 year-old, that the phrase meant: “That’s so stupid, that’s so silly, that’s so dumb.”

She was reprimanded by her school, and received a warning and notation on her file. Her parents sued, and claimed that Rice’s first amendment rights were violated because she used a phrase that “enjoys widespread currency in youth culture.” Supporters claim that the school’s actions are just another overly politically correct action.

On the other side, the school district claims that there is a duty to protect gay students from being harassed. They claim the phrase “that’s so gay” used in a derogatory manner has been shown to make gay individuals feel uncomfortable or hurt, just as derogatory terms directed at someone because of his or her race is hurtful.

So, the question is, will this be considered slander or is it merely an innocent comment that Rice didn’t believe would cause harm and thus would be protected under the first amendment? I think this will be an interesting case and I look forward to finding out what the court rules.

Professor James Moody of Ohio State University recently completed a fascinating study, mapping the romantic and sexual relationships of students at a high school over the course of 18 months. Although there were not many students who had many partners,

The romantic and sexual network at the school created long chains of connections that spread out through the community, with few places where students directly shared the same partners with each other. But they were indirectly linked, partner to partner to partner. One component of the network linked 288 students – more than half of those who were romantically active at the school – in one long chain. (See figure for a representation of the network.)

Granted, to be in the chain, sexual intercourse is not required. Nevertheless, this has profound implications in regard to the spread of STDs. Because students often think that they are acting non-promiscuously by only having one or two partners over eighteen months, they underestimate their potential risk for getting STDs. Because if those one or two partners happened to be linked in a long chain of people, and one of those people happens to have an STD, there is a real chance that a “non-promiscuous” student could end up with an STD.

I’m sure you’ve all stumbled upon self-help websites before. Most of them are pretty generic. But the Rirarian Project is doing a pretty good job at giving unique and useful advice regarding things like the maintenance and improvement of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Today he just published a great (and very long) entry entitled “207 Great Tips to Make 2007 Your Best Year Ever.” Many of these tips are alternative ways to look at problems (visualize what you need to learn), health advice (heat therapy, snacking throughout the day), or unusual challenges to give yourself (brush teeth with your left hand). Granted, some of the advice is generic like you’d find on the typical self-help website, but there are definitely a few gems in these tips.