A few great articles today:

Man missing for 30 years realizes that he’s someone else: ‘This is Edgar Latulip of southwestern Ontario. The developmentally disabled man has been missing since 1986 but was just found about 120 kilometers from his hometown. Or rather, he found himself. Latulip had lost his memory due to a head injury after he disappeared and had created a new identity. Last month, he realized he wasn’t who he thought he was. On Jan. 7, Latulip met with a social worker and told her he thought he was somebody else, Gavin said. The social worker found his missing persons case file and police were then called in. Latulip volunteered to have a DNA test done and on Monday, the results came back indicating he was Latulip.’

Sparrow joins Japanese family: ‘A sparrow followed an elderly Japanese woman home from her job as a crossing guard in November, and now lives with her and her husband. “He’s like a family member – he’s very comforting. It’s fun, coming home to a sparrow,” Yoshiko Fujino told Reuters.’

‘Henry Rosario Martinez died at the age of 31. He loved poker, so his friends played one last game with him by propping up his corpse and giving him a large pile of chips. Despite Martinez’s remarkable poker face, he didn’t win.’

A New York State Supreme Court judge has confirmed that Staten Island Borough President James Oddo can name three streets in a new property development with words that imply greediness and deceitfulness on the part of the developers.

Puppy shoots Florida man: ‘A man who decided to shoot a bunch of puppies was himself shot by one of his intended victims. NBC News reports that Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, of Pensacola, Florida, sustained a gunshot to the wrist when “one of the dogs put its paw on the revolver’s trigger.” ‘

And this one is serious. Black travel guide for a racist America: ‘In 1936, postal worker Victor H. Green worked with his colleagues in the Postal Workers Union to create a guide for black travelers navigating a country where many restaurants, hotels, and shops were still “whites only,” and the real threat of physical assault and arrest hung in their faces. “You needed The Green Book to tell you where you can go without having doors slammed in your face,” civil rights leader Julian Bond once said. The Green Book was updated and in print until 1966. “There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published,” reads the introduction.’

One is supposedly not to speak ill of the dead, but I (and, I imagine, many classes of disadvantaged and disenfranchised in this country) would be dishonest if I didn’t mark the death of Antonin Scalia with some satisfaction. And I take a particular pleasure in the fact that this longest serving judge on the court and its most influential and outspoken conservative (if not reactionary) took his final bow on Pres. Obama’s watch. With any luck, we can gain some relief from a quarter-century of the execrable and intellectually damaged originalist school of thought he championed, which led to outcomes so pleasing to conservatives. Here’s a trip through prior FmH pieces on Scalia’s uniformly unflattering legacy.

(And what in the world is the shiftless Clarence Thomas going to do without his guidance?)

Vox has by far the consistently best roundup and explanation of the issues engendered by his death. Here is a sampling:

The fight over Obama’s next Supreme Court nominee will be the most politicized and high-stakes nomination fight in decades. Replacing Antonin Scalia will be a profound test of the American political system. With Scalia’s death, the Presidential race is a referendum on the Supreme Court.

Antonin Scalia’s death could lead to more 4-4 ties. Here’s what happens if it does.

The death of Justice Antonin Scalia has forced partisans to become experts on Supreme Court history. But, despite the so-called Thurmond Rule, at least 14 Supreme Court justices have been confirmed during election years.. In fact, Scalia himself was appointed by Pres. Reagan in his last year in office. Mitch McConnell: “this vacancy should not be filled” until 2017. The Senate’s top Democrat: that’s “shameful.” Hillary Clinton: Republican calls to leave Justice Scalia’s seat vacant “dishonor our constitution”

Scalia’s sudden death — and the chaos it’s about to cause — makes a strong case against lifetime appointments to the Court. Time for term limits for Supreme Court justices.

Who will Obama choose to replace Antonin Scalia? Here are 7 of the strongest candidates. Place your bets now. I went to college with Merrick Garland but I think the likelihood of the sole white male on the list getting the President’s nod is pretty low, although he is one of the candidates more palatable to the likely rabid Senate opposition.

‘As the tide of refugees rises in Europe, so does the frequency and amplitude of some very nasty rumours about these “others.”

These rumours echo historical slander against Jews, Gypsies, and other groups of outsiders previously seen as threatening. You’ve probably heard variations of some of these:

Their customs are barbaric and they hold ours in contempt; they don’t feel bound by our rules and laws; they get preferential treatment from the government; they harass, rape, and kill; they have too many children, and they’re here to “take over.”

Many of these stories are very specific and detailed, and thus sound convincing. Yet they usually have no clear source, and often they grow taller in the telling. It’s the classic urban legend syndrome, seasoned with a dose of racism — and enhanced by Twitter, Facebook, and other modern means of communication.

One concerned German netizen has decided to fight back against this rising tide of viral xenophobia.

“Since the middle of last year, we’re witnessing an increasing trend of rumours about asylum seekers going viral — ranging from them poaching swans to desecrating graves. Those stories are collected here,” writes Karolin Schwarz on Hoaxmap, which has gone live on 8 February.

Hoaxmap uses a map of Germany and Austria as the geographic backdrop for a growing collection of rumours reported and invalidated. Each rumour is described, dated, localized, categorized — and refuted, with a link to the evidence.  Some examples…’

Source: Big Think

‘Donald Trump finally made some bold and provocative claims that were largely true, and the Republican Party finally closed ranks to attack him.

Saying Mexican immigrants are rapists didn’t do it. Calling for a return of torture didn’t do it. Calling for a ban on Muslim immigration didn’t do it. Raising questions about Barack Obama’s status as an American citizen didn’t do it. Pretending that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered 9/11 didn’t do it.

So what did? Trump said that invading Iraq was a disaster, that the country was misled into invading Iraq by the Bush administration, and that the claim that Bush kept the country safe from terrorism is ridiculous because 9/11 happened on his watch…’

Source: Vox

‘Until a recent study led by researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas was published online last month in PLOS ONE, there was no scientific evidence to back up the anecdotal stories of people… who reported aberrant sensations and neuropathic pain around cellphone towers and other technology that produce radio-frequency electromagnetic fields.

“Our study provides evidence, for the first time, that subjects exposed to cellphone towers at low, regular levels can actually perceive pain,” said Dr. Mario Romero-Ortega, senior author of the study and an associate professor of bioengineering in the University’s Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. “Our study also points to a specific nerve pathway that may contribute to our main finding.” ‘

Source: The University of Texas at Dallas (thanks, abby)