• According to a study from Cornell University, children of mothers who play favorites are more likely to show depressive symptoms far into adulthood than those who received equal treatment as children.
Interestingly, the perceived favoritism has a negative effect on even the chosen child. “The perception of unequal treatment has damaging effects for all siblings,” explains the study’s authors. • Pregnant Muslim women who fast during Ramadan may be putting their babies at risk, a recent study found. Expectant moms who fast early in the pregnancy are more likely to give birth to smaller babies, who are more prone to learning disabilities. Fasting women are also 10% less likely to give birth to a boy. • Peruvian police say they found fragments of skin underneath the fingernails of Stephany Flores. Though the amount of skin was very small, the head of homicide for the Peruvian National Police told journalists that they hope to use DNA testing to match the fragment to 22-year-old Dutch suspect Joran Van der Sloot. • A mass burial site of 97 infants found in the Thames Valley may have been the one-time site of a brothel, according to archeologists. The remains found at the site suggest that all the infants died very soon after birth. “The only explanation you keep coming back to is that it’s got to be a brothel,” said Dr. Jill Eyers. Interestingly, killing babies might have not been a very big deal back then; documents suggest that babies weren’t viewed as people until the age of two. • Parents of kids aged 18 or younger are more likely to be overweight or obese than parents of older children. Contrary to popular actress-wisdom (“I lost all the weight running around after my kids!”) most parents exercise significantly less when they have very young kids. • Constance McMillen, the 18-year-old teen from Mississippi who was denied permission to bring her girlfriend to prom, has been catapulted into fame. Her unfortunate experience with discrimination has landed McMillen on several television shows, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, but she says the impact of the prom-debacle has been generally negative. Though she is happy to participate in the Gay Pride Parade in NYC, she also says she misses her old high school friends, who she lost when she was forced to switch schools. • A judge has ruled that a suburban pastor can testify in the trial of Drew Peterson about a counseling session with Peterson’s former wife Stacy, in which she reportedly confessed that her husband had convinced her to provide a false alibi for the weekend of Kathleen Savio’s death. However, the same judge decided that the jury will not hear details of an alleged break in in 2002 in which Peterson may have threatened Savio with a knife. • The Washington Post published a confirmation from a source “friendly with the Gores” that Al Gore did indeed receive a therapeutic massage in his hotel room on the night in question, however, Gore says it went “without incident” and the therapist left on good terms. • Administrators of a legal defense fund set up for Sarah Palin will have to pay back $400,000 to donors after an ethics investigator ruled that the account was illegal. The Alaska Fund Trust inappropriately called itself “official” on the website, which gave the impression (wrongly) that Palin had endorsed the fun in her capacity as governor. Palin’s supporters call the ruling part of a liberal “witch hunt,” and have set up a second fund in her name. • In other Palin news, the former governor’s lawyer has gone on Facebook to announce a win for Team Todd. Apparently, someone was trying to get access to Todd’s emails, but a judge ruled that, since he was married to a government official, he was essentially function as an adviser, which makes their corresponding protected. • And finally, Palin would really like it if everyone could read an article by Thomas Sowell that compares Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. Nice. •