• In this video, Miss Universe contestants are shown participating in the "Condom Olympics" three days before the pageant on August 23. The event was sponsored by the AIDS prevention group Population Services International, and the women were asked to blow up condoms until they burst, fill them with water, and conduct condom demonstrations. A representative for the group says they were preparing the new Miss Universe to be an Ambassador for Youth AIDS and "Often times, target populations are illiterate or of low literacy and we need to find ways to reach them through engaging activities that don't rely on written materials." Conservative groups are upset that the activities didn't promote abstinence and PSI was founded by pornographer Phil Harvey. • Amber Alerts were created for stranger abductions in which a child is in danger, but LiveScience columnist Benjamin Radford argues that there are too many false alarms. Most abductions are committed by a non-custodial parent or family member and don't qualify for the notification. One study found that of all the Amber Alerts issued in 2004, police had violated protocol by issuing the alert in 70 percent of the cases. • Australian Tegan Leach, 19, is waiting to see if she'll have to stand trial for giving herself an abortion at home. Her boyfriend may be charged with supplying a drug to procure an abortion and both have been charged with procuring an abortion, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years. Police found empty Ukrainian blister packs they say may have contained pills that induce abortion. Abortion laws in Australia vary by state, but they are illegal in Queensland, where she lives, unless the mother's life is in jeopardy. • Iranian MPs have approved the the first female minister in the republic's 30-year history. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, who will be the health minister, is a hard-line conservative who has proposed introducing gender-segregated health care in Iran in the past. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominated three women for cabinet positions but MPs rejected the other two women he picked to be social security minister and education minister. • A study of 1,000 Iranian high school students suggests family history may determine whether or not teens get severe acne. Of the teens whose parents or siblings had moderate to severe acne, 20 percent had the same problem, compared to only 10 percent of those teen with no family history. • Russia's supreme court has cancelled the retrial of four men accused of being involved in the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006. Prosecutors have been ordered to begin a new investigation into the involvement of the suspected gunman as well as the four men. In the decision the court sided with the journalist's family, who argued a retrial would take attention away from finding who planned the murder. • Primatologists at New York's Stony Brook University have found that pregnant female gorillas continue mating with males to prevent other females from mating with him. "It seems to us that mating is another tactic that females use to compete with each other – in this case to gain favour with another male," said one researcher, who believes this behavior may help explain how humans evolved into a generally monogamous species. • People have continued secretly visiting Neda Agha-Soltan's grave in Behesht-e Zahra cemetery even though Basij paramilitary vigilantes have threatened to harass or arrest mourners. Authorities may have decided to bury her and other opposition martyrs there because the cemetery is large and located an hour outside Tehran, but people have figured out where Neda's grave is and leave flower petals on the site. • Researchers studied 32 women with postpartum depression and found that 17 of the mothers, or 53%, felt suicidal. This group was also felt they were less prepared for motherhood and had greater difficulty responding to their infant's needs than those who were not suicidal. • Australian scientists tested cancerous breast cells and found several strains of HPVs known to have a high risk of initiating cervical cancer. "The finding that high risk HPV is present in a significant number of breast cancers indicates they may have a causal role in many breast cancers," said one researcher. "Confirming a cancer-causing role for HPV in some breast cancers establishes the possibility of preventing some breast cancers by vaccination against HPV. • Dirty Diaries, a collection of 12 short pornographic films shot by a feminist documentary maker Mia Engberg and funded by taxpayers is premiering in Sweden tonight. "Porn has always been made by men for men," said Engberg, "Above all, it's about showing sexuality through a female's perspective. It's not made to please a male audience and it's not made to make money," she added. • A 68-year-old nun was arrested for drunk driving on Long Island, New York on Tuesday after crashing into a tree. She was driving a car that belonged to the church and almost hit a group of children playing on their lawn. Police found a water bottle filled with alcohol in the car and say her blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. • A 68-year-old Salt Lake City woman who held the Guinness World Record for her long fingernails lost them in February when they broke during a car crash. She says it's much easier to move her hands now without the weight of her fingernails, which measured as long as 2 feet, 11 inches. She's not going to try to grow them out again because it took her 30 years to get them to that length and she doesn't think she'll live that long. •

I'm not the first to bring sweeping generalizations to bear on a single name. We sort of gave Jessica the same treatment back in 2007. And Science tells us that people are more likely to marry and vote for those who share their initials — supposedly, we even prefer to work for companies whose names begin with the same letters as ours. This explains author Evelyn Waugh's marriage to a woman named Evelyn, but not why I work for Jezebel as opposed to, say, Allure (although my inability to deal with eye makeup might explain that). Also, people with uncommon names may be more likely to become criminals. This is probably a case of correlation rather than causation, but you still might want to think twice before you name your kid Grand Theft Auto.

So, to Anna. Anna Holmes says that before Anna Wintour, no one would have thought of Anna as a "bitchy" name, and I tend to agree. That said, our perceptions of names are often shaped by people we've known, or celebrities we think we know, and one bad Anna can spoil the basket. I feel this way about Jared, Chipper (admittedly uncommon), and guys with two first names.

But luckily, no one has soured me or Anna H. on our shared name. She thinks Annas are normally pretty "calm," which is something people say about me a lot, usually when they are unaware of my phobias surrounding spoiled food, looking directly at the microwave, and mail. I think the association with calmness comes from the sound of the name, which is kind of broad and flat, but not so short as to be abrupt, and from its popularity among Scandinavians. Swedes (like my dad's family, who are responsible for my name) are known for their stoicism and unwillingness to express emotion. So maybe Anna Wintour's cold stare isn't so uncharacteristic — although sources say "she smiles now and has been seen to laugh."

Anna H. also tells me Anna is a hard name to make fun of, which I wish was true in my case. I was a really skinny kid in high school, and the number of times I got called Anna-rexia have left me with a knee-jerk rage response any time I hear that word thrown around lightly (I don't love that it's frequently abbreviated 'ana' either). Some kids expanded the nickname to TyrAnnasaurus Rexia, which makes so little sense that I think it's kind of funny.

But aside from the Anna-rexia problem and the Wintour factor, I don't think the name has a lot of negative associations. When I Google myself, I often get the North Anna nuclear power plant, which I think is kind of cool (and interesting in the context of Anna Wintour's nickname, "Nuclear Wintour"). I don't know that many Annas — though I probably will some day, as the name has gotten a lot more popular since I was born — but the ones I've met have been pretty easy-going. Anna supposedly means "grace" or "graceful" — not that accurate in my case, because I can't dance and am generally kind of twitchy, but nice all the same. Anna H. thinks the name sounds a bit upper-class, but I think it's unpretentious. It's short and easy to say, without a lot of extra bells and whistles (although how I longed for an extra -belle as a kid, when I was convinced my name was short for Annabelle. Or Mermaid.). In general, I think my name has a laid-back quality that effectively masks the more obsessive and neurotic features of my personality. But you may disagree. Do you know any bitchy Annas? Are you one? And are there other names you'd like to see us "analyze" in the future?

Related: Anna (Name) [Wikipedia]

A vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and the Russian war with Chechnya, Politkovskaya wrote powerfully of Russian kidnappings of Chechen civilians:

Imagine that a group of strangers in uniform bursts into your house and takes away your loved one. And that is it, the end. First there was a man. Now he doesn't exist. He is wiped out of life, like a stick-figure from a school blackboard. You rage, you go mad. You beg for a piece of information. The ones who are supposed to search advise you to forget about it ... The most awful tragedy of current Chechnya is people disappearing without a trace.

She knew that her repeated trips to Chechnya and her criticisms of Putin (an ex-KGB spy whom one former associate accuses of using "Stalinist methods") and Russian-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov put her in danger; in Letter to Anna, she says, "why am I still live? If I speak seriously about this I would understand it as a miracle." It may be a miracle, too, if her real murderers are convicted.

After her death, Putin said that Politkovskaya's influence in Russia was "negligible," and that she was probably killed to make the regime look bad. But the NYRB cites a 2006 poll [site in Russian] in which half of respondents knew of Politkovskaya and over a third were familiar with her work. And several other journalists critical of the Putin administration have been targeted — two have been murdered just since September 2008. Before the trial, a lawyer for the Politkovskaya family found mercury in her car.

Even if the suspects in the trial are convicted, the person who actually ordered Politkovskaya's killing will remain unknown and at large. Russian exiles abroad believe the order came from Russia's Federal Security Service (Politkovskaya called them "Putin's guard dogs"), with the tacit approval of Putin himself. The trial is unlikely to reveal this or any other information, as it will probably be closed to the public. Meanwhile, Politkovskaya's son and her former newspaper are conducting their own investigation into her murder. Let's remember her as a woman, as a journalist, and as someone who tried to save her country from "an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance," a reality not specific to just Russia.

Who Killed Anna Politkovskaya? [New York Review of Books]
Politkovskaya's lawyer finds car filled with deadly mercury [International Herald Tribune]
Anna Politkovskaya murder trial begins in Moscow [Guardian]
Letter to Anna [Official Site]

• Meet Bob Barr! He's running for President, wants John McCain's voters and is going to try really hard to get them in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Indiana and West Virginia. Bob, can I also please recommend Ohio, Virginia, Georgia and Colorado? [Washington Post]
• Bush jumped on the "drill on our coastline to lower gas prices" bandwagon today now that his brother is no longer the Governor of Florida, despite the fact that there are hardly any ships to do it. I'll bet we could buy some from the Saudis or the Chinese or something. On credit. [Washington Post, NY Times]
• Mike Huckabee is trying to warn Republicans that demonizing Obama is gonna backfire. Luckily, they all stopped listening to him months ago, before they demonized Obama and lost those Congressional races. [Bloomberg]

• Three men were finally charged in the 2006 assassination of Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya. None of them will ever be tied to the people that ordered it, in all likelihood. [Washington Post]
• Tim Russert's funeral was today. It was sad. [NY Times]
• Torture apologist Doug Feith is a fraidy-cat, doesn't want to sit in a big room with people who might not like him, [ThinkProgress]
• That guy who swears that he blew Obama gave a press conference today, let out the crazy. His lawyer claims to need to wear skirts because of his enormous cock. [HuffPo]