• Scientists have come a little bit closer to solving the mystery of what gets sperm in the mood for fertilization. • Aw: a Girl Scout troop from St. Louis decided to use its earnings from the cookies sales to fund a care package for Gene McNeill, a soldier currently serving in Afghanistan. •  President Obama has officially recognized April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month. •  The number of women over 55 who use Facebook has grown roughly 550% in the past six months, making the group one of the quickest growing sectors of the Facebook population. •  A member of the Egyptian parliament has proposed a law that would allow television stations to broadcast the hanging of rapists. Many people are against the law, on the grounds that it would encourage the public to sympathize with the rapists, and possibly lead to more girls marrying their attackers in order to save them from public death. •  On a slightly more positive note, April 18th has been declared the first anti-harassment day in Egypt. • A 30-second ad for Girls Gone Wild interrupted an early broadcast of the Good Friday service at the Vatican on a Philadelphia cable network. The network blamed it on (what else?) a "glitch." • According to this article from the Wall Street Journal there is a war happening, a diaper war. • Two female workers are filing a lawsuit against NYC's Department of Environmental Protection. They claim that the department is rife with sexism, and that over the years they have "grown numb" from finding pornography on their trucks and being called "bitches" and "dykes." •  This fancy feline is being hailed as the UK's only vegetarian cat. Like the most difficult dinner guests, Dante will only eat organic fruits and vegetables. •  Just in case you've been dying to know all about Scott Peterson's life on death row, People has published a helpful guide to the murderer's daily life. • Scientists believe that postpartum depression may serve an evolutionary function. •  A Brazilian woman was refused entry to the UK after border officials discovered that her suitcase was full of lingerie. Officials suspect that she is involved in the sex industry. •  Even though no one asked them, PETA has faxed Michelle Obama's office a letter that urges the first family to "snip" their new dog. • More for the "unsolicited advice" file: Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan advises Obama to keep his "pack leader" frame of mind when playing with the puppy. • Via BoingBoing, the strange case of a man who has "alien hand syndrome" and has been know to engage in involuntary public masturbation. •  A Mississippi State University professor asked his students to submit beautiful and ugly words. He found that words with more syllables are more likely to be considered beautiful (like "eloquent"). • Reversing their previous decision, prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for Casey Anthony, mother to murdered toddler Caylee Anthony, whose body was found late last year.

• Cudmudgeonly uncle-anchor Jack Cafferty has disappointed millions of women everywhere by saying, "Viagra is used to treat a medical condition, erectile dysfunction. Birth control is a lifestyle choice," when discussing John McCain's little birth control gaffe. Jack, sweetie, birth control pills do treat medical conditions and there's a good economic argument (pregnancy is expensive) for covering them. Erectile dysfunction, however, is God's way of telling you to keep it in your pants, old man. [Crooks & Liars]
• John McCain has proved a disappointment to the Secret Service by letting slip details of Barack Obama's highly secret-for-his-own-safety trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. Man, he really will do anything to keep playing his commercial about how Obama's never been. [Talking Points Memo, The Atlantic]

• By the way, McCain also doesn't know if Obama is a Socialist or not. I don't know that John McCain doesn't drink Cindy's drug-filled urine as a sedative, either. What don't you know? [HuffPo]
• The full list of Starbucks closures is now available. Caffeinated Washingtonians rejoice: Only one in D.C.! [HuffPo]
• Harold Ford got booed at Netroots Nation because he used to work at Fox News, but not because he used to date Julia Allison. [HuffPo]
• The German government has decided to let Obama speak — at the Victory Column, not the Brandenburg Gate because the Bushies kinda asked them not to. Wankers. [HuffPo]
• Scott Peterson has a blog. I think we can finally call this blogging trend over; no one's ever going to believe we're normal people now. [CNN]
• Greta Van Susteren, like, totally swears that she knows someone who knows someone whose anti-Obama copy was watered down at CNN, not that it ever happened to her and she's totally got journalistic freedom (if not freedom from the plastic surgery requirement) at Fox News and is she up for a new contract soon or something? [Fishbowl NY]

People Magazine's cover predictably goes with the St Paul of Beatlemania divorce, and guess what? Heather Mills is a cow! Who knew?

But a few pages later we get to the extraordinary story of Richelle Nice, a juror on the Scott Peterson trial who's decided to get in touch with her inner self by getting in touch with the convicted murderer she helped sentence to death. Fair enough, this is America, after all. But why go public with the sorry little tale?

"Asked why she decided to release these seemingly private letters to PEOPLE, Nice says she was "scared they'd be leaked out somehow."

And then she wouldn't get any money for them! And God knows, she needs the cash:

"Nice admits that her letters to Peterson are also partly an attempt to find answers to questions about herself. She has never been married. Her four sons were fathered by two different men with whom she had long-term relationships. Over the years she has worked jobs ranging from a nursing assistant to a bank clerk. Last August Nice enrolled in cosmetology school, hoping to eventually start a career as a hair and make-up artist. But in December, after years of mental health issues, she suffered a major breakdown and was admitted into San Mateo Medical Center's psychiatric ward. She's currently on a battery of medications for her pychiatric problems."

The meds ain't cheap, people.