Robot Porn For The Blind • Women Call Abusive Partners "Dependable"

• After realizing that the “blind have been left out in a culture saturated with sexual images,” Lisa Murphy created porn for the blind, illustrated with raised images of a woman with “perfect breasts” and a “male love robot.” •

• After receiving criticism for the lip-syncing singers at the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony, China instituted new rules banning all fakers. For the first time, these rules have been enforced. Two virtually unknown women were spotted lip-syncing at a concert last year, and they have been fined 50,000 yuan ($7,329) each. • At 66, Carrie Luger Slayback has been weightlifting for about a decade. She may be “tiny,” but she’s got guns. And she urges her “senior sisters” to follow her lead and begin taking back the weight machines. • For years, the N.F.L. has been denying the link between football and an increased risk of dementia, but Eleanor Perfetto, the wife of a former lineman, has brought legal action against the league. “There is a sense of: ‘What is she doing here?'” said democratic Rep Linda T. Sanches. “The N.F.L. is so male and macho and testosterone-dominated, I don’t think they figured that women were going to be a force to be reckoned with in this thing, and they’re finding out the hard way.” • According to a new study, 54% of women in abusive relationships still saw their partners as “dependable,” while 21% saw them as having other positive qualities like being affectionate. • A woman who set her overly-hairsprayed coif on fire with her own cigarette has won her Indiana town’s “Village Idiot” award. The prize is $100 at a local bar — because nothing improves bad judgment like booze. • Yassmine el Ksaihi is a rarity in the Islamic world. At 24, she is the administrator of a large Mosque in the Netherlands. Experts say she is part of a general trend throughout Europe of embracing a more open, welcoming version of Islam. Sermons at El Ksaihi’s mosque are conducted in English, partially because she want to show that “there is nothing scary about what we do.” • Officials in Liverpool, England have recommended using the phrase “unhealthy weight” rather than “obese” in health literature to avoid stigmatizing kids. • A new study indicates that spanking your children could make them more aggressive. Researchers have found a link between corporal punishment and “higher aggression” behavior, including bullying, which remained even when they had controlled for other factors (including psychological maltreatment, maternal depression, and substance abuse). • In an interview with the New York Times, pro-racer Danica Patrick seems surprisingly laid-back, about both her celebrity and her upcoming race: “If I don’t have an exciting race, I don’t… I think the series is doing a good job of trying to make the drivers popular. I think that’s important. I don’t really feel any pressure.” • Somewhat surprising findings from Ohio: only 15% of women scheduled for gynecologic surgery were worried about the effects of the procedure on their sex lives. • And finally, some good news (a rarity in Leftovers, I know): Maternal death rates have dropped from more than a half-million annually in 1980 to less than 350,000 in 2008. Statistics show that most countries have been decreasing their maternal death-rates by a steady rate. Dr. Christopher Murray calls the results “very encouraging and quite surprising… now we have a greater reason for optimism than has generally been perceived.” •