Here’s a snapshot of my Saturday nights as a freshman at UC San Diego. My suitemates are all glammed up to go clubbing. My friends next door get cozy around the couches to watch a marathon of “The Office.” And where am I? I’m in my room with the door closed, doing…absolutely nothing. Ain’t college life grand?

That was the story of my life last year. My friends would ask me to come out with them, and I’d make up bogus excuses to stay in. Pretty soon, I got fewer and fewer of those invitations.

On Tuesday, people gathered in front of Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, CA to show their full support for wanting Mehserle’s trial to remain in Alameda County. Defense attorney Michael Rains filed a motion to move venues because a potential jury survey showed Alameda residents were too informed about the case. The survey also revealed that residents who were white and those who were black pre-judged the case differently.

Community leaders, church leaders, young people, and local musicians were all in the crowd that came out for the protest. Supporters carried posters that said,  “I am Oscar Grant”, “Justice for Oscar Grant”, and held pictures of people who have lost their lives to police shootings.

Judge Morris Jacobson's answer is still pending on whether or not the trial will remain in Alameda or not.

I thought he was cute...then I started taking Yaz.

Not exactly a sentence you hear everyday, but according to scientists, the birth control pill could change women's ideas of who and what they find attractive. Here's how the article in The New Scientist sums it up:

The contraceptive pill alters monthly fluctuations in hormones associated with the menstrual cycle, mimicking the more stable hormonal conditions associated with pregnancy. This might not only disrupt the natural processes which influence womens' choice of partner, but it could also make them less able to compete with women who have a natural menstrual cycle, a paper published this week in Trends in Ecology and Evolution suggests.

Say what now? Well, here's how the hormone cycle tends to work when you're not on the pill:

Levels of the sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone fluctuate throughout a woman's monthly menstrual cycle. At the start of the cycle – when the egg is maturing – the body releases oestrogen. During the second half of the cycle, after the egg has been released and might implant, progesterone is secreted. A woman's most fertile period comes in between these two phases, shortly before and immediately after the egg is released.

So, if you like guys, how do those hormonal changes affect who you find attractive?

Will Hodgkinson of the London Times conducted an experiment recently, playing a range of cuts from The Beatles catalog for his kids and their friends (ages 6-8). The result is some of the best "writing" on rock since the days of Lester Bangs. Don't believe it? Read on:

We need a psychedelic trip into the unknown. We need Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. As the gorgeously arpeggiated melody unfolds the children lie back on the sofa, blissed out. “This is about a guy on an adventure who sees lots of exciting things,” says Isabella casually, nailing in a few words the meaning of a song that entire theses have been written about.

“There is a girl called Lucy in a marmalade sky,” begins Otto. “Then her boat sinks and she lands in a marshmallow pie. Then a giant shoe falls down from the sky. Then John, Paul, Ringo and the other guy come out and go arrggh! They have two ninja swords, 14 laser canons and Darth Vader. Then the sky fills with diamond warriors who kill everyone.”

The Beatles. 14 laser canons and Darth Vader. A diamond warrior filled sky.

We rest our case.

[Big thanks to Richard Metzger at Dangerous Minds for pointing this one out!]

Owners of Microsoft's XBox 360 are about to get a whole lot of social network toys added to their console. A Dashboard update for paid XBox Live accounts scheduled for this year is bringing Facebook, Twitter and the social music site Last.FM to the video game console. Gaming news site Joystiq put up an in-depth hands-on review of the new functionality.

The most surprisingly well-executed addition to the Xbox experience comes through Facebook. Critics are quick to point out that Facebook can be accessed readily from almost any other device, whether it be a mobile phone or a PC. While much of Facebook's core functionality is replicated on the Xbox, Microsoft's app significantly streamlines and improves the experience, especially when browsing photo albums. Whereas the dot com site is plagued by a sluggish AJAX design, the Xbox app loads photos and galleries instantly, making it much faster and easier to browse through your friend's pics.

For those of us who are gaming AND social media junkies the wait will only seem like an eternity, the public Beta of the new services is scheduled to start later this month.

Husalah of the MOB Figaz is free! Well... almost. He got away from his current monitored home just long enough to talk with DNas and Beejus about music, The MOB Figaz, and life after jail.
 

Husalah Interview on Streets Is Talking Radio from All Day Play on Vimeo.

Protesters gathered outside a hearing for former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle on Tuesday.  The hearing, which continues today, will determine if his murder trial will be moved out of Alameda County. Defense attorney Michael Rains filed a motion for a change in venue believing that his client cannot receive a fair trial based on the findings of a potential jury survey the defense commissioned. Mehserle will stand trial for the shooting death of BART passenger Oscar Grant early on New Year's morning of this year.

Jury consultant Craig New from Portland, Oregon said the survey provided to 400 of Alameda County's  residents showed that 98 percent of those polled knew about Mehserle’s case. 82 percent of the respondents fear violence could occur if Mehserleis is found not guilty, and that 67.4 percent of the people knew the four facts presented in the questionnaire.

Rains’s argued these findings would prevent his client from receiving a fair trial. The jury consultant also highlighted findings that 80 percent of African Americans felt Mehserle is probably or have no doubt that he is guilty of murder. Only 5.4 percent of black respondents felt Mehserle is not guilty of murder. By comparison the survey showed that 33.1 percent of whites felt Mehserle is not guilty of murder. Craig New's said these number are astronomically high, something he has never seen in previous criminal cases he has worked on.

New's also went on to share some of the comments made by the interviewees such as “one less black person in this city is alright with me.” This statement caused the people in the court— mostly composed of African Americans— to gasp in shock. Judge Morris Jacobson quickly told Rains there was no need for his witness to share disturbing comments like those since he is already familiar with the survey.

Alameda County prosecutor David Stein questioned New about why Rains had not discussed his pay rate, or if this was a pro bono case New took on for Mehserle. Stein attacked the consultant- who was brought on board by the defense just a week and a half ago to fill in for their ailing pollster- by attempting to raise doubts about New's readiness to offer an expert opinion on the case. The prosecutor asked if New had the chance to read the papers Rains brought to the courtroom—which consisted of thousands of news report on this case. New conceded he had not read the papers provided by Rains but read 30 articles on his own.

Stein was able to get New to admit he had not he had not seen the video of the shooting provided by Rains to the court until Monday night—a day before the hearing. The consultant insisted that making the video of the shooting available to the public  taints the potential jury pool,  preventing Mehserle from having a fair trial.

The hearing will continue Wednesday at noon and Stein will continue to question Jury Consultant Craig New. Judge Jacobson prohibited both parties from talking to the press.
 

Our favorite TV-watching Youth Radio alum is at it again. 

Today The Latifah takes on BET and gives the network a scathingly funny dressing down. Your editor's personal favorites:

10. 106 & Park—Dumb, dumb, dumb. Besides the fact that Terrance & Rocsi are posers who change their “accents” depending upon who their guest is, the videos are just ridiculous. Let’s be real here.

8. Soul Plane—Does anyone want to tell me why the hell this movie is still allowed to see the light of day? Like seriously, this has to be against some law... I’mma search for it. 

Seriously, someone get this lady her own show. (via Latifah and the Boob Tube)

By Rachel Krantz and the Youth Radio Investigative Unit

This story is part of Youth Radio's ongoing investigation: Sailors' Abuse Kept Silent In Navy Canine Unit.

A Youth Radio investigation finds that the U.S. Navy’s report on hazing in its Bahrain Canine Unit omitted the suicide of the unit’s leading Petty Officer, who feared she had become the scapegoat for widespread abuse.

On January 16, 2007, Petty Officer Jennifer Valdivia was found dead in a small room at her home in Bahrain. The U.S. Navy, which maintains a major base on the island in the Persian Gulf, classified her death as a non-combat related incident. A Navy autopsy later confirmed that 27-year-old Valdivia committed suicide.

On the same day Valdivia’s body was found, the Navy released a report on widespread hazing and abuse in the canine unit where she served as Kennel Master. Though the report’s release was previously delayed multiple times, this time it was published without including the investigation into the suicide of the unit’s leading Petty Officer. And, Valdivia’s death was not mentioned in the subsequent Findings of Fact endorsed by the base command, either.

“I would have expected this to be mentioned in the endorsements… the command in Bahrain had ample time to take her death into account,” said Eugene Fidell, Yale law professor and president of National Institute of Military Justice. “Had I been the staff judge advocate I would have recommended that the command delay its endorsement on the hazing investigation until the suicide investigation was complete, and then see if further investigation into the hazing was warranted.”

Instead, the Navy’s hazing and suicide investigations proceeded on parallel, never-intersecting tracks.

The hazing investigation reveals that the abuse in the Bahrain Canine Unit was extensive. And while the Navy has said multiple personnel were implicated in the misconduct, the sailors interviewed by Youth Radio say unanimously that there was one ringleader, the unit’s Chief Michael Toussaint.

Youth Radio has also obtained redacted copies of the Navy’s two investigations into Valdivia’s death -- one by the Base Commander in Bahrain and the other by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). Together with interviews with her family and six sailors from Valdivia’s unit, the suicide investigations tell the story of a young woman stuck between an abusive and corrupt unit leadership and the young sailors whose lives were scarred to varying degrees by hazing. It’s the story of a scapegoat, who decided the only way out of her Navy unit was death.

“Her final act revealed her to be under stress she was not able to bear, probably a culmination of well-concealed concerns about the ongoing command investigation,” wrote the investigator at the end of his report on Valdivia’s death. “I believe it is unlikely she would have committed suicide if she had not been under such stress.”

[Page Two: "Small Town Girl"]

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The LA City Council has extended a ban on new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles.  Experts, however, believe the ban won’t do much to curb obesity and other health problems that exist.  While I agree that the plan is taking the wrong approach with the ban, the city council should make efforts to expand the availability of local, healthy food options, instead of outlawing fast food.