Shiloh As Media Handful, Senate Blocks Gay Marriage Block, Sperm Downgrades With Age, Harvard Clones Stem Cells, and The Separation of Sex and Death

1. Shiloh Shiloh Shiloh. Has any other barely-week-old baby caused such a media frenzy? LA Times decided to up their cred by publishing a biography on the newborn from papa Brad's saying to Diane Sawyer he wanted to be a father to conception to birth to photo war. Most bizarre of all in the timeline is a nod to Suri Cruise, potential friend/foe of Shiloh. Moreover, Hello magazine, who got first dibs on the picture is already on a suing rampage over the internet leak of the photo it will publish tomorrow (People to follow on Friday). The beautiful ones, they're always trouble. (BBC, LA Times)

2. The amendment to ban gay marriage was unsurprisingly (thanks Jon Stewart!) blocked by the Senate today. 49-48, the proposal needed 11 more votes to push it to a final vote. Senators Arlen Specter and John McCain walked the line by opposing the amendment because of "respect for states' rights." (Bloomberg)

3. Men's biological clocks are ticking as well, as a new study from UC Berkeley found that the older men get, the more likely the sperm's DNA mutate (causing dwarfism in child) or fragment (AKA useless sperm). (Nature)

4. Harvard announced yesterday their stem cell cloning project, which will be funded by private donors. Donor eggs and embryos that remain from in-vitro fertilization treatment will be used. (CBC)

5. Quote of the week by Queensland's Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale on the recent proposal to prevent brothels from opening within 200 meters of cemeteries: "It's totally inappropriate. There's a place for brothels and a place for cemeteries and we don't believe the two mix." It's hard to imagine what either would go well with... though Las Vegas somehow comes to mind as a harmonious space. (Reuters )