February 2012
Tiger Beatdown: But, Pinterest Is For Girls!... →
Many people were comparing the site to Google Plus, which has a heavily male demographic, and I think that is a false comparison—a much better analysis would involve looking at Tumblr, since the two sites are similarly structured and would logically attract users with interweaving interests and similar methods of online engagement. Both Tumblr and Pinterest are slanted female (roughly 60% of...
this ain't livin': Oh, Downton Abbey. We Need To... →
This post contains spoilers for the second season.
Ashley Alvarado at California Watch: React & Act:... →
California Watch: In an ideal world, what sort of guidelines would you like to see for how to identify and deal with mentally ill detainees?
Talia Inlender: We want a system that works for everybody: immigrants who are locked away for months or years, families who have to live in fear and doubt, immigration agents, courts that have to administer justice and all of us who have to pay for this...
Cord Jefferson at Good: There Are No Ethical... →
Just as the problem isn’t only Apple’s, neither is it relegated to phones. Laptops, televisions, digital cameras, and every consumer electronic in between wreak havoc on people and environments at every point in their lifespan—save, of course, for when you own them. From the mining that yields their minerals to their assembly line production to, ultimately, their disposal, our...
Jason Farbman at Socialist Worker: What is Evo... →
Hundreds of demonstrators had met a march of about 50 disabled Bolivians, who completed a 560-mile journey to the capital city of La Paz. The protesters’ demands included meager support for the most vulnerable in an already impoverished nation. They want an annual state subsidy of about $400 for disabled Bolivians—the currently subsidy is about a third of that—and passage of...
xoJane: I →
People have these complex and amazing discussions in fannish spaces, and here is something else about people in my corner of fandom: They arewicked smart. I can turn to them with a question about pretty muchanything and not only will someone have an answer, but someone else will have Opinions and there will be a whole complicated discussion on the subject that quickly surpasses my knowledge and...
“Drawing a line between yourself and them bigots over there is not the path to...”
– sex, art, and politics:
Seriously though. This is, like, generally good life advice. If the first thing out of your mouth when confronted with the bigotry of a group to which you belong is ‘well but I don’t do that’ or ‘well a real member of Group X wouldn’t behave...
Ker Than at National Geographic: Shrinking Arctic... →
Rapidly shrinking Arctic sea ice could be behind the recent unusually cold and snowy winters in the Northern Hemisphere, a new model suggests.
From 2007 to 2011, large parts of the U.S., northwestern Europe, and northern and central China experienced early or abnormally heavy snowfall.
Some scientists have speculated that such harsh winters might be a result of disappearing Arctic sea ice,...
this ain't livin': Our Tangled Relationship With... →
The gendered implications behind dismissive attitudes about pet-lovers run very, very deep, and are sometimes missed, even by people who are normally attuned and sensitive to these issues. While some people use ‘crazy cat lady’ self-referentially and in a joking way, as an identification that pokes fun at stereotypes, this is about more than just saying that only women are ‘weak’ enough to be...
xoJane: Women Need To Start Talking About Money →
There’s this sort of culture built up around Not Talking About Money for women, and I’d argue that culture is incredibly persistent and also incredibly damaging. Grown-ass women have a hard time talking about money, women have trouble mentoring each other through money problems, and young women often get limited financial education and are just sort of thrown into a shark-infested pool2 and left...
Melissa Lee Phillips at Nature: Bacterial gene... →
A bacterial gene discovered in the genome of the coffee berry borer beetle, a major pest, seems to allow the beetle to occupy a unique ecological niche and feed exclusively on coffee beans.
The finding, published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, is a rare example of a bacteria-to-animal gene transfer with an obvious benefit to the animal.
“We were...
Carl June at Scientific American: What Doctors... →
Today anesthetics are considered as routine as a trip to the dentist. They have been around at least since the 18th century when a talented chemist namedHumphry Davy discovered the mysterious effect of nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Davy, young and ambitious, set out to rigorously test the gas’s effect, inhaling nitrous oxide daily for several months. Under slightly less rigorous conditions, Davy...
Justin Elliott at Guernica: Revelations on NYPD... →
The Associated Press published a story today detailing how, in 2007, undercover New York Police Department officers investigated the Muslim community in Newark, N.J., producing a secret report profiling mosques, Islamic schools and Muslim-owned businesses and restaurants.
The story, based on a copy of the 60-page report obtained by AP, concludes that the surveillance project was undertaken...
Alex Gilliam at Grist: Building blocks: What LEGOs... →
One evening about a year ago, staff members at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., did something a bit unusual as they prepared to close the LEGO building area for the evening. Charmed by its simple beauty, they spared a rather handsome yellow pyramid created by one of the museum’s visitors from their ruthlessly thorough daily LEGO disassembly process. Instead of completely “wiping...
this ain't livin': Cultural Framings of... →
But both framings firmly stress that unemployment is a personal issue, not a social or public one. Whether you think people don’t have work because they’re useless or because they’re just down on their luck, the primary focus is still on what is happening to the individual, rather than examining the system in which it occurs. To step back and take a larger look at the system is to see a somewhat...
xoJane: The Simpsons At 500: Why I Still Love This... →
And while Marge is a stay at home mother, a member of a population often maligned in feminist communities, she’s not someone to be written off that easily. She’s sharp and insightful and resourceful, and she’s a rich, complex character who isn’t overshadowed by her husband or her children. And she’s a commentary on the “happy housewife” stereotype, for viewers who read between the lines instead...
Jane Slaughter at AlterNet: Michigan Workers Fight... →
Michigan’s top union leaders are meeting behind closed doors to decide whether to take on the huge fight it would require to amend the state constitution to block right to work, with a ballot initiative this November.
Al Garrett, head of statewide AFSCME Council 25, said the amendment would prohibit the legislature from crafting new laws that infringe on collective bargaining rights in the...
Louis Sahagun at Los Angeles Times: Shuttered... →
California parks officials closed a gem of the state park system last spring, sadly shuttering Mitchell Caverns, a natural wonder that for eight decades had drawn visitors to this remote spot in the Mojave Desert. Workers hauled away the precious Native American artifacts and historical documents and locked the gates, assuming the area would sit undisturbed until the state could afford to reopen...
Rinku Sen at Colorlines: Domestic Workers Use... →
But their intervention did more than take advantage of a cultural moment—it shaped that moment to mitigate against the potential negative effects on a national audience. From an organizer’s perspective, there is a danger embedded in stories of triumph over segregationists, especially a story as prettily presented as this one. Viewers develop little appreciation for the grit of struggle, imagine...
John Roach at National Geographic: Earth Spun... →
Did it feel like time flew in November 2009? It turns out the days were actually going a wee bit faster for part of that month, according to a team of NASA and European scientists.
Earth spun about 0.1 millisecond faster for a two-week stretch, said study co-author Steven Marcus, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The planet’s speedier spin...
this ain't livin': On Cooking Alone →
Cooking alone can be great fun. I don’t have to argue with anyone about flavours and spicing and what we will have for dinner. Nor do I seethe with resentment when I work hard over a meal for someone I care about and get an indifferent response, one that indicates the person clearly doesn’t respect how much work I just put in, a casual ‘yeah, it was okay.’ I don’t have to balance potentially...
Renata D'Aliesio at The Globe and Mail: The new... →
But now there’s a reason to come back home. Deep in the boreal forest about 180 kilometres northeast of Cochrane lies the biggest undeveloped pure gold deposit in Canada. Toronto-basedDetour Gold Corp.(DGC-T27.72-0.42-1.49%)is spending $1.45-billion to build the Detour Lake gold mine and tap a motherlode of 15.6 million ounces of gold. The mine is expected to produce 650,000 ounces of gold...
Guy Raz and Brent Baughman at NPR: Ranchers' Land... →
Canada has the potential to produce more than six times the amount of oil it now makes. Because the existing pipeline ends in Oklahoma, however, Canada can’t deliver the oil to refineries on the Gulf Coast and, from there, to the lucrative global oil market. The Keystone XL was supposed to help resolve that issue.
When TransCanada proposed running the XL pipeline through the Sandhills of...
Si Spurrier Makes A Stand For Panel Parity Of... →
champagnecandy:
ladiesmakingcomics:
Writer Si Spurrier was supposed to be on a “How To Write A Comic Script” panel today at London Super Comics Convention, but in support of Paul Cornell’s pledge to give up his seat on panels to qualified female creators when the panels are fewer than half women, he followed suit and gave his seat to cartoonist Tammy Taylor:
Taylor’s work can be seen on her...
Jason Boog at Galleycat: How to Keep Your Work Off... →
Check it out: “What if I don’t want images from my site to be pinned? We have a small piece of code you can add to the head of any page on your site: <meta name=”pinterest” content=”nopin” />”
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Global Comment: Review: Sex and Disability →
Sex and Disability is a fascinating collection of essays bringing together two taboo topics, discussed from a multitude of perspectives. As the editors point out in their introduction, sex and disability are ‘…two terms that are, if not antithetical in the popular imagination, then certainly incongruous.’ Integrating crip theory, queer studies, and related fields, the essays in the text explore...
this ain't livin': Series Review: The Last... →
What The Last Apprentice does well is turn ideas about adult reliability and authority on their head, and ask people if they are so certain that the difference between good and evil is crisp, clear, and easy to read. This is not a happy, light fantasy with mentors who cheerfully guide the characters through the darkness; murkiness and abuse and confusion are part of the world as Tom tries to...
Lucy Rodgers at BBC News: How to win an Oscar →
Across both the best actor and actress categories, portrayals of physical disability or mental illness are also highly rewarded.
A total of 16% of all winners played such roles. For men the percentage is slightly higher, at 17%, compared with 14% for women.
O’Hara says these performances are rewarded, in part, in the same way as those portraying real characters - the ease of assessing a...
Michelle Diament at Disability Scoop: Minorities... →
Children with autism who come from minority backgrounds are more delayed than their Caucasian peers with the disorder, researchers say, likely because their symptoms go unnoticed longer. (Ed. note—emphasis mine.)
The differences between white children and their non-white peers are significant, spanning everything from language to communication and gross motor skills, according to a...
James Dao at The New York Times: Branding a... →
She disputed the diagnosis, but it was not until months later that she found what seemed powerful ammunition buried in her medical file, portions of which she provided to The New York Times. “Her command specifically asks for a diagnosis of a personality disorder,” a document signed by the psychiatrist said.
Veterans’ advocates say Captain Carlson stumbled upon evidence of something they had...
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Kjerstin Johnson at Bitch Magazine: Bitch Radio:... →
Let the sultry voices of Annaham and I round out your Friday afternoon! (Or read a transcript!)
(Warning: I sound like a goose that someone has just sat on.)
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Alicia Gay at ACLU: Ain't I a Woman? →
Just look at the ill-named Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act introduced by Rep. Trent Franks. The bill, among other things, is designed to protect Black babies from… Black mothers? Proponents of the legislation wrote “Abortion is the leading cause of death in the black community” and has become “a tool of sex and race discrimination in...
All these people following me for hot alpaca...
this ain't livin': Where Are All the Nonbinary... →
Increasing representation of nonbinary people in general in pop culture, in the news, in the mainstream media, is critical. But in discussions of representation, parents and children are often set aside as something to get to later, when I’d argue it’s pretty key. Parenting can be central to someone’s identity, and critically, advancing acceptance of nonbinary parents, and educating people about...
xoJane: Doing My Part: I'm A Community Agriculture... →
I live in a small community, and it’s also a dying community. Our major sources of income have dried up, it seems like every time I go downtown a new business has closed. We can’t even keep basic services going. Fort Bragg is in pretty dire straits, a lot like me, and I hope both of us can pull through. I know neither of us is going to do it without a community, because it’s impossible to...
