This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly. The last comment in the previous thread mentioned waffles, now I’m hungry.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Waffling is a thing.
Waffles are pancakes with a syrup trap.
And slightly more structural integrity (can’t put ice cream in a pancake and hold it in your hand).
“can’t put ice cream in a pancake and hold it in your hand”
Challenge accepted.
rq:
I voted with both twitter and fb, not sure if that helps. What does help is your daily reminders, because I want to vote, but I don’t want to worry that I’ll forget :)
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Can I join the cranky corner?
Stop waffling. This is the last straw(berry).
@Portia:
There is no cranky corner. Only waffles.
Offlenofflewaffle.
Strawberry waffles? The Redhead says pecan waffles for the win…
Farmers Discover Rare Meteorite in Minnesota Corn Field
@Reginald:
That’s neat, but did they discover any waffles?
Our turn on the helicopter is delayed.
what are we talking about?
I miss eating Chik Fil A waffle fries. They are so good. But they insist on being a bigoted company, so no money from me for years.
Thanks for the hugs, chocolate and booze. I’m still a bit shaky from the convo with my aunt.
Life just sucks sometimes.
No.
(hey, it’s not called “cranky corner” for nothing)
Fine, I’ll grouse over here then!
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I just realized that because loud sex might begin at any time of day or night, I really can’t see clients in my home office anymore…
Shit.
(I was 95% asleep at midnight last night when the screams started.)
Time for a little talk with the neighbors after all, since they are now interfering with your work?
@ Katherine
Waffles are pancakes with a syrup trap.
Oh Gaaaawd, don’t remind me. They are the most delicious things on the planet. Especially Belgian waffles. And now we have a Belgian waffle bar just up the road from Chez Phontes. Oh Laaaawdy, there goes the diet.
Belgian Waffles
Stroopwafels
@ rq
Indeed. We use these in engineering for precisely that reason.
Maybe. They were really understanding when I asked them to quiet down when my grandma visited for the weekend. I just hate having to deal with this. Conflict avoidance is my m/o…at least in personal things. I also feel awkward and guilty because in my half-asleep rage I banged on the floor last night with my water bottle. They (sort of) quieted down. I don’t know why I feel rude for communicating that they were being rude, but that’s how the lizard brain works, I guess.
Portia,
Heh. I still have black scratches on the ceiling from where I banged with the broom when upstairs neighbors were dragging around furniture in the middle of the night (carpets have a lovely purpose of making it possible for people who live below you to live in peace!)
I kinda felt bad about it later, but now I’m just pissed off at them again.
Sorry I’ve been so self-centered and whiny the last several days, everyone. I thought back to my recent comments and I guess I’m in a slump or something. Thanks for putting up with me when I’m feeling down. And cranky.
Ha! Carpets are great for that. I had one guy in Chicago who made my light fixtures rattle with his banging around, and I finally called the super because of the screams and bangs, I thought someone was being beaten to death.
…they were playing video games. Emphatically.
theophontes
That is a giant waffle. How much ice cream can it hold?
+++
It’s my cranky corner. Get out.
(But I feel better with having more cranky people around, wouldn’t you know.)
@ Portia
Heh. That would make a great advert:
That neighbor actually didn’t start having loud sex that kept me awake until literally 11p.m. the night before the bar exam.
Darn. There aren’t enough corners in this place.
I need waffles. NEED. Also Waffle House hash browns.
@Beatrice:
We can make it a circular room. Then there’ll be no corners.
OR INFINITE CORNERS!
@ rq
Gravity prevents them from holding icecream, but if that weren’t the case, you could be looking at the order of about a cubic metre of icecream per every three pockets. Yeah, these things have real potential.
Flip this image over in your mind and then fill it with truckloads of maple syrup and icecream. (My profession is far more fun when I let my imagination run amok.)
My house in South Africa is down there near the sea. Link. (Click ahead for some beautiful images…)
theophontes
Soooo, you have space to put up a family of 5? :) (Beautiful images, indeed!)
Also, maple syrup. One of those things that I miss terribly from Canada. Thankfully, the freely gallivanting siblings have replenished our reduced stocks.
Also, Kraft Dinner.
So I guess they’re marginally useful for something.
Katherine
I vote this. ;)
*hugs* for Rawnaeris.
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Hello, iJoe, what do you know?
:)
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*hugs* and commiserations for Tony.
–
*hugs* also for rq. Some days are made of Suck. This looks like one of them.
<singing>
It’s beginning to look a lot like Derp-mas;
Brainz are movin’ slow.
Look around for my pad and pen,
Over-looking them once again—
How I missed seeing them I just don’t know.
</singing>
Derp-mas Greetings, all ’round. Fa-la-fuckin’-la, etc.
–
–
New Thread!
Mmmmmmm…waffles…..
*drool*
Pecan waffles…with real maple syrup….-
Iz ded of want.
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*hugs* for Portia.
–
ugh. waffles are hard to come by. and I walk really really loudly. this is why I can’t apartment.
@ rq
Well, two bedrooms and a lounge/dining room with views of the ocean …. but it is rented out. We are living in a shoe-box in Hong Kong now. :'(
Gonna have to pad my desk to prevent forehead damage — authoritarians from the USA’s right wing have decided that they like their old nemesis, namely authoritarians from the land of many commies, Russia. And why do they now love Russia and those lovely reactionary leaders like Putin? Because the Powers That Be in Russia hate gays. That’s why!
Maddow Blog link.
NY Times link.
We have sooooo many rabid conservatives who have focused their hate on godless, freedom-hating communism in the past, (including those from my speciality, mormons like Prophet Ezra Taft Benson), that it is startling to see them pumping out the love for Putin. Maybe we could get them all to move to Russia?
Senate Republicans contacted the head honchos of sports organizations in the USA, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA, and NASCAR, to ask them not to cooperate with President Obama to inform the public about health care benefits associated with the Affordable Care Act. Roll Call link. The ACA depends, in part, on broad participation for its success. Also, polls indicate that most Americans do not know how the ACA may benefit them, so education is needed.
A public education program informed seniors about Medicare drug benefits (Bush administration), and the Boston Red Sox played a major role in informing Massachusetts residents about Romneycare. The obstruction that McConnell and other Senate Republicans are employing now is just sour political grapes, a way to sabotage “Obamacare” — it serves their political purpose of denying any success to Obama, while ignoring the fact that their actions hurt the American people, especially poor and middle-class people, including me.
@ Lynna, OM
I would love to conduct a thought experiment: Say that all gay people in Russia swapped nationalities with those people in the US that are desperately seeking a “pro-family society”. Allow such family members that are supportive to tag along. Which would benefit at the end of the day? The USA could score a whole century of Win, just with such a simple measure.
theophontes @38, interesting thought experiment.
In the interim, maybe the USA could just adjust its immigration policies to reflect the fact that gays are being persecuted in Russia. Bring the downtrodden to our shores.
It may just be an accident of my own life circumstances, but I do believe the US would greatly benefit from such a policy.
Pope John Paul II’s second miracle approved:
Pope saves life of a severely ill woman on the day of his beatification, doesn’t give a fuck about tens of thousands who died on the same day
oh fuck no, you’re not making my country even more bigoted than it already is. *headshake*. and the children born to those recently-immigrated sexist/racist/homophobic/transphobic/whateverphobic people from the west, steeped in a culture which tacitly supports all that, would have a horrible time. :(
I had a beer once in your house. I had to hike a long way to get there, and then there were all these people riding up in a cable car, milling around, and looking for Echo Valley.
@ AE
No, down there at the bottom left of the first picture. Those that will be flooded come Glaobal Warming — or God’s Wrath — or sumfink.
Oh. So the cable car isn’t yours.
Camps Bay?
Bantry Bay. But only a tiny little flat therein.
theophontes
Too bad it’s rented out. Oh well, I’ll ask again in a year or two. [/jealous of the view]
cicely
Thanks for the Derp-mas greetings. The day has improved marginally, but I think it’s due to other factors rather than a lifting depression. Still, it’s better now than it was before.
The siblings have somewhat redeemed themselves. And I got too tired to care. :)
+++
re: Russia/America
As a person living in a country neighbouring Russia, I would say this would be a bad move (but as a thought experiment with no real-life implications, interesting). Since the government here is far more inclined towards conservative thinking as it is, it would only serve to reinforce the ‘correctness’ of their views, and how they must look to Russia to save us from the moral decay of the West, etc., etc. And then there’s what thunk said about the children.
re: upstairs/downstairs
One of the big reasons I’m glad we have a house now is that we can’t hear the upstairs neighbours arguing all the time. On the other hand, we never had to tell the kids to stop stomping around (first floor).
I’d live in a box if I could see the mountain every morning.
I’d live on a mountain.
Good reminder to be thankful: in spite of obnoxious neighbor, I have an amazing view and a large deck from which to enjoy it.
Whilst we have electrons, we haven’t got ink. All the cartridges are past the expiry date and the printer is complaining. At least cartridge is also so empty(? dry?) the printer is refusing to start, demanding it be replaced to avoid damage. This is a relatively high-end HP SOHO-type printer, so I tend to believe it. But I don’t have the cartridges needed… Feck!
It hasn’t complained about the waffle in paper tray. Or the strawberry I tried using as one of the ink cartridges.
I have a pretty good view too, living on the 13th floor. And there’s a mountain I can see… not a very impressive one but still.
Thanks for reminding me, blf, that I still haven’t bought new cartridges for my printer. The beast is close to 15 years old (something like that) so I’m not sure whether I’ll even find the right ones or be able to refill these (these last ones lasted remarkably long without drying up).
Hello Horde! Not sure if others saw this on Twitter, but Justin Vacula got kicked off of Skeptic Ink. Presumably by the #SIBullies, although that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. :)
(credit where credit’s due – “SIbullies” isn’t original. Someone else came up with it, Adam Lee RT’ed the joke. I just thought it was funny.)
What the… crazy interface ate my comment!
anyway, thought the Horde’d be interested to see that Justin Vacula’s been kicked off the SkepticInk network – http://www.skepticink.com/debunkingchristianity/2013/07/02/about-justin/
Presumably by the #SIBullies (as tweeted by Adam Lee, which made me laugh).
I always wish the people under us much luck so they can move out into a house. Because let’s face it, as much as I’d like a house with garden, I hardly manage 3 rooms and a balcony…
And I have a wonderful view over the woods, too
Tony
Have you considered buying a used motor scooter? I just remembered that this is what my dad in law did when his employer changed the rules so he couldn’t drive home and to work in the company’s car anymore. Cost 500 bucks and lasted him two years…
Thank you Giliell! I’m starting to grasp the wonderful-terrible notion that she’s in the process of growing up – and that this is a permanent metamorphosis.
.
also hugs for Rawnaeris. And indirectly for your aunt :-(((((
.
I also
owepositively want to say a very belated thank-you to Dalillama. This is from ages back – I mentioned feeling low, and you asked if I wanted to talk about it. I was (murphy’s law) feeling too low to say anything at the time, but ridiculously late though it is to do so I did just want to say how much that was (and is) appreciated. Shit, I don’t have one-tenth (probably not one-hundredth) the difficult stuff to deal with that you do. Um, that really moved me. Thank you.Just found this article and thought it was hilarious. http://www.vice.com/read/i-went-to-the-california-creationist-museum-and-it-was-really
Sorry for not engaging, but I’m still in a bunker mentality but looking for happy things and wanting to share. I’ve mentioned The Fosters, the new abcfamily show, and last night’s episode involved a girl needing to get Plan B. Lo and behold, ABCFamily then put this up on their website. It’s actually correct info, y’all. Coming from abc family, no less. And the episode was good in a lot of ways, including that they’re dipping into one of the kids at least liking to cross-dress. No feeling yet whether the character is transgendered or not. If any of you are into contacting the media on things, this is something to give them some lavish praise over (because I’m sure they’re going to get hate mail as soon as conservative groups see it).
Just this part:
Is just so freakin’ HUGE, because sure, it’s just the truth, but it is exactly what every conservative group is lying about, and it’s a big deal that the “family friendly” network owned by Disney is willing to upset them by putting real info out there.
That’s fantastic, Carlie!
Portia, that’s not you you’re thinking of, it’s me. I’M THE MOST SELF-CENTERED, DAMMIT.
Via Melissa McEwan on twitter, a very moving account of being in the Texas statehouse during last week’s session Here.
There was also an acknowledgement of the role of social media:
carlie:
I’ve really enjoyed that show, thanks for pointing me towards it. I was impressed with the handling of the EC issue as well (not done with the ep all the way) and the fact that the moms of the young man involved talked matter of factly about the possibility of terminating the pregnancy without it being a “schmaschmortion” type discussion full of vagueness and euphemisms.
—
There’s infinite corners, we can have one for us self-centered folks ^_^
I know I don’t post much, but this thing happened at work the other day, and it’s been bugging me. I don’t have anywhere else to share it.
The bank where I work hired a new guy (the only male at an office with 7 female employees) as a commercial loan officer for our branch. He was hired because he’s a “schmoozer” — he actually said to my boss that he can make a deal on a cocktail napkin, but it’s up to her (my boss) to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.
But the thing that’s actually bothering me is that the other day, when my boss had taken off her shoes because she was warm, the new guy said to her, “You’re not pregnant, are you? You’re already barefoot.” My head snapped up. I watched for Boss’ response, but she just laughed it off.
This guy makes stupid jokes all the time, but this is the only one that has been so blatantly sexist. He winks at me while he talks, if he’s “joking” about something. I think he winks at other people when he’s “joking,” too, but I haven’t seen it for certain.
Yellow Thursday:
…that’s really obnoxious. I’ve had success playing dumb with men, like “Do you have something in your eye? Oh you were winking? Why?” but that’s just me. You might also ask him to thoroughly explain the punchline if he makes another sexist joke. When they have to spell them out, they get awkward quickly.
Or, if you just want commiserations and not unsolicited advice, I offer a nice cool glass of ice tea, open your USB port.
Oh no, we’ll cause a gravity well that will suck in everything else in the room. :D
Portia: Thanks for the tea. And the advice. I tend to be more blunt. I stopped laughing at his stupid jokes after the first week. It was only polite, forced laughter anyway. If he directs any sexist jokes at me, I’m probably going to say something like, “that’s not funny.” Or “I don’t appreciate that.” I’ve been told I lack tact, but when it comes to sexist “jokes,” I really don’t care.
Oh, good for you, bluntness can be the best feeling. I am usually in a situation where I feel like I’ll have bad consequences if I am too blunt so I try to hedge. But if you’re free to do so, I applaud the tact-free approach. I take it when I can. (“I like my personal space, thanks.” “Wow, that was a really rude thing to say.” etc etc). Hope this guy gets the message.
OTG, The other kid painting his fingernails…I’m tearing up
Yellow Thursday: now I’m wondering who *hired* the obnoxious schmoozer. Shouldn’t they be concerned what will happen if he comes over creepy and/or sexist to potential clients? Or was he hired to make fellow creeps/sexists feel at home with him? (Or more likely, someone thinks being obnoxious – aka pushing boundaries – is a good way to make deals. Not someone interested in treating clients honestly and fairly, IMHO.)
Yellow Thursday
As the internet meme has is “Christ, what an asshole.” OTOH, ‘schmoozer’ is invariably a synonym for ‘smarmy asshole’, so it seems like he was hired explicitly to be an asshole to people outside the company; being an asshole to people inside the company too is only to be expected in that situation. Put differently, I would say that your boss made a serious error in judgment in hiring this shithead in the first place, one which she should rectify by firing him posthaste; his chronic sexual harassment should provide plenty of grounds. The usual excuse for keeping these assholes around is that they make a lot of sales, but they also make more work for everyone else (you have to dot the i and cross the t, while he goofs off, basically; if he can’t do that himself, he’s got no business doing the job. Additionally, the kind of high-pressure sales tactics they use tend to leave a lot of unhappy customers in their wake, many of whom will later turn into non-sales when they cancel/demand a refund/go to the competition/whatever.
Portia
OTG?
Oh Their Gods.
It started after I heard someone use “Oh Your God” and I said it to S, and he said “Not my god! Their god!”
The room is a Klein Bottle. What gets sucked in will coming whizzing back around and knock the grog out of yer
pawbeakeartentacle.And now, clearly, I say it without thinking.
I just googled Klein Bottle.
Trippy.
O hai!
What it is like to be a Muslim woman, and why we know what freedom is (and you may not)
kthxbai
Tonight should be interesting. Trying to set up a home based WiFi so that the iPad will be connected where the Redhead normally hangs out. All the while, keeping the iMac out of the WiFi circus, and hard wired for security (ordering with credit cards, etc). But I do have a 63 character random generated password for the Wifi security…
Did everyone see that Vacula got booted from Skeptic Ink? LOOOOOL
http://www.skepticink.com/debunkingchristianity/2013/07/02/about-justin/
Good evening.
Made a stir fry with the leftover roast pork, some sweet red pepper, onion, and fresh sugar snap peas from the garden. Served over Japanese buckwheat noodles. Lots of garlic and ginger. Very good.
Just smoked a CAO Brazilia. Excellent cigar. Full-flavoured but medium bodied. Hints of cocoa and coffee. Nice way to spend 75 minutes.
Portia:
Hugs to you. This place is a great place to be down because there are so many wonderful people here willing to tell you that, no matter what you are going through, no matter how depressed you are, that you are good people.
You are good people. Really.
And we are willing to listen.
Well poo, my last post disappeared, probably because I included a link.
Anyway, looks like Vacula got booted from Skeptic Ink lol
Cue the howls of outrage blaming Watson, Meyers (intentional), Skepchick and the FtBullies for this foul censorship.
This is why I can’t buy the “Atheists are” or “Atheism is based on” or “Atheists should be” rhetoric that gets tossed around. There are as many kinds of atheists as there are religious types. The personalities run the gamut. Generalizing, even generalizing in ways which make freethinkers feel good about ourselves is inaccurate.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/02/atheism-study-authors-congratulations-non-believers-youre-just-like-everybody-else/
http://www.atheismresearch.com/
DLCs grandmother was a cantankerous old woman, but she made a mean waffle. When she passed, I was fortunate enough to inherit her recipe for waffles.
Yellow Thursday: In my mind’s eye, I raise my eyebrow at him and say, “Really? You’re going with ‘Misogynistic Asshole’?”
In Real Life, I would probably just raise the eyebrow and give him an expressionless look, with optional Dead Eyes.
–
I like it. I’m going to try to remember to use it.
Also, with apologies for potential intrusion, but because I am a World Champtionship quality worry-wart (but only when I care about people, which makes it all right, yes? No?): S? *raised eyebrow*
You are, of course, completely within your rights to cut my protruding nose off and hand it to me.
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*reverse pick-pocketting* *chocolate* into the pockets of the fleet-footed Marjanović as he zips through the [Lounge].
And that…was so very bleak.
:(
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Upon reflection, please ignore my impertinent query, and I apologise unreservedly for the intrusiveness of my proboscis.
–
Had my first small-scale (no other kind for the likes of me) unambiguous feminist win in the shop yesterday. For some reason we were talking about handwriting and I mentioned that mine was so bad that I should have been a doctor. The woman said “It’s a boy thing.” or words to that effect. To which I replied “Hey now, no need to bring gender into it. I know plenty of women who have bad handwriting.”
The amazing thing was that I saw the moment the light went on, clear as day. She paused, stared open eyed at nothing for a moment and then looked at me, grin blossoming and said an emphatic”Yes!”
We then had a nice conversation about gender traits and the differences between individuals a populations and need for calling out minor instances of sexism as they occur. It was clear that she was in no way a conscious misogynist, but hadn’t considered that particular bias.
I’m pretty sure that she’ll not only be more careful in the future but both her and her partner, who was also a part of the conversation, will now be more inclined to calling minor sexism when they see it.
Yay for the little wins, they are my flotation device in the sea of suck.
Yay for the little wins, oh yes indeed!
*booze* and *chocolate*
–
*sparklers*
*chocolate stout*
*marshmallow catapults*
*old fashion cocktail in a pint glass*
*giant, two storied shark-themed bouncing castle*
Hmmm, perhaps I’ve given too much away…. >.>
In other good news, today the shire signs off on the new house and we give notice. The movers are booked for Saturday! Three. Fucking. Years. And now it’s almost over.
I assume you folk will all be washing your tentacles on Saturday and won’t be able to come lift boxes for us.
FossilFishy:
*fireworks&champagne&balloon*
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plural balloons.
–
The spirit is willing, but the tentacles are weak, and the telekinesis is on the fritz.
Again.
–
cicely:
No need to be sorry at all! I like that you care :)
The “OTG” conversation was actually many months ago. However, I am talking to S now and then. But I keep in the back of my mind your earlier advice to keep my interests primary to me when dealing with him. And I am. I don’t go out of my way for him, and I don’t hang my hopes on his availability or his attention.
I look out for me, and that’s because I have people around me (like you!) to remind me I’m worth looking out for.
♥♥♥
—
Those little moments are really fun, aren’t they, FossilFishy? :D Hooray for you.
And double hooray for moving!!!
:D :D :D
In other news, I am re-starting (for the third time) my effort to get my license to drive dah beeg trux. I’ve gotten my learner’s permit three time now, and never gotten an officer to take me drive training enough before the permit expired. Not this time, I am determined. I will master that engine. Then the tender. Then the ladder. To infinity, and beyond!
Sorry to hear that cicely….er, wait, do you mean that when your telekinesis is working it can reach all the way to Australia!? Hmmm, this might explain a few things about the failure of our peas last season.
Portia
Hell yes! To both looking out for the fabulousness that is you, and to learning to drive a the firetruck My inner five year old is soooo jealous.
(And some times S does something like he did yesterday: bring me key lime pie gelato and blood orange sorbet…this sorbet is my favorite)
…no…my love cannot be bought with frozen treats…er….that’s preposterous…
I’m glad my ads have returned to stomach fat, the medical supply ones were creeping me out.
I saw three muskox today.
Sigh…I was exhausted to high hell all day and now I’m wide awake and its past my bed time. So I’m here in the Lounge saying silly things.
[looks at peanut butter sandwich]
[looks at the passing magpie]
Sigh.
Pteryxx @69: This guy (let’s call him Goodhair) is the type who will talk to anybody and tries to act like he’s their best friend. The act works on some people. Enough that he’s getting us loans out of it. Whether those loans are any good is a different question.
Dalillama @70: Goodhair is definitely a smarmy asshole. But my boss didn’t hire him. The bank president did. They’re buddies, both part of the “good ole boys club.” He goes out to smoke every hour, takes long lunches, and leaves an hour before everybody else. Some days, he leaves early to go to “meetings.” And I suspect he makes more than the other 7 of us combined.
My boss expressed many misgivings regarding Goodhair’s hiring, including the mysterious circumstances under which he left his previous employer, where he was the bank president.
cicely @82: It’s a good thing the barefoot and pregnant “joke” wasn’t directed at me. I would have said something. But he’s never directed anything so blatantly sexist at me, so I don’t feel comfortable saying anything about it. For his usual stupid jokes, I respond with, “yeah, sure” in a deadpan voice. I’m not sure if I’m actually teaching him that he’s not going to get a laugh out of me. Only time will tell.
———–
Forgive me, all, if I don’t comment on everybody else’s goings-on. I love reading it all, but my social ineptitude prevents me from responding.
Yellow Thursday
Oh, I see. That’s a whole different level of problem then. You have my condolences for having to deal with him.
Portia
Go for it! Have fun with the big trucks.
Opposablethumbs
You’re welcome. I try to be there for folks when I can.
::and the queer shoop lifted his head, peering through the crowded Lounge until he saw Portia and started cheering for her, reassuring her that this time, she will get the license to drive dah beeg trux::
@Beatrice (looking for a happy thought)
Help yourself to a cthuluh plushie from that box over there. Tada– non-euclidian geometry means plenty of corners!
@Lynna, OM
The US government has always loved despotic regimes, as long as they weren’t leftwing. Now that Russia is a corporate oligarchy, they are no longer enemies, just rival exploiters. Soon they will reopen the gulags and call them guantanamos.
@Portia…are you ready boots? Start walkin’
You’ll need a new song reference. Once you and your boots have become used to those 3 storey climbs, you’ll have left Sinatra far behind.
@Portia…are you ready boots? Start walkin’
I’ve had lots of times where i’m falling asleep in my chair, but when i drag myself to bed, i just toss and turn.
Fossil Fishy, that is great news! Conga-rats to you!
Portia, I am sure you can do it. That will be very exciting.
Portia
*jealous*
My secret-secret dream for when I have huge amounts of money… is to get an excavator license.
Just because.
FossilFishy
Yay!! on the house!! Three fucking years, but what a house, what an adventure!! *champagnecocktails&fireworks*
And Hooray for the little wins, life is more a cumulation of little wins rather than one giant win.
Yellow Thursday
Having overheard that joke, I would have snorted really loudly in a derisive manner. Perhaps, if asked, added a comment such as You don’t look much like a caveman… Of course, this is in the entirely hypothetical situation where I would have been brave enough. But I would have snorted.
I’m suspicious about him already, and I’m behind my computer. Keep records of this kind of thing? Suggest a seminar on workplace/sexual harassment, more as a heads-up for you and co-workers rather than him?
I offer *ray of sunshine* for comfort and solace.
rq
Thanks for that. I’m so tired and stressed that I can’t really sustain a good excitement. That’ll come though, once we’re actually moving shit in the front door I expect. I’ve always said I’ll believe it when my only choice is to sleep in the new house or under the bridge behind the pub. Half an hour ago I put that reality into motion by handing in our notice to vacate.
So, uh, whatcha doin’ Saturday? Are up for a little lifting and carrying? There’ll be beer, and pizza!
This. So much this.
Oftentimes the bad stuff, even the minor bad stuff, engages our emotions so much more effectively than the good stuff. The negative seems to get stuck in the brain, or at least in my brain. It tangles up with all the other suckage creating a twisted, impenetrable block of bad thoughts and feelings. While the good stuff just sails right through with maybe a smile and a nod as it passes by.
So hooray again for a small win!
Fuck feeling like I’m being silly, and that I’m over-aggrandising a triviality. Tomorrow I’m going to treat myself to some tiny indulgence as celebration and a reminder that despite how it so often feels, good happens too.
And in the interest of sharing a little joy in the world:
I love this song and this live video of it:
The Tiger and Me, “I Left The Wolves Behind That Night”
I love the way at the end no one is acknowledging the camera. Music as community, community as music. Beautiful.
Oh hey, thanks for that Alethea. If you’re ever in Alpine Victoria we’d love to have you drop by.
That would be great; I may even take you up on it one day!
x-posted from my FB page, because this is a serious problem i don’t know how to fix:
In my social research methods class I need to give a survey to a sample of people who are:
aged 18-30
attend a college or university
have taken at least one online college course
the lab graciously allows me to use a convenience sample of “people you know”; the implicitly stated assumption is that those “people you know” will be other NDSU students.
Here are my problems with this whole thing:
1)I don’t know 15 NDSU students total, nevermind those falling into that age-range and having taken an online class
2)I fall outside that age-range, and yet I’m supposed to take the survey myself, as well
3)If I follow the instructions as written and contact “people [I] know” who are 18-30, attend a college or university and have taken at least one online college course, I’ll completely fuck up the data; because my sample will be international, not limited to NDSU.
and I need a list of 15 names & contact information (phone or e-mail) by Sunday. where the fuck am I supposed to find 15 NDSU students willing to hand over their contact info to a stranger in order to later fill out a survey (added difficulty: leaving for CONvergence on Thursday morning) !?
Or should I just say “fuck it” to the implied assumption and try to get enough FB friends/pharyngulites to trust me with their names and e-mail addresses?
These are the moments I wish my life weren’t so “abnormal” :-(
Jadehawk,
*hugs*
(no useful advice to follow)
They are teaching you “research methods”? I hope this one is supposed to be an example of what not to do, because it sucks.
I dunno if you’re “abnormal” or we’re both “abnormal” but I would have probably had similar problems. (yay for being isolated from meatspace people)
I’m not sure whether taking an international sample* would be a good idea or not, but honestly, it looks like this data is going to be fucked in any case (and I doubt just from you).
I’d even offer my own contact, but I’m not attending uni any more. Sorry.
*do you already know the survey questions? They might pose a problem due to differences in uni education in US/other places
I do. The questionnaire is full of the sort of superficial and badly phrased stuff 3rd year college students who’ve never had to design a study and whose “literature review” consisted of 4 articles would ask.
And it would absolutely run into issues between countries on at least some items.
*sigh*
FossilFishy
I’d love to come on Saturday. Even if it is to move stuff.
Unfortunately, I have to be at work. :(
But I’ll be with you in thoughts, and maybe even convince the gang to have pizza in solidarity!
(And I made up a little song that I might send over your way, if I brush it up in time.)
Also, from extended wranglings with the bank, I know the feeling of worn-off excitement. It gets to the point where it’s just get-the-fuck-over-with, instead of yippee-house, but the excitement comes back once you realize you’re sleeping in your own fucking HOUSE for the first time. And then you wake up in that house and it’s not a dream, it’s really yours (or, in our case, as much as it can be ours with the bank holding the strings ;) ).
*hugs*
Love the song. That’s what music is all about.
Jadehawk
No useful advice from me, either, but *hugs* freely available.
Jadehawk – do you know any of the other professors teaching summer courses? I’ve seen students come into a single class and do a quick survey before class starts or after it ends, and they get the entire data set in one swoop that way.
It sounds like a terribly designed thing, though, and by now that particular age group and class are the ones that you’re NOT supposed to get, now that people are realizing that hey, every study ever has been done on them and just maybe they’re not representative of people as a whole. :(
rq @106: Thanks. Training would be a great suggestion, if the lead branch actually gave us any training. We’re the one, small branch in our state. All the other branches are in a neighboring state. We had to practically beg to get formal training on the loan and deposit software, in order to be able to perform our core functions. I very much doubt the bank would spring for sexual harassment training. And even if they did, Goodhair would act like it was a good idea, then totally ignore it.
Yellow Thursday
I figure he’d ignore it, but it might awaken your co-workers and make them more aware of what’s happening and more inclined to keep records/brush him off/complain (and if all of you complain…).
But I think I understand: the Institution is just waaaay too advanced and important for something as lowly as employee training of any kind (saving pennies and all that). [/snark]
Although – I suppose there’s no way to self-organize a harassment training just for yourselves on a Saturday or something as a ‘fun/educational’ sort of event…? (I know these things cost money. :P Too bad, really.)
I offer lots of moral support.
Yellow Thursday: some rape crisis centers will give free education workshops on recognizing and reporting sexual harassment (since harassment can include sexual assault and rape). You might be able to float a general helpful suggestion to your HR or to someone reasonable and argue that in the current climate, your company needs to have a process in place to protect itself (which happens to be true). Even if the good ol’ boys shut the suggestion down, you might be able to arrange something off the clock for your local people. Just having a contact there could be helpful if something really bad should go down at your place.
In the US, which it sounds like you are, folks can contact the Hotline at http://www.thehotline.org or 1-800-799-7233 and ask them for the resources in your area and in the state where your company mainly is. They’ve been really helpful every time I’ve called them.
I saw four wild turkeys, a goldfinch, three groundhogs, a henway, and about a dozen gray squirrels.
Sorry, I have to work on Saturday. And Wife’s passport is expired. And I don’t have one. And I have beer and pizza at home.
But I don’t have my lunch. Leftovers from last night’s dinner — and I left it on the counter.
Damn.
You don’t say.
I know what you mean. I have to really concentrate to remember good shit. The bad shit is always right there. Waiting.
I can pretend to be the right age. And I can pretend to have taken a college course on line. Which would really screw up your datas.
Parents, education and credentials. Why your educational institution should matter less.
What your metadata says about you (a bit freaky).
Printing a new foot for a duck (the article’s in Latvian but the youtube video under it is in English).
Jadehawk, when I saw your post I thought of asking DaughterSpawn – until I read down a bit further; she’s never taken an online course :-(
Hope you get the data you need.
.
Yay for the imminent HOUSE, FossilFishy! I’d quite enjoy hefting a few boxes, if it weren’t for the pesky opposite-side-of-the-world thing. We’re due a sunny weekend, too :-\
.
YellowThursday, I agree with the others – even if it doesn’t prove possible to have any training sessions or similar, this sounds like it will be very useful to get your co-workers and your immediate boss presenting a united front if that’s possible. Maybe just thinking in terms of noticing and documenting any inappropriate behaviour (as in, any MORE inappropriate behaviour, that is). This sounds like unpleasantness just waiting to happen, so if you’re all even slightly more inclined to watch each other’s backs – and for each one to know that the others are watching her back – it will be harder for this guy to indulge in creepy and/or lazy exploitative behaviour and get away with it. I hope you are OK.
Jadehawk:
Girl is 20, in college, and has taken at least one totally on line course.
[my num [email protected]] for contact information (no space between my nym and the word mobile).
and that is my nym mobile @ gmail . com with no spaces. Sorry.
rq: …excavation sounds like fun. I never even thought about it, but that’d be awesome.
—
Dr. Pepper – I’m open to song suggestions :)
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Ogvorbis: Thank you, that’s really nice of you. *hugs* I appreciate the support and encouragement I get from you and other, more than I can really say. I feel like that’s a common sentiment around here though.
—
I am wondering why whenever I get in the driver’s seat of the rescue vehicle (which is an F-350 so I can drive it without the special license) I always get asked if I know where I’m going…like I haven’t learned to check the map for the address of the call. I don’t see other guys getting asked…oh well.
Texas special session news – Republicans forced the abortion omnibus out of committee while silencing citizens and their own colleagues.
Source – Fresno Bee
Reposting some information I found for a commenter at AXP, who was asking for numbers on the Texas bill’s ambulatory surgical center requirements. Original post
—
I haven’t found it online yet, but one person giving testimony was the owner of several Texas clinics who discussed the costs of bringing them up to ambulatory surgical center standards. Besides the costs of tearing out walls to widen hallways and storage closets and such, the real crusher would be surgical center-level HVAC improvements to the ventilation systems, which involve installing temperature and humidity regulating equipment capable of hospital-like standards. Except for the very rare, very late-term procedures, abortions in general simply don’t require that level of ventilation control. Many clinics rent their facilities and would be forced to relocate or shut down for years until they could, most likely, find the funding to build a new center from scratch to comply with these regulations. If I remember correctly, the clinic owner estimated the upgrade cost would be hundreds of thousands of dollars per clinic, comparing it to the costs of the urban clinics she owns. Because the rural clinics don’t have that sort of funding, and the state of Texas has cut off both state and federal funding to clinics that are even affiliated with abortion providers, almost all clinics would simply close – hence the oft-cited statistic that this bill would close all but five providers statewide.
The testimony was livestreamed and is part of the public record, and SHOULD be available online through Texas state records, but I’m sure they won’t manage to get it available before the bill gets decided one way or another.
Here’s comparable testimony from a court case in South Carolina, challenging a nearly identical TRAP law forcing the upgrade of clinics: Source
For these three clinics, their estimated upgrade costs to comply with the law would be about 61K (for the clinic already mostly in compliance), 86 to 180K for the second, and 104 to 330K for the third. [Also these numbers are from 1999… current costs would likely be higher.]
The Texas bill, like the South Carolina bill in that court case, requires all clinics providing ANY form of abortion to conform to surgical-center standards, including those that simply dispense abortion pills.
Pteryxx & opposablethumbs: I’d love to have some sort of harassment training, but it doesn’t seem likely to happen. The unconscious sexism has been so obvious to me, but hard to fight. I gave up years ago trying to get my fellow employees to stop calling each other “the girls.” But I am documenting Goodhair’s antics. If I need to show a pattern of behavior, I’ll be able to.
Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. It’s just that the corporate culture is such that my branch is an island far away, out of touch with the rest of the world. We don’t even have an org chart to know who answers to whom if we have an issue with someone.
The two-page section that covers harassment in the employee manual includes this gem: “we also recognize that false accusations of sexual harassment can have serious effects on innocent men and women. Therefore, all [bank] employees are expected to act responsibly to establish a pleasant working environment that is free of discrimination.” I have little hope of a good outcome.
I saw many robins and starlings this morning, as well as a white squirrel. :D
NORTH CAROLINA ALERT
Last-minute abortion restrictions tacked onto a family-court bill have been speedpassed by the Senate and could be voted on as early as TODAY.
Via Shakesville, NARAL has a list of actions to take, including a rally going on right now. Facebook events link
Please get the word out, on FB, Twitter, call news stations – anything you can. Hashtag #HB695 is where the action is.
We need a law that makes an allowance for hitting people who use “make more sexy” as a synonym for “improve” over the head with a fish.
Jadehawk, seriously, talk to the prof, present the problem, and have them sort it out (perhaps they’ll assign you to present data on the control group or something…). You can’t be the first who doesn’t know 15 NDSU students that have taken an online course.
I mean, how many people in the world have taken an online course? I haven’t!
Mormon women in Brigham City, Utah are caught on camera spouting (tearfully, of course) bigoted crap about interracial marriage. ABC News link.
The mormon cultural sludge is most evident starting at about 4:10 in the video. “I think they should stay with their own.” “It made me cry to think a pretty girl like that would pick something like that.” At about 6:40: “If you’re white you’re white. If you’re colored, you’re colored. Keep it in your own family. Don’t put it in someone else’s.” “I’ve got a lot of friends that are black, but I just feel like that when you get married, you marry the same as you are….”
The tearful delivery of toxic dogma is par for the mormon course, reminiscent of testimony given in LDS churches.
Follow up info for comment #132:
Kimball was the LDS prophet/seer/revelator/president from 1973 to 1985.
Pteryxx @129: I saw that news out of North Carolina. Spitting mad here …. again.
Here’s Rachel Maddow’s coverage, in case anyone missed it.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#52380409
As I’m sure Ogvorbis knows, sequestration, that incredibly stupid legislation, is hurting the ability of the USA to fight wild fires:
http://news.yahoo.com/budget-cuts-trim-federal-wildfire-spending-072157324.html
Into Navajo translated Star Wars has been! Yes, it’s dubbed.
*noms chocolate*
*ambushes caecily for a pouncehug as she comes out of her tunnel system at night, after the rain, to hunt the earthworms that have fled the flooded pea field*
^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^
Remember Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge that any Republican in office had better sign or else? That pledge caused and is still causing damage.
Now we have a new pledge, the Koch brother’s anti-climate-change pledge. Well, it’s actually a pledge to fight against any legislation meant to address climate change, in particular legislation that would affect regulations on Koch brother’s industries, and on the taxes they pay (or should pay).
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/07/the-kochs-and-the-action-on-global-warming.html
I’m a scientist, right?
Right.
And the hydrofluoric acid lab is at the end of the aisle, so surely I can arrange a chemistry accident…
HULK SMASH
And it is worse than that.
Over the past decade, the number of contract crews (private industry) has increased and the number of agency crews has decreased. The men and women on agency crews are paid more than the contractors. The cost of a contract crew is higher for the agency than the cost of an agency crew (profit). Additionally, when not fighting fires, agency crews are engaged in fuels management work which reduce the chances of catastrophic wildland fires. So there is less fuels management (more big fires) and it costs more to contain the big fires (which comes out of already stressed budgets).
From Scalzi at Whatever: My New Convention Harassment Policy.
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*whew!*
Excellent news!
And wishing you the very best of luck with dah beeg trux.
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*heh heh*
Um, er…I know nothing of these peas of which you speak.
*innocent look*
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Yellow Thursday: The more I read about this Goodhair, the antsier I get. Screens up! Arm the photon torpedoes! Set phasers on “broast”!
–
:)
Arcane Geometries FTW!
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Yes, indeed!
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Yeah, but according to the Republican Bible/Constitution privatization is always good, right? Hurray for capitalism and profit! /sarcasm Also, it is pleasant to fuck we-the-people if you are a conservative politician.
A couple of hours ago, North Carolina senate passed a motion to suspend the normal rules for debate and voting on #HB695.
The first arrest of a protester has happened. #feministarmy is arranging for donations for bail.
Update to Pteryxx’s post @129: Abortion restrictions passed in the North Carolina Senate.
The bill now awaits the signature of a Republican governor.
I’m starting to get this strange itchy feeling whenever I see family in the title of something, especially if combined with protection. It’s like an allergy or something.
Protecting the freedom of religion to oppress women. Right.
You and me both, Beatrice.
Illinois passed civil union recognition in 2011. The name of even that law was ” Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act ” …probably because of provisions making it EXTRA CLEAR that churches don’t have to perform Teh Gay Marriage. They claim to be persecuted, but even when something should have nothing to do with them, they are catered to and coddled and “protected” from nonexistent threats.
@Lynna, OM
#141
Republicans. Always like to stick things where they don’t belong.
Market force into vital government functions.
Political/Religious views into women’s vagina.
Their wieners in kids.
…
Here’s some brain bleach in case you need one.
Go Turkish. Flood the streets.
More abortion stuff, also crossposted from AXP. Why do anti-abortion bills in all these different states look so similar? Because the state reps presenting them didn’t write them (or read them):
Source (San Antonio Current)
Portia:
Yay! Good luck.
Yellow Thursday – I’m glad you’re documenting his sexism. It may be quite useful someday.
FossilFishy – Congratulations!
Jadehawk – I have taken some online classes in Virginia, but I am very much outside the age range. Like Ogvorbis I would be happy to take the survey and say I am in the appropriate age range if it would help.
In feel good news, I work for a federal office and a mass mailer just hit my inbox announcing a special open enrollment period for Feds looking to enroll their same sex spouses for benefits in the wake of the DOMA repeal. Huzzah!
Hmmm…what will I do with all these earthworms….?
*settles back to contemplate the possibilities*
Aha!
*pouncehug-with-earthworms* for DM.
:)
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With earthworms!
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*pouncehugging* Hekuni Cat (though without the earthworms, which are Otherwise Occupied).
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Otherwise Occupead?
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cicely,
You know the other thread Last chance for the soggy apes? For a while, whenever I noticed it in Recent Comments, I read the title as Last chance for the soggy peas.
Jadehawk
I’m only a couple years outside the age range, but I was atta uni during the right time, and I have taken an online course, if that helps. I had similar problems with finding people when I had to do these types of surveys for my classes, so you have my entire sympathies.
Beatrice
Yup. The right wing are very good at Orwellian doublespeak. Wretched fucking fascists.
Others: I know there was more things I wanted to respond to, but my ulcer is flaring up and I can’t focus very well due to the pain.
Soggy peas deserve no “last chance”.
Soggy peas deserved no first chance.
–
^_^
With earthworms!
That might work, too. :-)
I had stir-fried peas last night.
They were good.
Fresh from the garden.
Dalillama
*hugs* Sorry you’re in pain
Ogvorbis:
Omnomnom
All:
Thanks for the rah-rah about the driving :)
Or Egyptian. Or Greek. Or…
Seriously, where the feck are the protests against the thugs’s actions ?
Fixed.
(Besides, we’re equal opportunities, rights, and so on here. No reason to discriminate based on sogginess.)
Dalillama,
Ouch. *gentle hugs*
*hugs* for Dalillama. Sorry about the ulcer.
–
*hanging head in shame*
Sorry, blf. You’re right; no discrimination. No chances. No peas.
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There were protesters. Some were even arrested. However, the secretive, last minute, cram-it-into-a-Sharia-Law-bill tactics on the Republican side did cut down on opportunities for protest. Now that more people know about it, we will see more protests.
http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/crime/nc-senate-gallery-full-of-abortion-bill-protesters/nYcgB/
FreakOut Nation link.
Marco Rubio has decided to jump on the anti-abortion wagon. This is his way of kissing ass after having angered some conservatives with his support for immigration reform.
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/03/marco_rubios_pathetic_rick_perry_moment/
you misunderstand the point of this exercise; it’s not a real paper. It’s a lab, i.e. everyone does exactly the same thing in order to practice doing that thing. So no, I can’t do something else than everyone else.
Also, it’s the week of July 4th. The chances of getting a response from the ppl running the lab before Sunday are fucking close to nonexistent.
So this is new? The thugs’s have been sensible until the last week or so? There is nothing else the thugs’s say which merits action?
Horsepucky.
Where the feck are the protests? There’s nothing much new here in what the thugs’s are doing. Where are the protesters? Where are the people occupying the streets, day after day, disrupting the piss-on-everyone and everything idiocies?
Jadehawk,
Do you have some kind of forum where students hang out and you could ask for people who would be willing to participate?
It’s called a pub.
I e-mail-begged the students in another online class I’m taking to volunteer. But again: week of July 4th. No one is around to notice.
And I think someone already suggested dropping in at the beginning of some random** class*, giving a short explanation and sending a list they can fill.
*contacting professor in question for permission beforehand advisable
** hmmm, maybe not even random. I would suggest something involving computer science since I think those students are (by my own estimate) most likely to participate in online courses
Jadehawk,
Sorry, I keep forgetting you’re having a holiday over there.
——–
blf,
Yeah, but when you come home from the pub, it’s 4am and you can’t sleep, some brilliant idea involving your studies strikes and you can share it on the forum where one of the admins is hanging around while he’s correcting papers. (that was our forum at least)
So the LDS campaign to ban different-sex marriage starts when?
I’m really sorry you have ulcer pain to deal with, Dalillama :-(((
Hope you’ve got some decent (or at least helpful) medication you can take?
.
Ongoing admiration of Portia’s mad firefighting (and other associated) skillz :-)
Also glad to see how you are on top of the whole handling-the-friendship-with-S situation.
.
Not keeping up as much as I want to, but just knowing you are all here and that this online gathering of overwhelmingly decent, thoughtful, compassionate, clear-sighted people exists – and catching glimpses of what you are talking about – helps to keep me on a more even keel than I otherwise would be. (as well as making me want to hulk-smash certain loathsome woman-hating Texas politicians. Pteryxx you’re brilliant)
.
Assorted hugs (fluffy, chocolate-flavoured, virtual, kitten-bedecked, tastefully British and restrained in decorous fashion, squishly, ankle, pounce, glomp or any combination of the aforegoing, as preferred).
From Jezebel, an annotated map of abortion restrictions and discussion across the US. (Not the best interface but it provides a quick-click comparison.)
http://jezebel.com/the-annotated-guide-to-protecting-women-from-abortion-602475321
Beatrice, come home at 4am? That’s the middle of freaking day! Silly time to leave…
thanks OP… sorry I’m not even trying to catch up on Lounge business anymore, just sending out info as fast as I can.
I have a question. In the light of the revelations of the depth and breadth of the surveillance of “everyone” how has it effected you as a person in your use of technology and what you feel free to express and how it is expressed?
I think that in the back of my mind ever since 9/11 I have been aware of the increased degree I have been self censoring.
uncle frogy
oh FFS
just noticed that next week they’ll also want me to interview someone about online education. Anyone with experience in both online & meatspace classes wanna volunteer for that one? (students who take online classes or profs who teach them are probably both ok as interview victims)
so far all I’m learning here is that summer session is a horrible time to do a research lab/class, and that my professors and I have vastly different ideas about what a convenience sample looks like.
blf,
Oh well, I knew I couldn’t really pass as a “going out” kind of person. :)
I remember staying out until 7am… Twice.
Jadehawk:
I’m in the age range and I’ve taken both kinds of classes. I can help if I could be of help.
Jadehawk,
If it doesn’t have to be someone who’s currently a student and no Skype is involved, I wouldn’t mind.
I’ve taken a couple of online courses. In fact, I’m enrolled in one right now (my French classes are over for the summer so I needed something to keep the brain from rotting).
(Cool stuff : https://class.coursera.org/mentalhealth-002/class/index
I only enrolled this weekend, so I’m going to miss the deadline for first homework, but I’m taking it for fun and not the scores anyway)
ok: anyone who wants to help by either filling out the questionnaire from hell or being an interview victim can e-mail me (email can be found in the sidebar of my blog, which can be found by clicking on my name). I’m going to give preference to any actual NDSU student volunteering, but there’s no way in hell I’ll get 15 of those, so I’ll definitely need volunteers from elsewhere.
But I’m from Europe, so there’s the difference in meatspace experiences, even if online stuff is the same.
(Now that could actually be interesting, comparing experiences of online classes of people who had very different meatspace education)
Feel-good science story!
@186
Although reading the paper itself, it looks like there’s some fairly speculative interpretation of infant behaviour going on!
Jadehawk,
You’ve got mail
—-
how despicable are liars for fetus? This despicable:
That’s the latest lie, along with “paid pro-abortion protesters” and “abortion industry profits”. Oh, and how pro-choicers are somehow a flood and a horde, while antis clearly outnumber them. clearly. At the same time.
Don’t worry. Many of the several dozen times you cannot remember were pretty good. Of course, there was that incident with a pea and the cement mixer, but the army was rather cool about it, although I suspect they want their tank back. Just e-mail a note to someone, the NSA will tell the army where it is.
(In molecular biology lab classes different teams were commonly expected to do somewhat different things… sometimes different methods aiming at the same goal… Sorry I can’t help. :-( )
*happiness tea*
Portia is learning to drive the hug truck. :-] My license only goes to 3.5 tonnes.
Hehe
I think this might bring on some interesting dreams tonight. And on that note, good night. I’ll be in my tank.*
*This neither denies nor confirms my involvement in any “pea and the cement mixer” incident that I know absolutely nothing about. I know my rights, I don’t have to tell you where I got my tank! US constitution says so.
I had pea soup for lunch…
Jadehawk, you have mail!
In other news of my own personal selfishness, fuck fuck fuck, fuuuuuuuuck fuck fuuuuck fuck. (sing that to any tune you like). We apparently did not come out of the recent flooding unscathed, as one of the apple trees in the back yard is now listing at about 15 degrees. The root edge is barely up – it hasn’t really even broken the surface so much as bulged it, but it’s going to need to be taken care of. And walking back to look at it I was squishing through a couple of inches of water still in the far back, so I don’t know how easy it would be to deal with. I want to save it if possible, but the most local place that has a certified arborist isn’t answering their phone today, and they’re located in a place that got massive flooding, so I’m not sure if they’re even open. If they are, I’m sure they’re deluged with work (heh), but hopefully trying to save a living tree would take precedence over all the fallen-over removal work, if they prioritize by triage (double heh). And of course we just got done spending the last of the tax refund, so our cushion is gone and I have no idea what it would cost. :(
Not exactly the occupation you had in mind, but for your consideration: the NAACP’s Moral Mondays. On the day of this article, 3000 showed up to protest. Those who entered the state legislative building were subject to arrest, while the crowds outside cheered for them. This was North Carolina, but it’s what reproductive rights protests will need to look like.
The biggest liberal protest of 2013 (ThinkProgress photoessay, Jun 28)
HuffPo coverage from mid June
Nick Gotts – one of my most treasured memories was when my son was a baby, maybe 11 months old. I was pregnant again so hormones were GOING, and it was about 2 in the morning, and he was up crying AGAIN because the poor thing had pediatric reflux and still woke up every two hours or so all of the damned time, and I Just. Lost. It. I was holding him and rocking him and just started weeping. It was only a minute or so in tandem and then he stopped, and stared at me for a minute, and then took his pacifier out of his mouth and smooshed it into mine. Then he kind of cocked his head and looked at me with a tiny forehead crinkle like “Does that make it better? That should make it better.” Which, of course, just made me cry more, but a happier kind of cry. So yes, I definitely buy that babies can show sympathy that young.
Oh right, for to tell Jadehawk: maily from me!
Jadehawk
I’m too old for your survey, but if you need an extra person I am completely willing to lie about my age to help you out.
David M., I answered your question in the mormon flowchart thread. Comment link.
Rabid right wing conservatives have decided that they don’t need no stinkin’ Hispanic voters. They need more white voters. Link.
Excerpt:
While the Republicans are coming to the conclusion that they don’t need Hispanic votes, the Congressional Budget Office released a new, more positive economic assessment of the effects of the revised immigration laws that the Senate passed last week (the bill is still hung up in the House, of course, and it may die there).
NY Times link.
Good evening
First:
Veeeeery good news: Her majesty the Queen principal has graced #1 with an official invitation to start school.
YAY
+++
Second: Had to tell a very good friend tonight that he can stuff his misogynist crap where the sun doesn’t shine. He’s going to watch his mouth in my house. Should have asked him how it makes him feel when people point at shitty things and call them “gay”.
But he’s being an allround-asshole again which makes me believe that something’s going really wrong in his life, because his favourite method to deal with pain is to spread it.
+++
Third: Hugs for Dalillama
+++
Fourth: Jadehawk, I can probably help with the interview, but it’s too late tonight for mails
+++
Fifth: carlie Good luck for the apple tree
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Something a bit unusual: Dog suits up for a day in the hives.
Jadehawk
I’ll take a survey if you’d like, with the caveats mentioned above.
Carlie
Good luck with the tree
Why is it that nowhere in this city (and hardly anywwhere online) carries cotton cloth in a simple 1/2″ black and white pattern.
—more Texas – The Abortion Games—
The testimony given yesterday (in the single day allowed, since a 30-day special session is SO SHORT) was done by selecting names from those who registered on computer kiosks. Two hours before registration was supposed to open, several buses of anti-abortion supporters showed up at the capital, and the kiosks were miraculously opened for them. Then when people were waiting to testify, their names were called in order of who signed up…
Blog source
Antis on Twitter and some news outlets have been reporting that the antis made up the majority of people who got their testimonies into public record, therefore most citizens are anti-abortion; also citing stats that nearly twice as many people registered support FOR the abortion restrictions as AGAINST them. Well guess what happened there:
Source – Texas Tribune
WHAT A SURPRISE.
And it’s only going to get worse: (first source again)
So, FYI. All that voter suppression practice is serving them well. Don’t let those stats about antis being the majority go unchallenged.
Lynna, OM
Idiot! “Caucasian” includes “arab”.
I keep reading the “Last chance for the soggy apes” as “Last chance for soggy peas.”
Dr. Pepper @206: Way to spot an error!
Portia
The Supremes: Up The Ladder To The Roof
Refresh my memory, folks. Isn’t it Faux News, Limbaugh, Beck, Palin et al who keep accusing Democrats of monkeying with legislative rules, inventing new rules, and gaming the system to illegally add amendments to bills through normal processes?
The Republican Party must die.
Ogvorbis
Yup. They also insist that Democrats are the ‘real racists,’ that Obama wants to round them up and put them in camps, etc. Projection is their favorite game.
All of the problems of mansplaining and politics, wrapped up in one picture.
You know, for someone who has come so far in learning to be NOT shy about asking questions, sometimes I still hold off, waiting for someone else to ask, or hoping mundane revelation will shine a light on that which I seek.
To wit: whats the story behind ‘elebenty’?
Reminds me a great deal of the Soviet Union’s inoculation techniques. If the Soviets were going to work to destabilize a government, for a year or more before hand, Pravda and Izvestia would be filled with articles about the CIA, OSS, or IMF working to destabilize and overthrow that country’s government. Then, when KGB destabilization efforts came to light, the Soviets could claim, “Oh, the US was trying to overthrow this democratically elected government. We are only helping the workers of fill-in-the-blank defend themselves. Or Germany’s persistent claim that they were only invading to defend those poor ethnic Germans in Sudetenland, or Poland.
We’ve seen this in the US. Claims of voter suppression by the GOP followed by actual instances of voter suppression by the GOP. Claims of trucking in outsiders to protest a bill in Texas followed by the GOP trucking in protestors. It goes on and on and on and on and I need a drink.
Some of the sure signs of cranks: typing in all caps; using multiple exhalation points; occasionally failing to keep the caps key down while pounding on the one key. For instance:
AQUATIC APES!!11!1!!!!!
Notice the ‘elebenty’ tucked into the exhalation points?
Eh, I picked up “elebenty” over on the Cheezburger network, and it’s kind of my “go-to word” for “ridiculous number”.
*hugpouncing* opposablethumbs.
–
Huzzah!
*fireworks (readily available this week!) & beverages (alcoholicity per individual preference)* all ’round!
Sorry about your very good friend.
–
Doggie inna spacesuit!
:D
–
Jadehawk, if you want to just complete it without complaining about the (ridiculous!) standards, a good option is to approach people in the library or cafeteria and ask them. Offering some candy for a completed survey is a nice trick to encourage participation and make intruding on strangers feel less awkward. Avoid people wearing headphones or otherwise obviously deeply involved in something. Plan your approach to stress legitimacy: something like show student card, say Excuse me, I’m a student in X and I need people to do a short survey, I offer you a chocolate for your time…
* of course that may be a bit obvious. My apologies, if so.
dear furriners, let me explain July 4th to you… :-p
anyway, there’s not going to be anyone on campus until at least Monday, because long holiday weekend. The list of volunteers is due on Sunday. Sooo yeah.
Ah. Yes. Your foreigner detection system is working perfectly.
In other whacky alien news, I just ate my first ever pop-tart. HOLY FUCK YOU PEOPLE MY PANCREAS IS CRYING NOW. Respect to your internal organs of steel!
Jadehawk:
Re- the online survey…yikes. I wish there were some way to help you, but I qualify for none of those criteria
—
I read somewhere that you bought the first issue of the all female X-Men team, and I wondered what your take on it was. I found the issue ‘meh’. I do not feel Brian Wood demonstrated a handle on the various personalities. Plus I am not a fan of Sublime. Theres also the issue of no internal conflict. They are all friends so such conflict will take time to develop.
Alethea:
But…but…but…poptarts are part of a balanced breakfast. Right up there with Boo Berry, Frankenbsrry, and Count Chockcula. Much better for you than Shredded Mini Wheats.
“I’m buzzed. Let’s go swimming!” I may be starting to adapt to California >.>
Also, I had ANOTHER NORMAL CONVERSATION today :3
Azkyroth
What is this “normal conversation” you speak of?
Reminds me of the most commonly heard last words ’round these parts “Hold my beer. This’ll be great!” :)
Hooray for normal conversation? Not sure how to parse that particular smiley, even after looking it up.
Ok, who put centipede bait all over my ceiling, and why do they particularly like the space right above my bed?
(Good news, I’m not actually panicking this time.)
I kept looking up and it was in a different place. Now I can’t find it.
Portia,
My sympathies. I hope the couch isn’t too uncomfortable for sleeping.
My alternative in the futon in the finished atticky upstairs…it’s fairly warm up there, and the probability for bugs is higher…the only time was conscious when bitten was up there…I think it was a spider that time, who was crawling across my palm minding its own business when the ground moved under it, and so it bit me. I do appreciate the sympathy though. It disappeared on the other side of the ceiling, so I’m pretty sure it at least didn’t fall on my bed.
Hey Oggie,
Even been to Bethlehem/Allentown? Is it an OK place? I saw a posting for, like, my perfect job, but it’s based in Bethlehem PA.
I can’t grammar today. Haven’t been to day all.
For an epic (EPIC!!) song, go to minute 107 and you won’t regret it. Excellent use of cymbals, and fucking voice on that guy. This is what epic music should be: four orchestras, 23 choirs, and a powerful soloist.
Good morning
Wanna hear the chronicles of me and the primary school episode #125876548?
Bet you don’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway.
So, today was the first day one of #1’s kindergarten teachers came to work again after she’d been on sick-leave for almost three weeks. That teacher is the head of the team. We chatted briefly about the good news yesterday and she told me: “Well, I actually knew it already, because I’d talked on the phone with the principal shortly after your visit and she’d told me that unless the medical examination was bad she’d let her start, but I wasn’t allowed to tell you”
WTMFF?
So, I’ve been miserable and stressed out and colse to crying for weeks, trying to move heaven and earth, waived our privacy rights in favour of smooth communication between all parties and that asshole is playing silly buggers?
I think I’m developing as very, very, very strong dislike against her…
+++
Oh, and happy holiday for the USAsians.
Do you mind if I ask if and what you liberal folks over there are celebrating today, since your country looks rather like they took 1984 as an instruction manual?
Jadehawk – ooo ooo, idea – sign up for a Coursera* account, and see if there are any ongoing open classes you can sign up for. (I know there is an archaeology one that is halfway through now). Those are huge enough that there will be lots of people logging in over the holiday, and you might be able to snag several of them for the survey, either by straight-out asking in any “getting to know you” or current module forums, or by asking the instructor to put up a note.
*Coursera – free massive open online course distributor
carlie,
Probably not a bad idea. Every course has its own forum, where you can ask the “getting to know you” kind of questions. It might be a bit awkward to drop in with a survey request, and there are a lot of us foreigners, but it could be worth a try.
Since the class I’m taking (linked above) had a homework that is assessed via peer review due yesterday, I guess even the Americans will be around today despite the holiday. The classes had started 24th June, but that should be all the same for Jadehawk’s needs.
—
Giliell,
Congrats on #1 getting into school. I hope you won’t have a need for too much further contact with the principal, since she’s… that way (hey, I’m being polite).
OK, gang, I’m going to be deeply distracted by yet another conference full of non-stop entertainment, so I’m going to be a bit useless around here. Behave!
Congratulations Giliell – glad to hear that’s one worry down, at least!
.
So I was just wondering … has anyone seen the footage of the woman whose car went into that sinkhole in the street in Ohio, the footage where she climbs up the ladder and gets out of the hole?
Notice the bloke on the right, who puts his hand on her forearm when she gets within reach? And the way she completes the climb and steps off the ladder?
I’m curious to get any opinions: is he helping or hindering, in that precise moment? Is she nervous/in shock/frightened/climbing out quite calmly, considering the circumstances?
Would he have put his hand on the victim’s arm in precisely that way if the victim had been a bloke of similar age and fitness?
Am I imagining things when I see a kind of mansplaining in his gesture, even though of course the focus of the whole thing is to get the accident victim to safety. It’s just that one little gesture that strikes me as unnecessary, and more designed to comfort the bloke in his desire to be the rescuer (which he already actually is, obviously. She was in a terrifying accident, and the rescue team rescued her. This is not in question; I’m just wondering about that hand on her arm that seems to me to actually make the last couple of steps harder for her, not easier).
I make the daily reminder to vote for SONORE (way down on the left side; it would be nice to break 1000, vote leaders are at 4000+!). We have a small chance and it would be awesome.
** This request for those users of Twitter and Facebook. For those of you without, kind thoughts of encouragement will suffice. :) **
+++
Fighting rape culture, one song at a time (that is, fighting songs about rape culture – one reminder at a time).
Now I know why PZ sports a beard. Immune to sarcasm and quadruples handsomeness, eh? That’s how he gets us to do his bidding.
The rhetoric and reality of suicide, fashion, and writing workshops.
Oh and thanks to FossilFishy for introducing me to the music of The Tiger & Me. :) (They remind me of The Decemberists but less gory.)
I never knew there was a same-sex marriage in the US in the 1970s, which was never annulled/revoked/struck down or whatever the appropriate term is (license never revoked, marriage never … annulled?).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23159390
Wow. And shows how little I know …
Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton are nice post-industrial cities. The iron works (Bethlehem Steel) closed some years back and the site is being made into a museum of industrial heritage. There are good colleges there (Lehigh, Moravian), it is within easy day trip to Philly, a half hour from nice mountains, there are a half dozen National Parks within easy day trip range, the Lehigh River is good for canoing and rafting (further up stream). Some good rail trails for running, riding, walking. There are areas that are thriving and areas that the thrive has missed. And there are lots of nice towns north of ABE (Nazareth, for instance) that are still small towns but close enough for an easy drive.
Well, thanks to the War of 1812, we don’t have to be impressed by the English anymore. I celebrate getting rid of the hereditary aristocracy. I celebrate getting rid of hereditary wealth and privilege. I celebrate the good ideas that the USA has had (National Parks, for example). I celebrate with a steak and corn on the cob out on the BBQ and a good beer.
And then I watch the Tour de France.
Like the BatSignal for trolls. Thanks a lot (or alot (your choice)).
He was wrong. He should have offered a fore arm and, if she grabbed it, he should have used his other hand to help her. If she did not grab it, he should have stepped back to give her room.
I help people off trains, antique trains with crappy steep tall steps. And what I just described is what we do here. And a rescue worker should know shit like that.
And, were it me, it would not have mattered — man, woman, young, old — I would have passively offered help.
Just me, of course.
Not caught up, but it turns out I have a reason to celebrate July 4th: my next paper is out.
Unlike the last one, though, this one is behind a paywall. Interested parties without access will have to contact me directly instead of just downloading it.
That and your description makes perfect sense to me, and it’s clearly exactly what he should have done. Come to think of it, that’s similar to what one is supposed to do if offering to help someone visually impaired or with impaired mobility, isn’t it – offer an arm for them to take, rather than taking their arm. So you can provide increased stability rather than running the risk of inadvertently destabilising them (which is what this looked like).
I guess maybe he just wasn’t experienced or forgot his training in the heat of the moment?
I’m sure the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Mellon, Du Pont and Bush families will join you in that celebration :-p
carlie@196,
Thanks – a lovely story!
Yeah. That was sarcasm. Except the steak and corn and beer. Sorry.
Mark Twain’s epic takedown of the Book of Mormon, cross-posted from the mormon flowchart thread:
Comment link.
Thanks all, for putting up with me when I’m being so emotionally takey takey and no givey. I’m feeling much better because I got in touch with the one arborist I really wanted to use based on certifications and recommendation of our county ag extension, and he’s coming over sometime early next week to give us a diagnosis and some options. For me the worst part of any repair is the gaping chasm of “how do we find someone good to hire” (right before the “how much will it cost” scare), so just having that nailed down is a big relief.
Giliell – yay for getting in! Sorry the principal is a jerk, though. :( At least you know now, so you know to be cautious and won’t get suckered in later in any way.
Whenever I get a chance to sing the national anthem, which happens fairly often in Texas, I sing the third stanza with a serious face and then talk about it with anyone who asks. (Massive props to Asimov’s “All Four Stanzas”, the un-whitewashed version of which can be read here.
Usually, hearing it startles the listeners. (The crowds most likely to cheer the bloodthirstiness never ask or even pay attention.) My point is to remind everyone that the first verse, the familiar one that folks here (mostly) know the words to, ends in a question. We the US can’t just assume that we’re right and just and good because USA-USA. Are we free, are we brave, are we home? So every time we hear the song, that should be a reminder to always ask.
One of the Red Tails veterans (special feature on the Blu-ray, which I cannot recommend strongly enough) after recounting how he and his fellows were subjected to racism and belittling even as they risked their lives, said something like “This country is sick; but I’ll sit by her and hold her hand until she gets better.”
Personally I’m spending the day prepping and sending out research on TRAP laws for Texas. Best I can do for this place and the decent people in it. But I might have some corn on the cob for dinner.
Shiiiiiiit, you just blew my mind, because somehow my gears shifted. I’ve always thought of that question as it was written, the question being whether the flag was still waving. However, it’s easily read the other way too, isn’t it? Not whether the flag is waving, but what it is the flag is waving over. Man, I’m going to be thinking about that all day.
Personally, I’m going to celebrate when the holiday is over and done with. In my neighborhood, kids and adults start shooting off fireworks about two weeks before July 4th, and continue until the mass quantities of booming, sparkling whatevers they bought have been depleted. Laws too lax, enforcement non-existent, and way too many vendors selling explosives.
The neighbors wait until dark to begin, of course, and then they light the stuff off in the street. Sounds like a war zone. Freaks out the horses in the nearby pasture. Fucks with the minds of the neighborhood dogs and cats. Keeps me awake.
One year I just left town and set up my tent in a hard-to-access spot in the mountains.
I will celebrate when peace descends with nightfall.
*licks delicious cupcake batter off fingers*
I guess my diet can take a break…
Also, why does somebody ask you to come to their office hour when they’re not there then?
Wrong comment link posted in #248. Here’s the correct link.
That moment when you come back from vacation and find out your colleague forgot to send your record sheet for last month. *glare*
(my anger blooms a bit late, that moment was this morning)
Ex-mormons discuss the monkey-flying-out-of-my-butt nature of a an Independent News article that claims there is no blind obedience in mormonism, and no cult-like behavior either.
Excerpts:
And here’s the piece of shit journalism being discussed:
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/jul/01/mormons-and-their-religion-brief-portrayal/
Excerpt:
Whoa. The national anthem thing. Blew my mind.
Re: The 4th of July
I moved (long, long ago) to North Dakota on the 4th of July after 8 years not in the US. I was a very unhappy teenager. I remember being in the car on my way to my new home from the airport, weeping at the car window, watching fireworks go off in the sky.
Tethys!
Now that PZ has flushed the soggy apes away…
What, it’s considered male just because of the sagittal crest? I thought Paranthropus generally had a sagittal crest, because those jaw muscles had to fit somewhere.
I posit it is a female skull that shows adaptations to eating tough stuff like roots & tubers – and no adaptations to deal with the grit on them, hence the wear. (Such adaptations would be the high-crowned teeth seen in grazing mammals generally.)
Tiny victory today: the assistant chief (same guy who attagirl’d me for the pile-up call last weekend) asked me to guide him as he backed a trailer into the alley. There were lots of other people around who could have helped. He had confidence I could do that little thing. It may seem silly to be happy about this, but it’s something he wouldn’t have done a few months ago, I feel like. So I’m taking the win.
—
carlie:
Good luck with the tree diagnosis, and more *hugs*. Sometimes we just need to vent and can’t immerse ourselves in the lounge as much as we’d like. I know how that feels. We like having you around regardless. : )
This year I’ll be celebrating by making a pasta salad with some fresh garlic scape pesto I made yesterday, summer squash, tiny tomatoes… and I’m taking suggestions for other ingredients. My sister and her husband and my two nieces are coming tomorrow to stay with me for two nights.
–
I’m pretty nervous, as she has never stayed with me, and keeps a really nice home herself. My is not bad, but with partner and I working full time… I don’t have lots of spare time for cutesy home projects. Also, the lawn is kindof awful. I was hoping it would bring itself back to life after a nice wet winter (the realtors killed it while we were in the closing process), but it has not. I kind of hate lawns anyway. I think eventually we’ll take it out and xeriscape it.
yazikus,
I think that link rq provided the day before yesterday, about whether “new domesticity” is harming feminism very much applies here. Cutesy home projects are cutesy, but I hate how they seem to be becoming expected (not in my part of the world yet, but are following a lot of US trends, so this one will probably travel across the pond eventually too).
yazikus:
your story about the 4th makes me just want to hug you. *hugs*
I’m making pasta salad too : )with peeeeeeas.
—
Like cicely told me last month: are they coming to visit you, or your house? I 100% feeling stressed about it, and I wish I could lend a hand. But you’ll be just fine :)
yazikus,
Or less convoluted: It’s nice that your sister and her family have a nice place, but your place not having hand-painted cabinets and embroidered pillows (all in “shabby chic*” style) really isn’t something to feel bad about.
*this shit is supposedly in here, so I’m guessing it’s already passé over in US
Ugh, second post sounded even snarkier than the first. I was trying to go for less snarky.
Beatrice, I didn’t get snarky at all. I’m going to go find that link. I mean, who doesn’t want to have time to make their own peach preserves or upcycle an old bike into a lamp? I’m being a little sarcastic there. I think we would all love to have unlimited time to spend on our hobbies, mine just happen to be news/reading/information in general rather than canning.
–
Portia, it was all rather dramatic when I think back on it. It would make for a great scene in a movie =) And thank you- I do have fresh peas in the fridge I can use as well! I just need to shell them. What do you use as your ‘binder’ for pasta salad? As for my house, I think I’ll get some fresh flowers for the table. That will make me feel better.
Flowers! Great idea (again :) )
I’m going to use part plain yogurt with maybe a little mayo.
—
I had some good movie scene transit situations myself, when I was leaving for Chicago several times on the train and my sweet old dad walked along with the train, waving and grinning, as it pulled away, and then jogged, and then just waved. I wasn’t going far or for too long, it was just enough to make me cry. Lots of train conductors have seen me cry.
Since I mentioned it, I looked for the link too:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/15115/food_fight_feminists_and_femnivores/#13727446553021&action=collapse_widget&id=393323
I actually do canning, making sirup (and freezing, even if that’s less work :) ), since we have a vegetable garden and some fruit trees. And it can be fun (especially when you come up with some new combination), but now that I’m working I can also see that it’s quite exhausting to come home from work, cook for the next day and spend a couple of hours over boiling pots in the summer. It’s great if someone enjoys it, but it really shouldn’t be part of some “I’m better than you” game.
Yeah, I paint cabinets just for the fun of it…there’s a million other little things I am not skilled or have the time for. To each their own
That is so sweet! Someone, please make that into a movie. Trains are all kinds of awesome. I left North Dakota six month after my dramatic arrival by take a train called The Empire Builder west. The plains were snow covered and stunning. I made my way to the smoking car (teenagers, doncha know), where there was an impromptu bluegrass going on with a bunch of random travelers. It was great.
Doesn’t Amtrak give them such great names, too? :) That’s pretty cool. I do like trains a lot myself. Didn’t have a car for the first year or so of law school and had to get home to visit. Amtrak is so relatively hassle free.
In all actuality, I would love to learn to can. It is on my life list of things to learn (but maybe later). What is your favorite thing to preserve?
Portia,
I seem to be doing it wrong all day today: I didn’t mean to belittle anyone who likes to do stuff around the house (I’d paint my cabinets too if I had any sort of skill – they really need fresh paint), I just wanted to complain about it becoming a “must” (especially for women).
Sorry for getting nasty about it. :(
yazikus
The rule around here is that whoever finds this flat too untidy is welcome to clean it up ;)
+++
Something completely different
Feeling a deep need for entertainment the last weeks I started to read the Alanna books by Tamora Pierce.
And there’s some things I just have to love about them.
I love how she sometimes lets Alanna hit the nail on the head by thinking about what people think about boys and girls and men and women.
Spoilers:
And what I really liked was how she allowed her heroine to become a sexual being without any slut-shaming or bullshit. That world has magic, so she simply gets a magic contraceptive and is free to enjoy herself in bed with no mentioning of *ghasp* virginity.
I hope the kids grow up to like fantasy, I have and extensive library for them to read…
I didn’t think you were nasty at all, Beatrice. I didn’t feel targeted, even unwittingly. The frustration is justified, and I didn’t mean to give off a “poor me” vibe. I enjoy the conversation about unfair expectations of women. *hugs* to clear it all up? :)
Giliell:
Belated congrats! on the school issue resolution.
I have a Tamora Pierce book sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, because I have heard good things.
I do mostly plums, since we have a lot of them. I tried playing with apples last year, adding some spices (that was good).
Combination of quince and plum is… interesting.
Ok, not really many combinations. It sounded more impressive in my head :).
That sounds tasty, Beatrice.
My aunt does an amazing amount of canning, preserving, drying and whatnot. Of course, it’s pretty much her job. Heck, it’s her job. She has one kid left at home and that kid is 16. Aunt is pretty much the farmer by trade, an amazing amount of their food is home-produced. Even grind the flour when they make pancakes. Then the homemade butter (amazing…) is slathered on, followed by apricots or raspberries from their trees/briar patches. Some years they have sorghum syrup for topping too. Ok now I’m feeling like that salad for lunch just was not enough.
Portia,
Oh, good then . *hugs*
I was afraid I came off as nasty and insulted you.
Nah. I feel like I know you well enough that I can definitely tell when you’re intending to be snarky, so I don’t default to reading you that way : )
Yazikus, what’s your pasta salad recipe?
Gilliell
I loved those books when I was a kid; I also read one sequel series set in the same world, and there’s apparently another out too, plus several others in a different world.
Dalillama
There are I think four different quartets playing in that world, starting with Alanna. There is one about the next girl who wants to become a night, Imortals, featuring a young girl with wild magic and Daugther of Lioness, which, as the title suggests, features Alanna’s daughter.
Yes, there’s plenty left to read (I’m still angry with Jim Hines for ending the Princess Novels)
beatrice
Hmmmm, you make me long for grandma’s canned apples and pears. And plums. My grandparents grew lots of their food not for fancy new lifestyle reasons but because they couldn’t buy them. OK, when I was a kid it was more a habit and slowly became less. But I grew up around canned and preserved fruits and vegs, and as a kid there was hardly anything better than to go foraging with grandpa according to the season (he was once caught trespassing for mushrooms when he was well over 80).
I want to hit people who say things like my gran was “just a housewife.” They wouldn’t last one of the weeks she must have had in the 60’s…
Gilliell
I’m pretty certain that Immortals is the one that’s a different world, but then it’s been 15-20 years since I read them, so I could well be wrong.
Portia,
I’m usually a “use whatever I have” type cook, so this is loosely a recipe. I got some colorful rotini pasta, and yesterday I made a pesto of garlic scapes, garlic, basil, lemon, parm, olive oil, s&p. So I’m going to use that as the binder, mixed with a bit of mayo and add some halved cherry tomatoes, fresh peas and maybe some broccoli. I usually prefer veganaise to mayonaise, but I don’d have any at the moment. I’ll toss it all together and voila! Food!
–
I just got home from the store with some lovely sunflowers, so I’m feeling quite a bit better. Way too many people out and about though. And in front of me in line at the store was a baseball team. I was amazed by how large and young they looked.
David Marjanovic
Yay! Thanks for answering. (Sorry everyone else, if you don’t wish to read any more about the subject start scrolling now)
Yes.
presumed female paranthropus
It doesn’t have any teeth, but it does lack the crest.
Compare that skull to Zinj who I agree is male based on the teeth. Note the straight incisal edge formed by the incisors from cuspid to cuspid, the teeth are more squared off at the distal corners, and the cuspid is rotated outward instead of inward and down as is typical of female dentition.
One of the papers linked in the first thread showed through isotope analysis, and microwear patterns that the diet of Paranthropus b. was identical to both australopithicus sp. . All three had a diet that was up to 80% C(4) derived from grass, sedge, and various grazing animals, with strong seasonal variations. IIRC all of the hominids fell into a C(4) range of between 70% and 80%.
The roman woman showed the wear typical of people who a lot of eat stone ground grains. Her posteriors had completely exposed dentine, but her anteriors were less worn and not broken. (unlike the paranthropus skull in the second soggy ape thread)
I would say the shear* size and thickened enamel of paranthropus teeth would be enough of an adaptation to help them deal with the silica present in grasses. Their second molar is completely different (much more like a grazer!) from ours, but the rest of the teeth are nearly identical in morphology to us except for the size.
*tpyo on purpose
A saggital crest is common in carnivores. It seems like conjecture it being similar in function to male gorillas. Isn’t that making the same error as assuming that the LCA was a knuckle walker rather than bipedal? It could just as easily be a marker of either sexual maturity, or a further adaptation to increased meat eating during the dry season.
We weren’t selected by water, but we were definitely selected by fire on the savanna. The ape who gets to the ungulates (lots of meat per effort expended) who didn’t make it through the grass fires first has the best chance of eating until the rains come and the grass regrows.
Another difference between Paranthropus and Australopithecus seems to be stone tool use. A. is often found with worked stone tools used primarily for butchering. I am unaware of any tool evidence found with P. This fact alone would explain the differences in cranial anatomy between them, since the isotope/microwear evidence shows their diet was identical. I imagine it takes a great deal of biting force to eat an ungulate when you lack sharp teeth.
♥
Dalillama
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t, I read it last week ;)
When I read fiction, i read it fast.
Well, there you go, then. I wonder what books I was thinking of?
The holiday is boring here at Casa La Pelirroja.
A sleep-in (while I worked the last kinks out of the home WiFi network), brunch of a pseudo eggs Benedict made with (Hollandaise sauce over toast (some form of wheat preferred), ham (diced pieces of sliced deli meat work), egg (fake poached by greasing a small bowl, adding an egg, breaking the yolk with tootpick or knife, and cooking in the microwave for 40-60 seconds), topped with Hollandaise and paprika. Health warning, the Hollandaise is about about half butter or margarine.
Dinner will be bratwurst and corn-on-the-cob. Welcome to America, where we steal you food and call it our own.
That sounds really yummy, yazikus :)
Feck. Feck! Feck!!! BURP. And feck!
Tonight I decided to deliberately miss the last bus home, stay in the pub awhile (the Liefmans on tap “helped”), and eat out. No problem with the first two. However…
My initial choice of restaurant is a relatively new place which is making its way onto my list of favourites. As I was walking there, it occurred to me that last time I tried to go there — also on a Thursday — they were closed. (Thursday is an unusual day for closing in this area.) And sure enough, they were closed, albeit the sign said it was due to exceptional circumstances and they’d be open again in about a week.
Feck.
Ok, next place, also on my list of favourites. Oops. Live music tonight. Problem: The owners’ taste in live music makes me want to return the excellence meal I ate there, messily, via the intake.
Feck.
Ok, next place, high on my list of favourites. Oops. Again. Also live music tonight, albeit perfectly acceptable. And also, obviously, popular: Every table is reserved.
Feck.
Heading towards the next place, checked out the dish of the day at a place en route. Not really a favourite place, but can be Ok. Tonight’s dish? Swordfish. Which I love, but which I also tend to avoid due to the controversy about overfishing… and prefer having (when I do) at a more reliable place.
Feck.
Next place, also on my list of favourites, but a bit expensive. No problems with live music or getting a table. Good starter, excellence fresh locally-caught fish, good selection of cheeses, washed down with a nice local-ish wine. One of the best dinners I’ve had for a few weeks.
Problem: Fish is sold by weight, and the one I had turned out to be rather large. Bill was noticeably more than I was expecting. No problems paying for it, but…
Feck.
And BURP!
*deposits hugs*
FossilFishy(Anti-Vulcanist)
… Thank you. I’ve never understood why that particular one exists, but it is good that they responded positively when you pointed it out.
I just got off work. Turns out I did not have to work quite as much as I had dreaded. Course I am at the house with no transportation, no roomie and no cable. Suppose I should do some cleaning, maybe read a book. But I really want to do s-q-u-a-t.
****
Pteryxx:
When you say ‘send out info in TRAP laws’, are you emailing friends or creating flyers for distribution?
(Goes to look up TRAP laws, though the queer shoop suspects he knows what they are)
Ok, I got distracted.
In my quest my wandering eyes beheld more lyrics to the national anthem than I had known.
(Must work on stitled writing. Tbe above was not as stiff as I mightily strove for)
When my salad doesn’t seem wet enough, i add more olive oil.
Trains are awesome. Except lately I’ve been having thoughts about jumping into oncoming ones.
*happy thoughts* due to more progressive-thinking siblings
*hugs* for everyone who needs them
+++
EuroPharyngulites: I have a younger brother perhaps this summer trying to make a cheaper way around Europe (current planned locations Germany (Berlin), Portugal, Spain…) – what are the chances of maybe making use of some couches of pharyngu-horders? (Just asking, no pressure involved…)
Giliell:
Speaking of virginity, today was another day of Talks With Tony at work.
Todays topics were:
Women who have never had sex
Abortion
Religious moderates
Atheism
For the first, a coworker mentioned that she had not had sex. K is a young woman, around 22/23 and it turns out that her lack of sex is related toooooo [menacing drumroll please]…religion!
I tried to make the point that she has every right to make any decision that she chooses, but that I personally enjoy sex and that I find nothing wrong with having it. A few other employees chimed in with the same. I made a conscious effort to not shame her for not having sex and also mentioned that I hope no one tries to pressure her. My point dealt more with silly religious restrictions to sex.
I covered the restrictions on womens health that are growing in the US. Specific mention was made that despite a fetus being biologically human, that bodily autonomy means no one can demand the use of anothers’ body. I demanded a coworker give me his kidney to bring home the point. I also got to include the parasitic nature of fetuses and how, upon birth, babies no longer have this ‘right’ to use a womans body.
The same guy I demanded turn over his kidney also turned out to be an atheist (mostly; he still has this lingering agnosticism he looks to be overcoming). I settled at there being no proof of god, or any of the other gods humans have created. K mentioned her belief in god and how she did not care that two of us are atheists. She said she is fine with our beliefs. I pointed out that believing in god without evidence is as silly as believing in fairies. The Null Hypothesis was mentioned.
With regard to religious moderates, I discussed the encroachment of religious beliefs on womens healthcare and how the failure of religious moderates to criticize the extremists makes their religion look horrible.
Stay tuned for further Talks With Tony.
(Discussing these topics at work, I am well aware of the fine line I must tread, especially because I am a manager. I try not to preach, but you can tell my passion. I also do my best to let everyone–especially women-be heard)
Heya Tony: at the moment I’m researching TRAP laws to collect info on the costs and effect on access in states where they’ve already been law for a while. Depending on what I find and how useful a form I can put it in, I’ll send it to journalists and activists, and consider assembling it into a handout or maybe a blog post. In Texas though a more useful handout might incorporate laws already on the books and such. Some 52% of citizens polled don’t know what SB5 (now SB1) even is. However the Texas activists who’ve been working here a while know the landscape better than I do.
Best summary, thanks to Muz over in AXP comments:
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/16/2/gpr160207.html
Yesterday I saw three grizzlies, a mom and two big youngsters.
Today a wolf and three musk ox (maybe the same ones) and a pair of swans.
Going home tomorrow.
Portia @261:
Hooray for victories, no matter the size.
I saw an opossum today. Well, I saw two halves of an opossum. Each half on either side of a rail.
I has jealous.
Hmmm…speaking of trains…I have never been on one, but would love to. In fact, I just had this cool scenario where I boarded a train bound to, say Texas, where I met up with Horde members there and we took a train to another city where we met up with others and pretty much criss crossed the country meetng each other.
Tony:
I was on a train today. Two passenger coaches built in ~1925. One EMD GP9 built in 1958 (series 567 engine (V-12, 567 cubic inches per cylinder) — basically a really, really big block ’58 Chevy). Top speed with today’s engineer? Maybe 10mph. Plays hell with the timing for my programme.
~10mph??!!
Ok, so I shall have to rethink this cross country excursion…
Left the Redhead watching fireworks on TV. I understand the east coast, with Boston, NewYork, and Washington DC being televised, being historic cities with water safety for the fireworks, but don’t understand missing the cities farther west with good places to set off fireworks, like Chicago with the Naval Pier over Lake Michigan, St. Louis, Memphis or New Orleans with the the fireworks over the Mississippi River, but I do understand there is lag until the water safety comes into play on the west coast, like San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle. Or even Honolulu. Some poor cable station could show 4-8 hours of fresh fireworks 7/4-5, and repeat it ad nauseum….
Restricted speed in a railroad yard with an engineer who can’t get it out of run one.
Fourth of July: an excuse to mix intoxicating substances and incendiary devices. I’m staying inside.
Someone down the block is periodically lighting off fireworks loud enough to set off a car alarm. Every few minutes–*fwooooooosh**BOOOOOOM**beep beep beep*.
It was the Horses, of courses.
–
The ready availability of fireworks, grilled meats, and beer.
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Huzzah!
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Well. Okay, then. Pasta salad is already anathema; might as well put peas in it, too.
“To gild pure gold,
To pea the pasta….”
–
Took the spawnly one to see the fireworks display at Cal Expo. They played Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” among others. Perfect.
I dressed for the occasion. Navy blue shorts, red polo shirt, and gray boxers. A lighter shade of gray.
Whilst one guy did hitchhike around Ireland with a refrigerator, your brother should perhaps reconsider his plans to travel around Europe with furniture.
(I suppose if he happens to find himself in my area we can figure out where to park the furniture…)
Azkyroth
You just can’t go wrong with Black Sabbath, man! (And, dude, like, half their fucking songs are all about peace and love and harmony and shit — it’s Hippie Metal!)
Nerd
Don’t worry, I’ll happily abdicate my native claims on Bratwurst for your benefit.
Did I ever mention that I used to work in a sausage factory? no, no horror stories about what goes in there, I only worked in packing.
So, for Bratwurst, one of the tasks involved was the following:
hundreds of them were hanging on the smoking rack and we had to look through them, pick out those that weren’t OK for selling (big plus: as an employee I could buy those mishaps for a really good price), count the pairs and seperate them in a special manner so they could be packed into big retail packs all having the same number of sausages.
Well, so far so good.
Only, well, a freshly made Bratwurst (boiled, smoked, cooled) has about the same consistency and feel as a dick that just had lots of fun about 60 seconds prior to that. After sorting throgh a few thousands of them you can never see a Bratwurst like you did before.
+++
Tony
Looks like you’re having an impact there.
I must admit that, although I never was religious I once thought virginity to be special. Actually this was mostly due to the fact that I was 18 or 19 already and had never had a boyfriend, so, well, sour grapes.
+++
So, today’s #1’s birthday and she got her first Surly (which she’s proudly wearing now)
Sweet kid. Her birthday wish when we asked her some time ago was ” a month of fine weather”.
Happy Birthday to Giliell‘s #1!!! *balloons&balloons&fine weather*
+++
Conversations with a 2-year-old, as re-enacted.
1776 is on television… this day just got a lot better. For some reason I’m in a mood to see a bunch of white dudes being damn fools at each other and the chair ignoring objections and bringing the gavel down in Jefferson’s face because everyone’s sick of being there.
*sings* “I’m obnoxious and disliked, you know that sir.”
—-
Latest from the Abortion Games… after North Carolina snuck its anti-abortion omnibus through in less than 20 hours (amendment to vote in 90 minutes!) Maddow predicted that a legislature might reconvene on Friday for more speed shenanigans while most people are on holiday. (Video link) Any takers?
The Texas senate takes up SB1 Monday morning in a committee hearing, with limited public testimony in an unusually small room. The hearing starts at 10, public registration starts at 9, the state capital opens at 7 and the anti-abortion folks will arrive well before then by bus from DC, Tennessee and Arkansas. Detailed information about testifying is (here) along with other actions, such as media to alert, hashtags to follow, and other demonstrations in Richardson and El Paso.
A summary of the restrictions’ impact on poor and rural women:
http://www.nationalmemo.com/new-texas-abortion-law-could-be-worst-yet-for-poor-women/
Which is the point of rushing these bills through, regardless of whether they’re challenged in court or whether Republicans lose seats over them in a few years. Once clinics close, the damage to the lives of many people with uteri will take years and decades to repair.
Alles das Beste zum Geburtstag!
for Giliell’s #1
(if I got it right)
When i was an abortion clinic defender, around 1990, the people in charge used to caution us to ready in case things got bad again. They were right. The antis blocking the doors turned out to be just a diversion; clinics closed from pressure elsewhere. But one thing i remember was they were trying to collect large numbers of suction devices made for cleaning out after a miscarriage, or for a really overdue d&c. In a pinch they could be used for abortions. I wonder where those stockpiles are now.
My apologies. I left my detector out in the rain once, and it’s never been quite right since!
Not a problem. What with all the different accents ’round these parts, it is a wonder we ever grok in fullness (for instance, my Western Maryland/Four Corners/Southern New Hampshire/Army/Park Service accent is well known for causing problems).
But how long did it take to make it? And will you ever have that recipe again?
Just got done checking the WiFi reception in all rooms except in the basement. All the rooms are hot, including the sun room behind the living room fire place. I probably should use longer and stronger password for the router settings.
Some dancers. Putting on a show.
I don’t know why people don’t like ending their vacation time in the middle of the week. I only worked two days and now it’s weekend… feels good.
Daily annoyance-
Cabbie: where do you work?
Me: on the Boardwalk at the new Cali Mex restaurant
Cabbie: with this weather you probably wont be doing much cooking
Me:…long pause…I manage the bar
Because when you have a PoC as a passenger, of course they work in the kitchen. No racial bias there at all.
::eyeroll::
Tony! @300: Your description of K reminds me of a woman I know only online, who I used to work with at a virtual club. T is a very religious young woman who, because of hangups with religion and her health, is a virgin in her mid 20s. She doesn’t want to “do it” until she gets married, but even then, she’s worried about how having sex will affect her (she has a hole in her heart, and isn’t supposed to over-exert herself). She has had online boyfriends, but she doesn’t want to go beyond kissing with them, even, because she’s afraid she’ll want to do the same in meatspace. I was one of the people she went to for comfort after getting dumped, yet again, by a guy calling her a “tease.” I, too, made a conscious effort not to shame her. I explained that sex is something that’s very enjoyable, but anybody who pressures her into something that she’s not ready to do is somebody she doesn’t need to be with.
Sheesh, Tony, that’s really rude…sorry you have to deal with that.
—
I slept in this morning. It was amazing. Even though it probably caused this headache. I don’t even care I’m so happy to have had so much sleep.
—
Had a really good time playing board games last night with a few friends. We didn’t even blow anything up. :)
Waiting for the plane (the plane!).
Should be home in about 13 hours.
I’m adding one more bit of discouraging information to the discussion of anti-abortion tactics up-thread:
Borked blockquote code in my comment #334. I assume you can tell that the entire last section, beginning with “In other words, religiously-motivated organizations that run so-called “pregnancy clinics” or “pregnancy centers” want to continue to mislead women…,” should not be block quoted. That’s me speaking.
Why does my ‘nym link to the thread I’m commenting on?
or the thread on which I am commenting?
chigau
Just noticed that today, too.
*shrug*
For to find yourself easier, I suppose. In case you get lost.
(Have a safe flight.)
as an employee I could buy those mishaps for a really good price
I’m vaguely reassured by the fact that you wanted to buy them.
chigau, Did you set it to link to anything?
I didn’t, and so “I” also link to the thread. But not everyone links to the thread, and I am speculating those that don’t actually set a specific link (e.g., to their own blog or similar).
Or in other words (and still speculating), it’s just the default.
blf et al.
The linky thing seems to be a new default, I’m wondering why.
The mildly deranged penguin approves: Scientist claims humans could evolve beaks.
Writing for Salon, Roxanne Gray takes a look at Robin Thicke’s song lyrics, at Daniel Tosh’s comedy, at Rick Perry’s politics, and at Kanye West’s lyrics. In an article titled What men want, America delivers she provides enough detail to back up her thesis. Here’s an excerpt from her more general text that follows the examples:
Lots of mansplaining and ball-clutching going on in the comments below the Salon article (link in comment #342).
Examples:
Women (or rather, in this case, girls) in science and sport!
If anyone happens to be feeling particularly flush and fancies chipping in a few quid to help a non-religious state school (a girls’ school, but with a mixed sixth form) raise funds for science and IT equipment –
there are six 13-year old girls who are going to swim the Channel from Dover to Calais (they’ll be swimming as a relay team, in shifts of an hour each.It’s about 34km/21 miles. Of sea. Argh). Four of the six are at our school, and it was all their own idea. Note the cute team name :-)
Details are here:
http://www.justgiving.com/6GirlsNoBuoysTeam
Pretty ‘rupt, just dropping in to note that I hate the 4th of July, I really hate fireworks, and I most especially hate living in this godawful rathole of a country.
I also hate the good old beginning of the month scramble to try to get my rent and bills paid and hopefully still have enough for L’s medicine (hint:we don’t). And I hate that I never seem to have anything to say anymore but complain about my situation, but it’s really hard to focus on other things when I’m under this level of stress. once again, sorry for whining so much.
Patriots in my neighborhood set off loud fireworks (sounded like cannons) until past 1 AM last night/this morning. Illegal as hell. No enforcement of rules for residential areas was even considered or attempted.
Why can’t they attend the official fireworks display if they want their eardrums rocked, and stop blowing me out of my bed with sound waves at 1 AM?
Cranky, cranky, cranky today. Get off my fucking lawn and out of my sight.
I laughed out loud when I got to the end of this sentence.
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That is a cute team name : )
—
Dalillama:
*hugs* Don’t be sorry. We all talk about what we have going on, good or bad. You just happen to have a lot of suckage you need to get off your chest. *moarhugs*
The mildly deranged penguin has gone out today to try and collect some early-season subdried long pigs. It’s been a weird season so far: The cooler spring meant there was almost no sundrying, so the kraken left — nothing to drag screaming from the beaches and munch on — allowing the jellyfish to invade.
However, it’s now rather sunny, so the long pigs are arriving to begin the sundrying process. With few kraken about, the mildly deranged penguin was hoping she could get a fair harvest of the early dried-out long pigs. And maybe learn what this season’s fashionable flavourings are: What are the sundrying long pigs slathering all over themselves this year?
She hasn’t found any cheese flavourings yet, but there is bacon flavouring.
When the kraken do return, she seems to be hoping they will gorge on the jellyfish, leaving an unusually large crop of sundried long pigs unmunched and ready for harvesting. I have my doubts. I suspect long pigs have better texture and taste than jellyfish, and long pigs certainly scream longer and louder.
Deutsch, deutsch über fast alles in der Welt. Specifically, German is the 10th weirdest language out of 239 in the dataset; English is 33rd; Hindi is last. Weirdness is calculated from the number of features that are rare among languages, and from exactly how rare they are; such things as the number of speakers were not taken into account.
Germany’s largest supermarket chain buys seafood from two companies that buy it from another company that is connected to the whaling in Iceland. Petition to the supermarket chain to stop that.
Now that the Netherlands have decided not to let fin whale meat be discharged in their ports, a shipment has arrived in Hamburg. Write to the German environment minister not to let it be sent on to Japan.
Gives a whole new meaning to Anthropornis.
FFS. That’s a runaway bug. Every name that doesn’t link somewhere else now links to the thread it’s on!
Oh dear
Every single time I start to think that maybe, just maybe I might have a respectful relationship with my parents as equals they go out of their way to show me that no, actually it’s not possible.
They gave #1 a scooter.
Now, you say, what is wrong about a scooter?
A) She already has one. One of those small modern ones you can easily transport. But my parents disapprove of this, so they got her a big one with real tyres, because clearly the one she got from her mum is not good enough
B) They had mentioned this some time before and I had told them repeatedly that no, they should NOT get her one, because she already has one.
C) One of the reasons they weren’t supposed to get her one is that we don’t have space for it. We live in a rented flat, we’re grateful as it is that the neighbours tolerate the stuff we already store in the hallway. This means we cannot take it home and have to leave it there. We’re at their place about 2 times 1.5 hours a week and there’s no fucking space in that street for her to drive the thing anyway. Today she was still too occupied with her other toys but there will be days when she’ll want to take it home and then I’ll be the bad one again because I have to say “no”.
So, now she has a scooter she doesn’t need, cannot really use, has to leave at their grandparents and that is going to be a source for quarrels between her and me for a long time. But my parents are happy because really, going against the explicit wishes of the mother makes them the best grandparent ever.
[/rant]
And the poor kid caught an UTI :(
Ah, the smell of puns in the air.
We have some company coming this afternoon (expected them tomorrow, their schedule said otherwise). They are Indian, and eschew red meat. The’y’re bringing chicken (*throws out a handful of grog soaked corn to distract the Pullet Patrol™*) for me to grill. So, now to prepare the VEGGY KABOBS, marinated in Italian dressing, and cooked on the grill.
Rotated with respect to what? Do you mean the labial side of the canine would face rostrally instead of rostrolaterally in a female?
About “squared off”, I don’t think that’s possible to tell from such heavily worn teeth.
Oh, the silica simply isn’t the problem. Contrary to common wisdom, it’s actually softer than enamel. The reason why grazers – and some other mammals, like the gondwanatheres that lived before grass was a thing – have extremely high-crowned teeth is grit.
In a meat-eater we’d expect much larger incisors and canines; instead they’re smaller than usual. We’d also expect narrower, not broader, premolars and molars, even in a bone-cruncher; compare hyenas or Tasmanian devils!
Sagittal crests serve for the attachment of jaw muscles that have run out of braincase to attach to. That’s always the same, and doesn’t tell us anything about what exactly those muscles were used for. They’re not even limited to mammals.
*raises hand*
Grammatically it’s perfect, but semantically it’s a too literal translation from English (or indeed Croatian). Only one is the best, so you have to wish everything that’s good: Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!
I second the sentiment, and the wish for nicer weather. :-)
Minus the overwrought poetry, that part actually is true.
It just doesn’t logically lead to the conclusions found later in that comment.
*heap of hugs for Giliell & spawn*
David
Thanks for that link to the language article!
(Also, belated congrats for your publication yesterday.)
*hugs* for Dalillama
*hugs* for Giliell
*hugs* for everyone who wants them
Video reconstruction of the breakup of East Antarctica, India and Australia!
Unfortunately, the movement of all three with respect to the South Pole isn’t shown, and West Antarctica is just taken for granted. But those things weren’t the point of the paper. :-)
I’ve been told by a mildly deranged source that the penguins were using a combined cloaking device, continental reflector, and corkscrew borrowed from Atlantis. Not ignored, but invisible and repulsive, with a wild party.
The default link for our handles should be our profiles. And for those who have put in their own links, the pictures should still go to the profiles.
David M. @ 246. Congrats on the publication of the paper. I looked at the abstract and it looks like a paper I would be interested in. Salamanders! Please send a copy to lynna [at] artmeetsadventure [dot] com. Thanks!
Specifically, German is the 10th weirdest language out of 239 in the dataset
I can’t believe it beat out Finnish. And sowieso, Eigenartig ist gut!
Fresh fish!
GoldieBlox: could stand to get rid of the pastel colour scheme, but it’s a great start! I think so, anyway.
(Re: GoldieBlox – she still plays into some gender stereotypes (boys like to build, girls like to read), but the basic message is positive.)
rq:
I posted that on fb the other day, and a Xian friend reshared it. Her friend commented thusly:
To her credit, my friend (more of an acquaintance, really, but I always really liked her) said:
Thankfully, yet a third person followed up with “Um, lots of scholarships for engineering students at [website].” Yeesh.
rq
He’s not even going to eat the damn thing?! What an asshole; I can’t abide ‘sport’ hunters.
portia
Well, I would be surprised to learn there are engineering scholarships that are only available to boys/men, but there are assloads of them that can be gotten by boys/men.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_lantern
The conditions were right, last night during our 4th of July neighborhood fireworks ruckus, for launching sky lanterns. I’d only seen one before in my life, but last night I saw a couple of dozen or so. The troubled teen launched two, and did it well.
We’d had a wet spring, and a thunderstorm during the late afternoon, so fire danger was minimal. Last year there was a drought, so one of the lanterns was held over from then, and finally flew.
—
David M, thanks for the video link. I need to study up on why India went zooming off like that.
Congratulations, too.
Dang, the Redhead is worried her friend, since they are late, won’t be making lemon rice as promised. Now, how does one boil water without burning it???? ;)
Cicely:
Howzabout an ‘earthworm pouncehug’?
I suddenly have an image of David M surrounded by earthworms ready to pouncehug him…
Ah, yes. Another reason I hate the 4th is that the mail doesn’t run, as a result of which my rent is late and I owe an additional fee.
Giliell:
Thats pretty damn inconsiderate of your parents. Had you already explained to them why you did not want her to have another scooter?
I seem to have a package of hugs here, says “Horde, esp. Dalillama” on the label.
I wish I had more than just a package of hugs.
In a word, Pak.
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*hugs* for Dalillama. It is hard to concentrate on anything but problems, or feel anything but stressed, when Real Life insists on taking a series of juicy, steaming shits on you. If sharing your woes helps (I won’t call it “complaining”!), then by all means, let us help by sharing ’em.
I just wish I had the wherewithal to help more concretely.
:(
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*hugs* for Giliell. Sorry about your parents being inconsiderate, self-centered asses.
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Menyambal, we saw a good many sky lanterns last night—which I don’t remember ever having been the case before, hereabouts. Pretty, but I was worried at the time about the potential fire hazard. Oh, this year it was fine—at least, no fires reported locally resulting from any kind of fireworks—but this year has been much, much wetter leading up to the 4th than it has been in the last several years. I’m a bit worried about the potential dangers going forward. We can’t count on squashy greenery underfoot every year.
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Yes, yes! Make it so!
*pouncehugging earthworm swarm* for David M.
–
‘Rupt for reasons of we’ll NEVER get this done!!!!1!1! I’ve said as recently as a week ago that I wouldn’t believe in the new house until my only options were sleep in it or under the bridge behind the pub. I just disassembled our bed. Thumbs crossed for option one.
Tony,
*whispers*
Yep, Giliell did:
:)
Those sky lanterns are really neat….when they are not lit right downtown on Main Street so that they land on roofs, still ablaze. Specifically, fire station roofs. For the irony.
(No, the fire station didn’t burn down.)
So, the Catholics are proposing another saint, John Paul II. Washington Post link.
This evening, Boy managed to bring his computer (laptop) down the stairs. Without him being attached. Battery popped. No damage. Amazing. I told him he was lucky. If it had broken, it really would have marshed his mallow.
He was not amused.
Portia:
D’oh!
How can I read the entire message but only remember part of it…?
Sorry Giliell. Reading fail on my part.
Tony:
I do the very same thing, and usually discover it when some goes all Marjanovic on a thread and I’m like “when did someone say that?” :)
Ogvorbis:
You know the really real reason it did not break?
Miracles I tellz ya. Miracles!
All is possible with our lord and savior Jesus Christ.
This evening, Boy managed to bring his computer (laptop) down the stairs. Without him being attached. Battery popped. No damage. Amazing. I told him he was lucky. If it had broken, it really would have marshed his mallow.
He was not amused.
Okay, I have no idea how that happened. I left the page, came back and my comment was still in the comment box so I submitted again and, well, I thing Tony! is right.
The comment showed up twice in my email :)
Wow!
Ogvorbis, my comment/response to you precedes your message.
GODDIDIT!!!!!
Quantumn Tomatoes?
OH, wait…nope. No God here. Twould appear Oggie has the power to send duplicate messages. Perhaps a demigod is responsible.
Maybe it was the MDP?
So what is the P’s specialty as an MD?
Or maybe she is a Mildly Deranged Parliamentarian?
There are no mildly deranged penguins at hand.
Mightily Delusional Horses OTOH…
****
speaking of horses, I hope cicely does not think less of me for having ‘ride a horse’ on my bucket list..
Tony, I won’t think less of you…but it’s a terrible risk to take. Apart from the dangers of Perdition, Horses also stick you onto Their backs and carry you off into the water to drown you; so please choose a stream-free area, far away from the ocean, for this hazardous experiment.
And They bite.
And kick.
–
Don’t forget buck. I had a horse so afraid of men and bridles that when my dad walked towards her with a bridle (she was already saddled) she reared up so hard she threw me (I was standing in front of her) into the nearby woodpile and pulled the bar and two posts she was tied to out of the ground. She flopped straight onto her back, scrambled over, and tore off dragging the posts by her halter. I had a gash in my head but I still loved her. Maybe it was brain damage ^_^
(She was a Bible camp horse, and her name was Rahab. A rebellious, spirited girl after my own heart).
Risks of horseback riding so noted.
****
Today in News of the Stoopid:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/05/2260141/bitchy-resting-face/
” Bitchy resting face is a definite phenomenon that plastic surgeons like myself have described, just never with that term,” he says. “Basically many of us have features that we inherit and/or develop with age that can make us look unpleasant, grumpy, or even, yes, bitchy.”
Youn says many plastic surgeons perform what he calls “expression surgeries,” procedures meant to improve resting facial expressions.”
That’s interesting, Tony.
My mom’s face does that, and people constantly think she’s upset. I’m more or less the only person who looks at her and knows it’s just her face. Sometime I say “Mom, your face is doing that thing.” when other people are around so no one thinks she’s pissed off. I sometimes do it myself, people often think I’m being sneaky or grouchy or most often, about to say something contrary, when I’m just expressionless.
Cranky-face runs in my family.
–
Also “cranky” default vocal tone.
Same here.
Apparently I vocally default to “sarcastic”.
–
My dad and I both have heavy dark eyebrows—no, not THAT heavy—that make people think we are frowning when we aren’t. I try to keep mine thinned out a bit.
I used to know a woman whose face would just go totally slack when she was thinking, She had an expressive face, but it would just stop expressing sometimes. Odd.
Huh. When I was a youngster, I used to work on my scowl.
(But then, isn’t it better when a perceived grump turns out to be friendly, rather than the converse?)
ただいま！
I’m home.
Yay, Chigau!
chigau
Saved the rum for you.
Here.
FossilFishy
Good luck with the move!
I hope all goes well and nothing gets stolen by the Moving Gremlins.
It’s sprinkled with MAGIC!!!, so I guess that makes it ok. [/sarcasm]
How much cheese was involved? Any LOUD noises, like screams?
Anything that involves lots of screaming. Patients get better real fast… And she’s obviously a genius at preventative treatments, as they very rarely ever return. Unless, of course, they are dragged in. Screaming.
Well, she is the Supreme High Generalissimo Field Marshall Emperor for All Eternity of All the Multiverses, so she not only gets to decide what each parliament, legislature, dictator, minion, et al., decides, but gets to ignore them. And also gets to shoot them. Or at least have lumps of British Industrial Cheddar thrown at them. With lots of screams, of course.
Good morning
Well, yes, I explained my reasons to my parents.
But still, even if my reasons were total bullshit, you don’t do that. You don’t go against the explicit wish of the parents, not if you want them to trust you.
+++
Fossil Fish
Good luck for the move
+++
rq
well, even baby-girls are not good enough anymore. Perfection!
And yes, of course ony baby-boys are naturally bald.
+++
So, people have been asking for gluten free recipes and I just noticed that the Swiss Rübli cake I just made is actually gluten as well as lactose free.
-1 lb carrots, finely grated
-8 eggs ->separate white and yolk
-300g sugar
-200 g ground almonds
-200g ground hazelnuts (I only used almonds, I’m allergic)
-60g cornstarch
-1 ts cinamon
-juice and grated peel of 1 lemon
-inch of salt
-beat yolks and sugar
-add carrots
-stir in starch, cinamon, juice, peel, nuts
-beat whites with salt
– carefully mix whites in
-bake in round tin at 175° for about 60 minutes (cover with tinfoil after 30 min)
You can add sugar icing if you like (I prefer a marzipan cover)
got anything that is free of wheat (not just gluten), dairy (not just lactose), soy, and citrus?
Yeah, i know, a glatt kosher rice cake and a bottle of distilled water– looking for better choices here.
Dr. Pepper
The above should work, just leave out the lemon ;)
@ David Marjanović #349
Cool linky. I always thought Afrikaans was the easiest, and therefore least weird, language on the planet (except for the ridiculous double negative, aaargh). I have learned something new.
If I understand you right, I disagree, at least for women. We are punished for not looking appropriately ornamental and congenial. Hence the cosmetic surgery to correct anyone accidentally thinking we’re grouchy. (appearing to have a negative feeling = thing that needs corrective surgery).
Thanks rq and Giliell. We survived. Bed is assembled indoors and contains a very tired Ms. Fishy. Of course it poured rain, of course the house site is a sea of mud, of course we got.irritated and snappish, but now it’s done and I love this house in a way that’s not entirely rational.
Excellent :) Congrats on it being over, and having your home.
I need to work this into a paper. :-)
Surprises me. :-) But I’ve sent it! Tell me if you want the 2007 version, too.
Hah. Finnish is boringly regular in its grammar and sound system, it doesn’t engage in flourish like gender or unlimited consonant clusters or three different basic word orders for different purposes…
There are plenty of things that are common in west-central Europe (the core is northern French and southern German) but very rare elsewhere. Relative pronouns are an example. A past tense formed with “have” is another (…though that one, funnily enough, ultimately comes from Greek).
I don’t think specific reasons are known.
^_^
Yay for FossilFishy!!! :-)
Weird and difficult aren’t necessarily the same; and negative concord is quite common worldwide.
Warning in advance. This is long. This is triggering. On many levels.
TRIGGER WARNING!
For the past few years, you, the heartless and unmerciful horde (who are wonderful people (even the weird ones)), have helped me through the discovery of my own abuse (piece by piece) and figuring out how to actually deal with that abuse. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This piece is a part of that process of accepting and living with what happened.
When I lived in Arizona, I, like the other three boys in my third grade class, joined Cub Scouts. This was a brand new Cub Scout den, the brainchild of a man who lived in the small town next to Grand Canyon called Tusayan. Except that doesn’t quite square with my memories of abuse. If we all joined together, how did B and T (two of my friends) know what to do when I was introduced to the abuse?
One day, B or T called me and asked if I wanted to go out to one of the stock tanks in the Coconino. It being summer in a small and isolated town, any chance for something different was always worth grabbing. So I walked over to T’s house (across the street) and the rapist picked us up, then stopped and picked up B, and drove out to his place. When we got there, he said it would be a few minutes before we left, gave us each a can of Pepsi, and waited while we drank our sodas.
His wife came out of the bed room with a small bag over her shoulder and, seeing that I had finished mine, offered me another soda. I demurred but she insisted. She made sure I finished it before we left.
On the drive out to the stock tank, I think he took the longest route possible without a detour through New Mexico. I had gone beyond needing to pee right over into ‘my bladder’s gonna pop!’ B and T started tickling me and telling me that if I wet my pants, everyone at school would know that I was a little baby girl because only baby girls wet their pants. Not babies, but specifically baby girls. I think they had already been groomed for this. I wet my pants.
The rapist and his wife were furious (or (at least) did a good job pretending they were). My friends were laughing at me, calling me a baby girl. And, boom!, we were at the stock tank.
The rapist’s wife told me to take off my jeans and underwear and she would rinse them out for the drive home. The rapist spread out a blanket and told me, for the first time, the mantra that became my life for the next 2 or 3 years:
I know that wasn’t the way he phrased it, but he kept repeating it in various forms. And he showed me why I did not want to be a girl – oral and anal rape. One very clear image I have is lying on my belly on that blanket, listening to the rapist grunting on top of me, hearing my friends as they did things together, and watching a Camp Jay foraging in the underbrush.
He and his wife planned this. My friends had been groomed for this (not sure when or how as the Cub Scout den had just been created). I was ashamed of pissing my pants. I was ashamed that I had been used like a girl. I knew that if I told my teacher, or my parents, that it would all be known. So I said nothing.
For the next 2 or 3 years (the summer after 3rd grade to the end of 5th grade) I, and at least three others in that Cub Scout den, were his sex toys. He and his wife took photographs of us performing sexual acts on each other and on him. He coerced and manipulated me into abusing a little girl who was older than a toddler and younger than first grade and took photos of that. He occasionally included a man who lived in Flagstaff but, luckily, I wasn’t his favourite so he didn’t hurt me all that often. Short movies were taken of us. Two or three times we went camping and his wife would take the rest of the den with her (the abused and the lucky) on one or two hour hikes while one of us, the chosen one for that afternoon, stayed with the rapist.
I clearly remember one incident, out in a National Forest campground (we weren’t camping – we had used the fire pit to burn our hot dogs), hearing voices in the trees (a very open forest – pinyon and juniper). A family walked into our campground – mom, dad, two girls who were, give or take, my age (8 to 11). The mom said, “Oh, I’m sorry.” The girls giggled. Dad laughed. And they walked away from the little boy in the Cub Scout uniform who was giving a middle aged man oral sex. And I didn’t get mad at them. I didn’t wonder why they said nothing. I knew, by this time, that this was what I was supposed to do, I deserved it, I wanted it, and it would make me a man.
I can remember so many individual incidents. Some were painful. Some pleasurable. All were shameful. I knew that this was something that only happened to girls so, if I told, everyone would know I was a girl. I knew that having sex with a little girl half my age was wrong so, if I told, everyone would know I was bad. I knew that some of it felt good so, if I told, everyone would ask why I was complaining if it felt good. I knew that I had a reputation for telling tall tales (not lying, I was just good at telling stories) so, if I told, no one would believe me. I knew that my rapist was up high in the Mormon church, that he was a father, a professional, so, if I told, it would come down to his word against mine. I knew that I had joined scouts because I wanted to be there so, if I told, everyone would wonder why I wanted to be a scout. Oh, he was good. Very good. And he was fucking evil. (More evidence that the patriarchy hurts men, too. Victim blaming? Oh yeah. I got that.)
I did tell. Once. We added a Webelos den. I told the Webelos leader. No specifics, just that the rapist was doing things with some of the scouts. I was told that I was a liar. He asked me why I wanted to destroy his job, destroy his family, make his family homeless. I was told it was impossible because his wife was always there. So he sent me in to apologize to the rapist. And he raped me again to punish me for lying about him raping me.
I’m still a little unclear on how it ended. I know what happened but not the why. I can live with that. It ended.
One day, T’s little brother, A, joined us for a weekend at the community center. A was about six or so. S and I (B had moved to New Mexico) were both forced to abuse A while T watched and his wife took photos. Less than a month later, the rapist and his family had moved. They were gone. Cub Scouts collapsed as he had been the motivating force. Maybe T or A told? I don’t know. But, apparently, someone, somehow, some way, found out. Oh, they kept it quiet because that’s the way it was done back then. But he disappeared. Gone.
And I forgot about it for almost 35 years.
I know that I did not have a choice – he chose me, he set me up, he groomed me, he controlled me. I know that all of my choices (even the choice to hurt a little girl, or a little boy) were magician’s choices – not real. I know that he tried to make me into him. And I know that he failed.
And yet. . . . And yet . . . . It still hurts. Not so much in me, but in terms of what I did. Even under stress, even with no choice, I still think that I failed because I hurt others. I abused a little girl and a little boy.
But I do feel better than I did three or four years ago. Before I started to remember (which is a direct result of being here on Pharyngula), I just knew that I was always mildly depressed and that I didn’t enjoy being a Cub Scout. When discussions on Pharyngula turned to rape culture, to misogyny, to men’s rights, I realized that I had lived that from the ‘female’ side. From the victim side. From the non-man, non-human, side. From the objectified side.
So I communicated, for the first time in my life, what happened to me. And I tried to use it as a teachable moment. And I have kept doing that and will keep doing that. When I write about my experiences to teach someone about the destructiveness of toxic patriarchy, the destructiveness of rape culture, the destructiveness of misogyny, I feel better (not immediately – sometimes it hurts like hell). Not better in terms of joy and happiness, but better in terms of understanding what was done to me, what was done through me, and how that has shaped my life.
I will never recover from what happened. The socialization, the training, the pain, the pleasure, the blaming, is all a part of me. And will be forever. But (and this is the big difference) I understand what he did, how he did it, why he could get away with it. And that understanding, painful as it is, means that, for the first time since I joined scouts, I actually feel like a full human being again. Patriarchy? It’s still part of me, always will be. But it failed. He failed. I am not a man, I am a human being.
Oggie the Human.
Sounds okay.
*hugs*
Whilst that may be gluten-free, it is rather not low in NaCl. Quite the opposite. Everything else there is to flavour the salt. You could probably scale all the other ingredients up by an order of magnitude and still have, in essence, lightly-flavoured salt.
Ogvorbis
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, not everyone would be brave enough to do so publicly.
Thank you for fighting the evil that was done to you rather than succumbing to it, the world is a better place for it.
I sit here on the other side of the world with tears in my eyes, frustrated because I can’t find the words I need. Words that will convey just how profoundly your comment affected me.
I’m inspired.
I’m awed.
I’m grateful.
You sir are not just a human being, never just that.
You are a beautiful human being.
I’m so glad to read particularly that last part, Og. *hugs* You are so brave.
Og, I hope you know how much I love you. *hugs* if you want them, *personal space* if you don’t, and I’d be so proud if I could meet you in meatspace and get to call you my friend.
“There are plenty of things that are common in west-central Europe (the core is northern French and southern German) but very rare elsewhere”
I wonder if it is a coincidence that this correlates well with the eastern edge* of early iron-age celts.
* The celt sites in southern Germany were destroyed by the fifth century BC by migrations, and during historical timethe region has been inhabited by Germanic-speaking people.
Chigau:
Yeah. I kinda like it, too.
You’re welcome, FossilFishy. Every time that I have discussed this on line, it has either been to point out reality to an asshat, or because I was having trouble dealing with me. I spread my history across a year-and-a-half of Pharyngula, all in high-stress situations, and felt I needed to express my history in an untriggered venue. Thank you (and all the horde) for giving me a safe place to face me.
Again, I look at it as cowardice, not bravery. I’m afraid of who I could have been and putting it out there for all to see is a way to exorcise my personal demons. They’ll never go away, but they are almost housebroken.
That last part was not planned when I decided to write this. It was a small epiphany for me that helps me understand how he failed.
Thanks. Hugs back. I have (other than Wife) one really good meat space friend. And I have the horde. Thanks to all.
*Safehugs* for Ogvorbis
conga rats on the new place finally, Fossilfishy
I. Am. Beat.
I was about seven minutes from the fire station, out for a jog, when the text came that we had a fire call.
I’ve never sprinted that fast or that far in my life. Whew.
Ogvorbis, many safehugs for you.
Thanks for the trigger warning, and why couldn’t someone have warned you, all those sad years ago.
I will try to be more mindful of warning signs, and for other people.
Thank you.
Portia:
Good job. Thanks.
Thanks, Og. :)
Wait, are you thanking me for something?
Dalillama and Menyambal:
Thanks for the hugs.
Menyambal:
Yet another way this place has helped me to mature. A couple of years ago, I laughed at trigger warnings. Thought they were silly.
Stay safe Portia.
Yikes! The closest I’ve ever come to that is a funny story, not life-or-death. Last year I had gotten myself into a decent walking routine, emphasis on walking. I had gotten my jogging up to about a quarter of a mile at a time without a break, tops. I was all proud of myself by continuing to do so daily while on vacation with my in-laws to make sure I didn’t break my routine… until I woke up one day extra early, and went out walking, was about a half-mile away from their house, looked at my watch and right then realized that a) it was 5:52, b) I had set the alarm for 6, and c) I had not turned off the alarm before I left. Did I mention that I’m the only early riser in the house? And that it was already 80 degrees out? And that I was on the return path after a couple of miles, so already hot and tired? I ran as well as I could all the way back, and managed to stagger into the house, beet-red, sweaty, and gasping for breath, right as my father-in-law was walking back out of my room, having just turned off the alarm after it woke him up across the house.
Oops.
Yes. Your service in public safety.
For clarity, it was a medical call (no danger for me, except I guess the possibility of body fluid contact) and it is now over.
Nevertheless, thank you.
carlie:
That’s just how it felt! You poor thing, didn’t even make it in time and stretched yourself that far. Hope no one was upset :)
Og:
Oh, well that’s nice of you. I appreciate it. I really like doing it.
Nevertheless, you significantly reduced the danger for the person who you were called out for.
Thanks, Og and Dalillama. I like being able to help people, it feels like a privilege to me.
I know how you feel. I really like going to wildland fires.
General question for all:
Do you have someone in meatspace who has an interest in atheism, skepticism, feminism (pretty much the topics discussed here at FtB)?
Me, I have one friend that is atheist and we chat about it from time to time, but I think he is more on the accomodationist side.
The last job I had, I worked with four other atheists, but we did not talk about much aside from the delusion of religious belief. Actually, come to think of it, one guy was the barback and I would frequently discuss things that I learned about here.
I heard some morning DJs talk about this on the radio a few months ago. I was flipping channels in the car so I don’t know if it was a local station or a national syndicate, but they were going on and on about it because the token girl of the set apparently has this, and gets really annoyed at people asking her what’s wrong. They were saying they need awareness-raising bumper stickers and wristbands, and were taking calls from people who said they had it too.
My younger son is like this also. His resting face is definitely sullen, and every time I ask if he’s ok he’s all “MOM, this is just my FACE”. Of course, the big problem is that one can be just fine, but then someone asks you about how you feel and that’s annoying and then suddenly you are cranky, which they think proves them right but that they caused in the first place.
Wife and kids.
Wife and kids.
Shit. Sorry. I hit submit, page reloaded, no comment. So I sent it again. Now two comments. Weird.
I think he was more worried at the moment that I was about to have a heart attack or stroke. :D The obvious exertion I had gone through to try to rectify it appeased any annoyance, I think. He was the only one it woke up, amazingly.
Hope the call was an easy one !
Tony:
I have a friend here or there…usually a given person is more open to discussion about one or another set of topics like you mention. For instance, I have a guy friend who’s very atheist but he likes to make sure I make clear that I know he’s not a misogynist before we have any feminism discussions. It’s a little tiring to have to take care of his feelings before proceeding. I went to a couple humanist meetings locally and they are largely atheist but a couple members (one of whom is a woman) is very anti-feminist and so it’s tough on that front. Short version: I don’t have many people with whom I could discuss any and all combination of issues (becuase none exist in isolation). The one friend I have like that lives far away and is very busy and we can’t talk as much as we used to.
Med call was a broken leg. Darn HIPAA won’t let me say a word more about the call. (I can only say even that much because it was over the radio and anyone could have heard it).
I guess it’s good that you came in right at that moment, ha. For him to see how much you wanted to avoid waking anyone.
—
Ogvorbis, you are skilled at making two comments…offering to Duplicos?
I have this problem to a huge degree, alright.
Tony
L, and D although I don’t see her as much these days.
Scott Walker signed a bill requiring ultrasounds for abortions (along with other unnecessary requirements). But these can be bypassed in medical emergencies, or in cases of rape or incest. These requirements are being challenged, as they should be- but I have an additional idea I’m not sure would work (that can happen in parallel with the challenges, or in case they don’t work):
Could WI abortion providers get together and start declaring every abortion as due to a medical emergency? Or, alternately, could they (or advocacy groups) advise every woman coming in for an abortion that these requirements can be ignored if she says the abortion is needed because of rape or incest? Seriously- the thugs are playing dirty, so why can’t we? What would be the legal recourse of thugs like Scott Walker if every woman who walked into a clinic said she needed the abortion because of rape or incest? Is there any legal risk to this?
David M. @413
Thank you. Thank you. This is, in part, what interests me [emphasis mine]:
Fossil records are cool, so there’s that. I have an interest in dating methods and am just pleased as punch that one of my Pharyngula friends has refined what we know/use from the fossil record of Lissamphibia.
Straight-forward style — easy to read. I don’t think Ray Comfort would like it. Examples:
iiandyiiii
Sample conversation:
“I was raped, and now I want an abortion.”
“Where’s your police report?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Why not? Are you lying? You’ll charged with manslaughter.”
—
“That woman needed the abortion to save her life.”
“Where’s the documentation of the danger to her life?”
“Well, she would have gone septic if we didn’t terminate the pregnancy and take steps to save her life.”
“So she wasn’t septic yet? You’re lying. Your medical license is revoked.”
Addendum to my 449: Not all people who can get pregnant are women, and not all women can get pregnant.
@ Ogvorbis
All the biggest, most select, hugs on the planet are proffered.
Ogvorbis:
Thank you for sharing that.
I cannot imagine the courage it took to do so.
In fact, everything you have shared with us has been courageous.
What you were put through, the abuse and sexual assault, the victim blaming…I am so sorry.
That you are able now, to express yourself, and talk about the tragic events of your past is not only helpful to you, but also to any number of readers. It is also helpful in showing how pervasive misogyny and rape culture are, the horrors of toxic masculinity, the support that feminists DO show for male victims of sexual assault, the horrors of authoritarian rule run amok, and that if you are a victim there are people who will listen…who do believe you…who will not ignore you…who will still love you…who will not let anyone silence you.
Thank you Ogvorbis.
Portia- I certainly don’t have legal expertise, but I didn’t think women had to prove that they were raped (or victims of incest)- am I mistaken? What happens in existing law if a raped woman who didn’t file a police report goes to a clinic for an abortion?
Ogvorbis,
*safe hugs*
I’m a lawyer, not that anyone couldn’t have read up on this. To my knowledge, laws that allow those exceptions often require the victim to have reported the rape to the police in order to qualify for the exception. It’s a way to make it as narrow as possible while still trying to appear not-too-draconian. It makes it operatively impossible for most rape victims to get the termination they need. Which is the point.
NY Times link.
It depends on where you are, but in the situation I described above, the staff would probably be forced to deny it to her because they would be afraid they wouldn’t be able to help other people if they helped her and then got shut down.
The bill, at this link, doesn’t appear to contain such a requirement for a police report. I’m only suggesting this as a way for people to protect their own rights- obviously, if I’m mistaken about whether there’s legal risk, then I withdraw the suggestion.
I mean, if you think about it, the people who want to limit abortions to victims of rape and incest are a close overlap with the people who think that women* lie about being raped. And the people who think that it should be only to save the mother’s life (not her health, or her organs, or her emotional well-being or what-have-you) are the people who think that dying in childbirth is martyrdom, done honorably in the service of Gawd. It’s what women are for.
Will they never learn? The ex-gay right-wing movement has been discredited many times. The premise behind programs claiming to create ex-gays has been proven wrong, and leaders of the programs have themselves apologized.
And yet, the Family Research Council does not get the message. They are planning a month of “ex-gay pride” activities.
http://www.nydailynews.com/family-research-council-launch-ex-gay-pride-month-article-1.1388796
Have I mentioned my disgust with the Catholic Church and its bishops and cardinals?
No?
I am fucking disgusted by these shartfaces.
How does:
‘We need to keep this money so that victims of priestly sexual abuse cannot receive it’
exist alongside
‘We are the moral compass of humanity’?
Portia, I agree- I’m just offering an idea on how women, today, might be able to protect themselves. But only if there’s no risk- from my reading of the bill, there would be no risk.
Here might be where they’re sneaking it in, (and I do appreciate that you have good intentions, it just doesn’t always work out that way)
emphasis mine.
Also, this portion I’ve quoted from is “Analysis by Legislative Reference Bureau”…meaning it’s not the actual law. Meaning the law itself might require a report. I can’t really tell from the statutory language that follows whether it does or not. I could be missing it, though. Could be included by cross-reference to another law. They are sneaky.
Sorry to be a wet blanket. You may be totally right.
So how can we find out if my idea would actually work? Any WI attorneys, or women’s rights attorney’s around?
My issue with the plan, if there were no legal barriers to it, would be the reinforcement of “Women lie about rape” trope. I understand that it would possibly be the only way for some people to get the termination they needed, but it also looks to me like the law waives the ultrasound requirement, not a full ban on termination, for rape victims. So a person would not be barred from getting the abortion if xe were to not say they were raped, but they would be barred from avoiding an unnecessary ultrasound. Not that that’s nothing, but it’s the way I’m reading it. Am I right about that? (If you can tell what I mean with all the double negatives). Again, this is just me.
Portia:
You are not a wet blanket. This is just the reality of these laws. They are weasel worded to minimize the rights if women under the pretense of helping womens health
I understand the worry about the rape-lies trope. And I think I read it the same way- women in WI can get an abortion, but unless they were raped (or victims of incest) or undergoing a medical emergency, they must do an ultrasound (plus the other requirements, like the 24 hour wait).
To reiterate my idea- women who want to end their pregnancy could walk into the clinic, claim they are pregnant from incest, and bypass the unnecessary burdens. Only if they can do this without legal sanction, of course- and I guess we need further expertise to determine this.
Thanks, Tony.
You reminded me of one other emerging person who I can talk about issues with. He’s a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and he said that his experiences were great with it and that CG is progressive and whatnot. I pointed out that his experiences were vastly affected by being a man, and he said “Yeah, good point.” I apologized for being a wet blanket and he said “I think that’s what we call ‘objectivity’, actually.” or something like that. It was in the context of discussing The Invisible War, which he then watched at my suggestion. Thanks for the happy memory and the encouragement.
If they claim the incest was consensual, they might find themselves charged with violating the laws against incest. And we’re back to the nonconsensual intercourse problem. *goes to google Wisconsin incest laws*
Portia is right to focus on the “sneaky” aspects of right-wing, anti-abortion legislation. No matter what they say publicly, anti-abortion politicians have one goal in mind — end abortion. To that end, they chip away at access to abortion, at organizations that provide access, at healthcare funding, etc. And they erect obstacles. The reporting requirements associated with rape cases are an example of the obstacles.
Obstacles become insurmountable when anti-abortion politicians also work to shorten the timeline during which a woman can get an abortion.
Yikes! It’s a felony!
Link.
What if the hospital staff calls the police?
(Can they do it or does protecting the privacy of patients not allow it? I know they’ll call the police if someone comes in with a gun shot wound, but I don’t know where incest stand there (in states where it is illegal, obviously. )
Ah, Portia partly answers my question while I’m still typing it.
You’re psychic! ;)
Beatrice:
Mandatory reporting usually applies to child abuse and elder abuse. I don’t think it would require the staff to report a violent crime against the patient’s wishes.
*A violent crime like sexual assault, not like a gunshot. I think you’re generally right about the gunshot thing.
I pride myself on being a fake psychic. If only there were a tv show about that, I would watch it. ^_^
(Actually, I really enjoy Psych from a skeptical perspective because there is always a logical explanation for whatever is going on, whether someone thinks there are ghosts or zombies or..psychics. There’s always a real-life reason).
[Adds ‘The Invisible War’ to must watch list]
I found another document that says incest is a Class C Felony, which is even worse. And it looks more authoritative, same source as iiandiii’s link above.
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lrb/pubs/ib/01ib1.pdf
(I didn’t know the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony until law school, so in case anybody else doesn’t, Misd is punishable by less than a year, and felony by more than a year incarceration. Yeah, that’s the only difference. Weird, right? Losing your voting rights all over the place because of one day difference in your sentence?)
I know incest is a felony, but I don’t know of any mandatory reporting requirements for adult incest or for a patient that doesn’t want to report a sexual assault. If I’m right, then it sounds like it would be safe for a woman who wants to bypass the ultrasound to say she wants to end her pregnancy because of rape or incest.
Tony:
It is a “must watch” for people who aren’t triggered by the content. It’s an incredibly hard watch – suicide trigger warning as well as, obviously, sexual assault. I got through it only by repeating to myself “This is important. You need to know this. Everyone needs to know this.” It also gets into a little bit the issues with the VA not giving benefits and delaying decisions and all that shameful crap.
Well, it’s a matter of whether a woman wants to claim felonious conduct (which is also super stigmatized in our culture) or have an unnecessary ultrasound. I don’t think it’s such an easy choice.
That’s true- not an easy choice. I just want to arm people with every possible option against thugs like Scott Walker.
Petrochemical train explodes in Quebec’s Lac-Megantic
Considering that part of the town is apparently completely destroyed… :(
Beatrice:
Yikes. That’s…horrifying.
Yeah. Eighty cars full of light crude somehow came uncoupled and there were no brakes set. Sounds like sabotage. For a train that size, even on level ground, forty cars must have their hand brakes set. Half of them. And trains don’t come uncoupled unless there is a great deal of stress on the coupler. Somebody had to release the brakes (done fairly easily (yet another reason why railroads have their own police forces)) and then uncouple the cars to get them rolling.
Sorry. Trains don’t accidentally come uncoupled unless there is a lot of stress on the couplers. Uncoupling them is easy — pull a lever up, pulls the pin out, knuckle opens. Didn’t mean to shorthand that.
Ogvorbis:
It just got more horrifying…
For some reason I got an urge to apply extra stress to my forehead via the desk, and starting reading FSTDT. It didn’t take long to alter the geometry of the desk:
Too bad the naked witches don’t work at live gigs. At least I assume they don’t. Or maybe I keep missing the good bits…
Hope this post goes through. Something funnybis going on in the behind the tech scenes at FtB…
Does anyone have a link to or their own takedown of ‘I don’t see color, I only see people’?
A Boeing 777 has just crashed at SFO (San Francisco).
Tony: I would google “colorblind racism” there are a lot of results. I can’t recommend one in particular off the top of my head.
Tony,
Not exactly what you are looking for, but the only relevant link that I have bookmarked is one about how some (white) people “invoke strangely colored people” :
http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2009/03/invoke-strangely-colored-people.html
(the I don’t care if someone is white, brown, yellow or purple strategy of shutting down discussions about race )
FossilFishy
Congrats on moving the bed into the house.
The irritation and snappishness – well, that’s what you get when moving a whole lot of crap that should just be there ahead of you. Most of the crap I (still) collect is meant to stay in place; moving goes against its true nature. :)
Have a good rest!
Ogvorbis
May I add my voice to those expressing admiration at your courage and humanness?
You are an amazing person, and I am glad to know you, even if it is only via the Lounge.
Portia
I confess, today I ran for the train and I walked (ran) past a man collapsed on the ground, but my only comfort is that the ambulance I spotted approaching as I pulled my phone out was coming for him. [/guilt-trip]
re: train in Quebec
As Husband just mentioned, how long until this is used by the Harper government to insist that pipelines through pristine and unpopulated wilderness are actually better? :(
I hope there are very, very few casualties – as in, 0.
+++
Yup, a superpower of song. And 15 000 dancers dancing (how’s that for a christmas present?).
The Festival ends tomorrow. Here’s to the bitter-sweetness of non-participation in something that binds the whole nation together. I have thoughts about this, of all kinds, but still feeling melancholy. And self-absorbed. Sorry.
Oh, also Tony – re: meatspace people
I have recently discovered 2 that are good discussion partners on these issues. Unfortunately, I don’t see either of them on a regular basis (at least I know they’re out there).
Sorry can’t help out with the colourblind-racism bit. Here, racism isn’t a problem because there are no black/brown/yellow/purple people (as per Beatrice), and even if there were, they’d be seen as people. This is only partial snark. People close to me actually think that way – for all I know, they may be right, but personal experience indirectly referencing people of colour speaks otherwise.
Things I know that I am sure no one else does:
Pitchguest does not like Anita Sarkeesian.
Pitchguest does not believe in patriarchy.
Pitchguest thinks comments on YouTube videos should not be disabled.
Pitchguest thinks up- or down- votes are meaningful.
Pitchguest is a sexist asshole.
https://proxy.freethought.online/indelible/2013/06/14/i-need-your-help-with-an-article-on-video-games/#comment-368
Yeah, he rears his nasty head in a thread about sexism in video games. As does another asshat.
Wrong. Their goal is to control women’s lives and sexuality. All they want is to punish women for having sex – with a baby or death, it doesn’t matter, and it shows on how they’re utterly indifferent to the fate of women who die from pregnancy complications and back-alley abortions.
There was a family from Latvia on the train this afternoon. Mom, dad, little boy, little girl. The little girl was wearing a Hello Kitty trilby. Very cute. The boy was wearing a blue cowboy hat with wide white stitching. Very cute. And identical to the one I had (and lost (and found once it become furry))) back in 1969.
On rereading that article I linked, it actually is more relevant than I thought. It mentions colorblindness and links to another article, http://theangryblackwoman.com/2007/04/23/things-you-need-to-understand-5-color-blindness/.
blf @489:
Must be the reason the recording industry is so crazy about downloads, they haven’t figured out how to bind demons to MP3 files.