Comments

  2. chigau (違う) says

    I was just thinking that the dog would be better suited to the Thunderdome.

  4. says

    from last thread:
    A. Noyd @592:
    That sounds like a lot of pitfalls to avoid just to cook a meal. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why you’re doing it (and I think it’s the right thing to do), but it seems…challenging.

    ****

    birgerjohanssen @660:
    re: lead singer of Staind
    I’m glad he called out those assholes, but those threats of violence made me cringe. I think he ought to have put the concert on hold until the assholes were identified and held by security until police arrived. Then continue with the concert.

    ****

    opposablethumbs @651:
    Thanks for the well wishes. I have a few leads, but nothing solid.

    Speaking of which, if the offer for Horde assistance is still available, I could use a bit of help, given that I don’t have a job yet. I have the money for rent for this month, but other basics, I do not have. At most I need ~$400. I feel incredibly awkward asking, but if anyone is able to offer any assistance, I’d be quite grateful.

  5. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Hi!

    Did you say, ‘Hi’?

    Hi!

    I said, ‘Hi!’

    Got a ball?

    Or food?

    Oh, look! A squirrel!

  6. playonwords says

    Suddenly realised I hadn’t introduced myself

    I’m a Brit, living in the County of the Saints (Cornwall) am well past the age of discretion and heavily bearded. Also post on Democratic Underground as “intaglio”

  7. blf says

    I was just thinking that the dog would be better suited to the Thunderdome.

    “They” are running out of fresh meat ?

  8. blf says

    chigau explained, “blf #666”.

    Either yer 6 key is stuck or you fink the Fairphone is a Demon from Hades. Albeit, since it uses Android, there will be some daemons running around inside…

  10. rq says

    I need a couple of days to fit in before our departure on Sunday. Anyone got a pair?

  11. chigau (違う) says

    blf #8
    I somehow deleted the associated comment.
    But the stark simplicity of
    blf #666
    pleased me.
    So I left it.

  13. otrame says

    @3

    I like that T-shirt. A lot. And it even has a true Celtic knot, not the Romanized version*.

    *The Romanized version was symmetrical. The original Celtic knots were never symmetrical.

  15. says

    15 feminist comic books:
    (excerpt)

    For me, a feminist comic is one in which female characters aren’t just a plot device providing male characters with an opportunity to react. They aren’t a thing to be rescued, fucked, killed and discarded. Feminist comics show women as people, not tits and ass whose stories are only interesting if they’re sexy. Their physical representation should be reflective of their character in a way that makes sense. The way they dress, how their bodies are portrayed — these things aren’t just to entice, but to inform. I have nothing against demonstrations of sexuality, and don’t feel a ‘good feminist comic’ means the boobs are covered, but when a female character is sexualized, it should be relevant to who she is. She should have a story, a purpose and a narrative that portrays her as more than a victim or an object of desire.

    Below, I present fifteen of my favorite feminist comics, a list curated with love. I encourage you to read with curiosity and to challenge your perceptions about what has been the status quo for women in comics. Mostly, I hope you pass this around and add your own favorites to it. After all, we’re a community.

    Two of my favorites make the list: Batwoman and Captain Marvel

  16. myleslawrence says

    I was just wondering if your site has anti-attack or anti-denial of service software running as it seems really slow to come up or refresh. I recall you having those problems in the past. Anyway from a guy who reads your blog daily, it’s annoying – fwiw. Maybe it’s the dog.

  21. rq says

    Tony
    Yeah, I read that… Wow.
    See, I would like to think that the important information I would see in case of a Giant Hurricane Alert are the words ‘Giant’ and ‘Hurricane’. But wow…

  22. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Tony!

    I was going to be soooooooo pissed if IKG didn’t make the list.

    But it did. Too bad SiP and Fun Home didn’t make it, but I suppose Fun Home was a bit overexposed.

  23. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Wow: People get themselves killed by hurricanes because they think the female-named ones are harmless

    I checked like three times whether that was The Onion. O.O

  24. wirebash says

    A new lounge thread, that means it’s time to introduce myself.
    I’ll start with my experiences with creationism, and how I got out of it.

    The first thing I gave up on was a world wide flood. I threw that out before I even left primary school. This caused some inconsistencies in my the way I thought about the origins thing. But I knew it was worth it, because what I knew of geology, although it was little, was simply irreconcilable with a global flood. It was my expectation that questions like ‘so which parts of the world were flooded’ and ‘why did God not flood the whole world when the Bible clearly says so’, and ‘how was the water contained, was there like a huge pond or what?’ would be answered later on. It also created new opportunities for working on ‘my own version’ of creationism, for example, not all animals went to the ark because most of the world was not flooded, so most of the animals didn’t die. Maybe only dinosaurs went on the ark, and they went extinct because of the population bottleneck. Looking back, I think I can say that when you now even very little about geology, and are not that strictly bound to one interpretation of the Bible, but still believe it to be historical, the possibilities are endless. I came up with countless different scenarios of how the flood happened, how dinosaurs went extinct, where the ice age happened and so on. I’d look up answers on the internet, and find AiG, and decide that what they said was mostly bullshit, but that creationism was still true, but not their version of it. So I’d go on working on my version of creationism. I always ended my speculations on the note that somewhere later in my school career, I’d be introduced to a comprehensive, complete and well-supported notion of creationism, and that all my questions about this whole origins thing would be answered to my satisfaction. I expected that they, like me, would at least be smart enough to understand that the flood simply could not have been worldwide.

    So, in high school, at last they got to this issue. I’ll quote Aron Ra here, “It’s hard to have such low expectations and still be disappointed.”. But in this case I had high expectations. Imagine how disappointed I was.

    The timing was terrible too. At the time I was dealing with more personal issues and I was pissed off about the influence of the even more strict christians’ influence on the school board. (Who enforced their views on those weird religious disputes about dress codes, views on theological problems like predestination, and most annoyingly, their way of singing psalms). I contemplated suicide. I dropped out of school for half a year. Clinical depression. I was also diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome (This was end februari 2013)

    Secular medicine saved my life. Antidepressants do work. In the mean time I started to look for more answers on the internet. I found rationalwiki and talk.origins. Their stance toward creationism reflected my thoughts about the incoherent mess that is creationism. I loved the points they made, but I despised their style of writing, the constant snark towards the whole notion of even the possibility of a creation event. But I was still mischievously hoping that there was a rational, coherent version of creationism, somehow, somewhere. Maybe someone already came up with it, or maybe I had to come up with it myself. I kept on hoping ‘till I found AronRa’s vids on creationism. That crushed my dream. I gave up on creationism, and with that I gave up on Christianity. Because there is one argument that creationists make very well, and that is that the only interpretation of genesis that makes sense in the context of the whole Bible is a literal reading. Any other reading would contradict references to genesis as if it were literal, and would open it up to a whole range of vague, weird moral-ish interpretations. Genesis 1 was not written for morals, that’s what the other books are for, Leviticus and such. Hitchens crushed my dream even further, when he described the implications of a non-literal reading of genesis. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQox1hQrABQ)

    So now I’m here. I’m happy I found you lads & lasses, you are awesome :)

  25. says

    Here’s a Moment of Mormon Madness, anti-gay category. The mormons “seeking to help” other mormons with “same-sex attraction” are basically saying, “We will be extraordinarily tolerant and accept you if you never have sex and if you avoid the appearance of ever having had gay sex.”

    Ty Mansfield arrived Friday at the first large-scale conference held by North Star, an LDS-based gay support group, with several goals in mind.

    For one, North Star’s president hoped more than 40 sessions at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo, spread across Friday and Saturday, would provide support and resources for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who experience same-sex attraction and desire to live in harmony with the church’s teachings, doctrines and values. […]

    “We want them to know there are other options, options consistent with the church’s teachings, and there are lots of happy, healthy people choosing them. People don’t see them (in the church) because they blend in. If that’s an option you want, we want to provide resources to help you do that in a happy, healthy way.” […]

    Part of the draw this weekend was a slate of five keynote speakers with BYU ties: Robert L. Millet is an emeritus professor of ancient scripture; Camille Fronk Olson, a professor of ancient scripture; Jonathan Sandberg, a marriage and family therapist and professor in the school of family life; Wendy Ulrich, who has taught at BYU and is a past president of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists; and Mansfield, who is teaching adjunct classes at BYU while working on his dissertation.[…]

    Deseret News link.

  26. David Marjanović says

    From December 10th, and in German: There’s a valley in Antarctica where, in the coldest spot, temperatures went down to −93.2 °C on August 10th, 2010 – breathing could have killed you. “Take a photo and GTFO”, said a researcher. The valley is more than 2000 km long and apparently located just east of the Transantarctic Mountains.

    Beards for everyone! The baby with the imperial mustache is a newborn. ^_^

    Open-access paper: “Ovarian follicles shed new light on dinosaur reproduction during the transition towards birds” – there are some really well-preserved fossils out there.

    In German: Beijing has twice as many cars as parking spaces. Renting one has become ridiculously expensive.

    Romania is being taken over by the Orthodox Church.

    People get themselves killed by hurricanes because they think the female-named ones are harmless

    *blink* what

    what

    I think I’ve lost all ability to can.

  27. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    People don’t take hurricanes as seriously if they have a feminine name and the consequences are deadly, finds a new groundbreaking study.

    Storms with female names have historically killed more people because they neither consider them as risky nor take the same precautions, the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concludes.

    Researchers unfamiliar with these paragraphs’ lack of an editor suggested that just as bears who lose their fear of people become more dangerous, so must it be with these storms if, “they neither consider them as risky nor take the same precautions,” and deaths result…

    English pedants, however, concluded that “they neither consider them as risky” was a clear indication that it wasn’t the storms lack of fear of people, but their lack of fear of themselves that was the root cause. Storms unfamiliar with their own power may fail to notify the National Hurricane Center of storm surges over 5 feet, as required by federal statute since 1971.

    In either case, the Washington Post stands by its editorial non-decision about whether to use “feminine” or “female” to describe names such as “Rita” and “Camille.” Although no editor was able to be located who gave even a cursory glance to the language of this story, given the newspaper’s longtime policy of confusing vaginas with shopping trends, in the past even lumping both into a single section of the paper showing no apparent unifying theme except prejudiced assumptions, one non-editor and recent high-school grad called the vacillation from one paragraph to the next in gender/sex language, “not only appropriate, but traditional.”

  28. says

    A bit more on the Moment of Mormon Madness outlined in comment #25:

    The LDS Church’s doctrine on chastity is that sexual relations are to be restricted to a marriage relationship between a man and a woman. Mansfield, who has described himself as inescapably gay, first remained celibate, then later married a woman.

    “As an organization we very explicitly and unapologetically sustain the church and church leaders, gospel principles and the Proclamation on the Family,” he said Friday. […]

  29. says

    wirebash @24:

    > I found rationalwiki and talk.origins.

    :-D

    > I despised their style of writing, the constant snark towards the whole notion of even the possibility of a creation event.

    Hey, how would your younger self have reacted to this article? We bent over backwards to keep the tone as sober as possible (though there’s still the occasional flareup, and we wrote an extremely impolite version as well, which you should read second, not first.)

  30. David Marjanović says

    And now the petitions! Just two this time.

    “Brazil, Don’t treat World Cup Protesters As Terrorists”

    “Brazil says it needs new laws because the upcoming World Cup event could be a target for terrorists. But human rights advocates say the legislation could be used to arrest legal protesters[.]

    The language, lawyers say, is way too vague and might give security forces “unprecedented powers” to use against demonstrators, who already have a history overstepping their powers and a very poor record of dealing with public unrest.

    The legislation, as it’s now worded, could make the situation even worse, adds Amnesty International, putting “freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly” at further risk. And some activists say the proposed revisions won’t make any difference, that Brazil just wants to stifle all protests.

    Because of South America’s abuses of such laws in the past, Brazil doesn’t presently have any anti-terrorism legislation, which is all the more reason it should be just as vigilant now about protecting its democracy as it is about protecting the country from terrorism.”

    Must be a duplicate of one I already signed and posted here months ago: support Sen. Warren’s effort to let the USPS be a bank which it was till 1967, and which postal services in many other countries like France and Germany are.

  31. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @wirebash, #24:

    Welcome to the Horde!

    You may be familiar with all internet traditions, but allow me to point you to The Rules.

    Please use the couch cushions available to build yourself a fort and wait for our pulley-and-tray system to deliver refreshments.

  32. Esteleth, [an error occurred while processing this directive] says

    Howdy, wirebash.

    Pull up a chair. I just put the kettle on. There’s tea and mugs on the sideboard.

  33. chigau (違う) says

    Welcome, wirebash.
    I’ll pour some rum after I get back from the shops.
    Meanwhile, there is always grog.

  34. David Marjanović says

    You may be familiar with all internet traditions, but

    Subthread won in comment 31. No fair.

  35. rq says

    Welcome in, wirebash!
    Please, for your initiation, we would like your thoughts on:
    1) peas
    2) horses
    3) cheese
    And remember, no answer is a wrong answer, as long as you submit to the Hivemind that is the plurality of opinion of the Lounge.
    :)

  36. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    Welcome wirebash. If you’ve been with us for a little while you might know that there are a few things upon which your preferences should be known. 1. What do you think about peas? 2. What do you think about horses?

    Also, the scullery often serves up some very good grub.

  38. says

    This Moment of Mormon Madness is a follow up to a comment in a previous Lounge thread, where I was pointing out that nefarious tactics were being used to chip away at the secular Salt Lake Tribune newspaper while simultaneously bolstering the journalistically suspect mormon Deseret News.

    Turns out there are bogus circulation numbers being used by the mormons, a fact which reminds some of us of the bogus LDS church membership numbers they report. Scam upon scam.

    A Delta resident recently found a curious inclusion in his weekly Millard County Chronicle Progress, which he has subscribed to for years.

    He didn’t ask for it. He’s not paying extra for it. But about two months ago, his beloved weekly began coming with an inserted Deseret News National Edition.

    […]The News, according to a May 18 Salt Lake Tribune story about the circulation war between the two Salt Lake City-based papers, includes its National Edition (and the LDS Church News) in its Sunday circulation figures.

    Those circulation figures have become key to a debate about recent changes in the newspapers’ joint operating agreement (JOA) that shifts profit from 58 percent to 42 percent in favor of The Tribune (based on its superior circulation rates) to 70-30 for the News.

    The new agreement was made between the Deseret News and The Tribune’s hedge fund owner, Alden Global Capital, without input from local Tribune management. […]

    The Tribune reports a Sunday print edition circulation of 80,818. The Deseret News reports 109,330.

    But the latter includes about 75,000 issues of the practically given-away National Edition that goes mostly out of state and now to Utah weeklies. Without that, the News’ Sunday print is about 30,000, less than half The Tribune’s. […]

    http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57989702-90/news-tribune-circulation-deseret.html.csp

  39. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    Apropos of absolutely nothing at all…..

    In my experience (vast, in this instance) stimulants are excellent pain relievers. As a former stimulant addict and one who tolerates daily pain, allow me to say this….

    FUCK! I want to be a druggie again!

    No, I won’t, it isn’t smart and I’m too damn old to rationalize it.

  40. says

    Getting ready to go take the exam I missed last week. Not looking forward to it, do not feel at all ready. Also I slept for shit last night.
     
    On a completely different note, regarding the ‘Women Destroying Science Fiction’ link Inaji posted, I just started a sci-fi book where the author apologized in the foreword for the continued existence of the patriarchy in her book, but explained that it was required for the story to work, being basically Eva Peron IN SPACE!!

  41. Portia says

    I will accept Horde funds for Tony if any Hordeling can spare some for our wrongly-terminated Shoop.

    bravo
    no space or words of any kind
    portia
    with no more spaces or anything at all here
    at googggle mail.

  42. carlie says

    Ok, this is the kind of thing I have not asked for before, but if you are so inclined, please go to this page, go to the school chorus insta-poll a little ways down on the left hand column, and vote for Whitesboro. If you click on their name, it takes you to their application video. I have it on good authority that it would mean a lot to the kid in the front row center, next to the piano, with the big hair and the dark blue t-shirt. :) Plus, they’re a public school up against a private Catholic school, so, you know. (it’s a competition to sing at a local professional concert, and these are the top 3 applicants now up for public vote).

  44. says

    Carlie @ 42, voted. Did you know that Riordan published a short, The Staff of Serapis, with Annabeth Chase and Sadie Kane? Looks like he wants to merge the two series. The first chapter of the next Olympus book is in it, too.

    Giliell, I didn’t see that post, will look for it.

  45. wirebash says

    David Gerard @29:

    That was actually one of the first articles I read on rationalwiki, along with http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evidence_against_a_recent_creation
    It was an amazing thing to read. It made me realize just how wrong the current creationist ideas are. The article does more than refute the supposed evidence for a 6k year old earth. It also provided evidence that the world is waaay older than 6k years. At the time I was still hoping I could come up with a rational version of young earth creationism, and that article made me realize that a young earth is simply out of the question. Not only because there are no good arguments for a young earth, but there are many good arguments for an old earth.

    Also,the claim that god may not be a reliable witness and that the bible has been subjected to ‘tremendous amounts of editing’ would’ve made me ‘uncomfortable’, because I wasn’t yet ready to abandon the rest of the bible.

    @ others:
    thanks for the welcome :)

    @ rq
    1) peas. this is how we eat peas in my country. And I’m darn proud of that.
    2) horses. I once fell of the back of one when I was very young. Fortunately, a parent caught me, so no injuries. But since then I love the taste of horse meat.
    3) cheese. This is what I usually have for breakfast.

    Apparently all my answers are related to food. Well, that’s… interesting :)

  46. says

    Does anyone know how many bigoted public figures in the US turned out to be gay? I ask because this is the second time I’ve seen dugglebogey over at Dispatches make this type of comment:

    Latent homosexuality is much more insidious. He wants society as a whole to reject homosexuality, so that everyone is helping him keep his deeply rooted homosexual feelings hidden.

    If people start accepting it as normal and appropriate, he will not be able to keep those feelings inside….

    https://proxy.freethought.online/dispatches/2014/06/02/keyes-the-gay-is-suicide-for-humanity-and-genocide/#comment-324964

    I’ve already chided them once about this and clearly they won’t stop. I thought perhaps throwing out numbers (“only 2 bigoted public figures have come out of the closet” or some such) might help.

  47. says

    My response to dugglebogey:

    Or Keyes could be a heterosexual man-as he’s presented himself (and I’ve seen no evidence to indicate he’s closeted and/or lying)-who is a bigot.
    Why is it so hard for you to comprehend that it’s far more likely that he’s simply a bigoted asshole? Why does he have to be secretly gay? You should fucking ask yourself why it’s so important to you that homophobes be gay. Is it that unbelievable that a heterosexual man could be a bigot?

    Fuck you and your low opinions of gay people, asswipe.

  49. says

    Dalillama:

    On a completely different note, regarding the ‘Women Destroying Science Fiction’ link Inaji posted, I just started a sci-fi book where the author apologized in the foreword for the continued existence of the patriarchy in her book, but explained that it was required for the story to work, being basically Eva Peron IN SPACE!!

    Heh. Best of Tor 2012 is available, for free.

  50. carlie says

    Ryland’s story. (video)

    From this article:

    The montage, which includes photos of Ryland through the years, as well as video footage of him with his younger sister, takes viewers succinctly through the family’s story. It explains that, soon after learning to speak, “Ryland began to display increasing amounts of shame … Through tears she asked ‘Why did God make me like this?’ She may have only been 5 years old, but we needed to start truly listening.”

    The montage’s text adds that, after consulting with professionals, the conclusion was that Ryland is transgender. But then came the really scary news. “Through our research, we discovered a disturbing statistic: 41 percent of transgender people have attempted suicide due to lack of societal acceptance. The national average is 4.6 percent,” the story explains. “We were not willing to take that risk.”

    The Whittingtons were advised to allow him to transition to male right away. They cut his hair and changed his room decor, as well as the pronouns they used. In addition, “We sent out a letter to friends and family explaining our change. We lost a few but the people who truly matter stuck by us…We signed up as parents with no strings attached.”

  53. says

    *pouncehugs* Portia

    ———
    PZ Glad to hear it sounds like you’re doing better. What with the blood staying where it belongs on the inside and all.

    ———
    Relived. In-laws and parental units are gone. Read Skin Game finally. Week after I got it. *grumble* But seriously. Holy Crap. Book. Awesomeness. Soooo many implications. Holy crap.

  55. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    re:

    Am I in the CIA?

    Do you really think the CIA would employ someone with my mental health background?

  56. says

    Rawnaeris:

    Read Skin Game finally. Week after I got it. *grumble* But seriously. Holy Crap. Book. Awesomeness. Soooo many implications. Holy crap.

    I gave up on Butcher a long time back, because he was such a sexist twit, and it just shone through his books. I’ll assume he’s gotten better.

  57. says

    Inaji I only started the series back in like, December. The newer books are definitely much better. And the side characters have been allowed to grow, up to and including calling Dresden a twit/asshole/arrogant bastard as needed. Yes, Dresden’s first instinct is still to white-knight every damned woman, whether she wants it or not, but he’s begun to realize that that isn’t always right, practical or desired.

    I’ll add that I feel like the character has been allowed to age, and has mellowed/grown-up/become less of an ass somewhat.

    I’ll also add the caveat that when I enjoy the writing style, sexism and some other stuff will roll right off me if it doesn’t knock me out of suspension of disbelief. Since sexism is entirely believable, I can’t say it’s not in the book, just that none stood out to me. Does that make sense?

  58. opposablethumbs says

    carlie – voted (and Whitesboro are just a tiny fraction ahead!)

  59. says

    http://www.metroweekly.com/2014/05/obama-proclaims-june-lgbt-pride-month/

    President Barack Obama declared June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month in a proclamation released by the White House Friday and called on Americans to recommit themselves to finishing the work that remains for achieving full equality.

    “As progress spreads from State to State, as justice is delivered in the courtroom, and as more of our fellow Americans are treated with dignity and respect — our Nation becomes not only more accepting, but more equal as well,” Obama stated. “I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.”

    Ticking off a number of victories for LGBT-rights, including victories for marriage equality at the Supreme Court last year, Obama noted that LGBT people still are not protected from discrimination in a number of states.

    “My Administration proudly stands alongside all those who fight for LGBT rights. Here at home, we have strengthened laws against violence toward LGBT Americans, taken action to prevent bullying and harassment, and prohibited discrimination in housing and hospitals,” Obama stated. “Despite this progress, LGBT workers in too many States can be fired just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity; I continue to call on the Congress to correct this injustice by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

    My FB status was a response to the above:

    On the one hand, I’m glad the President did this (of course June has long been the official “unofficial” Pride month, so his proclamation is redundant).
    On the other hand, overcoming prejudice and discrimination is going to take far more than simply saying “we’ve got to end prejudice and discrimination”. What are his ideas on *how* that is done? Does the President have any ideas on *why* people are bigoted? What non-violent actions can people take to advance equality for LGBTQI citizens?
    For this gay man, the President is merely giving lip service to equality. It would be different if he were not such a highly influential public figure. But given the power of his office and his ability to influence the public, he needs to do a helluva lot more than making an official proclamation that June is LGBTQI month.

  61. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    Here is a pie-in-the-sky wish. I wish that Gender Studies were taught in age appropriate ways from the beginning of school and onward.

    “Gender is the range of physical, biological, mental and behavioral characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity.” (Wikipedia)

    We all exist somewhere on the gender spectrum, and that spectrum covers a lot of differentiation. What is so difficult about that?*

    *very rhetorical question

  62. says

    So my eye allergies got so crazy that the inside of my eyelid is sloughing off. Is that bad?

    Also, welcome to wirebash!

    I went to the dollar store the other day and bought a 2-pack of plastic dinosaurs for my garden. It took awhile to find the ideal pack. I wanted a sauropod, but I wasn’t about to purchase one packaged with something lame like an ankylosaur. And I certainly wasn’t about to walk out of there with a dimetrodon, for chrissakes. (My poor Honey had to stand there and listen to my mini-rant about epochs.) I finally settled on a sauropod and what looks like an iguanadon. After all that work, I figured I earned a salted nut roll as well.
    hooray for the dollar store that used to be a very nice farmer’s market. The end draws near.

  65. says

    carlie

    Voted. You should have mentioned Foreigner (yay!). It was 43% – 41% after my vote.

    Welcome to wirebash.

    Tony re Reality Shows

    Most of the ones I watch now are cooking related. I mean the competition ones, the regular cooking shows are probably better classified as documentaries. I used to watch The Amazing Race a lot, but that has fallen off in my house. We also watched a lot of Project Runway for a bit. Since I watched a lot of game shows as a kid, some of these now-called reality competition shows caught my attention.

  66. says

    ajb47:
    When my best friend was still alive, I had much more enthusiasm for watching tv. He got me into Project Runway, all manner of shows on Food Network (including the cooking challenge ones), and more. After he passed, I lost that enthusiasm (for what are likely obvious reasons). Now I watch very little tv.

  67. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    We all exist somewhere on the gender spectrum

    This construction makes me uneasy somehow. :/

    Partly, I’ve seen some good arguments for treating “masculinity” and “femininity” as separately variable traits in terms of personality and presentation, so I don’t think “the” spectrum is the right framing.

  69. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Psssst! @everyone except Ogvorbis:

    Ogvorbis said:

    re:

    Am I in the CIA?

    Do you really think the CIA would employ someone with my mental health background?

    See! Perfect cover!

    Don’t trust him!

    Pass it on…quietly!

  70. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @morgan:

    We all exist somewhere on the gender spectrum, and that spectrum covers a lot of differentiation. What is so difficult about that?*

    As an aside, I’ll say that I agree wholeheartedly with Azky’s critique of “the spectrum”.

    But on the substance? What is so difficult is that non-trans people are so obsessed with and invested in gender.

    That statement sound controversial? I believe I can easily prove it to your satisfaction. If there’s interest, I can do online some of the activities that I do in gender workshops. Either here or ThunderDome. Anyone can participate, though it would be helpful (not necessary) if people can scan and post links to images. This is the kind of thing that would be best done on my own blog, but, alas, I don’t have one. So if you want it, you’ll have to speak up here. The activities would reveal gender obsessions and help non-trans people understand whether they conceive of their genders in fundamentally transsexual ways or fundamentally transgender ways. In either case, one’s internal experience of gender is revealed in a way that doesn’t normally happen. I’ve had quite a number of people who never understood sex & gender or the distinction between transsexuality and transgender come to me and say that the activities put them in a very different relationship to those categories, allowed them to both see and understand them differently, and to see and understand why it is sometimes easier to relate to a transgender acquaintance than a transsexual acquaintance (or vice-versa).

  71. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Azky:

    I just clicked on your link at #68.

    That is fucking classic. I’m going to have to steal that.

  75. Portia says

    I like brussel sprouts….pan fried in butter with scallions.
    I suppose I’d like near anything pan fried in butter with scallions.

  76. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    Azkyroth and Crip Dyke, I’m still learning. I don’t quite understand the discomfort with the term “the spectrum.”

    CD, I’d be very interested in your instruction.

  77. cicely says

    Our air conditioner may be dying/dead.
    </first world problems>
    –
    Portia:

    My intern texted me to tell me she was hit by a car while jogging : /

    :(
    When we’re out on the streets, I always worry about joggers, and bicyclists.
    Too many other drivers don’t seem to. At least, judging from the minimal distance some of them seem to think is “plenty of room”.
     

    I went shopping with a group of women, and two of them were judges. So if my boss ever ever again gives me grief for not dressing formal enough (in his opinion) for court, I can tell him my outfits were literally cleared as court-appropriate when I bought them ^_^

    Excellent!
    :)
    –
    Crip Dyke:

    We buy dresses because we’re female. …

     
    All her other examples are forgotten, but I will never forget the sheer incompetence of this statement from a professor of psychology. I was trying to make sense of it and all I could get was perhaps prehensile, highly abusive labia are beating women up if they violate their labia’s sense of fashion?

    Nonono…it’s our ovaries. If we outrage their fashion sense, they cut us off at the hormones and defeminize us…and we’re never gonna get a man that way!
     
    (And imo, weird brains are the best!)
    ;)
    –
    *hugs* coated in layer upon layer of moral support for Ogvorbis.
    With *chocolate*.
    –
    birgerjohansson

    I’d have eaten toddler myself if it was smaller, says ‘hero cat’

    Eating toddlers is riskier than eating babies.
    Bipedality allows for better self-defense, and they frequently have at least a minimal vocabulary with which to summon assistance.
    On the other hand, free-range, rather than cage-raised, is arguably your healthier dining option.
    –
    –
    New Thread!
    *confetti*
    –
    David Gerard:

    For the cephalopod pervert in your life.

    That is a nice ‘pod—and it’s even purple.
    Pity it’s not available in my size.
    –
    Hi, playonwords; Welcome In!
    :)
    –

    Wow: People get themselves killed by hurricanes because they think the female-named ones are harmless

    O.o
    Fuuuuuuuu….
    –
    Howdy, wirebash, and Welcome In!
    :)
    Yeah…drive a stake in Creationism; it is done. At least, as an even minimally believable story.
    Optics and the rainbow helped me start down my Escape From Biblical Literalism.
    –

  78. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    cicely:

    On the other hand, free-range, rather than cage-raised, is arguably your healthier dining option.

    ALL TODDLERS ARE FREE RANGE!!11!!11!!!!!!

  79. Portia says

    *shifty eyes*
    The undercover agent is here. Everybody act cool.

    –

    more seriously,
    big hugs or other gestures of support, Oggie.
    We love you.

  80. Portia says

    and I’ve neglected to welcome wirebash:)

    hiya! Please complete the above-remitted survey so we can assess to which army you should be assigned.

  82. says

    morgan:

    I don’t quite understand the discomfort with the term “the spectrum.”

    I don’t either.
    In trying to think about it, all I can come up with is that maybe it should be “a” spectrum, but that’s a shot in the dark, and I lack the understanding of gender to be able to offer any explanation.
    (does that even make sense? See, if I can’t even figure out what I’m saying, I probably should just shut up.)

  85. says

    Ogvorbis
    *hugs* and support.

    Tony!
    I would donate if I could, but L and I are about broke ourselves. Business has been real slow this past month.
    Inaji
    2 questions about the link there, 1)do you know if Nook format can be converted to Epub or similar? and 2) how much of a pain in the ass are B&N going to be if I sign up like they want me too, in terms of spam etc?
    cicely

    Too many other drivers don’t seem to.

    I tell you what. I’ve been hit by more drivers than I can conveniently remember (unsignaled turns without looking are a classic); more than 8-9 certainly.

    Hi wirebash, playonwords

    CD
    I’m interested in having a go.

  86. cicely says

    David!
    *pouncehug flurry*
    –
    Crip Dyke:
    :D :D :D
     
    —but I must—with great, great respect for your Scholarly Creds, and while giving place to no one in the general esteem in which they are, so rightly, held—disagree with your interpretation!

    People don’t take hurricanes as seriously if they have a feminine name

    Clearly it’s that people if they have a feminine name (and I’m just gonna handwave the whole plural/singular ‘they’ debate), don’t take hurricanes seriously.
    Any hurricanes.
    Of whatever sex/gender.
     
    I move that henceforth, in the interests of avoiding Criminal Negligence with regard to the safety of our precious young’uns—since ignorance is no excuse, and alla that—all such shall be named…Chuck.
    Thus, in future generations everyone will have a serious respect for the destructive capabilities of these storms. No more of this inferior, light-hearted-and-frivolous respect.
     
    Added bonus—it’s hard to consciously or otherwise sort applications based on given names, if they are all the same.
    –
    wirebash:
    1) peas are missiles, not food. Not ever food.
    2) Horses are the Ultimate Evil—are you sure you want to risk partaking of Their substance?
    –
    morgan ?!:

    Here is a pie-in-the-sky wish. I wish that Gender Studies were taught in age appropriate ways from the beginning of school and onward.

    Thirded!
    –
    awakeinmo:

    So my eye allergies got so crazy that the inside of my eyelid is sloughing off. Is that bad?

    O.O
    I don’t see how it could possibly be good.
    If it was me, there’d already be a full-on panic in progress.
    –
    Ogvorbis:

    ALL TODDLERS ARE FREE RANGE!!11!!11!!!!!!

    Exactly!
    They may be more difficult to catch and clean, but they are probably your Better BBQ Bet.
    –
    Tony!, not much to tell. Prisms, raindrops, refraction—are we really supposed to believe that just suddenly, The Big G changed the physical laws wrt something like that, just to say, “While I’m not sorry, I promise not to try to drown the lot of you again”? This science unit was also reasonably proximate to my introduction to Norse mythology, hence the Bifrost Bridge. The Covenant ‘Bow was supposed to be True, but this other was a just-so story? How can you tell? And what about the leprechauns?
    –

  87. Esteleth, [an error occurred while processing this directive] says

    Just finished watching the most recent episode of Cosmos. It was excellent.

    I can only hope people will pay attention.

    ‘Course, I should speak for myself – I found myself distracted by the fact that Dr. Tyson apparently got a haircut halfway through a scene.

  88. Pteryxx says

    My intern texted me to tell me she was hit by a car while jogging : /

    oy. And that reminded me of a thing…

    Study: Portland drivers show racial bias when yielding to pedestrians Oregonian via Colorlines

    Researchers chose a busy Portland crosswalk “where yielding isn’t influenced by cross traffic or turning,” The Oregonian reported, and found that black pedestrians had to wait 32 percent longer than their white counterparts and were passed by double the amount of cars before they could cross the street.

    “It’s amazing to look at something you thought might be subtle and to see it instead so clearly,” Portland State University researcher Tara Goddard told the Oregonian.

  89. Portia says

    Portland drivers show racial bias when yielding to pedestrians

    Holy crap! It’s everywhere:(
    =
    One of my friends, a black woman attorney, told me about her first day as a lawyer. A bailiff dragged her physically out of the courthouse before allowing her to produce identification to prove she was allowed to have her phone on her person in the courthouse. Thankfully the judge ordered the bailiff to apologize in open court, though the judge didn’t see what happened but heard from other bailiffs. I was astonished but I know it’s not…extraordinary :(

  90. says

    Fuck me, I need some happy things right now. The frustration at being fired and inability to find a job, as well as lack of money has been replaced by rage. The kind of rage that makes me want to cry. The gun nut stories I just read got me pissed off. This story sent the dial past 10:
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/02/teen-girls-arrest-reignites-debate-in-chile-over-abortion-rights/

    Chilean President Michelle Bachelet is fighting fierce conservative opposition to allow abortion for women and girls who are raped, carrying non-viable fetuses or facing life-threatening pregnancy complications.

    Last month, a 17-year-old girl turned up at a Santiago public hospital near death from bleeding. A doctor at the hospital called police to report her: she had had a back-alley abortion, which is illegal in Chile.

    Police searched the girl’s home and reported finding blood-stained underwear. Prosecutors say that she is facing 3.5 to five years in prison.

    My FB response:
    This girl is facing arrest for having a back alley abortion. She nearly lost her life to have an abortion. THIS is happening all across the world. When women are denied the right to have control over their bodies and denied reproductive rights-GIRLS AND WOMEN DIE. I don’t give a flying, fucking, rats goddamned ass about a fetus! I care about the people who are dying because assholes deny them their fundamental human rights. A fetus is not a person. It’s biologically human, but that does NOT make it a person. Fetuses do not and SHOULD not have rights. The person carrying a fetus–that’s a person. A living, breathing, autonomous human being who *should* have the right to make decisions about how and when she chooses to get pregnant. That includes the right to have or not have an abortion. I don’t care if it’s 2 weeks after conception or 26 weeks. FULL ABORTION ACCESS. Period. No waiting period. None of this “not after 20 weeks”. None of that bullshit. I’m sick and fucking tired of people dying because fucking assholes treat a goddamned fetus as if it is more important a woman.
    And yes, I’m fucking mad!

  91. says

    Dalillama:

    Inaji
    2 questions about the link there, 1)do you know if Nook format can be converted to Epub or similar? and 2) how much of a pain in the ass are B&N going to be if I sign up like they want me too, in terms of spam etc?

    1) I think so.

    2) Not at all. They don’t spam.

  92. says

    Erm, also, Dalillama, if you sign up, and purchase an e-book, you’ll have a ‘my nook’ page, where you can download the epubs, and you can also read whatever you bought on-line. Sorry, brain’s not terribly functional.

  95. says

    Portia:
    Oh that worked wonders! Thanks!

    ****

    Pteryxx:
    Thank you as well. I’m quite glad to see more diversity in the cast of the next SW film. I’d *love* to see Lupita Nyongo play Ventress. She was badass in the animated series. Hmmm, maybe I’ll go watch that.

  96. says

    For any Steampunk fans (I can think of at least one):
    http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/joben-bistro-steampunk

    Stepping into the pub Joben Bistro is like entering an unbelievable steampunk fantasy. Located in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, the unique pub was designed by the studio 6th Sense to look like a space pulled straight from the pages of a Jules Verne or H.G. Wells novel. Divided into three rooms with an array of theatrical installations and interesting design elements, Joben Bistro is both cozy and industrial, featuring an abundance of copper pipes, exposed mechanical gears, distressed wood furniture, and beautifully warm lighting

  97. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    I’m horrible at name-the-actor, so I had to look up Lupita Nyongo. She plays Ventress? Whose that?

    Okay, looked it up.

    Hmm. Could be an interesting character.

  99. says

    Crip Dyke:
    I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply Lupita is going to play Ventress. There’s no confirmation what role she’s going to play (or how much of screen time she’ll get). I was just speculating.

  100. rq says

    Whatever CD is offering, I’ll take.

    And awakeinmo, ankylosaurs are not lame. :P

    At work during the day for the first time in quite a while. I’d forgotten other people work in this lab.

  101. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Cool?

    It might be awesome.

    Seriously. The guy has my problem in writing a screenplay (and yes, I took a screenplay writing seminar from the screenwriter of Top Gun, among other hits): I can build a universe with the best of them, my characters are deep and complex, and I have no idea how to make them speak like normal human beings.

    My characters’ dialog ends up sounding much like my comments here: far too wordy and inordinately precise. The specific dialog problem Lucas has is different, but if you got a good dialog writer and you could do as well with recasting Han Solo as BSG did with Starbuck (Harrison Ford is by far the most difficult to replace of the original cast, though Alec Guiness was amazing) you could put together a pretty awesome set of remakes for 2-6, and you could make the episode 1 that is so perplexingly missing from what was supposed to be 2 trilogies.

    Imagine getting rid of the racist voice-stereotypes for so many races. JarJar – either completely gone or completely transformed, either way. I don’t care if they have a clumsy sidekick. They can even justify all the wacky by making CS an intuitive user of the force or something, so that his clumsy accidents are always the force working through CS to make good things come to pass by bringing together different beings/forces/coalitions that would not otherwise have joined up. But it can’t be JarJar as we know JarJar. That character’s speech mannerisms are too racist and just plain annoying.

    Well written, however, a CS (named JarJar or not) could “accidentally” bring together the princess and Obi-Won so that the princess can eventually hook up with Anakin. A CS could “accidentally” expose Count Dookoo’s conversion to the dark side in Episode 2 and Sidious’ identity in Episode 3. A CS could even be manipulated by Sidious but then fail in the tasks Sidious expects to succeed (and vice versa) making it impossible for Sidious to take over without violence and instead necessitating direct war between the Jedi and the government.

    There’s so much there that could be interesting, and that, since viewers can be expected to know a certain amount from previous movies, a new director could depict by either changing the plot a little bit and making room for new scenes that way, or by relying on that extrinsic knowledge to shorten other events that nonetheless remain in the film.

    Yeah, there’s quite a bit that could be done to improve things. What struck people from the first movie was the imagination and the incredible visualization. The second movie had a better plot, with imagination and visualization intact. The third movie (ep 6), and episode 2 & 3 all had the same weak spots as ep 4, but you could no longer give credit to imagination: we’d seen the universe. And as for plot…well, none of them were any better than ep4, and ep 2 & 3 were worse.

    Plus, I’d love to see someone make an episode 1.

  102. says

    Crip Dyke:
    You know denial is not a river in Egypt, right?
    If you jettison Episode 1, we lose Darth Maul. I mean surely such a badass (I’ve used this word way too much today) character can make up for…nah…I can’t even finish that sentence.

  103. says

    CD:

    The specific dialog problem Lucas has is different, but if you got a good dialog writer and you could do as well with recasting Han Solo as BSG did with Starbuck (Harrison Ford is by far the most difficult to replace of the original cast, though Alec Guiness was amazing) you could put together a pretty awesome set of remakes for 2-6, and you could make the episode 1 that is so perplexingly missing from what was supposed to be 2 trilogies.

    By the way, since we’re well into What If..? territory, a reimagined SW trilogy could have a woman play the role of Han Solo…

  105. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Tony!

    I realized that was implied in bringing up Starbuck. But I’d really like to see someone gender ambiguous. Solo was never specifically said to be human in the movies (though I’m sure he probably was in the books). You could have some interesting “what’s in your pants” innuendo that leaves the audience suddenly, viscerally aware that in a world of different species, **you don’t actually know what’s in anybody’s pants**. Yoda’s voice is deep? Is that a characteristic of a male of his species? A female? Another sex? And yet, with the right actor, you could get across that, “I don’t know what’s Han Solo’s pants, but I don’t care!” attitude that would make Solo truly boundary shattering where a human, female woman as Solo could only be boat-rocking.

    Sex and gender is really the weakest area of the whole SW universe. There simply aren’t any major characters whose sex or gender the movies leave ambiguous. Seriously, females or women apparently traditionally rule Naboo. What if, to counter sexism on other words or just as a regional dialectical weirdness, “he” was used for female/women queens and ambassadors? And is it a tradition of **female** rule or a tradition of **woman** rule? Could a female man be queen? What about a male woman? Would there be controversy if an ambassador declined some medical intervention? Would we even know with all that makeup on? What if the hair styles and makeup styles and clothing styles were the same for men in powerful positions?

    Seriously, the sex and gender stuff in SW was worse than weak. It didn’t receive any imaginative attention at all. It was like Lucas’ imagination entirely failed whenever it came near anything related to sex and/or gender.

  107. says

    I had a doctor’s appointment today. No big, routine check-in with GI to monitor my liver, and discuss options regarding treatment of Hep C. Complete with routine blood-work, of course, which is where things went wrong. It took a few tries to get a decent vein. -_-;

    The good news is, there are newer, better, less-horrible drugs to treat Hep C.

    The other good news is, I’m a good candidate for treatment.

    The suck? Insurance still won’t pay for ’em ‘cuz they’re too expensive, so I get to wait another year or two (or three, or four, or more) until they’re more cost-effective.

  108. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    What if you read a crappy work-related email on Tuesday morning, but it was sent 5 minutes before midnight?

  109. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Oh, shit. I’m sorry, WMDKitty, for making trivial jokes. That was some bad timing.
    And I’m sorry about you being denied proper treatment.

  110. says

    Nah, I understand the reasoning behind the delay. It’s frustrating, but I’ve been carting this bloody virus around for nearly 33 years now, a few more isn’t going to kill me.

  111. says

    Crip Dyke:

    Seriously, the sex and gender stuff in SW was worse than weak. It didn’t receive any imaginative attention at all. It was like Lucas’ imagination entirely failed whenever it came near anything related to sex and/or gender.

    Agreed.

    Related to that-
    Last week, with all the extra time on my hands, I caught up on two animated comic book shows: Young Justice and Green Lantern: TAS.
    One of the things I discovered after I became aware of how deep sexism and misogyny runs in the world, is that I can’t unsee it (granted, I’m not trying to either). As I learned about Rape Culture, I started seeing signs of it everywhere. As I started to understand microaggressions, I began seeing that shit everywhere. I also began seeing how underrepresented women are in all walks of life.
    What does that have to do with those two animated shows?
    The first episode of Green Lantern: TAS has a virtually all male cast. By the end of that episode, I was left thinking a few things:
    • the show had great animation
    • it was overwhelmingly male
    Hal Jordan and Razer were both males. Hal is white, Razer is non human and male. Kilowog is non human and male. The Guardians of the Universe, with the exception of 2 females, are all male
    I remember thinking: Where are the women? Also, where are the non white guys? Sorry, aliens don’t count when it comes to diversity. Over the course of the show (it lasted 1 season and 26 episodes), we got a lot more aliens, but few non white men. On the gender front, an A.I. named Aya was introduced. The AI was in control of the ship used by the protagonists to cross vast distances that GL rings couldn’t cover. She took on a humanoid form using spare parts from the ship and became a member of the group. The writers made a few interesting choices with her, but they screwed all that up, IMO with the last several episodes. After Aya fell in love with Razer (who reciprocated initially), the latter told her that he didn’t love her (it was the middle of an epic space battle and her feelings were getting in the way of her ability to run the ship). As a result, she shut down all her emotion circuits. They won the battle, but Aya-for all that her emotions were shut off-was so angry and hurt that Razer rejected her that she tried to destroy the universe. She went so far as to venture to the dawn of time and attempted to reshape reality so that no emotions would ever arise (her reasoning was that emotion leads to pain and suffering).
    That annoyed the crap out of me. So much of her story in this series centered around her relationship with Razer. I realize that Hal was the main character and thats why he got to have stories revolve around him that weren’t relationship oriented, but Aya could have been a main character who contributed to the story *without* being in a relationship.

     

    That show was contrasted by the-IMO-much superior Young Justice. The beginning of the series saw Superboy (Kryptonian clone of Superman, but effectively white male), Miss Martian (martian female), Robin (white male), Kid Flash (white male), and Aqualad (black male). Guess what? Aqualad was the *leader* of the team! To add to that, he was (oh boy, here I go again) badass in battle!
    Over the course of the first season, the team acquired more members: Zatanna Zatara (white female), Artemis (white female), Rocket (black female), and Red Arrow (white male). By the end of the first season, the roster was 5 men (1 of which was black), and 4 women (one of which was black).
    Then there’s the fact that the women got to have storylines revolve around *them* and those stories weren’t relationship centered. Artemis had a secret (most of the team did actually) she kept from the team for fear of rejection (her father and sister are supervillains). Miss Martian had a few secrets (acclimating to Earth was difficult, so she took on the name and personality of a character on a tv show; that was tied into her desire to keep her true form a secret). Zatanna and Rocket came on the show too late to have stories revolve around them, but I have no doubt that the second season (which I can’t wait to watch) will do that very thing.

    Having watched both I think Young Justice was far and away better for being more diverse.
    (this comment was quite a bit longer than I’d anticipated)

  112. knowknot says

    Tony:
    If you’re still in here, I just wanted to say thanks for the received laugh re the “spilled a little bit of academic on you” thing the other day.
    A little embarrassing really, how muchnthat sort of thing means.
    So, again, thanks.

  114. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @WMDKitty:

    I’m so sorry for the insurance thing.

    Obvs in Canadialand and other places with more governmental intervention in health care markets there is still a drawing of lines for what is “cost effective” and what is not. But still, regardless how inevitable it might be that someone has to get this kind of message, it really sucks to be on the receiving end. I had occupational exposure to someone’s blood once. Turns out the person was healthy, but I had to go get prophylactic injections against Hep A & B (there aren’t – or weren’t? – any available for C) and prophylactic ARVs in case the blood had HIV in it. 3 weeks of vomiting and diarrhea later, my ordeal was over, but I’ve not forgotten the experience of knowing that there wasn’t necessarily going to be an end date.

    You have all my sympathy.

  115. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Extending the Hurricane discussion, this is how the editors at Science Daily worded their headline:

    Hurricanes With Female Names Are More Deadly

    But that’s not what was found at all. What was found was that humans engage in more lethal underestimation of hurricanes with feminine names than of those with masculine names.

    The **hurricanes** weren’t more deadly. Our own stupidity interacted with our own sexism to make human mistakes more deadly.

    Seriously, that wording is just weird.

    Even aside from the “female names” thing.

  116. says

    ALL TODDLERS ARE FREE RANGE!!11!!11!!!!!!

    I kept mine on a leash…

    rq
    Is your youngest starting daycare? I find it so much easier when their schedules and my schedule overlap mostly, although having a little daytime for myself is nice, too.

  117. rq says

    Giliell
    Youngest will be goign to daycare… next September. Not this September. A combination of a better age and a lack of space in our local state-funded daycares, and we’re sorry we can’t afford a private one.
    So it’ll be another year of off-hours.
    But it’s nice. It’s human company. But they’re all taking up so much of my space….

  120. carlie says

    All my love to you, Tony.

    What if you read a crappy work-related email on Tuesday morning, but it was sent 5 minutes before midnight?

    I have seen the most amazing (and by amazing I mean horrifying) work email exchanges happening between 11pm and 6am. I’ve decided that there needs to be a complete ban on emails at night. If you need to write it, fine, but don’t send it until at least 8am the next morning after you’ve slept and re-read it. Because believe me, nobody is going to want to read what you write at midnight. I’d suggest not responding to it until after you’re sure the person has come into work and been there awhile, then maybe ask what it was all about (to give them a chance to take it back).

    I thought the Captain Jack character on Doctor Who was as close as any sci-fi has gotten to exploring alternate sexualities, but he was basically just a human guy who would have sex with anything.

  121. carlie says

    Oh, thanks for the votes! The other public school is closing in on our school and the Catholic one, so there will be lots of clicking at our house today. :)

  122. says

    F [i’m not here, i’m gone] @73

    Epochs? It’s also a synapsid! : )

    I know, right? You’d think the dollar store would have better quality control.

    Tony @84
    Jaysus, what is wrong with people???

    cicely @86

    If it was me, there’d already be a full-on panic in progress.

    I can’t panic yet. I haven’t had my coffee. Nah, really, it’s cleared up much. I just have to stop rubbing my damn eyes.

    rq @100

    And awakeinmo, ankylosaurs are not lame. :P

    You are of course right. I can only blame my bias on a childhood that was lacking in access to a museum of natural history. Sort of grew up with the idea that dinosaurs are long-necked things on gas station signs. My apologies to you and to ankylosaurs everywhere.

    Crip Dyke @105

    Seriously, the sex and gender stuff in SW was worse than weak.

    This reminded me of when I was a kid, and we’d play “Star Wars.” (Yeah, we were little nerds.) And I would want to be Han Solo ’cause he was clearly the coolest. But it was verboten because I’m a girl. And then, if some other girl had already called to be Princess Leia, what’s left? “Well, you can be R2D2.” Thanks George Lucas, for a childhood spent squatting on the ground making beeping noises at people.

  123. birgerjohansson says

    Wolfenstein ‘encourages kids to shoot Nazis’ http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/wolfenstein-encourages-kids-to-shoot-nazis-2014052186787

    Dreadlocked caucasians demand to face more discrimination http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/caucasians-with-dreadlocks-demand-to-face-more-discrimination-2014050786295

    Spain to get exciting new monarch unlike some people http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/spain-to-get-exciting-new-monarch-unlike-some-people-2014060287131

  126. says

    I had the most goddamned depressing thought this morning:

    We live in a society where people have defended a child molester because they like his movies.

    That’s not the depressing thought. The depressing thought is we have to honestly ask “which one?”

  127. Pteryxx says

    Ducking in to leave this here:

    Cracked taking on the MRAs.

    I spoke to Frank Meeink, a former white supremacist, and Michael Kimmel, a professor of sociology, about the men’s rights movement, and I found out that it has less in common with any civil rights or equality movement than it does with goddamn neo-Nazis. Particularly with how …

  128. ButchKitties says

    I don’t know if anyone has seen the Kickstarter for the children’s book written by the guy who does SMBC comics, and I hate to sound like a shill, but…

    My wife and I recently had a baby girl, and I had a sad thought: Although things are changing, there are still very few adventure books with female leads. There are books with little girls who are smart, sure, but there are practically no books about little girls who are smart, and scientific, and (here’s the crucial thing) risk-taking.

    Augie and the Green Knight is an attempt to give her that book. It’s the story of a little girl who enjoys math and science and history, but who also gets up to trouble, speaks her mind, and is unapologetically strong.

    The art for it looks pretty amazing as well.

  131. dianne says

    The suck? Insurance still won’t pay for ‘em ‘cuz they’re too expensive, so I get to wait another year or two (or three, or four, or more) until they’re more cost-effective.

    A colleague of mine recently got a letter from an insurance company saying (paraphrasing, I don’t remember the exact wording but this is pretty close), “While treatment with drug X is the standard of care, we are still denying payment”. In other words, they’re flat out refusing to pay for what they admit is the right treatment. Private insurance is a flat out evil thing.

    That being said, is there any chance you can get the drug through needymeds or the company or anything like that? Can your doctor talk to the company and maybe mutter about how the poor insurance coverage for the medication is keeping it from being used…that might at least get the drug company to start leaning on insurers to cover it, which would at least reduce your wait time.

    Sorry you’re having to deal with this kind of suckitude. Hope things get better for you!

  132. dianne says

    My little existential crisis for the day: I’ve applied for a job at an institution where I’ve worked before, with a person I’ve worked with before. I liked working with him and don’t have any direct reason to think that he hates me, but I’m still nervous that the answer will be “sorry, we couldn’t stand you and don’t want to hear from you again”. Because, asperger’s: how would I know if he hated every minute of dealing with me?

  134. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    I don’t quite understand the discomfort with the term “the spectrum.”

    I don’t either.
    In trying to think about it, all I can come up with is that maybe it should be “a” spectrum, but that’s a shot in the dark, and I lack the understanding of gender to be able to offer any explanation.

    For me, it’s a combination of two things; first, the formulation reifies the notion that “masculinity” and “femininity” are inherently oppositional and mutually exclusive, which is how most cultures have historically defined them (and it’s been kind of a problem) and thus how most people define them (ditto), but I think conceptualizing them as separate scales (IE, a person would have separate “masculinity” and “femininity” “stats” which could both be high, or one high and one low, or both low, etc.) is more useful, particularly for personality/presentation traits (in terms of physical traits – body shape, etc. – they are kind of opposed because of the way hormones and development work, though there are perhaps exceptions I’m neglecting). And second, I’ve developed a kind of generalized uneasiness with generalizations about gender, especially internal experiences, that nominally include me, because they actually tend not to, and it’s been a source of quite a bit of unpleasantness before. >.>

  135. says

    Rachel Maddow reviews the long history of new pollution control regulations to address problems like acid rain and ozone depletion, and the freak-outs and dire warnings by industry advocates about economic disasters that never came to pass.

    Other news worth watching:

    http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-climate-change-272458819887
    Chris Hayes speaks with legendary astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about the rhetoric and reality of climate change. This is the complete segment from last night. It is awesome.

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-chris-hayes-and-neil-degrasse-tyson-geek-out-hard-on-science/

  137. Nick Gotts says

    Tony! The Fucking Queer Shoop!@46, 47

    Dugglebogey is the most persistent with this homophobic trope at Dispatches, but not the only one. I’ve pointed out both the stupidity and the homophobia several times, to no avail. If you can stand to look at the thread again, you’ll see dingojack (another who’s fond of it) obliviously miss what I thought was my obvious snark in suggesting that dugglebogey is just trying to convince himself and others he isn’t homophobic.

  138. says

    I had some of my meds provided under a Compassionate Care program run by the big pharmers here in Canadialand. Had to fill out a form explaining why i needed the help, my doctor co-signed, and the company shipped my meds to the doctor to dispense directly. I dunno if such a program exists in the US, but maybe it could be an avenue to investigate? Private insurance has to be one of the worst things about the USan oligarchy. Y’all have my sincere sympathy.

  139. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Ducking in to leave this here:

    Cracked taking on the MRAs.

    It always makes me happy when Cracked gets it right.

    On the other hand, I remember that one article that had four points of clear, cogent discussion of misogyny and then tried to pin it all on “OF COURSE men can’t see someone they want to have sex with as a real person!” in the last bit. >.>

    Now seeing how this one does….

  140. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    Azky, I admit to still being pretty confused about this. But today is another royal pain day and the brain is a bit wobbly. I’ll cogitate on this and comment again later. Thanks for the input.

  141. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Azky, I admit to still being pretty confused about this.

    Okay. Um, which part? (Not meant to be accusatory).

  143. Thomathy, Do Not Upset Me Ahead of World Pride says

    Sorry to interrupt. Really. I thought I should cross-post this post of mine from Skepchick here because of the overlap in readership, and honestly, we’re more talkative here.

    I finally had a moment of clarity on a thought that had been coalescing in my brain for a while and for better or worse I put it to words and committed to posting it. It’s in response to a story linked to by Skepchick in the Quickies , because I’ve seen this sort of guide for men on rape culture before and there have been lots of discussions about rape culture, well, everywhere I go.

    Anyhow, have at it. The tl;dr version is in the concluding paragraph.

    I was going to write a qualifier before my following comment, but I figured I’d give any responders the benefit of the doubt to not assume something awful about me. (And that was so passive aggressive, I’ll probably wonder if I shouldn’t have just written my condescending qualifier instead.)

    So, since I’ve been a part of a community, even if not Atheism+ itself, but some segment of that community and I’ve always been a feminist (something I contribute mostly to my experience as a gay man), I’ve noticed for some time that in discussions about rape culture gay men are disappeared. Maybe this shouldn’t bother me, but it does. It seems like it should not exactly be the kind of thing that bothers me considering the broader context and the amount of good that discussing rape culture does, but it does. Are gay men a part of rape culture? Well, yes, to the extent that everyone is. That much is obvious and certain. It’s necessarily true, even. And yet, in articles like the one linked to here, the content is most definitely directed at straight men. And it should be, because of reasons anyone reading this knows. But articles like this still feel alienating, because they use the word ‘men’ and make no distinction between subgroups.

    You see, everything in the article is well and true, but it can’t apply to me in the same way as it applies to a straight man or even at all. In the world I live in, I’m very much like the women who Zaron Bernett is trying to make feel safe in his presence. Sure, I live in a cosmopolitan city and conduct my everyday life in a neighbourhood in which I can feel very safe, but I do have to encounter danger even there and I do have to leave sometimes, much to my discomfort, and face the harsh world outside of my enclave of relative safety (okay, it’s not always that bad, but then that’s true of any situation a marginalised person may find themselves). I live in a different world, overlapping with the world of rape culture. That’s the world of homophobia. And it can be a very dangerous world, running the gamut from words that hurt to being killed. And that’s an everday thing, exactly like a woman living in rape culture.

    Now, I don’t want to sound as though I’m playing Oppression Olympics and going for the gold in every event. I don’t mean to compare the relative differences of any given person’s experiences and identify who has it worse. What I do mean to do is to point out that I don’t think I can do any of the things that Zaron does (and really, it’s important to make other people feel safe and to call out bad behaviour and to set an example), or that certain men should do, to mitigate rape culture and to make women feel safe. The reason for that is that I don’t feel safe sometimes in the presence of women at times to the degree that a woman might not feel safe in the presence of a man. To the extent that any given man (and, yeah, we should be explicit that the vast majority are straight) can be a rapist of women (more on that point later*), any given person can be a homophobe and I don’t know who that will be or what the outcome of an encounter with a homophobe will be for me.

    Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t do my part in combating rape culture and making women feel safe in a space where I also feel safe, but imagine the following scenario:

    I’m in a foreign city where I don’t know that I’m in a safe place and I’m just leaving a bar, alone, to head back to my hotel. It’s immaterial why I would do this if I wasn’t certain I was safe, but for argument, I know my way, I walked here in the daylight, it’s not that far, I’m not that drunk, and it’s a nice night and a short walk will sober me up before bed. I turn onto a street, it’s late, so there’s no one around at first. A person turns onto the street and walks behind me. I look behind me, briefly, and that person doesn’t look like someone who came from where I did. That swish in my hips disappears, I actually slow down (don’t appear to be running away). I move my murse (yes, murse) in front of me; men don’t carry purses, so make mine disappear. I’m so short and I look so gay! I feel vulnerable. I try to adjust my gait, walk taller, carry myself straight. I’ve had done this before; no it didn’t help, but I wasn’t physically hurt and what’s the harm in adding to the experiment? Maybe I’m just too gay! And then the quiet, suspicious and dangerous looking person walks by me and continues on their way and with relief and a pounding heart I hurry back to my hotel. I’m sobered by the adrenaline rush, so at least there’s that.

    There’s very little that person could have done to make me feel safer. Maybe they didn’t even know I was gay. They could have crossed the street, that sign would have been something of a relief, but then some cowards like to hurl their slurs from a ‘safe’ distance.

    Now, imagine I’m that person and there’s a woman walking in front of me. I’m as scared of her as she might be of me. I might or might not move to the other side of the sidewalk, but that decision is based on my feeling of relative safety and not the consideration for how she might feel. And she reacts exactly how a woman might if she felt threated by a stranger walking behind her on an empty street in the night, a bit drunk and all alone.

    Or, we’re not scared of each other. I can see she’s a woman, and despite what I said earlier, women are vastly less dangerous than straight men in my experience. In her glance, she decides I’m a gay man and in my judgement of her, she seems like a woman who probably just left the area I did. Maybe I pass her and maybe I don’t. But neither of us is scared and if we do pass by each other, we’re just happy we were both right.

    *Now, on the matter of rape, gay men experience it too. From other gay men and from straight men too. It’s a real and present danger. Like I said, we’re all of us living in a rape culture and that toxicity extends to the world of gay men. The reduction of a person to a sexual object can be stripped of a female gender, reprocessed and become a man, directly exported behaviour from rape culture and all it’s antecedents and integral parts. With straight men raping gay men, well, that’s a slightly different beast, but it’s rape culture that allows such a belief as corrective rape to exist in the first place.

    I don’t want to make this about homophobia or the different, overlapping worlds we all live in and share and while I think some attention should be drawn to the rape culture that gay men inhabit as gay men, what I wanted to do was to draw attention to the fact that by continuing to not draw distinctions between gay men and straight men when discussing rape culture as it affects women (or everyone) it erases the experiences of gay men and appears to put an onus on gay men that perhaps they shouldn’t bear. I hope it’s clear that this isn’t a ‘not all men, not me,’ argument, but if I wasn’t articulate enough, I’m hoping at least that I’ve started a conversation.

  144. Thomathy, Do Not Upset Me Ahead of World Pride says

    Oh, it’s not a ‘post’, it’s a comment, despite it’s length. Hah. Important distinction.

  145. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    Azky,

    Okay. Um, which part? (Not meant to be accusatory).

    Okay, I’ll give this a go. But my brain is like old cold oatmeal today.

    For me, it’s a combination of two things; first, the formulation reifies the notion that “masculinity” and “femininity” are inherently oppositional and mutually exclusive, which is how most cultures have historically defined them (and it’s been kind of a problem) and thus how most people define them (ditto),

    This defines “the gender spectrum” as it is commonly understood, agreed.

    but I think conceptualizing them as separate scales (IE, a person would have separate “masculinity” and “femininity” “stats” which could both be high, or one high and one low, or both low, etc.) is more useful,

    This posits that there are two gender spectrums, (is this the proper plural form?) both of which apply to all people. I agree this is more descriptive than one general spectrum.

    I think my problem is one of reference. I have never taken a gender studies class so if my take on this is naive, please educate me. Having conversations about gender is a fairly new activity for the general populace. The fact that gender DOES exist on a spectrum is a foreign idea to most. I fully see the utility of using two descriptors, masculine spectrum and feminine spectrum.

    And second, I’ve developed a kind of generalized uneasiness with generalizations about gender, especially internal experiences, that nominally include me, because they actually tend not to, and it’s been a source of quite a bit of unpleasantness before.

    Is referring to gender as existing on a/the spectrum a generalization? I’m not sure. For the linguists and good logical thinkers in the group, how does one go about easily explaining the complexity of gender without causing great confusion? I’m still learning, and thanks for the help.

    Told ‘ya the brain is dead today.

  146. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Morgan:

    Try reading the back and forth between Beatrice, Caine, and myself, starting here.

    The linked comment is #214. The Mellow Monkey and a couple others say things on topic during this one stretch that goes to about #240.

    Any questions after reading that? Let me know.

  147. David Marjanović says

    Everyone, read this thread and take the quiz! For science!!!

    “PETITION TO PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT: We call on you to investigate police and prosecutorial actions in honor killing cases, training officers and lawyers to recognize and pursue these criminals and holding them accountable if they ignore such flagrant violence.” A rather horrible case is described there.

    How many Republicans and Democrats consider global warming “a major threat”, and other numbers. The good news is that 73 % of estadounidenses agree that global warming is happening.

    “Why Thai Protesters Have Taken Up ‘The Hunger Games’ Salute” – read the comments, too.

    “President Obama just unveiled a plan to use his executive authority to reduce carbon pollution from the nation’s power plants by 30%.

    This may prove to be the strongest action ever taken by the U.S. government to fight climate change.

    Let’s get 100,000 strong thanking President Obama for taking historic action on climate change >>”

    The form accepts non-US zip codes. Make sure to uncheck enough boxes.

  148. says

    @David:

    The quiz got me pegged, but it could have narrowed me down further to Southeastern Pennsylvania if it asked what I call the long sandwich with meats and cheeses.

  149. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    Thanks CD. I’m bookmarking this and will read it tomorrow. Today is not a good brain day. I’m sure I’ll have questions.

  150. David Marjanović says

    Ankylosaurs: actually awesome, if you take a closer look.

    This: not awesome, no matter how closely you look.

    Also, a little levity.

    Excellent.

    David!
    *pouncehug flurry*

    ^_^

  151. David Marjanović says

    if it asked what I call the long sandwich with meats and cheeses

    That’s vocabulary, not grammar. The quiz is purely about grammar.

  152. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    Canadian, Austrailian, English. With English, Norwegian, or Dutch as my most likely first language.

    Apparently I don’t speak American standard English.

  154. says

    @David:

    Aye, true. But additionally it could peg me with whether or not I use “to be” in some sentences (“The car needs washed” is perfectly legitimate in the southeastern PA dialect.)

  155. consciousness razor says

    morgan:

    This posits that there are two gender spectrums, (is this the proper plural form?) both of which apply to all people. I agree this is more descriptive than one general spectrum.

    Another way of thinking of it would not be linear at all. Having two lines, no matter how they’re oriented with each other or how they’re curved, assumes that exhausts the possibilities. In other words, nobody doesn’t exist on one of those two lines. There are two dimensions to talk about now, which is not much more informative than the one dimension of that “spectrum” we started with. So, we should not expect it to be much better at capturing a whole world of different people. The thing I take away from this line of thought is that the idea we need to start with some preconceived picture before we ever actually look at reality, and shove it in somehow to make sure the world fits it no matter how uncomfortably, is thinking about it backward.

    So think of drawing a different kind of picture in your head. Try out a Venn diagram maybe, with any number of circles (representing who knows which properties) overlapping any number of ways. A person fits in at least one circle, probably lots of them. Maybe they even have fuzzy boundaries or something. That sort of picture, whatever it might look like after you fill in the details you figure out about people, doesn’t impose any restrictions ahead of time (restrictions which you couldn’t have known anything about, until you actually looked). It might come out basically equivalent to a simpler model, but it might not. I think something like this is a better approach, as “masculine” and “feminine” seem to be bullshit concepts not worth taking seriously. Saying everybody exemplifies some mixture of the two forms of bullshit is not an improvement, as far as I’m concerned.

    Also, the plural is “spectra.”

  156. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Canadian, USA, Singaporean…

    First language: English, Norwegian, Swedish.

    Actual first language and only lang learned from birth: USA English.

    Don’t know any norwegian. Know quite a lot of French in written form. Know a bit of spanish (primarily from speaking) and have apparently internalized a bunch of romance-language rules since I find Italian decipherable in relatively large chunks though I’ve never studied it or really even heard it spoken with any frequency. Random Hebrew and ASL. Neither enough to change how I actually think about language though.

  157. HolyPinkUnicorn says

    @Pteryxx #127

    Cracked taking on the MRAs.

    And comments are already in the thousands.

    I love Cracked and find it very funny, but its comments section usually reminds me of how humorless people can be.

  158. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Is referring to gender as existing on a/the spectrum a generalization? I’m not sure. For the linguists and good logical thinkers in the group, how does one go about easily explaining the complexity of gender without causing great confusion? I’m still learning, and thanks for the help.

    “Everyone exists on the gender spectrum” is. Ditto “everyone has a gender identity,” the Unitarian Universalist phrasing. I don’t feel that I experience this in the way that others describe, though this seems to be a very rare trait.

  159. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    I think something like this is a better approach, as “masculine” and “feminine” seem to be bullshit concepts not worth taking seriously. Saying everybody exemplifies some mixture of the two forms of bullshit is not an improvement, as far as I’m concerned.

    This, too, but almost everyone seems to take them seriously, and feel very strongly about doing so, even Serious Feminists (like Greta Christina, who was kind of inadvertently responsible for bringing home to me that, yes, even people who have ever had a critical thought about societal gender messages in their lives don’t necessarily feel the way I do x.x). O.o

  160. chigau (違う) says

    CD #156
    That’s exactly my profile.
    English only all my life, except French in school.
    and currently learning Japanese.

  161. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    but almost everyone seems to take them seriously, and feel very strongly about doing so,

    …and in some cases suggest that not wanting to take them seriously is evidence of unconscious/internalized misogyny… o.O

    So IDFK. >.>

  162. says

    CD156
    Well, you’ve been living in Canada for a few years now, IIRC, I can see where that might have affected your dialect some. For my part, I’m a native English speaker from the States, who’s studied French from early childhood. (The algorithm guessed my native language as English, Norwegian, or Romanian.)

  163. Portia says

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

    1. American (Standard)
    2. Canadian
    3. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics

    1. Accurate (I think? I don’t really know what “standard” is, but I guess Midwest is pretty middle of the country road.)
    2. The Michigander upbringing?
    3. I’m learning some AAVE here and there, but I wouldn’t say I ever personally use it.
    *shrug*

  164. says

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:
    1. English (England)
    2. Welsh (UK)
    3. Scottish (UK)
    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:
    1. English
    2. Hungarian
    3. German

    I have no clue how Hungarian fits in there. The only thing I know is that their own word is “Magyar” and that’s from collecting stamps as a kid.

  165. rq says

    Well, it got me:
    For guessed dialect:
    1. Canadian
    2. American (Standard)
    3. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics
    (I have no idea where #3 came from.)

    For guessed native language:
    1. English
    2. Norwegian
    3. Swedish
    (English is more or less correct, but they totally missed the Latvian.)

  166. says

    1. Australian
    2. Scots
    3. English

    1. English
    2. Hungarian
    3. Romanian

    I’ve never been to Australia. My family are Scots who lived in England – my mother born in Aberdeen and moved to Watford, her folks adults before moving to the land o’ Sassenachs. So Scots and English I can see.

    Hungarian and Romanian are two of the languages I don’t know. I speak French, German, and Russian pretty comfortably, and Spanish and Japanese haltingly.

  167. Rob Grigjanis says

    Dialect
    1. Australian
    2. Welsh
    3. South African

    First language
    1. Norwegian
    2. English
    3. Swedish

    Actual dialect; English modified by decades in Ontario.
    First langauges; Latvian and Leeds (Yorkshire) dialect.

  168. says

    Voter suppression, mixed with psychological elder abuse:

    Willie Mims, 93, showed up to vote at his polling place in Escambia County Tuesday morning for Alabama’s primary elections. Mims, who is Africa-American, no longer drives, doesn’t have a license, and has no other form of ID. As a result, he was turned away without voting. Mims wasn’t even offered the chance to cast a provisional ballot, as the law requires in that situation.

    Jenny McCarren of Empower Alabama, a progressive group that gave Mims a ride to the polls, recounted the story for msnbc. McCarren said Mims’s voter file showed he has voted in every election since 2000, as far back as the records go.

    How many Alabamans lack ID isn’t known — in part because the state made no effort to find out before the ID law. But nationwide, most studies put the figure at around 11%, and as high as 25% for African Americans.

    http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/voter-id-law-disenfranchises-93-year-old-black-man

    Republicans are desperate to justify their voter suppression laws. They are offering rewards to anyone who can provide justification:

    Tuesday is the first test of Alabama’s voter ID law – and the state’s Republicans are desperate to dig up some voter fraud. So desperate, in fact, that they’re offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who helps them find any. […]

    Bill Armistead, the Alabama GOP chair, wrote on the party’s website Monday that Republicans will fork over the cold hard cash to anyone who provides “information that directly leads to a conviction of a felony for voter fraud.” Signs saying “Reward – Stop Voter Fraud,” and directing people to call a toll-free hotline, will be placed at polling sites around the state both for Tuesday’s primaries and November’s general election, Armistead added.

    http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/alabama-gop-offer-money-to-find-voter-fraud

  169. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @chigau:

    I wasn’t just a french-in-school kid. I spent one summer there. I was at a point where I would have told people that I as fluent with any reservations at all…but the socializing in french that I did was still through opportunities created by school and/or traveling and as an adult I haven’t had much of a travel budget.

    ======
    on the cracked article:

    you can be sure this guy knows what he’s talking about because he has a Ph.D., a sensible Japanese car and probably, like, drinks almond milk (I don’t know how adults live).

    oh, gods, as soon as I collect my degree, this is me.

  170. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Okay, so I’ll do the online-workshop thing.

    Are people more interested in doing a google-hangout thing (I have no idea how to do it, but I’m assuming it’s easier than getting into law school…or it will take me 5 years).

    Or are you more interested in having me post something, you read it & respond when you have time, and I post again 24 hours later?

    2 very different styles of doing it. I’m used to doing workshops live, but things **could** be done as comment threads (I’ve played RPGs-by-post and it works. It’s not like sitting around a table together, but it works)

  171. David Marjanović says

    Quiz-takers, read the thread I linked to (not just the OP) for discussion of how the software makes its guesses.

    But additionally it could peg me with whether or not I use “to be” in some sentences (“The car needs washed” is perfectly legitimate in the southeastern PA dialect.)

    Good point!

  172. says

    Utah is becoming the center of a Cliven-Bundy-ish campaign to dismiss the federal government as irrelevant, and to have states take over federal lands.

    Utah’s quest to muscle up in its tug of war with the federal government over an array of issues, from public lands to same-sex marriage, will get special attention when a commission created to assert states’ rights meets Tuesday for the second time.

    The seven-member panel, with five Republicans and two Democrats, is scheduled to discuss Utah’s efforts to take control of tens of millions of acres of public lands within Utah as well as the state’s defense of its ban on same-sex marriage.

    Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said the panel’s purpose is to act as a “committee of correspondence,” a term used in colonial times. […]

    Other states have established similar committees, Niederhauser said, and other members of other legislatures have told him they are watching and may follow Utah’s lead.

    Assuming there is broad agreement, the states could go so far as to call a constitutional convention to amend the U.S. Constitution and address the complaints from the states. To do that, two-thirds of the states would have to pass resolutions calling for such a gathering. […]

    “It’s kind of a big deal and I’ve been working on the federalism issue ever since I’ve been in the Legislature,” Niederhauser said. […]

    http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58019275-78/states-utah-niederhauser-panel.html.csp

  173. Thomathy, Do Not Upset Me Ahead of World Pride says

    Oh, that quiz was so fun!

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:
    1. Canadian
    2. South African
    3. Singaporean

    Guess #1, correct. Pretty good algorithm? I do wonder about the next choices, though. I’ve never heard Singaporean English and I can imagine that South African English has characteristics similar to Canadian English, but I can’t really judge. Still, if the first guess is correct and if they’ve got good info on the qualities of South African and Singaporean, then they must actually be similar to Canadian form.

  174. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    CD, I vote for the second option for your online workshop. The first option, a Google hangout, requires that everyone be available at a certain time, and I don’t think our multitudinous time zones would be too amenable to that. Thanks so much for offering this workshop.

  176. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    CD, do you think our squidly overlord would allow you to do your initial workshop post as an Original Post? That would be helpful if someone in the future were searching for the workshop. Just a thought.

  178. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    rq, re potato songs, have seen the You Tube of the Ross Sisters singing Solid Potato Salad, 1944? Pretty interesting. I’d link to it but I don’t want to embed it here.

  179. Thomathy, Do Not Upset Me Ahead of World Pride says

    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:?
    1. English
    2. Swedish
    3. Chinese

    This is so neat, because I’m of Scottish ancestry with some Swedish imports to Scotland, but I’ve never actually met a Swede family member. As for the Chinese, my partner’s parents are from Hong Kong and he was born and raised in Alberta. His first language is Hakka, seconded by Cantonese and English (his parents still speak almost exclusively Hakka or Cantonese).

    I’m learning Cantonese and just anecdotally, I’ve noticed even in my 10+ years with my partner that I’ve picked up features of his English. Casually his English would appear indistinguishable from any other Canadian, but it does have some (sometimes cute and funny, other times just odd and quizzical) features that are definitely influenced by his Hakka. That’s so cool.

  180. rq says

    Crip Dyke
    I also choose option B. As much fun as option A would be (and seriously, that could be a whole lot of educational fun and excitement), there’s that whole business of a global community and timezones which makes scheduling a real hassle. Also, I leave for Canada in a few days, so I have no idea how much I’ll be able to participate at all.
    However, if option A is selected, I will be sure to watch any available online reruns, while being sad to myself about not participating. But I would be rah-rah’ing from the sidelines.

  182. rq says

    consciousness razor
    But everything is music, therefore potato songs!

    morgan
    I will check it out!

    Crip Dyke
    Unfortunately, the potato did not get your initials. It has been named Bulta (The Arrow). But in my heart of hearts, I address it as cienījamais dārzenis, and that makes you a secret honorary family member. ;)

  184. says

    Moments of Mormon right wing Madness in Arizona:

    Ken Bennett, the Arizona secretary of state best known for threatening to leave President Obama off the ballot in the state if Hawaii didn’t produce verification of Obama’s birthplace, is now a leading candidate in the Republican primary to become the state’s next governor.

    Ken Bennett is a mormon, and he claims he not a “Birther.” Expert at saying one thing and doing another.
    Bennett was also the co-chair of Mitt Romney’s campaign in Arizona.

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/ken-bennett-arizona-governor-birther

    […] Bennett also is active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. From 1978 to 1980, he was an LDS missionary in southern Japan. Bennett is an Eagle Scout, and graduated from Arizona State University in 1984 with an accounting degree. […]

    http://www.azsos.gov/info/bio.htm

  186. rq says

    I remember potatoes in conjunction with monsters. Posted here. Can’t remember the name(s). Help?

  187. consciousness razor says

    But everything is music, therefore potato songs!

    Somebody, quick: I need the wavefunction of a potato. Then I will throw it at Elmo’s head.

  189. says

    oh dear … Trouble in whackadoodle land:

    Rick Wiles, the End Times radio host who thinks the Sandy Hook and Columbine shootings were carried out by CIA “mind-control assassin” and that Adolf Hitler’s race of super gay male soldiers” is taking over America, is angry at Pat Robertson for saying “crazy things” and becoming an “embarrassment” to the conservative movement.

    Which of Robertson’s “crazy” statements is Wiles upset about? Is it his advice that a man divorce his wife if she has Alzheimer’s? Or his infamous “gay AIDS ring” theory? No, of course. Wiles is upset by the televangelist’s condemnation of Young Earth Creationism, the claim that the Earth is just 6,000 years old.

    On his TruNews program on Friday, Wiles lamented that he used to look up to Robertson, but “in recent years, Dr. Robertson has been saying some really crazy things” about Creationism and is “becoming an embarrassment to those of us who are upholding the ancient faith handed down in the Book of Genesis.” […]

    http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rick-wiles-pat-robertson-becoming-embarrassment-questioning-creationism

  191. says

    @David, I also took the quiz.

    I can’t quite remember the results because I had to let a cat in, but it decided that I speak a Singaporean dialect of English, or possibly a Welsh one. At least it decided that English is my first language.

    I’m a native southern Californian who has never lived outside the US, or indeed southern California, except as a toddler. I think their algorithm could do with a bit of fine-tuning.

    O little touch keyboard, why do you put in commas totally at random? Do you think I am Captain Carrot, perhaps?

  196. says

    Sometimes even religious fundamentalists change their thinking:

    The pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Los Angeles, California announced last month that he is now “gay affirming” and has accepted his son’s homosexuality, a declaration that is causing a rift in his local congregation and sparking controversy within the Southern Baptist Convention.

    In an hour-long sermon released on YouTube and a letter submitted to John Shore’s Patheos blog, Danny Cortez, pastor of New Heart Community Church, told his congregants that after a “15-year journey,” he has shifted away from his negative stance on homosexuality and is now accepting of LGBT people.

    “In August of 2013, on a sunny day at the beach, I realized I no longer believed in the traditional [church] teachings regarding homosexuality,” Cortez said in his letter. “And it was especially the testimony of my gay friends that helped me to see how they have been marginalized that my eyes became open to the injustice that the church has wrought.” […]

    Think Progress link.

  198. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:
    1. Singaporean
    2. Welsh (UK)
    3. Australian
    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:
    1. English
    2. Romanian
    3. Norwegian

    Huh.

  199. says

    Dunderheads intent on making prison stays unjust in ways our justice system did not intend:

    Complying with federal standards designed to prevent incarcerated people from being raped is too expensive, according to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R). So Pence informed the federal Justice Department that his state will not comply with these anti-rape standards.

    In refusing to comply with the anti-rape rules, Pence joins Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who also announced that his state will not follow the federal standards last April, despite the fact that five of the nation’s ten worst prison facilities for sexual assaults are in Texas. The rules require teens to be separated from adults, they call for cross-gender pat-downs to be eliminated in teen and juvenile facilities, and they require a certain number of staff in juvenile facilities.

    States can evade the rules in large part because the consequences of refusing to comply are relatively small. […]

    Think Progress link.

  200. says

    rq:
    I’m happy to be like you :)

    ****

    About that language test…what exactly is ‘dialect’? I could google it, but I’m curious to know how you folks would explain it (if anyone doesn’t mind).

  201. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    Tony and rq,

    Evidently we are linguistically identical.

    1. American (Standard)
    2. Canadian
    3. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics

    1. English
    2. Swedish
    3. Norwegian

  202. Rowan vet-tech says

    I am having the shittiest week ever. I’ve said in the past that vet med is not for everyone, and this is why.

    We have a panleuk (feline parvo) outbreak in the shelter right now. We’ve found 2 kittens dead over 2 days. We euthanised 7 animals yesterday, we’re doing 11 kittens today. One of those kittens is a facility favorite, because he’s cute, sweet, and tiny. But he’s tested positive, so he has to go. The others had littermates test positive. So these happy, bouncing, playful, but utterly unvaccinated kittens all get to die.

    Today has been brought to you by the word “FUCK”. There are no other words today aside from “FUCK”.

    It’s so stressful and just “FUCK” that there’s been no time or room for tears. I expect to break down when I get home tonight. I also plan on trying to get drunk off whiskey.

  203. Esteleth, [an error occurred while processing this directive] says

    That quiz spat out this at me:

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

    1. American (Standard)
    2. Canadian
    3. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics

    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

    1. English
    2. Norwegian
    3. Dutch

    Well, I am US-American. I do not speak AAVE, but I am capable of understanding it. Way up in my ancestry are some Swedes, but no Dutch that I know of.

  204. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Tony,

    Layman half-a-though explanation: Same language develops differently in different places (immigration, borders with different countries, geographical isolation etc) and you get dialects.

    Croatia is small, and we have 3 main dialects which vary a lot from one backwater to another. Some of them get so weird in some small isolated location that people of their own dialect have trouble understanding them.
    Like čakavština. generally, I understand them. But sometimes…. I don’t know what those sounds are, but they might as well talk Cantonese, I can’t understand a single word.

  207. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @rq:

    Stand up, bland roots of the Earth
    Stand up, forestallers of starvation
    Famine trudges ‘cross the land
    where we, potatoes, make our stand.
    From the earth we’ll take our food
    And pass nutrients to our human brood:
    They cannot fill a market stall.
    They have nothing, let us be all.
    |: This is the final struggle
    Let us group together, and, Potatoes!
    Our fried lengths and skins
    Will fill the human’s plates. :|

  209. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    rq: perhaps any of the many songs about “eyes” could be adapted?

  210. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Option B it is.

    I suppose I could e-mail the squidly overlord. If it doesn’t suit his space, I might ask Ophelia, even though I don’t comment over there nearly as often.

    I appreciate your offer, Rawnaeris. I didn’t miss it and will keep it in mind but would prefer for some unknown reason to keep it on FtB if I can. I don’t know why that seems like a priority. Maybe it shouldn’t be. I’ll think about it more.

    ===========

    @Dalillama:

    Yep. You remember when I was moving from Portland, I’m sure. How’s the kitchen gadget?

    It has been long enough to affect my dialect, but also just the relentless reading of law up here…and legal cases from NZ, Aussie, SA, & England, too. It’s really broadened my idea of what is acceptable in english – in particular, a lot of verbs that are transitive in US english are intransitive up here (or in Aussie or in SA) and vice-versa.

  211. says

    CD I suspect that it has a lot to do with this is where we are all used to finding each other. I agree it feels more “right” to do it here.

    I’m perfectly happy being a last resort. XD

  212. says

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

    1. Australian
    2. Welsh (UK)
    3. English (England)

    Nnnnooooooo, I’ve only ever lived in the US, and haven’t been off the continent. I do, however, tend to suck up linguistic quirks and local phrases, and — thanks to waaaaay too much BBCA — have absorbed a lot of non-American-English tidbits.

    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

    1. English
    2. Norwegian
    3. Swedish

    Well, American English. I’ve picked up a smattering of German and would like to learn Japanese. Where the bloody hell are Norwegian and Swedish coming from?

  214. Thomathy, Do Not Upset Me Ahead of World Pride says

    For those wondering why the native language picks seem so weird, I believe that the survey is producing those results based on the grammar of those languages based on your choices of which sentences you deem to be grammatically correct. A person speaking English whose first language is Norwegian, might produce some sentences that aren’t typically considered grammatically correct in English, but would translate word-for-word into a grammatically correct Norwegian sentence. At least, that’s what I surmise and it seems like the most sensible approach to such a system. The more responses they get, and the more written comments, the better the survey will be at distinguishing the patterns of those whose first language isn’t English and guessing what their first language is. The important thing, of course, is that the first guess is correct.

  215. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    rq:

    This is the song about potatoes.
    This is the song about potatoes.
    It never ever ends, because
    This is the song about potatoes.
    This is the song about potatoes.
    It never ever ends, because
    This is the song about potatoes.
    This is the song about potatoes.
    It never ever ends, because
    This is the song about potatoes.
    This is the song about potatoes.
    It never ever ends, because
    This is the song about potatoes.
    This is the song about potatoes.
    It never ever ends, because
    This is the song about potatoes.
    This is the song about potatoes.
    It never ever ends, because
    This is the song about potatoes.
    This is the song about potatoes.

    Or, in Latvian:

    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Tas nekad beidzas, jo
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Tas nekad beidzas, jo
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Tas nekad beidzas, jo
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Tas nekad beidzas, jo
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Tas nekad beidzas, jo
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Tas nekad beidzas, jo
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.
    Šī ir dziesma par kartupeļiem.

    Teach it to your children before a long car trip.

  217. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    WMDKitty:

    Where the bloody hell are Norwegian and Swedish coming from?

    Norway and Sweden?

    I do think it interesting that Norwegian was the second choice for my native tongue.

  218. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Their grammar rules are closer to English grammar rules than other languages. Thus if you **don’t** have odd exceptions to English grammar rules, it has very little to go on, and concludes that if you didn’t get your English as a first language, it would have to be a grammatically similar language and goes for Norwegian & Swedish.

  219. says

    Anne D:

    Do you think I am Captain Carrot, perhaps?

    One of my favorite comics as a kid was Captain Carrot and the Amazing Zoo Crew (hmmm, who were the team members…Alley Kat-Abra, Pig-Iron, Fastback, Captain Carrot…crap I can’t remember the name of the anthropomorphic patriotic poodle–not trying to cheat by googling). Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

  221. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    Tpny:

    Thank you for making my mildly inebeeriated comments seem almost, normal? by comparison.

  222. Thomathy, Do Not Upset Me Ahead of World Pride says

    Crip Dyke, more succinct and very true for scenarios wherein your grammar is definitely English and it must produce 2nd and 3rd results.

  224. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Thomathy, #222:

    Argh, somehow I spaced out on your 214. I even read it, but then I read Tony!’s 216 and I addressed Tony! without giving you any notice or credit. Sorry about that.

  226. samihawkins says

    Well I’ve finally broken down and admitted I need facial feminization surgery, that it’s the only way I’ll ever be able to pass.

    If anyone at Pharyngula is familiar with crowdfunding I’d appreciate a tutorial. Which sites are reputable, how much I can realistically expect to raise, any tips for making my request stand out and get more attention/donations, any sort of advice I can get. From what I’ve read the total cost is going to be somewhere between my yearly income and double my yearly income, so I figure I better start fundraising as soon as possible.

  227. Thomathy, Do Not Upset Me Ahead of World Pride says

    No, I didn’t think you were ignoring me, Crip Dyke, but making a different and related point. When I read your comment, I was thought, ‘Damn! Good point, I should have mentioned that too,’ so I wanted to acknowledge you.

  229. ck says

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

    1. Singaporean
    2. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics
    3. South African

    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

    1. Finnish
    2. Greek
    3. German

    I’m actually Canadian, and english the only language I speak. I can only assume it’s telling me that I’m terrible at my only language, since I think I confused it.

  232. says

    I finally understand why mosquito bites itch (I don’t know why I never searched for the answer long ago…):

    Only the female mosquito feeds on blood. Though we commonly call them mosquito bites, she’s not really biting you at all. The mosquito pierces the upper layer of your skin with her proboscis, a straw-like mouthpart that allows her to drink fluids. Once the proboscis breaks through the epidermis, the mosquito uses it to search for a blood vessel in the dermal layer underneath.

    When she locates a vessel, the mosquito releases some of her saliva into the wound. Mosquito saliva contains an anti-coagulant that keeps your blood flowing until she is finished with her meal.

    Now your immune system realizes something is going on, and histamine is produced to combat the foreign substance. The histamine reaches the area under attack, causing blood vessels there to swell. It’s the action of the histamine that causes the red bump, called a wheal.

    But what about the itching? When the blood vessels expand, nerves in the area become irritated by the swelling. You feel this irritation as an itchy sensation.

    http://insects.about.com/od/insectpests/f/mosquitoitch.htm

  233. says

    That language thing, my results:

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

    1. American (Standard)
    2. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics
    3. Singaporean
    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

    1. English
    2. Dutch
    3. Norwegian – See more at: http://www.gameswithwords.org/WhichEnglish/#sthash.t8M1x0NW.dpuf

    The first two for dialect make sense. American English is what I grew up speaking, and AAVE is present enough that it’s not too surprising that it would influence my understanding of English enough for a quiz to notice. I know nothing about the particulars of Singaporean English, so I can’t say how surprising it is that it comes up as #3.

    I know little about Dutch and Norwegian, except that they are also Germanic languages… so it’s not hugely surprising they’d come up as alternate guesses for my first language.

  234. says

    Beatrice @204-

    A joke I’ve heard regarding dialects vs languages- “A language is a dialect with an army”. While obviously not strictly true, it does highlight that political concerns, as opposed to actual similarities and differences, can play a big part in determining where a certain variant way of communicating is categorized. Some separate languages are almost entirely mutually intelligible, while some dialects are not even close.

  235. Portia says

    Tony:
    thank you for that- I didn’t the mechanism of that:)

    –

    Folks, thank you so much for everyone who has generously donated so far. In case anyone has missed it, we have a Horde Signal flying for our dear Shoop. If anyone can spare some moolah paypal it to me: bravo [nospaceshere]portia via the google email service.

  236. procrastinatorordinaire says

    @234 gworroll

    Some separate languages are almost entirely mutually intelligible, while some dialects are not even close.

    This is so true. It is easier for most Italians to understand Spanish than the dialect of even a contiguous region within Italy. There are more dialectic differences between neighbouring towns and villages there than there are between entire English speaking countries. English dialects pale in comparison.

    As for the quiz:
    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:
    1. Scottish (UK)
    2. North Irish (UK)
    3. Irish (Republic of)

    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:
    1. English
    2. Swedish
    3. Finnish

    I was born and raised in the Republic of Ireland, but I have lived elsewhere for the last 25 years; so it was close.

  237. says

    Portia:
    I take you’re referring to the itch from mosquito ‘bites’?
    Thanks again, btw.
    ****

    Ok, this struck me as…odd?…strange?…I don’t know:

    Throughout the late 1960s, the justices of the Supreme Court spent at least one day each year in the basement watching porn together. By all accounts, it was fantastically awkward. Unable to define “obscenity,” but convinced that the First Amendment couldn’t protect unduly dangerous and morally corrupting expression, the Court was forced to create constitutional law one sex-scene at a time.
    These films ranged from scientific documentaries to the improbable escapades of lesbian nymphomaniacs. Justice Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights hero, took merciless pleasure in narrating the clips for the special benefit of Justice John Marshall Harlan Jr., an elegant former Wall Street lawyer who was by then losing his eyesight. Mocking Justice Potter Stewart’s insistence that “I know it when I see it,” clerks would call out in the dark, “I see it, I see it!” In 1968, some 20 years after serving in the U.S. Navy, a still-youthful Stewart reflected on more adventurous times and confided in a particularly curious clerk that he had indeed seen it, “Just once, off the coast of Algiers.” (I assume you can guess who that curious law clerk was.)
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/06/03/free-speech-and-the-roberts-court-uncertain-protections/

  238. Portia says

    Tony:
    Yep:) Mosquitos.

    –

    I knew about the SCOTUS viewing parties but not “I see it, I see it!”
    Thank you, that’s exra hilarious

  239. Esteleth, [an error occurred while processing this directive] says

    I did hear a story about how SCOTUS watched a porno that had 2 30-second framing devices on either side (to provide it with “educational” merit). Apparently, after 90 minutes of hardcore action, a “doctor” appeared on screen and solemnly intoned, “And so our young patient was not cured of her nymphomania.” Thurgood Marshall was reported to have commented, “She might not be, but I am.”

  240. cicely says

    *dancing and whooping*
    The air conditioner aten’t ded after all!
    The Husband replaced one relay (which cost under $30!), and All Is Well!
    –
    WMDKitty:

    Mondays are evil. Pure evil.

    Mondays are evil—you’ll get no argument from me on that. However, the purity of the evil—to say nothing of the quantity—fails to compete favorably (for a narrowly-specific interpretation of “favorableness”) with the Evil that is Horse-kind.
    Or, say, about on par with peas.
     
    I’m sorry about the Suckage of the Insurance.
    *scritches*
    –
    awakeinmo, good to know that your afflicted eyelid is clearing up.
     
    (You could always sport an eyepatch….)
    :)
     
     
     
    (I think, if I were going to wear an eyepatch, I’d want to embroider a huge, inflamed (*snort!*) Eye-of-Sauronesque eye on it.)
     
     
     
    (I may have to make myself one of these. For just in case.)
    –
    birgerjohansson:

    A single DNA tweak leads to blond hair

    Cool beans!
    :)
    –
    David:
    You were absolutely correct.
    That was, indeed, not awesome.
    –
    *sigh*
    Not gonna get caught up tonight….
    See y’all tomorrow.
    –

  241. The Mellow Monkey says

    I really dislike the “selling my soul” angle he is using to frame his fundraising, but the cause is legitimate. A single mother of two is about to have her electricity turned off and needs some help.

    The individual who I am raising this money for has exhausted all of her options. All the local funds to help those with electricity and heat are depleted, Salvation Army can’t help, and even every local church I called refused to help this person out. That’s right, even churches of a religion that I assumed helped those in need, refused to help, even a little.

    $1500 is a lot for electricity but when you can’t pay, you just can’t. This woman used the electricity to heat her entire home only because by law, Wisconsin couldn’t shut it off. After an entire winter of heating your house with space heaters, your bill is going to be high.

    I can vouch for the guy running the fundraiser. This family could really use any help folks could send their way.

  243. says

    Tony @ 232 re Mosquitos

    Having been a camper since before I was born, I have been well familiar with the female mosquito’s predilection for being the biter and her saliva’s effects for many years. Having spent most of my life with other campers, I forget that others might not know.

  244. Portia says

    The derecho is coming.
    There was just a lovely light rain that cooled the evening beautifully. I hope the tornado-rumors are untrue about this storm system. : / Most of all, I hope there are no emergency calls all night, I’d like to sleep. : ( (It’s all about meeeeeeeee).

  245. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Is anyone going to/from Vancouver to the Seattle thing?

    I can catch a train down, but the trains back up are incredibly inconvenient.

    I need a ride back up Fri night/sat day…but if I don’t come back til Sat I need either a place to sleep or a way to get 45 min north of the city to the only place I know I can stay the night. Both aren’t great options.

    I could take the car down, and give someone else a ride, but my partner needs to do shopping/organizing for the younger kid’s birthday party this weekend. :sigh:

    B/c law school, I can’t make the Thursday night gig. So I’m only going down to visit Seattle U law school and do the Fri night thing.

    Any ideas? Anyone?

  246. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Separately, PZ has offered the opportunity for me to do a guest post to introduce the online workshop, then we can keep all the responses/discussion in one place without being interrupted by general TDome/Lounge chatter.

    We won’t be doing a new OP each day for each of the subsequent exercises, so you’ll have to read down to where I post for the day and then **stop** and not read others’ responses for the days’ exercises …the better to get to know yourself rather than just take up others’ good ideas.

    Does this sound like it would work?

    I’ll probably send PZ the post tonight to be posted tomorrow morning, Minnesota time, if people are down with this format [as I expect you will be].

  248. says

    Crip Dyke:
    That works for me. I’m glad PZ extended that offer to you. With the number of readers he gets (is there even a ballpark figure for that, btw?), this workshop could reach a great many people.

  251. says

    <whine>
    Fucksake, I have code to write, homework that’s due in 3 hours, and I can’t think or focus, and I’ve not written barely a fucking line yet. I’ve been supposed to have been working on this for weeks, but for some reason* I just can’t seem to put anything down on the editor.
    </whine>

    *mostly stress over finances and intermittent medical problems I don’t doubt, but that does’t help to know what the problem is.

  253. Portia says

    And, give yourself credit for each syllable, line, and word. You are climbing a steep hill, and every step is an accomplishment. Don’t push yourself back down. *moarhugs*

  254. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Dalillama:
    I’m here for you! As Portia told me once: “You can dooooo eeeeettt!”

    Also, the learning continues:

    Derechos are associated with bands of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms variously known as bow echoes, squall lines, or quasi-linear convective systems.

    I laughed out loud at the transition from sailors’ vernacular to meteorologists’ technical nomenclature.

    Frankly, the meteorologists’ lingo was instantly informative in a way that “squall line” wasn’t, but still, the abrupt transition made me laugh.

    ========
    and yes, I’m excited that PZ offered us the space and publicity of an OP.

  256. rq says

    Huh. I first read that as foot-long-saurus and thought, a giant? Hah!

    Crip Dyke
    Exciting! The format sounds doable, maybe things can be tweaked a bit once it gets going?
    Also, your comment @207… :D

    Rowan
    *hugs, just hugs* :(

    Dalillama
    *hugs, too*

  257. says

    So much for that. Still haven’t got any progress, spent all my time and energy having a panic attack because if I don’t get this assignment in, I can’t pass the class. Maybe I can manage an I(ncomplete) instead of and F. I don’t know why I’m bothering anyway, it’s not like a)I’ll get anywhere with this schooling for the next few years, and b)I have my doubts that it’ll actually change anything anyway once I do. All I’ll be qualified for is to be a drone at some megacorp, and I’ve had a fucking bellyful of that already in my life. I hate this pisshole of a country and this pisshole of a planet, and probably 99% of the people living in either.

  259. rq says

    Didn’t know it was a thing. Now he’ll be telling everyone he doesn’t actually enjoy shin-kicking.

    I know most of you aren’t from Ontario, but the Conservative Party’s reply upon being asked about their stance on mental health is… atrocious.

    My first thought was “Libertarian chef”! He’s (a) going his own way, (b) bartering instead of falling into the trap of using state-sanctioned money, and (c) payment is voluntary. But it actually sounds like a good system he has going. Feasible it would be on a larger scale?

  261. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    rq,

    Better to have an inner Yoda than an inner JarJar.

  262. Rowan vet-tech says

    I’m so exhausted physically and emotionally from today that getting the whiskey out of the cupboard is too much effort. I pulled a 12 hour shift, with much of that being vigorous cleaning and moving around of heavy things to clean them. My foster kittens are going to get food and water vaguely thrown at them, and a proper cleaning tomorrow because I’m scared to touch them.

  264. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Tony!, #248:

    Is there even a ballpark figure…?

    Well, for the domain as a whole?

    you can try this.

    Ed gets a lot of traffic. Still, with the number of comments and commenters on Pharyngula, I’d say that PZ gets maybe 1/2 of the whole site’s traffic. Wild guess, but even if we have a slightly different culture here, comments are probably roughly proportional to traffic, I would guess, and I’d be surprised if he doesn’t have 2/3rds the comments. I read Black Skeptics, and they don’t get too many comments. Ophelia does okay, but not in PZ’s league. Ed seems to be a wild card to me. He gets comments in the same order of magnitude of Ophelia, though at a rough guess (I haven’t counted) probably more. Maybe double or triple? He puts up a lot of OPs a day and gets 10+ comments on most of them. He also might have more people just driving by than PZ, since his big thing is riffs on news. News briefs don’t seem to me to be as inherently comment worthy as some of the topics PZ takes on, so he may have more traffic per comment than PZ.

    So, yeah, this is a string of estimates that seem good to me but have very little solid basis.

    None really.

    But that link will give you traffic numbers and you can come up with your own favorite guess about how that breaks out along the different bloggers. Richard Carrier, for instance, is someone that I think gets a good number of comments per article, but not so many articles/week and also seems likely to have an audience that’s very interested in asking questions/generating discussion. So would he have low traffic compared to Ophelia (who is my guess for #3 traffic generator on FtB)? I think so, but can’t know. Anyway, read the stats and make your own guesses about distribution.

  266. A. Noyd says

    How have I never realized till today that English has two L sounds? The only reason I know that now is I was looking at a description of how to pronounce (Romanized) Nepali which specified one over the other. They’re made with very different tongue positions, too.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~

    Tony (#4)

    I understand why you’re doing it (and I think it’s the right thing to do), but it seems…challenging.

    Just imagine being Muslim and having real angst over whether you’re angering your god by accidentally eating forbidden ingredients. Of course, I hate to think how long the Qur’an would have been if Allah had anticipated American processed foods.

  267. says

    Dialect: top three guesses, 1. Scottish (UK), 2. North Irish (UK), 3. New Zealand (Actual: urban Australian)
    First language: top three guesses, 1. English (correct), 2. Norwegian, 3. German

    CD, I must say I’m intrigued by your proposed workshop and wanted to ask if it is the sort of thing that someone who’s transgender can participate in, without skewing or upsetting the exercise for everyone else?

  268. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Xanthë, Amy of my threads, #267:

    Sure, trans* folk can participate.

    We’ll be – I hope – getting people with lots of different levels of understanding of gender and sex. Plus, of course, even those with roughly similar **competence** in understanding won’t necessarily embrace the same views of gender and sex.

    Thus I think that different exercises will be more or less useful to different persons, but I’ve only had one trans* person see little value in participating… so I think that finding good value is common across many genders and levels of experience. Your participation (or any particular person’s participation) won’t ruin it for others so long as people stick to the basic rule that you don’t read what others are saying about a particular exercise until you’ve done it AND written your contribution on that exercise. Part of the value is reading what others have to say, but it’s important to have one’s personal experience first so that there’s an actual exchange. Otherwise I could just write a screed and post it.

  270. rq says

    Someone please reassure me that I’m perfectly capable of carting three small children across the Atlantic on my own. I’m having an attack of Severe Doubts.

  271. rq says

    Alright, that’s it, everything’s making me cry.
    Time to work on a highly technical translation (today’s installment will mostly be phrases like “Just put the two fucking things together” and “See diagram” and “That thingie goes there and then you put the other thing on top and lock it down with some kind of lever. It’s not that hard.”).

  273. carlie says

    Rowan – I’m so, so sorry. Have some hugs.

    rq – you can do it, and you will end up with some awesome stories. Well, they will be awesome a few years later…

  274. Portia says

    Dalillama:
    I’m sorry. *hugs*
    –
    rowan:
    *hugs*
    –
    rq:
    You definitely can. Take a crying break if you need to. *hugs*

  275. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    rq,
    You can do it!
    I can’t imagine myself carting three small kids around my own living room without disaster and you’ve been doing much more for years.
    This is going to be a piece of cake…. and if it isn’t, treat yourself to am actual piece of cake abd everything will look brighter :)

    (I don’t do encouragement, I do mean, but I tried :)

  277. rq says

    Thanks for the encouragement, carlie, Portia and Beatrice.
    I almost replied in Latvian. Which just goes to show the level of my brain function right now.

  278. opposablethumbs says

    rq, you can do it! Also, your kids are awesome and will manage (almost 100% of) the trip (reasonably to very) well.

    All the good luck wishes to Dalillama. I’m sorry this is such a bastard hard time :-(

  279. opposablethumbs says

    Also, curse you David M for the time sink!!!! I am now logged in (which I never intended to bother doing) and happily rules-lawyering just how everybody and everything could have avoided actually changing location in the “Simon Says Freeze” game *g* (also, it thinks my language use is English/Scottish/Welsh, and original language is English/Norwegian/Swedish. Fair ’nuff)

  280. says

    Aww, the poor bigots. Not.:

    A state court judge has just denied a request by three anti-gay organizations who asked to be given standing to defend Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage. Circuit Court Judge Sarah Zabel ruled that Florida Family Action, Inc. (FFAI), Florida Democratic League Inc. (FDL), and People United to Lead the Struggle for Equality, Inc. (PULSE) did not have standing and would not be allied to be parties to the case because they “will not be directly and immediately affected if others enter into a same-sex marriage, or are prevented from entering into a same-sex marriage.” The judge added that the “validity of their own marriages will not be affected,” regardless of the trial’s outcome

  281. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    rq,

    Nah, that’s just omg I’m trying to speak zillion lamguages brain confusion.
    I don’t remember which conversaton it was, but I wtote a whole comment in croatian yesterday before realizing something ws wrong…and then to figure out what is off with the comment :)

  282. says

    Tony, that is hilarious, and way past time.

    Rowan, gentle hugs offered.

    Dalillama, to you too. I hope you can find something to help alleviate that despair. If it helps, i think i know just what you’re feeling.

    rq, check your email.

    Wirebash, welcome. :)

    Sorry if ive missed anyone – on my phone, so not easily able to track back.

  285. says

    Jeez..all the multilingual people here make me feel kinda dumb and lazy. But also really fortunate to be here. Is there a German word for that?

  286. says

    Big hugs to rowan and Dalillama

    awakeinmo
    I’m thinking about one…

    rq
    While I won’t deny that travelling with small kids is stress pure, I also found that mine are usually on their best behaviour on those trips.
    It’s nice to know that you can rely on them when it’s important

  287. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Jeez..all the multilingual people here make me feel kinda dumb and lazy. But also really fortunate to be here. Is there a German word for that?

    Yes. Just follow the standard German rules for agglutination and you get something like:

    “allemehrsprachigenLeutehierlassenmicheinbisschenstummundfaulmichfühlenaberwirklichglückichauchhiersein”

    German’s easy once you get the knack. And the google translate.

  288. Esteleth, [an error occurred while processing this directive] says

    CD, I keep seeing that you’re going to run workshops and post OPs, but I’m having trouble finding what about. I’m interested, since everyone else seems so interested.

    Halp?

  289. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Oh gad, you’re the only people that understand that when I say “I fell like shit and I just want to cry” there doesn’t have to be a specific reason. It could have been just a regular day.

    My friend is great, but when I say that to her, she insists with “Why?”s and “I don’t understand”. And it makes me angry at her, which isn’t fair. How am I supposed to explain, if she can’t grasp a simple concept of No, nothing bad happened, I just feel like shit today. It just started at some point today, while I was sitting doing my job. No trigger..

  290. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Azkyroth, #269:

    Would I want to participate? o.o

    If that was aimed at me and regarding the gender workshop?

    Well, it’s a bit odd to ask me what you want. You can read the introductory post when I have it written and PZ has time to post it (I wanted to write it last night, but couldn’t…busy busy busy). But it’ll will be a minimally modified version of a workshop that I do off-line that is designed to help people understand better how they themselves understand and use terms like “sex” and “gender” and how they, themselves, arrive at conclusions of sex and gender for their selves and for the people with whom they interact.

    Although some of the work will be abstract, this isn’t an academic workshop. In my opinion, academic work really helped illuminate some important things about sex and gender a few decades ago, but -as much as it has contributed to the understanding of sex & gender among experts since- in recent years has failed pretty hard core to increase the understanding of sex and gender outside academic settings by people not interested in taking academic sex/gender courses but whose lives are dramatically affected by sex and/or gender every day. This workshop takes a different path that is, hopefully, interesting to those who read academic writing on sex and gender but that also engages (and is accessible to) those who aren’t so inclined.

    So the question is: are you interested in learning more about your own less-than conscious sex/gender assumptions and sex/gender-related thought processes?

    In this case, I feel comfortable with giving you a binary set of response options.

  291. rq says

    Beatrice
    Tooootally. (I find myself agreeing with you a lot lately. I hope that’s not a problem.)
    Husband needs reasons, though he has learned if I say ‘it’s nothing personal, I’m just [tired/down/whatever]’, not to take it personally. But he still worries about my reasons for crying or feeling upset, because apparently those things always need a specific, nearly-tangible, direct cause rather than a collection of random less-than-perfect small life events.

  292. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Esteleth, #288:

    Perhaps my #290 is enough to either resolve things for you or at least make it easy to form specific questions?

    It came up in response to morgan asking why certain gender-related things are difficult. I took that not as an invitation to academic theorizing, but a desire to have some help grokking the difficulties that different people have around different aspects of sex and gender. Since I’ve taught quite a number of workshops for just that purpose, I offered.

    Of course, the fact that I’ve taught those workshops might have biased my interpretation of morgan (when all you have is a hammer…), but morgan and others liked the idea, and PZ endorsed putting it in an OP.

    The OP will be an invitation to participate, among other things. No one needs to “sign up”. And since it will be an OP, hopefully no one will have any trouble noticing it. It will have the info from this comment and from my #290 + more + logistics + an initial pair of exercises.

  293. Esteleth, [an error occurred while processing this directive] says

    Oh, okay. Interesting!

  294. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Crip Dyke,

    I’m quite excited about the workshop.

    How are we going to deal with bigots and trolls? I would suggest that the comment thread be heavily moderated, like the Lounge. Those of use with monitor duties could keep an eye on it, so that PZ can wipe the trash comments promptly.

    Good idea, bad idea, paranoid, too controlling?

    I’m still in organization mode, which for me means thinking up all the ways things could go wrong.

  295. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Well, that’s a good thing to think about. I never worried about that in off-line workshops (if someone’s behavior was truly problematic, I could ask them to leave…but it never happened).

    I’ll come up with a note about that for the initial post.

  296. blf says

    A bloody great whale hiding in a painting for the last 300 or so years has just made itself known. It’s still in the painting, but the painting itself probably should go into the undergallery. Which is now open to the public (Zygons not included (well, at least not in their native form (keep a close eye on the guards (and other vistors (well, on everyone…!)!)!))).

  297. blf says

    As far as I know, potatoes are not attracted by, not repelled by, do not turn into monsters because of (or because of the lack of), and do not date, mate, or even notice songs. However, they are quite fond of sarongs.

  298. A. Noyd says

    Giliell (#272)

    Is there a supermarket run by people from a predominantly muslim country near? There’s lots of Turkish shops here, so getting Halal food would be really easy for me if I cared

    They exist, just not nearby that I can find. There’s one somewhat near work I plan to check out, but it wouldn’t be practical to get perishable items home from unless I bought and lugged around some sort of cooler bag. (I do not drive and work’s an hour away by train/bus.)

  299. morgan ?! epitheting a metaphor says

    CD, I’m really glad that my confusion about gender and how to talk about it inspired you to offer this workshop. It is very generous of you.

    Rowan, gentle hugs.

    Dalillama, sorry things are so rough right now.

    rq, the biggest thing to worry about in traveling with younguns on airplanes is whether or not you have assholes sitting near you. May your trip be free of assholes.

    Tony, do you qualify for unemployment insurance?

    General sympathy and massive hugs to all who need them.

    Caitie Cat, I wish I didn’t live so far south. I’d love to help you out in getting to the socializing. However I’m no help in the fashion department. I vote for uniforms.

  301. says

    Howdy y’all. It has been a while since I commented here (here being Pharyngula as a whole, not just the lounge), so I thought I should try to get back into the habit.

    Are there anyone planning to go to Skepticon this year? I have just booked plane tickets and hotels for going there (now I just need a ticket to the actual event, but they are not available yet)

  302. David Marjanović says

    For those wondering why the native language picks seem so weird, I believe that the survey is producing those results based on the grammar of those languages based on your choices of which sentences you deem to be grammatically correct.

    No, no, no. It clearly doesn’t know the grammar of anything that isn’t English. As it says:

    “By taking this quiz, you will be helping train a machine algorithm that is mapping out the differences in English grammar around the world, both in traditionally English-speaking countries and also in countries like Mexico, China, and India.”

    This is also quoted in the thread I’ve already linked to twice, and which everyone taking the quiz really should read.

    Because the algorithm is still being trained, I hope everyone has clicked on “next” after getting the results and told them what you really speak.

    Why does it think almost everyone’s native language could be Norwegian? Evidently, one of the few people who have taken the quiz is Norwegian, and their English was very good because English has long been taught well and from an early age in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland (and also the Netherlands). Why doesn’t it think anyone’s native language could be Finnish? Evidently, no Finn has taken the quiz yet!

    AAVE is more similar to American Standard than to anything else; that must be why it’s so often the next suggestion after American Standard.

    Also, it has to offer three guesses; it doesn’t say if it thinks the probability of the first guess is 34 % or 99 %.

    Maybe English is a Scandinavian language.

    That’s exaggerated, although many, many features of modern English grammar and vocabulary are either Norse or the lowest common denominator of Old English and Old Norse. I recommend this thread and this much shorter one. Quote from the first: “It’s worth noting that word order is the most frequently borrowed type of syntactic feature — a relevant point because two of Faarlund’s examples of Scandinavian structure in English are word order features.” The first thread also contains discussions of particular points – and of the question of Welsh/earlier Celtic influence on English.

    The press release announcing Faarlund’s claim was never followed up by a paper, at least Google Scholar can’t find any.

    Though we commonly call them mosquito bites, she’s not really biting you at all. The mosquito pierces the upper layer of your skin with her proboscis, a straw-like mouthpart that allows her to drink [precious bodily] fluids.

    “Bite” is still more accurate than “sting”, which we say in German, lumping mosquito “bites” with bee/wasp stings (and ant stings in Australia *shudder*) which are done with… well, close to the other end of the body.

    Now your immune system realizes something is going on, and histamine is produced to combat the foreign substance.

    Well… indirectly. Histamine switches inflammation on, and one effect of inflammation is to attract white blood cells and let them get to Ground Zero more easily.

    I did hear a story about how SCOTUS watched a porno that had 2 30-second framing devices on either side (to provide it with “educational” merit). Apparently, after 90 minutes of hardcore action, a “doctor” appeared on screen and solemnly intoned, “And so our young patient was not cured of her nymphomania.” Thurgood Marshall was reported to have commented, “She might not be, but I am.”

    ROTFL!

    foot-long-saurus

    OK, subthread won.

    Better to have an inner Yoda than an inner JarJar.

    Now I want to strangle someone with my bare hands. :-)

    How have I never realized till today that English has two L sounds? The only reason I know that now is I was looking at a description of how to pronounce (Romanized) Nepali which specified one over the other. They’re made with very different tongue positions, too.

    Welcome to the wonderful world of phonology! In English, it’s completely predictable when to use which of these sounds; they belong to the same phoneme. Using one instead of the other would sound foreign to you, but it wouldn’t change a word into another word with a different meaning. There are languages where these two sounds are different phonemes, and conversely there are languages where sounds that form distinct phonemes in English belong to the same phoneme.

    Rowan
    *hugs, just hugs* :(

    Dalillama
    *hugs, too

    Seconded.

    Yes. Just follow the standard German rules for agglutination and you get something like:

    “allemehrsprachigenLeutehierlassenmicheinbisschenstummundfaulmichfühlenaberwirklichglückichauchhiersein”

    German’s easy once you get the knack.

    But that’s it – you can’t take a whole sentence with three clauses, “and” and “but”, several verbs, fully declined adjectives and so on, take the spaces out and pretend you have a word.

    My friend is great, but when I say that to her, she insists with “Why?”s and “I don’t understand”.

    Does it help if you throw the word “depression” at her?

    anyone planning to go to Skepticon this year? I have just booked plane tickets and hotels for going there

    Almost half a year in advance? The plane tickets would probably have become cheaper if you had waited.

    I have no idea if I’m going. Can’t plan that far ahead.

  303. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @David Marjanović

    you can’t take a whole sentence with three clauses, “and” and “but”, several verbs, fully declined adjectives and so on, take the spaces out and pretend you have a word.

    Clearly I need to use sarcasm tags more often.

    I wasn’t pretending I have a word so much as lovingly teasing those in the lounge who might enjoy German with all its quirks.

    I listed my language experience up thread and **none** of it is with German or Germanic languages other than English. I can say “bumsen Sie die Bullen!” and google translate gives me a spelling that seems like it’s what I was saying out loud, but that’s only because I had a Swiss friend with a Pythonesque sense of humor.

    I think you’ll note, David, that I did source that to Google Translate. I really, really am not claiming that my comment should have been taken seriously at all.

    In the meantime, I’m perfectly happy to have people tease me about English’s bizarrely complex and regional spelling conventions.

    Also, if there’s such a thing as a language proving the character of a people, nothing pegs us English speakers more accurately and precisely so much as the word thief.**

    *unless Welsh is a germanic language? But I didn’t think so. I forgot to say that I got really curious about Welsh at one point. I have no idea how it’s spoken, but I do think I recognize a hell of a lot more Welsh words than anyone on the Pacific Coast of N America who hasn’t lived in or near Wales. This isn’t like me saying I “know” welsh, but more like my ASL. Got interested, started learning, didn’t continue, and didn’t know a whole lot at my best. I’m saying it would count as “experience with” not “knowing”. Anyway, I thought it was Celtic and I’m pretty sure, but not 100% sure, that Celtic languages are not Germanic languages in the way that squares are also rectangles.

    **are the accuracy and precision found within a single word? Or a 3 word phrase? You decide.

  304. says

    This is a follow up to comment #168, providing the details for more voter suppression and elder abuse at the hands of flea brained Republican legislators:

    A Huntsville woman, 92, who has lived in the same house in Huntsville for 57 years and voted in every election since she was eligible, was turned away from the polls today because her driver’s license expired nine months ago.

    The voter, a great-grandmother to five, was deeply embarrassed by the whole incident and declined to talk directly with AL.com, but she gave her go-ahead for her neighbor, who took her to the polls, to relay the incident, with the provision that her name not be used.

    The woman, whose name was not published, produced a driver’s license, but election workers nevertheless denied her the right to cast a ballot – because the license had expired. With failing eyesight, she had decided not to renew it.

    The woman’s neighbor told the local reporter, “As we walked in, we were talking about doing our constitutional duty. She’s a very thoughtful citizen.”

    Conservative voter-suppression laws don’t make exceptions for very thoughtful citizens – and registered voters – who’ve participated in elections their entire adult lives.

    In this case, the woman was offered a provisional ballot, but she declined: “The elderly woman decided against casting a provisional ballot, because she was pretty certain she would not be able to arrange for the rides to get a new ID by Friday, the deadline for establishing identity under the new law.”

    Another neighbor asked, “What purpose did turning her away from the polls serve?”[…]

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/what-purpose-did-turning-her-away

    http://blog.al.com/breaking/2014/06/voter_fraud.html

  306. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Oh, this, I suppose, is the right time and place for this joke:

    Q: If someone who speaks Welsh, Flemish, French, Italian, Greek, and Russian is a polyglot, what do you call someone who speaks German?

    A: Polyglutinous.

    I’ll see myself out.

  307. cicely says

    We need a pony. And the moon on a stick. By next Thursday.
    –
    *hugs* for Dalillama.
    Knowledge Is Good.
    But sometimes it’s frustratingly Difficult of Access, as well.
    –
    A *pouncehug*, followed up with some sorry-you’re-worn-out *hugs* for Rowan vet-tech.
    –
    *hugs* for rq, as well.
    Perhaps the kids could be FedExed?
    *tongue-in-cheek*
    –
    *gentle pouncehug* for CaitieCat.
    –
    Beatrice:

    Oh gad, you’re the only people that understand that when I say “I fell like shit and I just want to cry” there doesn’t have to be a specific reason. It could have been just a regular day.

    I know that feel.
    “Just free-floating me some anxiety; nothing to see here, just move along!”
    –
    Kristjan Wager, barring Epic Disaster, I’ll be at Skepticon. :)
    –

    Also, if there’s such a thing as a language proving the character of a people, nothing pegs us English speakers more accurately and precisely so much as the word thief.

    “…and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.”
    ;)
    –

  308. says

    A men’s rights groups feels so threatened by the “multibillion dollar hate industry” of feminism that they have raise $25,000 for extra security at one of their conferences.

    A Men’s Rights conference slated for Detroit later this month successfully raised $25,000 for extra security on Tuesday, after the hotel hosting the conference expressed concerns about the security of its employees and guests. Men’s rights blogger Dean Esmay blamed the threats on the “feminist establishment.”

    In their pitch to supporters, A Voice For Men said that their three-day First International Conference on Men’s Issues was “under attack by ruthless ideologues who want to silence us.” The funds will be used to hire seven off-duty police officers to cover security for the event, the Detroit News reports.

    In case you haven’t heard of them, A Voice For Men is a group that advocates for “the human rights of men and boys” and explicitly believes that advocacy for women’s issues is destroying men, and therefore society. […]

    The Wire link.

    http://www.salon.com/2014/06/04/mens_rights_group_raises_25000_to_protect_them_from_feminists/

  309. Sili says

    This is also quoted in the thread I’ve already linked to twice, and which everyone taking the quiz really should read.

    Which of these sentences is grammatical? Check all that apply!

    Ironically, that isn’t grammatical to me.

    I’m a bit annoyed at the phrasing, since I recognise plenty of sentences as perfectly understandable and grammatical for other people, so I have to keep adding “in your idiolect”.

  310. says

    Almost half a year in advance? The plane tickets would probably have become cheaper if you had waited.

    Not likely. Got a fairly good deal. Also, buying my tickets now, ensure that I will actually go, and not get sucked into some deadline problem at my project.

    Kristjan Wager, barring Epic Disaster, I’ll be at Skepticon. :)

    cicely, I’ll cross my fingers for avoidance of epic disasters

  311. opposablethumbs says

    CD’s workshop-post-thread sounds like a great and really interesting (and very generous) idea. I’m hoping to be around enough at the right time. And considering the infestations we sometimes get around here, I agree that Beatrice’s point about dealing with trolls is, sadly, a good one.

  312. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Which of these sentences is grammatical? Check all that apply!

    Right? I thought I was the only one.

  314. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    rq:

    You will do fine on the flight with the youngens.

    I do actually have a real potato song. It was written by the PR department of the Great Northern Railroad to advertise the giant Idaho potatoes served in their dining cars.

    And yes, the song is as bad as it sounds.

  316. Esteleth, [an error occurred while processing this directive] says

    So, I saw a thing going around on Tumblr and it amused me.

    Basically, if you read Iliad, Odyssey and a few of the other Greek epics, a lot of lines begin with a string of copulas – basically this literally translates as “so thus and” or the like. This has been compared as being analogous to the spoken English tic of sticking “so like” and the like in front of phrases.

    Which led to a gleeful Tumblr conclusion of, “Homer talked like a 15-year-old girl.” Which amuses me greatly.

    ‘Course, I do not speak Attic Greek, so I cannot comment on the accuracy of this. But it amuses me.

  317. says

    Tax return came in.

    Looking at rental applications, my lack of rental history might be an issue. It will be less of one once I’ve got a full year in at work, debating whether or not to just try now or wait. IF not for non-refundable application fees, I’d go ahead and see what happens.

    Still looking through some places, though. Might find something suitable that I can get into sooner.

  318. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Ah, isn’t life grand?

    The joke’s on a generation of human-sexuality researchers: Adolescent pranksters responding to the widely cited National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the mid-1990s may have faked nonheterosexuality.

    Preliminary results from the landmark study — known as “Add Health” — stunned researchers, parents and educators alike, recalls Cornell’s Ritch C. Savin-Williams, professor of human development, licensed clinical psychologist, author and director of the university’s Sex and Gender Lab. “How could it be that 5 to 7 percent of our youth were homosexual or bisexual!”

    Previous estimates of homosexuality and bisexuality among high schoolers had been around 1 percent. So imagine the surprise and confusion when subsequent revisits to the same research subjects found more than 70 percent of the self-reported adolescent nonheterosexuals had somehow gone “straight” as older teens and young adults.

    “We should have known something was amiss,” Savin-Williams said. “One clue was that most of the kids who first claimed to have artificial limbs miraculously regrew arms and legs when researchers came back to interview them.”

    Are they sure that this is fakery and not simply overdue intervention?

  319. says

    District might not be breathing down my neck so much now. Got our numbers up, and holding reliably up. Not at goal every day, but most days now, and when we do slip it’s not by nearly as large a margin.

    We were also the only store in the district to hit a 100% fill rate over the weekend. Which of course owes a lot to one of my coworkers who had this weekend(we alternate weekends so no one gets screwed too badly).

    New store manager coming this week, and he’s expected to crack down on some standards. Which isn’t a problem from my end. Most of the standards that slip are the responsibility of other departments, those that slip on our end are in large part because we have to work around what other departments don’t do, or don’t do properly. The tightening of standards is likely to make mine and my immediate coworkers workdays easier. My job specifically is almost certainly going to get easier once people are actually made to put stuff back where it goes like they are supposed to.

  321. mykroft says

    Saw this today.

    Scientists experimenting with a squid derived protein to make electronic devices, potentially even transistors. Squidly borg, anyone?

  323. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Well, fuck me, but with all the directions in the exercises and the topics expected to be covered in comments made me uncertain we would get 5 people completing a generous, thoughtful comment by Saturday morning. I’m particularly gratified to see non-regulars brought out of lurking to comment.

    Go gender nerds is all I can say.

    That and thank you. Thanks so much for making me feel that my time is valued.

  324. says

    Crip Dyke:
    Both you and your time are valued. Thank you.
    I’m glad your workshop has seen a surprising (for you) level of participation. I’m quite intrigued. Especially after completing mine work and reading the comments.

    Also, I had a thought. Back around late 2012/early 2013 (…I think?) we had an incredibly lively discussion here in the Lounge about gender. IIRC, Improbable Joe kicked the whole thing off with a question about something (I think it was gender). The ensuing discussion saw most of the regulars participating and I found it quite fun. We discussed specific activities that were gendered, as well as food, and (I think) occupations. Your workshop has made me want to dig that up again. I recall that I thought I’d found a non-gendered activity: taking a shit. Turned out I was wrong.

  325. says

    On the gender thing.

    Uhm… I’m female-bodied, and I guess I’ve always identified as (or at least defaulted to) “female” out of convenience, laziness, and — let’s face it — it was pushed on me a lot as a kid. “Good girls don’t [blah blah blah]”, “that’s for boys”, and such. It wasn’t as bad as some got it, sure, but “your gender identity is female” was a very strong message that I got growing up.

    The thing is, I don’t identify strongly as “female”. I don’t identify strongly as “male”, either. I feel like I’m both and neither; somewhere in between.

    When puberty hit, all hell broke loose. My body was changing shape, rounding out, growing new jiggly bits (which are, I’ll admit, fun to play with) and — to my utter horror — bleeding in places that should not bleed. Normal puberty stuff, except for the fact that my body was now doing things — feminine things! — that I DID NOT WANT. And worse, my ovaries were gonna jerk me around every month.

    As for pregnancy and childbirth (those things the female-bodied are generally expected to do), that’s another NOPE. Y’ever see the Alien movies? With the chestbursters? You know how the poor space marines felt about hosting one of those buggers? THAT is how I feel about pregnancy and childbirth — High Octane Nightmare Fuel with a Body Horror chaser.

    I can deal with being female-bodied as long as certain feminine… processes… are completely off the table.

    So… here I am, trying to figure this shit out, and how it fits in to my gender identity, what my gender identity is, and where to go from here.

    NOTE: If this isn’t, like, Lounge material, I’d be happy to take it wherever it needs to go.

  327. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    But yes, that comment is absolutely appropriate to the lounge. This is a great place to ask for support…around gender or just about anything else.

  328. says

    Yes, I too would like to know why a taser wasn’t used:

    Deputy Rebecca Rosenblatt told KNTV that San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports that a violent female suspect was thought to be armed in Half Moon Bay.

    “Deputies arrived on scene,” Rosenblatt explained to KRON. “Shortly thereafter there was a confrontation where the deputy was in fear for his life and as a result he fired his weapon.”

    Tiny Serrano, who said that the girl was his sister, identified her as 18-year-old Yanira Serrano.

    The brother, however, told a different story about events that led up to Yanira Serrano’s death.

    Tiny Serrano said that his family called 911 hoping that paramedics would come to provide medical assistance because his sister had special needs, and she had not been taking her medication. He admitted that she may have had a knife.

    Why are guns the tool of choice for conflict resolution for so many people? Especially those that are ostensibly supposed to protect us?!

  329. says

    I’d like to participate in the workshop, actually. I also feel like I should just shut up and let the people who know more about these things talk, because I’ve found a way to be mostly-comfortable in my assumed gender and that’s “cheating”.

    It really only comes up anymore when certain family members want me to femme it up (which I’ll do, grudgingly, for super-special occasions) or wants to completely alter my wardrobe (NOPE). Hell, my wedding gift to my older sister was me, wearing a dress, hair done up, and face made up. I’m at my happiest and most comfortable in loose, neutral-coded clothing.

    Is there even a niche on the gender spectrum (or spectra) for those of us who just don’t identify with either option? (And what would you call it?)

  331. says

    Er… not to make the Lounge all about me, or anything. I’m well aware that others are in worse positions than I am, and I don’t want to take away from that I’ll just shut up now.

  333. says

    Crip Dyke:
    How long did you initially plan this workshop? Given that you’ve exceeded the expected number of responses (faster than you’d anticipated), has this changed your timetable (assuming there was one)?

  334. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @WMDKitty, 329:

    I’d like to participate in the workshop, actually. I also feel like I should just shut up and let the people who know more about these things talk, because I’ve found a way to be mostly-comfortable in my assumed gender and that’s “cheating”.

    that’s not cheating: that useful experience that gives you a chance to enrich the discussion. People who know much less than you will be talking quite a bit. This isn’t a Crip Dyke Lecture™. This is a chance to explore yourself and, if you like, share with others.

    Is there even a niche on the gender spectrum (or spectra) for those of us who just don’t identify with either option? (And what would you call it?)

    I won’t answer what I would call it. Instead, I’ll help you explore lots of terms and feelings and body parts and in the process give you a much better chance of answering what *you* would call it.

  336. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    I wanted a long lead time for people who aren’t regular readers to get referred over here by friends, etc. So people have until Saturday night to do the initial discussion and complete the initial exercises.

    At that point I said (in my very long post) that I’ll begin posting every 24 hours.

    If we have a ton of people, we may need to change that to every 48, since statistically with a large group, it’s much more likely that not everyone will be free every day. But I’d rather keep it every 24 hours, if we can. It’s not a huge commitment, and I want to keep people thinking. I don’t want them to lose touch with the process. On a longer timetable, some would come back every day, multiple times, to participate in discussion. But some would (understandably) simply take time off from thinking about stuff.

    I’d rather keep things pushing forward unless it just doesn’t work for a significant number of people. There’s always the option of completing the exercises late.

  340. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    The workshop sounds more and more like People Empowerment.

    Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

    you say every 24 hours, but for how long?

    I haven’t decided precisely, which is why I didn’t say in the introduction. It will last 7-15 days. It depends on how many of the activities I do in my in-person workshops I ultimately decide are transferable to a do-on-your-own model and how many of them I think have to be put together with another exercise on the same day and how many exercises can occupy a whole day’s discussion on their own.

    I’m still gathering things from my workshop outlines and thinking about whether or not any are unworkable. But at least 7 days.

    Does that help?

  341. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @WMDKitty, #339:

    Whoa, wait, initial exercises? Where?

    Yah hafta read PZ’s blog for that, not just the lounge, silly Kitty!

  342. rq says

    Crip Dyke
    That thing about empowerment? I think it’s an excellent thing. It sounds like a lot of people have been having a lot of questions about gender/sex/sexuality, and have been having trouble trying to find a source for answers or just a comfortable space to explore and get things wrong. You’re providing an excellent thing. :)

  344. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @rq, #342:
    I was mostly just wondering about the capital letters. While empowerment might be good, “Rhonda’s House of Pancakes and People Empowerment” could be good or awful. It just sounded like Tony! was talking about a specific implementation of empowerment (again, The Capital Letters) and I didn’t know if he might be thinking of a good implementation or a bad implementation.

  345. says

    Speaking of people trying to understand gender/sex and pretty much all the ideas behind your workshop CD, wasn’t it brianpansky that had many questions about these subjects earlier this year in the ‘Dome? I wonder if xe is aware of this…

  347. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    it was brianpansky, and I saw the nym come up earlier today and thought the same thing you were thinking about making sure brianpansky has access. The nym flashed while I was in class…but it wasn’t in the Lounge or TD, and, y’know, said class, so I didn’t respond. Hopefully the fact that PZ gave us OP-level space will make sure that the discussion gets noticed.

  348. rq says

    Crip Dyke
    Capitals for General Emphasis? Sometimes I do that. Sometimes to jokingly create One Big Thing (which usually doesn’t exist). :) I’d go to a pancake house like that, though. Do they serve empowerment with syrup or bacon?

  349. says

    “Rhonda’s House of Pancakes and People Empowerment”–where you can come for gender studies with a side of pancakes, and leave with a full stomach and quite possibly a better understanding of yourself :)

    re: random caps-sorry. I’ve been randomly doing that for no particular reason (I’m sure it’s inspired by the random caps we see from theists)

  351. Menyambal says

    WMDKitty, I appreciated your description of yourself. It reminded me of my sister, one of the more amazing people that I know, especially as to descriptions of pregnancy.

    It is interesting to read comments here and get familiar with folks without all the gender and race and other influences. Then to get given some information, and to see whether it fit a mental image, or even whether I had an image at all.

    Speaking of images, the weather radar shows a hundred-mile line of thunderstorms going right over my house, longways and slowly. They seem to be breaking up as they get here, but I can’t relax enough to sleep. The dogs are nervous, which doesn’t help.

    I’m kinda sad. I looked up the movie “Auntie Mame” and got the plot. I’d heard of it before, and seen a stage play long , long ago, and even seen a bit of the movie. So today, the classic movie channel was showing it. I caught bits as I worked around the house, but I missed the transition to another Rosalind Russell movie “The Trouble With Angels”. So I was thinking that Auntie Mame had ended up as a Mother Superior in a convent. But now, thanks to Wikipedia, I am disappointed. It really did work as a story. :(

  352. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    re: #349:
    When in doubt, Tony!, always blame someone else. The theists is a good choice on Pharyngula. :-P

    @rq, #346:

    What about Moncton – I assume you really mean Lord Monckton?

    I am not finding any Monckton news, save for an article he wrote for WND yesterday…but that isn’t news *about* Monckton, and nothing he said in there is even new *for* Monckton.

  353. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    BTW:

    Tony!, upthread I tried to bait you into saying something about IKG. You didn’t take the bait, so I’m chumming the waters.

    Have you not read it? For shame, thou indolent shoop!

  354. says

    CD:
    Sorry. I’ve never read I Kill Giants, though I’ve heard good things about it.
    Actually, for all that I love comics, and I’d happily support many feminist comics, the $$ isn’t there. I was gradually building my finances back up over the last year, and I had been buying TPBs on my tablet. Of course then I got fired again, so that’s out again for a while. I miss my weekly trips to the comic shop. A lot.

  356. A. Noyd says

    I just made the most insane lunch for tomorrow. Since regular potato salad makes me gag, I invented one with yellow potatoes for a base and a sauce blend of several heads (not cloves, entire heads) of roasted garlic, equal parts plain yogurt and ricotta cheese, all spiced with fresh dill, lemon zest, crushed mustard seed, salt and pepper.

    Then I made chickpeas and roasted eggplant in homemade berbere sauce which will go over plain wheat berries. The sweet creaminess of the potato salad should work perfectly to offset the extreme spiciness of the chickpeas.

    If I ever make these things again¹, I’ll at least have a better idea of the ideal proportion of the ingredients. For instance, I wasn’t aware eggplants shrink so much when roasted, so there was less of it than would have worked out best. Also, the salad needs a few more veggies to round it out—crisp ones like celery or kohlrabi or jicama and maybe part of a sweet-ish onion. I’m just glad they worked as well as they did on the first try.

    ……………
    ¹ I might not, because, holy shit, it took a long time. Other than the ricotta and yoghurt, eveything else began as a base component. The chickpeas and wheat berries started dry, the veggies were all fresh, the spices mostly preground but unmixed. That’s a lot of prep work.

  357. A. Noyd says

    David Marjanović (#302)

    conversely there are languages where sounds that form distinct phonemes in English belong to the same phoneme.

    There are a few like that in Japanese. The way the Japanese organize their syllabaries makes it really easy to tell.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~

    Sili (#309)

    I’m a bit annoyed at the phrasing, since I recognise plenty of sentences as perfectly understandable and grammatical for other people, so I have to keep adding “in your idiolect”.

    Not to mention, there’s a difference between what sounds right spoken and what looks right written. My intuition has much less tolerance where it comes to reading.

  358. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Fuck.

    Fuck violence.

    But looking at the article you linked, Dalillama?

    Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Damien Theriault said police responded to a call Wednesday about an armed man in the north end of the city of Moncton at 7:30 p.m. Three of the responding officers were killed and two sustained non-life threatening injuries and were in stable condition.

    …

    Asked how he was dealing with his grief, Theriault said he personally knew the officers before breaking down and excusing himself because he couldn’t complete his sentence.

    This makes me proud to be part of Canada. It is sad. It is horrible. And our tough guys, the guys responsible for keeping us safe? They’re tough enough to actually let themselves feel the horror and the sorrow and the grief.

    I will always prefer cops with genuine feelings to numbed robo cops. Always.

    Theriault, all my empathy and a whole lot of pride are headed east to you, the other officers who knew the injured and killed mounties, the families and friends of those shot, and the whole fucking community which must be scared and frustrated and angry.

    Fuck.

  359. says

    A. Noyd:

    Since regular potato salad makes me gag, I invented one with yellow potatoes for a base and a sauce blend of several heads (not cloves, entire heads) of roasted garlic, equal parts plain yogurt and ricotta cheese, all spiced with fresh dill, lemon zest, crushed mustard seed, salt and pepper.

    That sounds like 15 different kinds of TASTY!

    ****

    Montana judge who victim blamed a 14 year old girl and slapped the wrist of her rapist faces suspension and censure.

    (can’t copy/paste anything from the site; no idea why)

  360. says

    I realised recently, that the laptop I bought in March is actually a way more powerful gaming machine than anything I’ve ever owned. (out of date PCs, the first Xbox) So I installed Steam and bought the Orange Box. HL2 I’ve already played through a few times before, but Episodes and Portal sure are great fun.

    And what next… Mass Effect, perhaps? I did love KoTOR and Jade Empire, if that means anything.

  362. Dhorvath, OM says

    Tony,
    I would be surprised if this was the first, but certainly it’s fun to look back. Still fixing bikes and suggesting my Island…

  364. Dhorvath, OM says

    Lounge 392 had a fairly large discussion of gender, but I would think you might have passed that on the way to the commune talk.

  365. says

    I grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and did my undergrad degrees there, and while I have not lived there for quite some time I still think of it as “home”. Once and a while I like to search major news outlets like the BBC to see if they have had any stories about the place. They rarely do, I find the province is sort of forgotten here in Canada as well. I was quite surprised to see New Brunswick in a headline last night, and then very saddened to see why it was there. This kind of thing is rare in Canada, and really rare in the maritimes.

    I was pretty disgusted by the comments on the CNN article I read about this. 8000+ comments and many of them seemed to be trolls, or people that want to point out how useless all gun laws are, because apparently they think that restrictions on firearms are supposed to completely stop all gun violence.

  366. says

    Dhorvath:
    Thanks for that.
    I have passed that though. For some reason I thought we discussed gendered activities around the new year, so I started with Dec/’12. Thus far, I’ve gotten to Oct/’12. I’m pretty darned tired now though, so I’ll continue looking in the morning.
    Good night all :)

  369. says

    Improbable Joe kicked off the discussion of gender w/comment #816

    Hmmmm… I’m asking this here because I don’t want an argument, so if this is by necessity going to cause an argument just pretend I’m not here…

    Masculinity/femininity, maleness/femaleness, manhood/womanhood. Which parts are real, which are “inborn” and which are cultural, which parts are pure nonsense, and how does one reconcile their answers with the existence and experience of trans men and trans women?

  370. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    well, that particular gender conversation happened entirely without me.

    I remember that period: I was recovering from first term of law school and Ms Crip Dyke and one of the littles came down with Norovirus. I got sick a little, but it either wasn’t norovirus or I was very lucky. I just felt run down and nauseated and headachy and had to deal with my usual bone stuff…while I was waiting hand and foot on two horrifically sick family members and doing everything I could to keep the third family member, too young to read on her own, entertained.

    The few minutes here and there Ms Crip Dyke could manage to sit up and be coherent I had to use to run out to get juices to keep the sick ones’ fluids up, food for me and healthy kiddo, and other necessities. it was a pretty exhausting time.

    On top of that, I only had an old, very troublesome borrowed laptop to use. Just booting up could take 10 min. I’m not surprised I wasn’t able to participate, but I’m sorry about it. I would have really enjoyed that conversation.

  371. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Awww, crud.

    I really, really want to credit someone for this cartoon – I know one of y’all brought it to Pharyngula just a few days ago. For some reason I’m thinking cicely? maybe?

    But I can’t find it anywhere.

    So, because I **really, really** want to dump this in the gender workshop thread but can’t, I’m forced to put it here. Maybe I’ll link to this comment from there when I have a reason to write something more important and can drop the link in as a PS.

    Anyway, regardless of my personal drama in being unable to credit and my angst over not putting this in the workshop thread,

    this cartoon awesomely skewers heteronormativity and deserves a hell of a lot of love.

    This particular link to the comic is dedicated to bethy at #57 in the workshop thread and Tony! at #59.

  374. FossilFishy (NOBODY, and proud of it!) says

    So, when we last left our intrepid lobed-finned hero he was sitting in a waiting room in a fetching two piece ensemble made out of paper. Things did not get better from there.

    It turned out that all my discussion with the anaesthetist was for naught. I’d broken the wire in my knee in four places which necessitated the surgeon opening me up much further to get it all out. Fifteen staples this time. I also meant that they had to wait while an x-ray unit was brought up to find the last bits. I had to be put out deeper and be given more morphine than we’d hoped would be necessary.

    I ended up vomiting for almost 8 hours. And then my heart decided that it didn’t like all this fasting and stress. I went into severe atrial fibrillation and my heart rate shot up to 130-140 beats per minute. The IV was restarted, electrolytes were assessed and supplemented, I was wired to a remote telemetry monitor, and a ECG unit. At one point I had 15 electrodes glued to my chest, arms and legs. They jabbed me in stomach with blood thinners, to complement the two holes in my thigh from the only anti-nausia drug that did any good. They made me swallow a beta blocker which I kept down through force of will. They told me that I was back to fasting because they were going to sedate me and shock my heart back into normal rhythm. My point that fasting and sedation was what got me into this in the first place was ignored.

    They told me to relax.

    I struggled for calm. I’m not afraid of being dead, I’m pretty sure it’ll feel just like it did before I was born. But I do fear leaving my child before she’s fully capable of caring for herself, and I fear, just a bit, for how Ms. Fishy would handle my death. You see, she’s never experienced any kind of major tragedy in her life. She worries about this, though I have to say that everything I’ve seen of her says that she’ll come through it fine. But still…

    So there I lay, with a literally racing heart loud in my ears, thinking about those I love the most in the world. Crying. And in ran a nurse. The gods of telemetry had called down from on high that my heart rate had spiked, go check him!

    So now I had to lay there and most carefully notthink about my best reasons to get through this.

    Difficult is a word. It’s inadequate.

    I’m okay now, a week plus later. In the end they didn’t have to shock me, much to my relief. I’m stiff, tired, and once again with cardiology appointments. I knew at the time that this is a known risk of sedation, that they have procedures, and that I’ve a good strong heart. But to hear your body betraying you like that, and to have nothing you can feasibly do besides not think is a stomp to the emotions that’s left me struggling.

    I know that it’s okay to whinge here, but I do feel sorry that I haven’t been keeping up, that I haven’t been here for others who’ve been having a hard time of it. So…

    …I’m going to go lay in this soft, dark corner over here. There’s space for anyone who wishes to be still, and quiet, and yet not alone while they heal.

  375. says

    Yow, big heavy this am.

    Moncton – yes, pride and great sadness.

    FossilFishy – SCARY! Glad you’re recovering okay now.

    CD, I want to thank you for taking on the workshop, I think it’ll be very valuable to the community. Probably not going to jump in myself, in part because 22 years after transition, I’m pretty comfortable with my understanding of the topic, and in part because of my general anxiety issues – discussing things which have had devastating impacts on every phase of my life is…FossilFishy’s definition of difficult.

    So forgive me, my dear Loungerie, for remaining aloof from that discussion. In the classic phrase, ‘it ain’t you, it’s me.’ :)

  376. carlie says

    Oh, FossilFishy. Would it be ok if I sat quietly in the corner and just held your hand for awhile?

  377. opposablethumbs says

    Yeah, loved that cartoon and sent it on to the Spawn.

    Meep, I just commented in the workshop. I think for me, this is partly about acknowledging and looking at my prejudices including some I wish I didn’t have but do have (like, binaryness. I think more binarily than I would like to. And biological essentialism; I certainly don’t think or feel that it determines a person’s “real” gender, but I do find myself thinking that maybe I ascribe qualities to biology that don’t stand up).

  378. opposablethumbs says

    Hell’s teeth, FossilFishy. I’d like to sit here by carlie and hold your hand too (or just, you know, sit and maybe fetch a glass of water or something). Fuck. Wishing you better.

  379. says

    Did read the comments on CD’s thread. I’m noticing an intertesting thing: a series of cis het men identifying themselves explicitly as ‘bog-standard’ and ‘boring’. Interesting that only one identifiable group uses that language with any consistency, ne?

  381. bassmike says

    Coming out of a self-imposed exile from the lounge (due to anxiety and paranoia issues) to give a firm but very delicate *hug* to FossilFishy . I’m sorry to hear about how much you have had to go through. I hope you are getting better quickly and are back playing music soon.

    I may do CD’s exercises, if I feel up to it. CD that whole post was very well written and I enjoyed reading it. I hope the whole exercise prompts a constructive and informative discussion.

    I’ll tentatively wave to everyone else from my cushion fort.

  384. gussnarp says

    Hey everybody, I have an issue I’m looking for advice about, and it’s the sort of thing I feel like some of the regulars may have some good advice about and I don’t want to discuss it with any IRL people with real names attached out of privacy concerns. It requires a small trigger warning regarding child abuse, but no awful details. Is that cool in this space?

  386. rq says

    Fossilfishy
    Many thanks for the Stompin’ Tom, and recover swiftly and well!

    bassmike
    Are *hugs* okay to offer?

    +++

    You know you’re tired when getting beer up your nose isn’t painful but refreshing.
    (Spent the day with all three downtown doing last minute shopping for such unique items as black dress shoes (acquired) and black dress shirt (not acquired, which means Middle Child’s planned outfit for tomorrow is, sadly, a no-go) and assorted summer shirts for one euro per. At least they love going by train enough to behave for most of the journey. Also, bribery. It’s ice cream season, and they know it, and they know how not to experience it. Anyway. Just got home, but Husband carted them off to his work’s father’s day activity thing in a different town. Those will be some exhausted children tonight.)

    Going to go read CD’s thread now.

  387. carlie says

    Wait for more opinions to roll in, but from my perspective we get stuff like that in here, so it should be ok. Best practice is to put a big content note at the beginning of the comment so people know, and for anyone responding to it to do likewise.

  389. FossilFishy (NOBODY, and proud of it!) says

    carlie Yes. Please. You too opposablethumbs.

    CatieCat, Giliell, and chigau. Thank you. It means more to me than words on a screen can convey. I’ve talked about this stuff in meatspace, but the nature of my relationships here mean that I have to downplay how bad it’s affected me. This safe space, populated with people who never cease to amaze me in all kinds of ways, it is precious.

    bassmike Thank you too. I’m very sorry to hear you’re not doing well. I have to say that music helped me through the worse of it. When I needed to stop thinking about my family I distracted myself with thoughts of what I’d do when I got back to playing. I spent this evening writing in Lydian mode and ⅞ time. Also a major modification to my guitar is now in the works, to the point where I’ve exchanged a series of emails with the designer of the thing I’m purchasing. I spent an obsessive amount of time contemplating both these things while in hospital, and I’m a little shocked to find that they are working out the way I thought.

    Going to bed now. You people…well, love is also a word.

  391. chigau (違う) says

    gussnarp
    Go ahead.
    If the discussion goes bad we’ll deal with it.

  392. birgerjohansson says

    China commemorates 25 years since nothing happened http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/china-commemorates-25-years-since-nothing-happened-2014060587219

    Page collapsed because Prince Philip drained too much of his blood http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/page-collapsed-because-prince-philip-drained-too-much-of-his-blood-2014060587226

    Baboon resigns from UKIP http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2014/05/17/baboon-resigns-from-ukip/
    .
    Spain to get exciting new monarch unlike some people http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/spain-to-get-exciting-new-monarch-unlike-some-people-2014060287131

  393. bassmike says

    rq *hugs* are always appreciated.

    FossilFishy something in Lydian mode in 7/8 sounds interesting. I find for a given situation there’s always some piece of music that helps.

    I’m considering submitting some of my own music to public scrutiny. It depends on whether my stupid brain will allow me to overcome the fear or rejection and ridicule.

  394. gussnarp says

    OK, so here it is. Starting out with a trigger warning for child abuse, but there aren’t a lot of details, but I’m being cautious…

    There’s a kid in my neighborhood who I suspect is being abused in one way or another. We’ve noticed him coming through our yard while walking his dog, which makes no sense since it’s not a short cut in any way. My wife watched him through the window to see what was going on and here’s what happens: he goes up our driveway, into the neighbor’s back yard where he takes a bag out of her trash and from it produces a diaper. He then proceeds to change the diaper he’s wearing and then put the dirty one and the bag back in the trash can. Now there could be other reasons I suppose, that an 11 year old boy is wearing diapers and changing them out and about from secret stashes, but I’ve heard that unwillingness to use the toilet can be a sign of abuse, and it’s hard to imagine what else would make a child engage in this behavior. Anyway, it’s enough for me that I feel like something had to be done.

    One day while he was cutting through he stumbled upon my wife and kids on the porch, and they had a friendly chat. Turns out he goes to my son’s school, he’s a sixth grader, and he’s in the gifted program with my son. We also learned his first name.

    My wife called the school and told them what we know. This seemed the only thing we could do, since only they could identify him from this information, and they’re obligated to report suspected abuse and maybe would know more. Maybe one of his teachers has seen something else but not really thought anything of it that when put together with this will form a bigger picture.

    But I’m concerned. I’m concerned nothing will happen. I’m concerned someone at the school will talk to someone else and instead of getting whatever help he needs he’ll become the topic of gossip and speculation, but I felt obligated to do something and do it soon and this was all I could think of.

    But is there more I could do? Should do? I feel like confronting him about it or even just asking if he needs help might not be the best approach. I’m not trained in this, I don’t want to make things worse…

    So for the time being we’ve done what we feel we could and had to, and plan to simply let him do what he’s doing and be friendly to him when we encounter him and hope for the best.

    But do you, creative and thoughtful and caring group that you are, who might also have expertise, have any ideas about how we can best handle this and get this kid whatever help he needs?

  395. Dhorvath, OM says

    FossilFishy,
    Okay, that’s scary. Quiet company I can manage. Take care.

  397. opposablethumbs says

    let him do what he’s doing and be friendly to him when we encounter him

    gussnarp, this bit sounds right, fwiw. I only wish I had any relevant expertise, and I hope that somebody here may have and be able to suggest how not to make things worse, which as you rightly point out is a crucial issue.

  398. opposablethumbs says

    bassmike, is it OK if I send a tele-guided hug over to the cushion fort? Or, you know, a virtual Nice Cup of Tea with Biscuits. And my general good wishes. It’s nice to see you around, any time you want to be around these parts.

  401. jrfdeux, mode d'emploi says

    Oh god no, Moncton!

    One of my co-workers has a son-in-law and a daughter in the RCMP. She’s stricken. New Brunswick might be Way Over There (I’m in Vancouver), but we Canadians still love our Mounties, despite the recent horrific stains on their reputation.

    What a horrible thing to wake up to. :-(

  402. David Marjanović says

    The good news: one of the biggest questions in math and physics may have been solved. The bad news: the paper is in Russian; most mathematicians speak either English or Russian, but not both – and only mathematicians can translate the paper. The author of the supposed proof doesn’t speak English.

    What some people do while sleepwalking. With trigger and horror warnings.

    “Tree-hugging koalas demonstrate a novel thermoregulatory mechanism for arboreal mammals“!

    Silicon nitride just got a whole lot more awesome: add water.

    you can’t take a whole sentence with three clauses, “and” and “but”, several verbs, fully declined adjectives and so on, take the spaces out and pretend you have a word.

    Clearly I need to use sarcasm tags more often.

    It was obvious to me that you weren’t serious. Still, your joke rested on a widespread misconception, and that I tried to address.

    Also, word compounding in German is a fascinating subject that real research is being done on right now. :-) Talking about it is good!

    I think you’ll note, David, that I did source that to Google Translate.

    I did. I didn’t mention the mistakes Google Translate made* precisely because it was clear you weren’t being serious.

    * The most interesting one I noticed is that it translated “dumb” as stumm, “mute”, “dumb” as in “deaf and dumb”, rather than as dumm “stupid” or blöd “…dumb”.

    unless Welsh is a germanic language?

    Nope. While it’s not clear what the closest relative of the Germanic branch is, it’s not the Celtic branch; the closest relative of Celtic is almost certainly Italic, the branch that contains Latin (and of course its Romance descendants). Both together might be the sister-group of Germanic.

    A: Polyglutinous.

    I don’t understand the joke.

    Which of these sentences is grammatical? Check all that apply!

    Ironically, that isn’t grammatical to me.

    …Good catch, I overlooked it. “Is” implies that only one is grammatical, while “all” means there may be more.

    I’m a bit annoyed at the phrasing, since I recognise plenty of sentences as perfectly understandable and grammatical for other people, so I have to keep adding “in your idiolect”.

    Yep. I mentioned that at the first opportunity to comment.

    So, I saw a thing going around on Tumblr and it amused me.

    Basically, if you read Iliad, Odyssey and a few of the other Greek epics, a lot of lines begin with a string of copulas – basically this literally translates as “so thus and” or the like. This has been compared as being analogous to the spoken English tic of sticking “so like” and the like in front of phrases.

    Which led to a gleeful Tumblr conclusion of, “Homer talked like a 15-year-old girl.” Which amuses me greatly.

    I had no idea, but I’m happy now. :-)

    ‘Course, I do not speak Attic Greek, so I cannot comment on the accuracy of this. But it amuses me.

    Homeric isn’t Attic.

    There are a few like that in Japanese. The way the Japanese organize their syllabaries makes it really easy to tell.

    Yes! I should have thought of that. :-)

    …I’m going to go lay in this soft, dark corner over here. There’s space for anyone who wishes to be still, and quiet, and yet not alone while they heal.

    *wanders into blanketfort*
    *curls up*
    *falls asleep*

  403. says

    FossilFishy:
    My god that sounds awful. I’m glad you’re doing better.

    ****

    Has anyone ever had one of those days where you wake up and something happens to just set the mood of your day–in a bad way?
    That was me. This morning.
    I’m already not in a good headspace. I woke up to a message from one of the owners of the restaurant I was fired from. It read:
    ‘We wish you the best but there will be no meeting. Please no further contact.’

    WTF?!
    I didn’t even contact her, or any of them about a meeting. I haven’t made any contact since 5/26, when I sent a text saying that I was innocent and thanking them for allowing me to work for the company.
    I literally can’t stop crying right now.
    How the fuck do they wish me the best? If they fucking cared about me at all, they’d at least have tried to get my side of things. They’d have at least tried to find some actual goddamned fucking evidence that I stole money.
    No, they chose to go with suspicions. They chose to treat suspicions as evidence of wrongdoing and as a result, they’ve fucked my life up. I’m down to $70 to my name, which is not enough money to wander around town in a cab trying to find a new job.
    My life if currently swirling down the toilet, and they “wish me the best”.

    Fuck them.

    I wish I could stop crying.
    Can I have a hug or 20 please?

  404. says

    *uploading hugs via USB*

    *routing via high-priority link*

    You’re being badly treated, there’s nothing wrong with feeling sad or hard done by about it, Tony. You are being hard done by.

    *hugs*

  406. blf says

    I wasn’t aware eggplants shrink so much when roasted, so there was less of it than would have worked out best. Also, the salad needs a few more veggies to round it out — crisp ones like celery or kohlrabi or jicama…

    The eggplant (aubergine) was trying to save yer taste buds, sanity, and stomach from itself.

    Celery is not a veggie. It’s not even edible. I think it’s either drilling mud or the shell of an alien snail, albeit a popular hypothesis is it’s a cross between a hagfish and a banjo player.

    And then there is jicama ! The one “food” in the Universe almost as bad as peas. Even horses stuffed with celery and eggplant are preferable. Perhaps the only reason it isn’t as bad as peas is, unlike peas, it does have some texture. An appalling texture, but an actual texture, not the void nothingness of the pea.

    Perhaps fortunately, I have absolutely no idea what a “kohlrabi” is…
    (Judging by the photographs at Ye Pffffft! of All Knowledge, I do see the things in the shops and stalls around here. I’ve never knowingly attempted to eat, or been eaten by, one…)

  407. jrfdeux, mode d'emploi says

    Tony!:

    ‘We wish you the best but there will be no meeting. Please no further contact.’

    Translating the above into ActualMeaning: “We’re coming across as nice because we don’t want you to trash talk us or cause us problems in the future. We’re rid of you, don’t want to think about you or what we’ve done, so disappear.”

    Your ex-employers are complete assholes. I know the sort. They like making decisions on a whim that are convenient for them, and are cavalier about the damage they cause to others. Very self-centred. Perhaps in a year or so you’ll view this as a positive, moving on from working for people like them.

    I am SO sorry you’re going through this. I empathize. In some ways I’m experiencing a similar scenario as you. It’s not quite as desperate for me, but I do get ice in my stomach worrying about it. So I’m there with you, at least in the feels.

    I wish I could do more. And remember what the tiny potato said.

    Hugs’n’stuff, friend.

  408. rq says

    Tony
    *pile of hugs stacked on a pile of hugs*
    Wow, I can’t believe they’re doing so badly by you. No contact at all? Something’s not right with the whole thing, and it’s not your doing. :( I wish Florida was closer to Canada, I’d love to try and meet you while I’m on the continent.
    *hugs*

  409. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Fossil Fishy & hussnarp, *gentle hugs*

  411. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    Tony:

    Lots of hugs.

    Your ex-employers definitely sound like assholes. Well, assholes with cranial insertion.

  414. David Marjanović says

    In German: federal Attorney General (…Attorney General Federal?) says there will be an investigation about the tapping of Merkel’s cell phone.

    Also in German: a list of the scandals the Spanish Royals have had in the last 2 years, explaining why more than half of the country (according to polls) wants to abolish the monarchy, 100,000 people signed online petitions to that effect “within a few hours on Monday”, and the chairman of the United Left demands a referendum.

    More on that, also in German: the Spanish constitution says a law concerning abdication will be made at some point, but that has never been done. The government wants to get it done within the next 3 to 6 weeks while about 20,000 people in Madrid held a demonstration against the monarchy. The article goes on to mention that “several parties in Catalonia and the Basque Country” have joined the United Left’s call for a referendum.

    That article has two videos on autoplay!!! Fortunately they load slowly. The second video is completely useless, it just repeats part of what the article says and shows us the king and the flag. The first, however, shows the demonstration. The flag of the Second Spanish Republic is all over the place. Signs held up say:

    ¡NO MÁS REYES!
    ¡Referéndum!

    TRANSICIÓN
    REAL, sin rey.
    [Nice pun.]

    ¡FRENTE
    POPULAR!

    APTOS PARA DEMOCRACIA,
    APTOS PARA REPÚBLICA!

    FUCK
    THE
    KING
    (on the three stripes of the Republican flag)

    LOS BORBONES,
    A LAS ELECCIONES!
    (small print underneath that I can’t read)

    A REY MUERTO,
    PATADA EN
    LOS COJONES

  415. David Marjanović says

    Kohlrabi? In a salad?!? What an appalling waste of kohlrabi. Dice it, boil it with roux and parsley, and eat it as a delicious soup or as a side to beef + roasted potatoes.

    Tony, Christ, what assholes. *restocks hug truck*

  416. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Fossil Fishy, Bassmike, gussnarp, & Tony! all get a generous serving of hugs…on the house.

    @gussnarp:

    Are you in the US? In the USA you can’t generally get advice from child services on what to do: you either report something or you don’t.

    In Canada I’ve been told that there are ways to get advice on next steps short of reporting, especially when you don’t have a specific name and address to report. I don’t know what those are as I’ve never done anti-child abuse work up here (I mean actual victim advocacy & such, not just visiting lectures), but I can try to contact folk for you, if you like, who might know more.

    Finally, in the US, the national domestic violence hotline, http://www.thehotline.org, 1-800-799-7233 | 1-800-787-3224 (TTY), is willing to talk about these things. They started out doing good work and have gotten better over the years. You could give them a try.

  417. gussnarp says

    Seems like tough times for many right now. I’ve only had the trouble of catching a glimpse of someone else’s misfortune.

  418. Ogvorbis: Still failing at being human. says

    Two days ago, I made some risotto to go with dinner — a little bacon, some sweet red and green peppers, onions, garlic, lots of parmesan, romano, provolone and mozzarella cheese. It was excellent and, as usual, I made too much. Risotto can not be reheated in a microwave — the oil seeps out and the cheese vulcanizes.

    Last night, I rolled the leftover risotto into a dozen balls a little smaller than a golf ball. I dunked them in some beaten egg and then rolled them in dry bread crumbs. Then I fried them in about 1/2 inch of moderately hot oil, turning and rolling them constantly until they were browned on the outside and hot all the way through. Had them with grilled vegetables.

    They were far better than the deep-fried tasteless golf balls at Olive Garden.

    I will do them again.

  419. yazikus says

    Tony
    I’m so sorry they are treating you this way. Whenever you would write about your interactions with co-workers or with customers, I always thought to myself that your employers were lucky to have you. You were creating a positive culture among your staff, creating a safe space for customers. They couldn’t have made a bigger mistake. Is there a Hordefund happening to send anything your way?

  421. says

    http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/06/04/bill-would-restrict-abortion-coverage.html

    Yes, Republican dominated state legislators are still obsessed with restricting abortion, but are also now going after contraception harder than ever.

    […] The bill also would ban insurance coverage for public employees as well as those on Medicaid for birth control that prevents the implantation of a fertilized egg, such as intrauterine devices, known as IUDs.

    During testimony, Rep. John Becker, a suburban Cincinnati Republican who sponsored the bill, acknowledged that the wording can be interpreted to include birth-control pills […]

    Rep. Becker said he’d be fine with an amendment that allowed birth-control pills, but the guy really does not know how the female reproductive system works. He’s banning IUDs because they cause abortions?

    Rep. John Carney, D-Columbus, disagreed, and said that it’s “just a fact” that an IUD doesn’t cause an abortion. He said he found the bill to be “very disrespectful to the women of our state.”

    According to Planned Parenthood, which provides women’s health-care services such as access to abortions and contraception, an in-clinic abortion can cost between $300 and $950 in the first trimester.

    The bill would eliminate a provision that allows insurance to provide abortion coverage for women in the case of rape and incest, a choice that Carney said should be made by doctors and not bureaucrats.

    However, Becker said “the right to life” of the fertilized egg or fetus “trumps those other issues” and that rapists should be executed, not the human products of rape.

    Rachel Maddow’s segment on Tea Party extremism –contains some coverage of pro-choice candidates in Montana.

  422. rq says

    I’m vacillating between translating more technical text and packing suitcases.
    [/realproblems]

    Also, kohlrabi is kind of awesome.

  423. yazikus says

    Risotto can not be reheated in a microwave

    Ogvorbis, too true. This last weekend we made a risotto, a total of about nine cups. We did it out doors with a gas stove and a giant paella pan. A little onion, fresh morels, lots of mushroom broth and white wine finished with manchego. Subsequently, there were leftovers. I am not as clever as you to create such a tasty way to finish them, and simply had three meals of pan heated risotto leftovers in one day. Next time I will try your recipe.

  425. rq says

    yazikus
    Re: Hordefund for Tony – Via Portia. I believe she explains her email in one of the comments on this thread. But it’s basically bravo plus her ‘nym, at the mail hosted by google (no spaces in the first part). … Uh, is that clear at all?

  426. gussnarp says

    @chigau, @Crip Dyke – seems like what’s available locally is reporting hotlines, which want a name and address of the suspected abuser as the first item, but thehotline.org looks like it may be a good resource, thanks!

    Man, I just want this kid to be OK.

  427. jrfdeux, mode d'emploi says

    rq
    Indeed, kohlrabi that’s been sliced and gently warmed in a lightly oiled pan provides for an oddly crunchy-creamy veggie that makes an excellent side. I always remove the rind though, as it’s tough even when cooked.

    But the white inner flesh? Yum.

  428. says

    It’s @235.

    Folks, thank you so much for everyone who has generously donated so far. In case anyone has missed it, we have a Horde Signal flying for our dear Shoop. If anyone can spare some moolah paypal it to me: bravo [nospaceshere]portia via the google email service.

  429. yazikus says

    Also, kohlrabi is kind of awesome.

    Tuesday was the first day of my CSA box for the year, which included kohlrabi. I haven’t eaten it yet, so suggestions are welcome, I usually eat it raw on salads. I am so excited it is veggie box season again! This one had the kohlrabi, spinach, greens, peas, cilantro & summer squash. Every Tuesday is like xmas. It is awesome.

  430. jrfdeux, mode d'emploi says

    yazikus
    Mmmm, fresh cilantro. Chopped fine and tossed into a nice chicken broth along with some flat rice noodles, fresh bean sprouts (and if you are so inclined) thinly sliced beef makes for…Vietnamese pho!

    Cilantro is a key ingredient though. The twist of flavour it puts into the broth is just perfect and would be missed.

  431. rq says

    Dammit, I hate it when the Power of Hivemind causes several people to post the same information at once.

    jrfdeuxre: kohlrabi
    I remove the rind, too. Like with most root vegetables, it’s tough and usually tasteless – too stringy for my delicate palate. The innards? Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I usually fry in butter with salt and pepper, together with whole garlic cloves.
    Because food without garlic isn’t food. [/opinion]

  433. rq says

    yazikus
    What is this… mysterious… CSA box… of which you speak?
    I know nothing of such a beast, yet suddenly feel a strong desire to know more.
    Seriously, sounds fantastic – community vegetable sharing?

  435. says

    http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/06/05/3445254/world-cup-sex/

    The issue of players having sex at the World Cup pops up every four years — Klinsmann was asked because Mexico manager Miguel Herrera announced in late May that he won’t let his players have sex throughout the tournament.
    “If a player can’t go one month or 20 days without having sexual relations, then they are not prepared to be a professional player,” Herrera said. “Forty days of sexual abstinence isn’t going to hurt anybody.”
    Herrera isn’t alone. Bosnia and Herzogovina manager Safet Susic said in April that he won’t allow his players to have sex during the World Cup, though he added that his players “can find another solution, they can even masturbate if they want.” The managers of Spain, Germany, and Chile have all banned players from having sex.
    Then there’s the hybrid approach taken by Brazil manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, whose team is dealing with the pressure of trying to win a World Cup on home soil. “The players can have normal sex during the World Cup,” Scolari said in April. “Usually normal sex is done in balanced way, but there are certain forms, certain ways and others who do acrobatics. We will put limits and survey the players.”
    France manager Didier Deschamps, meanwhile, says it all “depends on when, and how much.”
    While managers may fret about the amount of energy their players expend between the sheets while at the World Cup, there’s no research supporting the idea that abstaining from sex improves athletic performance. The research that has been published suggests there’s no difference at all, as Discovery News pointed out before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa:

    They think having sex will somehow impair the performance of the players. Even if it did, that should be their choice.

  436. yazikus says

    What is this… mysterious… CSA box… of which you speak?

    Only the most wonderful thing in the whole world! Community Supported Agriculture
    –
    Basically, I pay a farmer in January a largeish sum (this is when their expenses are high). Starting in June, every week that farmer provides me a box of produce. There are two or three pickup locations, so that you don’t have to drive out to the farm. They have a wide variety of veggies, and I’ve learned so much by having to use weird ones I didn’t know about. It runs through the end of November. I’m lucky in that my small town has at least two farms who run CSA programs.

  437. blf says

    a little bacon

    There’s the first problem. Insufficient bacon by several metric fecktons.

    Risotto can not be reheated in a microwave…

    The only thing that can be reheated in a microwave and survive is a pea. (The microwave, of course, usually doesn’t survive — the pea does get very annoyed…)

  438. jrfdeux, mode d'emploi says

    rq
    …Hoping yazikus doesn’t mind me jumping in…

    A CSA is “Community Supported Agriculture.” It shifts some of the risk of growing farm produce to the consumer, away from the farmer. You pay a flat fee for a season, and over that season (which might be 8, or 12 or 14 or whatever weeks) every week you get a harvest box of fresh produce either delivered or ready for pick-up at the farm. If weather doesn’t cooperate you get less in the box. If it’s a bumper crop you get more in the box. The money is used as capital by the farmer to operate and/or improve the farm, and what you’re essentially doing by buying a CSA share is saying, “Hey farmer, I trust you and want to support what you’re doing for our community. Here’s money, go do what you do best and we’ll all enjoy the bounty.”

    I used to be on the board of a community farm, and the CSA can represent a sizeable chunk of the farm’s budget.

  439. gussnarp says

    @rq #433: CSA stands for community sponsored agriculture. It can work in different ways, sometimes you pay up front, sometimes you show up and work, but some farm, near you, provides you with a regular supply of whatever’s ready for harvest in return for your sweat, money, or both investment. Sometimes they deliver, sometimes you have to pick up, sometimes you can pick and choose, sometimes you get what you get and you don’t pitch a fit. This website has a search tool to find one: http://www.localharvest.org/

  440. gussnarp says

    I meant to say “supported”, not “sponsored” but was beaten to the punch anyway.

  441. rq says

    Woo! Three great answers. Awesome program.
    I’d love to participate, but on the other hand, pretty much everything I get in spring/summer/autumn is locally grown by family-run farms.

  442. says

    Getting ready for a client meeting.
    “Getting ready” means spending too much time making my hair curly, and making my eyelashes darker and thicker, and finding an outer covering that is not a t-shirt and perhaps has some sort of reference to flora. Kinda sucks. But meeting the client’s expectation of what an illustrator of cute anthropomorphic mice looks like is part of getting a job. And I at least have to get that part right because my skills at “business” and meetings truly deeply suck. Man I hate this stuff.

    Also, I’m trying to explain to the dog why pooping is a good thing. Especially pooping now, when she has the option of doing it outside.

  443. blf says

    I’m trying to explain to the dog why pooping is a good thing.

    The mental images this conjures up requires more vin — a lot more vin — to unconjureup…

  444. says

    Tony

    Sorry you have to deal with that.

    FossilFishy

    Glad you are doing better now. That had to be scary as all get out.

  446. blf says

    pretty much everything I get in spring/summer/autumn is locally grown by family-run farms.

    Just how many potatoes do you, uh, well, whatever it is you do with them… ?

  449. blf says

    Looks like USAlienstani isn’t the only place with severely poor reactions to sex / puberty / adulthood education / classes, Letter From China — When Parents Need Help with the Facts of Life:

    Despite China’s thriving sex industry and enormous population, sex is still largely a shameful topic here, wrapped in layers of patriarchal Confucian and Communist prudery that push it into dark corners where neurosis flourishes. Speaking in Shanghai some years ago, Su Tong, a popular, middle-aged novelist, explained: ‘‘You can’t believe how dirty sex was considered when I was growing up. It was unbelievably shameful.’’ Crushing sexual and emotional repression were the norm.

    But shame leads to ignorance, and that can lead to teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Knowing there is a problem, in 2008 the Education Ministry directed schools to offer ‘‘health education.’’ Very few do.

    Partly that’s because there’s no state funding. Another reason is that it’s not an examination topic, so in China’s heavily examination-oriented system it’s not taken seriously.

    …

    A questionnaire returned to the Parent-Teacher Association later showed that the pupils liked the class and found it helpful.

    The challenge was the parents. Many were ambivalent about the idea, both supportive and not, unsure how to handle their children now that they were in possession of precious, adult knowledge.

    …

    ‘‘My daughter was so pure before this class,’’ complained a father.

    …

    Then there’s rising H.I.V./AIDS transmission among teenagers, alarming enough to health departments that the city of Xi’an, in Shaanxi Province, recently ordered middle and high schools to sell condoms on the premises, provoking complaints from educators and parents.

    This is, apparently, the first ever sex-ed class in China.

  450. says

    Thank you CaitieCat, rq, yazikus, jrfdeux, Ogvorbis, chigau, Dalillama, and David Marjanović.

    ****

    Ogvorbis @418:
    Your fried balls of risotto sound delicious!

    ****

    yazikus @419:
    You reminded me of a work story I wanted to share (I’m going to speak in the present tense, but this is the same job I just got fired from). A gentleman (J) has begun frequenting the restaurant on a regular basis. He likes sitting at the bar and having a few margaritas along with his favorite combination platter. I’ve spoken to him a few times about some of his interests as well as mine. A little over 2 weeks ago, he came in and had his usual meal. As I watched him put the remainder of his food in a to go box, I noticed that he put salsa on his chicken quesadilla. I made the comment that I’d have been happy to put the salsa in a container for him bc his food would probably be soggy when he got home. He then told me that he has false teeth, so soggy food is perfect for him. He also said he was very nervous about revealing that, which puzzled me. J said that there are people that have lost interest in dating him once they found out that he has false teeth. It’s a worry of his bc J is in his 60s, and he’d like to find a woman who wants to date him. I told him that I found it bizarre that people would judge someone based on something so incredibly trivial and added that such an attitude is dismaying. J told me that he knew that I wouldn’t judge him for having false teeth, and that was part of the reason he felt comfortable telling me that (apparently he’s told very few people). He also said that our conversations, and the fact that he felt he could open up to me without being judged was one of the reasons he kept returning to the restaurant.
    In the wake of being fired over something I didn’t do, there’s a certain perverse irony in that. I was fired bc of suspicions of doing something detrimental to the restaurant, when I actively worked to make the atmosphere more appealing to a wide range of people.

    ****

    I’m really liking this CSA idea. When I get back on my feet that’s something I may check out.

  451. Pteryxx says

    *hugs* to FossilFishy and Tony and gussnarp – seconding thehotline.org. They’ve been really helpful to me in identifying and navigating abusive situations, even when I’ve just been a third party asking how I could help.

    —

    Tony – I noticed this in your #403:

    WTF?!
    I didn’t even contact her, or any of them about a meeting.

    I seem to recall in discussion *here* that someone suggested meeting with them as a follow-up. How likely is it that someone there caught wind of your posting here and interpreted it as a problem? I can’t think of any other reason to just mention meetings to you out of the blue.

  452. blf says

    EVERYTHING!!!

    You explain to the potatoes why pooping is a good thing?

    (This is clearly not going to a barrel-or-thirty night at this rate. More like a thirty-or-thousand winery night…)

    And caps. And three exclamations! And — removed from the above in a desperate attempt to preserve electrons — the emphasis in the original.

    Pro tip: Avoid paragraphs.
    OR use
    random line-
    breAks! aND erRatic capS! Only thens WILL YOU be taken seRIOUSlY!! Uniqte zpelinq allsoo halPes.

  454. Pteryxx says

    From researchblogging last month:

    A replication tour de force in psychology

    Several phenomena replicated successfully. An influential finding by Stanley Schacter from 1951 on ‘deviation rejection’ was successfully repeated by Eric Wesselman and colleagues. Schacter had originally found that individuals whose opinions persistently deviate from a group norm tend to be disempowered by the group and socially isolated. Wesselman replicated the result, though finding that it was smaller than originally supposed.

    On the other hand, many supposedly ‘classic’ effects could not be found. For instance, there appears to be no evidence that making people feel physically warm promotes social warmth, that asking people to recall immoral behaviour makes the environment seem darker, or for the Romeo and Juliet effect.

  455. says

    Pteryxx:
    I don’t think that’s likely.
    Given how I was terminated, I didn’t entertain the idea of a meeting long enough for it to amount to anything.
    The only thing I can think of is that I’ve been in contact with a few employees that work there, and perhaps one of them thought my termination was unfair and brought it up. But I never even suggested meeting with anyone. And at this point, were any meeting to happen…well, I would not be very polite.

  457. says

    Well, since I have no idea what kohlrabi is…to the Wikimobile:

    The taste and texture of kohlrabi are similar to those of a broccoli stem or cabbage heart, but milder and sweeter, with a higher ratio of flesh to skin. The young stem in particular can be as crisp and juicy as an apple, although much less sweet.
    Except for the Gigante cultivar, spring-grown kohlrabi much over 5 cm in size tend to be woody, as do full-grown kohlrabi much over perhaps 10 cm in size; the Gigante cultivar can achieve great size while remaining of good eating quality. The plant matures in 55–60 days after sowing. Approximate weight is 150 g and has good standing ability for up to 30 days after maturity.
    There are several varieties commonly available, including White Vienna, Purple Vienna, Grand Duke, Gigante (also known as “Superschmelz”), Purple Danube, and White Danube. Coloration of the purple types is superficial: the edible parts are all pale yellow. The leafy greens can also be eaten.

    Kohlrabi stems are surrounded by two distinct fibrous layers that do not soften appreciably when cooked. These layers are generally peeled away prior to cooking or serving raw, with the result that the stems often provide a smaller amount of food than one might assume from their intact appearance.
    The Kohlrabi root is frequently used raw in salad or slaws. It has a texture similar to that of a broccoli stem, but with a flavor that is sweeter and less vegetal.
    Kohlrabi leaves are edible and can be used interchangeably with collard and kale.
    Kohlrabi is an important part of the Kashmiri diet and one of the most commonly cooked foods. It is prepared with its leaves and served with a light gravy and eaten with rice.
    Some varieties are grown as feed for cattle
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlrabi

  458. says

    NOM NOM NOM…this is delicious:

    In yet another stunning legal defeat for the National Organization For Marriage, a federal district court judge has issued a scathing ruling against NOM in their case suing the IRS over the accidental and inadvertent disclosure of a tax form that exposed the names and dollar amounts of NOM’s donors.

    United States District Court Judge James C. Cacheris in his Tuesday ruling against NOM used terms like, “NOM has failed to produce a shred of proof,” NOM’s argument “misses the mark,” is “unconvincing,” “is unpersuasive,” and “[t]o find that NOM could prevail from this scintilla of evidence … is not appropriate.”

    […]

    This ruling adds to NOM’s increasing court losses. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court denied NOM’s request to place an “emergency” stay on further Oregon same-sex marriages. Last month, a federal judge ruled against NOM, which had requested to be given standing to defend Oregon’s marriage ban. That judge previously had denied NOM’s request to delay the trial just for them.

    Also last month, the 9th Circuit federal Court of Appeals ruled against NOM in a campaign-contribution reporting case going back to its actions during Prop 8, and an ethics committee found NOM broke Maine’s campaign finance law, and imposed a record fine

    http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/breaking-in-irs-case-judge-issues-scathing-ruling-against-nom/marriage/2014/06/05/88619

  459. rq says

    Yegodsdammit, Tony!, I hope that one day extremely soon, your (former) workplace realizes their mistake in firing you, and they turn around and apologize and beg for you to come back… Except, by that time, you will have settled into an even better venue, with even better bosses and even better pay with simple, direct commute from home to work, that treats you as you deserve to be treated, and you can turn your former workplace down with confidence and as much snark as you deem appropriate – and then I hope your new workplace steals away all the awesome customers from your former workplace.
    I can wish, can’t I?

  460. ButchKitties says

    So the Smiley Morning Show on one of our local radio stations has decided start a new segment called “Whatcha Doing at the Courthouse?”

    Because public shaming is HILARIOUS. “Ooh, you committed a crime. That means we get to turn you into an object of our amusement!” And, of course, he targets poor people and minorities. Also, no chance that one of the people who gets a microphone shoved at them will be there because they were the victim of or witness to a crime, and they’re there to testify. Nope. This is a comedy bit that has zero chance of producing collateral damage.

    What troubles me the most is that the comments about the new segment are almost all positive. Person at courthouse = bad person = we’re morally justified in using you for our enjoyment. And it’s corollaries: if you object to this show then you A. hate comedy and/or B. love crime.

  461. says

    ButchKitties:
    That radio segment sounds like a bad idea.
    Personally, I like comedy (but only certain types) and I’m not a fan of crime.

    ****
    Admittedly, Salon has issues. This time, however, they got it right. Mary Elizabeth Williams writes about Jonah Hill’s homophobic outburst:

    “Unfortunately, this isn’t a joke,” he said, explaining that the paparazzo had been following him and “antagonizing” him with name-calling all day. “In response, I wanted to hurt him back, and I said the most hurtful word that I could think of at that moment. I didn’t mean this in the sense of the word; I didn’t mean that in a homophobic way” adding as he paused to think of how to express himself, “I think that doesn’t matter. Words have weight and meaning, and the word I chose was grotesque. And no one deserves to say or hear words like that. My heart’s broken, and I genuinely am deeply sorry to anyone who’s been affected by that term in their life. I’m sorry, and I don’t deserve or expect your forgiveness.”

  462. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Looked up prices for ho(s)tels in Edinburgh in August.
    Wow.
    …
    Wow. Almost twice as much as I payed in Florence, and that’s for a dorm that I would share with 10+ people (which is not going to happen).

  463. ButchKitties says

    Tony! The Fucking Queer Shoop!: Scuttlebutt is that the guy is *thisclose* to getting fired, and this is a last-ditch attempt to bring up his ratings. If the Facebook feedback is an indication, it’s working. I weep for humanity.

    That Salon piece was great, both in the assessment of his apology and in how he needs to do a better job of living those values in his work. (I can’t believe I just called a Salon article great.)

  464. says

    Beatrice, that’s really too bad about the hotel/hostel prices in Edinburgh. Is it possible you could find something cheaper outside the city a bit, and commute in to meet folks? If not, my sympathies. It sucks to hope to go somewhere, and then find out you can’t. :(

    *hugs* offered.

  465. says

    Tony!#435
    The superstition about sex before athletic activity (by men) impairing said activity is very widespread; I’ve also seen interviews with a number of American sports figures who say similar things. AFAICT it’s based on a General Ripper-esque beleif that semen is or contains some kind of ‘manly essence’
    which is supposedly essential to rugged ‘manly’ activities like that, and if you use it up on sex you won’t have any left to be macho with.
    re: 450
    There was a coffeeshop I used to frequent, and the woman who was usually behind the counter was wonderful, knew all the regulars, and would even open a few minutes early for me on days when I had an early class to get to. The owner sold the place, and the new owner fired her. 2 weeks later, facing a fall of nearly 50% in his business, he wound up calling her up and begging her to come back, so the customers would too. She did, but the jackass who owned the place managed to run it into the ground within a couple years anyway.

  466. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    The superstition about sex before athletic activity (by men) impairing said activity is very widespread; I’ve also seen interviews with a number of American sports figures who say similar things. AFAICT it’s based on a General Ripper-esque beleif that semen is or contains some kind of ‘manly essence’
    which is supposedly essential to rugged ‘manly’ activities like that, and if you use it up on sex you won’t have any left to be macho with.

    Seems like there’d be another easy solution….

  468. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    They even could market it as “ERECTrolyte supplements” :D

  469. opposablethumbs says

    Tony I’m so sorry about the way they’ve treated you – it’s so fucking unfair, and then to add this insult to injury – I wish I could shake them myself or yell at them or something (I confess that IRL I basically never ever yell at or shake anyone, it just makes me wish I could is all) or ideally rub their noses in the fact that they have lost someone I am 100% confident is the best bar manager they could have been lucky enough to employ. I really hope you get a better place.
    Fuck, I wish I had more than internet hugs :-(

  470. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @ButchKitties #463 & Tony! – just generally:

    Scuttlebutt is that the guy is *thisclose* to getting fired

    I thought Scuttlebutt is a sentient intergalactic spacecraft and hero in her own right fighting a rearguard action with Beta Ray Bill against a horde of spacefaring demons…

    Sorry, just me? Too obscure?

    :crickets:

    Right, I’ll see myself out.

    @CaitieCat & Azkyroth, 467 & 466 respectively:

    conservation-of-jizz

    We’ll be getting around to something like that next week.

    In the meantime, does the coach enforce a ban on autofellatio? And if he does, what is his reasoning?

  471. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    In the meantime, does the coach enforce a ban on autofellatio? And if he does, what is his reasoning?

    Reduces engine performance? :P

  472. says

    Car runs horribly after getting some gas. Fill up the rest of the way at another gas station, running a bit better but still not great. Add dri-gas, bam, back to normal.

    I think I’ve found a gas station I don’t want to go to anymore. Which is a pity. Their premium(which my owners manual specifies) is a little cheaper than most other places.

  474. says

    Crop Dyke thank you for the gender workshop. We’re not even a day in, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot.

    ***

    Tony! FossilFishy and whomever else wants one have some *fluffyhugs*

    ***

    Oggie, how’s that new laptop treating you?

  476. says

    Rawnaeris:

    We’re not even a day in, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot.

    Seconded. I now have a much better grasp of gender dysphoria, for instance (and that’s one of the things I wanted to understand). There are times dictionary definitions help me understand a concept, and times when they don’t. This is one of those times. I can’t explain it, but when commenters defined gender dysphoria and described it based on their lived experiences, it sunk in so much better than reading a Wiki entry.

    ****

    Crip Dyke:

    I thought Scuttlebutt is a sentient intergalactic spacecraft and hero in her own right fighting a rearguard action with Beta Ray Bill against a horde of spacefaring demons…

    Sorry, just me? Too obscure?

    Oh you rock so hard right now.

    That’s exactly what I thought when I saw the word ‘Scuttlebutt’. You’re a nerd all right and I love ya for that.

    ___

    Have you thought about adding the workshop to the Pharyngula wiki (once it’s over)? I have no idea how you would add it, but it seems like a great resource to have available (and that’s just based on the first exercise; I can’t wait to see what else is in store).

  478. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Tonight I became one with the propane grill. Enough pork chops, lamb chops, and thin filet mignon to make up a weeks worth of meals. But its always the starch/veggies/other that add to the time. Tonight it’s sauteing mushrooms. Tomorrow, cooking fresh green beans. That’s what I get for putting the Redhead in charge of dinner. Sigh…

  479. Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) says

    Tonight I became one with the propane grill.

    FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY! D:

  480. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Rawnaeris, Lulu Cthulhu, #474/5
    You can tell Crop Dyke apart because the scythe-wielding immortal with whom Crop Dyke gets down is Demeter, AKA Ceres (and her herald, Iambe).

    And the nerd hits just keep on coming!

    Also, thanks for the kind words about the workshop thread.

    I can’t tell y’all how pleased I am that it’s brought lurkers into the Horde.

    @Azkyroth, 471:

    In the meantime, does the coach enforce a ban on autofellatio? And if he does, what is his reasoning?

    Reduces engine performance? :P

    You are encourageable.

    …and I would have gone with “risk of carbon monoxide poisoning”.

  482. says

    I had no idea that that sexual expression manifested in so many ways:
    (excerpt)

    “Okay so I was chatting on a website and this guy approached me saying he wanted to be blackmailed for money. He told me he would give me $100 on Thursday if I logged into his Facebook account and humiliated him. I’m a little freaked out, but what should I tell him??” (query from ‘answers.yahoo.com‘)

    In a previous blog I examined hybristophilia (a sexual paraphilia in which an individual derives sexual arousal and pleasure from having a sexual partner who is known to have committed serious crimes, such as rape, murder, or armed robbery). Another criminally-related paraphilia is chremastistophilia. In this paraphilia, the individual derives sexual arousal and pleasure from being robbed, conned, cheated, blackmailed and/or being held up by the individual’s sexual partner (or in a few cases, a complete stranger). Some websites (such as kinkify.com) colloquially refer to it as the “hold-up kink”.

    Some have speculated that the strong emotions of frustration, fear, annoyance, rage, and/or submission are subconsciously drawn upon by chremastistophiles and then focused into sexual arousal/gratification. This could be viewed as ‘edge play’ (i.e., rough and deviant sexual play enjoyed by sexual masochists and sexual sadists) as the behaviour can be life threatening for chremasistophiles to actively seek out someone to steal from them purely for sexual kicks.

    The reciprocal condition where the sexual focus is on charging or robbing one’s sexual partner has not been given a name. Those people who derive sexual pleasure and arousal from breaking and entering a property (and then stealing) is known as kleptophilia (which I overviewed in a previous blog). In my research into chremastistophilia, I have yet to come across a single piece of empirical research on the topic. Most of the evidence appears to be anecdotal.

    http://drmarkgriffiths.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/crash-and-turn-on-a-brief-look-at-chremastistophilia-and-symphorophilia/

  483. ButchKitties says

    Crip Dyke:

    I have to admit, I did not get the reference. Those volumes were a little before my time. Thanks for broadening my geek horizons! Now I have even more reason to love that word.

  487. A. Noyd says

    Dalillama (#484)

    For joy and happiness, another mass shooting, at Seattle Pacific University this time. One dead, five injured.

    Holy shit, I grew up a few blocks from there. We used to rent our basement rooms to some of the students. My mother hired other students as babysitters. In fact, one of them forgot she was supposed to babysit for us one night and (this being before widespread use of cell phones) we had to go track her down in the very hall where the shooting took place.

    Also, if this news article is accurate, it sounds like the students did a great job dealing with this.

  488. says

    Ugh. I’m having a chat with a friend on FB. This is a friend I’ve had sexy funtimes with in the past and would like to again (he’s open to it as well). It’s been a pleasant conversation. He just used the word b*t*h, and I responded with my reasons for not liking the term. Of course *that*’s the time that FB fucks up and doesn’t post my response. Sheesh.

  491. says

    I hate my brain, and the world. It turns out that I actually had until today for that assignement, but I didn’t learn that til late last night, and I still couldn’t focus today, so I still have fuck all for code, and when I managed to make even a little progress my fucking computer crashed. So I’m still going to get, at best, an I in this class, I don’t think I’ll be able to catch up in math in time for the final on fucking monday, and I bombed my exam last week in that class, and I had to drop out of calculus, and at this point I feel like I’ve completely wasted the last 6 months plus all the fucking tuition, but there’s fuck-all I can do about it now. I really have no fucking clue where to go or what to do from here, although my inclination is to just quit this program and try to find a second gig as a cook somewhere instead (for all the good that will do me, given the job situation around here; the whole reason I’m back in school is to try to qualify for a field that’s hiring, but who the fuck wants to be a corporate peon again, and what jobs are there in coding that aren’t that? I’m so fucking depressed right now.

  494. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Good show, WMDKitty. I’m really happy for you.

    I take it, however, that “stable” means that you won’t be able to lower the dose on the meds that are bugging you but that you cannot replace until they become cheaper? Am i right? It would be nice if you could cut it a bit to see if the side effects reduce.

  495. says

    I’ve never been treated for the Hep C, it’s been “You’re healthy, let’s just wait and see” the whole time.

    The rest of the meds I’m on are, let’s see… two psych meds, one pain pill, one allergy pill, and one pill for acid reflux, and those are essential if I want to be anywhere approaching functional.

  498. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Ugh, is my memory faulty, then, WMDKitty? Nope. Went back and checked.

    So the idea is to finally **start** getting something done about the Hep C? Damn. I thought you had a less-then-acceptable treatment but at least you had a treatment. Waiting for a treatment *at all*? Even suckier than I thought.

    Well, best to you, and glad the virus is at least slackin’.

    @rq, #496:

    I did appreciate 4 & 7, #6 creeped me out.

    But the weirdest thing was just the nature of the list itself.

    Here’s where I go for packing essentials.

  499. says

    http://www.iflscience.com/space/new-camera-examines-saurons-eye

    When astronomers use a new telescope or other piece of equipment for the first time they like to make it special. After all enough money and effort has gone into the process, and there’s all the excitement of making sure it works. So for the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research instrument (SPHERE) they picked a star that looks remarkably like the Eye of Sauron.

    The purpose of SPHERE is so exciting it didn’t really need anything special, but its operators gave it a beginning to remember anyway. Its purpose is to directly view planets around other stars. Although this has been done before, only a handful of planets with just the right combination of characteristics have been able to be imaged this way since 2004.

    Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/space/new-camera-examines-saurons-eye#fsmtXutR5UiR0ClH.99

    ****

    Back in 1777, German physicist Professor Georg Lichtenberg made a curious discovery; when dust in the air settled on electrically charged plates, beautiful tree-like “dust figures” formed. Lichtenberg believed that these figures showed the motion of the electric field. The figures, which were later named Lichtenberg figures, sparked a great amount of interest in scientists and philosophers because they believed they demonstrated the true nature of the electric field. Today, we know that Lichtenberg figures are branching patterns that may be created when high voltage electrical discharges pass either along the surface or through insulating materials.
    http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/what-does-it-look-when-person-gets-struck-lightning#LAVR6rJZc6slpPPv.99

    There are pictures of two people hit by lightning and the resultant Lichtenberg figures on their bodies. The two men were fine after the strikes, and the leaf like patterns disappeared shortly thereafter.

    ****

    Edible water bottles