This article merely expresses general anxiety about the phenomenon of indirect cultural literacy (i.e. knowing *about* cultural works without ever having actually read, heard or seen them). NY Times
For a more interesting take, get a hold of Pierre Bayard's "How to talk about books you haven't read". Amazon
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"[Google] had for several years been testing everyday cars equipped with sensors, navigation equipment and computers to drive themselves but in the meantime it has secretly developed a prototype from scratch that will have no facility for a human to take control, other than an emergency stop button." Guardian
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A list of some amusing animal names in German. Twenty two words
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Yep. Not something I picked up when I saw the movie for the first time as a kid, but created a major WTF moment when I re-watched it a couple of years ago.
"One of the major plot points of Revenge of the Nerds is Lewis putting on a Darth Vader mask, pretending to be his jock nemesis Stan, and then having sex with Stan’s girlfriend. Initially shocked when she finds out his true identity, she’s so taken by his sexual prowess—“All jocks think about is sports. All nerds think about is sex.”—that the two of them become an item.
Classic nerd fantasy, right? Immensely attractive to the young male audience who saw it. And a stock trope, the “bed trick,” that many of the nerds watching probably knew dates back to the legend of King Arthur.
It’s also, you know, rape." Daily Beast
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Interesting stuff on how parenting styles differ by socioeconomic class, and how "adventure playgrounds" fit into this picture. Link
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An experiment in hygiene via ADDING bacteria to the skin.
"The chairman of the company’s board of directors, Jamie Heywood, lathers up once or twice a month and shampoos just three times a year. The most extreme case is David Whitlock, the M.I.T.-trained chemical engineer who invented AO+. He has not showered for the past 12 years. He occasionally takes a sponge bath to wash away grime but trusts his skin’s bacterial colony to do the rest. I met these men. I got close enough to shake their hands, engage in casual conversation and note that they in no way conveyed a sense of being “unclean” in either the visual or olfactory sense." NY Times
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More stuff about police brutality and unlawful evictions in SA. Con Mag
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I'm not sure this dude totally grapples with his privilege, but it's interesting just to note how differently a parent with serious child care commitments is treated if he happens to be a man.
"No one has ever questioned my work ethic to my face because I’m a father. In fact, one day I was so tired from caring for my two children—at the time a 2-year-old boy and a 3-month-old baby girl with colic—that I simply lost my ability to speak coherently in front of my colleagues. I stood up to talk at a very important meeting and nothing came out. I invoked my exhausted state, apologized, and went home. There were no consequences. If anything, my role as a working dad raised my profile within my institution, even before I started writing about those issues for CNN." Chronicle
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As a clever headline-writer pointed out in reference to the original scandal, the objection of MPs to having an "adult" shop situated near Parliament reveals only that they, ironically, just need to grow up. Sunday Times
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It is true that, if you adopt a "generous" reading of Ariel Levy's book, you can find an argument about the role of cultural representations in shaping women's sexuality, and specifically shaping it so as to support men's sexual entitlement.
HOWEVER, it is unclear (or, actually, it's super clear) why she and other self-declared feminists are so persistent in focusing on the representations produced by the most marginalised people. Why focus on pornography and "the marketing of sex work on the Web" as opposed to, say, Disney or the mainstream film industry in general? In fact, probably the majority of cultural products produced in the Western world, insofar as they relate to sex, express or reproduce men's entitlement to women's bodies.
And attacks on sex work do NOT simply fall into place as part of a broader cultural critique - Disney animators are NOT at risk at having their jobs rendered illegal or being harassed by the police; whiny male novelists are NOT having their work censored or having the conditions of their work dictated by the state. Boston Review
For a more interesting take, get a hold of Pierre Bayard's "How to talk about books you haven't read". Amazon
>>><<<
"[Google] had for several years been testing everyday cars equipped with sensors, navigation equipment and computers to drive themselves but in the meantime it has secretly developed a prototype from scratch that will have no facility for a human to take control, other than an emergency stop button." Guardian
>>><<<
A list of some amusing animal names in German. Twenty two words
>>><<<
Yep. Not something I picked up when I saw the movie for the first time as a kid, but created a major WTF moment when I re-watched it a couple of years ago.
"One of the major plot points of Revenge of the Nerds is Lewis putting on a Darth Vader mask, pretending to be his jock nemesis Stan, and then having sex with Stan’s girlfriend. Initially shocked when she finds out his true identity, she’s so taken by his sexual prowess—“All jocks think about is sports. All nerds think about is sex.”—that the two of them become an item.
Classic nerd fantasy, right? Immensely attractive to the young male audience who saw it. And a stock trope, the “bed trick,” that many of the nerds watching probably knew dates back to the legend of King Arthur.
It’s also, you know, rape." Daily Beast
>>><<<
Interesting stuff on how parenting styles differ by socioeconomic class, and how "adventure playgrounds" fit into this picture. Link
>>><<<
An experiment in hygiene via ADDING bacteria to the skin.
"The chairman of the company’s board of directors, Jamie Heywood, lathers up once or twice a month and shampoos just three times a year. The most extreme case is David Whitlock, the M.I.T.-trained chemical engineer who invented AO+. He has not showered for the past 12 years. He occasionally takes a sponge bath to wash away grime but trusts his skin’s bacterial colony to do the rest. I met these men. I got close enough to shake their hands, engage in casual conversation and note that they in no way conveyed a sense of being “unclean” in either the visual or olfactory sense." NY Times
>>><<<
More stuff about police brutality and unlawful evictions in SA. Con Mag
>>><<<
I'm not sure this dude totally grapples with his privilege, but it's interesting just to note how differently a parent with serious child care commitments is treated if he happens to be a man.
"No one has ever questioned my work ethic to my face because I’m a father. In fact, one day I was so tired from caring for my two children—at the time a 2-year-old boy and a 3-month-old baby girl with colic—that I simply lost my ability to speak coherently in front of my colleagues. I stood up to talk at a very important meeting and nothing came out. I invoked my exhausted state, apologized, and went home. There were no consequences. If anything, my role as a working dad raised my profile within my institution, even before I started writing about those issues for CNN." Chronicle
>>><<<
As a clever headline-writer pointed out in reference to the original scandal, the objection of MPs to having an "adult" shop situated near Parliament reveals only that they, ironically, just need to grow up. Sunday Times
>>><<<
It is true that, if you adopt a "generous" reading of Ariel Levy's book, you can find an argument about the role of cultural representations in shaping women's sexuality, and specifically shaping it so as to support men's sexual entitlement.
HOWEVER, it is unclear (or, actually, it's super clear) why she and other self-declared feminists are so persistent in focusing on the representations produced by the most marginalised people. Why focus on pornography and "the marketing of sex work on the Web" as opposed to, say, Disney or the mainstream film industry in general? In fact, probably the majority of cultural products produced in the Western world, insofar as they relate to sex, express or reproduce men's entitlement to women's bodies.
And attacks on sex work do NOT simply fall into place as part of a broader cultural critique - Disney animators are NOT at risk at having their jobs rendered illegal or being harassed by the police; whiny male novelists are NOT having their work censored or having the conditions of their work dictated by the state. Boston Review
>>><<<
A summary of what is known about alcohol intoxication generally and hangovers specifically.
"If it’s correct that cytokines are the key to hangovers, then that would suggest a simple and profound approach to treatment. That is, if the mechanism of hangover is an inflammatory response—as to a wound or illness—then maybe anti-inflammatories are the way to dispel it." Wired
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Some statistics about the circumstances around cycles deaths in the US. One take-away: watch out for rear-end collisions! Vox
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"I know why people have this attitude. For centuries, books were wisdom in paper form. Without Internet access or even widespread education, destroying books meant destroying perhaps-irreplaceable knowledge and history. And obviously nobody is advocating tossing out copies of the Gutenberg Bible or anything.
People, the world has changed. I feel it in the 75th printing of Fifty Shades of Grey, and I smell it in the local library's moldy copy of Protecting Your Child from Ritual Satanic Abuse. Book printing is now cheap, easy, and completely morally neutral. Just because you've stuck some words on paper, that doesn't mean that paper is sacred or worthy." Cracked
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"That’s when I realized that my moral code in this virtual world was highly situational. When I was safe, clothed, and armed, my instinct was to help the girl that JB shot. When I was naked and alone, I felt no qualms about butchering a guy with a rock if I thought it would help me survive. What did I have to lose? It’s a lot harder to maintain one’s morals when you’re at the bottom of the food chain. I wondered if that rule would also apply if I were to lose everything in real life." Wired
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Some interesting anecdotes about being a doctor (particularly in a system where doctors are placed as gatekeepers for accessing insured care and opiates). Cracked
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A discussion of the AmPlats miners' strike and the broader changes in labour politics currently occurring in SA. Daily Maverick
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"In short, I tend to avoid the “confessional” style of talking about my sexual orientation or my HIV status because I fear that the language of confession tends to erase the singularity of my existence as a human being and sets up a hierarchical opposition between “normal” people and poor “abnormal” me." Daily Maverick
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"Despite several efforts made by organisations advocating sex workers’ human rights for progress to be made on Project 107 over the past 13 years – and while sex workers continue to be harassed, raped, assaulted and murdered – our efforts remain fruitless.
We call on you, President Zuma, to take urgent steps to address these human rights violations by decriminalising sex work." City Press
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Well, this is very bad. There were rumours when I was at Bishops, but I never took them seriously until now. A gross failure of the school's duty of care towards it's students.
"The Sunday Times has since established that a second incident involving a teacher and a Grade 11 pupil has been kept under wraps since 1990, when the boy's parents lodged a complaint.
Incredibly, the teacher, Leonard Kaplan, was allowed to remain at the school for more than 20 years despite the matter being widely known among the school community. He retired four years ago." Sunday Times
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The drug war is totally out of control. These police basically assaulted a woman because they suspected she was taken illegal drugs. She was, in fact, taking paracetamol, but how could this sort of action possibly be justified even if she WAS taking something illegal? Counter current news
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Some interesting anecdotes about being a doctor (particularly in a system where doctors are placed as gatekeepers for accessing insured care and opiates). Cracked
>>><<<
A discussion of the AmPlats miners' strike and the broader changes in labour politics currently occurring in SA. Daily Maverick
>>><<<
"In short, I tend to avoid the “confessional” style of talking about my sexual orientation or my HIV status because I fear that the language of confession tends to erase the singularity of my existence as a human being and sets up a hierarchical opposition between “normal” people and poor “abnormal” me." Daily Maverick
>>><<<
"Despite several efforts made by organisations advocating sex workers’ human rights for progress to be made on Project 107 over the past 13 years – and while sex workers continue to be harassed, raped, assaulted and murdered – our efforts remain fruitless.
We call on you, President Zuma, to take urgent steps to address these human rights violations by decriminalising sex work." City Press
>>><<<
Well, this is very bad. There were rumours when I was at Bishops, but I never took them seriously until now. A gross failure of the school's duty of care towards it's students.
"The Sunday Times has since established that a second incident involving a teacher and a Grade 11 pupil has been kept under wraps since 1990, when the boy's parents lodged a complaint.
Incredibly, the teacher, Leonard Kaplan, was allowed to remain at the school for more than 20 years despite the matter being widely known among the school community. He retired four years ago." Sunday Times
>>><<<
The drug war is totally out of control. These police basically assaulted a woman because they suspected she was taken illegal drugs. She was, in fact, taking paracetamol, but how could this sort of action possibly be justified even if she WAS taking something illegal? Counter current news
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