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Although obviously it would be better if people needing abortions could just go to a clinic, it's great to hear that the medical option provided by Women on Web has been proven safe and effective.
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"In Mysticism and Philosophy, Stace (1960) argued for what he termed a common core to mystical experience. Stace's common core thesis is based on several assumptions. Most important for the present discussion here are these four:
1. One can distinguish experience from interpretation of experience [in a particular religious/spiritual framework]
2. All mystical experiences are characterized as an experience of unity.
3. The experience of unity may be introvertive (a pure contentless consciousness) or extrovertive (experience of unity in diversity).
4. The ontological status of the unity in both introvertive and extrovertive mysticisms is the same “one.”"
Ralph Hood (2012) in "Alan Watts - Here and Now"
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Great post. A major key to Amazon's success is offering internal services to external customers, with the resulting competitive pressures ensuring that those services remain maximally efficient and effective
"While there are usually some compelling cost savings to be had from vertical integration (either through insourcing services or acquiring suppliers/customers), the increased margins typically evaporate over time as the “supplier” gets complacent with a captive, internal “customer.”... The financial genius of turning this infrastructure into an external product (Amazon Web Services) has been well-covered — the windfalls have been enormous, to the tune of a $14 billion annual run rate. But the revenue bonanza is a footnote compared to the overlooked organizational insight that Amazon discovered: By carving out an operational piece of the company as a platform, they could future-proof the company against inefficiency and technological stagnation."
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So, I'm kind of a hippie, as are many of my friends. One common feature of being in hippie (or generally 'alternative') spaces is that you will encounter many white people who wear their hair in dreadlocks. I really worry about what message that sends to people of colour in those spaces, which is connected to a bigger worry about how normatively 'white' these spaces are in general.
This is not to say that white people who wear dreadlocks are 'bad people', don't have their own (possibly quite personally important) reasons for wearing this style, or even that they haven't thought about this issue. I'm sure many of them have thought about it, and I'd actually specifically like to hear what they have to say on this (please comment below or PM if you think this applies to you!).
As a primer to my thinking about this, I'd suggest reading this article, as it is expresses a great deal of empathy and understanding for why some white people are drawn to this style, but is also quite clear on why it's usually inappropriate.
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For months now, Cape Town has been dealing with increasingly severe water restrictions under 'drought' conditions. At what point do you basically accept that the climate has changed, and this may in fact be the new normal?
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Really horrifying stories in here, and difficult to know what to do with this information. Obviously legalisation is incredibly urgent, precisely to prevent these kinds of abuses in the supply chain. But should individual users of cannabis in the UK give it up in the meantime? This is pretty much my position with cocaine, which is associated with even more severe human rights abuses.
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Incredible, heart-wrenching, complex story. Worth reading in full
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I went to see the author talk about her book the other night, and she was great. Highly recommend getting hold of a copy!
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Well this is just rage-inducing...
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"Even the most open-ended games tend to offer a sense of progress and direction, completion and commitment. In other words, they make people happy—or at least happier, serving as a buffer between the player and despair. Video games, you might say, offer a sort of universal basic income for the soul." Reason
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I thought this was a good insight
"there are many ways to build an inclusive environment, and to enjoy the diversity that often follows from it. One great way, that I think might’ve been overlooked, is to keep things professional. When our office culture is focused on business rather than socializing, we reduce the number of ways in which we all have to be the same. When we do that, we allow diversity to flourish. If your culture expects people to work long hours or hang out off-hours, the strain on the people who are different, in whatever way, is increased, and your ability to retain a diverse work force is reduced."
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"The scientists calculated that one 220,000-gallon, commercial-size swimming pool contained almost 20 gallons of urine."
(Seriously though, it's a health risk, don't do it)
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"So an accurate way for the Government to have presented its action would have been to claim that it was using public funds to speed up the provision of social housing in Kensington that was already in the pipeline and specifically earmarking it for the benefit of ex-Grenfell residents.
So why didn’t they just say that?
One possibility is that with the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn putting pressure on the Government to requisition empty luxury homes in Kensington for use by Grenfell survivors, it suited ministers to allow the impression to go out that they were doing something radical along those lines." Independent
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Very interesting article. Would love to hear opinions on it, including critical opinions.
I'm not sure about the specific physiological mechanisms of trauma described here, or about the appropriateness of the term 'trauma'. But I definitely believe that empathy is an (almost) universal human experience, meaning it's impossible for someone to oppress others without first shutting down their connection to their own emotions and therefore their own body.
That said, I think it's probably possible to dance really well and still be racist and/or oppressive in other ways!
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Really important piece. Some feminists are happy to ally with Christian conservatives when they oppose rights for sex workers, conveniently ignoring the blatant misogyny underlying their entire political project.
"UK-wide attention has belatedly turned to the controversial positions held by the DUP on LGBT rights, same-sex marriage, climate change, and abortion. Unsurprisingly, feminists are appalled.
It wasn’t so in 2015, however, when Northern Ireland became the first region of the UK to adopt the so-called Nordic model, which makes the purchase of sex illegal. The bill was led by the DUP and was celebrated by many as a feminist victory; Lord Morrow, who tabled the bill, believed to be driven by enlightened compassion."
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"At the Wetherby School in England, a school Princes William and Harry attended, the spaces reserved by newborns fill up early each month, and the school advises women scheduling cesarean sections to have them on the first of the month, if possible, to get a place before all the spots are gone."
- Who gets what and why, Alvin Roth
