The Blogaround
This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Characterization Through Buzz-Words
The subject of Bella's paper -- whether or not Shakespeare's treatment of the female characters in Macbeth is misogynistic -- is her own topic. But it's a topic that does not fit her character as outlined, a topic dropped into the narrative for no purpose or addition to her character except to try to glom a buzzword onto Bella.
Twilight: Characterization Through Buzz-Words
The subject of Bella's paper -- whether or not Shakespeare's treatment of the female characters in Macbeth is misogynistic -- is her own topic. But it's a topic that does not fit her character as outlined, a topic dropped into the narrative for no purpose or addition to her character except to try to glom a buzzword onto Bella.
This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: Veils and Sweat Pants
I abhor cultures who force women to dress in ways that make some of them uncomfortable. I just don't think the best way to counter those cultures is to force women to dress in ways that make some of them uncomfortable.
Deconstruction: Veils and Sweat Pants
I abhor cultures who force women to dress in ways that make some of them uncomfortable. I just don't think the best way to counter those cultures is to force women to dress in ways that make some of them uncomfortable.
This week Laiima posted what I've been doing lately, feeling blue and 2nd reimagined garment project.
chris the cynic reports:
This week I wrote a story fragment in which a bitter narrator blames the fall of an order of dragon riders on the rise of agriculture and thus civilization. I also saw a mental health professional for the first time in a long time, maybe something good will come of it. I don't have a post on that though.
yamikuronue reports: Last weekend I managed to do a tea review of Teavana again. I did one TPD post, and announced that I'm cutting back to one TPD per week in favor of a second deconstruction, this time of a "chick-lit" novel "recommended" by a friend. I also did another RSS Quickies post, this time about mismatched chairs being "trendy", and asked for feedback on some potential covers for my next novel.
This week, Storiteller continues her quest to bike at least once every day of the month and recounts a particularly enjoyable ride down to and around America's capital city in Ride Report: I Heart D.C.. She's also been worrying over the early stages of her garden, biding her time and hoping for patience, as she describes in A Watched Plant Never Grows?.
TRiG writes: This week on my blog I posted a brief discussion of the
intersection between gay rights and trans
rights,
while on my links blog I posted another brief comment about cultural
differences, programming, and
names, and yet
another glance at how we embed our values into technology in the
database engineer's guide to gay
marriage.
I also decided that scepticism is a tool for examining your own
beliefs, not a platform from which to belittle
others'.
Literata thinks that refusing women health care
shouldn't be the
cost of doing religion. She also commented on (Trigger Warning: rape, rape apology) more
proxy Mormon rites and gives advice to Pagans for being aware of
recent murders
in Mexico. On a positive note, she found some amazing visualizations
of wind, the Wheel of the Year, and desire. She also wrote about her relationship with the landbase
of her youth and explored what
that means to her today. Finally, she celebrated the latest success
from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and explained why
recognition for Pagans isn't enough to solve some of the deep-seated
Christian prejudices in the military.
Coleslaw writes: My late mother-in-law used to cook the Easter Bunny (well, stewed rabbit) for Easter Dinner, but I prefer ham. I link to some tasty recipes in the post. I am chagrined when I can't lift a bag of potting soil weighing a Puny 40 pounds, but I finally get the soil into the pots and the pots In the Garden (has pictures of healthy looking plants I haven't managed to kill yet). Finally, I get a request to use my Cladoselache fossil picture in a term paper, which comes as a surprise to me since I can't remember which picture that was.
sarah writes: This week, I wrote a post on being an introvert, posted a poem that a commenter wrote, and wrote about good news, since I'm sort of exhausted from all of the bad news.
This week MercuryBlue discussed the implications of the parable of the vineyard.
Michael Mock writes: This week at Mock Ramblings, I noted that Professional Artists Make Me Crazy, expressed my frustration, melancholy, and general exhaustion in The Widening Gyre, considered one possible danger of the writing process in Empire Risen, Empire Fallen, and did my best to explain the coolness of my five-year-old son's personal superhero, Lightning Zapzers. I also added a couple of filler pieces with Youtube videos: Beep Beep and Danny Bhoy. Oh, and back on Sunday - to celebrate Easter, in other words - I posted a slightly deranged bit of urban fantasy which I call Bunnies, It Must Be Bunnies.
Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Fevered Dreams
Apparently all this stuff just sort of happened in the time while Edward was aggressively ignoring Bella in the wake of the van incident. It all sounds very fascinating; I'm sorry we had to miss it in favor of all the googling.
Twilight: Fevered Dreams
Apparently all this stuff just sort of happened in the time while Edward was aggressively ignoring Bella in the wake of the van incident. It all sounds very fascinating; I'm sorry we had to miss it in favor of all the googling.
In case you missed this
Catholic students fight back against archdiocese's anti-family rhetoric, Minneapolis' Catholic DeLaSalle High School had a mandatory assembly recently for its senior class, to educate the students on what marriage is and what a family ought to look like. As you might guess, this also meant telling the students who didn't count as a family and why some families were bad. [Maggie Koerth-Baker, Friday, Apr 13, Boingboing.net]
(Trigger Warning: Discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation)
Increasingly in Europe, Suicides ‘by Economic Crisis’, The economic downturn that has shaken Europe for the last three years has also swept away the foundations of once-sturdy lives, leading to an alarming spike in suicide rates. Especially in the most fragile nations like Greece, Ireland and Italy, small-business owners and entrepreneurs are increasingly taking their own lives in a phenomenon some European newspapers have started calling “suicide by economic crisis.” [The New York Times, April 14, 2012]
John Scalzi provides (free, legal) links to his short story as well as the four other short stories nominated for Hugo Awards this year: Your Weekend Reading: The 2012 Short Story Hugo Nominees
[Canadian]Wiretap Law: Supreme Court Strikes Down Emergency Exception, Requires Warrants: The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down a law that allowed police to immediately start wiretaps in urgent cases without getting a search warrant.
The 9-0 ruling stripped police of an investigative power and gave Parliament 12 months to rewrite the law to fix a breach under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The 9-0 ruling stripped police of an investigative power and gave Parliament 12 months to rewrite the law to fix a breach under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
MercuryBlue reports: The Republicans really have gotten considerably more conservative over time. Political science proves it. Trying to figure out where they got the line that Democrats have gotten more liberal, though--their own graph indicates otherwise.
This article (Emotions and Facial Expressions) is a tutorial on how to recognize emotions through facial expressions, hand gestures and posture.
For those who are looking for a news source that either isn't part of the regular cable lineup or which does not require a television set -- Al Jazeera has an English live stream.
This week Raj received the following letter from Change.org:
Raj -
We are still devastated by the loss of our son Trayvon Martin, and nothing can bring him back. But today, we are heartened to tell you that justice may finally be served for Trayvon.
This evening, Florida State Attorney Angela Corey announced that she will charge George Zimmerman with 2nd degree murder, weeks after he confessed to killing Trayvon -- and now he's in custody.
For weeks after Trayvon was killed, authorities refused to arrest Zimmerman. We couldn't believe that in 2012, public officials would turn a blind eye to our son's killing. We couldn't let that happen.
More than 2 million people joined our call for Zimmerman's arrest. We are so much closer to justice with the decision to bring charges against our son’s killer. We feel less alone knowing that so many people stood with our family during this impossible time.
When Trayvon was just nine, he ran into a burning house to save his father's life. He may be gone, but he is still our hero. We are so thankful to all of you who fought to honor his memory.
Thank you for standing with us, and with Trayvon.
- Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton
Raj -
We are still devastated by the loss of our son Trayvon Martin, and nothing can bring him back. But today, we are heartened to tell you that justice may finally be served for Trayvon.
This evening, Florida State Attorney Angela Corey announced that she will charge George Zimmerman with 2nd degree murder, weeks after he confessed to killing Trayvon -- and now he's in custody.
For weeks after Trayvon was killed, authorities refused to arrest Zimmerman. We couldn't believe that in 2012, public officials would turn a blind eye to our son's killing. We couldn't let that happen.
More than 2 million people joined our call for Zimmerman's arrest. We are so much closer to justice with the decision to bring charges against our son’s killer. We feel less alone knowing that so many people stood with our family during this impossible time.
When Trayvon was just nine, he ran into a burning house to save his father's life. He may be gone, but he is still our hero. We are so thankful to all of you who fought to honor his memory.
Thank you for standing with us, and with Trayvon.
- Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton
Things you can do
sarah reports: Jamie Moffett, a friend of mine, has started an organization called Kensington Renewal. Kensington is Philly's poorest neighborhood, and Jamie, who has lived in Kensington for the past 10 years, is trying to turn some of the "abandominiums" into owner-occupied homes.
The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about it here. If you'd like to help out financially, you can do it here.
The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about it here. If you'd like to help out financially, you can do it here.
(Trigger Warning: disturbing descriptions of severe birth trauma)
The Fistula Foundation is devoted to the care of women in Africa who have suffered severe physical trauma giving birth.
The Fistula Foundation is devoted to the care of women in Africa who have suffered severe physical trauma giving birth.
Water For People brings together local entrepreneurs, civil society, governments, and communities to establish creative, collaborative solutions that allow people to build and maintain their own reliable safe water systems. Empowering everyone transforms people’s lives by improving health and economic productivity to end the cycle of poverty.
From allout.org:
Electronic Arts (EA), maker of the highly popular Star Wars: The Old Republic video game - is the target of a boycott orchestrated by hateful anti-gay groups. Why? Because they had the courage to give players around the world the option of including a gay romance storyline in their interactive Star Wars game.
Right now, thousands of anti-gay letters are flooding Electronic Arts headquarters, threatening to push the company and its staff to the dark side ("Homos are ruining gaming!" wrote one boycotter. "I urge all parents to keep any EA games from their children to prevent them to be AIDS-spreading, Satan-loving scum," wrote another).
But we can do something about it - if we channel the force for good. Companies like Electronic Arts need to be rewarded when they do the right thing. And together we can help them stand their ground. Sign this urgent letter to Electronic Arts (EA) now, asking them to stay strong and resist the dark side. When 50,000 of us sign on, All Out members will make news by dressing as Star Wars characters and delivering your letters directly to Electronic Arts headquarters.
UPDATE: AllOut.org has temporarily disabled the campaign page of its website due to a cyber attack by hackers. In the attack, hackers added roughly 3000-5000 comments and signatures onto the petition. AllOut.org is currently in the process of removing those signatures, but can verify that over 60,000 members have sign onto the petition and continue to urge Electronic Arts to stay away from the dark side.
Electronic Arts (EA), maker of the highly popular Star Wars: The Old Republic video game - is the target of a boycott orchestrated by hateful anti-gay groups. Why? Because they had the courage to give players around the world the option of including a gay romance storyline in their interactive Star Wars game.
Right now, thousands of anti-gay letters are flooding Electronic Arts headquarters, threatening to push the company and its staff to the dark side ("Homos are ruining gaming!" wrote one boycotter. "I urge all parents to keep any EA games from their children to prevent them to be AIDS-spreading, Satan-loving scum," wrote another).
But we can do something about it - if we channel the force for good. Companies like Electronic Arts need to be rewarded when they do the right thing. And together we can help them stand their ground. Sign this urgent letter to Electronic Arts (EA) now, asking them to stay strong and resist the dark side. When 50,000 of us sign on, All Out members will make news by dressing as Star Wars characters and delivering your letters directly to Electronic Arts headquarters.
UPDATE: AllOut.org has temporarily disabled the campaign page of its website due to a cyber attack by hackers. In the attack, hackers added roughly 3000-5000 comments and signatures onto the petition. AllOut.org is currently in the process of removing those signatures, but can verify that over 60,000 members have sign onto the petition and continue to urge Electronic Arts to stay away from the dark side.
--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community
The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post.
MercyBlue?
Posted by: Beroli | Apr 15, 2012 at 09:30 AM
@Beroli: Blush--proof read fail. Fixed.
Posted by: The Board Administration Team | Apr 15, 2012 at 09:41 AM
Huh. My roommate from college actually worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic (she was a storywriter for BioWare). I wonder if she's heard about all this...
Posted by: sarah | Apr 16, 2012 at 09:48 AM
warning, food horror
If the USDA goes ahead with their latest genius plan, there will be chicken shit in our chicken. Currently industrial poultry lines move at 35 birds/min; the bottleneck is the USDA inspection for things like shit on the birds. Remove those inspectors, as the plan for privatizing this part of USDA operations says, and the line would go to 200 birds/min. Have fun seeing anything wrong with one of the birds, like there being shit on it, at that speed.
Posted by: MercuryBlue | Apr 17, 2012 at 07:02 PM
Yuck.
Posted by: cjmr, who will probably figure out her typepad logon eventually | Apr 17, 2012 at 08:12 PM
This is why The Jungle should be required reading in schools...
Posted by: Froborr | Apr 17, 2012 at 08:20 PM
And the truly scary thing is that this plan is being devised under a government that theoretically does not see government oversight as eeeeeevil.
Posted by: cjmr, who will probably figure out her typepad logon eventually | Apr 17, 2012 at 08:41 PM
Froborr, it *is* required reading at many US high schools, including the home and headquarters of Tyson Foods, major poultry (and pork) processor.
And the students say "Ewwww, gross, and refuse to see how it has any relevance to their lives.
Posted by: hapax | Apr 17, 2012 at 09:21 PM
Hey, guess what the Family Research Council has decided?
The secret service prostitution scandal was caused by the repeal of DADT
As I understand it, their argument is that the Secret Service agents thought to themselves "Is it acceptable for us to hire prostitutes? Hm. Well, there's nothing about it specifically in the rulebook. But gays are allowed to serve openly in the military, and that's kinda the same thing, so I think we can assume that it's okay."
I think the fail is giving me a nosebleed.
Posted by: Ross | Apr 17, 2012 at 11:53 PM