weekly round-up
Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.
Things I’ve read
Journalism:
1. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? by Lila Abu-Lughod [Time]
2. I Want to Be Friends with Republicans by David James Poissant [NYTimes]
3. Friendship by AC Grayling - review by Stuart Kelly [Guardian]
4. Please Stop Calling Your Relatively Privileged Life ‘Crazy’ or ‘Messy’ by Rachel Marie Stone [SoJo]
5. Can We Not Tell Gay Christians What to Do Please? by Libby Anne [Patheos]
6. The Myth of the War of the Worlds Panic by Jefferson Pooley + Michael Socolow [Slate]
7. Why Business Schools Need Business Ethics by Michael Anteby [Guardian]
8. Why I Stopped Writing Recommendation Letters for Teach for America by Catherine Michna [Slate]
Fanfic:
1. Coffee, by fengirl88. Sherlock/Lestrade, PG13, schmoopy schmoop but entirely too precious to pass up
2. A Wonderful Institution, by sassyjumper. House/Wilson, PG13. In honor of NJ legalizing gay marriage.
And just to prove I haven’t been utterly taken over by the slash fairy…
3. A Most Reluctant Elf, by bwblack. Mycroft + OCs, thoroughly G. A day in the life of Mycroft Holmes, involving inspection tours, Father Christmas, and lost puppies. Charming!
Things I Said
… here ….
1. On Rape Happening for a Reason, Justin Bieber Edition
2. On Friendship, Internet Anonymity, and Sherlock
3. Sherlock, Day 07 - a pic that makes you
(on sherlock fandom giving fans room to run with their ideas)
5. Sherlock, Day 05 - Your Favorite Ship (on why I think John and Sherlock were Just Friends (TM), and why I read Johnlock slash anyway)
… at FB …
1. In response to this meme.
This is an interesting question, and I hope my friends will think about it, answer it even.
For me: I’ve found lots of scientific facts have influenced me at different points in my life. It’s hard to pinpoint just one. But if you pressed me, I’d say I’m most impressed by the work in comparative genomics, essentially the degree to which humans vary genetically from other humans, and the degree to which we share DNA with other species. Some examples of these comparisons are available here: http://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/25335-Percentage-of-genetic-similarity-between-humans-and-animals
I take from this two important “life lessons,” as it were. First, that I have more in common with my fellow humans than we are different. Of course we differ in important ways but statistics like this remind me how similar I am to my ideological opponents or the people my country is at war with or people whose life experiences are just so different from my own. We have a lot in common, in terms of our genetic coding and also in terms of how that plays out: shared human needs, common intuitions and impulses, etc. That’s both encouraging and also terrifying.
Second, it teaches that we are really very similar to not just humans but to other animals as well. I share 90% of my genetic code with a housecat, according to that link above, and 60% with a fruit fly, and about 97% with an orangutan. Yet I think of myself as being very different from them, so it’s okay to do (say) medical experiments on primates but not on other humans. Or it’s okay to eat a roast beef sandwich knowing the cow that provided it was raised and slaughtered for no other purpose. This has made me more concerned about animal rights (although I still sometimes think some of these things are necessary or at least justified; but it definitely makes me more thoughtful about them). Even more than that, it makes me feel more… connected, I guess? Like non-human animals and I are probably more alike than I give them credit for.
2.
First George W. Bush gave Angela Merkel an inappropriate back rub, and now Obama tapped her cell. I find myself wondering just what kind of graffiti there is in the West Wing bathroom.
3. On the World Series and Tom Lehrer’s “Fight Fiercely Harvard”:
So the Boston Red Sox won the world series, and as a proud New Yorker, I feel this great urge to be critical. Just on general principles - I live maybe twenty blocks from Yankee stadium, have been to maybe two Yankees games in the years I’ve lived here, and when it comes to sport the only game I really follow is European football aka soccer (Man U all the way).
Still, regional pride. Or in this case, regional rivals. Yesterday I couldn’t tell you what teams were in the Series. I *still* couldn’t tell you who Boston beat. Yet I have this weird compulsion to belittle the win. It’s actually kind of funny.
So this seems as good a time as any to play some Tom Lehrer. Fake Boston accent? Poking fun at the inanities of sports rivalries? Yep, on both counts.
4.
I’m as big a fan of holiday hijinks as the next girl, so when the school newspaper comes out with an issue that’s more the Onion than the NY Times (without always keeping the two separate - frustrating), I try to smile at it. Really, some of them are pretty clever.
That said, there are some things that, once seen you really just can’t unsee, no matter how hard you try. I do think President Bush the Younger in a thong falls in that category. Blech!
5.
Tonight I read some highlights of Colbert’s roast of Cardinal Dolan at the Al Smith Dinner. This line in particular earned a chuckle, on the topic of Catholic presidents:
“We got close-ish in 2004 with John Kerry, who was a deeply Catholic candidate. In fact, listening to him talk was like attending a Latin Mass.”
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LOLs I’ve Spread
First, a note. I’ve been trying to be more conscious of giving people credit when I share images, especially fan-created art. I’ll be honest: for a while I wasn’t nearly as careful with that as I should be. A big part of the problem is being new to sharing images and not being as appreciative as I should be about the work involved in them. Also, I’m often sharing them through sites where the version I’m looking at just doesn’t have an attribution. And then I share them over here at LJ, quite often embedding the image but nothing else because of the work involved, which only makes a bad situation worse.
So instead of embedding the image, I’m going to give you two links. First, there’s a link to the Pinterest board, which you can look at without a count and which lets you see all my images I’ve shared recently, on one page. The second link will be to the specific image, again on Pinterest. You can open up multiple pages easily enough by using the background tab feature in most browsers, by holding down command or control when clicking. If it’s not obvious from the picture itself who created the image, click on the picture (twice, if you’re looking at the board rather than the individual image) and it will open up the site the picture was taken from. Sometimes but not always this will take you to a page listing the creator, or at least the last person to share it.
In the future, I’ll try to make it more obvious who the creator is, beause I do want to give proper credit to the people who make me laugh. I also wouldn’t mind some discussion from people who have more experience with art and images than I do. What would you do to give people proper credit in a situation like this?
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All Things 221B (It’s that, or Cluedo)
1. Things That Will Happen Before Series Three
2. Things That Will Happen Before Series Three #2
3. post-Reichenbach humor
4. Sherlock cast as Avengers
5. Funny tweets from Sherlock crew + cast
6. a charming, humble Benedict
7. awkward Johnlock being awkward
8. Sherlockian-standard English translation guide
9. Sherlock’s version of logic
10. BBC Fangirl Problems
11. Sherlock’s Halloween Costume
12. Wikipedia FTW
13. Things that actually happened before series three
14. character development, Sherlock-style
15. the single most devastatingly Reichenbach feely meme I’ve seen to date
16. rating things, Sherlock-style
17. Mycroft’s and Sherlock’s sibling rivalry: how it began
18. Sums with Sherlock
19. Ben + Martin goofy pics
20. Reichenbach quotes
21. Sherlock headcanon
22. Sherlock -vs- Rubik’s Cube 23. thoughts on mind palace scene from “Baskerville”
24. Hobbit/Sherlock crossover
25. the second most heartbreakingly Reichenbach feely meme I’ve seen to date
26. Moriarty -vs- Moffat
27. Steven Moffat, our perfect little troll
Other Fandoms + General Geekery (Board)
1. Hunger Games (CF book spoilers)
2. book nerd spoilers
3. Doctor Who
4. geeks -vs- nerds
5. Toy Story
6. BBC fandoms, all mixed up
7. Doctor Who’s definition of bad
8. Hunger Games (CF/MJ book spoilers)
9. Thor struggles with modern customs
10. Fandom comparison: House - Supernatural - Doctor Who - Sherlock - Avengers
11. Hunger Games - CF movie/book spoiler
12. Colbert on reality
13. The Doctor on Great Britain
14. Hunger Games - MJ book spoilers
15. Hunger Games - CF book spoilers
16. The Avnegers
17. The Avengers -vs- Star Wars
18. Doctor Who
19. Harry Potter
20. Doctor Who
21. Sean Bean
22. Doctor Who valentine
23. Doctor Who on the butterfly effect
24. Scrubs’ The Janitor
Random Funnies (Board)
1. a cute pup who hates the brown triangles
2. avocadoes
3. you had one job
4. bell doesn’t work
5. someone who wants you for your brains
6. push door to open
Feminist + Gender + Sexuality (Board)
1. John Green on strong women
2. Joss Whedon on Friendzoning
Somebody’s $1m Idea (Board)
1. LEGO key holder
Cuteness (Board)
1. hamsters with light sabers
2. baby oliphaunt smiles
Deep Thoughts (Board)
1. Neil deGrasse Tyson
2. the Breakfast Club
3. First World Problems
4. Simon Pegg on geekdom
Academic Humor (Board)
1. Fibonacci
2. Good with numbers
3. why mythology rocks
4. I am… appropriately proud of my honors student
5. geeky parenting
6. Shakespeare’s Tragedies
7. mathematical dance moves
Political Humor (Board)
Yip yip yip - nope nope nope
Religious Humor (Board)
1. translating Romans
2. God must be a ______.”
3. Whovian Proverbs
4. He cursed the works of the sword