Life and Linketies
Called off today. Really achy and exhausted. Feeling much better now that I've gotten a lot more sleep (I've been asleep most of the evening). Otherwise I'm doing really well, though. Likely rather manic, which tends to cause problems for the fibro fatigue, because it makes it harder for me to sleep. NL's been ploughing through the Doctor Who -- he's to the end of Season 3 now, and I'm really looking forward to watching the re-introduction of my favorite companion, Donna, with him when he starts Season 4. Last night he watched Blink before bed. Oops. I'm still watching through Six Feet Under, getting toward the end of the first season. Really loving it. Not too much else going on, at least not that I've been awake for. I've been horribly behind on linketies recently with all the rambling, though, so I'm going to try to get a bit caught up over my "weekend".
Cat and Tarma just found a giant praying mantis on our porch. Luckily they were so befuddled I could get to it before they did and relocate it to a bush. It was gorgeous.
Just saw one of the neighborhood skunks trundling along, too!
Every time I hear REM's "Everybody Hurts" (which I really don't like, actually), my brain automatically inserts lyrics cribbed from Everybody Poops.
Excellent conversations with NL and new happy stuff. Can't wait to see him tomorrow (today).
Female Orgasms: Poor Science Reporting Feeds Obsession and Misinformation
Paper Sculpture Gifts to Scottish Libraries
Watch Star Trek’s John de Lancie playing a godlike entity on My Little Pony
Amazing Underground Cities
Elizabeth Warren running against Scott Brown for Senate -- It's official! Yay!
Michele Bachman displays ignorance of HPV vaccine, AAP calls her out.
North Carolina to Vote on Marriage Amendment
Are you a full spectrum or radical doula? I’m working with a group of folks to organize a gathering, and we’d like your feedback! Details and survey here.
FactCheck: CNN/Tea Party Debate
GOP presidential hopefuls exchange false, misleading claims in Florida forum.
Former President George W. Bush does a good thing
President Obama appoints flurry of women and minorities to federal judiciary
Poverty continues to rise in U.S., now 15.1%
Ohio: New congressional district map makes its debut
Gabrielle Giffords grants 1st interview to Diane Sawyer
+Walter Righter died. He was tried for heresy in 1996 for ordaining a gay man as a deacon, and won. Were it not for this, the landscape of the Episcopal Church today might be very different for people who aren't straight.
Bisexual Male Survey: The world needs more Queer friendly, poly inclusive research!
Why the Anti-Science Creationist Movement Is So Dangerous
Bacterial billboard brings 'culture' to Hollywood marketing
Amount cheerleader who refused to cheer rapist required to pay reduced -- Still so fucked.
Potentially habitable "Super-Earth" is among 50 newly discovered exoplanets
Here's a view of the moon you'll never see from Earth. This is a picture taken by astronaut Soichi Noguchi while on-board the International Space Station. The photo demonstrates how the crew's position relative to the Moon and Earth's atmosphere create bizarre illusions where the Moon appears to be squished like a beanbag chair.
Vote for the greatest use of pop music in all of science fiction and fantasy (just linking for all the fun clips, actually.)
Kickstarter: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and Other Stories
2011 USA Breakdancing Championship
Glenn Greenwald: We refuse to live in fear!
Tisdale 2 Rock Formation on Mars
Your Brain On Politics: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Liberals and Conservatives
Publishing agents pressure YA authors to mainstream their characters
A Decade After 9/11, Police Departments Are Increasingly Militarized
Keynes and the Holy Trilogy*
7 Pains You Should Never Ignore
18 Things Your Feet Say About Your Health
Blue Jersey, the Garden State's progressive political blog reports that the Democratic National Committee has broken new ground. This weekend the DNC elected Babs Caspar Siperstein to its Executive Committee - a groundbreaking election as Babs is the first out transgender member of the committee.
It has been a violent summer in DC after a series of hate crimes against trans women. This past Saturday a trans woman was found dead and while it is unclear still who she is or if she was murdered-police have said it looks like she suffered trauma to her face. This is scary and infuriating.
Families urge action as US drafts Alzheimer's plan
A new report that analyses the distribution of grants and scholarships by race found students of color are less likely to win private scholarships or receive merit-based institutional grants than white students. The report found that white students receive more than three times as much in merit-based grant and private scholarship funding than students of color.
A Family Affair: Who’s Left Behind After the FBI’s Fake Terror Stings
One of TNG's best, "The Measure of a Man" is up on the TNG Rewatch, as Data must fight for his rights, Picard meets an old flame, the poker game has its debut (as does writer Melinda M. Snodgrass), and Data bends steel in his bare hands (but does not change the course of mighty rivers).
Massive Unemployment: Proof That Global Capitalism Doesn't Work
Earlier this week the family of James C. Anderson, the black man who was killed in an alleged hate crime in Mississippi, filed a lawsuit agaisnt the seven white teens who participated in the murder. But the state of Mississippi will not allow Anderson’s male partner of 17-years to be part of the family’s civil suit, the New York Times reported.
Betty Sutton and Dennis Kucinich to be squeezed out in new congressional remap -- more on our redistricting
DSK questioned by French police about Banon’s rape accusations
Ohio's Serpent Mound: Wonder of the Ancient World
News from the Past, 1932: Medicine: Abortion Ring
Anti-Choice Group Pickets Outside Middle School
APOD: On the Origin of Gold
3D rhombus is six optical illusions in one
Debunkery: Is Your Gmail Account Killing the Planet? (short answer is no)
Fat Politics: New Tools to Fight Persistent Enemies
Nanoflowers: Microscopic Gardens
Appalling wage decreases and persistant gender gap for recent college graduates
Top 20 Things That Owe Their Existence to Queers
How to Make a Critically Acclaimed TV Show About Masculinity
Sex therapists talk with their patients to help them confront their sexual problems and improve their sex lives. But some patients need more than talk therapy. They need practice in the bedroom, and have no spouse or partner to turn to. -- This is a field I've often considered working in; it always seemed like it would be a good match for my particular skillset. The article is from the Daily Fail, though, and the comments in ontd_feminism are a really mixed bag *eyeroll*.
Great Orion Nebulae
Flexibeast and I often share a brain: on politics and sexual attraction
'Fluidity' is in. "I'm gender-fluid." "Sexuality is fluid".
It's great that people who feel fluidity in their identities are increasingly recognising and proclaiming that fact. Problems arise, however, once we move beyond an individual describing their own gender identities and/or sexual identities, and start talking about 'gender-fluidity' and/or 'sexual-fluidity' more generally
i often see what seem to be well-meaning attempts to define 'sex' as "biological" and 'gender' as "socially constructed". i find this to be highly problematic.
And those of us who want kink to first and foremost be about respect, negotiation and enthusiastic consent - what can we do to try to reduce and minimise the influence of One-Twoo-Wayism and its negative consequences?
Lady Gaga’s No Makeup Harper’s Bazaar Cover -- Go, her!
Recording of IPAS Abortion care for young women Webalogue
Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men in the Military
Paul Ryan Mocks Senior Citizen Handcuffed At His Town Hall: ‘I Hope He’s Taking His Blood Pressure Medication’
A strikingly good piece of investigative journalism from Associated Press finds that accusations about the damage done by WikiLeaks' latest release are -- yet again -- wildly overstated and without any factual basis.
Even though ten years have passed since Fredrik Jansson from Skellefteå in northern Sweden had his leg amputated, he must still prove his leg hasn't grown back in order to keep his disabled parking permit.
Millions of Americans living in long-stay motels
A social network based around poop
Members of TÜBA, the Turkish Academy of Sciences, are threatening to resign en masse in order to fight a decree issued by the government of Turkey that would strip the Academy of its autonomy.
Mississippi voters can decide 'personhood' of the unborn, court rules
The new same-sex KY ad
Planned Parenthood Clinic Adapts to Leaner Budget
Preventive Services Covered by Private Health Plans under the Affordable Care Act
AI vs. AI. Two chatbots talking to each other
Buck Angel's Sexing the Transman XXX - PG-rated trailer
Tammy Baldwin officially in for Herb Kohl's seat
Appeals court upholds South Dakota “existing relationship” abortion law
Should artificial insemination be regulated?
The 6 Most Frequently Quoted Brain Facts (That Are Total BS)
The 6 Biggest Badasses Who Lived As The Opposite Sex
Chicago bachelor adopts brood of five and their cousin
Birth Control Diaries: My First IUD Placement
How do we know for sure that we live in three dimensions?
Australian frogs become "moisture farmers" to stay alive in droughts
After decades of research, vaginal microbicides that prevent HIV infection are on the horizon. To fulfill their medical promise, a Rhode Island researcher says users' sexual pleasure must be considered.
Sensational Rock Formations: Moeraki Boulders
How Chief Atahm Elementary School Became a Success Story
Nikki Haley Wants To Drug Test Applicants For Unemployment Benefits
UK: Parents of children who regularly truant face having their benefits cut, David Cameron has warned, as he opened the first wave of the Government’s free schools.
Interpol adds Gaddafi to Most Wanted list
2011 Women’s Health Hero: Women and Their Bodies, an Israeli and Palestinian Collaboration
Missouri Technical School Requires All First Year Students to Pass Drug Test
Subject: Ohio Senate gives themselves pay raise
Early Thursday morning, Cameron Nelson became the third gay Utahn in less than two weeks to report being attacked because of their sexual identity.
This massive solar flare will make for dazzling northern lights
Ancient humans were just having sex with everyone
How not to talk to an Asian lady
A New Mexico woman who refused to pay a $1,122 hospital bill for a court-appointed body cavity search won a victory Wednesday: Police will foot the bill, The Las Cruces Sun-News reported. -- WTF?
What happens to your brain under the influence of music
Suspected DUI driver charged with murder for death of fetus -- If these weren't very specific anti-choice legal tactics, there are plenty of other ways to handle the same issue -- that the perpetrator has caused great pain and grief to the woman, and additional penalties for that, for example. Going about it by making it separate murder charges is part of a long-term bait-and-switch political tactic, though.
Watching You Watching Me
The lifetime ban on blood donations by homosexual and bisexual men will be lifted in England, Scotland and Wales.
Ministers have agreed to let men who have not had sex with another man in the past 12 months to donate from November. -- It's a step in the right direction. I'd really like the screening process to revolve about behavior and safety levels and not sexual orientation at all. Why aren't we asking "with or without barriers" and "when was your last negative HIV test" and questions like that instead?
No statistic about higher education commands more attention-and anxiety-among members of the public than the rising price of admission. Since 1980, inflation- adjusted tuition at public universities has tripled; at private universities it has more than doubled.
Ron Paul Campaign Hires Hard-Core Anti-Gay Activist As Iowa Director
When creepy anti-choice activists targeted a clinic owner too close to home, he gathered volunteers to give them a friendly ring back.
Erykah Badu wants to be a midwife (she’s already a doula). Awesome.
Things in Arizona just keep getting worse. The families of incarcerated people now have to pay $25 every time they want to visit their loved ones.
The cutest little IUD you ever did see
Google+ traffic is down 37% in the last 18 days.
Today's class: How to kick people when they're down 101
race-baiting anti-immigration ads hit the airwaves
I Was a "Domestic Terrorist": Tales From a Post-9/11 America
10 Reasons We Love Fictional Engineers and Techies
10 Science Fiction and Fantasy Actors Who Make Everything Better (I think Bruce Campbell deserves to be on the list too)
Ed Wheldan Discovers That There Are Gay Lawyers At The DOJ, Fears Rainbows
EU investigates insects as next big food source -- I'm very much in favor of this, actually.
Shocker: Power demand from US homes is falling
Michigan Governor Signs 48-Month Welfare Limit
“Rookie,” Tavi Gevinson’s new website for teenage girls, has officially launched.
MPs Vote Through Controversial Health Bill; Dorries abortion counselling reforms rejected
Tammy Baldwin could become first openly gay U.S. Senator
Thylacine hunted to extinction for a crime it was incapable of commiting
New study: LGBT issues barely taught in medical school
Fukushima’s Long Link to a Dark Nuclear Past
Bloggers Don’t Follow the Script, to ConAgra’s Chagrin
Top DOT official tells staff not to mention free voter ID cards to the public - unless they ask
Some real Shock and Awe: Racially profiled and cuffed in Detroit
The ACLU on Obama and core liberties -- This is the point on which I'm most frustrated with Obama. I knew I was hiring a centrist, but I thought I was hiring a constitution-loving centrist.
Are Jobs on Their Way to Becoming Obsolete? And Is That a Good Thing?
Rick Perry’s Vasectomy: The Governor’s Reliance on What He Denies to His Fellow Texans
Why Are Men Obsessed With Being Tough? How Unrealistic Expectations Hurt Men and Women
How Personhood Mississippi Perverts Black History to Fight Abortion
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center - Men of Strength Club
Cat and Tarma just found a giant praying mantis on our porch. Luckily they were so befuddled I could get to it before they did and relocate it to a bush. It was gorgeous.
Just saw one of the neighborhood skunks trundling along, too!
Every time I hear REM's "Everybody Hurts" (which I really don't like, actually), my brain automatically inserts lyrics cribbed from Everybody Poops.
Excellent conversations with NL and new happy stuff. Can't wait to see him tomorrow (today).
Female Orgasms: Poor Science Reporting Feeds Obsession and Misinformation
Paper Sculpture Gifts to Scottish Libraries
Watch Star Trek’s John de Lancie playing a godlike entity on My Little Pony
Amazing Underground Cities
Elizabeth Warren running against Scott Brown for Senate -- It's official! Yay!
Michele Bachman displays ignorance of HPV vaccine, AAP calls her out.
North Carolina to Vote on Marriage Amendment
Are you a full spectrum or radical doula? I’m working with a group of folks to organize a gathering, and we’d like your feedback! Details and survey here.
FactCheck: CNN/Tea Party Debate
GOP presidential hopefuls exchange false, misleading claims in Florida forum.
Former President George W. Bush does a good thing
President Obama appoints flurry of women and minorities to federal judiciary
Poverty continues to rise in U.S., now 15.1%
Ohio: New congressional district map makes its debut
Gabrielle Giffords grants 1st interview to Diane Sawyer
+Walter Righter died. He was tried for heresy in 1996 for ordaining a gay man as a deacon, and won. Were it not for this, the landscape of the Episcopal Church today might be very different for people who aren't straight.
Bisexual Male Survey: The world needs more Queer friendly, poly inclusive research!
Why the Anti-Science Creationist Movement Is So Dangerous
Bacterial billboard brings 'culture' to Hollywood marketing
Amount cheerleader who refused to cheer rapist required to pay reduced -- Still so fucked.
Potentially habitable "Super-Earth" is among 50 newly discovered exoplanets
Here's a view of the moon you'll never see from Earth. This is a picture taken by astronaut Soichi Noguchi while on-board the International Space Station. The photo demonstrates how the crew's position relative to the Moon and Earth's atmosphere create bizarre illusions where the Moon appears to be squished like a beanbag chair.
Vote for the greatest use of pop music in all of science fiction and fantasy (just linking for all the fun clips, actually.)
Kickstarter: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and Other Stories
2011 USA Breakdancing Championship
Glenn Greenwald: We refuse to live in fear!
Tisdale 2 Rock Formation on Mars
Your Brain On Politics: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Liberals and Conservatives
Publishing agents pressure YA authors to mainstream their characters
A Decade After 9/11, Police Departments Are Increasingly Militarized
Keynes and the Holy Trilogy*
7 Pains You Should Never Ignore
18 Things Your Feet Say About Your Health
Blue Jersey, the Garden State's progressive political blog reports that the Democratic National Committee has broken new ground. This weekend the DNC elected Babs Caspar Siperstein to its Executive Committee - a groundbreaking election as Babs is the first out transgender member of the committee.
It has been a violent summer in DC after a series of hate crimes against trans women. This past Saturday a trans woman was found dead and while it is unclear still who she is or if she was murdered-police have said it looks like she suffered trauma to her face. This is scary and infuriating.
Families urge action as US drafts Alzheimer's plan
A new report that analyses the distribution of grants and scholarships by race found students of color are less likely to win private scholarships or receive merit-based institutional grants than white students. The report found that white students receive more than three times as much in merit-based grant and private scholarship funding than students of color.
A Family Affair: Who’s Left Behind After the FBI’s Fake Terror Stings
One of TNG's best, "The Measure of a Man" is up on the TNG Rewatch, as Data must fight for his rights, Picard meets an old flame, the poker game has its debut (as does writer Melinda M. Snodgrass), and Data bends steel in his bare hands (but does not change the course of mighty rivers).
Massive Unemployment: Proof That Global Capitalism Doesn't Work
Earlier this week the family of James C. Anderson, the black man who was killed in an alleged hate crime in Mississippi, filed a lawsuit agaisnt the seven white teens who participated in the murder. But the state of Mississippi will not allow Anderson’s male partner of 17-years to be part of the family’s civil suit, the New York Times reported.
Betty Sutton and Dennis Kucinich to be squeezed out in new congressional remap -- more on our redistricting
DSK questioned by French police about Banon’s rape accusations
Ohio's Serpent Mound: Wonder of the Ancient World
News from the Past, 1932: Medicine: Abortion Ring
Anti-Choice Group Pickets Outside Middle School
APOD: On the Origin of Gold
3D rhombus is six optical illusions in one
Debunkery: Is Your Gmail Account Killing the Planet? (short answer is no)
Fat Politics: New Tools to Fight Persistent Enemies
Nanoflowers: Microscopic Gardens
Appalling wage decreases and persistant gender gap for recent college graduates
Top 20 Things That Owe Their Existence to Queers
How to Make a Critically Acclaimed TV Show About Masculinity
Sex therapists talk with their patients to help them confront their sexual problems and improve their sex lives. But some patients need more than talk therapy. They need practice in the bedroom, and have no spouse or partner to turn to. -- This is a field I've often considered working in; it always seemed like it would be a good match for my particular skillset. The article is from the Daily Fail, though, and the comments in ontd_feminism are a really mixed bag *eyeroll*.
Great Orion Nebulae
Flexibeast and I often share a brain: on politics and sexual attraction
'Fluidity' is in. "I'm gender-fluid." "Sexuality is fluid".
It's great that people who feel fluidity in their identities are increasingly recognising and proclaiming that fact. Problems arise, however, once we move beyond an individual describing their own gender identities and/or sexual identities, and start talking about 'gender-fluidity' and/or 'sexual-fluidity' more generally
i often see what seem to be well-meaning attempts to define 'sex' as "biological" and 'gender' as "socially constructed". i find this to be highly problematic.
And those of us who want kink to first and foremost be about respect, negotiation and enthusiastic consent - what can we do to try to reduce and minimise the influence of One-Twoo-Wayism and its negative consequences?
Lady Gaga’s No Makeup Harper’s Bazaar Cover -- Go, her!
Recording of IPAS Abortion care for young women Webalogue
Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men in the Military
Paul Ryan Mocks Senior Citizen Handcuffed At His Town Hall: ‘I Hope He’s Taking His Blood Pressure Medication’
A strikingly good piece of investigative journalism from Associated Press finds that accusations about the damage done by WikiLeaks' latest release are -- yet again -- wildly overstated and without any factual basis.
Even though ten years have passed since Fredrik Jansson from Skellefteå in northern Sweden had his leg amputated, he must still prove his leg hasn't grown back in order to keep his disabled parking permit.
Millions of Americans living in long-stay motels
A social network based around poop
Members of TÜBA, the Turkish Academy of Sciences, are threatening to resign en masse in order to fight a decree issued by the government of Turkey that would strip the Academy of its autonomy.
Mississippi voters can decide 'personhood' of the unborn, court rules
The new same-sex KY ad
Planned Parenthood Clinic Adapts to Leaner Budget
Preventive Services Covered by Private Health Plans under the Affordable Care Act
AI vs. AI. Two chatbots talking to each other
Buck Angel's Sexing the Transman XXX - PG-rated trailer
Tammy Baldwin officially in for Herb Kohl's seat
Appeals court upholds South Dakota “existing relationship” abortion law
Should artificial insemination be regulated?
The 6 Most Frequently Quoted Brain Facts (That Are Total BS)
The 6 Biggest Badasses Who Lived As The Opposite Sex
Chicago bachelor adopts brood of five and their cousin
Birth Control Diaries: My First IUD Placement
How do we know for sure that we live in three dimensions?
Australian frogs become "moisture farmers" to stay alive in droughts
After decades of research, vaginal microbicides that prevent HIV infection are on the horizon. To fulfill their medical promise, a Rhode Island researcher says users' sexual pleasure must be considered.
Sensational Rock Formations: Moeraki Boulders
How Chief Atahm Elementary School Became a Success Story
Nikki Haley Wants To Drug Test Applicants For Unemployment Benefits
UK: Parents of children who regularly truant face having their benefits cut, David Cameron has warned, as he opened the first wave of the Government’s free schools.
Interpol adds Gaddafi to Most Wanted list
2011 Women’s Health Hero: Women and Their Bodies, an Israeli and Palestinian Collaboration
Missouri Technical School Requires All First Year Students to Pass Drug Test
Subject: Ohio Senate gives themselves pay raise
Early Thursday morning, Cameron Nelson became the third gay Utahn in less than two weeks to report being attacked because of their sexual identity.
This massive solar flare will make for dazzling northern lights
Ancient humans were just having sex with everyone
How not to talk to an Asian lady
A New Mexico woman who refused to pay a $1,122 hospital bill for a court-appointed body cavity search won a victory Wednesday: Police will foot the bill, The Las Cruces Sun-News reported. -- WTF?
What happens to your brain under the influence of music
Suspected DUI driver charged with murder for death of fetus -- If these weren't very specific anti-choice legal tactics, there are plenty of other ways to handle the same issue -- that the perpetrator has caused great pain and grief to the woman, and additional penalties for that, for example. Going about it by making it separate murder charges is part of a long-term bait-and-switch political tactic, though.
Watching You Watching Me
The lifetime ban on blood donations by homosexual and bisexual men will be lifted in England, Scotland and Wales.
Ministers have agreed to let men who have not had sex with another man in the past 12 months to donate from November. -- It's a step in the right direction. I'd really like the screening process to revolve about behavior and safety levels and not sexual orientation at all. Why aren't we asking "with or without barriers" and "when was your last negative HIV test" and questions like that instead?
No statistic about higher education commands more attention-and anxiety-among members of the public than the rising price of admission. Since 1980, inflation- adjusted tuition at public universities has tripled; at private universities it has more than doubled.
Ron Paul Campaign Hires Hard-Core Anti-Gay Activist As Iowa Director
When creepy anti-choice activists targeted a clinic owner too close to home, he gathered volunteers to give them a friendly ring back.
Erykah Badu wants to be a midwife (she’s already a doula). Awesome.
Things in Arizona just keep getting worse. The families of incarcerated people now have to pay $25 every time they want to visit their loved ones.
The cutest little IUD you ever did see
Google+ traffic is down 37% in the last 18 days.
Today's class: How to kick people when they're down 101
race-baiting anti-immigration ads hit the airwaves
I Was a "Domestic Terrorist": Tales From a Post-9/11 America
10 Reasons We Love Fictional Engineers and Techies
10 Science Fiction and Fantasy Actors Who Make Everything Better (I think Bruce Campbell deserves to be on the list too)
Ed Wheldan Discovers That There Are Gay Lawyers At The DOJ, Fears Rainbows
EU investigates insects as next big food source -- I'm very much in favor of this, actually.
Shocker: Power demand from US homes is falling
Michigan Governor Signs 48-Month Welfare Limit
“Rookie,” Tavi Gevinson’s new website for teenage girls, has officially launched.
MPs Vote Through Controversial Health Bill; Dorries abortion counselling reforms rejected
Tammy Baldwin could become first openly gay U.S. Senator
Thylacine hunted to extinction for a crime it was incapable of commiting
New study: LGBT issues barely taught in medical school
Fukushima’s Long Link to a Dark Nuclear Past
Bloggers Don’t Follow the Script, to ConAgra’s Chagrin
Top DOT official tells staff not to mention free voter ID cards to the public - unless they ask
Some real Shock and Awe: Racially profiled and cuffed in Detroit
The ACLU on Obama and core liberties -- This is the point on which I'm most frustrated with Obama. I knew I was hiring a centrist, but I thought I was hiring a constitution-loving centrist.
Are Jobs on Their Way to Becoming Obsolete? And Is That a Good Thing?
Rick Perry’s Vasectomy: The Governor’s Reliance on What He Denies to His Fellow Texans
Why Are Men Obsessed With Being Tough? How Unrealistic Expectations Hurt Men and Women
How Personhood Mississippi Perverts Black History to Fight Abortion
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center - Men of Strength Club