[This post is basically a holding page for a discussion that started on Twitter but quickly spiralled beyond 140 characters per point.]

I think that the term "privilege", as used by feminists and other equality-campaigners, is unhelpful. I think the concept to which it refers (which I attempted to explain here) is extremely helpful and important; ( Read more... )

[Everything herein will be extremely old hat to many regular readers, but it's new to me and so I thought I'd share. Consider this part of my ongoing project of self-education.]

Charlie Stross, in the comments to his most recent blog post, posted a link to the site Derailing for Dummies. The conceit is that it's a guide to arguing with members of ( Read more... )

I've been living in Scotland for nearly six consecutive years now (around ten years in total), and in that time I've become increasingly open to the ideas that

1. a viable independent Scotland is possible,
2. in the event of Scotland becoming independent, I might well choose to become a Scottish citizen¹.

There's a kind of baseline respect for the life of ( Read more... )

Last night I was re-watching The IT Crowd S3E4. It was one of my favourite episodes, and I still think it's beautifully constructed, but I found it a bit... squirmier this time round. For those who haven't seen it, one of the main characters meets a woman, invites her to dinner, then asks her to go to bed with him. She tells him that she's trans (" ( Read more... )

Every time I read about a new development in the weird and wonderful world of materials science, I wonder if I've gone into the wrong field. Here are a few new products that have caught my eye recently:

Sugru - a bit like modelling clay, only it cures into a flexible silicone overnight. Make your stuff waterproof, or more ergonomic, or funky and ( Read more... )

My trousers, as is their wont, have all decided to fall apart at the same time again, so I've been doing a bit of sewing this week. I'm not much good at sewing, but I offer up what little I know about the subject in the hope that others may find it useful. Most of this was taught me by stronglight, mi_guida, half_of_monty and susannahf, some of it I remember from school, some was taught ( Read more... )

So, I was thinking: given the recent ascent of El Capitan by paraplegic adventuress Karen Darke, have we now got the definitive answer to those grumpy souls who complain that (for instance) the existence of a path up Ben Nevis means "you could get up it in a wheelchair"?

Then I read a bit more of her blog, and found that Ms Darke has actually ( Read more... )