Interesting Links for 23-11-2014

[andrewducker]

• Why Ukip’s rivals are fighting the wrong battle
  (tags: UKIP immigration UK politics viaJennieRigg )
• An explanation for why today's Legend of Korra was a clips episode (albeit the best I've ever seen)
  (tags: tv avatar business )
• Bogus Journal Accepts Profanity-Laced Anti-Spam Paper
  (tags: academia fraud funny viasupergee viaSoonLee )
• 9-year-old

Comments

[amaebi]

The 9-year-old has bought the patriarchal line that men are hideously confined to doing "all the work," however.

[andrewducker]

Well yes - all of those things about believing the patriarchal line.

[amaebi]

The child wrote that he disliked not being able to be a mother-- indeed, a regularity unless he turns out not to be a boy, but a transwoman.

The child wrote that he disliked not being supposed to cry-- indeed, a frequent rule for masculinity, though I've been happy to learn through the lives of my son and his colleagues that it hasn't the scapegoating power that it used to wield in cruel hands.

The child wrote that he disliked being supposed to do all the work. Now, unless he changed his use of the term "suppose"-- and, indeed, used it in a very sophisticated way--, he means that men are assigned the role of doing all the work.

As someone female whose hard work is both demanded and stolen constantly, I don't think that those tree elements of "patriarchal line" are identical, or are objected to in the same way.

[andrewducker]

Oh, I agree.

But the problem is that there are cultural expectations around being male, and he is unhappy because of them.

He doesn't know that crying wouldn't be the end of the world, and he doesn't know that actually women do more work on average than men. He's just been fed a load of rules by society, and is unhappy about them.

[kalimac]

For me, the number one and overwhelmingly greatest bad thing about being a boy was having to associate with other boys. Girls were just much nicer and better-behaved people. Being expected to like violence and sports would also rank, as would being expected to like jokes whose sole humor content was the utterance of naughty words. The rest on that boy's list, no.

[rhythmaning]

God, homeopaths are thick.

Since all their remedies end up in the sea anyway (albeit through their patients bodies) and water remembers all the remedies ever OBVIOUSLY all the remedies are already in the oceans and a clearly healed.

[helflaed]

As the remedies get diluted, wouldn't that increase the potency and could it end up giving the ocean an overdose?

I think I'll go away and snigger...

[pennski]

So that's why the ocean is sick - it's suffering from homeopathic poisoning. Quick, we should fix it by....umm?

[amaebi]

:D

[danieldwilliam]

I think there is a very telling remark at the end of the article on UKIP.

The more other parties say UKIP are right to keep banging on about immigration;  but don't vote for them,  the worse things will get.

Mainly for the other parties.

[andrewducker]

Yup.

Arguing that "UKIP are completely right, vote for us to fix it." is possibly the dumbest approach ever. One that only parties that didn't care about their own principles and were trying to be popular with _everyone_ would try and use.

[agoodwinsmith]

Every day I find something I want to read in your list - something that I wouldn't find on my own. Thank you.

[andrewducker]

My pleasure! Glad you're enjoying them!