We live in a post-feminist era

HAHAHAHAHAHA! I'd like to say this surprised me, but it doesn't, other than that he would say it so openly. Interior life? Personal agency? feh! You ladies just brighten up the room!

Sexism fatigue

Great post by Jezebel on the Acadamy Awards, the frustration with people who can't learn, and the insistence of every schmuck that feminists should spend all their time holding his precious little hand until he understands THE WAY THINGS ARE in even remedial terms.

As though they believe that if they can keep you occupied refuting their flimsy trump cards over and over forever, they can stave off any changes to the culture that keeps them on top.

Sometimes it feels like that. Often. I admire her unwillingness to throw up her hands.

(via a re-tweet by Medley)

A milestone in feminism

Great piece here by Echidne on the 50th anniversary of The Feminine Mystique. A sort of review of the book and its place in the feminist slipstream, as well as the degree to which our issues have or haven't changed in the intervening years. Good writing, worth a read.

This is what happens when summer eats you

That is, you end up with a giant backlog of links and no time to really make a post out of them. Or even hope that anybody will want to sort through them. But here are a bunch of things I've caught in my net over the last few months in the category of Cheerful Bits, yay!

Happy

• College-grad sea-turtle knows all!
• Wolves discuss the Trayvon Martin case
• Death by chocolate and other dangerous desserts
• Fotoshop, the beauty regimin
• Mad Men - The Carousel scene (video)
• Teenager has never seen a record before (sigh)
• Puppets re-enact no-cameras-allowed corruption trial on the nightly news
• Happiness
• Lego man sent to space by Toronto teens
• It Just Goes On and On -- pay it forward, in action
• The Greatest Speech Ever Made - Charlie Chaplin
• That’s no ordinary rabbit. (he herds sheep!)
• Happy Birthday, William Shatner -- that first video, I just...
• Hollywood edition of SOPA
• To My Old Master
• “Spilled Semen” Amendment to Personhood Bill Offered by Oklahoma Democrat; more here, and also Ohio Bill Would Require Men Submit Affidavit From Sex Partner Confirming Impotence Before Receiving Viagra
• Top 10 Reasons Why Men Shouldn’t Be Ordained
• OMG: McDonald’s Does the Right Thing
• Slut Shaming and Why it's Wrong (teenagers, kick our butts!)
• A Note About Panther Pride
• Instapaper Placebo (sob!)
• How to get more likes on Facebook
• Laser de-printer lifts ink from paper, leaving it ready to be reused -- more efficient than recycling!
• The Free Universal Construction Kit
• THIS is why we invest in science. This.
• Man Walks All Day to Create Spectacular Snow Patterns
• Why power generators are terrified of solar; related: Germany sets new solar power record, institute says
• "It Gets Better" at BYU
• Onion: Obama Launches More Realistic 'I Have Big Ideas But We'll See How It Goes' Campaign Slogan
• Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries new approach to school discipline — suspensions drop 85% (less Zero Tolerance, more understanding)
• A child's to-do list
• Valentine dilemma (LOL!)

Fascinating

• Eight lazy ways to lose weight
• Touch interfaces everywhere (using sound!)
• This is What Happens When You Give Thousands of Stickers to Thousands of Kids
• How Doctors Die -- It’s Not Like the Rest of Us, But It Should Be
• Can walking reduce the deficit?
• People using pseudonyms post the highest-quality comments, Disqus says -- so there!
• Stranger Danger Dispelled By Bears And Kindness
• New York City gets a Software Engineering High School
• President John Tyler's grandsons are still alive!!
• Mercenary hacker to the stars -- superorganization of organized crime
• Why Sharing Passwords With Your Girlfriend/Boyfriend Is A Spectacularly Bad Idea
• Tunnel to the Other Side of the Earth -- find out on a map what's on the opposite side
• A Swiss idea for removing space junk
• Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo -- I had it, if only for a moment...
• Tim Ferriss explains how to hyperdecant wine
• Forty-five procedures doctors don’t think doctors should do
• 7 Commonly Corrected Grammar Errors (That Aren't Mistakes)
• Feel Me, a new way to connect
• Writing Across Gender
• Gay rights in the US, state by state
• Tact Filters -- great insight
• Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is (also very insightful); follow-up here
• When Data Clashes with Common Sense
• What’s better for heating a mug of water: The stove or the microwave? (I love the Internet!) related: Burning Desire for Efficiency
• Clang -- for those who fantasize about realistic swordplay
• Perspective

Quote of the day (absurd misogynist ideas edition)

If we could harness the power of the crappy ideas coming out of the state of Arizona, we could probably power a rocket ship to the moon, where there are no Mexicans or fertile wombs and everyone can be free to be as mean a cranky asshole as they want at all times!

- Jezebel

I have a blog?? Dump of recent grumps

Apparently the act of moving things into my category tab bars now substitutes for the psychic release I used to achieve through, you know, blogging. Discussion and analysis, venting, all that stuff. Now it's just a boggling heap of tabs up there leering at me. So here's everything that makes me want to scream (other than toddler willfullness, etc.), compiled from the last, um, two months:

• A radical embrace of nullification -- our Disloyal Opposition
  
  
• Wonkbook: The real unemployment rate is 11 percent (including those who've given up looking)
  
  
• NYPD shred kids' paper hearts commemorating Occupy arrestees before their very eyes
  
  
• What Global Warming May Mean for World's Wine Industry -- some people can't pretend it's not happening (look forward to English wine soon!) [related: US agriculturists planning to overhaul the planting zone map to reflect changing temperatures.]
  
  
• A two-part essay on how we're approaching climate change (arguments) completely wrong:
  1. The brutal logic of climate change mitigation
     
  2. The frog and the polar bear: The real reasons Americans aren’t buying climate change
  
  
• WSJ will publish literally anything, as long as it disputes global warming
  
  
• Melting Glaciers Mean Double Trouble for Water Supplies
  
  
• Suffering bad hayfever in Melbourne? -- global warming meaning more pollen?
  
  
• Politifact, R.I.P.

  The people at Politifact are terrified of being considered partisan if they acknowledge the clear fact that there’s a lot more lying on one side of the political divide than on the other. So they’ve bent over backwards to appear “balanced” — and in the process made themselves useless and irrelevant.

• Chump Change -- even the housing bubble was racist
  
  
• Servicer Horror Stories: Resurrecting Zombie Mortgages
  
  
• DOJ to America: we won't reveal the circumstances under which you can be assassinated by us
  
  
• LA City Attorney to Occupy: pay for brainwashing lessons on limits of free speech and we'll drop the charges
  
  
• 10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free Sigh.
  
  
• Abortion, Parenting, and the Government -- how small barriers add up
  
  
• Anatomy of an unsafe abortion (from an E.R. doctor)
  
  
• It’s a girl: The three deadliest words in the world
  
  
• No Women on Facebook Board
  
  
• Boys Will Hire Boys: The Media Is Male and Getting Maler
  
  
• The big "O" stands for "omitted variable" (ahem!!)
  
  
• The real divide here is on gender, not Catholicism (religious arguments are just a cover for men who don't respect female autonomy)
  
  
• Things That Are Not Racist
  
  
• Neuroscience could mean soldiers controlling weapons with minds
  
  
• Why maximizing shareholder value is no way to run a company
  
  
• What's the social cost of making it harder to get Sudafed? -- more stupidity from the War on Drugs
  
  
• Two variations on a theme (societal panic over children's safety):
  1. Me, APD, and 'Babysitting While White,' Part Deux
     
  2. Man At The Bus Stop! Call The Police!
  
  
• The Plan So Far (for Greece = magic!!)
  
  

Holiday cheer

Or, at least an end-of-year batch of cheerful and/or fascinating links to tide you through quiet afternoons of eggnog recovery. Hooray!!

Fascinating

• My political philosophy and personal philosophy are not the same
  
  
• Taxing Job Creators -- not how it's usually explained...
  
  
• Audiobooks: A Cautionary Tale -- how authors can get happier outcomes
  
  
• Insomnia drugs waking people from comas
  
  
• 2011: The Science Year in Brief
  
  
• 12 Ways to Make Congress Work -- certainly raises some interesting ideas!
  
  
• I Would Like To Help You Get Your Show Cancelled -- on life in the TV writers' world

Cheerful/hilarious!

• The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah!
  
  
• A community design success from Philadelphia
  
  
• Planting Wind Energy on Farms May Help Crops, Say Researchers
  
  
• Louis C.K.'s giant pool of money -- a great story on many fronts
  
  
• Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work! (worth repeating)
  
  
• Generation X Doesn’t Want to Hear It
  
  
• New Decoy Website Launched To Lure Away All Moronic Internet Commenters (if only!!)
  
  
• Pointlessly Gendered Products
  
  
• I’m Christian, unless you’re gay. -- a heartfelt essay about living your supposed values
  
  
• An open letter to Minnesota state senator Amy Koch (gays apologize for causing her adultery)
  
  
• xkcd presents Some new science mnemonics
  
  
• What group projects teach
  
  
• Tim Minchin: If I Didn't Have You [video]
  
  
• I Have No Words -- Mike Tyson as Herman Cain
  
  
• 18,000 People Cheer Thing Going Through Thing -- sports satire
  
  
• Fabulous dance performance [video]
  
  
• The most beautiful literary mystery in Edinburgh -- be sure to click to see them all
  
  
• Charlie Todd: The shared experience of absurdity -- some great projects from Improv Everywhere
  
  
• Turtle has some wisdom to share (in ALL CAPS)
  
  
• Holiday pupcakes are almost done (oh, the cuteness!)
  
  
• Finally, this photo just makes me happy.
  

Widespread frustration

Am finding this a very frustrating time to be a well-informed citizen of the world -- rabid politics is dooming us to extended recession, America seems to be near-single-handedly preventing the world from addressing global warming before it's too late, and our government is reacting violently to expressions of free speech and public demonstrations. I'm short of time, but I hate to let my "grumpy" file get any thicker before Christmas, so here's a big frustration dump from the last month or two, without much additional comment:

• How evo psych is laying waste to responsible science journalism
  
  
• Essays on the trap of US student debt
  
  
• Sexism's Low-Grade Fever
  
  
• The Psychology of Nakedness (and unfortunate implications for opinions of women)
  
  
• A flurry of how online harrassment of women is completely different from what men experience (in both quantity and sometimes-terrifying quality):
  
  
  1. On being harassed: a little GF history and some current events
     
     
  2. But How Do You Know It’s Sexist? The #MenCallMeThings Round-Up
     
     
  3. The Internet Miniskirt
     
     
  4. "You should have your tongue ripped out": the reality of sexist abuse online
     
  
  
• What baseball tells us about racism
  
  
• Congressional Dysfunction Begins To Spook Old Pros
  
  
• What We Want to See On TV: Handsome Politicians
  
  
• EPA chief tells GOP to STFU
  
  
• Wal-Mart to Cut Healthcare Benefits
  
  
• Lack of jobs leaves more suburban, middle class sliding into poverty
  
  
• CHART OF THE DAY: Paul Ryan Wrong About Upwardly Mobile America
  
  
• CHART OF THE DAY: Long Term Unemployment Is A Huge Problem — Especially If You’re Old
  
  
• Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the Census
  
  
• New Cartoon: Government To The Rescue!
  
  
• Worthless (we can always protect the banksters somehow)
  
  
• A Banker Speaks, With Regret

  My daughter and I are reading Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” aloud to each other, and those Depression-era injustices seem so familiar today. That’s why the Occupy movement resonates so deeply: When the federal government goes all-out to rescue errant bankers, and stiffs homeowners, that’s not just bad economics. It’s also wrong.

  
  
• Who Killed Hard Work And Personal Responsibility?
  
  
• Federal Prosecution Of Financial Fraud Falls To 20-Year Low, New Report Shows
  
  
• The euro zone’s terrible mistake
  
  
• Ignorance is bliss when it comes to challenging social issues
  
  
• The Medicaid Ambush: The Supreme Court's unexpected and astounding reasons for wanting to hear a challenge to Obamacare.
  
  
• Congratulations, Television! You Are Even Worse At Masculinity Than Femininity
  
  
• IBM co-opting GPS system?
  
  
• Topeka, Kansas, legalizes domestic violence to save money
  
  
• How Medicare Fails the Elderly
  
  
• W. enters my wife’s schoolboard race
  
  
• Naomi Wolf: how I was arrested at Occupy Wall Street
  
  
• Psychology of pepper spray
  
  
• Pepper-spray inventor: "It's fashionable to use chemical agents on people who have an opinion"
  
  
• The Healing Process
  
  
• San Diego police arrest congressional candidate for voter registration in Civic Center Plaza
  
  
• Occupy Forcing Militarized PDs to Show Their Colors
  
  

Friday frolics

A heaping helping of cheery and interesting links to unburden my browser and lighten your weekend (with apologies for how old some of them are):

Cheering/silly

• Have old books and nobody to trade them with? BookMooch might be for you!
  
  
• Matt Damon explains non-financial motivations and the education sector
  
  
• Occupy Wall Street boiled down to a humorous (but accurate) caption -- indeed!!
  
  
• A list of Obama's accomplishments to remind the nay-sayers
  
  
• Also, separately, good advice to get involved in politics, not just spectate:

  ... creating change is the responsibility of the people who desire that change. Being disappointed in President Obama or frustrated with the Tea Party is a waste of time. The only thing we really control is the amount of effort we put into getting what we want.

  Well said.
  
  
• Also well said, the now-famous quote from Elizabeth Warren on how nobody succeeds alone.
  
  
• Medicare steps up enforcement of equal visitation and representation rights in hospitals
  
  
• Malaria report sees near-zero deaths by end of 2015 -- there's a headline I didn't expect! thanks, Gates Foundation!!
  
  
• Rafe reminds us that sometimes success is just keeping going, whether or not your approach is perfect or planned to the end; adjust when you must, but show up.
  
  
• A Dutch city set up a pedestrian slide an alternative to the stairs down to the subway -- fun!!
  
  
• Here's a blog of what reasonable women's armor would look like if it were made for fighting, not titilating teenage viewers -- amen!
  
  
• Goofy photos of dogs shaking off water -- oh, the jowls!!
  
  
• I continue to find ANIMALS TALKING IN ALL CAPS absolutely inspired, from the simple and goofy to the wordy and/or profound. Rock it!
  
  
• A heap of Demotivator-style expressions of first-world angst -- most entertaining.
  
  
• The problem with averaging star-ratings - hah!
  
  
• An amusing list of cultural faux pas in New York City -- lots of insights there into cultural norms of busy places generally.
  
  
• Here's a fun cover/collaboration of the Muppet Show Theme (by Ok Go)
  
  
• I've tried to resist all these auto-tuning videos, but I love the musicality and science of this video about the matter of the universe, which features a lot of great people expressing their joy in the crazy beauty of it all... (kind of makes me teary)
  
  
• You've probably already seen this, but it's so sweet I want to bookmark it here: an elderly couple tries to figure out their webcam, with much entertaining discussion along the way...
  
  
• Here's another old couple who know how to play a duet!! wonderful.

Fascinating

• Game of Thrones visual effects -- an amazing demonstration of how real scenery can be blended into green-screen fantasies to make movie places come alive
  
  
• Amazing slow-motion video of an owl coming in for a landing.
  
  
• Spoilers don't spoil anything -- a surprising finding that knowing how a story turns out lets us relax and enjoy the trip to get there.
  
  
• Facts Don’t Persuade Climate Skeptics–So What Does? graphics!! (also, this report might have some impact...)
  
  
• Ever wonder why it's hard to speak a foreign language over the phone? Part of the answer is provided by this audio-visual illusion, in which different mouth movements make you hear different sounds from the same track. We need visual cues to put it all together well.
  
  
• Speaking of fooling your senses, apparently it's possible to make apple pie without any apples, something that came in handy during, e.g., the Civil War. Who knew?
  
  
• How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds -- it's not a way you probably would have thought of!
  
  
• Have an old globe? Find out how old by using this table of when different countries ceased to exist/appear on maps...
  
  
• Ever wonder why your fingers and toes wrinkle up in water (but nothing else does)? Looks like it may actually improve traction on slippery surfaces! Thanks, evolution!!
  
  
• Did you hear about that faster-than-light-speed particle that seemed to challenge Einstein's theory of relativity? A proper application of relativity made sense of things (and proved that it hadn't broken light speed after all)...
  

To hell in a handbasket

I apparently just read, seethe, and file the links away for some imaginary future date when I'll have lots of spare time to analyze, ponder, and blog. But that's not happenin'! So here's a record-breaking heap of links from the last three months, that pain me to varying degrees and/or foreshadow the end of the American experiment:

I. Politics

• Oh, What Did You Think Would Happen? -- Governor Christie renegs on a major political deal, unashamedly
  
  
• The First Amendment, Upside Down -- campaign finance *stifles* speech?!?
  
  
• Mysterious Firm Gives $1 Million To Pro-Romney Group, Closes Shop
  
  
• Why the Press Loves Jon Huntsman but Ignores Ron Paul -- The media is fascinated by protest candidates who critique their own parties, but it marginalizes those who attack the establishment [fascinating!!]
  
  
• Conservative pundits grapple with ‘anti-science’ charge, flail
  
  
• Wis. Official To DMV Employees: Don't Offer People Free Voter-ID Cards Unless They Ask (no reason to *encourage* civic participation by the poor!)
  
  
• When Ronald Reagan Was President, There Was A Soviet Union And A Cold War -- but now mindless conformity is all the GOP needs
  
  
• Dennis G. Jacobs: Case study in judicial pathology -- more turning the Constitution inside out in the name of Security...
  

II. Economy

• Social Security provides the majority of income for three-fifths of Americans age 65+, but hey! let's whack at it and keep those old folks scramblin'!
  
  
• Related: We know how to reduce poverty among seniors
  
  
• Bill Gross: Deficit reduction can — and should — wait -- even big Wall Streeters can see the obvious! why not our political leaders?
  
  
• British Economy, After Austerity, at Zero Growth in the Past Nine Months -- more evidence that our approach is a deadly one
  
  
• Public special ed employee has $0 paycheck after health insurance deductions -- ah, but the public sector is pampered!
  
  
• A rising hunger among children -- eventually a lack of money affects nutrition and these children's futures
  
  
• The Embarrassment of the Poverty Rate -- is that it gets higher as we throw up our hands
  
  
• The Price of Rural Life -- disproportionately dependent on national support
  
  
• Big oil companies make huge profits with taxpayer support but cut jobs anyway
  

III. Health Care

• How our two-tiered healthcare system hurts kids -- wait longer for appointments and care than identical symptoms with private insurance
  
  
• Perversity -- public health interests and the financial interest of hospitals are often at odds, showing why capitalism is unlikely to solve this one
  

IV. Other stuff

• All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup -- American workers getting squeezed from both ends
  
  
• Guilt Through Algorithmic Association -- when what people Google starts affecting your life or your safety (really scary!)
  
  
• Even married monogamous women are dirty sluts who deserve cancer now -- when a vaccine becomes a political football
  
  
• Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas -- when you hear that "when 10% hold an unshakeable belief" is the threshold, it makes more sense of the craziness that passes for Conventional Wisdom these days...
  
  
• Return of the Bug-Eyed Bachmann -- not so funny when you clue into the gender politics of such images -- more here.
  
  
• A Message To Women From A Man: You Are Not "Crazy" -- more on how women's opinions and feelings get dismissed
  
  
• Finally, really pulling lemons out of the lemonade pitcher: Ugandans say they were beaten and forced from homes to make room for carbon credit forest. Of course...
  
  

Seems obvious but it's not

A very cogent and concise argument against the current Google+ "real-name" policy: Google+ Can Be A Social Network Or The Name Police – Not Both

The Google+ common name policy is insane. It creates an antisocial space in what is supposed to be a social network. It is at odds with basic human social behavior; its implementation is NECESSARILY arbitrary and infuriating, and it is actively damaging the Google+ brand and indeed the broader Google brand.

Indeed, people are fleeing the network, the Blogger host, and even finding alternative search engines. The wondrous allure of "starting over" with all the lessons of Facebook in hand has been wiped away by this demonstration of complete obliviousness to how people operate in the world (of which the Internet is just one slice)...

(More on the arguments against using/requiring real names, when pseudonyms do the job just fine, here.)

Link dump: We can all use some cheery distraction edition

Informative and interesting:

• Zombie Marie Curie shares her wisdom (via xkcd): "You don't become great by trying to become great. You become great by wanting to do something, and then doing it so hard that you become great in the process."
  
  
• Bad Job Market: Why the Media Is Always Wrong About the Value of a College Degree (it's always good, even if graduates sometimes end up tending bar)
  
  
• Cowboys and Pit Crews -- more from Atul Gwande on how the culture of medicine needs to be changed before we can get to less cost and better outcomes
  
  
• Tattoo Tracks Sodium and Glucose via an iPhone -- technology could allow noninvasive monitoring of many health conditions
  
  
• Pythagoras Solar Turns Windows Into Panels Of Energy -- imagine tall buildings with full solar panel coverage!
  
  
• Soda bottles become electricity-less “light bulbs” for the poor -- no electricity required during the day!
  
  
• Less transformative, but still inspiring: 50 creations from 50 pieces of Lego!
  
  
• Behind N.Y. Gay Marriage, an Unlikely Mix of Forces -- how that political reality came to be
  
  
• Obama Administration Reaches A Compromise On Fuel Economy Proposal -- recently bailed-out car companies get behind major improvements in mileage! yay!
  
  
• The medium chill -- getting off the aspirational treadmill and enjoying the life you have

Hilarious:

• The real George Lucas has been imprisoned for 20 years while an impostor ran amok, making prequels (video "trailer")
  
  
• You gotta love that the CDC has a guide on surviving a Zombie Apocalypse!
  
  
• Muffin Films short silly bits, if you need some surreality...
  
  
• Define the Ratio of People to Cake -- a cranky journalist answers a collection of really strange interview questions
  
  
• How The BET Awards Changed My Life (by capturing the WTF face that summarizes our times)
  
  
• Plot Device -- a truly inspired little musing on what happens when plot twists get the upper hand on an afternoon
  
  
• Neil Patrick Harris' 2011 Tony Awards Opening Number for anybody who missed it -- Broadway's not just for gays anymore!!
  
  
• The Invaders Are Here! -- kitten versus apples; who will win?

Summer fun/try at home:

• What’s Scrabble When You Can Play Novelist? -- how to turn a heap of mindless summer reading into a fun party game
  
  
• Just what we've all been needing: a Make Everything Ok button!!

(a cheery toddler lunch by A Mindful Life!)

Parenting-related link-dump

• Man, I wish we had something like this outdoor preschool available near us (video link, sorry) -- looks great, and I'll bet those kids are go-getters!
  
  
• Is it possible to give too much positive praise to preschoolers? Actually, the article refers to lots of good research showing that it's the specifics of how we give praise that matter -- paying attention to details is key, as is rewarding effort/strategy more than just success/completion. Not always intuitive!
  
  
• 5 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Make Kids Smarter -- some of these require lobbying your school/district for changes, but they seem like they could really pay off at little or no additional expense.
  
  
• Age Specific Responsibilities: Practical Suggestions for Responsibilities You Can Expect Your Child to Begin at Specific Ages. Great guidelines for all those times when it can just seem easier to do it for them.
  
  
• What Difference does Difference Make? An Appreciation and Review of “Equally Shared Parenting” -- I link this less because of any absolute advice she might offer on how to divide caretaking than because of the utility of the framework in which the discussion is set: that partners need to find a workable balance in the "four domains of childrearing, breadwinning, housework and time for self." I think we often don't think in those terms, and a lot of reasons for conflict can come from leaving one or more of those domains out of the conscious discussion.
  
  
• I love this part of parenthood -- Heather showing the mix of humor and heart that have made dooce.com a huge hit through the years.
  
  
• TLG Made it to 3! -- just a parental reflection that rings very close to our aspirations and experience. Onward to each new day!
  
  
• To the Time Machine! -- a nice reflection on the simplicities of a good summer camp, on wriggling your toes in summer, and on parental nostalgia. sniff.
  
  
• Finally, two epic records of one man's trip through parenthood, filled with wisdom and wacky dark humor: first a week-by-week journal of the first year, and then a monthly look at toddlerhood that follows. Really two pretty thick books there, but fun, and might be illuminating for new parents to read in semi-real time...
  

WTF?!?

What is up with this milk-for-PMS woman-hating campaign? It feels satirical (including the Fear Factor way that the guys are lit), but appears to be part of the GotMilk family of websites, so I think it's actually legit! "Everything I Do Is Wrong?" The mind boggles!!

Thursday link-dump

Accidental free-time this afternoon! Let's get some recent infuriators out of the tab-heap! (with apologies for how old some of these are...)

• Your iPhone is tracking your movements. No really, and there seems to be no workaround.
  Edit: since this was discovered, it's been fixed in an operating system patch, so if you're updating, you should be ok. reminder to stay alert!
  
  
• Authorities finally admit that all three reactors at Fukushima melted down -- honesty is good but doesn't really help with damage mitigation...
  
  
• DHS documents show agency isn't sure pornoscanners are safe -- but really, everything is fine! don't look over here!!
  
  
• This is what happens when we don't vaccinate -- outbreaks, at huge public cost
  
  
• Why A Power Of Attorney Is No Substitute For Marriage When A Loved One Is In The Hospital -- imagine not being able to hold a loved one's hand in their final hours, because paperwork was being investigated several states away
  
  
• CHART: Bush Policies Dominant Cause Of National Debt -- those tax cuts have cost us more than our economic woes + ongoing Middle East wars combined!
  
  
• Chart Of The Day: For American Workers, No Economic Recovery -- suck it up, peons!!
  
  
• Schumer: Republicans’ ‘Slash-And-Burn’ Policies May Be Effort To Sabotage Economy -- win the election at the cost of the economy! sigh.
  
  
• Medicaid a Big Deal Too -- people forget how much of the elder population relies on Medicaid when nursing home time comes
  
  
• Tipping point for severe climate change already reached -- well THAT's not good news!
  
  
• Wonkbook: What a Nobel prize won’t get you -- apparently a label of "qualified" from the U.S. Senate
  
  
• Hollerin’ Season -- what it's like to be subjected to sexual harrassment (or steeled against it) everywhere you go
  
  
• The Women Men Won't See -- an amazing story of a female comics enthusiast being treated like she literally isn't present in the store
  
  
• Is Roe safe? Absolutely not. -- not a good time for complacency
  
  
• Common Hour: The Promise and Perils of Hook-Up Culture (video) -- in some ways reassuring, but paints a deeply depressing image of sexual relations on campuses today
  
  
• The Secret History of Iraq’s Invisible War -- an amazing story of immense financial investment into fancy technology to counter low-tech methods of terrorist assault
  
  
• Afghanistan, the Barking Dog -- a great visual summary of our flailings there

Link dump: Cheerful edition

Fascinations:

• Ever wonder where your tax dollars go? Enter a few numbers and find out using this spiffy White House form.
  
  
• Vitamin Poppers May Make Less Healthful Choices -- got my healths all covered now!
  
  
• (In)(di)visibility -- a fascinating exploration of differences in how we treat people relative to "failings" that they can be "blamed for" (e.g., weight) versus those they "can't help" (e.g., autism) and what it says about those doing the judging.

  But for most of us, achieving the state expected of us wouldn’t just be a matter of trying, it would be the equivalent of earning a Ph.D. in astrophysics while simultaneously working swing shift as a police officer and raising triplets as a single parent — and we’d never get to stop. Maybe someone can actually do this, but expecting it to be a routine occurrence is, frankly, an expectation not supported by existing evidence.

• When Did You Know Your Gender? -- another of those questions (like "when did you choose to be straight?") that make you rethink your assumptions/privilege.
  
  
• How Teens Understand Privacy -- as a much more subtle and multifaceted matter than we tend to give them credit for!
  
  
• Lost in Translation -- the experience of taking on something new, mastering it (you think), gaining humility, and learning some more... Funny and insightful.
  
  
• Top Ten Myths About the Brain

Amusements and cheer:

• A Texas letter-to-the-editor asks why we don't hold politicians to results standards like we use to "motivate" teachers (among other philosophical musings).
  
  
• Translation of General Misogyny to Uncomfortable Truth -- a web screed "translated" to expose its blindness to white male privilege. Full of truth and satisfyingly snarky along the way.
  
  
• Ben Greenman’s Museum of Silly Charts -- priceless!
  
  
• Books - That is exactly how they work -- a picture that captures the joy of reading.
  
  
• Unsuck It -- business jargon unpacked (and served with a side of snark).
  
  
• Is it possible that the national mind is open to the factual delusion of the Republican party? One can only hope...
  
  
• Speaking of which, Schumer To House GOP: You Still Own Your Vote To Privatize Medicare -- I hope they follow through!
  
  
• 10 Modern Movies That Are Better in Black and White -- fun to watch, for the visuals and for the snippets of movies you loved or never saw.
  
  
• 'No Homework' Debate Finds Support In New Jersey -- we gotta do something to find a balance for our kids!

Just plain awesome:

An amazing collaboration between Yo-Yo Ma and dancer Lil Buck -- Ma just keeps on pushing the boundary of where people think a classical cello should go. This is lovely and joyous.

Link dump: Latest outrages and frustrations

Man, most of these deserve a freestanding post, dissection, pull-quotes... but it's just not going to happen. Here's a heap of things that just make me want to cry in a darkened room (or maybe bite somebody).

• School Officials Often React Poorly to Student Suicides, Experts Say -- many of the classic actions to help the community mourn actually glorify the act of suicide and encourage others to consider it (!)
  
  
• Why Do Americans Pay More For Healthcare? -- summarized in visual form, and likely not the reasons you may have been told...
  
  
• Eight facts and three thoughts about Social Security -- also not what tends to get discussed, but important facts and conclusions here
  
  
• Cartoon: The Wage Gap and Women’s Choices -- seems so obvious, but...
  
  
• South Dakota Banning Abortion Without Banning Abortion?
  
  
• Scott Walker wants you to die alone if you married the wrong person -- to whom else can this putz flip the bird?
  
  
• Top Doctors Opt Out of Airport Security Scans -- make of it what you will
  
  
• Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill compared lawmakers trying to block raising the debt ceiling to "al Qaeda terrorists."
  
  
• CBO: GOP Budget Would Increase Debt, Then Stick It To Medicare Patients
  
  
• Reading Is Fundamental Funding Eliminated -- and this one is already done
  
  
• Barbour Says Everyone In Mississippi Has Access To Health Care -- But 18% Are Uninsured -- yes, folks, these are your elected representatives!
  
  
• Poll: Miss. Republicans think inter-racial marriage should be illegal -- I'm constantly amazed to learn what decade/century we live in...
  
  
• How Quickly We Forget -- race isn't the only thing driving right-wing fervor against Obama
  
  
• He Won -- bin Laden, that is; we've sold our liberties for "security" in too many ways...
  
  
• To *enter* the post office in downtown Athens, US Marshals are demanding photo ID -- what on earth?!?
  

What's wrong with this headline?

Budget talks come down to abortion

Link dump: latest outrages edition

• Ohio Town Sees Public Job as Only Route to Middle Class -- too bad that their legislators are trying to gut that option too
  
  
• House Agriculture committee: Cut food assistance, but keep farm subsidies Sigh.
  
  
• Buried Provision In House GOP Bill Would Cut Off Food Stamps To Entire Families If One Member Strikes -- unreal.
  
  
• Republicans want 'In God We Trust' emblazoned on 9,000 federal buildings, cost could top $100m -- of course, see the two previous...
  
  
• Retired General: Republicans Making Nuclear Terrorism More Likely by cutting our programs to help countries like Russia get rid of heaps of nuclear materials
  
  
• Cuts Weren't Enough -- GOP plans to phase out Medicare, so they can stop being annoyed at how successful and popular it is
  
  
• The Death and Life of the Democratic Party -- the withering of unions has pushed the party into the arms of big business, leaving it torn about its principles; see also this cartoon. Sigh.
  
  
• Boehner’s Tough Spot Hides Democratic Ideological Giveaway -- more evidence that the Democrats no longer even see themselves as standing for something
  
  
• Epic irony: Mideast moves forward while America moves backward -- a grim compilation of the war on women's rights, in particular. Related: No justice on earth until there is justice for women -- seems an obvious point
  
  
• Obama administration curtails rights for terror suspects -- same as the old boss?? See also US military's "gratuitously harsh treatment" of Manning condemned by NYT, WaPo, LAT, ACLU and Clinton To Congress: Obama Would Ignore Your War Resolutions -- it all makes me want to cry.
  
  
• TOM THE DANCING BUG: U.S. Bombs U.S. Schools -- kind of sums up my frustrations with our involvement in Libya
  
  
• How a lie enters the political bloodstream -- important piece about how journalists set the terms of acceptable versus fringe debate

  What's key to understand about this model is that what ends up in the various spheres has very little to do with empirical or logical merit. These are not truth categories, they are categories of practice, shaped by social forces. In other words, they are deeply, intrinsically political, though "objective" reporters seem almost incapable of recognizing that they are engaging in political choices.

• Weak Job Market Forces Maine Legislator to Leave the State -- their legislature is part-time, so reps really "feel the pain" just like their constituents!
  
  
• Speaking of Maine, Maine Governor Orders Mural Depicting Labor History Removed From Labor Department -- these guys really take Orwell to heart!
  
  
• Who Screwed the Middle Class?

  A lot has happened over the past 30 years, but if you're looking for a single political sea change that's had the biggest impact on middle class wages—more important than union decline, more important than NAFTA, more important than the end of Glass-Steagall—it's the political consensus that underlies the Fed's reluctance to allow labor markets to stay tight enough to generate wage increases in the real economy. And it's something we're seeing all over again right now, as the DC chattering classes have almost unanimously decided that inflation is our real enemy right now, even though core inflation is running around 1% and unemployment is still near 9%.

• Beware the Vultures -- our policing of parents is making their lives almost unworkable.
  
  
• TSA to retest airport body scanners for radiation -- some have shown 10 times more radiation release than we've been promised so often is harmless. But you can trust the TSA!!

Where credit is due

Echidne has really been on a roll lately -- on what the Right is up to, on recent anti-union maneouvers, even on what does and doesn't get said about Elizabeth Taylor's roles and what that reveals. I've linked to this week's posts, so just go get edumacated via some chewy analysis of Stuff!