Today’s otter comes to you via Doug Brown on flickr.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
I found this NYT article about cooking oils interesting:
Is It Time for an Oil Change in the Kitchen?
I was horrified by hearing about a woman literally starving herself in order to be thin in order to get a husband. I’m so saddened that she would feel the need to do that. I wanted to talk about it amongst my friends only to be told by multiple people that I just don’t get it because I’m thin. I don’t know what to do, and it’s very depressing.
There’s a conference at my uni this weekend on health and embodiment. I’m hosting one of the panellists who does work on queer and disability intersectionality ^^
@Eddy: Stories like that always make me sad; I feel angry that we live in a society that drives people to feeling like that’s the only option they have. I’m sorry you were told that by your friends, too.
@Jha: That sounds awesome!
Bringing this over to the current thread:
The Amazing Kim wrote:
I’ve been mulling this over, and I’m really bothered that the list of “Don’t” ommitted “Don’t touch PWD or any of their assistive devices or possessions unless explicitly asked to”, and also that it seems (unless this was in another section?) there’s nothing there about not touching, patting, or distracting service animals. Or was there a “Do” which consisted of “keep your damn hands OFF”? I don’t think that just telling people to not assist unless asked is enough; having received “affectionate/condescending” unwanted touch from a poll worker last time myself, I think there need to be specific, clear comments about touching.
Stepped on some glass yesterday. Very entertaining.
I really want to go for a walk in this beautiful weather, but all I can do is hop. The right side of my body is going to be so buff by the end of the week.
Hi Lauredhel! I have the manual in front of me, and the closest I can find is:
There is no advice on touching, beside that tangentially related tidbit. And it’s a bit misleading, because other people with disabilities can have assistance animals too (though I guess guide dogs are the commonest). The only other mention of any assistive devices is for queue monitors to make sure there are no obstacles that could hinder a wheelchair, and to provide chairs for those who need them. .
I’ve just discovered Derren Brown’s blog, and his answers to questions premised on “If I Were PM”:
Tumblr has suspended the account for Privilege Denying Dude for “extensive copyright violation”. Even though the site-creator had paid for the use of a stock photo, I think that istockphoto may well have a case that her use of the image was in breach of their T&C.
So who’s going to draw a nice Smug PDD caricature for her, I wonder?
But then again, this Gawker commentor also has a point:
and so does this one:
It’s probably important to note that it’s not just copyright. People typically have “model rights” over images of themselves, that is, no matter what the license of the image or who owns that license, the image can’t be used in such a way as to make it seem that the subject in it endorses something without that person explicitly consenting to waive their model rights. Professional models for advertisements and such obviously consent to endorse a product.
It’s important to understand this because Creative Commons can be soooooo tempting for these use cases. But you couldn’t just use one of the images on this CC Flickr search for an endorsement, even though their licenses are notionally “share and modify!” (And frankly some of them have a very PDD facial expression!)
Virgin Mobile in Australia made this mistake some time back: http://adland.tv/content/virgin-uses-cc-licenced-flickr-photo-ad-campaign-forgets-model-release-gets-sued
All that said, I agree that it’s definitely also a case of inconsistent enforcement.
My favourite candidates for PDD from that Flickr search (noting that they have not waived model rights!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevlue/4839131244/ (he has funky glasses! people judge him too!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannyfowler/3805736112/ (suit, sneer, win)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spunter/380919721/ (call the waaaambulance! although the motion blur makes my eyes hurt)
Mary: I just figured out what “personal appeal from Jimmy Wales” banner on Wikipedia reminded me of! A PDD model candidate: http://upload.wikimedia.org/centralnotice/images/Jimmy-window-light.jpg (it’s those pleading eyes)
Jimmy Wales says* tough it out! If Wikipedia can do it, so can you!
* Not really.
Also, apparently Chrome users can have Jimmy Wales appeal to them personally on every website: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/idkjdjficifbfjjkdkiimioljbloddpl
RIP the NZ miners: Second blast dashes hope for miners
I thought yesterday that I really didn’t like the way things were looking.
I didn’t realise until I had heard about today’s explosion, but even though I read all the things that made survival and rescue harder (coal mine, large mine, ongoing danger) I now realise I was still confidently thinking they were going to be rescued.
RIP.
Warnings for medical assault trial. The NSW trial of a former gynaecologist (known as GSR on court orders) alleged to have surgically mutilated a patient has resulted in a hung jury.