Items of interest come across recently in my feed-reader. What did I miss? Leave your own interesting links in comments.

• It’s almost the end of January…

– This is your regular reminder to submit to DUFC. The next edition of the Down Under Feminists Carnival is planned for 5 February, 2011 […] Submissions must be of posts of feminist interest by writers from Australia and New Zealand that were published in January.

• Net Neutrality, Keith Olbermann, and the Limits of Schadenfreude

– “So, if Olbermann was fired for supporting Net Neutrality, that doesn’t make me happy. He didn’t get fired for his behavior during #MooreandMe, we know that for goddamn sure. He may have quit to paint himself as the underdog, he may have gotten the oust because he didn’t kiss enough corporate ass, he might not have been making the numbers. More than likely he just quit to start his own publication. I have a different reaction to each of these scenarios, because they are different realities to contend with.”

• The Humorless Feminist Meets the Anti-! Sady! Doyle!

– “…And, for all that, I can’t really hate this Apparently a Dude. It must be the exclamation points! Or maybe the incoherent misspellings! To prove his point! Random-assedly! As if he were arguing with property! And not a lawyer-person! OMGSHINY!”

• Round-up and thoughts on this “personhood” silliness

– “To say that something is a person as soon as conception happens is to claim, in essence, that men make babies by ejaculating. To say that it’s a person at birth is to say women make babies by being pregnant for 9 months, and that while the father kicked in some DNA, the person who actually made the baby—provided the time, energy, calories, proteins—was the mother. Which also happens to be true.

This idea is threatening to sexists, who generally disregard the value of women’s work anyway, but especially will not give credit to women for doing something as amazing as bringing a new life into the world.”

• Boosting the Signal on Scarleteen’s Find-a-Doc

– “Readers can use our new online tool to find out who Scarleteen users around the world have gotten great care from that they’d personally recommend, and see listings of care services our staff, volunteers and allies know to be bonafide. Or, you can enter your own review to help others find services they need from providers you know are great, or add your review of a provider or service to an existing listing. If you’re a service provider, you can enter information about your clinic, center or practice and it will be published for review. Any of the above can be done anonymously, so no one has to worry about privacy.”

• Broad-Spectrum Anti-Idiotics

– “A little clarity on the differences between intersex and transgender seems required on the topic of transsexuality in comparison to intersexuality. Allow me to provide it.”

• Visitors Welcome

– “There was some good news on the healthcare front last week: any hospital that accepts Medicare or Medicaid has to allow the patient to put anyone they choose on their visitor’s list. That means that no hospital can refuse to let anyone who is not part of what the hospital defines as “family” be at their bedside.”

• Disability, Packaged for Your Consumption

– “One issue I think is particularly important to look at is the way pop culture handling of disability contributes to social distancing, because it is usually depictions played and written by nondisabled people for the consumption of nondisabled people. We are not part of the process of developing and considering such characters at all and people seem shocked that we are also in the audiences of pop culture.

I also see this coming up with QUILTBAG characters and members of some other minorities. And, in fact, I note that there is often a push to specifically exclude creators writing and exploring their own lived experiences.”

• Homeopathy: There’s nothing in it

– “last year, they decided to try to stage an event where they would do a public homeopathic overdose. They put the word out to other local groups in the UK and the idea gained so much momentum that by the end of it, over 400 skeptics across the UK all ‘overdosed’ on homeopathic remedies.

This year, they are bringing the campaign stateside. ”

• The second life of “In no uncertain terms”

– “Please ignore the “beg the question” usage — or read this post if equanimity in the face of question-begging is beyond your powers — and contemplate the captalized assertion that “IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS DO I BELIEVE THAT WE SHOULD OUTLAW OR “WUSS DOWN’ CONTACT SPORTS”.”

• George Clooney’s malaria? DDT didn’t cure it

– “Do you consider it odd that Clooney’s contracting malaria might gather more news in western outlets than his actual trip to Sudan, to call attention to the campaign against genocide?”

• Cultural Differences in Cognitive Perception

– “It seems obvious that basic cognitive perceptions shouldn’t vary by society. That is, that our eyes should see, and our brains should process, essentially the same no matter what we call ourselves, what language we speak, or what holidays we observe. It turns out, however, that even basic cognitions vary across the world.”

• How to game Google Scholar

– “The way items get on Google Scholar is based entirely on whether they’re formatted like a scholarly paper. They aren’t sharing the details, but it has to be fairly general stuff, like having a title and author and not being surround by advertising bric-a-brac, or whatever. Any ol’ nonsense will do, since they don’t evaluate content, and any ol’ author will also do, since they don’t care if it’s being published by the university or the insane asylum, just make it look sort of like a serious paper, and it will show up.”

• Fashion Fails to Sufficiently Minimize Women’s Bodies

– “Christina Aguilera’s dress commits the sin of making her look “buxom” and “hippy,” and she is rather oddly compared to Mae West as though that’s a bad thing:”

• Quick note on fattedness.

– “Like most fat people, I’m not fat because I take in more calories than I burn. I’m fat because I take in the same amount of calories that I burn.”

Categories: culture wars, ethics & philosophy, gender & feminism, linkfest, Science, social justice

Tags: abortion, carnival, dufc, fatphobia, LGBTQI+, media, Read-ems, sex education, sexuality and health