Recent Posts - page 439

  • The Great Scrabble Firewall

    By on • ( 6 )

    Facebookers have probably been following the saga of Scrabulous, the online game that looks and behaves rather like Scrabble. Scrabulous was well put together, and allowed me to play with my friends all over the globe, in group and one-on-one games.

    Well, it was fun while it lasted. Despite their IP claims being rather, erm, shaky, Mattel-Hasbro seems to have brought down Scrabulous; it’s now only available for people who don’t live in the USA or Canada.

    “Not to worry!”, they bugled. “We’ll bring out our own authentic version for you!”

  • Lesson learnt this weekend

    By on

    “Big Swinging Dick” is much more obscure slang than I thought it was.

    Luckily the new acquaintances who thought I was just being whimsically rude about their friend also thought it was hilarious

  • “There’s nothing so sad and ridiculous as a shiny-nosed girl trying to be a charmer”

    By on • ( 5 )

    So says the advertisement below for skin creams. While the cosmetics industry is still full of nasty beauty myth tropes, at least it’s no longer quite as condescending as this.


    Image Credit: Ponds-HowToBecomeSomeMansDreamGirl originally uploaded by Wishbook

    This phrase just makes me want to hurl: “wistful dreams of being some big strong man’s little dream girl”. Infantilising much?

  • Sexual assault perp Kyle Payne is asking for it – feel free to respond

    By on • ( 36 )

    kylepayneKyle Payne, fauxminist, predator, and sexual assaulter, is up for open sentencing on August 11, though he is asking for it to be postponed so that he can continue his “counselling” and solicitation of “letters of support”.

    Kyle Payne was a rape crisis advocate, women’s studies student, and resident advisor at his university. While “looking after” an unconscious drunk student in his care, he undid her shirt and took a photograph and video of her breast.

    He has now published a statement on his blog, closed comments on it, and emailed a bunch of feminist bloggers to alert them to it. Yeah – he’s soliciting letters of support from feminists, in an effort to influence his sentence. Mm, that’ll go well:

  • SF Sunday: intricately detailed worlds etc

    By on • ( 4 )

    I was having a grand old discussion about space-elevators (originally called sky-hooks) with my DBH last night, in particular how Arthur C. Clarke managed to flub some of the construction-tech in Fountains of Paradise, and how Charles Sheffield’s more accurate construction-tech in his almost simultaneously published space-elevator novel was mocked for not being the same as Clarke’s even after Clarke said “hey, actually he got it right”.

  • Otterday!

    By on • ( 1 )

    Today’s Otterday shot is via “hiker” of Clubsnap. This pair of smooth otters was snapped at the Punggol River in Singapore.

  • Thread of the week: playful pedants alert

    By on

    From John Scalzi: Another Entry in the Annals of “People Who Haven’t the Slightest Idea What They’re Saying” Awww, look. Someone’s trying to lecture me on speech and the Internet! A fabulous exploration into what does and what does not… Read More ›

  • Friday Hoyden (now with added Saturday*): funny fridge magnets etc

    By on • ( 14 )

    What other feminist funnies do you see around the place that make you smile? Add a link to an image in comments and I’ll use my Super-Duper Admin Powers to reveal it to other readers. For those who wish to… Read More ›

  • They lied about the air too

    By on • ( 8 )

    Like Andrew Bartlett, I agree entirely with Andrew Bolt regarding the shameful weaseling by the International Olympic Committee regarding the whole idea of granting the 2008 Olympic games to the authoritarian dictatorship of China in the first place. Addit: just… Read More ›

  • Sometimes, you see all you need to know within 5 seconds of flipping channels

    By on • ( 6 )

    Movie: ice and snow everywhere. Two men in front of bookshelves, one throwing all the books out. Second man objects – “these aren’t just books, they’re art!” First man (striking stoic squarejawed three-quarter turned pose) – “no they’re not, they’re… Read More ›