Various items I failed to blog in the last week or two are linked below. ETA: What have Hoydenizens read lately that should be shared more widely? Turn that douchehound upside down (from Shapely Prose by Sweet Machine) – commentors… Read More ›
social change
Well they would say that, wouldn’t they?
From ABC Online: A residents’ group that fought against a proposed Muslim school at Camden, in Sydney’s south-west, has denied its support for a proposed Catholic school demonstrates a double standard in the community. Apparently their main concern, they now… Read More ›
Quickhit: protests and arrests in Minneapolis St. Paul stifle legitimate dissent
If it wasn’t for blogs I would hardly have heard that nearly 300 people have been arrested while protesting the Iraq war and the Republican convention over the last few days. The city centres have been heavily militarised with large… Read More ›
Friday Hoyden: Germaine Greer
I found this image on this media release page at the Southern Cross University website, which uses it to illustrate promotional information for “An Evening With Germaine Greer” that took place in early 2008. I chose it because it is… Read More ›
Quick hit: Smoking ad history, from Lucky Strike to the Marlboro Man
The New England Journal of Medicine has a slideshow of 20th-century cigarette advertisements, with a commentary that reveals some of the marketing changes that took place as public awareness of the health damage from tobacco smoking grew. Allan Brandt Discusses… Read More ›
Why I haven’t blogged on the Victorian abortion decriminalisation bill
Because Helen at Cast Iron Balcony covered all the issues so well that I had nothing to add – read it there.
Now this is what I call a netroots base
Running for Office: It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner Sean Tevis’ innovative method of raising internet fundraising in his venture to oust and replace his current State Representative (basically equivalent to one of… Read More ›
Carnivalia, transgenderism and the gender binary
Two feminist blogging carnivals were published this week: Carnival Against Sexual Violence 53 The 17th Carnival of Radical Feminists Both carnivals contain plenty of excellent posts to ponder, provoke and especially to disturb. Which brings me to the posts that… Read More ›
SF Sunday: machines and freedom from slavery
From my Quotes File (which you can see serving up random quotes at the bottom of the sidebar):
The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture, and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)
I find the search for the perfect robot society a continuing feature of SF novels,
No surprises: internet filtering test results show products block legitimate content
We said it would. Despite a cheery press release from Communications Minister Stephen Conroy that all is going well, an analysis of the actual test results shows that the tested filters slow connection speeds significantly (which means ISPs would have… Read More ›
Hoyden About Town 