Friday Linkspam

[coraa]

It's been a while since I did this, so there are a lot of links beneath the cut. They are also, just by chance, trending more toward the heavy topics than the light, although there is some light in there.



Ptak Science Books: Atomurbia: Responding to Atomic Threat by Moving Everyone Everywhere (1946)
I found this both forehead-smite-inducing and funny. Mileage may vary.

Jezebel: You Can't Bully Me Out Of My Skinny Jeans
May contain body-image triggers.

It's a foundation that benefits business, not people, and it suits the beauty, fashion and weight loss industries to have every day people like you and I reinforcing arbitrary beauty standards that help shift units so people can feel better about themselves by putting other people down, therefore reinforcing arbitrary beauty standards (stop me before I get sucked into this infinite loop here guys).

impertinence: it's not that I'm blaming you, it's just that it's your fault
My personal experience with friends who've tried to report sexual assault bears this post up, almost right down to the details. May contain sexual assault-related triggers. (Note the post date on this before replying; it's been up for over a month now, so the discussion is no longer active.)

The legal system is a tangled mess. The only guarantee it can offer a victim of sexual violence is repeated biased, intrusive questioning that is frequently done with the stated aim of making the victim contradict herself. Going to the police is an ordeal that requires time, money, and mental stability - three resources that victims usually do not have.

Jennifer Reese@Slate: The Pioneer Woman vs. Thomas Keller
A comparison of the fried chicken recipes from Thomas Keller (tastes delightful, takes days and days) and The Pioneer Woman (tastes less delightful, can be done as an actually reasonable evening meal). My question: since she appreciated TPW's more practical method but preferred TK's spice blend, why not just do TPW's method with TK's spices?

YouTube: Bronte Sisters Power Dolls
Awesome! (Video.)

Karl Steel@In the Middle: To discourage the others: Gerald's humanity goes awry
This is a fascinating post about Gerald of Wales' attitudes toward the animal-human hybrids in his writings. Relevant To My Interests because someday(tm) I'm going to write about the three children of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy, born when their parents were forced into beast shapes and mated.

N. K. Jemison: Don't Put My Book in the African American Section
Something that's been on my mind ever since I had trouble locating an Octavia Butler omnibus because it was in the African American Fiction section instead of in the SFF section. (I was interested enough to ask where it was; a casual SFF browser, who might very well love the books, wouldn't necessarily even know to ask, let alone bother if they did.)

marthawells: A Quick and Very Basic Airship Primer
Bookmarked for very useful future research purposes!

Lore Sjoberg@Underwire: Alt Text: The Nice Guy's Guide to Realizing You're Not That Nice
Ahahahahahaha. Haha. Lots of true here. (via maggiedacatt)

There are any number of geek guys running around out there without the love and companionship that many people and all golden retrievers deserve. Sometimes these guys sit down and try to figure out why they’re living a life devoid of love, romance, sex and discussions about whose hair it is in the shower drain.

They undertake a deep self-assessment, questioning all their long-cherished beliefs about themselves, and this is what they conclude: They’re too nice. And that’s hilarious!

Guys, you’re not “too nice.” That’s like saying you can’t get seated at an L.A. restaurant because you’re too famous.

Fred Clark@Slacktivist: Much will be asked
Been thinking about this a lot, personally, so when it showed up on Slacktivist it was a big thought-provoker for me.

Their test scores may reveal the capacity for genius, but real genius doesn't stop there on the threshhold, proud of its unrealized potential. Real genius creates, invents, discovers, envisions, unmasks and reveals. It gives something to the rest of the world -- the phonograph, Atticus Finch, polio vaccine, Landscape at Auvers in the Rain, the Bo Diddley beat, key lime pie, the First Amendment, the theory of relativity, the 14th Amendment, the Chrysler building ... or that oil-spill containment system our geniuses have apparently forgotten to get around to inventing just yet.

What I'm suggesting here is that these very intelligent people might achieve more and better leverage -- better exercise, in all senses of that word -- their intelligence if they shifted their gaze and their priorities outward.

Mary Anne Mohanraj: Wiscon 34 Guest of Honor Speech
I was there for this in person, and let me tell you, it was an amazing speech.

In the stories, there's always that moment when a stranger appears to the young hero, when the wise old man shows up at your doorstep with a flaming sword and says to you -- we need you, you're the chosen one, you're the only one who can save us. I grew up waiting for that call, waiting for someone to open my door, and reach out his hand to me. The call could come at any moment; that doorway could open to another world. Sometimes, walking alone down a street, seeing a shadowed door, I would step into the shadow, just in case. It was never a magic door, but I kept hoping. I keep hoping.

Tim Wise@ZNet: What Kind of Card is the Race Card?

Asked about the tendency for people of color to play the "race card," I responded as I always do: First, by noting that the regularity with which whites respond to charges of racism by calling said charges a ploy, suggests that the race card is, at best, equivalent to the two of diamonds. In other words, it's not much of a card to play, calling into question why anyone would play it (as if it were really going to get them somewhere).

issendai: How to keep someone with you forever
This is a fascinating and painful-because-it's-true analysis of a lot of dysfunctional relationships, both professional and personal. May contain triggers re: abusive relationships. (via half my flist)

So you want to keep your lover or your employee close. Bound to you, even. You have a few options. You could be the best lover they've ever had, kind, charming, thoughtful, competent, witty, and a tiger in bed. You could be the best workplace they've ever had, with challenging work, rewards for talent, initiative, and professional development, an excellent work/life balance, and good pay. But both of those options demand a lot from you. Besides, your lover (or employee) will stay only as long as she wants to under those systems, and you want to keep her even when she doesn't want to stay. How do you pin her to your side, irrevocably, permanently, and perfectly legally?

You create a sick system.

The Guardian: What really happens when you die?
From the medical professional who declares you legally dead to the point when you are buried, cremated, or resomated.

Maureen Johnson: Manifesto
(via janni)

I am not saying that it is a bad or dishonest thing to try to sell your work. It is not. What I am saying is that I am tired of the rush to commodify everything, to turn everything into products, including people. I don’t want a brand, because a brand limits me. A brand says I will churn out the same thing over and over. Which I won’t, because I am weird.

Nnedi Okorafora@Strange Horizons: Stephen King's Super-Duper Magical Negroes

The archetype of the Magical Negro is an issue of race. It is the subordination of a minority figure masked as the empowerment of one. The Magical Negro has great power and wisdom, yet he or she only uses it to help the white main character; he or she is not threatening because he or she only seeks to help, never hurt. The white main character's well-being comes before the Magical Negro's because the main character is of more value, more importance.

Our Amazing Planet Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench
Mindblowing! (via telophase)

National Geographic Photo of the Day: Serra de Leba, Angola, Hazrat Ali Mosque, Afghanistan, Pantanal, Brazil (birds), Old Truck in a Forest, Manarola, Italy, Noodle Chef, Thailand, Baobab Trees, Tanzania

Recipes: Magic Cookie Bar Pie, Mushy Peas, Eggplant Rollatini, Ginger Jam, A Mycological Adventure (mushroom and bacon quiche), Pissaladiere Pasta, Cabbage and Lime Salad with Roasted Peanuts, Black Bean Dip, Creamed Chard and Spring Onions, Grilling: Pineapple Salsa

Comments

[tedeisenstein.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite quotes about the difference between intelligence and genius -

(From William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill. Visions of Glory, 1874-1932, pp. 158-159:)
Clearly there was something odd here. Winston, Davidson had conceded, was the ablest boy in his [grade]. He was, in fact, remarkable. His grasp of history was outstanding. Yet he was considered a hopeless pupil. It occurred to no one that the fault might lie, not in the boy, but in the school. Samuel Butler defined genius as "a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds," and it is ironic that geniuses are likeliest to be misunderstood in classrooms. Studies at the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota have found that teachers smile on children with high IQs and frown upon those with creative minds. Intelligent but uncreative students accept conformity, never rebel, and complete their assignments with dispatch and to perfection. The creative child, on the other hand, is manipulative, imaginative, and intuitive. He is likely to harass the teacher. He is regarded as wild, naughty, silly undependable, lacking in seriousness or even promise. His behavior is distracting; he doesn't seem to be trying; he gives unique answers to banal questions, touching off laughter among other children. E. Paul Torrance of Minnesota found that 70 percent of pupils rated high in creativity were rejected by teachers picking a special class for the intellectually gifted. The Goertzels concluded that a Stanford study of genius, under which teachers selected bright children, would have excluded Churchill, Edison, Picasso, and Mark Twain.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Interesting but highly gendered quote.

[tedeisenstein.livejournal.com]

Churchill would have been in school around 1890 in England; the school system (and most of England, for that matter) was highly gendered and very male-oriented. What's your point?

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

All your 1980s-published text's generalisations about genius are also sexist.