Russian Sledges

1 oz Nardini Grappa Bianca
1 oz Green Chartreuse
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass.

Two Sundays ago, we stopped in at Brick & Mortar where Kenny Belanger and Cory Buono were bartending that night. For a first drink, I asked Kenny for the Mistaken for Strangers. Kenny explained that Misty Kalkofen had created this drink for the holiday menu and had called it The Grinch. After December was over, Misty decided that the name needed to be changed to something less seasonal. Since the combination of grappa and Green Chartreuse is one that is not expected, she renamed it Mistaken for Strangers. Overall, the drink shared a resemblance to the Green Ghost.
The Mistaken for Strangers greeted the nose with a Green Chartreuse aroma, and as things warmed up a bit, grappa joined the aroma. A herbal and lime sip was followed by the funky grappa, the Green Chartreuse, and an almost minty note on the swallow. Indeed, the drink was like a drier, less herbal, and more funky Silent Order. Moreover, the grappa and Chartreuse went well together perhaps akin to how grappa paired with the herbal and vegetal notes in the Piazza Vecchia.

1 3/4 oz Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal
3/4 oz Gran Classico
1/2 oz Averna

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass.
The other cocktail I had at Brick & Mortar was another of Misty Kalkofen's creations called A Slow Dance with Pedro Infante. José Pedro Infante Cruz is one of the most famous actors and singers of the golden age of Mexican cinema, and he frequently sang slow, danceable songs during his movies. The drink itself greeted the nose with a smoky agave aroma. A caramel sip from the Averna led into a mezcal and herbal swallow and a Gran Classico bitter finish.

I went on a bit of a granola bender the other week for reasons best left between me and my obsessive brain. The upshot of this, as you can probably guess, was that I ended up with a lot of granola sitting on my counter. After foisting jars of it onto my friends and snacking on it every afternoon, I still had more granola than I could conceivably eat before it went stale. The solution? Freeze it.

More

The Boy Scouts of America's national executive board has delayed a decision on whether to lift its longstanding ban on gay scouts and leaders.

kwmurphy:

higregjohnson:

Greg Johnson

How can you not love this.

Image Credit: Zyllan Fotografia.

 

By Guest Contributor Jha; originally published as part of the series “Racist Things Steampunks Are Not Immune To” at Silver Goggles

So, this morning I woke up to two emails about the exact same thing: Some nonsense-filled thread talking about “how to not offend people” when it comes to multicultural steampunk. And a cursory glance through the emails proved to me once more how impossible it is to talk to white people who don’t want to change their minds about what offensiveness is and what not to do.

While I am certainly pleased that there are people who are aware of the racial implications of what they do–even in some fuzzy way that they can’t articulate–I am also aware that there are a ton of people, shall I say, “looking for offense,” or rather, the chance to be aghast by some perceived limitation of their actions and options. There are white fans of steampunk who will set up strawman arguments about how fans of color actively look for offense (e.g. racism and appropriation), so much so that other poor folks are walking on eggshells every time they move.

“I can’t wear a pith helmet,” they will whine, “because then it would be colonialist and thus offensive!”

“I can’t wear a kimono,” another set will whine, “because then it would offend Asian people!”

“I can’t incorporate gypsy styles,” some more will whine, “because then I’d be accused of appropriation!”

Can we even consider the absurdity of these statements?

You can’t because then… someone will remind you why it sucks for them to see you wearing it?

You can’t because then… someone might tell you off and express their anger at you doing it?

You can’t because then… someone will remind you they are hurt that their culture has become a commodity item, while they’re trying to live their daily lives trying to gain recognition as human beings?

I can’t even begin to fathom the amount of arrogance it takes not to empathize with the people you perceive are being needlessly offended. This reaction is stunningly, fucking self-centered–all about you and how you can’t, with no thought spared for anyone else. There is nothing at all in these statements demonstrating an understanding of what makes these actions problematic, much less why your offense is bankrupt.

Someone expresses anger that you done fucked up again? It’s about you and your anger and how you feel about being put on the spot and made to feel guilty, not the much larger and much more damaging issues of race and privilege and colonialism, etc., that have impacted millions across history.

I get comments at Silver Goggles sometimes from people I peg as looking for offense: “Well now I know [x or y is wrong], but you didn’t have to be so rude about it.”

If politeness got us anywhere, I wouldn’t be writing regularly about the pain I get reviewing potentially good, white author-written steampunk about people of color, ruined because the author clearly doesn’t talk to a wide range of PoCs with diverse experiences of oppression, let alone other white people on various axes of oppression. Gosh!

This is not a steampunk problem; this is a cultural problem–and this is a problem with white supremacy.

“Steampunk is just fantasy!” cry these people looking for offense.

Well then, don’t let your fantasy ruin mine!

“People aren’t perfect!” whine these folks looking for offense, in response to perfectly reasonable requests to not do things that may cause harm.

Well then, go fuck up on your own time and in your own goddamn space! Not where I can see you and not where other people can be collateral damage!

We ask nicely and get told “well, whatever.” We ask again and get told we are looking for offense where there is none. We ask again and get told that we always have a problem and never a solution. And we ask again and get told, “I just wanna do what I want.” We ask and ask and ask.

Since you want to make it about you, how about I make it about me?

I want to do what I want, too. I want to have fun in steampunk and have great discussions about how it can teach us real history and help us have conversations about the past. I want to talk about how the genre has been skewered and misread by historians and overlooked as a site of culture and knowledge. I want to have wonderful dialogue with wonderful people coming up with strategies to help ameliorate current suffering that came about because of the history we want to re-imagine. (Mark this: Solutions can never come about through one person alone. Solutions only arise through cooperation, willingness to listen, and honesty about the problem. If you expect an individual who notices a problem to come up with a solution alone, you fall back on the individualist hero thinking that got us to where we are in our selfish society).

And you know…despite all that, I still do this–even with assholes railing against our work illuminating racism because they’re more keen on digging in their heels and defending their freedom from knowing about other people’s hurt and anger and even with ubiquitous louts who aren’t willing to admit that there is a problem or, if there is one, it’s really not that bad. I will still do this, even though I know, at every event, I’m going to come across at least one of these irredeemables looking for offense.

My love [for steampunk] is stronger than your ignorance. It is fed by the knowledge of past wrongs never uncovered because we are too afraid to reckon with them. And it is fed by the rage of knowing those past wrongs still surface today. And it is fed by the pain I feel that every thing I consume, every move I make, every cent I spend, is part of a machine built by greedy people and run by their fearful, perhaps innocent, minions and oiled by cowards.

Yes, my love manifests with fury and vengeance. If you cannot fathom how this can even be, yet allow that injustices will happen and you don’t have to hew your mind to fully comprehending your place in it…you’re not as open-minded or as inclusive or as welcoming as you like to think you are. Because you cannot accept that there are variegated ways of being and doing that are beyond your measly comprehension.

So yeah, go ahead, go do what you want to do. Just don’t limit the reactions you receive as a result. That’s not welcoming. Don’t try to tell people how they should react to you. (Frankly, I  doubt anybody is going to engage with you about your offensive-ass steampunk costume, anyway. If you have the brainlessness to wear it out in public, you probably don’t have the peace of mind to handle criticism of it without doing some crazy mental acrobatics justifying that shit.)

Do what you want to do. Just do it far away from me. Fandom is big enough, right? I’m certainly not looking for fuck-ups anymore. I don’t even have to; people keep pointing them out to me. I got better shit to do. Cut me a break and go fuck up somewhere else. But never mistake that I am offended by anything anymore. No, I’ve come to expect racist shit. I’m done having high expectations.

And you people allegedly cowed by the idea of giving offense? You sure do take a lot of offense when being told you’ve being offensive.

I’m now going to go read about slave ships. I’ll see you all later.

A member of a girl band in Indian-administered Kashmir queries why they are described as "un-Islamic" when male bands are allowed to perform

by Greg Mayer

It is my sad duty to report to you that Stewie, the Guinness-certified world’s longest cat (1.23 m, nose to tail tip; also the longest tail, 41.5 cm) has died of cancer at the age of eight. He was a therapy cat, and I’m sure will be missed by his owners and patients.

Stewie the cat.

Animation of Manhattan in flames, taken from a video game, is part of a sleeping citizen’s dream of a glorious future of rocket launchings and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

Film Fashion: Stealing Ryan Gosling’s Look In “Drive”

Silent, stoic, and devastatingly handsome; Ryan Gosling’s character in Drive may be one of the most stylish men in modern cinema. The dude straight murders it in classic American work-wear paired with luxury watches and designer shades. This is Menswear Dog’s tribute to our style icon.

Denim Jacket: Levi’s Vintage (alternative)  |  Short Sleeve Henley: Mister Freedom Vintage Dead Stock (J.Crew alternative)  |  Necklace: Personal Vintage

not shown:  Jeans: Acne Max New Raw Selvage  |  Sunglasses: Selima Optique Money 2 Aviator in Tortoise  |  Driving Gloves: Gaspar Gloves  |  Boots: Stacy Adams Madison Boot in Taupe  |  Belt: Torino Leather  |  Watch: Custom Patek Philippe (replicas were used in the film)

They say that New Orleans is the home of the first cocktail, and those who have visited find it hard to argue. Who is "they" you ask? Why, New Orleans of course.

The first official cocktail, a little libation that went by the name "The Sazerac", was a concoction of French brandy, water, sugar and bitters, and was allegedly dreamt up by a man named Antoine Peychaud in a apothecary shop in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The legend of the early mixologist and his signature drink lives on to this day, the spread of the story encouraged by the tourist industry and state legislature (The Sazerac is New Orleans' official cocktail) but like many things in this mysterious city, the tale has some smoke and mirrors, and facts have been...embellished.

It's a little strange for the curators of the Museum of the American cocktail to deny the fact, especially when they have a newspaper clipping from 1806 that contains the first use of the word ″cocktail″ in America, which is considered the a holy relic for mixologists and cocktail affecinados. However, one of the curators of the museum, Phil Greene, is a direct descendent of Antoine Peychaud. While he believes that his crafty relative Peychaud was quite the clever fellow, it would have been impossible for him to invent the cocktail in 1806, since he was only three at the time.

However and wherever the cocktail originated, the Museum of the American Cocktail has been recording and celebrating the history and evolution of the cocktail through the years. The museum was originally a traveling exhibit going from New York to Las Vegas, but it finally found a permanent resting place inside of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum on the New Orleans waterfront. The museum contains a variety of cocktail and bar memorabilia from antique cocktail shakers, cups, and bottles, to pro- and anti- prohibition propoganda.

While it might seem like a place where you could get a drink, the museum does not have a bar on the premises. They do however host events and mixology seminars that include alcohol.

In 1878, workers dredging the Bayou St. John made a very strange discovery: a submarine, right out of Jules Verne.

Thought to have been built around 1862, the so-called Confederate Submarine is 20 feet long, made of riveted iron and powered by a hand-cranked propeller. For years the strange craft was left on the shores, and then later displayed at the Spanish Fort amusement park where it was identified incorrectly as the other famous Civil War submarine, the Pioneer, which was in reality scuttled for scrap after the war.

Little is known about the actual story of this odd piece of technology, but it has found a new home and a better state of preservation at the Louisiana State Museum.

Another more famous early submarine (and a sibling to the Pioneer mentioned above) the H. L. Henley Submarine was discovered in 1995 and is currently being conserved and studied in Charleston, South Carolina.

Wrotham Quarry (as Dulkis)


Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Quarry (as Dulkis)


Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Quarry (as Dulkis)


Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Quarry (as Telos)


Tank Quarry (unnamed planet)

doctorwhogifs:

Quarries of the Second Doctor Era

Dust off your giant knit hat and Dickon obsession, Guillermo del Toro is making a Secret Garden movie. But wait, it gets even better — GDT is pairing up with Lucy Alibar, the co-writer of Beasts of the Southern Wild. More »

The real mission has to be making everyone feel welcome, period.

"Objectify A Man in Tech Day" has become much bigger than I expected since I first wrote about it. At first I was excited, but now I see the scale of the discussion and coverage is creating a number of valid risks - and as a result, I'd like to call off the event.

The widely-covered event started out as a lark that emerged when I got fed up with experiencing - and seeing other women writers and presenters in gaming and tech - fielding irrelevant compliments on their appearance when people referenced their work.

I hoped the result of what we began calling "#Objectify day" would catalyse discussions about the way we use language and how seemingly-innocuous "compliments" are belittling and distracting. A lot of people liked this idea, understood the intention and found it fun.

My goal was that humor and empathy could help people open constructive dialog about sexism. And for a while it seemed like it could work! But there were also a lot of problems with my approach that came to light thanks to the feedback of some trusted friends and colleagues, and I take their concerns extremely seriously.

The dialogue's been great, but the end result - a day of circulating a hashtag on Twitter - runs the risk of catching fire with people who miss the point. #Objectify is not about celebrating objectification or about making people feel uncomfortable, but I'm increasingly worried that point will be lost and that harm can be done.

My friends and I have done our best to put clear information about our goals out there, but the sad fact is we can't expect everyone to read up or treat one another with respect. And there are some problematic risks even assuming everyone does "get it": We liked people comparing #Objectify to the Hawkeye Initiative but that also means we must consider similar criticisms, and the very real risk that our event would solicit homophobia, transphobia, ableism and other prejudices.

Though we wanted to call out gendered language, focusing on men in this way makes some dangerous assumptions about gender norms and sexuality:

For one thing, the event as it stands currently ignores the fact that gay men, trans men, men of color and any other man outside the "straight white guy privilege" zone are already victims of objectification. "Objectify a man" risks using harmful language toward people who may be vulnerable.

For another, some people feel that an environment of men tossing cute comments at each other ends up reducing women's sexual agency to a joke, since the compliments won't actually have the same effect on their intended recipients. But it's worse if the compliments do affect someone negatively -- is potentially triggering men who have body issues a victory for anyone?

We also need to consider people who live outside of the specific gender binary our society enforces: There are trans women, genderqueer and non-conforming people struggling every day not to be misgendered, and people living quietly with gender issues they may not share in the open. If these people end up caught in the crossfire of our event it doesn't matter whatsoever how well-intentioned we are: We risk actually traumatizing them.

I hoped discussions of gender norms would be one of the positive outcomes of #Objectify, and that attention to the issue would make it all worth some inevitable hostility. But for some people who may be exposed to the wrong kinds of language on the planned day, misunderstanding can be actually harmful, and that is absolutely not a risk I want to take.

"Starting dialogue" this way isn't worth potentially triggering others, putting them at risk or making them feel unsafe. I feel naive that I failed to fully consider the potential ramifications and want to apologize to anyone that was made uncomfortable or who felt threatened by my choice to approach an issue in this way.

There are a few good things, here: it's been an incredible learning experience, and I am still proud of the respectful attention my colleagues, friends and readership have given to issues of objectification and of making women feel welcome in tech. I've had positive conversations that would have been impossible even a year ago. That it took off in a larger way than I ever could have expected shows on some level that people care about change, and that makes me glad.

But the real mission is making everyone feel welcome, period. What I wanted to encourage through humor was caring, empathy and a willingness to listen and educate - now I've been asked to change course, and by calling a halt to #Objectify I hope I'm modeling those same qualities myself.

When people tell you they are hurting, are afraid or feel excluded, you don't get obsessed with your own sense of righteousness, you listen That's what this has always been about.

If you've been paying attention, I hope you continue thinking about the words you use to describe other people and their work. Please continue aiming to listen to and care for everyone who needs your help to feel respected, safe and welcome in tech -- or anywhere.

If you understood and appreciated our intention we thank you for your support, but we ask that if you've written about Objectify to please remove your post, or at least modify it to reflect our reasons for reconsidering this event.

Thanks for your compassion.

Leigh Alexander, gaming and social media culture journalist, is Gamasutra editor-at-large, columnist at Edge, Kotaku and Vice Creators Project, and contributor to Boing Boing,Thought Catalog and numerous others. This post first appeared at her blog, Sexy Videogameland.

By Anthony Scioli, Ph.D.

“Just look at the gladiators… and consider the blows they endure! Consider how they who have been well-disciplined prefer to accept a blow than ignominiously avoid it! How often it is made clear that they consider nothing other than the satisfaction of their [coach] or the [fans]! Even when they are covered with wounds they send a messenger to their [coach] to inquire his will. If they have given satisfaction to their [coach], they are pleased to fall. What even mediocre gladiator ever groans; ever alters the expression on his face? Which one of them acts shamefully, either standing or falling? And which of them, even when he does succumb, ever contracts his neck when ordered to receive the blow?”

The above passage, with the exception of two minor word substitutions on my part, was written by Cicero 2,000 years ago. My point is that his description of the sacrificial gladiator of the ancient amphitheater can be applied all too easily to the players who currently do battle on the modern gridiron.

I am convinced that football, in its present form, cannot last. I will put aside the physical carnage that piles up every weekend, the torn cartilage, broken bones, blackened, bruised and ripped skin, the shredded muscle fibers; I am not a physician. However, I am a psychologist. From my perspective, I believe that the greatest health crisis precipitated by football involves the brain and the mind, especially for those at the professional level, and particularly for those who are retired, and have suffered one too many concussions. For these former gladiators, there is a great risk of succumbing to severe, life-threatening forms of hopelessness.

The hopelessness that descends upon the retired professional football player should not be a surprise. It is understandable if you begin with some knowledge of what changes occur in a soft and mushy brain that has been repeatedly concussed, or more bluntly, tossed and smashed from side to side within a bony skull-box. Repetitive brain trauma can result in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)

CTE has been detected in the brains of ex-football players well as former boxers. In CTE, there are signs of a spreading tau protein that normally serves a stabilizing function but becomes dislodged, primarily from the axons which transmit nerve impulses. The floating Tau form a spreading tangle of tissue that disrupts brain function. Rare diseases can precipitate this pathological cascade but so can repetitive head trauma. CTE has also been found in the aged, and those stricken with Alzheimer’s disease. The most commonly affected areas include the frontal lobes (decision-making, planning, willpower), the temporal lobes (memory and speech), and the parietal area (sensory integration, reading and writing). The most common emotional symptoms in those suffering from CTE include depression, anger, hyper-aggressiveness, irritability, diminished insight and poor judgment.

On 2 May 2012 former football star Junior Seau shot himself in the chest with a .357 magnum. Eighteen months earlier, Seau had driven his SUV off a cliff following an arrest on charges of domestic violence. He claimed that he had fallen asleep. Back then, many in his circle of friends and family hoped and prayed it was the truth. His brain was sent to a team of researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine. Their tests revealed a brain besieged by CTE.

A little more than a year earlier, in February, 2011, Dave Duerson, also a former professional football player, similarly committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. He had texted a message to his family indicating that he was “saving” his brain for research. Three months later BU School of Medicine confirmed “neurodegenerative disease linked to concussions.” In high school, Duerson had been a member of the National Honor Society and played the sousaphone, traveling Europe with the Musical Ambassadors All-American Band. He attended the University of Notre Dame on both football and baseball scholarships. He graduated with honors, receiving a BA in Economics. Duerson played eleven seasons in the NFL.

Whenever interviewed, the researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine are reluctant to affirm a cause and effect link between CTE and suicide. They provide the typical (and not unreasonable) response that multiple causes often underlie human behavior, including suicide. While generally true, a case such as that of Duerson seems to beg the question, what else besides CTE could have led a formerly intelligent, well-organized, responsible, and successful individual to morph into a desperate failure that ends his own life at the age of fifty?

Anthony Scioli is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Keene State College. He is the co-author of Hope in the Age of Anxiety with Henry Biller. Dr. Scioli completed Harvard fellowships in human motivation and behavioral medicine. He co-authored the chapter on emotion for the Encyclopedia of Mental Health and currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Positive Psychology and the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Read his previous blog articles.

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Image credit: Stockphoto image via OxfordWords blog.

The post Why football cannot last appeared first on OUPblog.

The challenges of growing up in the modern world as the reincarnation of a famous Tibetan lama.

Tim McGirk | The Believer | Feb 2013 [Full Story]

Have you heard of Budweiser Black Crown, yet? Well, have you? Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the coldly multi-syllabic beer conglomerate that is also the world's biggest brewer, is very much hoping so. The company behind Bud Light and Stella Artois spent millions of dollars coordinating a massive ad campaign around the Super Bowl to launch its new higher-alcohol Budweiser beer.

Why? Because beer drinking is in outright decline in the U.S., and drinkers are asking for one simple thing. More alcohol, please.

Going by amount of liquid consumed, beer is still the most popular alcoholic beverage in America. But tastes are changing. Per capita beer consumption has declined steadily since 1990. The volume of mass-produced beer has fallen in every year since the recession hit. Since 2001, America's beer consumption is down a hardy 11 percent.

Think of cheap beer sales as a health marker for the blue-collar middle class man. When the recession struck, the hardest hit major industries were construction and manufacturing, which disproportionately employ blue-collar middle class guys. Sales of cheap beer collapsed. As Joe Sixpack goes, so go sixpacks.

Well, most sixpacks, that is. In the last few years, heavier beers and craft beers (think Blue Moon and microbreweries, respectively) are have posted double-digit growth even in the face of a recession. This has been the most important trend in the beer business. It explains why Anheuser-Busch bought Goose Island, used last year's Super Bowl to launch Bud Light Platinum, and used this year's Super Bowl to launch another heavy brew.

Bud Light might still be the most heavily-consumed beer in the country, but the country's tastes are fleeing to higher-alcohol liquids. Liquor and wine consumption is up 20 percent since the turn of the century, and richer craft beers are leading the measured comeback in American beer. Black Crown isn't trying to start a trend. It's trying to catch up. Booze hounds of America, this Bud's for you.

Abstract rainbows of color fill the landscape in these beautiful photos by French photographer Normann Szkop (nsfw-ish) who hopped in a Cesna with pilot Claython Pender to soar above the tulip fields in Anna Paulowna, a town in North Holland. Collectively, the millions of neatly planted flowers create sprawling patterns and designs that tourists flock to witness with their own eyes every season. See the entire 100+ photograph set over on Flickr. (via twisted sifter)

Fantasy Map: Children’s Library Literary “Transit Map”

This adorable map adorns the walls of the rather lovely Passmore Edwards Centre children’s library in Newton Abbot, England. The names of the “stations” were chosen by local children in a competition.

(Source: Devon Libraries/Flickr)

Beyoncé Knowles rocked the Super Bowl halftime show last night, and, pearls clenched firmly in fist, Kathryn Jean Lopez is on it, and the national cultural decline Ms. Knowles apparently represents:

I don’t want to linger on this, but last night’s Super Bowl half-time show was ridiculous — and gratuitously so. Watching Twitter, it was really no surprise that men made comments about stripper poles and putting dollar bills through their TV sets, was it? Why can’t we have a national entertainment moment that does not include a mother gyrating in a black teddy? The priceless moment was Destiny’s Child reuniting to ask that someone “put a ring on it.” As I mentioned on Twitter last night, perhaps that case might be best made in another outfit, perhaps without the crotch grabbing. It seems quite disappointing that Michelle Obama would feel the need to tweet about how “proud” she is of Beyoncé. The woman is talented, has a beautiful voice, and could be a role model. And she is on some levels — on others she is an example of cultural surrender, rather than leadership.

I’d venture that there’s more dignity in Beyoncé’s marvelously controlled, rigorously choreographed performance than in Bruce Springsteen’s sloppy slide and camera crotch-bump of a few years back. And as much as her very much post-baby body was on display, Beyoncé’s performance was less allusively sexual than Prince’s silhouetted guitar. In fact, almost everything about Beyoncé’s off-stage life pretty much seems to meet Lopez’s criteria, from her long courtship with Jay-Z, to the child the two of them had once they were firmly ensconced in wedlock. If I were Lopez, I might actually think about striking the Knowles-Carters a medal for defying the Hollywood trend of shotgun or infinitely-delayed post-baby weddings.

But all of this is beside the point. What Lopez appears to object to, and what overrides for her any other consideration of ways in which Beyoncé might be a role model—including her financial success and careful control of her image— is the sight of a woman living in and very much enjoying her body, without needing to secure anyone else’s approval or ensure anyone else’s enjoyment. One of the hallmarks of Beyoncé’s lyrics, both with Destiny’s Child, and as a solo artist, is that no one is entitled to access to her. “Move, groove, prove you can hang with me / By the looks I got you shook up and scared of me,” she sang in “Bootylicious,” with its famous chorus. She warned a loutish boyfriend “Don’t you ever for a second get to thinking you’re irreplaceable.” In “Countdown,” she describes a relationship of equals, where she’ll “Do whatever that it takes, he got a winner’s mind / Give it all to him, meet him at the finish line,” and where “Yup, I buy my own, if he deserve it, buy his shit too.” And in “Independent Women,” Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child warned women “If you’re gonna brag make sure it’s your money you flaunt / Depend on no one else to give you what you want.”

And I think that’s really what makes Lopez twitchy. In the 1994 script for Little Women, Robin Swicord wrote that “nothing provokes speculation more than the sight of a woman enjoying herself.” And in 2013, few things get conservatives twitchier than a woman who will take a ring from the right man—and in fact already has—but will do it because she wants it, not because she needs it.

Nigel Warren was headed to Colorado for a few nights last September and decided to subsidize his trip by renting out his room in his East Village apartment share for $100 a night. His roommates were cool with it, and the guests he found through Airbnb were quiet and polite. But while he was away, special enforcement officers from the city came to his apartment and issued his landlord a number of violations for operating an illegal transient hotel. The potential fines totaled $30,000, and Warren, a 30-year old web designer, has been trying to extricate himself from a costly Kafkaesque nightmare ever since. [ more › ]

Designed by Sumayya Alsenan | Country: United States

“The logo was set in the font Lekton. The color palette included black and white, and a accent color associated with each product. The labels were printed on white matte labels, the blanks were filled out by hand, and then the center image was rubber stamped. The jar caps were covered in post office brown paper, and then embossed with a personal embosser. Then was tied with black & white butcher thread.The products then were placed in hand-stamped muslin bags.”

On nineteenth century invalidism and how societies have drugged themselves through tough transitions across history.

Venkatesh Rao | Ribbon Farm | Jan 2013 [Full Story]

Come on, Spock. Let's keep it together now.

Submitted by: Unknown (via Know Your Meme)

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Prince George’s considers copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work - The Washington Post:

kellysue:

BAD IDEA. (ht @gregpak)

A proposal by the Prince George’s County Board of Education to copyright work created by staff and students for school could mean that a picture drawn by a first-grader, a lesson plan developed by a teacher or an app created by a teen would belong to the school system, not the individual.

The measure has some worried that by the system claiming ownership to the work of others, creativity could be stifled and there would be little incentive to come up with innovative ways to educate students. Some have questioned the legality of the proposal as it relates to students.

BUT WAIT, there’s more - 

It’s not unusual for a company to hold the rights to an employee’s work, copyright policy experts said. But the Prince George’s policy goes a step further by saying that work created for the school by employees during their own time and using their own materials is the school system’s property.

Emphasis mine. 

Also disturbing because you can’t simply claim someone else’s copyright by saying that you own it. And taking someone else’s copyright is really hard. (Which means the school board would probably lose any legal case, if they tried to claim copyright ownership of a kid’s school essay). But it’s silly…

Last week, I ran across this list of business cards of famous people, among them Isaac Asimov, Mark Zuckerberg, and Harry Houdini. There was also this curious card for Abraham Lincoln:

It seemed a little too jokey for a proper business card, so I tracked the card to its source, The Library of Congress. The card was likely printed in 1864 by the Democratic committee as a campaign souvenir and implies Lincoln would be defeated in the '64 election and on his way back to Illinois to practice law (and split rails).

Tags: Abraham Lincoln

So much 80s nostalgia packed into one post. Found this Trivial Pursuit card (Genus II edition) in a paperback copy of "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman.

The answers:




-Click to enlarge photos-

AFTER YOU BECOME A LEVEL EIGHT RAW VEGAN YOU CAN ASK THE ELDERS FOR ACCESS TO THE ORIGINAL WHOLE FOODS. ONCE INSIDE YOU CAN ALIGN THE RUNESTONES AND SCALLIONS TO SUMMON THE TRANSFORMING SPIRITS OF ANCIENT LOCAVORES.

IT’S ALL PRETTY ADVANCED STUFF. YOU ARE QUITE NEW TO OUR WAYS. FOR NOW YOU SHOULD PROBABLY JUST CONCENTRATE ON BUYING FAIR-TRADE AND REDUCING YOUR GLUTEN INTAKE.