I’m not going to dig too deeply into this, but at best it shows how far off we are from truly personalized and scary ad targeting, and at worst it gives a pretty sad indication of how technology is still clearly defined as a “male” activity.
Hey ladies, does Google think you’re a guy? — Tech News and Analysis
Google thinks I’m a dude. What about you?
(via meganwest)Same here.
(via meganwest)
I know the theme is buggy and messy right now — according to the developer, there was a bug in the most recent update, and he has submitted a fix that “should be approved and distributed very soon.” Very soon, unfortunately, does not mean less than two days — he said that on Wednesday.
Once again, Tumblr proves itself to be a smooth and reliable engine for quality blogging. Makes the money I paid for a premium theme all the more sweet.
Of course, I’m sure that somehow this is Missing E’s fault.
Really? We’re really arguing about fluoridation? In 2012? Sheesh. Maybe we can take up the Kennedy assassination next.
Anyway, after the letter from Tom Rogers (“Fluoride opponents not a fringe group,” Town Crier, Jan. 11), I decided to try to dig up some independent information. What I found, from a half-hour of web-browsing: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not have any concept of class-4 poisons. The only references I could find to this phrase were on antifluoridation websites; there’s no reference to this on the EPA’s own site or anywhere else I was able to find. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration probably has never approved fluoride in drinking water because it’s not their job to monitor the quality of drinking water. That’s the EPA’s job – and the EPA, regarding fluoride, defers to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which describes fluoridation “as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.”
Glad to hear that tooth decay records are declining in Europe. But from what level to what level? Are those changes real and significant? Are they better or worse than in the U.S., in fluoridated or nonfluoridated areas? Without some real (gulp) science here, there’s no way to know what this claim means.
The American Dental Association “endorses the fluoridation of community water supplies and the use of fluoride-containing products as safe and effective measures for preventing tooth decay.” Look, this isn’t my field. But I’ve spent enough time in the science and engineering worlds to smell exaggerations and cherry-picked studies when I run into them, and it bothers me when fear and emotion rather than rationality determine public policy.
I (sigh) suppose there is still a place to have a rational discussion. But let’s do it from a foundation of facts and science. The right people leading that discussion might be those who have been trained in the medical and dental fields and know what they’re talking about. By the way, I’m still not completely sold on Oswald. That magic-bullet theory still bothers me.
Jim Miller, Los Altos
I wrote a GQ piece about Chris “Lionheart” Jericho, maybe my favorite professional wrestler ever, and the fucking strange and awesome things he’s doing right now. The fact that I get to write wrestling shit in GQ is some sort of life validation.
This is awesome. (I’ve actually been watching the clips of Jericho’s appearances online, so strongly do I <3 <3 <3 Jericho, and they are just as crazy as Tom describes.)
Absolutely obsessed with this article, need to look up YouTubes of these moments and man, I sort of want to watch Rumble now. (My brother used to love wrestling when he was 10 and I was 13ish and used to put me into headlocks and such moves all the time until I learned that if I bit him, he’d stop. Also then I’d dress him up like a girl and make him act in my plays, so it was a decent trade-off.)
Jericho is the best. The man is a prince.
Have you heard of this game called Skyrim? If you haven’t, there’s this game called Skyrim. It’s kind of a big deal. You can do all sorts of ridiculous stuff, for millions and millions of hours, and it’s been very popular amongst my co-workers, to the point where morning discussions that would normally be devoted to things like “How about that new episode of Breaking Bad, am I right?” have become a back-and-forth about this fantasy universe everyone now lives in.
These discussions, though, are never preceded by “So while I was playing Skyrim…”, meaning that every once in a while, I overhear someone saying “I murdered my companion last night,” and think, just for a moment, that they’re not talking about a video game.
Here are just a few of the things that have been said around the office.
As this game can be played for literally millions of hours, and everyone seems to still be enjoying it, I suspect that I may have more than one edition of this in me.
LGBTQ* Fashion History
At the turn of the twentieth century, wearing a red neck tie was a “signal” for (and to) those in the know. Following the green carnation, but predating the pinkyring, gay men would adorn a red neck tie “outing” themselves quiety in public
Fun fact I did not know!
(via ladysisyphus)
Chip Zdarsky’s WATCHMEN 2 is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while. You MUST click through and read, comics fans.
What it’s like to watch Downton Abbey
This video is basically a documentary.
(Guys, if you’re not watching, you don’t even KNOW.)
My HSA pick for this week, and one I rewatched like three times yesterday. So great.
Because I am a lady, I travel about town with a purse filled with stuff — gadgets, cords, toiletries, pens. For its relatively compact size, it’s pretty heavy, and when I walk with it it’s exposed to the elements. Thus this morning, rainy as it was, I decided to test my purse’s necessity for daily life and head to work without it — nothing in my rain jacket’s pockets but my phone, keys, earbuds and wallet.
Here are the things I have missed so far today:
Result: I’m much more girly than I thought. But I’m surviving. I guess this is what it’s like to be a guy — free, unencumbered. A lifestyle only possible when you’re rich in pockets.
Me and Mr. iPad helped out with a tabletop movie-making workshop this morning. The results were deeply, deeply disturbing. (Taken with instagram)
Opening night of the one-acts. (Taken with instagram)
I shouldn’t tell this story, but what the hell. I was staying in Eric Idle’s town house in St. John’s Wood—that’s near St. John’s Wort, only more depressing—and Eric had just come home from filming “Life of Brian” in Tunisia. He brought this drink that he said they gave the extras so they’d work longer. I called it Tunisian Table Cleaner. As a rule I’m allergic to alcohol, and Harrison doesn’t really drink either. But that night, there was a makeshift party. The Rolling Stones were there. They were recording two blocks away. We stayed up all night and drank the table cleaner and never went to sleep. When we arrived at the set the next morning, we weren’t hung over—we were, like the extras in Tunisia, more than willing to work. That morning we shot our arrival at Cloud City, where we meet Billy Dee Williams. And it’s one of the very few times in the series both Harrison and I smile. To this day, Eric is proud as a papa of his impact on the trilogy.
I hope this doesn’t sound stuck-up or something, but please don’t send me sexually explicit emails. I’m not interested in that and it makes me depressed that people think because a woman writes about sex online that makes her totally open to receiving long emails about your sexual fantasies involving her.
I hope this doesn’t sound stuck-up or something, but I am totally open to receiving long emails about your sexual fantasies involving me.
Same here.
(If they’re something along the lines of “we make out while watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” then you’re probably on the right track.)
Courtesy of Daily Worth:
They dominate their market. They’ve nailed brand loyalty. Their sales force is disciplined and aggressive.
They’re the Girl Scouts, and after 100 years, they’re finally getting recognized for their financial prowess—with 13 new badges rewarding money smarts.
Badges are a big deal, as any scout will tell you—a testament to hard-won skills. And giving nearlyCan we just stop this bullshit ““It helps girls to learn about money in an all-girl environment. They feel safer.” That’s partly because there’s no social pressure to look dumb in front of the boys. “
Bullshit. Girls do not feel “dumb” in front of boys talking about business and money. Utter bullshit.
I swear “women” are trying to instill in young females that they need to “feel dumb” talking business “in front of boys” so that they can then pull these girls into a “safe” NON-MALE environment. They imply that the poor little girls will never express their “business ideas” if there are any boys around. All-girls schools do this all the time.
First of all, DUMB, and second of all, FALSE.
I say put just ONE girl in an otherwise ALL-male environment and TRAIN her to present ideas with no fear, no alternative agenda, no guile.
THEN you will have made a GIRL.
Girls aren’t afraid of shit.
So, here’s a fun fact about me — I was a Girl Scout for 12 years. (I bet you didn’t even think that was possible. It’s totally possible.) I went to camp and sold cookies and traveled to Europe and attended leadership conferences.
Here were two things I got out of the experience:
1) I learned the value of collaborating with other girls, in an environment free of bullshit gender issues, which is actually fun.
2) I now work in a largely all-male environment, am occasionally the only girl in meetings. And I do all the things Justine says here (well, I try, anyway).
Some of that comes from having some great male role models. But a lot of it, I learned from seeing other women be smart and self-confident and strong. A lot of it, I learned from women.
