• A Traitor to her Sex

    This evening on NPR’s All Things Considered, Nadia Colin (spelling uncertain) of Texas was quoted saying that women shouldn’t be elected president. She said, “Coming from Texas, I think the majority of us feel that with a male leader we feel safer. I would not vote for a woman president, ever.”

    It is the year 2006. If anyone had uttered a sentence like that substituting “black” or “hispanic” for “woman”, they would be strung up and left to rot. The fact that anyone, anywhere still has these sorts of attitudes both depresses me and reaffirms my belief that all people are not created equal. They are indoctrinated from birth with preconceptions that they fail to question.*

    What is wrong with America, represented by this woman, that they cannot conceive of a woman wielding effective power? The quoted woman must reexamine her priorities. If women are only for cooking and making babies, she is hypocritical being interviewed on the radio. She is not qualified; she is a woman.

    Let us stamp out this stereotype. The best thing you can do for a woman is what you would do for anyone. Support their goals, don’t condescend, and above all, be aware that on average, 50% of women are smarter than you.

    *All high school frosh should be issued this bumper sticker.

  • Freaky Optical Illusion

    Try this link on for size. You’ll have to look at the image before the rest of this post will make sense.

    If you don’t believe that the diamonds are identical shades of grey (and I didn’t either), pull out your favorite jpg editor or color sampler and prove it.

    Even knowing they are the same shade, I can’t see it.

  • Winter Solstice

    At 00:22 GMT on December 22nd, the world will celebrate once more its free annual trip around the sun. This equates to 18:22 (6:22 PM EDT) 19:22 (7:22 PM EST) December 21st for those of us sitting on the east coast of the United States.

    To commemorate this occasion, and its companion solstice during the summer, I usually provide my office mates with a few dozen Dunkin Donuts. This both let’s them know that the zenith of the sun will be rising again, and that I disdain their too-sweet Krispy Kremes.

    Perhaps I will stand eggs on their ends inside the donuts to round out the occasion.

    Whatever you do, even if it is a pale shadow of the Christmas and New Year’s holiday celebrations, make sure you remember the significance of this event. We are whizzing through space at a speed that is literally mindblowing, following a path ~942 million kilometers long every year. Standing on this big ball of rock coated in a skin of air, most of us have difficulty comprehending that it is a ball, and not a plane. Wrapping your mind around that is difficult, but doable with images from planes and spacecraft. Imagining the distances invovled within the solar system becomes much more abstract, and trying to encompass galactic or intergalactic scales is nearly impossible. The solstices (and equinoxes) are a good time to remember where we stand in the great scheme of things, “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy…”* But despite our cosmic insignificance, we are here and equipped to wonder why we are so insignificant, and that’s something.

    *Douglas Adams, The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.

  • Cobb less Anti-Evolutionary Today

    According to the AJC, the Cobb County, GA, biology-book sticker case has been settled.

    In an agreement announced today, Cobb school officials said they will not order the placement of any “stickers, labels, stamps, inscriptions, or other warnings or disclaimers bearing language substantially similar to that used on the sticker that is the subject of this action.” School officials also agreed not to take other actions that would undermine the teaching of evolution in biology classes.

    Three cheers for my school system! I no longer feel bad about paying taxes into it.

  • Encore to the Vamp Post

    Zombways. Eat Flesh!

    I need one of these to run races in.

  • Biology of Homo Sapiens Vampiris

    Anyone interested in the biology and evolutionary development of the vampire (Homo Sapiens Vampiris) should watch this link.

    This popped up on Pharygula, SFSignal, and at least one other blog I read. It’s making the rounds very quickly.

    Be aware that it is about 20 minutes long, but well worth your time.

  • Dating Ad Seen on Fark.com

    Dating Site AdvertisementYou can join this site, because there are over 11,000,000 members, and every single one of them is a girl under 25. It’s too bad I didn’t grow up in hornysville like these women.

    I chose to remove the name of the site. You can go to Fark and maybe it will still be there.

  • Poetry

    I’ve never been a fan of reading poetry. I’m too impatient to enjoy it. I want my fiction delivered up free of simile, metaphor, or symbol. I can handle it if these items are secondary to the story, but if they are presented in a manner which requires me to comprehend to appreciate the book, I just can’t do it.

    But, that’s not to say I don’t enjoy live, oral poetry. For example, The Trouble with Poetry, by Billy Collins, the poet laureate of NY State, which I heard last weekend on A Prairie Home Companion. The poem has a line which encapsulates why I like it:

    the trouble with poetry is
    that it encourages the writing of more poetry,

    And, it gets better from there. Remarks about stealing other authors’ work and tongue-in-cheek comments about the end of poetry entirely. It was particularly good because it was read by the author.

    I should look for poetry books-on-tape. That might get me hooked.

  • Internet to the Rescue!

    A man watches his house being burglarized from across the globe. Alerts police. Laughs hysterically…

    Gacked from Back 80 Loop.

The Evil Eyebrow

There is no knowing the Evil Eyebrow

Twenty Twenty-Five

Designed with WordPress