Once again, I can only say, I wish I wrote as well as Fred from slacktivist. Fred’s post I linked above is a perfectly crafted history lesson, and ought to be required reading for everyone out there shouting down the rights of people different (read: “browner and/or not as Christian”) than themselves while claiming they’re [...]

Just a quick little note to commemorate my rolling over 300 riding miles on a bike this summer. No reason, other than I’m rather proud of myself for the accomplishment, and am looking to keep the counter ticking upwards. Yay me.

Yes, there are words on this image, violating the whole “worth 1000 words” dictum, but in this case, the picture (with words) really expresses what’s wrong with the the ubiquity of the kind of things soulless corporations are marketing to our children (and worse, that we let them). Just take a look (click it so [...]

According to yet another reported survey, romantic comedy films mess up people’s relationships (Sorry for the blinky over-advertised link destination) by encouraging unrealistic expectations about what “love” is supposed to be. For some people, this causes much distress when their real-life relationships don’t live up to the storybook perfection presented on the page or the [...]

Last year (YiB 2009, #5), I went against my better judgment and read Twilight to see what all the fuss was about. Based on what I’d gleaned from the pop culture currents, I was pretty sure it wasn’t something that was going to appeal to me. And, I was basically right. For many reasons, I [...]

A couple of posts ago, I tore apart a media article which seemed to report results from a scientific study, but really did no such thing, and in the attempt, did it really badly. This week, I found a good example of a short news report about a research study, and though it appropriate to [...]

Long-time readers of this space are probably aware of my general cynicism toward broadcast media, mostly to do with the fact that the “news” isn’t really much about disseminating useful information than about selling advertising slots, and with vast swaths of the american public, the most effective ways of raising ratings (to get eyeballs on [...]

In my mind, there are few things that tell you more about a person than that person’s answer the following question: Which of these statements is more true? “Killing is bad, therefore we have laws against killing.” “There are laws against killing, therefore killing is bad.” Feel free to substitute “Killing” with any other social [...]

There’s just something inherently fun about the fact that the following is the official phrase the Guinness Book of World Records uses to measure quickest texting records: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human” Not much else [...]

A couple of weeks back, I wrote a little bit about “embracing the awesome”, as mentioned by one of my favorite internet people, author Carrie Vaughn. In her piece, she talks a little bit about “impostor syndrome”; the feeling a lot of us have on occasion where we feel like frauds in areas where we’re [...]