As you may recall, after November's meet-up, we scheduled the next Chicagoland Shakesville meet-up for Saturday, March 27—which is now right around the corner!
The plan, as always, is to go to our favorite Celtic pub in the early afternoon, take over their party room, and while away the afternoon and evening. Last time, we added board games, movies, and henna tattoos (care of Shaker Dani) to the usual great conversation and great food, and we had an absolute blast. We've got the room for the day, starting at 1:00pm CST, and you're welcome to come and stay the whole time, or pop in just for a bit.
At this point, we just need to get a handle on how many people will be there, so please drop a line in comments or email Official Organizer of Meet-Ups, Shaker RedSonja, at sonja1023-at-gmail-dot-com if you're planning on coming.
Because there are always folks who'd like to come in from out of town, and locals who always offer up crash accommodations, we'd like to help coordinate local Shakers with spare rooms/beds and people looking for a place to stay. So if any Chicagolanders would like to volunteer their pads, once again just email RedSonja. Please include smoking preferences, any pets, and how many people you can accommodate—that will make coordinating much easier! Out-of-towners can drop us a line with their needs and we'll try to match you with someone suitable.
As always, details will be provided to Shakers who have signaled an interest in attending.
Looking forward to seeing everyone who can come!
Meet-Up Time!
I Write Letters
Dear Rhinovirus or Coronavirus, as the case may be,
Congratulations. You are a super-genius. They may call you the common cold, but you are surely a germ of uncommon cleverness and dexterity. The way you dunked right through the mucus layer of my nasal epithelium? Brilliant. And you evaded that macrophage back there like a feminist blogger ninja in a Murderphat Denim jumpsuit!
You have left me hoist by the petard of my own cytokine response, percolating in a broth of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8.
Computer animation of a macrophage releasing cytokines. No transcript necessary; background music only.
I would write more about the effects of cytokines on cognition (pdf; pdf), but I can’t think right now. I can do nothing more than make peppermint tea, listen to my epithelial cells lyse, and contemplate the peaceful silence of the oncoming post-virapocalyspe:
Computer animation of a pathogen invading cells, reproducing and lysing cells, and the immune system fighting it. At the end a vial of pathogen in a lab falls, breaks, and pathogen drifts out the ventilation system. We see the abandoned city outside. No transcript necessary; background music only.
Well-played!
You win--you are smarter than I am.
Now that we've established that, do stay for some peppermint tea. I have a few friends I’d like you to meet. We are working on a new project and would like your input. You can tell them all about how smart you are. I’m sure they will be very impressed.
Computer animation of an antibody-mediated immune response. No transcript necessary; background music only.
Your host,
SKM
Finally, a bonus for immunogeek/gamers:
A compilation of scenes from Twilight Princess, Final Fantasy XII, KHII and Dirge of Cerberus used to explain the immune system. Background music only. Video by GarnetVengeance.
New Web Videos/Podcasts Transcriptions Wiki!
by Shaker Xtinas
Hi!
I have mild hearing issues, and I can't watch videos at work, so I nearly always prefer a transcript of a video or a podcast. I really appreciate the bloggers who provide transcripts, and I wanted to find a way to support them and also encourage more bloggers to make their multi-media posts more accessible. So what to do?
Right! Make a wiki!
TexTube, for all your media-transcription needs!
Also, make more prepositional phrases in sentences. Goodness, X.
Following are a couple of videos that have already been transcribed, so that you can have an example of what this sort of thing would be like:
* http://textube.wikia.com/wiki/JoinMe.mov
* http://textube.wikia.com/wiki/Women_of_CPAC_2010
This would be the new process for writing an en-media-d post, in my idealised future:
- Write blog post.
- Embed video.
- Search for video on TexTube.
- Find it, and link to the transcript below the video.
If you don't find the transcript on the site, no problem! You just add the transcript to the wiki, instead of just to your blog post, so that people in the future can just link to it. Yay, community-driven repository!
To get started, or just to review what I'm looking for, check out the Guidelines page. I'm editing various links now, so that the New Media template shows as default text whenever you go to add a new page, just to save yall some typing.
Contribute today! Whee!
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
See Deeky's archive of all previous Conniving & Sinister strips here.
[In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman and a biracial queerbait telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.]
Coming Soon To A Coffee Table Near You
Lost Encyclopedia
Featuring more than 400 pages and over 1500 images, the Lost Encyclopedia will be a comprehensive guide to the characters, items, locations, plotlines, relationships, and mythologies from all six seasons of the landmark series. Created in full collaboration with ABC, this will be the first and only fully licensed and comprehensive reference to all things Lost, and it includes a foreword by executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. From DK Publishing, due August 24, 2010.
[Cross-posted.]
Wednesday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Calen's Social Justice Ping-Pong gear.
Recommended Reading:
Resistance: Now That's Hospitality!
Echidne: No Orgasms For You, Old Ladies
Angry Asian Man: Unearthed Charlie Chan Documentary Stirs Controversy
Fannie: Review of a Review: Precious
Cara: Cambodian Police Often Require Bribes Before Investigating Rape Cases
Andy: Eric Massa Doesn't Like Larry King Asking If He's Gay
Leave your links in comments...
Bread and Teaspoons Twenty-Five
Good morning (unless it isn't where you are, in which case I wish you Good $TIME_PERIOD), and welcome to this week's installment of Shakesville's networking post, Bread and Teaspoons*.
This is a (theoretically) weekly post providing a spot for Shakers to network a little with one another, see if we can help each other out some. Please note that there are links to the last several B&T posts at the bottom - sometimes people post three or four days after the fact, and it can be useful to go back and have a quick look to see who's shown up. :)
NB: I have added a bit to the guidelines for what’s on-topic here, to allow the posting of useful job resources for progressives. This is last week's notice, I'm including it so people who missed it can notice the change.
Also remember, if you’re running or part of a small business, you’re encouraged to drop links here for that. I’m happy to see Shakers makin’ their own way in whatever manner that is.
Here's how it works: There should be four sorts of comments here.
1) You comment here with any details of work you're seeking: where, what, that sort of thing. You give an e-mail address at which you can be reached - feel free to set up a special e-mail for it, if you don't want to post your regular one for the world to spam - and if another Shaker has a lead, they can contact you directly to pass it along.
A work-seeking comment should include:
Please do NOT include information such as your full name or telephone number, as this is and will remain a public post, and once posted, there's no taking it back (because it'll be spidered by a search engine, not because we don't want you to).
It is explicitly alright to comment to this each week with similar info.
For example, I might post a comment saying:
I'm a professional translator of French, German and Russian, with nearly 17 years of experience. I'm looking for basically any translation job, academic, commercial, personal, genealogical, you name it, with one exception: I do not currently have certification, so if you need a certified translator (usually for legal docs: birth certificates, divorce decrees, wills), you need someone else.
I am also available as a writer or editor, for academic, journalistic, creative, marketing-oriented or any other type of written communication. Basically, if you'll pay me, I'll write or edit it. My company website is found here, and my e-mail there is cait@ (What You'd Expect After The At.)
2) The second type of comment would be task offering: if you've got a job you think might suit someone here, consider posting it as a comment. Use the same guidelines as above: give general information here, and specific information when you exchange e-mails. An offered task might look something like this:
I have a doctoral thesis which needs proofing and editing by Thursday, is anyone available? You can reach me at ABDShaker@shakesville.miskatonic.edu.
**NEW GUIDELINES ADDED**In addition to that, I’ve decided to welcome also appropriate job resource sites for progressives, e.g. Canada’s Charity Village, which specializes in jobs with non-profits and NGOs.
3) The third kind of comment I'd love to see is success stories! We’d love to know when this works out, and people actually find some employment through our efforts. If you feel like sharing, tell us how it worked out for you. :)
4) If you’re a progressive working for or running a small business and would like to include a pointer to your business, you may do so. If you’ve never otherwise posted before here (i.e., you’re a lurker), I may check in with you to be certain you’re a Shaker and not a spammer. If it turns into a spamfest, or we start getting businesses that are of dubious progressive credentials, we may need to revisit this one, but let’s give it a try.
So, that's what we'd like to see.
What we do NOT want to see:
So there. Have at it, Shakers, for Bread and Teaspoons!
Important disclaimers: Shakesville makes no endorsement or claim as to the capabilities of anyone commenting to this post, and anyone considering hiring someone should be prepared to treat it like any other business situation: DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE. We're not doing any screening of this, so you'll want to make sure you check references, use safe-payment procedures (e.g., ask for a deposit), all the things you'd do when working with any stranger on the Internet. While this is intended for Shakers in general, remember that there is no real obstacle to being able to comment here, and do the things you need to do to keep yourself safe.
* As might be evident, this is an intentional reference to Bread and Roses, a longtime slogan of the left. In this case, though, my hope is that if we achieve steady bread, we will use it to power our teaspoon use.
The last several Bread and Teaspoons: Nineteen. Twenty. Twenty-One. Twenty-Two. Twenty-Three. Twenty-Four.
Per Ardua Ad Astra
I don't think this needs a long writeup. It's just totally blubworthy, and my gratitude to Liss for letting me put it up here.
Women Air Service Pilots (WASPs) to receive Congressional Gold Medal for service during World War II.
Women not being allowed to enter combat then (officially, and only applying to Western European and North American women; of course, as noted recently in these very pages, this wasn't so for every woman in reality, and several nations did use women in combat, including the Finns and the Soviets, among others), many women enlisted voluntarily in a number of different auxiliary services, generally doing jobs which would free more fighting men for the front - just as the legions of "Rosie the Riveter" women did in the factories and shipyards.
Personally, I can say with pride that both of my grandmothers served in uniform - my mother's mother as an army driver (where she met my grandfather, actually, marrying in Belgium before V-E Day), and my father's mother in the RAF's auxiliary (where she served during the Battle of Britain, as a spotter and signaller). Some 25,000 women pilots applied, and 1,830 were accepted. They had to pay their own way to Texas for 21 to 27 weeks of rigorous training, for which they received less pay than the male cadets in the same program, Parrish said.
Candidates had to be at least 21 and at least 5 feet, one-half inch tall.
When Tedeschi underwent a physical, she was told her height was only 5 feet.
"I frowned," she recalled. "I said 'I need that half-inch,' so he wrote it down." She was in.
Eventually the women who completed the program were assigned to one of 120 bases across the country to start their missions.
Depending on the base, they participated in a range of activities:
-- Ground-to-air anti-aircraft practice.
-- Towing targets for air-to-air gunnery practice with live ammunition.
-- Flying drones and conducting night exercises.
-- Testing repaired aircraft before they were used in cadet training.
-- Serving as instructors.
-- Transporting cargo and male pilots to embarkation points.
I'd like to add my voice to those of the US Congress to thank these women for their service to both their country and mine (had the US not entered the war on the Allies' side, I might well have grown up a native speaker of German).
Well done, you WASPs!
Lost Open Thread
Last night's episode will be discussed in infinitesimal detail, so if you haven't seen it, and don't want any spoilers, move along...
It's a Real First-Rate Day for the Catholic Church
[Trigger warning.]
After earlier reporting on a Catholic preschool denying the children of lesbians re-enrollment, and Dutch bishops launching an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by clergy, I read that the Pope's own brother, Rev. Georg Ratzinger, 86, has admitted physically abusing children years ago and ignoring children who reported being abused by school administrators, while implying ignorance about any sexual abuse of members of the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir, of which he was director in the 1960's.
Last week, the Regensburg Diocese said a former singer at the choir had come forward with allegations of sexual abuse in the early 1960s. And across Germany, more than 170 students have claimed they were sexually abused at several Catholic high schools.I won't go into the lengthy and inflamed rant about the secondary trauma of silence that's boiling up inside me at the moment, and instead just note I find the careful wording here interesting. Certainly we are meant to understand that he wasn't aware of it (and the AP helpfully adds that interpretation), but saying that something wasn't discussed, "the problem of sexual abuse...was never spoken of," is actually quite different from saying he was unaware of it. Not knowing and not talking about it are two entirely different things, to which anyone with a family who likes to keep secrets can attest.
Ratzinger has repeatedly said the sexual abuse allegations date from before his tenure as choir director. Asked in the interview Tuesday whether he knew of them, Ratzinger insisted he was not aware of the problem.
"These things were never discussed," Ratzinger told Tuesday's Passauer Neue Presse German daily. "The problem of sexual abuse that has now come to light was never spoken of."
Jakob Schoetz, a spokesman for the Regensburg diocese, told The Associated Press that Ratzinger would not comment further on the issue.Of course he won't. Because why should he be made uncomfortable or inconvenienced by accountability, when he was only an abuser and enabler? Suffering is for survivors, not perpetrators. That's the Catholic way.
There have also been reports of severe beatings by administrators at two primary feeder schools for the choir, one in Etterzhausen and one in Peilenhofen. One director, identified as Johann M., who headed the Etterzhausen school from 1953-1992, has been cited in several allegations as being particularly abusive.You know, it may be tempting to say that Ratzinger is a product of his time and all that, but that's a real load of hostile bullshit indirectly flung at all the millions and millions of people who knew before 1980 (1980, for fuck's sake!) that hitting children is wrong.
Ratzinger said boys would open up to him about being mistreated in Etterzhausen.
"But I did not have the feeling at the time that I should do something about it. Had I known with what exaggerated fierceness he was acting, I would have said something," he was quoted as saying by the German paper.
"Of course, today one condemns such actions," Ratzinger said. "I do as well. At the same time, I ask the victims for pardon."
He said he had administered corporal punishment himself.
"At the beginning I also repeatedly administered a slap in the face, but always had a bad conscience about it," Ratzinger said, adding that he was happy when corporal punishment was made illegal in 1980.
Ratzinger said a slap in the face was the easiest reaction to a failure to perform or a poor performance. How hard it was very greatly, depending on who administered it.
One Guess...
...as to why I grumbled at this Ebony cover featuring Gabourey Sidibe:
It's the caption.
Because when I see the words "Gabourey Sidibe... What's precious about her? Read on..." what I read is "Let us tell you what's 'precious' about her, because you obviously can't tell from just looking at her."
Quote of the Day
"I like it when girls can snowboard. But I don't need some chick trying to shred better than me, take my job."—Champion snowboarder Shaun White, in People magazine, on what he looks for in a woman.
Straight guys who want women to share their talents/interests/abilities, but be not quite as good, not quite as knowledgeable, not quite as capable, are the totes worst.
Today in Just Like Jesus Would Do!
[Trigger warning for clergy abuse.]
First, a follow-up: The Catholic Archdiocese of Denver is defending the decision of a Catholic preschool in Boulder, which denied re-enrollment to two children because their parents are lesbians.
"The Church does not claim that people with a homosexual orientation are 'bad,' or that their children are less loved by God," wrote Archbishop Charles J. Chaput in an article to be published in Thursday's edition of the Denver Catholic Register.The Catholic Church's rationalizations for this shit just get stupider and stupider. The gall of asserting to care about these excluded children's happiness without a trace of irony while deliberately and unnecessarily marginalizing them from their friends and teachers and education—such unmitigated horseshit!
"Quite the opposite. But what the Church does teach is that sexual intimacy by anyone outside marriage is wrong; that marriage is a sacramental covenant; and that marriage can only occur between a man and a woman. These beliefs are central to a Catholic understanding of human nature, family and happiness, and the organization of society. The Church cannot change these teachings because, in the faith of Catholics, they are the teachings of Jesus Christ."
Even when I was a little wee kid, I never understood the hilariously apparent hypocrisy of a god who ostensibly loves everyone even though everyone's a sinner, and his earthly representatives who make tortured explanations about how its nonetheless our responsibility to marginalize some sinners in special cases because of their specialized sin. What a total crock.
And in other news, "Catholic bishops in the Netherlands have announced an independent investigation into allegations of child abuse by clergy, widening a scandal that touches countries including the United States, Ireland, Germany and Austria."
Dutch church leaders "are deeply moved by the gripping accounts of sexual abuse that have come to light in recent days. Any form of sexual abuse deserves to be heavily condemned," the bishops said in a statement Tuesday.Oh, yeah, absolutely. I especially liked when Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's permanent observer to the UN, read a statement last September blaming the continuing issue of sex abuse among clergy on gay men. Totes "appropriate."
The bishops turned to a Protestant politician to lead the inquiry: former education minister Wim Deetman, who is also a former mayor of The Hague, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported Tuesday.
The station broke the story of the alleged abuse of boys by Catholic priests at a boarding school in the Netherlands in the 1960s and 1970s. Hundreds of other reports of abuse flowed in after the story appeared on radio and in the NRC Handelsblad newspaper, Radio Netherlands said.
A top Vatican spokesman Tuesday said the church was reacting appropriately to accusations across western Europe.
German, Dutch and Austrian bishops' conferences "have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago," Father Federico Lombardi said in a statement.They should talk to their pals in Ireland. They've got some great ideas on how to handle sex crimes committed by clergy. Harrumph.
"You're Much Alike."
[Transcript below.]
Blub. That's really how simple it is.
"So that means you love each other!" Congratulations, kid. You've now got a more sophisticated understanding of marriage equality than about a third of the adult populace of the United States.
Thanks to Shaker Jha for passing this along.
Text onscreen: Thanksgiving.
[Calen, a little boy, is standing in a bathroom next to a sink, looking up into the camera.]
Calen: A husband's a boy.
Adult male voice from behind camera: Right.
Calen: A wife is a girl and a husband's a boy. Then you two are husbands! [He hold up two fingers on both hands.] Wifes are girls; husbands are boys.
Voice from behind camera: Right.
Second adult male voice, from next to camera: That's right. So, if you're a boy—
Calen: You'll be a husband.
Second Voice: Right.
First Voice: Yeah, we're both husbands.
Calen: [puts his head in his hand] You're both husbands?
Second Voice: Is that confusing—
Calen: You married each other?! That's funny! [slaps hand to head]
Second Voice: That's funny, right?
Calen: Yeah. [looks thoughtful] I usually see husbands and wives, but this is the VERY FIRST TIME I saw husbands and husbands! [grins excitedly]
[The two men laugh; Second Voice peers around and grins into camera.]
Calen: So funny. [edit] So that means you LOVE EACH OTHER!
First Voice: Yeah.
Calen: Yeah. Yeah, they're much alike. You're much alike. Hey, I'm going to play ping-pong now.
First Voice: Okay.
[Camera follows Calen out into the hallway; he turns back and looks at the two men.]
Calen: You can play if you want to.
Text onscreen: You're much alike.
On Rep. Massa
[Trigger warning.]
So, I really didn't want to have to write about former Republican-current Democratic Representative Eric Massa, whose implosion—"Originally, you'll remember, Massa claimed he was retiring due to health problems. But when reports surfaced last week that he had been accused of sexually harassing a male staffer, Massa said the ethics issue 'is my fault and mine alone.' On Sunday, the story changed again, as Massa accused prominent Democrats of orchestrating a vendetta against him because of his health care stance"—brings me no particular joy or sorrow, but then Massa took to the cable news last night to discuss the allegations that he sexually harassed and/or assaulted several of his male staffers and interns:
"No, no, no!" he said when asked during an interview with Fox's Glenn Beck. "I did nothing sexual."But then, Massa "said hours later on CNN's Larry King Live that 'it is not true' that he groped anyone on his staff. He told Beck that he resigned from the House because he made the mistake of 'getting too familiar with my staff' members, but he told King that he left primarily for health reasons."
…That is at odds with an account provided by Mr. Massa, who, the day before, described an inappropriate encounter he had with a male aide during another staff member's wedding in January. He said he grabbed the aide while the two were seated at a table, joked about having sexual relations with him and mussed his hair before getting up and leaving.
In the interview with Mr. Beck, Mr. Massa acknowledged exercising poor judgment in his interactions with his staff on another occasion. He recalled tickling an aide during a birthday party in a townhouse he shared with five of his staff members.
"Now they are saying I groped a male staffer," he told Mr. Beck. "Yeah I did. Not only did I grope him. I tickled him until he couldn't breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday. It was kill the old guy. You can take anything out of context."
Mr. Massa suggested he was warned about how his conduct was being perceived.
"My chief of staff had a conniption and said: 'You can't live there; it's not Congressional'," he said. Mr. Massa, who is married, explained that he and his aides — "all bachelors" — lived together because they could not afford Washington's "outrageous rents."
"I should not have allowed myself to become so familiar with my staff," he said.
Massa is clearly very mixed-up at the moment, and I have no interest in speculating about the causes (nor is that welcome in comments). But whatever's underlying his curious vacillations, one thing is evident: Only in a rape culture where men (in particular) are socialized to associate masculinity with sexual aggression, and regard as intrinsic to their privilege unconstrained access to the bodies of their perceived subordinates, could "I grabbed my aide and joked about fucking him" and "I never groped anyone on my staff" be proffered as non-conflicting statements, or could "I tickled him until he couldn't breathe" be justified as some birthday fun for the boss.
RIP Corey Haim
I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. To say I am stunned is an understatement. I've always had a soft spot for Corey Haim. He was one of my first crushes.
I cannot tell you how many times I've seen The Lost Boys. Or Lucas. (Liss puts her personal count at 98 million times.) Or Prayer of the Rollerboys. Or Dream a Little Dream. Or License To Drive.
Haim died this morning "of an apparent drug overdose, according to Los Angeles police." He was 38.
I don't have much more to say. I am still processing this. I am, sadly, reminded of Andrew "Boner" Koenig's recent suicide.
Rest in peace, Corey. You will be missed.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker The_Great_Indoors: You've just won an all expense paid trip to any point on the globe!! Where do you go and what do you want to do there?
I want to go to Brazil, to visit my beloved friend Miller, whom I miss on a daily basis, even though we haven't lived in the same place for years, and even though it's still like we've never spent a day apart when we do get the chance to see each other. She's one of my favorite people on the planet, and I know quite certainly she still would be had I the opportunity to meet every last denizen of this rock.
