Lent, 2013

Once again, 'tis come: the most wonderful time of the year. As nothing says you care like hypocrisy, and nothing says disrespect like mockery...
Granted, this year I wasn't as strict in the off-season as I would otherwise have been -but fuck you, my mom died (and sometimes nothing but a burger will ease one's grief). My plan is to go full glutton for the next 40-odd days, and then get back on the wagon come Easter. Maybe next year, I'll go full vegan.

2013's catalog of carnage commences as contained within...
- 2/13 Wegmans Ready-to-Cook Specialty Bacon Cheddar Burger
- 2/14 (Valentime's Day!) Agatina's Filet Oscar (two 4oz filet medallions with fresh mushrooms and  asparagus, sautéed with Cognac sauce, topped with lump crab and Bearnaise sauce)
- 2/15 Rookie's burger
- 2/17 Cuban sandwich at Bathtub Billy's
- 2/19 Bacon & Bleu Sirloin at Friday's
- 2/20 all-you-can-eat wings at Martino's (I ate 24; Plumber Joe ate 20; Wayne-o and Donno each ate 18; Andy ate 12 -that's 92, total, in case you're wondering)
- 2/22 Rookie's loaded potato skins (that means onions, AND bacon)
- 2/23 Rookie's roast beef panini
- 3/02 Wegmans' roast beef sub, with pickles, provolone, honey mustard, lettuce, and onions
- 3/02 Famous Dave's Ultimate BBQ Burger, but with regular bacon and pickles instead of the scary pepper kind, and with onions instead of tomatoes, and a side of potato salad
- 3/06 Beef tenderloin carpaccio with capers, red onion, white truffle oil, micro greens & a crispy parmesan “tuile” at  Black & Blue Steak and Crab
- 3/07 Bill Gray's burger plate, which is seriously pretty much a Garbage Plate™ on a bun. So, cheeseburger, mac salad, and french fries, plus I added mustard, ketchup, onions, and pickles.
- 3/08 Hot dog (loaded with onions, ketchup, mustard), french fries, and pickles, at  Wimpy's Burger Basket.
- 3/08 Rookie's beef on weck -which, I just learned, is a western New York "delicacy", much like salt potatoes, garage plates, and Buffalo wings...
- 3/13 Monty's Krown's Yeti Burger: bacon grilled cheese sandwich buns surrounding a cheeseburger, with egg. Also, there were fries.
- 3/16 Rizzi's filet mignon (served wrapped in bacon, with sauteed mushroom caps, and accompanied with bernaise sauce), with steamed vegetables, and (cauliflower, white cabbage, sour cream, and bacon) mashed potatoes
- 3/20 Another Yeti burger -it was Ostara, after all, and eggs are one of the key foods for the sabbat!
- 3/23 Sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub from Subway, with provalone, cucumbers, dill pickles, lettuce, red onion, and, of course, sweet onion sauce
- 3/27 Jitters' Carolina Pork BBQ sandwich (pulled pork, Jitters' BBQ sauce, provolone cheese, and coleslaw grilled on ciabatta bread)
- 3/30 Red Lobster's Maine Lobster & Shrimp Trio (wood-grilled Maine lobster tail, garlic-grilled shrimp, and lobster-and-shrimp mac 'n' cheese with a white Cheddar and bacon sauce, topped with Parmesan crumbs. Served with wild rice pilaf.
- 3/31 Wegmans' raw sushi Kyoto-esque platter

And that'll do it. Probably, I've put on ten pounds with all this flesh in my diet. Nothing fits right. I'm tired all the time. I might be having tiny heart attacks all day, every day. Until next year, kids... ALL YOUR VEGGIE ARE BELONG TO ME!!!

Pink Stink

Hey, y'all! Did you know that it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Of course you did. You'd have to be blind to get through Pinktober without being bombarded by vacuum cleaners and plastic bracelets and sponges... Well, I've got to tell you: I'm pretty fucking aware of breast cancer. Unless you're living in a cave, you're probably pretty fucking aware of breast cancer and of cancer as a whole. Unless you're a monster who thinks that cancer is a punishment from God, you're probably pretty anticancer. You probably want to stab cancer in the eye. I'm all for that. I'm all for research and treatment and helping poor people get the treatments they need. Awareness, though? I think we've got awareness covered.
Plus, so many pink campaigns are just cashing in on the popularity of breast cancer "awareness," while not necessarily putting any proceeds toward actually fighting breast cancer. That pink blender that's $20 more than the regular blender? Probably not sending the extra money to any reputable research organization. Those pink earrings with your favorite football team's symbol? Probably not actually doing any good. Changing your profile picture to something pink? Maybe it helps your friends know that you support them, but the only way it fights cancer is if you send actual monies somewhere.

Do me a favor, this October... Don't buy pink stuff. Or, if you really want to buy pink stuff, then buy pink stuff that actually DOES something. Forbes has three simple tips for determining whether a project or product is worth your time, whether buying it actually supports cancer research or is just a pinkwashing scam.

Better yet: donate your money directly to a legitimate, accredited cancer research organization -preferably one that understands how important Planned Parenthood is to women's health...- or an organization that actively assists women who have cancer in order to make their lives better.

For example, (nationally) the American Cancer Society; (locally) the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester and the Pluta Cancer Center. As always, check out any potential charities and organizations through the BBB, to ensure they're reputable and respected.

Cancer fucking sucks, but pinkwashing is not helping anything. So, stop it. Stop it, and do some actual good.

head rattlers

That is, things that rattle around in my head. Things I know. Things people often roll their eyes at when I mention them. Things no one thinks are true. But are.

- The Great Lakes hold enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states nearly 10 feet deep.
- If you cut Mount Everest off at sea level, turned it upside down and put it into the Challenger Deep, there would still be over a mile of water over the top of it.
- A blue moon is actually not all that rare: there’s one every two or three years.
- Due to a lack of genetic diversity and its susceptibility to Panama Disease, the banana we know (the Cavendish) is going extinct. The Cavendish replaced the Gros http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifMichel, which was wiped out by another Panama Disease strain in the 1960s.
- When considering average smoothness, if you shrank the Earth down to the size of a billiard ball, the Earth would be smoother.
- The potato is a member of the nightshade family; the sweet potato is a member of the morning glory family.
- A tube of sausage is called a chub.
- Mother Theresa and Mohandas Gandhi were actually NOT that awesome.

Lent Blog, 2012

Lent only comes once a year, and for me it is the most wonderful time of the year. Because nothing says you care like hypocrisy, and nothing says disrespect like mockery, I spend the 40-odd days between Mardi Gras and Easter stuffing my face full of every kind of meat I've been craving the whole rest of the year. Ethics be damned. I'll be back off factory-farmed meat when Jesus rolls out of his cave (that's how that works, right?), but in the meantime let's work my way through my catalog of carnage...

2/22 Agatina's: pasta platter special (gnocchi, ravioli, lasagna, meatball)
2/24 Rookie's: giant rare cheeseburger, with red onions and lettuce. and salad.
3/2 Jim & Ralph's: cheeseburger, with lettuce, onions, ketchup, mustard. and fries.
3/2 Rookie's: BBQ bacon cheeseburger wrap (tomatoes, bacon, onion, lettuce, cheddar jack cheese -NO jalapenos)
3/3 The (original) Crab Shack: Surf & Turf (ribeye steak with bacon-wrapped mango scallops, plus corn bread, salt potatoes, and corn on the cob)
3/5 Wegmans' bacon cheddar burger (served with cheesy mashed potatoes)
3/7 Martino's: Wing Wednesday! All You Can Eat! Plus cheesy bread! My record (set down in 2011) is 24 wings, though this time I only managed 20. I did tuck away six slices of cheesy bread, though, too.
3/9 Rookie's: Dugout Platter (two hot dogs over fries and mac salad -no onions or hot sauce, though!)
3/10 Panera: Asiago Roast Beef sandwich (oven-roasted beef, smoked cheddar, lettuce, red onions, creamy horseradish sauce, on Asiago cheese bread -hold the tomatoes!) and broccoli cheddar soup
3/10 Martino's: meatball sub and garlic parmesan chicken wings
3/11 McDonald's McGangBang (McChicken inside of a McDouble, with a large fry of course
3/12 Ballpark hot dogs with bacon and American cheese
3/14 Rohrbach's: pastrami sandwich (tasty, but a little overpowered by the rye bread -and by the bitch and the bar)
3/15 corned beef wrap (served at the company lunch, from Palermo's)
3/15 Rookie's cheeseburger quesadilla (ground sirloin, tomatoes, onions, shredded cheddar jack cheeses -hold the jalapenos)
3/21 California Rollin': all-you-can-eat sushi (chef's choice. I got 32 rolls, eight each of tuna, whitefish, crab, shrimp. not sure what their fancy names are.)
3/26 Ballpark hotdogs with bacon and melted emmentaller cheese
3/28 Skylark Lounge: BBQ pork balls with a side of deep fried mashed potato balls
The Skylark Lounge is located where Muther's used to be, on Union Street in Rochester NY. They have live music and lots of liquor and no TVs and their menu is all meatballs. Pick your ball (traditional ground beef, barbecue pork, spicy chicken, vegetarian, or the day's specialty ball), pick your sauce (marinara, parmesan cream, buffalo, roasted red pepper, or pesto), and then pick your side (pasta, cole slaw, fresh vegetables, cream spinach, or deep fried mashed potato balls), and then NOM NOM NOM.
3/31 hot roast beef sandwich
4/04 Five Guys (fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association): double cheeseburger with lettuce, onion, relish, ketchup and mustard, and ALL THE FRIES

Alas, alack, the season of gloriousness is over and I must set all this aside for yet another year. Oh, ethics, why art thou so cruel?

Lauren's Lessons for Life, updated

Lauren's Lessons for Life (originally posted 2/17/09)

1. you're only as old as the number of kids you have
2. never share a living arrangement with someone you refer to as "Crazy Bitch." Or Crazy anything, really.
3. never make any life changing decisions (getting married, having a child, adopting a pet) because you think you should or someone tells you that you have to, only do it because you know you want to (and you're financially and situationally able to)
4. never make any life changing decisions because you think it will "make things better"
5. always dance to "your song" before you dance to it at your wedding
6. never get your partner's name (or lips) tattooed onto your body -that's just a fast track to doomsville (ask Johnny Depp or Tommy Lee if you don't believe me)
7. just because you can doesn't mean that you should (just ask billionaire John Hammond, founder and chief executive officer of International Genetic Technologies, if you don't believe me)
8. never buy anything from a "but wait! if you call now..." commercial and expect it to perform as advertised
9. never discuss another man's meat
10. never argue with a hot chick (especially when she's offering you alcohol)
11. shut the fuck up and drink
12. you can either shoot someone or you can tell them a story, but you don't get to do both (thanks, Dr. House)
13. never, ever wear clothes with words written across your butt -unless you are a roller derby girl and/or you're getting paid for it
14. never be in the wedding of anyone you actually want to remain friends with afterward
15. never put anyone else's marbles into your barn unless you first ask their permission
16. never close your eyes while you're spanking your monkey
17. life is too short to not eat the cookies
18. never bracket a sandwich
19. never have a bumper sticker that you can't defend in an elevator speech when confronted by an angry and unintelligible driver next to you at a stoplight
20. if you feel you need to complain about your partner on Facebook, maybe don't be in that relationship

guilt by association

Just as Chris Benoit's admirable career and various achievements are forever tarnished and diminished by his murdering his wife and child, any success Joe Paterno had as a football coach is sullied and stained by his negligence toward the horrific child abuse happening under his watch. He may have been a great coach and may have many accolades and accomplishments under his belt, but these are all overshadowed by the child abuse in which he is complicit.

The difference between Benoit and Paterno? Benoit may have committed the crimes himself, but Paterno's victims are still alive and still suffering for his silence.

and I'M the bad guy

I get it. Tim Tebow luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuvs himself some Jesus. I get that he can be a good football player. I get that he luvs to tell everyone how much he luvs him the Lord -and isn't that brave? (actually, no, it's not. it's just cliche pandering and self-aggrandizement.) But holy shit, Rich Eisen! And everyone else! Do I have to come over there and slap Tebow's dick out of your mouth?!

10,000 strong

I've been angry about this for over a month. I think I'll try to get it out of my system:

As of this moment 10,719 people "like" the Facebook page "RIP Cameron Lee DeVeronica 2/16/97-11/29/11" a page in remembrance of a teen who appears to have taken her life over the bullying she experienced.

Where the fuck were these ten thousand people when Cameron was alive?

I wonder if things would have turned out differently if, in life, she'd realized she had that much support.

Happy fucking Friday.

not so angry

We're going to Disney World!! It's going to be the time of our lives! We'll never've felt this way before. I swaer. It's the truth.

That is all.

Want.

I. Want. My. Caddy. For the first time. Only $8595.




I want it even more than I wanted to buy the Amityville Horror House, and way more affordable. Kinda.

So, gimme.

this week in information (4/01)

I hate April Fool's Day, so none of this is a joke.

Important Perspective: Radiation Dosage Chart from Information is Beautiful

Along with the triangle choke (which is cool) and the Bermuda Triangle (which is dumb), there is another triangle about which you should know: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Friday (3/25) was the 100th anniversary of this tragedy, which set the stage for improvements in workers' rights, labor conditions and safety standards.
Let's not dishonor the victims by going backward, eh? I'm TALKING TO YOU, WISCONSIN!!!

I didn't participate in Earth Hour last week, but these pictures are really interesting and startling.

Nerdilicious epic battle: Einstein vs. Hawking Aaaaand I went to high school with that kid. Good to see somebody made it.

OMGyouguys!! The escaped cobra from the Bronx Zoo is totally on Twitter!!! Srsly, that is some brilliance. Oh, and I would totally watch an Animal Planet special about her, April Fool's or not. Update: she snuck back into the Reptile House and they think she was there all along. Clever girl...

Pretty: the aurora
Starkly pretty: South Dakota

My new favorite picture, if anyone's curious: me and other me, huggin' at derby, N-E-R-D-Y are we...

Let's end with some damn funny cats.

this week in information (3/25)

Happy belated 0h0m0s Right Ascension, 0°0m0s declination!!!

Earlier this week, the Secular Coalition for America wanted me to contact my representative regarding legislation unnecessarily reaffirming the divisive phrase "In God We Trust" and encouraging its display. Great, except that my representative has already replied to each of my missives regarding equality and secular government with a patronizing dismissal.
He is clearly only interested in hypocritically pushing his own views onto his constituents and not in entertaining a difference of opinion. Barf.
I haz a sad. And so much angriez.

TV's Adam Savage is an atheist, and an inspiring one.

(Alleged) fraud Andrew Wakefield is trying to kill Somali children now. Somalia? Doomed.

3/24 marked the 137th birthday of eminent skeptic Harry Houdini. Ta-DA!!

Some perspective on radiation, if you're worried your face might melt off, what with the doom and all...

The "Do Something on Facebook and Pretend it Matters" bullshit has returned. This time, we're to post a flavor indicating our relationship status as our Facebook status to "confuse the guys" and raise awareness of breast cancer. Um, pretty sure people are aware of breast cancer. Also, pretty sure the guys don't care. No one cares. Facebook is not that big of a deal. More importantly, though: THIS SHIT DOESN'T DO ANY GOOD!! If you want to do some good, how about donating to an organization that actually helps breast cancer sufferers and survivors?!?! Or, just click here and give free mammograms! You know, DO something.
Sigh.

Rochester's Writers & Books is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and its 11th year of the If All of Rochester Read the Same Book program. My mother and I have read the book and attended programs each year for the past seven years, and were happy to participate in the program again this year -helping Writers & Books continue to have the highest participation per capita of any literary community center in the country. Hooray!!
The books chosen by Writers & Books so far have been:
2001: A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines
2002: The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
2003: Kindred, Octavia Butler
2004: Peace Like a River, Lief Enger
2005: Servants of the Map, Andrea Barrett
2006: Name All the Animals, Alison Smith
2007: The Buffalo Soldier, Chris Bohjalian
2008: Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Laila Lalami
2009: Jim the Boy, Tony Earley
2010: Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
2011: The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti

DINOSAURS!! RARR!!

Aaaaand, Astronom-O's!!

this week in doomed (3/18)

Doomed. Doomed doomed doomed.
Japan? Doomed.
Libya? Doomed.
Wisconsin? Doomed.

The recent earthquake in Japan actually changed the earth's rotation. It moved the Japanese coastline eight feet (cue TMBG "Science" song). The tsunami swamped nuclear power plants and they are creeping closer to meltdown every day. The country is basically melting and drowning and also on fire. Oh, AND the homeopaths are cashing in on the disaster by offering worthless scams. Never fear, water's here!! Hooray.


THE LIBYANS are all fighting each other and trying to get their whackjob leader to step down and instead of realizing that he's in trouble and his people hate him, he rambles meaninglessly while carrying a parasol. Check the internoodlez if you don't believe me.

Wisconsin... No longer just for cheese and Packers. Nope, now it's for union-busting and teacher-firing. Because the way to fix an economy that's been sucked dry by banker bonuses and corporate tax cuts is to sacrifice kid's education and public employee benefits. Go, big business!! Again, check the internoodlez if you don't believe me. You'd have to be blind and deaf (or watching Fox News, which amounts to the same thing) to not know what's going on.

We're all still doomed, but at least we can laugh while we cry. "A legislative Schrodinger’s cat killed by the quantum mechanics of the legislative process"? What? Nice. Thanks Rep. Markey.

Also, GIVE. Give to help Japan.

Basketball is not interesting to me, but helping fund vaccine initiatives is.
Made up religious bullshit that I might be convinced to support: all hail St. Urho!! This is especially spectacular since I've always been a little weirded out by St. Patrick's Day because of the whole Catholics-driving-the-pagans-out-of-Ireland thing, but I literally just found out, ON St. Urho's Day, that I am in fact about an eighth Finnish!! Weeeee!!!

The moon is cool. The back side of the moon is cool, too. But it didn't cause the freaking earthquake. "We’re not making it any better by panicking over something we know isn’t real."

Also cool, Preserve's recycling program for number five plastics: Gimme 5.

At least we have Nick Frost and Simon Pegg re-enacting Star Wars.

Also, Monday was Pi Day. Mmmmm, Pi.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. I'm of two minds about it. One mind says I like to drink. The other mind objects to the Catholic subjugation and expulsion of everything different. Maybe I should be wearing purple. You know, for St. Urho. Hey, did you guys know I'm an 8th Finnish?

this week in information (3/11) -and also Lent

It snuck up on me before I even realized it: Lent is here!! For most people who claim they are Catholics, this means giving up something meaningless in a transparent effort to get on the good side of a deity for which they cannot provide anything but emotional anecdotes as evidence. For a few Catholics, it means making an actual sacrifice of something truly meaningful in order to bring oneself closer to one's faith and savior; a time of penitence and reflection that one can only hope will carry over into the rest of the year.
For me, it means eating meat. Tasty, tasty murder meat and lots of it. The rest of the year, I buy my meat at the public market where the animals are raised with kindness and humanity and I am not supporting a sick culture of corn-suffocating antibiotic-pushing shit-wallowing miserableness.
I haven't enjoyed a McDonald's cheeseburger in over two years, I don't get street meat or cart hot dogs or have the burgers at family gatherings, I make my tacos with cheese and lettuce and sometimes other vegetables but I leave out the ground beef. I've learned to enjoy Quorn and some tofu creations (I have the tastiest vegan tofurkey/spinach/cranberry sauce/stuffing wrap after Thanksgiving this past year and I could eat that every damn day), Amy's and Annie's and Helen's (oh my!).
Lunch and breakfast every day are vegetarian, and dinners that do include meat are as responsible and ethical as I can make them without actually being a vegan or vegetarian. Which should ultimately be the goal, I know.
You're supposed to give up something important to you, for Lent, and so for Lent I give up giving up factory farmed beef. Not every day, but especially on Fridays. Because I am irreverent and sarcastic and kind of a bitch. Blessed be.


Lentien irreverency:
- PZ Myers on why everyone has smudgies on their foreheads
- via PZ Myers: hypothetical Christian science test

Touchdown, Discovery!! Phil Plait, as always, is well worth reading.

Mike Starr, former Alice in Chains band member, succumbed to his addiction this week, at age 44. Very sad, but also -more sadly- not surprising.

A greater tragedy: an 8.9 magnitude earthquake has shattered and burned Japan and lead to a tsunami that could reach as far as the tip of South America. And, of course, there are already woo-woo claims about the disaster... Sigh.


Cheer worth sharing:
- Baby Got Bugs music video
- Carl Sagan parody
- on the topic of the moon... WE LIKE THE MOON!!!

this week in information (3/04)

Every morning, I click through the Charity USA "click to give" tabs and aid all sorts of groups through that simple, painless, free action. This week, I noticed that there is a new tab and new charity available that you can help with an easy click and I figured it was a good excuse to remind people of the ease with which they can do good.
No, seriously, all you have to do is click. Advertisers do the rest, and they really do provide the funds to help the way it is described. Links to partners, sponsors and beneficiaries are available on the pages themselves.
Set up an e-mail reminder, mark it as a favorite, make it a bookmark, add it to your toolbar... Whatever it takes, get there and click to help!
the Animal Rescue Site: help animals and pet shelters
the Hunger Site: help end hunger and poverty
the Breast Cancer Site: fight breast cancer and provide mammograms
the Veterans Site: give meals for homeless veterans
the Child Health Site: help children and provide child health care
the Literary Site: fight illiteracy and support reading and education
the Rainforest Site: stop global warming and protect endangered animals

Here's a scary reminder about why it's so important to be up to date on your boosters and vaccines: because the whole world IS out to get you!!

This week in awesome sciencyness: A picture of the shuttle taken from the ISS, as the shadow of the ISS passes across the shuttle!

This week in Tree Lobster awesome: AVP.

Great quote for the week: ‎"Our Republic only works if people are informed." - Brian Trent, The Rogues Gallery


Finally, apparently, the Great Ice Storm of '91 was twenty years ago today. And apparently, if the trending on Facebook is any indication, it's a big freaking deal. Granted, it was a disaster, and it was an awesome reminder of how nature can be so beautiful and destructive at the same time. But it was also twenty freaking years ago. Way worse has happened to the world since then, even in this year alone...
Twenty years... I was eleven, then, in 1991. Sixth grade, it must have been. I remember waking up through the night wondering why Mom kept walking up and down the stairs with her plastic cup full of ice water, because that's what the ice pinging off the windows sounded like to my eleven-year-old half-asleep ears. I remember that we lost power, and tree limbs were still cracking and crashing to the ground in showers of ice when I went out to see if the neighbors had power -I made it about halfway across the street before turning back. Ice storms are scary. I remember that my father built a fire and hung wool blankets and we tried to stay in the house, but Mom's asthma made that impossible. The parents of one of my schoolmates took us in, though our cat had to spend the week in their basement. I remember that my mother and I were so strung out that at dinner one night we laughed until we cried about an inexplicable Muppets episode. I remember that I watched "The Abyss" for the first time that week. I remember that a huge tree in our neighbor's backyard that down in thirds and trashed our yard, next door, and the tree's owner's yard. Fences smashed, yards torn up, wires down... It totally crushed the pussy willow tree in our yard so we cut it all down and tried to dig out the stump, but come spring there were green shoots and within five years it was a bush as tall as the tree had ever been. In the end, though, spring came and 1991 faded into the past as just another bad winter in western New York.

this week in information (2/25 belated)

Still catching up from being on vacation (in St. Martin -suck it, bitches!!) so there's not too much to share this week, but...

While I was away, I missed Darwin Day and Valentine's Day.

Republicans are being dicks (shocking!), trying to cut funding for public broadcasting, education, public services, and family planning services. Because everyone knows that all Planned Parenthood does is carve full grown babies out of unsuspecting women's bodies, so of course they shouldn't get any funding for that. Right? Oh wait, what? That's just some bullshit extremist rhetoric? No Way!!
Planned Parenthood is the primary care location for man, many women, many of them poor and unable to get care elsewhere. PPhood provides counseling and referrals and family planning services (read: contraception, which actually REDUCES the number of abortions sought in this country!). Yes, some clinics perform abortions, safe and sterile and legal abortions which enable women to better care for themselves and their families as they make very difficult decisions. And the majority of these abortions do NOT use federal funding, because the law prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions unless the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if the woman's life is at risk. However, Republicans are also seeking to change the definition of rape to mean only forcible rape. I'm so mad, I can't even keep typing about this bullshit. It's all over the internets so check it out. They are being dicks and they need to be stopped.
Stand with Planned Parenthood against dangerous libel!!

This makes my point, too: MacLeod Cartoons

Listen up, assholes.
Stand with Planned Parenthood!!

Homeopathy = water. Homeopathy is not medicine and should not be sold in pharmacies implying it is such -no, not even in St. Martin. If you don't have the nards to confront it when you see it on store shelves, you can probably at least get up the energy to sign a petition, eh?

In good news: Obama's seen the light and is declining to defend the idiotic and plain old MEAN Defense of Marriage Act. Hooray!! I suppose his incessant god blather and prayer whinging led him someplace good after all. Now, if only he could get his brain around the separation of church and state and do away with this whole National Prayer Breakfast kowtowing-to-Family-extremist shit...

In humor: I haven't read the comics in ages and always found Doonesbury a little too real and depressing, and this example is no exception, but hooray for Trudeau calling out Jenny McCarthy as a public menace!!

this week in information (2/03)

We are kicking the ozone layer's ASS, you guys! Good work! Keep it up, with your aerosols and your CO-spewing rollover vehicles and whatnot. Woo-ho... Oh, wait. That's not right.

Why Kermit is a butcher and not a doctor, and why this case is actually an argument FOR safe, legal abortion (because if abortion is made illegal, more abortion facilities would be like this one as all would be unregulated and women's lives would be in more danger than ever -although that's never really the concern of the religious right because all they seem to care about is the pre-birth fetus...)
PZ Myers, as usual, really gets it. Even if he is a MAN (and I'm a walking talking bad girl cliche).

What's he harm in astrology? Often not too much, but some. And it's all blather anyway as (again) Information is Beautiful makes clear. So stop freaking panicking about it.

Aaaaaand, Phil Plait on the good idea that is charging higher insurance premiums to the anti-vaxxers.

Carl Sagan kicks woo's ass! And then eats apple pie. After first creating the universe.

That'll do it for the week, I suppose. I'm out for a while. Catch you 'round.

THE SNOWBYSS

OMfsm, it's the Snowpocalypse!! Again. Or not. Personally, I prefer SNHURRTASTROPACALYSE. SNOWPOCALYPSE NOW is good, too. Or SNOWMAGGEDON! Or SNOWDEPENDENCE DAY! Or DEEP SNOWPACT! Thanks to Sarah Smart for that cold-medicine-inspired bit of brilliance, and no thanks to the media for feeding an ever-hungry public the fodder for yet another snowpanic.

Let's get one thing clear: Short-term weather prediction is a notoriously complex and thankless job. So when the meteorologists predict snow and we just get some rain, or when the public's interpretation of their words imply doom and indicate that panic is the only option and then the storm blows through (again), we must remain calm and try to refrain from the all-to-easy blame-the-weatherman rhetoric.
It is far better to be prepared for a storm that does not come than to be surprised by a storm that was not predicted or was not expected to be so violent as it got.
We are grownups. We have to use common sense. Yes, over-prediction of terrible storms risks making people complacent and falls into the crying wolf category, but how much worse if the news did NOT broadcast anything about the weather? Farmers would not cover their crops and protect their flocks, drivers would not know they might need snow tires or chains, kids would not wear scarves and boots (okay, who are we kidding, kids never wear scarves anyway), people might not fill their gas tanks or have extra food stored in their basements.

The concern of crying wolf is valid, but people need to use their brains. I suppose the anger directed at meteorologists and the resentment of panicky people can directly be traced to a lack of critical thinking in people as a whole.

Remember, this storm was pretty terrible everywhere else that it hit, just not here in Monroe County, and every indication was that it would clobber us like it clobbered everyone else. Would you prefer they not warn us at all and leave us to guess when the next blizzard will bluster by? Or should we perhaps pay attention to the warnings and take what precautions we feel are necessary and appropriate, and then take responsibility for those actions ourselves once the storm has passed -or not manifested- ?

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals. And you know it. So it's up to you to be smart. Don't be a sheople, but be aware of your surroundings, and try not to blame everything on the weathermen or the government or the media or the vitriol. Sometimes words do incite violence, sometimes preparedness is for naught, but sometimes (most times) we are responsible for ourselves and would do well to remember that.

Come on, kids, get over it. So, the storm blew through lighter than expected? That's a GOOD thing. Better to over-prepare than under-prepare. Watch the radar, wear your boots, get your flu shot, find your snow brush and roll with it.

Happy Imbolc.

this week in information (1/28)

I heart the Information Is Beautiful website, especially for their supplement data, and this latest work about horoscope patterning is no exception. Your unique and specific horoscope? Hardly. Be sure to check out the meta-horoscope: good for all star signs! ...except, you know, Ophiuchus. Tip o' the BS Meter to Phil Plait (my always-source for all things pro-science and pro-real) for this one.

In too-good-to-be-true news, Bounce fabric softener sheets do NOT in fact keep mosquitoes away -but they have some success with fungus gnats! And, seeing as how fungus gnats are assholes and really annoying, that's wicked cool! Of course, mosquitoes are actually life-threatening in some areas, what with the malaria and West Nile and all, so it's really scary that the media is reporting this research incorrectly and implying people could forgo actual protection for fabric softener sheets... Yikes.

Holy shit, I agree with the pope about something!! Of course, I disagree with the fundamentals behind his beliefs, but the point remains valid: people have unreasonable expectations and often need counseling and not everyone should get married. Whoa. It's a freaking miracle!!

It's here! It's here! That shocking time of year! When tons of strained bipartisan thoughts miraculously appear! Yes, this week the President gave his State of the Union Address, which means that it was time once again for the State of the Union Address Drinking Game, 2011!!! (another version here)

Speaking of the SotU, check out these word clouds of such speeches, past and current.

European crack-down on "alternative" pet remedies (homeopathy: there's nothing to it!). Remember: if it worked it wouldn't be called alternative, it would just be medicine.

Athletes sued for being stupid.
Wait, how were athletes ever successful BEFORE they started wearing stupid meaningless necklaces or bracelets?
If the bracelets ARE giving them an edge, they should be disqualified for performance enhancing substances. But since there's absolutely no mechanism or science behind the company's claims regarding holograms and "energy flow," maybe famous people should just stop spreading false information and dangerous bullshit. Maybe. In a perfect world.

WHOA beauty! A national parks picture made up of other national parks pictures? Wicked awesome, NatGeo, wicked awesome.

WHOA solar flares!

Aaaaaaand, Tree Lobsters rock my BOOBS.

Happy weekend.

stuff worth sharing

From Feministing: Happy MLK Day.

From Skepchick: Open letter to a teenage misfit.

Oprah's doing evil again. She gave Mehmet Oz his own show, on which Oz promotes the dangerous quack Joseph Mercola. Bad, bad, bad. From David Gorski, from Steven Novella, and from James Randi.
From me:

Mercola: medicine is bad; just take these unproven vitamins for your cancer
Oz: that seems reasonable; after all, you have a website -you must be for realz! also, and my wife's a reiki master so I have credibility
Oprah: here, assholes, have a show on which to spread dangerous bullshit! You get a show! And YOU get a show! Everybody gets a show!

Also, check out the Cynic's Guide to the Oprah Winfrey Network. Blerf, a whole network of awful. So much blerf.

Interesting, moving, and sad. The Poe Toaster is a no-show again... :(

Chaucer and a brief history of the word "cunt": Chaucer's Cunt. I like that cunt can mean a "clever or curious device or ornament." FTW.

Math is pretty? What? Yup.

Concerned about overpopulation? Grist gotchu.

James Randi wishes the FTC and FDA weren't such a bunch of frilly pansies, especially when it comes to internet scams.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is god. Kneel before Neil!!

Birth control does NOT cause weight gain. I've read this before, but the propaganda continues unabated because society sees women as petty and hopes to dissuade them from protecting themselves and committing the sin of family planning by fat-shaming them. Birth control lies are often spread by the anti-woman anti-choice crowd and I suspect this myth is no different. Anecdotes are not data, people, and you can't make popular assumptions without ASS.

Finally, GADS of great information and answers to frequently asked questions about childhood vaccinations, and vaccinations in general, at Immunize for Good.


In metal news: metal cephalopod.
In cute news: kittehs driftin'.