December 6, 2019
The Performative Horniness of Dawn of X
Adjoining bedrooms. That was all it took for the X-Men’s most infamous love triangle to suddenly become a canon poly triad in the minds of fans everywhere. Elsewhere in the same issue, we bore witness to Corsair’s partner hitting on Rachel Summers, his granddaughter, another character generally accepted as queer despite only the most subtextual information.Nola Pfau examines the latest X-Men miniseries and what it says about mutant sex lives and who is and isn't allowed to be horny on page.
Moment by moment, the work goes on.
The youngest Vuntut Gwitchin chief in recent history only moved back to his home community six years ago after a difficult childhood on the streets of Whitehorse. Now, he's sharing his story of hardship and hope. Dana Tizya-Tramm is our Northerner of the Year.
negative b over 2 plus or minus the square root of, uh, something
How to solve quadratic equations with a method (slmb*) instead of just using the quadratic formula. This helps folks like me who more easily remember steps than formulas.
*single link math blog
30 years after the Montreal Massacre, an acknowledgement of misogyny
[On] Dec. 6, 1989, a gunman opened fire in the engineering school at École Polytechnique in Montreal. He told the men to leave and then he killed 14 women before killing himself. In his final letter, he laid bare his intentions: “I have decided to send the feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker.” ...In 1989, conveying the tragedy to Canadians coast to coast did not include examining the ongoing consequences of misogyny. It has taken 30 years to officially acknowledge the misogyny behind the attack. But this year, on the eve of the anniversary, “Montreal changed a plaque in a memorial park that previously referred to a “tragic event”–with no mention that the victims were all women. The revised text unveiled on Thursday describes an “anti-feminist attack” that claimed the lives of 14 women.”
Daycare, paid maternity leave: Why US is still bad for working parents
Though the stay-at-home share of U.S. parents was almost identical in 2016 to what it was in 1989 (Pew Research), paternal leave (especially maternity leave) and support for daycare are increasingly important to families, if not the United States at large. America's parents want paid family leave and affordable child care. Why can't they get it? USA Today looks at the impacts of raising a child in the U.S. today, the private efforts to court in-demand workers by offering better family support, compared to the range of political proposals, none of which seem to be any closer to passing. [more inside]
native people have always had a pulse on pop culture
What happens when Indigenous people across Canada and the United States adopt Baby Yoda as one of their own? He gets placed in a cradleboard. Maybe wearing a ribbon skirt. He gets a pair of beaded earrings. He might even become a pair of beaded earrings. Since a new television installment to the Star Wars franchise, The Mandalorian, premiered on Nov. 12, the Baby Yoda character has been taking social media by storm.
They shouldn't be allowed to have orgasms on principle
The Real Reason People Won't Date Across The Political Divide ‘The people who say ‘it’s just politics’ are the people for whom bigotry poses no real risk to their jobs, relationships and lives.’
This was posted today at Miss Cellania , an excellent mix of fun and serious.
"I always tell my students that you rise when you lift others"
Michael Clark Jr. is a rambunctious, gregarious 5-year-old who makes friends with almost everyone, which is why it's really no surprise that his entire kindergarten class came to his adoption ceremony on Thursday. (Brianna Sacks, BuzzFeed)
"Sneaks the Cat" played by Edith from Circulation
Michael Gannon, COO for Support Services at Prince George's County Memorial Library System, is having fun. In the low-budget but charming "Hard Hat Librarian" video series touting library construction and renovation, Gannon not only offers informative updates--he also provides architectural history lessons, unfiltered opinions of 1970s interior decoration choices, and a plethora of puns. Recommended viewing for lovers of wholesome fun, local government, and Maryland accents. [more inside]
100 years of Red Vienna
100 Jahre Rotes Wien
Mit dem Wahlsieg der Wiener Sozialdemokratie vor 100 Jahren hat die Ära des Roten Wien begonnen - eine Mischung aus politischem Pragmatismus und Utopie. Dem Jubiläum widmet sich eine neue Ausstellung, zum Teil mit bisher unbekannten Objekten.[more inside]
Godspeed, Charlie X.
RIP Robert Walker Jr., 79. Syfy ranked him #6 in their list of The 17 best TOS guest stars. Rare 1983 interview. The spitting image of his father, he was the son of Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker, who had a turbulent relationship. Walker senior
died tragically at age 32 in 1951.
Whitman's Cane
For me, it was the cane. Leaning in the corner. A simple, crooked cane. I desperately wanted to grasp it. I wanted to lean my weight on it. My hand itched. I yearned. I tended toward. I still do. I don’t want to be obsessed with Whitman’s cane. It isn’t dignified. I’d rather not have these feelings, in spite of having read Whitman, and having recognized his direct addresses to me (to anyone) from out of his poetry. I never hoped to meet him, in a supermarket or elsewhere. But again—who am I to refuse the way this room, and in particular this one object, prodded, poked, and knocked me over? From Whitman’s Cane: Disability, Prosthesis, and Whitman’s Leaning Poise by Bethany Schneider
"Ma'am, this is a Netflix"
Netflix challenged the world to tell them something you can say during sex but also when you manage a brand twitter account. The Internet (and, by that, I mean, a bunch of brands) responded.
If the new pill works as well in women as it does in pigs
Once a month contraceptive pill in development [NHS Behind the Headlines] "Researchers in the US are developing a pill that can stay in the stomach for a month, slowly releasing hormones to prevent pregnancy." [more inside]
The Consultants Behind Every Crisis
“ McKinsey has faced mounting scrutiny over the past two years, as reports by The New York Times, ProPublica and others have raised questions about whether the firm has crossed ethical and legal lines in pursuit of profit. The consultancy returned millions of dollars in fees after South African authorities implicated it in a profiteering scheme. The exposure of its history advising opioid makers on ways to bolster sales induced the usually secretive firm to declare publicly that its opioid work had ended. Last month, the Times reported that McKinsey’s bankruptcy practice is the subject of a federal criminal investigation.“ How McKinsey Helped the Trump Administration Detain and Deport Immigrants (ProPublica/NYT) “ From top to bottom, the post-1970s job insecurity, legitimated by #McKinsey ideas, intertwined with the industrial undocumented workforce that made #Silicon Valley possible.” (Twitter)
Puerto Rico, my heart's devotion
Over 26 months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has received only 14 billion (NYT) in aid, in contrast to the 40 billion claimed by the White House on its website and the massive 91 billion dollars promised. [more inside]
The things they carried
A janitor photo documents the items seized by US Border Patrol “Deemed potentially lethal or nonessential by border officials, the...personal belongings were thrown away during the first stages of processing at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility in southern Arizona. While working as a janitor at the same facility from 2003 to 2014, photographer Tom Kiefer secretly collected the belongings and later began shooting them.” [more inside]
On Mutant Allegory and the Rise of the Black Cop Trope
"Blackness is a superhero origin story." says David Dennis, in a Medium post contrasting how HBO's Watchmen series looks at race with the X-Men franchise shying away from its own racial allegory. On the other hand, Steven Thrasher (the inaugural Renberg Chair of social justice in reporting at Northwestern's Medill School) notes in a Twitter thread that "we have a LOT to consider (in terms of news, politics, history, law & culture) to think about WHY we are getting the Black cop, how they exist, and how this figure is rising in our collective consciousness."
Ironically, the eel code was written in Python.
Miguel Wattson, an electric eel that lives at the Tennessee Aquarium, is a multitasker. He eats. He tweets. And for his most effortless trick this season, he lights up a Christmas tree.
Architectural Gingerbread Houses
No big weekend plans? Try one of these architecturally inspired gingerbread house designs. [more inside]
Privacy Analysis of Tiktok's App and Website
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