• Pinterest: a “shocking” example of women using the Internet – “Last week, the media discovered Pinterest…Tech journalists covering the site started using phrases like “female-centric” and “catnip for women,” in their articles. It’s a curious choice of words and not just because men founded the site.”
• Their so-called journalism, or what I saw at the women’s mags – “I know that there are amazing and talented editors at these magazines who would love to publish an expose on palm oil, or a profile of a 27-year-old breast cancer survivor who doesn’t look like a supermodel. But often their hands are tied—whether by advertisers or the institutional structure or the status quo.”From Mark.
• The bigoted, racist, anti-abortion search engine that powers Android’s Siri rival – “If you ask if humans come from monkeys, the answer will be “a part of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is that human’s over time evolved from apes. Since it is a theory, it can’t be proven.”" From Brandon.
• The SCAR project: portraits of young breast cancer survivors – From the project’s site, “Dedicated to the more than 10,000 women under the age of 40 who will be diagnosed this year alone, The SCAR Project is an exercise in awareness, hope, reflection and healing. The mission is three-fold: raise public consciousness of early-onset breast cancer, raise funds for breast cancer research/outreach programs and help young survivors see their scars, faces, figures and experiences through a new, honest and ultimately empowering lens.”
• Cute Animal Friday! Orangutans use iPad video chat to “talk” with friends in other zoos, from nowoo. Bear cub and wolf pup playing, from Kyle. And the most blissed-out dog ever, Caspar the bath loving dog.

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Just a few weeks ago, our good friends at the National Center for Science Education announced they are stepping into the climate change arena. And that is welcome news. It’s never a bad thing having sound scientific, rational minds addressing the problems that concern us.

But climate change continues to be a very different type of inquiry point than say teaching creationism in science class. One of the reasons is, it’s often unclear what the claim or phenomenon is exactly that scientists are addressing. Just recently, BBC online reported that the scientific consensus on climate change may be cracking.

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• The census bureau counts fathers as “child care” – That’s right, when a mom parents it’s just parenting. When a dad parents, it’s “child care.”
• The geek social fallacies of sex – “Geeks also are prone to weird social thinking, some of it a reaction to the ungeeky mainstream, some of it their very own invention. Here’s some common misconceptions that can fuck up geek sex.
• River monster in Iceland – It’s a neat video but I’m not sure how they get river monster out of that. From Michael.
• Wooly mammoth spotted in Siberia – And looks about as convincing as you’d expect. From Mark.

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• Janice Voss, veteran of 5 space shuttle flights, dies at 55. (From Michael.)
• ‘Oldest living thing on earth’ discovered. (From Jim.)
• Expedition 30 astronaut Don Pettit uses knitting needles and water droplets to demonstrate physics in space.
• Erin King applied to MIT by sending her application package up to near-space.

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A reoccurring theme in many women’s lives is being excluded from the Good Ol’ Boys’ club. Many, many women have felt resistance in a varying atmospheres including skepticism, technology, science, athletics, etc. The consistent dismissal from these groups inhibits women from flourishing in arenas that have predominantly been a single gender affair.

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Today is a good day to be a human being. So I’m high fiving humanity.

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Sooo I’m involved with this new podcast and I debated whether or not to mention it here because it’s not skeptical per se, but it is done entirely by Brian Thompson (of the Amateur Scientist podcast), Adam Isaak (producer of Point of Inquiry), and me (you know me), all of us skeptics and atheists and pro-science types. It’s called the Independent Podcaster’s Network, which is an organization that provides free studio space and bandwidth to small podcasters who wouldn’t otherwise be able to keep up a high quality weekly show.

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• There will be blood – Skeptically Speaking’s Desiree Schell talks with Dr. Kate Clancy and PZ Myers about the evolution and function of menstruation.
• Jezebel promotes homeopathy, PZ responds – “Feminism is best served by embracing reality, by thinking critically, and advancing rational arguments. This sloppy Newage shit-slurry of ingenuous gullibility is pure poison to the cause.” New favorite PZ quote? I think so.
• From inside lions and leviathans, anatomist builds a following – From Sol.
• Google ocean “conveniently” removes Atlantis maps – “The grid was merely caused by overlapping datasets, according to NOAA.” When will they let the truth out?

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