- Bacterial “immune system” used to engineer human DNA in human cells – From CriticalDragon1177.
- This jerk and his supporters find joy in harassing women gamers – “His main gripe seems to be that they are attractive and are ‘using’ that against men who are too stupid to resist falling for them and then donating to them (his reasoning, not mine.)” From Maria.
- Female graduate pay gap doubles – From Jack99.
- House GOP lets Violence Against Women Act passed by Senate die without a vote – The bill, “would have extended domestic violence protections to 30 million LGBT individuals, undocumented immigrants and Native American women.”
- Cute Animal Friday! Something I bet you haven’t seen before, tigers on ziplines. And I love the weird cuteness that is a baby hippo.
I am so glad it is Friday. Seriously. Ugh.
At least tomorrow will be Saturday. :)
Well, probably good for you. Not me.
There’s nothing “cute” about an animal imprisoned in zoos for gawking humans to cheer at stupid tricks. Please consider rejecting oppression for other animals as well.
Thank you. Yes, sadly zoos claim that they “educate” the public, another area of greenwashing. Zoos send the message that nature is “cruel” and that wild animals are better off in enclosures. Meanwhile they’re breeding species like mad while their habitat disappears, making it seem like they can be released into areas that have shown themselves to not support that species.
http://www.waza.org/en/site/about-waza/testimonials-and-celebrities/jane-goodall
That’s nice, but Goodall is clearly out of touch with recent studies. We now know that large species are unable to exhibit their normal behaviors such as keeping large territories or migrating when the weather changes. This causes severe problems.
There have also been studies regarding public perception. The “education” people receive refers to blind memorization and regurgitation of facts plastered on signs or repeated by zoo staff.
In reality zoos teach people that nature is cruel, and that wild animals are better off in human enclosures.
The Violence Against Women bill issue is just vile. Cantor reportedly does not like the Native American aspect of the bill.
If a white or otherwise non-Native American male assaults a Native American female, Cantor thinks they should sit around and wait for state and federal agencies to respond instead of allowing on-site Native American councils to take care of the matter.
This man makes me sick.
As angry as I was about that article, the info you provide makes me even more pissed off at GOP.
Just what the fuck is WRONG with them?
What is their major malfunction?
I think their goal is to launch us back to the early 1800s.
Re the gender pay gap. There was extended coverage of this on ABC TV and a really good 7.30 Report interview with Dr Carla Harris.
She debunked the notion that women were inferior negotiators but suggested that the way this was perceived by management could be different.
Thus a man pushing for a raise could be seen as a good leader, but the same thing in a woman may be perceived negatively.
Yeah, go figure.
That would certainly agree with other studies (relevant portion begins about halfway in):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/21/gender.pay
Jack99
You that sexist game who’s been stalking women in World Of Warcraft? The guy in the story you sent Skepchick, that they posted here. He goes by the name of ShrineNI?
I no longer play that game due to the fact it was creating too big a whole in my wallet. I’m not a girl, but even so, if I was still playing WOW, I think I might want to go on sexist pig hunt. Maybe you could get a group of women gamers, or just WOW players in general to start harassing him in game, just to give him a taste of his own medicine?
sorry, please let me rewrite my first sentence, so no one will get confused and think I’m accusing Jack99 of this.
“You know that sexist game who’s been stalking women in World Of Warcraft?”
Hi Crticaldragon,
I laugh when I see some typos and wonder who else, like me, types in the dark at 4am sometimes?
I like your thinking that some kickback is in order.
Trouble is, if there is inevitably escalation, we don’t want to become a cure worse than the disease by sinking to gutter tactics ourselves.
To take an extreme example, the sickest serial killers in our fair city’s history were the Bodies in The Barrels murderers whose original motivation was vigilante justice against pedophiles.
So I guess I’m saying, we would need to work these things out in advance.
Also, personally, I’m not much of a gamer these days.
Great links, BTW. Respect!
Thank you.
Really, you can have way more of an impact just objecting when guys in your own community do this stuff. They’ll take it more seriously from someone they know.
I think you are right.
Your comment reminds me, there is a great government TV ad in Oz at the moment, directed at stopping violence against women.
Pub scene, guys in their twenties, fairly macho types.
Two mates sitting at a table, one jokes that he’s going to smack his girlfriend.
Silence. The look on the other guys face says it all (This is so wrong, do I call him out or not? How?)
He looks around the pub and all around, various other macho types are watching.
As he looks each one in turn nods slightly – go ahead, they have his back.
Then the voiceover, something like “Violence against women is unacceptable”.
I think the message is spot on, and these sorts of clips are the way to go.
I wish they were available worldwide – everybody in the Western world would relate to that scene. As it stands, I can’t even show you guys.
Also related, I found this story by Benny to be inspirational – the way he called somebody out IRL even tho he’s 5 foot nothing tall shows him to be braver than many of us
http://queereka.com/2012/09/21/not-a-funny-joke/
Wait, here’s a parody of one such
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhQsUKWdDow
Maybe even better than the original
-and the original!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCCt-Bo07oc
Geez, that took some digging
Jack99
Oh, wait, sorry it was Maria who sent that story to Skepchick. I didn’t look carefully enough. Sorry about that.
Why is it so quiet here? Are we all on the same page with domestic violence and video game harassment, or did some people finally get banned?
Victoriadashtwenty,
I think its pretty safe to assume that everyone who leaves a lot of comments on Skepchick thinks those things are bad, and probably the overwhelming majority of people who comment here, feel the same way. The only real disagreement most of us will have is on what’s the best way to solve those problems.
“did some people finally get banned?”
Yep.
Why does Skepchick hate our freedoms?
[IMG]http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee320/h2a0d0e6n_2006/087c00e42e4752f320f4ef677a96fb0f.gif[/IMG]
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee320/h2a0d0e6n_2006/087c00e42e4752f320f4ef677a96fb0f.gif
They also hate preview and edit. :P
@Punchdrunk: LOL!
“Why does Skepchick hate our freedoms?”
The same reason Gollum hates Hobbits, perhaps? :)