Maria

Maria D'Souza grew up in different countries around the world, including Hong Kong, Trinidad, and Kenya and it shows. She currently lives in the Bay Area and has an unhealthy affection for science fiction, Neil Gaiman and all things Muppet.
  • Feminism

    Lemon Cakes and Eyeliner

    Content Note: This post includes discussion of domestic abuse and stories of survivors of abuse. Living through a global pandemic is a strange and frustrating thing. For those of us lucky enough to be able to work at home without major financial or physical implications, these days are a bizarre combination of extreme boredom and extreme anxiety. For me, one…

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  • Featured

    Centrum Silver has Been “Studied”

    I think Superbowl Sunday is the best. You get to hang out with friends, eat and drink things that are really bad for you and focus on one of the things that really defines America as a country. No, not the football. The commercials! Duh. They’re the next best thing to the Puppy Bowl this time of year! I’ve got…

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  • Feminism

    Happy Endings – The Final Twilight Movie Review

    Once upon a time, there was a young, naive girl. The girl had only a few friends and so nobody warned her when, in all innocence, she stumbled upon an evil that would bring horror and fear into her life for years to come. When she first was exposed to this thing, she had misgivings, of course. But, being young…

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  • Feminism

    The Plight of the Indian Woman

    I’m angry today and I’m afraid I’m probably going to make you angry too. A reader sent in a link last week that took me down a path from amusement to annoyance to flat out rage. So, of course, I had to share. (TRIGGER WARNING for descriptions of rape & victim blaming). Here’s where it started. A government official in…

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  • Science

    Crowdsourcing Science

    Crowdsourcing Discovery is a new project being put together by Ethan Perlstein. Ethan and his team are working on an unusual method for getting funding for their research; they’re crowdsourcing it. I spoke with Daniel Korostyshevsky, one of the New York City skeptics and the project’s main experimentalist to learn more about what they’re doing and why they’re using such…

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  • Activism

    Things To Do When The Internet Makes You Enraged

    I’ve been struggling recently, trying to find the best way to handle the ongoing barrage of anger and hate that has been directed at various people in the community. Although I haven’t been anywhere near the thick of things, it gets exhausting just watching my close friends and people I respect and admire continue to get attacked for saying things…

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  • Feminism

    Guest Post – Julia Burke: Akin was wrong––but why? On rapists, myths, and “mechanisms”

    Julia Burke sent us this great review of some of the actual science (or lack thereof) in Todd Akin’s comments on rape, but also in some of the responses to his comments! Popular Science, not exactly a bastion of skepticism, released a bizarre response to the Akin debacle, titled “Rape Results in More Pregancies than Consensual Sex, Not Fewer.” The…

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  • Meta Stuff

    Comment of the Week – Temporary Masala Edition!

    A.Real.Girl is, last I heard, trapped in a basement with Scott Sigler, shipping out copies of his new book, The MVP. If you think this sounds like fun, you’ve obviously never been in close proximity to the highly excitable, extremely ridiculous, Future Dark Øverlord. Anyway, apparently basements are notoriously bad for wi-fi access so she sent up a flare and…

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