Maria Walters (a.k.a. Masala Skeptic) has spent a lot of time in ‘furrin parts,’ including Hong Kong, Trinidad, and Pittsburgh. Although her passport is from India, she’s spent most of her adult life in the United States. She currently lives in Atlanta and has an unhealthy affection for science fiction, Neil Gaiman and all things Muppet.
Last week, the United States approved the construction of two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. The reactors will be the first new plants built in the U.S. in over three decades. I’m lucky enough to know an expert in the field, so I called Jennifer Henning, who works as a design engineer for an engineering consulting firm in the nuclear energy industry in Atlanta, to ask her a few questions about the new plants and what they mean.
Interview below the fold!
When you are trying to change the world, how do you know when you’ve succeeded? Last week, when Skepchick went dark, did it do any good?
Last year, I put together a workshop on skeptical activism with the fantastic Desiree Schell. I thought it might be useful to share some of the components of this workshop in a few blog posts, and to provide some examples of activism that are working or that are not.
‘Morning! I’m covering for Jen this morning as she is busy (moreso than usual) saving the world!
Last week, Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess, wrote a about her continued battle with depression. I have a few close friends who I have seen struggle with various forms of depression and I have always felt somewhat at a loss as to how to help or what to say.
I’ve seen a few discussions about depression recently: Jenny’s post, the response she received, Allie’s recent post at Hyperbole and a Half, the story from a few years ago about New Orleans reporter Chris Rose and JT Eberhart’s recent discussion of mental illness at Skepticon 4.
What struck me most about all these discussions was how much depression and mental illness is stigmatized and how much people who suffer from it have to battle the myth that it is somehow their own fault. That admitting to being depressed means that they are admitting to some sort of personal weakness.
There’s clear evidence that depression is a very real, extremely serious illness. But it seems that for many people, it remains a blind spot. It also seems that the more people speak out about depression, the more others are willing to speak out as well and stop hiding the problem. The response to Jenny’s post has been overwhelming. And that got me thinking. A single anecdote from a single person can help a lot of people. It seems that the problem of depression is one that benefits from anecdotes, from personal stories of individuals who have struggled with this. Yes, the plural of anecdote is not evidence. But in this case, perhaps the plural of anecdote is antidote.
So here is my story.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a Behind the Scenes post and 2011 has been a crazy year for us at Skepchick. You’ve all been witness to some of the chaos we’ve had to deal with and believe it or not, there’s been even more behind the scenes.
For me, 2011 was a tough year and because of a whole lot of personal stuff, I took a break from writing for a few months. But I was lucky enough to stay on the Skepchick email back channel while on hiatus and in many ways, these ladies saved my sanity with their constant support, love and never-ending supply of wit and snark.
So, I thought I would share a few quotes and pictures from the back channel from last year. Yes, they are all completely out of context. I believe this makes them better. Enjoy!
VIVA YVONNE!
It’s that time of year again! Time to put together your New Year’s Resolutions and start thinking about what you want to do to be better, faster, stronger, cooler in 2012. How do we make good New Year’s resolutions? I was reading this article in Forbes which talks about the things to consider when actually compiling good resolutions and thought it would be fun to look up some of the most common resolutions that people usually make and put a skeptical twist on some old standards:
Source: Indexed
When I wrote my Twilight review earlier this year, I compared the weak and helpless Bella to Ms. Piggy, who, in my opinion, is an icon for feminism. Some of the commenters disagreed with me so I thought I would try to apply some skepticism to my theory. I thought more about it while writing my review for the new Muppet movie.
As you all probably know, I have a bit of a Muppet bias. As far as I am concerned, Ms. Piggy is one of the strongest female characters in popular culture in the past 50-odd years. Piggy proves, time and again, that she is a strong, confident woman who can go toe-to-toe.. or snout-to-snout with anyone else. But I might be wrong. Let’s analyze a little, shall we?
(SPOILER ALERT: Minor spoilers below for the new Muppet movie)
The Australian anti-vaccination movement has decided to strike below the belt. Below the belt down to kid level, actually. Stephanie Messenger has written a kids’ book called “Measles are Marvellous.” (sic- I think that’s how they spell it Down Under)
According to the description:
This book takes children aged 4 – 10 years on a journey of discovering about the ineffectiveness of vaccinations, while teaching them to embrace childhood disease, heal if they get a disease, and build their immune systems naturally.
I can’t make this stuff up. Now, I have a *very* small amount of sympathy for the anti-vaccination crowd. At the end of the day, most of them are doing what they think they need to to protect their children. Messenger herself has a sad tale to tell – she lost a child and believes it was the vaccinations that caused it.
But telling kids that measles are wonderful? Really? Not only could this campaign of misinformation cause even more children to get sick or die, it could cause children to have a completely skewed perspective on how severe measles really can be. If you really want to see what measles looks like, check out the CDC’s image library. Note: Does not contain even one butterfly.
This isn’t Messenger’s first foray into the anti-vax world.
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