Random Asides
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Hello Buck: Using Facebook’s Handy Auto Reply
Here are a few things I learned today: 1. Some guy has been spamming the Skepchick Facebook page with messages about some spat between Biblical historians, which I couldn’t care less about. 2. Facebook offers a list of automated responses you can use to easily reply to messages. They include two to get you started, and then you can make…
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Bad Chart Thursday Relationship Status: It’s Complicated
One thing charts of all types have in common is that they depict relationships. Ideally, we can see at a glance the main features of each relationship, and with a slightly closer look, the less important features displayed in the chart. With so much information competing for readers’ attention online, you might think that chart designs would be getting less…
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BREAKING: Starbucks to build on Pluto, universe rejoices
@DrRubidium Maybe 20. ;) — Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) July 14, 2015 Plutoppuccinos FOR EVERYBODY!!! #PlutoFlyBy FTW!!! ___________ Featured image is our beautiful Pluto, credited to NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute, from NASA’s Three-Billion-Mile Journey to Pluto Reaches Historic Encounter. Neither NASA nor Starbucks have any actual plans for a Starbucks on Pluto. ALLEGEDLY.
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Bad Chart Thursday: You Are Not a Special Miracle Because Odds. Sorry.
Today’s chart is actually a few years old, but it occasionally pops up in my various feeds, and the concept behind it is prevalent in multiple mathematically challenged arguments, such as those for creationism. The infographic “What are the odds?” was created by Sofyay Yampolsky based on a blog post by Ali Binazir, “What are the chances of your coming…
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The Highlander Rule of PoCs
There’s been a long acknowledged rule when it comes to people of color (PoCs) being involved in things. “Things”? What kind of “things”? How about the boards of tech companies? Darold Cuba states in The Loud Fight Against Silicon Valley’s Quiet Racism that “Just three companies—Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.com—have a black or Hispanic person on their boards.” Emphasis totally added, y’all. The Chemical…
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Bad Chart Thursday: Misandry, Matriarchy, and More
If misogyny and misandry were forced to make small talk, would they find they have anything in common? Both are gender related, sure. Oh, and they have the same prefix! But then . . . awkward silence, at best. Or maybe they’d get along famously, like a little boy and his imaginary friend, the one he pretends to be battling…
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Bad Chart Thursday: Pie Chart a la Mode
Pie charts are pretty much the most basic charts out there, to make and to read. They also tend to be more visually appealing than other charts, being all round, colorful, and resembling their namesake, which in my opinion is one of the most delicious foods in existence (except for maybe doughnuts, which also make appealing charts–COINCIDENCE?). Pie charts are…
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How Patreon is Changing the DIY Movement
I recently hosted a meetup for my LAWAAG group with a speaker named Teka-Lark Fleming who gave a very fascinating talk about the history of the DIY movement in Los Angeles. (DIY, for anyone who is unfamiliar stands for do it yourself.) Teka talked about the early days when a lot of revolutionary, anarchist and art zines came into existence.…
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