In today’s Quickies, Amanda posted a BBC article about Japan forcing women to serve “comfort” roles for Japanese soldiers during WWII. It’s sick. And the Mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, is unapologetic about it, describing “comfort women” as a necessary need for soldiers. At first I was shocked and horrified. How can you promote and justify sending women on a to... »
Yessenia of Queereka and SAC City Freethinkers want to help send 10 students to the Secular Student Alliance Conference in Las Vegas this June. Considering how amazing SSA is and the importance of supporting the future of secularism, we want to do whatever we can to help them out. The Skepchick Challenge: If we can raise $2,500 for travel, lodging, and conference fees by June 4, Yessenia will shav... »
Dave McClure might not be a familiar name in the skeptic community, but he’s pretty well known in tech. A self-described “late bloomer,” he’s a guy who held various software industry jobs before founding the popular accelerator 500 Startups. He blogs and speaks at conferences and the like, typically with eyeball-peelingly bad slides and some foul language to boot. And today... »
Thirteen years ago I moved to Portland from San Francisco. I told myself that I would wait at least ten years before I started venturing into writing about local politics and for the most part I have done so. But dammit, Oregon, it’s about time that we follow the example of 12 other states and legalize marriage equality. Look, we already know that the world isn’t going to end. We already know that... »
Meet Skepchicks, Freethought Bloggers, and tons of special guests at SkepchickCon, the science and skepticism track of CONvergence, a sci-fi/fantasy conference held July 4-7 in the Minneapolis area. If you register by May 15, you pay only $60. That’s it. Sixty bucks gets you access to four freaking days of panels, cosplay, multiple nightly themed parties, interactive workshops, and more. A t... »
Ah, the wisdom of crowds! Two heads are better than one, so hundreds of heads must be super friggin’ smart. As we know from experience, people getting together always results in really smart things being done. Er, most of the time. Sometimes. Once in a while? Anyway, we’ve seen before that crowdfunding has the potential to do great stuff, like fund scientific research and awesome art, among other ... »
Our second guest blog today is from my friend and personal hero, Sarah Moglia, talking about invisible disability and how not to be a huge jerk friend to your newly disabled friends. ——— Disability. It’s one of those big, scary words that you think you know the meaning to. It’s one of those things that happens to other people, but not you. Well, until it does. My disability isn’t... »
What is it about food that turns people into horrible assholes? Like, you’re hanging out, drinking beers, playing Jenga and one person in your group is like “Hey! I’m hungry! Who wants to get some food?” And then the discussion begins about where everyone wants to go. And then one person pipes up, “I don’t care I just want to make sure there’s something th... »
