Quickies

Skepchick Quickies 3.11

  • The best questions for a first date – OKCupid analyzes the best questions to ask to find out what you want to know about your date without asking overly personal questions. Want to know if they’re religious? Ask how they feel about spelling and grammar mistakes. From John.
  • Tiny diamonds show promise against cancer – “US researchers said Wednesday they have found a way to attack late-stage breast and liver cancer tumors by attaching a potent chemotherapy drug to tiny carbon particles known as nanodiamonds.” From Paul.
  • Foxhole Atheist organizer on talk radio taking the heat – Justin Griffith on a local Raleigh radio station discussing the cancellation of Rock Beyond Belief, even though Fort Bragg was bound by regulation to treat this event in the same way they they treated the Rock the Fort evangelical Christian event. From Mark.
  • Vibrate your boobs bigger – Uh, is this video saying that fat melts out of your boobs and into your gut? From Madfishmonger.
  • Cute Animal Friday! Baaaaaby pandas fighting, from Jen. Baaaaby numbats, which appear to be entirely made of adorable, from Siobhan.

Amanda

Amanda works in healthcare, is a loudmouthed feminist, and proud supporter of the Oxford comma.

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34 Comments

  1. on the okcupid thing,well,most people would think i’m a religious conservative,i like things simple and since i can not spell and find words to be a stumbling block at best don’t care about spelling and grammar.but i’m a semi far ish left liberal atheist.but hey that’s life.

  2. 1. Vibrating boobs video
    2. 8.9 earthquake in Japan

    Coincidence? I don’t think so!

  3. I’m OK with grammar mistakes as long as they are related to colloquial speech patterns (eg: “I think every immigrant should be able to change their jobs” – singular subject, plural pronoun – fine except in very formal writing, especially as it is usually done for the sake of gender neutrality).
    It’s the pretentious misuse of formal grammar (eg: “He spoke to him and I” – using the nominative “I” when “me” is the correct form for an indirect object) that makes me cringe slightly.
    Smug statement from a grammar teacher coming up:
    It’s the people who only know a little grammar that get such pleasure out of correcting others.
    Conclusion: religious people must either be highly educated, or very poorly educated, in all things grammatical. Atheists must be somewhere in the middle.

  4. It made me very sad the first time I read the secular?grammar Nazi, since so many “mistakes” the grammar Nazis love to obnoxiously correct (split infinitive!) are actually just airhead proscriptions made by some guy (almost invariably) who decided he was better than the English language. Case in point, one of the grammar Nazi’s favourite sayings, “look it up,” which is both perfectly good English – and ends in a preposition. Dun dun dunnnnnn.

  5. On diamonds, I can see the headline already. “Science confirms the healing power of crystals.”

  6. Re: Vibrate yoiur boobs bigger

    Is it just me or is it just an excuse for perve-o-vision to show jiggling brests? “You want to know about the science? Stare at the boobs!”

  7. @davo_301: Hrm? What? ….. Sorry I was staring at jiggling boobs.

    On that same note, it really is amazing what a push-up bra and good posture can do for your “endowment” so to speak.

    As a woman who is rather well endowed I can say that the last thing I would want is to tape anything to my breasts that make them jiggle in that particular fashion, its really rather painful.

  8. @Skepotter:
    “1. Vibrating boobs video
    2. 8.9 earthquake in Japan

    Coincidence? I don’t think so!”

    COTW! For unraveling that conspiracy for us!

  9. @Skepotter: Yes, well done, COTW

    @Kalloikagathoi: Similar pet peeve to the “I” when “me” is correct thing: I’m bothered when people try to use impressive vocabulary when everyday words would express their point better. A co-worker of my wife recently sent a ranting email to their whole department full of examples of this, obviously trying to sound smarter than all of them. My favorite example: “I would appreciate it if people would stop spreading gossip directed at my persona.”

  10. @Skepotter: I was busy composing my reprehensible boobquake joke while carefully studying the scientific evidence when I suddenly noticed that it was a Chinese and not Japanese product. Thank you Skepotter for running interference for me.

    How is this supposed to work? Vibration raises the boob temperature to ~100C, which causes the fat to melt and run down to the abdomen, and this makes the boobs bigger how?

    Could you produce a similar neurological effect by attaching the vibrating blobs to your head?

    Back to the lab…

  11. @rbray14: These are statistics. Just because not everybody fits the mold doesn’t mean that the statistics are incorrect. You’re just on the small end of the statistical range. Yes, if I were betting on you being a religious conservative I’d lose, but statistics don’t work on individuals. That’s why Hari Seldon couldn’t foresee The Mule.

  12. @B Hitt: Ha ha! I once had a student email me, impressively telling me that she was “an intelligible woman”, when she meant “intelligent”.

  13. @vbalbert but doesn’t that negate the point of the article near wholly?cause they are saying that simple questions that don’t ask what you want to know would tell you what you want to know.and as you said yourself that’s false.it’s taking statistical data and trying to apply it to individuals.

  14. @Buzz Parsec: As I don’t speak anything even close to an Asian language, I was making my guesses, but it seemed like they were saying that if you do not vibrate your breasts, the fat will eventually move to your gut, but by using the amazing vibrator, you retain the fat there.

    @Siveambrai: I am well-endowed as well and that just looked painful. I’m sure my boyfriend would get a kick out of it though.

  15. I agree with everyone else that Skepotter gets COTW.

    @vbalbert, I love your reference to Foundation. One of my very favorite series! Thanks for that. :-)

    (I am also, apparently, a statistical deviant according to OKcupid.)

  16. I know a better way to make your boobs bigger. Gain weight! I was a B-cup when I weighed 120 lbs, and since I hit 170, it made me a DD-cup.

    Before someone fat-shames me, I should say that I look like Christina Hendricks, so ha ha. :)

    Also, I guess diamonds really are a girl’s best friend. I just hope DeBeers doesn’t make any money off of it.

  17. re: The OKCupid suggestions – I laughed really hard at how “do you like the taste of beer” is associated with sex on the first date. Most of my girly crew are beer geeks.

    @BlackCat: You don’t have to be Christina Hendricks to look hot weighing more than 120. No fat shaming here, any one of the Skepchicks would murder you in the face with bears for that.

  18. That’s true, but I’ve actually found a celebrity that looks like me, which is soooooo refreshing that I had to share it. :)

    Stupid Hollywood has even taken her to task for being “fat.” Sick sick society.

  19. @Amanda I laughed at that one too. Now when I say, “do you like the taste of beer?” it’s dripping with innuendo.

  20. @ DataJack: Dammit, you’re right. That’s another thing I hate about correcting grammar: when I’m wrong.

  21. Can someone please explain the fascination with big boobs?

    Mind, I do like boobs and I am willing to show my appreciation of them if called upon to prove it. But, what’s up with the hugeness factor? B cups make me smile all day, every day. When they get much larger than that they start looking painfully unnatural. And painfully heavy to the lady so encumbered.

    I have a degree in physics and I am not afraid to use it. Gravity may very well be the weakest force guys. But gravity is the most persistent, if you will. Because – Gravity always wins in the end. I am just saying… Some of you youngsters may not get my meaning now, but you will.

  22. @genjokoan: It’d be nice if you could not call large boobed ladies “unnatural” looking.

    But yes, boobs are boobs and beautiful at all sizes. Sadly, that’s not what culture tells us.

  23. @genjokoan: Spoken by someone who has no idea what they’re talking about.

    So you prefer small breasts. Big fucking deal. So what if they look uncomfortable, how would you know? I’m quite comfortable; actually, there’s been radical advances in bra-making, improving comfort and support. Some of us didn’t have surgery, and can’t help the way we look.

    As for gravity, well, another force we can’t help. Thanks for reminding me that I only look good when I’m young and small.

  24. @davo_301: Years ago Dave Barry wrote a column about a research study on breasts, at the end of which the scientists realized they’d been too distracted to take notes.

  25. Hahahahahaha!!!

    “Do spelling and grammar mistakes annoy you?”

    The religious tend to say “No.”

    See also the “Religion & Writing Proficiency Level” table near the end. Those who do not believe know how to write about it.

    As they said…
    “Proper spelling and grammar”
    “Teach teh controversy!”

    [No, I did not commit a typo right above there. That was intentional.]

  26. I just listened to all of Justin Griffith’s interview from the link above and found him to be an excellent representative for the atheist community. He handled himself very well, polite, fair, reasonable and clearly demarking his view that he swore to defend the Constitution, not any particular religion and that his non religious view deserved equal treatment to those of established religion. I was also surprised at the callers, whom I found to be thoughtful and articulate even if they did not agree with Justin’s viewpoint.

    A tough fight to face for a serving member of the armed forces anywhere, and deserving of respect and admiration.

  27. To be clear, “augmented” “as seen on TV”, etc., not only looks unnatural, is unnatural. Do you think the beer commercial bikini stereotypes look natural?

    BlackCat, if you say so you are right, I have no idea what I am talking about. I would tell my first wife you think what she told me was bollocks, if she were still alive. She had back problems beginning when she was 16. I will mention it to a couple of sisters-in-law and numerous women friends who *do* complain about their voluptuousness. I am happy to hear that you are happy, btw. I am 54 and overweight so I can speak a little about gravity and speak ill of no one except mean people – they suck. I thought I was being terribly normal.

    I apologize for not speaking more precisely before. Think Baywatch or Hooters or Swedish Bikini Team Beer commercials.

    Amanda, you are quite right. I think homo sapiens are all beautiful. Except marking people. Marketing people who want to tell us what we should look like and what we should buy and if we don’t we should just hurry up and die – those people are not beautiful.

    Only good when young and small? The lady doth protest to much, me thinks. The two hottest women in all the world I would most want to meet are Helen Mirren and Judi Dench. I mean if we are talking starlets, that is. Otherwise I would start with Jane Goodall, Mae Jemison, Sally Ride or Carolyn Porco. It is daring women of science that really get my attention.

    Peace?

  28. Time has passed and I have returned to read what I earlier posted @26. I am embarrassed that in my haste I posted what now appears to even me to be the words of an ass.

    Ladies and gentlemen, I am really not an ass. In trying to be a little humorous while giving grief to the marketing obsessions that drive our culture to bad ends and our children to unhealthy obsessions, I failed and offended. I am good and truly sorry. Please accept my sincere apology.

    I still do not understand the reasoning behind what the marketing geniuses say I am supposed to go gaga over.

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