Quickies
Skepchick Quickies 1.15
- Rape prevention aimed at rapists works: The “Don’t be that guy” campaign – From Chantel.
- Scott Sigler’s take on charity – Thanks to the Dark Overlord for supporting skepticism and Amy’s grant program! And check out the other excellent charities on the list, too.
- FDA approves first new IUD in 12 years – Made by the same company that makes Mirena hormonal IUDs.
- Female characters can…. – “Female characters can be anything at all and still be well-written characters because women are, as deeply disturbing as it is that this keeps needing to be said, people and have an infinite range of traits, personality types, appearances, life experiences, biases, preferences, disorders, abilities and belief structures that determine their behaviors.” Hat tip to Mur.
- The worst scientific mistakes, missteps, and misdeeds of 2012 – From cerberus40.
That story about the worst scientific mistakes, missteps and misdeeds of 2012 really makes me glad that science corrects its mistakes. The first one the mentioned, the pharmaceutical distributor contaminating a drug, and causes outbreak is pretty scary. I’m not surprised that made the list.
Interestingly enough through, I hadn’t even heard about it, until now, which is pretty shocking.
I tried to write a story centred around a female character. It was tricky, given all the programming I’ve had to not do that. The main character is rash, arrogant, occasionally hurts people with her selfishness, views her desired man as an end in itself etc.
I knew I was doing something right when a reader complained that the boys in the story only ever seemed to have conversations about the girls. Didn’t they do *anything* else? Heh.
But, yes, it’s a very important lesson. Powerful female characters *need* to have weaknesses. They need to screw up. Otherwise you’re … I dunno … Stephenie Meyer or Larry Niven or something.