What's in the news?

Started by Beorning, September 21, 2014, 07:02:11 AM

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Steampunkette

Which is cool and all, that it should have been pointed out before he got on air, but it's just an example of how insidious this kind of thing can be. Presumably none of his coworkers considered the impact would have on others because it was "Irrelevant" to them (since he wore it on TV. The other option is that someone explained it was bad and he ignored them and I prefer to assume the lesser of those options).

Just another water droplet, and the people who haven't been hit by many don't think anything of it while those tied to the table experience things differently.

Seriously, though. Don't take my word for it. Hit up Google's Scholar search and read up on Micro Aggressions. The studies and history and so forth. It's really interesting material.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Micro+Aggressions&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C3&as_sdtp=

Most of them have been best documented in racial context, so there's lots to read on race, gender, and sexual orientation.
Yes, I am a professional game dev. No I cannot discuss projects I am currently working on. Yes, I would like to discuss games, politics, and general geek culture. Feel free to PM me.

I'm not interested in RP unless I post in a thread about it.

Slywyn

Read that ^

Probably explains a lot better than I ever could.
What Makes A Shark Tick ( o/o's )

"True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi automatically connects." - The Internet, Probably

I'm just the silliest, friendliest little shark that ever did. Sure, I have all these teeth but I don't bite... much.

Deamonbane

Seriously, guys and gals: It's a shirt. A shirt. Should I start saying that a woman wants to be sexually objectified if she wear a sexy outfit? Whether it was because it was the first thing that he grabbed in the morning to head to work because he was late, or if he wanted to be seen on TV wearing it in honor of the Female friend that gave it to him, doesn't matter. It's a shirt. The guy successfully landed a probe on a comet, this guy should be a goddamn hero in modern science, and instead people are villifying him because of his taste in fashion?

I don't wanna be human anymore.
Angry Sex: Because it's Impolite to say," You pissed me off so much I wanna fuck your brains out..."

Kythia

Could this please become another thread
242037

gaggedLouise

An Indian guru under siege by thousands of police and tensions rising at his extensive ashram (spiritual center). Four women and a child have been found dead in a part of the complex - at first when I heard of it I thought the guru was suspected of personally having killed the ladies, he does have a criminal past. Apparently it's not clear yet how they perished...Uh, this sounds really grim and menacing.

Also, the Swedish navy have released a report on last month's big submarine hunt indicating there were definitely at least one foreign mini-sub afoot, and quite possibly more than one. No country is named but Russia is, unofficially, the prime suspect.

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Cassandra LeMay

Something that's been in the German news (and affecting the public) for quite a while now is a conflict between two unions representing workers of the Deutsche Bahn (German Railway). We had quite a bit of strikes by train drivers lately, and it more or less boils down which union should represent whom, should more than one union be allowed to represent people working in the same field for the same company, and should the state actually get involved in these matters.

Another matter that has made the news a few days ago is a change to the laws concerning sexual offenses and crimes. One aspect of it that I welcome very much is that the statute of limitations will not start at the 18th birthday of the complainant (as before) - which is the legal age in Germany - but only on someone's 30th birthday, as many victims of child molestation, rape, and so on need time to come forward.
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

Slywyn

Quote from: Deamonbane on November 19, 2014, 11:55:16 AM
Seriously, guys and gals: It's a shirt. A shirt. Should I start saying that a woman wants to be sexually objectified if she wear a sexy outfit? Whether it was because it was the first thing that he grabbed in the morning to head to work because he was late, or if he wanted to be seen on TV wearing it in honor of the Female friend that gave it to him, doesn't matter. It's a shirt. The guy successfully landed a probe on a comet, this guy should be a goddamn hero in modern science, and instead people are villifying him because of his taste in fashion?

I don't wanna be human anymore.

No no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

"The guy" was part of a team of hundreds if not thousands of people working on this project. People need to stop holding him up as some unassailable paragon of humanity. He was basically their PR guy and we're acting like he's the next Einstein.

And you know what? Landing a probe on a comet was not even all that difficult. And they still managed to screw it up. You know what it takes? Mathmatics and engineering, and they still managed to: Land in the wrong spot; the harpoons they sent didn't work; the probe is now in darkness and can't recharge; only part of the science conducted even comes from the probe. Something like 20% of the total data collected, if everything had gone perfectly, would have come from the probe. It's not like we established a successful colony on Mars or something. This is a drop in the bucket of the scientific community.

And "It's just a shirt guys come on!" is "Boys will be boys" with different window dressing. And that shit is not okay.

So let's stop erasing the entire team who was behind the guy, let's stop defending a sexist as hell shirt(And if I see "but a female designed it" one more time I'm going to puke), and let's actually hold people accountable for their actions.

Because you know what? He was part of a team who landed a probe on a comet. That's something we've never done before. Is it cool? Yes. Is it an achievement for science? Sure.

And we can be proud of that.

But that doesn't mean we have to ignore his shitty shirt. These things are not mutually exclusive.
What Makes A Shark Tick ( o/o's )

"True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi automatically connects." - The Internet, Probably

I'm just the silliest, friendliest little shark that ever did. Sure, I have all these teeth but I don't bite... much.

gaggedLouise

Quote from: Kythia on November 19, 2014, 12:10:17 PM
Could this please become another thread

Seconding this, the discussion about his shirt (and items to compare it with) clearly needs its own thread.

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Cassandra LeMay

If "thriding" something is actually I word I will use it here to third this opinion.
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

Blythe

#184
Regarding the specific topic about the scientist's shirt:

Please make a new thread to address this. Any posts relating to that should go in a new thread.

Edit: Beorning created the thread here. Direct debate on that topic thattaway.  :-)

Zakharra

Quote from: Beorning on November 19, 2014, 10:15:15 AM


In another news, I read an analysis today that indicated that an open war between Ukraine and Russia war might be inevitable. Scary perspective...

I heard something about that. The Ukrainian government is holding back money/debt/something that the eastern provinces are owed because they are rebelling, and somehow that means war with Russia? I have yet to figure that out. Unless Russia is claiming those provinces, the Ukrainian government keeping money for those rebelling areas shouldn't mean spit to Russia, since those areas -aren't- a part of Russia and as far as I know, Russia isn't claiming  them officially.


Beorning

The election counting mess continues back here...

It's Saturday and the results started coming in just today. Meanwhile, two of the opposition parties (Law and Justice and Democratic Left Alliance) actually started claiming that the elections had been faulty beyond acceptable standards and that they need to be repeated. The DLA actually claimed that the OSCE observers need to be brought in to deal with the crisis...

Kythia

I'm always suspicious of any political party (or. worse, country) that feels the need to include "Democratic" or some variation thereof in its name.  Just seems to be trying a little too hard. 

OT:  Vanessa Mae has been banned from competitive skiing for race fixing.   My brother fancies Vanessa Mae like you wouldn't believe.  He used to listen to her version of that Bach fugue all the time.
242037

Beorning

Quote from: Kythia on November 22, 2014, 10:29:13 AM
I'm always suspicious of any political party (or. worse, country) that feels the need to include "Democratic" or some variation thereof in its name.  Just seems to be trying a little too hard. 

Remember the historical context, though. For half a century, the biggest leftist party here was the Polish United Workers' Party (the Communist ruling party), which wasn't democratic. After the Communism fell in 1989, the remnants of that party continued to participate in politcs. To distance themselves from their past, they became the Democratic Left Alliance... "Democratic" to stress that they aren't the dictatorial left of the past.

Quote
OT:  Vanessa Mae has been banned from competitive skiing for race fixing.

Wait, she's a skier now?

Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: Kythia on November 22, 2014, 10:29:13 AM
I'm always suspicious of any political party (or. worse, country) that feels the need to include "Democratic" or some variation thereof in its name.  Just seems to be trying a little too hard.
You have to take into acount that in many European countries democracy is a fairly new concept (speaking in a historical sense of "new"). At least a few parties who call themselves that can draw historical links to parties that used the word "democratic" to signify something that was new, almost revolutionary, at the time. Same goes for countries who included democratic in their names in the periode after WWI or WWII. Some of them had been monarchies before, some had been colonies before. Calling themselves "democratic" signified a clean break with the past, but why should they change their names after that.

Now that I think about it I actually find it more surprising that the USA isn't called the Democratic States of America, or maybe the United Democratic States of America.
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

Kythia

Quote from: Beorning on November 22, 2014, 10:36:33 AM
Wait, she's a skier now?

Yup indeedy.  Competed in the Winter Olympics for Thailand.  Under the name Vanessa Vanakorn.  I know a lot about Vanessa Mae for brother-teasing purposes.
242037

Beorning

Quote from: Kythia on November 22, 2014, 10:40:18 AM
Yup indeedy.  Competed in the Winter Olympics for Thailand.  Under the name Vanessa Vanakorn.

Interesting. Surprising.

Speaking of publicly-known people having two different jobs: back here, we have (or had?) a deputy chief of the national police force who moonlights as a drummer for a metal band named Hunter...

Quote
I know a lot about Vanessa Mae for brother-teasing purposes.

Heh  ;D

TheGlyphstone

Quote from: Kythia on November 22, 2014, 10:29:13 AM
I'm always suspicious of any political party (or. worse, country) that feels the need to include "Democratic" or some variation thereof in its name.  Just seems to be trying a little too hard. 


(FIRE IN THE HOLE!)

There's a trope for that!

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny

gaggedLouise

Quote from: Kythia on November 22, 2014, 10:29:13 AM
I'm always suspicious of any political party (or. worse, country) that feels the need to include "Democratic" or some variation thereof in its name.  Just seems to be trying a little too hard. 


*namechecks the two Swedish populist, far-right-wing parties Sweden Democrats (big break in the recent elections) and New Democracy (active back in the nineties, famously stacked up crates of beer at their election rallies to put across their ideas about the folks who contribute to the economy vs those people and public agencies they saw as leechers)*

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Beorning

So, the election's results are finally in. Still, Law and Justice, the main opposition party, declared these results to be unreliable and possibly fixed. They also tried getting the European Parliament to get involved. Finally, the L&J leader, Kaczyński, said that the democracy in Poland has ended...

Kythia

Quote from: Beorning on November 24, 2014, 12:12:12 PM
So, the election's results are finally in. Still, Law and Justice, the main opposition party, declared these results to be unreliable and possibly fixed. They also tried getting the European Parliament to get involved. Finally, the L&J leader, Kaczyński, said that the democracy in Poland has ended...

This is the shit that's gonna happen when you try to ban Winnie the Pooh.  Let that be a lesson.
242037

Slywyn

Supposedly the Ferguson GJ decision will be released today.
What Makes A Shark Tick ( o/o's )

"True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi automatically connects." - The Internet, Probably

I'm just the silliest, friendliest little shark that ever did. Sure, I have all these teeth but I don't bite... much.

Beorning

Quote from: Kythia on November 24, 2014, 12:22:49 PM
This is the shit that's gonna happen when you try to ban Winnie the Pooh.  Let that be a lesson.

You know, I checked the sources for this story, wondering if it's not a fake (like that story from a while ago with female dentist removing all of her ex's teeth that supposedly happened in Poland). And it turned out that, indeed, it did happen!

I can only say: Oh. My. God.  :o

Lustful Bride

Videogame controller that draws real blood from you when your ingame character dies.....for charity?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/24/lose-real-blood-video-game-blood-sport_n_6211376.html



I would much prefer to just donate blood at my church every summer like normal than do this...its just honestly creepy in my opinion.

TheGlyphstone

A drunk guy in a McDonald's drive-thru gets hit and run over by a car. The driver stops the car (on top of him), gets out, TAKES THE VICTIM'S FAST FOOD, then gets back in the car and DRIVES AWAY.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/man-fighting-life-run-mcdonald-article-1.2019990



I'm not sure I want to live on this planet anymore.