Father most certainly does NOT know best.
Some men go to strip clubs at least in part because they don’t know how to tell their guy friends they like them.
The link above explains that women are glue. This also suggests that women most certainly aren’t people.
Jimmy Carter publicly denounces Southern Baptists because of their misogyny.
Who’s lying about climate change?
Money is the only good reason to get married.
Conservatives haven’t changed much at all since the New Deal.
It’s more expensive to be gay.
The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping with Chicks. I’m beginning to think straight women don’t actually exist.
Mac vs. PC hilarity.
Another health insurance company screws over another sick person.
Frat boys that aren’t awful human beings. Hooray feminism!
cute attack: baby pygmy hippo
Nike resigned from the board of the Chamber of Commerce in protest of the chamber’s position on climate change. Other companies flat out resigned their memberships. It’s good to see companies recognizing climate change is going to start affecting their profits.
I feel like the appropriate punishment for these sorts of crimes would be to deny them modern medical care.
Second wave feminism has a bad reputation, but without it, women would still be writing songs like this:
Every native fish in AZ is in trouble, and several have already gone extinct. Drastic times call for drastic measures.
A new spider species was recently discovered and named after David Bowie.
Heteropoda davidbowie
Warming can fundamentally change interactions in an ecosystem. This means that many of our predictions about what’s going to happen to ecosystems with climate change could be very, very wrong.
The Finance Committee killed the public option this week and then approved money for abstinence only sex-ed, which is the proven best way to up teen pregnancy and std rates. I’d like to point out that democrats Lincoln, Conrad, and Baucus voted down the public option. I suggest letting them know how you feel about their vote, especially if you come from Arkansas, Montana, or North Dakota.
Laurent is finally blogging again – I adore his silly botany posts. Here’s a great one about how purple toothwort protects its nectar.
Nine West - Beth
This Saturday, these shoes were 62% off, and I almost bought them. As adorable as they are though, I know I’d probably only wear them once or twice a year. I’ll just look at them for a few days and sigh a bit.
It doesn’t say anything good about our culture that sexual violence against women is eroticized and mainstream, but women choosing and enjoying sex is just too much for us.
A few songs are worth more than your life. A lot more. (via Michael Alan Miller) Oh, and Sweden took down pirate bay.
Well, this should change our lifestyles a bit. Have I mentioned that overpopulation is a problem?
California is sacrificing education to prevent taxing big oil. Wouldn’t it be awesome if our government thought just a little more long term? (via Edge of the American West)
Actually, money CAN buy happiness.
The Afghan elections weren’t fair.
Cultural differences in interpretations of facial expressions.
Really, vaccines do not contain aborted fetal tissue.
Russia has some series race issues.
Just because change scares people doesn’t mean it should be slow.
By the way, we're at war by bobster on flickr
Think health care reform makes Democrats equivalent to Nazis? Perhaps you need a quick history lesson.
Another reason to quit smoking: children pick the tobacco you smoke and it poisons them.
I really want to see this movie (via SublimeFemme):
An former health care executive comes clean. And yet another health care myth debunked.
We’re building a wall between Mexico and the US that doesn’t stop illegal immigrants, but is deadly to fragile wildlife populations.
The axolotl is about to go extinct in the wild
American citizens in danger from chemical weapons – and they’re ours.
Iran is not a good place to be right now.
Last year I got enough scholarship and grant money that I didn’t have to take out any loans. This year has gone even better, despite not getting the Udall. In addition to having enough to pay for school, rent, and all my bills through August 2010, I’ll be able to get new glasses (which I desperately need), pay off my E.R. bill from 2006 and a small student loan from the university I briefly attended in NC, AND get a cheap couch off of Craigslist. I’m pretty excited about not having to sit on the floor if I want to hang out in my living room.
Even more exciting is the prospect of getting rid of all of my medical debt. Since my financial aid has been so much better the last couple of years, I’ve been able to put a lot of my paychecks toward the $5000 of medical debt I accrued between 2003 & 2006. With the amount I’m getting this year, I’ll have all my old medical bills paid off by next August as long as I can control my shoe problem.
Once my ER bill and my other medical debt are gone, I’ll just have student loan debt - about $24,000. $24,000 isn’t that bad considering I’ll have been in school at least part time 5 1/2 years by the time I graduate and 2 of those years I was paying out of state tuition. I’m also lucky that my loans are all subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford, not the nasty Sallie Mae kind. I’m hoping that I’ll have all of those paid off before I finish grad school.
Unfortunately, I still can’t afford health insurance… Hopefully wherever I go for grad school will have decent benefits.
Americans aren’t going bankrupt because they’re buying fancy cars and flat screen TVs. They’re going bankrupt because of medical bills, even people who have insurance. And it’s only getting worse – I’m just one of many people who can’t afford to take needed prescriptions.
A couple of months ago I found out about a $4000 scholarship with very narrow eligibility requirements that I fit. Unfortunately, I found out about it the day before the deadline. I emailed the scholarship contact and they said, yes, turn it in late. The scholarship required 3 recommendations. My two research mentors normally write me recommendations and another professor writes for me when I need a third letter. All of them were wonderful when I asked for the recommendation on such short notice. Then my third recommender dropped off the face of the earth.
So, I missed the late deadline. And probably missed out on $4000. I know that professors are incredibly busy, but I wish my third recommender had told me he was too busy instead of agreeing to write the letter and then ignoring me. It’s been 3 weeks and he still hasn’t gotten back to me – even after I politely emailed him and let him know that I’d missed the deadline and no longer needed a letter.
By Bakerella on Flickr
I’m oh so slowly paying off my bill from the ER. To everyone who’s donated, thank you! I wish I could make you all cupcakes like these. You may think bunny rabbit cupcakes are more appropriate for this time of year, but it’s still snowing here!
This weekend I found out I didn’t get the Udall scholarship and had a pity party. I found out yesterday that I got a $1000 scholarship from my university’s biology department. It’s not $5000, but it makes me feel better!
I apply for a bunch of awards and scholarships every year and usually end up with a giant stack of rejection letters and enough money to scrape by for the next year. After awhile, I got pretty accustomed to the rejections and really didn’t get upset about them – just more and more concerned about how I was going to pay for school.
Today I got my first rejection letter for next year’s scholarships. And I’m not going to lie, I’m actually really upset about not getting the Udall. First of all, if you get the scholarship, you get to go to this awesome mini-conference with all of the other scholars. And the scholars are fantastic – they come from so many different academic backgrounds and while everyone is interested in improving the environment, they all approach the problem differently. Getting to hang out with people like that and maybe even work with them at some point would be AWESOME.
Secondly, it’s $5000 and I really need the money. Tuition & fees keep going up and up and even though I’m not making more a year, my finaid is going down. Really government? It is not ok that I make below poverty level and my EFC is 20% of my income. NOT OK. And financial aid office, did you really just offer me a loan with an interest rate worse than my credit card? Isn’t that illegal or something?
And third, I worked my little tail off on that application and put a good bit of heart into it, too. Between working less and sending off for a gazillion transcripts from all the schools I’ve attended, I lost about $500 applying for this scholarship. Not to mention I had a bunch of people help me edit all of the essays, and I feel like I wasted their time.
I put a lot into applying for the Goldwater last year, too, but wasn’t really that upset when I didn’t get it. For some reason, this one just feels more personal. Maybe because I wanted it so badly and worked so much on it – it’s not a good feeling knowing that your best isn’t good enough.
© 2010 - Gravity’s Rainbow is proudly powered by WordPress 
Chatter