Tag-Archive for » russia «

July 03rd, 2010 | Author: sarcozona

AZ governor and strong supporter of the bad-for-business anti-immigrant law, Jan Brewer, lies about immigrants and her own past.

Anyone who grows such lovely hydrangeas couldn’t possibly be a spy!

Knowing a little history goes a long way towards refuting people who try to rewrite it.  It could also prevent our politicians from making the same mistakes that were made in the mid-1930s.

AZ cuts benefits for the mentally ill at the same time they cut services for homeless.  Stupid stupid stupid.

Public transportation helps the un- and underemployed while decreasing our oil use. So of course we’re cutting public transportation budgets.

Cap & trade won’t be as effective as population reduction.

Statistics is often taught to scientists as a set of “tests in a toolbox.”  But thinking about why you’re doing what you’re doing gets you a lot further.

We tell our own citizens to eat more fruits and veggies to be healthier.  So why don’t we apply that same philosophy to developing countries?

It’s not that we can’t afford clean energy.  It’s that we’re spending the money so oil industry executives can live like this.

The new “chick lit” is not about getting a man.  It’s about getting a life.

A fun mathematical theorem you likely haven’t heard of.

Lindsay Beyerstein takes John Byrne to task for shoddy and inflammatory science journalism.

The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard takes America’s newspapers to task for not calling torture torture.

Forced marriage isn’t just an issue for women.

Rojasianthe superba

August 29th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

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.

Amino acids in space!

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, were at war by bobster on flickr

By the way, we're at war by bobster on flickr

Music + politics = awesome

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

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.

August 15th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Between things like steep fines and jail time for the “crimes” of being poor and/or a person of color and being unable to get a job because of poor credit, it’s almost impossible to escape poverty in the US.

Moonbow

Moonbow

Yesterday was the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in WWII.

Still sucks to be a woman in Afghanistan.

The Sri Lankan government doesn’t seem much better than the LTTE.

Plants can communicate and recognize self. Awesome.

No wonder we’re all addicted to the internet.

How and why patriarchy hurts men and who stands to benefit from feminism.

Scientists are grown-ups who refuse to give up their sense of wonder & curiosity.

It’s hard to keep believing Isreal is a “victim.”

Another evangelical caught fleecing his sheep.

from flickr user bobster855

from flickr user bobster855

I’m definitely going to make these cookies.

It’s hard to chastise other countries when you’re guilty too.

The Russian government doesn’t even try to hide it.

Attacking Iran would be idiotic.

Going home isn’t easy.

Cutting already insufficient education budgets means students pay more for less.

Odd and disturbing Time magazine cover.

David Trautrimas, Sprinkler House

David Trautrimas, Sprinkler House

Think people don’t use religion to escape responsibility for their actions? Think again.

Why taking physics is important:

Extreme Pool JumpCelebrity bloopers here

Major Prop 8 supporter gets divorce.

If ecology doesn’t work out, I’m applying at Netflix.

Incredible juxtoposition: US vs. Japanese representations of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Why we sleep: who knows?

September 08th, 2008 | Author: sarcozona

The latest A Softer World comic:

a softer world

PZ Myers points to a video of Sarah Palin telling an Assembly of God church that the Iraq war is “a task from God.

Obama answers some important questions about science and policy.

Dooce tells Republicans to live up to those compassionate principles:

Because Leta was diagnosed with plagiocephaly when she was two months old, she cannot qualify for private insurance until she is thirteen years old. So the only insurance we can get her is high-risk insurance that costs us upwards of $300 a month. Just for her alone. And even then that insurance won’t cover anything until she has reached a $3000 deductible. I am fortunate enough to have grown up in a white, middle class family who could afford to send me to college, as did my husband, and we have enough work experience to run a business that makes it so that we can afford this insurance for our daughter. We don’t have to make the choice between buying food or insuring our daughter. We are really fucking lucky.

Edge of the American West points out some problems with Palin.

The BBC interviews Republicans.  I’m very very embarrassed to share a country with the people interviewed: ["My belief in the Bible informs my politics."]  Really embarrassed.

Oh, and Russia is making the EU pretty nervous.

August 17th, 2008 | Author: sarcozona

The US government conducted a huge raid for illegal immigrants in Postville, Iowa.  They haven’t explained why some are being deported and others are being jailed.  Wives of the arrested men have been fitted with leg monitoring bracelets and basically been told “You can’t work, you can’t leave and can’t stay.”  The local Roman Catholic church is now caring for the women.  A priest responds to the situation:

He said he understands that the people arrested were illegal, but he said they were also desperate.

“This was their last option. They would not have chosen this as their first option. They wanted to feed their families. Scripture tells us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to the shelterless. If you and your family were starving, what would you do?” [via holographicme]

Russia’s not playing nice with Georgia. [via 3QD]

Helen Boyd interviews Monica Canfield-Lenfest.  Includes my new favorite word: queerspawn.

A moving post on teaching.  I want to be a good teacher someday, but I’ve got a very long way to go.

When their high school refused to let them organize, the Okeechobee, FL Gay-Straight Alliance asked the ACLU for help.  They’ve won the case.  Notably, the decision requires the school board to “take into account the well-being of its non-heterosexual students.”

April 22nd, 2008 | Author: sarcozona

Sara Robinson writes about John McCain’s betrayal of the troops and how he’s paving the way for an army no one wants to see at Campaign for America’s Future.

Drive by botany in New South Wales at The Reluctant Botanist.

A short report on breast ironing in Cameroon at current tv.

How drunk do you have to be to fall asleep with a knife in your back?

At home, Mr Lyalin had some sausage from the fridge and lay down to sleep, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper says.

After a couple of hours, his wife noticed the handle sticking out of his back and called an ambulance.

Mr Lyalin apparently feels fine and bears no ill-will.

“We were drinking and what doesn’t happen when you’re drunk?” he was quoted by Komsomolskaya Pravda as saying.

IPCC estimates of sea level rise are way too conservative.

Turning food into gas for your car makes people starve.

The very best explanation of the infuriating, demoralizing subtleties of sexism I’ve ever read.

Men explain things to me, and other women, whether or not they know what they’re talking about. Some men.

Every woman knows what I’m talking about. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.

Best science class ever.

Fern poetry.