Wow. Have some BBC pseudohistory and pseudogenetics about Y blak guize can runn fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAw_UeILgeY

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I’m kind of crushed that David Rakoff went and died. Fresh Air played a couple of interviews with him yesterday. They’re good.

On whether or not he had a happy childhood.

I had a beautiful childhood and a lovely childhood. I just didn’t like being a child. I didn’t like the rank injustice of not being listened to. I didn’t like the lack of autonomy. I didn’t like my chubby little hands that couldn’t manipulate the world of objects in the way that I wanted them to. Being a child, for me, was an exercise in impotent powerlessness.

Oh yes. That’s why youth is wasted on the young, as Shaw pointed out. (Was it Shaw? I think so.) I hated… Read the rest

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What about this then? From “Coffee Loving Skeptic” on Facebook.

Via Alex Gabriel.… Read the rest

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Lots of crazed reactions to Thunderf00t’s misuse of the FTB mailing list, although they’re a minority. There are frank falsehoods saying we tried to get Michael Payton fired, and there is shock-horror that we reacted to his tweets dismissing all of FTB.

That’s just nuts. To repeat – there are about 40 people blogging at FTB. Not all of them are polemicists or controversialists, not all of them are irritable, not all of them agree about everything – in fact none of them agree about everything.

It’s not fair to shit on the innocent just because one dislikes a few of the Freethought bloggers. It’s not even fair to shit on the innocent just because one hates a few … Read the rest

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We all know that Twitter is a gift to people who enjoy saying horrible things to people they dislike or disagree with. Think Jessica Ahlquist; think #mencallmethings. Even Olympic athletes get the treatment.

A 17-year-old boy arrested as part of an investigation into Twitter messages sent to the diver Tom Daley after he and team-mate Pete Waterfield missed out on a medal on Monday has been issued with a harassment warning….

The teenager was held at a guesthouse in Weymouth, Dorset, hours after Daley retweeted messages he had been sent soon after finishing fourth in the 10m men’s synchronised platform diving event. Daley, 18, retweeted a message that said: “You let your dad down i hope you know

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A runner broke his leg during an Olympic relay race and went on running to the end.

“As soon as I took the first step past the 200m mark, I felt it break.” Manteo told the USA Track and Field website.

“I didn’t want to let the three guys or the team down, so I just ran on it.”

Mitchell still managed to finish the opening lap in 46.1 seconds as the US team, also featuring Joshua Mance, Tony McQuay and Bryshon Nellum, went on to set a qualifying time of two minutes, 58.87 seconds.

“It hurt so bad,” the 25-year-old added. “I’m pretty amazed that I still split [close to] 45 seconds on a broken leg.”

USA Track

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Gee, I was thinking about other things this morning – the column I have to finish for TPM, the column I have to proofread for the Freeth, stuff I have to do in the physical world, those cherries that need sorting, that book I was reading – but then I glanced at the stats and noticed an influx via Thunderfoot, so I looked at the title – and then it all came back to me. Oh right; that.

Ed explains it all. PZ does. Jason adds technical details.

The bare bones: ten minutes after he was removed from the mailing list he put himself back on it, and he passed on some of the messages he read. … Read the rest

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John Scalzi has a good post on how not to be creepy, especially (I take it) if you’re a geek.

There are ten rules.

4. Acknowledge that other people do not exist just for your amusement/interest/desire/use. Yes, I know. You know that. But oddly enough, there’s a difference between knowing it, and actually believing it — or understanding what it means in a larger social context. People go to conventions and social gatherings to meet other people, but not necessarily (or even remotely likely) for the purpose of meeting you.

It’s funny, in a way, reading the rules, because I think I must be the inside out of the kind of person who needs to be told all … Read the rest

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I’m not ignoring you. It’s just that I have two deadlines tomorrow – and they’re both in the UK so really that means they’re today. One for The Freethinker, the other for TPM.

The first is done. The second isn’t.… Read the rest

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Are the Saudis proud of their women athletes? They are not. They consider them a dirty secret.

Across the world, word that Saudi Arabia would send women athletes to the Olympics for the first time immediately rocketed to the top of websites and broadcasts. In Saudi Arabia’s official media: Not even a hint.

They don’t want the sluts to get big ideas.

“It does not change the fact that Saudi women are not free to move and to choose,” said political analyst Mona Abass in neighboring Bahrain. “The Saudis may use it to boost their image, but it changes little.”

Even the two athletes selected to compete under the Saudi flag — 800-meter runner Sarah Attar from Pepperdine University

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A great new Jesus and Mo. The title article on Jesus’s magazine particularly amuses me.

 … Read the rest

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Saudi Arabia finally gave in to pressure and “allowed” Saudi women – a whole entire two of them – to compete in the Olympics, but it really really hated doing it.

The ministry of education bans physical education for girls. The rationale behind the ban ranges from claims that sport will lead to corrupt morals and lesbianism, to it being masculine and damaging for female health and psyche.

The main rationale, though, is that introducing physical education is a slippery slope that will eventually lead it to becoming common to see Saudi women practise and compete in sports publicly in front of men. In a country where all state schools mandate fully covering the face , the thought

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Michael Idov attends the closing arguments in the Pussy Riot trial.

…the hometown opinion on Pussy Riot is mixed at best. Even the liberal response has involved language like “They should let these chicks go with a slap on the ass.” Despite the rapid Westernization of the city elites, the rise of the vaunted “creative class” and the widespread distrust of the state-coddled Orthodox Church, Russians remain distinctly uncomfortable with activist women.

…

Pride parades remain banned in Moscow, while opposition leaders freely use the Russian word for “faggot” in public. The idea that liberalism is partly about upholding someone else’s liberty — including their right to do something that’s personally offensive to you — is an exotic and untested

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Russian prosecutors want the three women of Pussy Riot to get three years in prison for playing a song attacking Putin in front of an altar in a cathedral.

“The actions of the accomplices clearly show religious hatred and enmity,” state prosecutor Alexei Nikiforov said in closing arguments.

“Using swear words in a church is an abuse of God.”

He said the women had “set themselves up against the Orthodox Christian world”.

Using swear words in a church is an abuse of God? And that deserves three years in prison?

People are crazy. Just bug-nuts.… Read the rest

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By Houzan Mahmoud

7 August 2012

An appeal to women organisations and human rights activists worldwide to condemn the Kurdistan Regional Government and seek justice for Nigar Rahim

Raped by one brother, killed by another brother to wash the shame brought upon family “honour”

Nigar Rahim was only 15 when she was killed by her brother on the 20th of July in Garmian in Kurdistan-Iraq. Nigar had been raped and impregnated by one of her brothers. She was protected along with her child by the Directorate to Investigate Violence against Women for six months after giving birth. Nigar and her brother were arrested at the beginning of this year; the brother was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment while Nigar was … Read the rest

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Here we go again.

This time it’s not evil bloggers-while-female, it’s evil gymnast-while-female.

McKayla Maroney is not going to win any medals for congeniality. As a member of the U.S. gymnastics team’s “Fab Five,” she’s the one Least Likely to Crack a Smile. But if you think that automatically makes her a sore loser, or worse, that it justifies calling a 16-year-old girl a brat or a bitch, please report to the nearest rock and crawl under it.

Oh don’t be silly, any fule kno it’s every woman’s job – yes even if she’s a girl of 16! – to look Nice and approachable and cuddly and non-threatening. If she fails in that duty it’s perfectly fine to shout … Read the rest

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An excellent post on wrong ways to think about “honor” killing and other crimes of patriarchy, in particular on the murder in a courtroom of a woman by her brother, a lawyer. His reason? She married a man that her family hadn’t chosen for her, and without their permission.

Clearly, mere academic education is no proof against familial brutality, particularly when patriarchy, and the consequent misogyny, leave their indelible and putrid stench upon the family unit, the educational system, the political state, the emotive components of social and cultural institutions, such as religion, music and arts, language and literature (including folklore), as well as media associated with such cultures.

Education is surprisingly worthless as a preventive against misogyny. Why surprisingly? … Read the rest

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