So this kid has been arrested though not yet charged with making terrorist threats yesterday that were taken seriously enough to cancel classes at the University of Missouri.

In the article, we find out he's a bright young white man who excels academically.

I feel the overwhelming urge to set a watch on how long it takes for people to start with the "he's a good boy," or "he was kidding," or "he's too young to know better" or "you don't want to ruin the boy's future over a prank, right?"

Yeah, I kind of do. I want him up on billboards all over the country with "This is how you ruin your life, kids," for everyone to see. Picture from behind bars, of course.

Australian Newspaper Criticized For Sexist Obituary Of Famed Author Colleen McCullough

Or maybe some jackass family member submitted it? Or the author herself wrote it in a tongue-in-cheek moment before her death?

Edited to add: So, I went to the obituary itself to see if the second paragraph mentioned that she was a well-loved author. Not so much:

"In Australia one of the highest accolades given to a person of consequence is that she or he (dead or alive) is (or was) a very “private person”. In most cases this claim is manifestly untrue.

"McCullough was no exception. “I’m media shy,” she told a reporter ingenuously after giving a thousand and one interviews to the press and appearing endlessly on television and radio. Colleen was the supreme egotist and talked about herself with unusual candour.Not that she was ever a bore. Far from it."

Not sure I can read any more of that nonsense.

"If you think you have a stupid question, just remember NASA engineers once asked Sally Ride if 100 tampons were enough for a one week trip."

Public Service Announcement: the anti-inflammatory Mobic (generic meloxicam) should not be used by people with aspirin-sensitive asthma.

I did not know that I had aspirin-sensitive asthma, being new to the whole asthma thing (I didn't have it as a child;) but I did put asthma down as part of that endless medical history sheet which orthopedists are apparently excused from reading, because I've been on meloxicam for a month with a steady increase in the rate and severity of asthma attacks. I blush to disclose that I was actually looking up meloxicam/alcohol interactions, because I'm going on a Princess cruise in, like, a week, and those things exist for fun. I can't find all the links now, but there were some major mixed messages about alcohol use (either NONE OMG DEAD IF YOU DO  or meh, less than 3 drinks and you won't bleed out intestinally.)

If you have asthma and don't know what all it's sensitive to, I strongly suggest asking for the anti-inflammatory for asthma people. Had mine been a severe sensitivity, I could be very ill right now.

UPDATE: a google search on "asthma safe anti-inflammatories" brought me to an arthritis board where it seems that ALL NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) suppress lung function and the new, asmtha-friendly NSAID Etodolac just prescribed also shouldn't be taken by people with a history of asthma attacks. The suggestion on the board was to take the highest OTC NSAID dose one could without breathing difficulties and supplement with extra-strength acetaminophen. Ffffft. Welcome to the wonderful world of self-medication. I may just stick with acetaminophen on its own and ice down a lot.

edited to add link to Medsafe article

Valerie Hansen's Silk Road, A New History is available:

$34.95 in person at Books-a-Million
$23.07 online at amazon.com
or
$13.74 in ebook form at amazon (Kindle) OR Barnes & Noble (Nook)

The reader doesn't have to own a Kindle, Nook or even a tablet computer like an Ipad or my Nexus 7. Any web-enabled PC with some software that doesn't necessarily have to come from amazon.com or www.bn.com can get it done for you these days.

Note: a kind person would completely fail to notice that I'm still researching the novel from last November's NaNoWriMo. :P

The oldest Mayan calendar yet found goes past December 12, 2012. I haven't read the whole article, but it looks like we get another seven thousand years or so. Plan your retirement accordingly!

I appreciate the efforts of the CSM, but had already gotten the cosmological information needed to shut my lizard and mammal brains up from the incomparable Neil Degrasse Tyson:

( NdGT video behind the cut )

Before that, my fore-brain had information from Thomas Cahill's The Gifts of the Jews, combined it with stuff from my Neo-Pagan phase that came from I can't remember where and concluded that moderns were missing the point: Mayan calendars are round. Round things don't end; they start over.

What, if anything, persuaded you that the end of the world isn't actually scheduled for this holiday season? Or were you never really worried? Or was this all ZOMG NEWS TO YOU?

Somewhere in the background of my suburban-American WASP (Baby Boom Vintage, of course) upbringing, I was brainwashed inculcated with the notion that it's the job of women to uphold the standards of civilization. Being completely undomesticated unmarried, I figured I was off the hook for the particulars, and merely needed to guard the broadest possible terms of good taste and proper use of the apostrophe vis-a-vis the pronoun "it."

Then Gary Trudeau publishes this:


Inner Victorian: (swoons at the debauched iniquity making such a design conceivable)
Inner Everyone Else: Hey, can I get a whole house like that?

Sometimes I wish people would give a little background behind their questions. It's hard to take


Is it wrong or racist for a light skinned woman to teach her light skinned child that lighter skin is prettier?

as anything other than trollbait. I'm assuming there's some sort of unspoken social contract on Yahoo! Answers, as the responses I saw utterly failed to eviscerate the original poster, or even succumb to my overwhelming response of "duuuuuuuh...yes, if it must be said."

Based on the follow up paragraph, I'm going to stretch charity and assume the asker is trying to figure out how to tell a child s/he has pretty light skin, not that s/he's pretty due to having light skin. But seriously? Wow. Just tell the kid s/he is pretty.