May 2012
48 posts
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“I’ve known apparently helplessly addicted drunks return to normal...”
– Damian Thompson makes the case for not treating alcoholism as a disease. Columnist Tanya Gold disagrees
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“While all eyes are focused on the presidential race, on the streets of Egypt,...”
– The rights of Egytpian women are shrinking, says Mariz Tadros
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Why do poor white voters reject the Democrats?
… well, why shouldn’t they? The white working class is said to ‘vote against its own interests’, but this only exposes the patronising assumptions of their accusers, says Gary Younge
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“There are many debates within feminism, and the women’s movement ought not...”
– Radical feminists are acting like a cult, argues Roz Kaveney, whose presence is not accepted at RadFem2012, the latest radical feminism conference in London, because she “wasn’t born woman”
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“While for some the first sight of a bright-blue sky signals an instant...”
– Why I hate summer (and you should too)
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Robert Moog rhymes with 'vogue': what...
Robert Moog is celebrated on Google’s homepage today with a playable version of one of his pioneering electronic synthesisers. It would have been the late founder of Moog Music’s 78th birthday today, and he would tell anyone who asked that he pronounced his name not with a long “oo” sound, but to rhyme with “vogue”.
Moog seemed to be quite tolerant of people...
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Mi dislike of Damien Hirst is well documented
redlightpolitics:
I read this Guardian review of his latest exhibition in London and all I have is a visual recreation of my reaction:
Well it *was* a damning review…
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Should one attend the funeral of a 'virtual...
Edward Collier writes:
Last Thursday I learned that my friend George had died after a short illness. My first thoughts were for his family; George was one of those men for whom the term “larger than life” might have been coined, and his absence would be deeply felt. And then there was the funeral – assuming it was not a private, family affair – should I attend?
Read the piece, and...
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“A report by the Pesticide Residues Committee states that wholemeal loaves...”
– Matthew Herbet: We must take back control of our food, before it’s too late
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“I met a Kentucky car mechanic who offered insightful analysis of domestic French...”
– Cheese eating surrender monkeys? Writer Rosecrans Baldwin toured small towns in the USA to ask ‘normal’ people what they thought about the French. Some of the answers may surprise you …
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“No, there’s very little connection between answering questions on the...”
– Writer Alain de Botton during a Q&A we just hosted about sex.
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How the kindness of (virtual) strangers on Twitter...
After Twitter followers helped me remove a BNP (extreme right party) banner from my street on election day, it’s my first port of call from now on
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Five steps to becoming a heavyweight Twitter...
Here’s rule #2:
• Hit hard and hit low
You’re in full view on a public forum, making Twitter the perfect venue to show everyone your intellectual bravery by using every instrument at your disposal to attack your antagonist. Well, maybe not racism as that’s quite frowned on. But misogyny? That is very much on the table. When [food critic] Coren told [Huff Po journalist] Vincent...
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“So imagine my horror on seeing a poster the other day for American Pie: The...”
– When you lose touch with popular culture, it’s tough to get back, says Charlie Brooker
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“By keeping his position “personal”, Obama escapes attaching himself...”
– Ana Marie Cox on Barack Obama’s personal evolution on same-sex marriage
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“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved...”
– Maurice Sendak (via nedhepburn)
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“Here’s a curious fact about the French economy: The country has 2.4 times as...”
– Why France Has So Many 49-Employee Companies - Businessweek (via jeffmiller)
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“Consumer society tantalises us. We then try within ourselves to control the...”
– Susie Orbach: ‘fat is a prejudice issue’
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Ladies: the case for stopping shaving
Emer O’Toole wrote a tongue in cheek Q&A about her I-am-not-shaving experiment.
Here goes:
I have conducted an 18-month experiment in body hair on your behalf and will now answer the questions people most commonly proffer when confronted with my prodigious manes of untamed womanhood.
Don’t men find you physically repulsive?
At first this was a problem. But then I starved myself...
“You won’t allow me to go to school.
I won’t become a doctor.
Remember this:...”
– Poem written by an 11 year old Afghan girl
This poem was recorded in a NYT magazine article about female underground poetry groups in Afghanistan. An amazing article about the ways in which women are using a traditional two line poetry form to express their resistance to male oppression, their...
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