I'm too busy reading social media to keep up with my linkspam

[firecat]

The ridiculous and erroneous lengths that athletic organizations will go to, to try to ascertain whether the people participating in athletic events for women count as women.

16% of his male athletes had lower than expected testosterone, whereas 13% of his female athletes had high levels of testosterone "with complete overlap between the sexes".

In other words, the gap that exists for testosterone between men and women in the general population does not exist among elite athletes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/29446276

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What if movies were reviewed the same way that video games are reviewed?

World War Z's visuals are top-notch. It has all sorts of cool effects like shadows, sunbeams pouring through windows. and impressive reflections on shiny surfaces. Multiple light sources hit objects at the same time, making everything look very realistic.
...
That said, the movie isn't perfect. My seat had a bit of a wobble to it, so I could never quite get comfortable. There aren't any scenes with dogs putting their paws over their eyes. I can't stress how important that is. It has been established as something that works, so it should be in every single movie.

http://www.somethingawful.com/news/movie-game-review/

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Kele Lampe has the gift of being able to write about what it feels like to be in the midst of depression. (A lot of us can write about it afterward, but not during.) http://theshadowsanctuary.wordpress.com/2014/09/27/the-lies-it-tells/

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Playing the didgeridoo might improve sleep apnea. Assuming your neighbors don't come over and kick you in the head. http://www.bmj.com/content/332/7536/266

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Via Jae on DW. A woman from a wealthy family writes a short autobiography of her love–hate relationship with cooking. The title of the link, "how-cooking-for-others-can-be-selfish," is not really what it's about.

I suggested to my mom once that we just buy pies, and she snapped that we couldn't afford it, so then I said well if it takes you so long couldn't you just work extra at your job, and then you could buy them? And then she accused me of not liking her pies that much. This made me really sad, because that's not what I was saying. I really just wanted her to be happy. I thought summer should be fun, and I didn't like the parts of it — cutting fucking green beans! — that weren't fun. And she was an adult. She could actually choose what she wanted. She could choose fun, and it seemed like maybe she didn't know that, so I was telling her.

http://www.cafe.com/r/a0006e00-d632-47e7-8103-c4263d5d3f6a/1/how-cooking-for-others-can-be-selfish

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Also via Jae, a language descriptivist's objections to prescriptivist language rants, with lots of links to explore. "12 Mistakes Nearly Everyone Who Writes About Grammar Mistakes Makes" by Jonathon Owen.

4. Saying that a disliked word isn't a word. You may hate irregardless (I do), but that doesn't mean it's not a word. If it has its own meaning and you can use it in a sentence, guess what -- it's a word.

...If you're going to chastise people for not following the rules, you should know those rules yourself and be able to explain them clearly. You may dislike singular they, for instance, but you should know that it's not a case of subject-predicate disagreement...it's an issue of pronoun-antecedent agreement, which is not the same thing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathon-owen/grammar-mistakes_b_4312009.html

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The Huffington Post reported what happened when people set up dates online and then showed up to the date in a fat suit. This isn't the same as dating as a fat person, but it's telling. Ragen Chastain comments, "The Huffington Post piece points out that a study has shown that women who date online are afraid of meeting a serial killer and men who date online are afraid of meeting someone fat." (The link is to Ragen Chastain's post.)

http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2014/09/27/online-dating-in-a-fat-suit/

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bohemiancoast on LJ makes a thoughtful comment on a post by andrewducker: "I've been arguing for a couple of years that it's possible to get amazing amounts of stuff for free or very cheap that was previously paid for services - and that this stifles growth. (See things like The Story of Stuff for why this is a *good* thing). Growth is just code for 'giving more money to rich people'. The things that actually make us rich, as opposed to just 'getting by' -- interpersonal connections and interesting experiences -- are getting cheaper all the time."

http://andrewducker.livejournal.com/3159680.html?thread=30672768#t30672768

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Via jazzfish on Dreamwidth. Some of Ursula K. Le Guin's advice to "fledgling writers."

Corporate capitalism at this stage of its death agony can only control, deform and stupidify everything it touches. We have to operate within capitalism, because at this point it’s all there is. But if our minds aren’t controlled by it, if we think like free people, writers will figure out how to do our job: To write, get our writing to our readers, and maybe make a living from it.

http://news.streetroots.org/2014/08/14/otherworldly-and-utterly-portland-ursula-k-le-guin

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Also via jazzfish. What men think strong female characters are (with special emphasis on Joss Whedon), vs. what women think they are.

But what do men apparently believe that women want in female characters? Well, going by Joss Whedon: superheroines who wear catsuits, beat up men, are secretly very vulnerable, and are sexually threatened, fragile and unstable girl-women with superpowers beyond their control… oh, wait. That’s it....This is, not incidentally, the reason that it’s so important for women to have creative control over projects.

http://septembriseur.tumblr.com/post/94553353969/wow-ok-i-had-kind-of-conceptualized-that-joss

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via Body Impolitic, a silly but not inaccurate taxonomy of mansplainers: http://taxonomyofmansplainers.tumblr.com/

Comments

[jae]

Your leading link is to a protected post. :(

-J

[firecat]

Thanks, fixed.

[jesse_the_k]

Even higher quality than usual!

Kele Lampe's piece on what depression feels like is stunning—wait, that's too activated a word. It's like black bricks on a gray parking lot. Also v v true.

The didgeridoo study was amazing—and that wasn't in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, neither. Tragically, they did not include any audio samples with their charts and graphs.

Thanks as always.

[firecat]

Glad you liked them!

[tagryn]

*wave* Hi, came over via a mention of this page in mdlbear's LJ. Thanks so much for your pointer to Kele Lampe's essay, it was very, very good.

[firecat]

Welcome! Glad you liked it!

[sqbr]

That post about food was an interesting read but REALLY needed to at least mention that this is only how cooking works for her and her friends, eg financially comfortable people with no food issues. Cooking for yourself does actually save money if you choose the right (not very fancy or impressive) recipes, and is a neccesity for people with certain food restrictions.

[firecat]

Definitely and absolutely.

[flarenut]

I wonder whether other pressure-controlled wind instruments would do similar things. Albeit not too many others involve circular breathing...

Thanks, because I finally read the article.

[merielle]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

Also thank you for the first time I've ever read "didgeridoo" and "sleep apnea" in the same sentence. :)