You have the right to remain silent?

    Here is some more on that wretched Executive Order, written by Nightshift|Shakesville.

    As Melissa McEwan put it: "That’s why I wanted to send it to Nightshift. I just wasn’t sure whether I was reading it right–and I wasn’t. It was worse than I thought."

    And this is one of several reasons I have no intention to so much as visit the United States of America without good reason.

Edit: I am seriously considering, for the period of a week, say, posting about every political absurdity, scandal and injustice I come across but I fear I might kill someone by doing so. Possibly myself.

Thoughtmeal

    Melissa McEwan|Shakesville creates a locus discussing the issue of body image. First she links to this post (one she made earlier) which directly illustrates how much the images of models in magazines are altered. It is, even knowing it happens, disturbing to see. The effect of the way this society presents and speaks to women is put succinctly by Sarah in Chicago|kiwi_grrl  thus: "Or, in other words, if you’re happy with your body; you’re not a normal woman in our society."

    Then there's the case of the cissexual woman thrown out of a restaurant bathroom on suspicion of being a man. Tough price to pay for not meeting societal expectations of feminine presentation, no? Reportedly, they actually had the gall to do this while flying a rainbow flag on the day of a pride event. Unisex toilets are sounding better and better all the time*.

    (I think, by the way, I disagree with part of Holly's post at Feministe. I don't think they were looking for ground to argue if she turned out to be trans*. I think they were hoping she is not because then they could argue she is not protect under the law from discrimination on the basis of gender presentation, as absurd as that sounds)

    There is still more, though. In a comment Jeff Fecke|Moderate Left (and suspended left at this moment) brings up something that has troubled me off and on for years now. That is, how does one protect children from being brainwashed into believing these things? Sure, there is the possibility of limiting their exposure but I suspect this would merely have the effect of making them less able to see through marketing techniques when they finally are exposed. On the other hand, when is the right time to talk about the dishonesty/manipulative techniques of the media? How? And what does one do in the meanwhile?

    Then there is Dr Loveless' comment which puts me in mind of yet another question I sometimes contemplate without any resolution. That is, what behaviours/situations do we participate in and/or perpetuate without realising but which will in future be rightly looked back upon as 'barbaric'? What wrongs are we so immersed in that we do not even realise it? Self-promotionally speaking, it occurs to me that my story Sparkle presents one possible answer to this question. If anyone has others I'd like to see them. (The Brynn whose comment follows, btw, is not this Brynn so far as I can tell)

    Bouncing back to the linked Feministe post, Chaz|Afroacademic posted a comment which rings very true for me: "Sometimes when I forget that I’m living in a world with the history that ours has I can’t understand why people are so hung up on gender or how other people “identify.”"

*Holly's post reminds me I may not have thought this all the way through - although as a mid-term goal at the very latest I still see it as desirable

Pressing topic of the century

    Jonathon Carroll writes about the difference in perception of physical beauty between men and women, saying "I don't know if it's because of a different way of perceiving things, or simply that men and women respond to different qualities. Generally speaking, I trust womens' words and insights much more than I do mens' for a variety of reasons. But when it comes to THIS subject, forget it."

    Now, who will speak on this subject? My stance is "I do not know, what do you think?"

Meanwhile, back at the red planet...

    Lots of instrumentation information here as probes study Mars during one of its famous dust storms. The rovers, however, are in an endurance race. Will battery power be sufficient for them to continue operating until the sky clears?

    I did not know the HiRISE team has a blog until I read that article. Now I am wondering how many other missions and instruments have blogs I could be reading to keep updated.