Monday evening roundup

Supreme Court justices are checking the dictionary more often. Does it actually make legal language more precise?

The EU says "no" to animal testing for cosmetics.

I generally love Jezebel and really hate calling it out for being stupid but they leave me no choice. First of all, the extent to which one consumes vegetables is independent of whether one is a vegetarian; second and third, with regard to "...if the government wants us to do meatless mondays and beef (heh) up on salads, first it's got to do a better job of guaranteeing us our spinach isn't covered in crap," (2) the government has nothing to do with meatless mondays and why do you need the government telling you to eat in a way that's less likely to kill you and the planet, and (3) I agree that the government has a role in food safety, so are you volunteering to take on Big Food to make that happen?

On that note, it's meat-free week in D.C.!

Check out these really cool photos from around the world.

I never thought I'd care enough, but I've been immersed in this sciency stuff for work so it's now cool to me, including this personality-based periodic table.

I really disagree with the Post's picks for best and worst Superbowl ads, particularly since it left out the pistachio ad. How wonderful (no pun intended) that we live in a world where pistachios can hold their own against wings and Doritos! But, as for the "worst," do you think the Post is fishing for things to find offensive? I mean, I'm not a fan of Doritos, but I think maybe they're reading too much into that ad. I do agree with Feministing's take-down of Hadley Freeman's confused column about Beyonce, starting with the conflation of confidence and empowerment with narcissism, all the way to the conflation of sexiness with exploitation:

Sesali: Yeah, the slut shaming in the article is so real... at what point do we acknowledge sex appeal as something that we can embrace?
Maya: Seriously, has it really never occurred to Freeman that sometimes women like being seen as sexy? And that is not an inherently awful thing? Or that sometimes posing in your underwear is empowering? Or that just because there’s pressure for female pop stars to take off their clothes doesn’t mean that there aren’t also opportunities for claiming control of your own image? Can we please have some recognition of nuance and context here?
Sesali: Nope. It feels like we can’t fucking win for losing with these people. In the same way the patriarchy sucks for telling me I need to be more sexy, you suck for telling me I’m too sexy. 
Maya: Yah, weird how you sound so much like the patriarchy, Hadley Freeman. We may never be able to win, but we should at least be able to expect that other feminists not play the role of sexy-police.

Moving on... do you know what I find offensive? That people don't get "The Princess Bride" references. Also: HuffPo's implying that there's a special way to dress to deflect from a "modest" chest.

The Onion on China's recent hacking spree.

Create love in your life.