Saturday, September 27, 2014

Throw vegans some love and we'll love you back

Native Foods is opening two cafes in DC, and I went to the pre-opening of the Dupont location on Thursday. I brought some (omnivore) friends, who liked the food as much as I did. One friend has celiac's and a number of specific food allergies, and the staff were uber-patient in answering her questions about what she could and couldn't eat. Which goes a long way. This friend loved the "peanut-butter cup" dessert, which actually looks like a parfait and apparently tastes like cheesecake.

I represent an untapped market, not just in terms of vegans, but in terms of people who will only go out for food when it's worth it (and being vegan makes more restaurants, less worth it). I opt for restaurants that have vegan options and make it easy to figure out what they are, and where the food is better than what I can make at home and more complicated than what I can easily make at home. Also, I tend to go out to eat socially, and people tend to defer to me (and any other people with dietary restrictions), so big note to restaurants: when you're giving vegans the finger, you are also losing the business of our friends. I have not only brought but introduced countless people to Busboys and Poets and Teaism (and now Native Foods)--people who wouldn't have heard of these places before, but who now go back with me and on their own--because these places are super vegan-friendly.

And if you're going to start with the "why do you have to make fake meat?" my only response is going to be, what makes it fake? Why are burgers more real when they're made from dead animals? The "fake" meat at Native Foods is probably a lot less processed than "real" meat.

So, welcome to DC, Native Foods. I'll be coming back often. And please consider opening a store in Alexandria, where vegans are way underserved.

Saturday roundup

European anti-semitism is getting real.

We should be able to have safe, reasoned debates about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and so should synagogues in the U.S.

Eldercare in this country is a nightmare. What that woman's family went through is unconscionable.

Also unconscionable: that a mother is in jail for helping her daughter get an abortion.

Ferguson's police department rebroadcasts its need for adult supervision.

Poor students need more than scholarships.

A Syrian ambulance driver thinks of the cats.

California's rental market prices out the middle class, too.

Colorado bids at out-stupiding Texas in silly education initiatives.

Does inequality encourage conspicuous consumption?

Only clueless white people think cycling is for white people.

Natural gas is not the answer.

The abusive-behavior wheel is not an instruction manual.
Laci Green's open letter.

I probably can't muster *sympathy* for Kim K but the point is, her body is hers and images of her body are hers to release or not. 
I was not wowed by Emma Watson's speech (although I didn't read the whole thing), but I can't decide how I feel with this critique. I can't agree with the idea that it's wrong to appeal to allies on the basis that society is better off as a whole when any given group is empowered. And here's a more compelling way to explain intersectionality.

Love is complicated and so are children. But Scandal (which I still haven't seen) can help. (By the way, the Times still doesn't really get it (it being its Shonda Rhimes profile)).

Emotion doesn't cloud reason.

Chivalry needn't be confusing.

Paris Fashion Week isn't sure about breasts, and either is the Wonder Woman movie. The film industry, generally, has a gender problem.

If you're about to mommyjack, stfu.

Chinese tourists are unimpressed with Paris.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Saturday rambles--updated

Jezebel ran a piece on regretting motherhood, and New York Magazine ran one on happily childless women. Nearly all of their thoughts resonate with me (ironically, Condi Rice's thought resonates most and Ashley Judd's resonates least) in some way or another. Unlike Condi, I am not a very religious person, but I nonetheless "at some very deep level believe that things are going to work out as they're supposed to. The key is to be open to that and to appreciate the life that you've been given." [Update: see also the New York piece about not being sure.]

Saturday roundup

A Sicilian town is growing accustomed to the tragedy of dead migrants.

Encroachment is pushing Brazil's indigenous people into favelas.

This will surprise no one who's been to India:
“These floods have turned Kashmir back 40 years,” said Abdul Samad, 65, as he sat on a bridge atop of a rice sack as if it were a prize, his family on either side. Below, the floodwaters still churned with debris and the carcass of a cow.
“We’re hungry. We have nothing to eat,” said Samad, still sweating from the exertion. “That’s why I’m fighting for a sack of rice at my age.”
Instead of moving in to help keep order among the starving crowd, Indian army soldiers watched from a parapet next door, laughing and filming the scene on their smartphones.
Keep you prescription drugs away from your kids.

Would the world be a better place had Gary Hart kept his $!@& in his pants?

As I've been saying: broadly dismissing people as "anti-science" is (usually) a cheap shot. I think it's appropriate only for settled science, which opens a new debate as to what is settled science. The safety of vaccines is settled science; anthropogenic climate change is settled science. Heliocentrism is settled science. The safety of GMOs may be, but the need/benefits are not.

On a related note, when is proton beam therapy necessary or at least worth it?

I agree with the overall theme of this piece on Richard Dawkins, i.e., that he's not edgy, but I've never cared much for the atheist movement, not only because of its misogyny and racism problems. I guess I just don't see atheism as a movement as preferable to any religion as a movement. This view was reinforced when I read about this guy, who got hit in the face with a dirty bomb:
During the next five-and-a-half months, McCluskey's deep Baptist faith sustained him as doctors laboriously extracted tiny bits of glass and razor-sharp pieces of metal embedded in his skin.
You want to tell this guy that his faith is misguided? Just let it go.

Dr. Higgs is not a believer in the multiverse.

I'd be very efficient at chin energy.

An e-bullying survivor speaks.

I couldn't read this whole TNR debate about the future of feminism, but there's some controversy for all. I haven't seen much backlash yet (then again, I haven't read the comments, or maybe the Beyonce wars have flamed out). I feel about Beyonce the way I feel about Kate Moss: I could care less about their product, but I respect their success and economic power, which belies the allegation that either is "exploiting" herself.

Slouching weighs on your soul.

These parody reviews do capture the ridiculousness of many Yelp reviews (eg., "why does this Mexican restaurant serve Mexican food? I was hoping for pasta.).

A fulsome list of everything you're doing wrong.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Monday roundup

Syrian refugees are marrying young, with consequences.

The justice system is stacked against survivors.

Canada warns its citizens about seizures by U.S. police.

You've heard by now about the "prostitute" detained by the LAPD.

Yes, hiring veterans isn't always a win-win (but no hiring is).

Wither Germany's big bet on renewables?

There's a term to describe when regulators are overly deferential to the industry they regulate: regulatory capture. It rarely ends well.

Mark Sanford is classy as ever.

Texas is all over academic integrity.

Vegans needn't let carnivores define us or put us on the defensive.


Have we already talked about the science of auroras?

It's about time women reclaim our mammary glands.


When a random man has an opinion about how you should carry your face.

When it takes having daughters to convince men to treat women as humans.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Saturday roundup

Alaska's rampant, epidemic sexual assualt.

Why dudes needn't get a legal say in abortion.

Our waterways are so much healthier with fewer pesticides. But never mind, self-regulation works so well.

Don't take yoga with crazy people.


Someone actually wrote this:
Don't demand that whichever fast food company you work for pay out of pocket simply because you refuse to do more than work a single job. Corporate executives earned their money, and are by no means morally or financially obligated to give it to their employees.
and this:
The protests over fast food wages are not isolated incidents either, but symbolic of a larger problem in this country: the lack of accountability for one's own position in life.
Maybe the fact that you are relying on a job to make a living intended for high school and college students is not a product of the oppressive capitalistic economy of the United States—maybe it's a result of your own poor work ethic. The only person you have to blame for your own stagnancy is yourself; believe it or not, you can move up in this world, and expensive education is not the only way of doing so.
But wait! Another dude wrote this guide to "graciously" dealing with cat-callers. Who are just well-meaning, brave men who dared to approach women, only to be cruelly and callously shot down.

All that said, we only get to the good stuff when we see what some parents are writing.

In the vein of "don't blame veganism for your not being vegan": don't blame cooking for your choosing not to cook.


Buzzfeed once again takes on some of the crap vegetarians hear.

Why do we need videos to rile us to a cause?

Is blanket slamming of politicians harmful?

Steve Jobs limited his kids' access to technical products.

Ewww, placenta encapsulation is a thing.

Okay, I'll obsess.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Don't tell me I keep to my own people

Fridge magnet at my friend's party on Saturday.

Thursday roundup

Perhaps you're following the #whyIstayed/#whyIleft hashtags; here's one illustrative story.

Frozen pizza learns its hashtag-crashing lesson, but a brick-and-mortar pizza place in Baltimore does it better. Also: is anyone surprised at the douchebaggery at Fox and Friends?

First of all, literary snobs are missing out; the "Harry Potter" books are excellent; they aren't in the same category as plastic butterfly clips (and yes, I write that with irony, since the reference to the books is merely an example of the writer's self-aware, misplaced judgmentalism). That aside, there's some interesting stuff in A.O. Scott's rambling thoughts on the decline of adulthood and/or patriarchy, to include thoughts on the "disaffected man-child":
As before, the rebellious animus of the disaffected man-child was directed not just against male authority but also against women. In Sandler’s early, funny movies, and in many others released under Apatow’s imprimatur, women are confined to narrowly archetypal roles. Nice mommies and patient wives are idealized; it’s a relief to get away from them and a comfort to know that they’ll take care of you when you return. Mean mommies and controlling wives are ridiculed and humiliated. Sexually assertive women are in need of being shamed and tamed. True contentment is only found with your friends, who are into porn and “Star Wars” and weed and video games and all the stuff that girls and parents just don’t understand.

A megachurch pastor on homeless penises.

All separatist eyes on Scotland.

Think twice before moving that capital.

Good ozone news.

Sleep and anxiety meds are even worse for you than previously known.

No, no, no! The biggest salad mistake is not adding fat to your salad; it's thinking that a salad without fat will sate you.

Massachusetts tackles food waste.

Fewer people are buying cereal.

This is all true but beside the point; it's not about hipsters and it's not about fear of technology. It's about corporate control of the food system. See: this awesome video on food security (if I can get the link to work).

How Big Food works in Australia.

There's a place for settled science and dismissing crackpots as such, but draw that line so that you're not just quashing legitimate differences.

Feeling stupid only means you're doing science right.

Science funding has to be sustained, i.e., not erratic.

Dean Burnett's warning labels for science journalism.

Things you don't need to worry about.

Arlington truly is soulless.

It's okay not to enjoy parenting.

Your kids may not be the geniuses you think they are.

On mindfulness.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Monday roundup

I shrugged at the Times piece on foreign funding of think tanks. It's not entirely a non-issue, but the Norway climate change example was absurd. We should be concerned about self-censorship in deference to funders, but that's a problem everywhere.

There's only so much anyone can do to fix the world, and Do No Harm isn't a bad place to start.

The humanities matter.

Sulfur-burning volcanoes are pretty.

Amanda Marcotte's piece on Twitter trolls evokes my interactions with mom:
Why did the reaction bother me so much this time? The long weekend, spent with my boyfriend and good friends, was a reminder that my life, which is busy and social and has a lot of love in it, couldn’t be any more different than that of the lonely, bitter hag that the harassers declare I must be day in and day out. The contrast between my actual reality and what I am being told about myself all day long, every day, on Twitter stunned me. I realized it’s not enough to keep reminding myself that the harassers are speaking more about what they wish to be true than what is true. Constantly reminding yourself that you do, in fact, have it good drains the energy you have to enjoy having it so good.
Using accusations of tone policing to shut down discourse has jumped the shark.

My favorite quote ever may be John Oliver's take on the space sex geckos: “...we sent those geckos to have sex in space — not because they were easy, but because he was hard.”

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Big Saturday roundup

Ebola's economic toll.

The epidemic of sexual violence.

There has been a shift in the discourse, in spite of some really confused stragglers (let's just all look forward to the day when potential employers google him and see,
We turn our noses up at smokers and just made our campus tobacco-free. Yet, nothing is done about sexual assault, short of blaming the "attacker," a guy who was likely as drunk as his "victim." We do everything we can to mitigate the small risk of lung cancer, but nothing at all to mitigate the much greater risk of sexual assault.
Speaking of the risk of sexual assault, a lot of us identify with this adventurer's story of the times she was not assaulted, even though she was--you know--out, living. The secondary effect of victim-blaming is an attempt to put women in "their" place. Leaving aside the obvious flaws in logic--not having a life is not going to keep you safe--we can't let anyone try to bully us into constraining our lives through the threat of violence.
Along those lines: here's exactly what you can do to guarantee your intimate photos won't be stolen. Another sign of more enlightened times: charities aren't taking money from the thieves.

Apparently, also shifting is the political discourse on birth control.

Especially in light of my ramble on poverty: see this obituary of Michael Katz, who changed the way (some) people thought about poverty.

In light of the same ramble, which touched on anti-science shaming of anyone who doesn't wholeheartedly embrace GMOs as the answer to food insecurity, see Raj Patel's take.

On anti-science shaming anyway, see this:
The diversity of public issues around science encompasses everything from global warming to GM crop to nuclear fusion. What hope do we have of providing citizens with an all-encompassing ‘toolkit’ that let’s them understand any scientific topic thrown at them? It’s not as if being a word-leading researcher studying the genetic basis of some chronic disease will make you fully understand the implication of geoengineering. This is why today it is public engagement, rather than some vague notion of scientific literacy, that is seen as our best hope to increase the public understanding of science issues.  
Or just remember the tale of Linus Pauling.

Elise Andrew (of IFLS) has an attribution problem.

The Times should be ashamed of itself for its sloppy reporting on the carb/fat study, even though they slightly corrected course later. See a much clearer description of the study here.

This star is crazy.

Wow, NYC really f*ed up post-Sandy reconstruction.

Brilliant, heartfelt, compassionate advice to women: no, there's nothing wrong with you... but by trying too hard to be the agreeable, low-maintenance one, dudes who aren't that interested can keep you around without incurring any consequences on themselves. So many of them will. This is what I mean about letting dudes do some of the work.

In the category of comments-more-worth-reading-than-the-post, I bring you:
 Yesterday 2:31pm

Legitimate question (I think): if I think women are more attractive without makeup, does that make me sexist?


Two must-see Daily Show videos (after the jump, so they don't automatically start):

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Thursday ramble

There have been studies--or at least a study--recently about how social media serve to exert peer pressure on us in terms of our views. We don't dare disagree with what our social media communities are saying.

Thursday roundup

We have to be able to discuss poverty without ideological or political baggage. See my upcoming ramble for more.

Journalists and doctors on the front lines.

I've only skimmed this long-form piece on the age of Alzheimer's.

Universities and magazines draw their own boundaries for acceptable speech.

Wow:
When her husband went to go find his wife at the Midtown South Precinct, officers became suspicious of him because he had a last name different than his wife's. "In America wives take the names of their husbands,” an officer allegedly told Huq.
In spite of amazingly blatant evidence, some people still don't get what the feminist fuss is about. Why cat-calling isn't flattering. Why the photo theft is a sex crime.

Nobody asked me, but I think Gisele's Under Armour ad is awesome--both for the strength projected and the "f* the haters" attitude.

Just ignore the latest "definitive" study on carbs and weight loss.

Carolyn's only words for a woman (to convey to her husband) are, "grow the eff up."

Guess what: if your kid's being a $hit, other people can call him or her on it.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

On photos

This would be a good time to tell you about how my own photos were misused. I've alluded to it, but I haven't addressed it directly until now.

Tuesday roundup

A "culture of institutionalized sexism" enabled the systemic sexual assault of girls in Britain. The girls blamed themselves; one family left the country, after going to the police and being turned away because--you guessed it--it was the girl's own fault.
 
The hacking you've heard more about isn't hacking; it's sexual predation. For the gazillionth time, no one is entitled to women's bodies. Ever. 
 

Revisionist history is a good thing when there's truth in revision.
 


You have every right to take pictures of yourself. For added protection, follow these steps.

Marion Nestle on the New Yorker Vandana Shiva piece.

Technology is not the answer to food security. The answer is, eat less meat and waste less food.

Employers are biased against parents.