sundries

Nov. 15th, 2010 01:46 pm
[personal profile] rm
  • I am at the office (having lunch) while Patty explores Lucerne today. The clouds are coming in now, so I'm hoping she doesn't get stuck in the rain and winds up all damp and cold, because that's no one's idea of a good time, especially after we got to wander around Zurich in short sleeves over the weekend (in November!).

    We took some great pictures, and hopefully she'll upload hers soon; I meanwhile, brought the wrong cord for getting stuff off my camera, so I may be able to solve this in the UK, but it may wait until I get home.

    We've also been eating great, SUPER EXPENSIVE Swiss food. But we're just sucking it up and enjoying ourselves. Meanwhile, I start to plan Thanksgiving menu in Cardiff.

    Life is good.

  • To attract younger parishioners, a Catholic church has opened a nightclub in Rome.

  • Hajj has begun.

  • The Church of Latter Day Saints has changed its guidelines on gay people.

  • Finnish Church okays prayers for gay couples.

  • Housewives of God: article has more nuance and perspectives that I would have expected. Very interesting read.

  • Tiny, tiny Tokyo apartment. I wonder when these will come to NYC. After all, a parking space can cost, not uncommonly $500 a month in covered, serviced lots with 24 hours access. Maybe more. I haven't looked in a while.

  • In Haiti, the Collège Classique Féminin works to survive.

  • "Our brains are wired to confuse the real and the symbolic." The New York Times piece focuses on matters of war and peace. I can think of some other points of application and interest, of course.

  • What making breast cancer sexy does to women, both with and without cancer. The increased awareness, discussion and response to breast cancer? Awesome. The gender-essentialism and the thing where a woman is only as good as her tits? Not so much. This one hits very close to home for me.

  • The life of a gay NASCAR fan.

  • A model who is trans has scored a major magazine cover simply because she's beautiful. It's sort of a non-story, which is why it's awesome.

  • First Bollywood film focusing on gay themesis about to be released.

  • Barclays offers tax offset to gay couples screwed by the combination of DoMA and corporate partner benefits.
  • Date: 2010-11-15 12:59 pm (UTC)
    elisi: Edwin and Charles (Not expecting this! by immobulus_icons)
    From: [personal profile] elisi
    Barclays offers tax offset to gay couples screwed by the combination of DoMA and corporate partner benefits.
    Wow. My bank is doing something good? That's incredible. Thank you! :)

    Date: 2010-11-15 01:57 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] supergee.livejournal.com
    The LDS church does learn. Earlier, but still in my lifetime, they decided Blacks could go to Heaven.

    Date: 2010-11-15 03:00 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] sinonmybody.livejournal.com
    Another point on the breast cancer is sexy debate: it works contrary to the point in some cases. By further sexualizing breasts, by attaching a woman's sexuality so firmly to her breasts, that if she has children, she's less likely to breastfeed-- something which can significantly decrease risk. One study has said that for every year of breastfeeding, a woman decreases her risk of getting breast cancer by 4.3%- something far more individually helpful than an "I <3 boobies" bracelet.

    Date: 2010-11-15 03:52 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] azn-jack-fiend.livejournal.com
    I'm a little iffy about marriage -- I don't like the institution at all, in a financial/legal sense -- but after a year of having my then-boyfriend on my benefits as a domestic partner, we realized how much money we'd be saving if we got married, and that was one of the big reasons why we did. Even progressive companies are forced to charge domestic partners more than legal spouses, due to how taxes get passed on.

    The fairest thing to do is not to grant all these financial and legal benefits to same-sex partners... instead, I think they should just be taken away from heterosexual married partners. That way everyone is on the same footing! And that way anyone can define marriage any way they want, and use more flexible contracts for specific financial and legal and medical and childcare issues. And no special rights for heterosexuals.

    Not likely to happen any time soon though. Maybe one day after marriage rights get spread around more equitably and then we start seriously thinking about how to make the whole system more rational instead of basing the debate on a kind of straight-nuclear-family-or-death morality.

    Date: 2010-11-15 06:02 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] nisaa.livejournal.com
    I learn about such a wide variety of things going through the links in your journal. Thank you!

    Date: 2010-11-15 07:51 pm (UTC)
    atrophying: (Default)
    From: [personal profile] atrophying
    I'm fascinated by tiny homes, both in the urban sense, and in the rural sense (Jay Schafer/Tumbleweed Homes/et al). I very much want to get my possessions down to the point where I can build a tiny house and no longer be beholden to a landlord or mortgage holder.

    Date: 2010-11-15 09:05 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] heeroluva.livejournal.com
    Wow to the nightclub... That house is crazy.

    Date: 2010-11-15 09:08 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] heron61.livejournal.com
    Housewives of God: article has more nuance and perspectives that I would have expected. Very interesting read.

    Interesting and very disturbing. While from an immediate perspective it's good to see things that will make the lives of at least some fundy women less noxious, from my PoV, it's ultimately all about one quote from the article - "The only way to defeat secular feminism was to assimilate it. " In many ways, seeing this sort of thing troubles me simply because if the evangelical movement remained more rigid it would die off faster, and from my PoV that's an unqualified good. One of several things I greatly envy about the UK and the scandinavian nations is that religiosity is far lower than in the US and continuing to decline. I'd dearly love to see that trend here.

    Date: 2010-11-15 10:43 pm (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] lookingaround17.livejournal.com
    Hmm, I would worry that having a disco/dance club under a gorgeous old building like that would result in a lot of percussion/vibration-caused damage to it--

    Date: 2010-11-16 12:15 am (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] feyandstrange.livejournal.com
    I personally kind of adore getting lost above the clouds on high mountains, but it is something one should only do for a few hours before getting warm food, hot bath, and so on.

    I can't do math, but I know we have some 250 sq ft condos and rentals here in SF. And IIRC our parking runs about that as well. I worry that many of hte designs being touted for super-small spaces arfe not accessible, however, like the "tiny spiral staircase" mentioned in the Tokyo flat; yeah, his mother's gonna love that when her bones start to ache. Many of the folks who need housing most are disabled or elderly, and those small-space solutions are invariably aimed at twentysomethings instead.

    I like to compare breast cancer vs testicular cancer campaigns to see what's up with various gender and social issues. Swap the flavor of cancer and see what happens! Are testicles sexy? Would someone wear a ribbon for them? Is the fact that a man feels unmanned without his testes any relation to the boobs thing? (I know ovaries are a better match in many ways, but as an external-ish visible needs-groping-for-lumps thing, they match pretty well.)

    Date: 2010-11-16 03:57 am (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] lilacsigil.livejournal.com
    Yes, accessibility is very, very low priority in Japan still with the exception of public transport being surprisingly accessible for the blind. Many buildings don't have lifts at all and the only wheelchair accessible building I ever saw was a hospital. Narrow staircases are the norm, not an exception - I'm fat and fairly tall (though I wasn't as fat then) and sometimes had trouble squishing myself up or down them. I think there's an expectation that you keep your "problems" at home, not just in disability culture, but in all parts of life.

    Date: 2010-11-16 03:53 am (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] lilacsigil.livejournal.com
    I lived in a tiny student apartment smaller than that for a year in Tokyo, and it was entirely livable for one person.

    Date: 2010-11-16 09:20 am (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] meirion.livejournal.com
    Is the camera not the sort where you could take the memory card out and slot it into your computer to get the photos off?

    Date: 2010-11-16 10:52 am (UTC)
    From: [identity profile] shesingsnow.livejournal.com
    Love your link salads.

    Date: 2010-11-17 02:37 am (UTC)
    gatheringrivers: (Cats - Drama Queen)
    From: [personal profile] gatheringrivers
    The gender-essentialism and the thing where a woman is only as good as her tits? Not so much.

    Oh yea, and amen to this...Hell, I think medical types only started making a big deal out of it when they found that *gasp* men get breast cancer too. Heaven forbid!

    *grump*

    Yay on the model! And the other good news! I'm sharing those elseworlds, I have a friend I need to cheer up. :)

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