Showing posts with label fat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fat. Show all posts

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Blogaround

1. It’s Year-end Party Season For Chinese Companies — Do Workers Like Them? (January 15) Ha. Yeah, so this is a thing in China. Every company has a big party for Chinese New Year. Lots of fancy food, dance performances, "lucky draw" prizes, managers giving speeches about how great the company is, going around to everyone else's table to drink with them, it drags on and on for hours...

I remember at my first job in China, another international employee astutely asked, "Why do parties always need to have performances?" Why indeed.

At my current job, we have annual parties which are a lot more casual than that, and I really like that. Just rent a party room and hang out and eat, some people can play mah jong or do karaoke if they want, and maybe win "lucky draw" prizes, and that's it.

Also from Sixth Tone: For China’s Plus-Size Women, Going Out Is a Daily Struggle (January 19)

2. There’s A Version of A Christmas Carol Where Scrooge is an Attempted Rapist (December 27) "The tremendous irony is that this adaptation adds so much darkness and evil to the Scrooge story but does not add more meaning. A worse Scrooge does not produce greater redemption – it produces less."

Also from Dr. Laura Robinson: How Much Exodus is Too Much Exodus? The Prince of Egypt and The Ten Commandments (December 31) It's an analysis which compares the movies "The Prince of Egypt" and "The Ten Commandments." Oh I am so here for this.

3. Wheaton College restricts employees’ ability to state preferred pronouns (January 10, via) This is just ridiculous. What if your name is Alex or Sam or something? Also, using a trans person's correct name and pronouns is BARE MINIMUM level of human decency.

4. Michigan’s new anti-poverty effort: $7,500 for Flint moms, no strings attached (August 1) "Beginning in January, Flint moms will receive up to $7,500 to help boost their infant’s footing in the first year of life — a one-time $1,500 payment in mid-pregnancy, followed by $500 per month for the first year of a child’s life." Great news!

5. China to grant Ireland unilateral visa-free treatment (January 17) and Swiss travellers to be allowed to enter China visa-free (January 16)

I tried to find a source from a more well-known western news outlet, but I only found this one from Bloomberg and it's paywalled: China Has Scrapped Visa Requirements for 11 Nations in Past Year (January 18)

Very interesting! China is very intentionally trying to improve relations with other countries, and encourage tourism. This is good news, from my perspective as an immigrant in China, but also I'm American so none of these new policies actually apply to me directly.

6. A few articles on Biden not taking a stand against genocide in Gaza:

Why is Biden engaging in disinformation on Gaza? (January 10) [content note: infant death]

Joe Biden Wants You To Believe He Is Opposed To Genocide In Gaza (January 17) "But his statement, which emphasized the Israeli deaths on October 7 and the hostages who remain in Hamas’s custody, made no mention of the 10,000 dead Palestinian children and what they never should have gone through."

US Democrats push Biden administration over civilian toll in Israel's Gaza campaign (January 20)

7. Enforcing the Law to Disqualify a Violent Insurrectionist Is Good, Actually (January 16) "Even if you wish really hard, Clarence Thomas is not going to recuse himself from this case; Donald Trump is not going to stop claiming everything is rigged because the liberal justices joined an unanimous opinion; and Senate Democrats are not going to betray every single warning they’ve raised about Trump being a threat to democracy for the past eight years to give him a special exemption from the Constitution’s insurrection ban. Donald Trump exists in the real world, not a law school exam hypothetical, and strategies for opposing him need to be rooted in reality."

Also on that topic: Catching up on Donald Trump (January 8) "But whether or not the Constitution bans him from holding office again is a question of law, not politics. The whole point of including things in the Constitution is to take them out of politics. If constitutional provisions are subject to politics, then all the rights the Constitution supposedly gives us are up for grabs. Your right to do any particular thing will depend not on the Constitution, but on whether your action is politically popular."

8. In Juneau, Alaska, a carbon offset project that’s actually working (January 4) "In an effort to mitigate a portion of that CO2, some of those going whale watching or visiting the glacier are asked to pay a few dollars to counter their emissions. The money goes to the Alaska Carbon Reduction Fund, but instead of buying credits from some distant (and questionable) offset project, the nonprofit spends that cash installing heat pumps, targeting residents like Roberts who rely upon oil heating systems."


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Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Blogaround

A drawing that shows Jesus carrying a sheep which is the colors of the trans flag. Another sheep says, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold it right there! He wasn't lost. We kicked him out!" Jesus answers, "I know. And I found her." Image source.

1. In China’s Weight Loss Camps, a Dangerous Obsession With Numbers (June 13) [content note: disordered eating, fat shaming] "Boards displaying the daily weight of each participant were prominently displayed throughout the camp, emphasizing the significance placed on weight as the primary measure of success."

2. One True Ace Pairing: Wreck-It Ralph (June 16) "Ralph and Vanellope’s relationship, which is very much a friendship, is just as well developed and well explored and given as much attention (if not more) as any romantic relationship in similar movies (including the romantic pairing in the same movie, Felix and Calhoun, whose relationship was played for laughs anyways)."

3. I Entered Mr Universe - With No Training (June 5) A video from Max Fosh, a youtuber who does all kinds of ridiculous things, bluffs his way into so many weird situations, seems to have way too much confidence for his own good. My husband and I are fans of his videos- they are also posted to his channel on the Chinese video site bilibili.

4. Direct-mail fundraiser Pat Robertson is dead (June 19) "The most successful 'radio evangelists' were/are — like 'televangelists' and like Pat Robertson — people who primarily used the platform as a tool for raising the funds needed to expand the outreach of the platform. Actual 'ministry' or 'evangelism' in this model is always, at best, a secondary concern."

And this tweet:

5. Massachusetts town adds polyamory protections (April 6) Cool!

6. The Ones Who Walk Away from Ocabos: What #whySBC really means (June 20) "Others weep in confusion. They don’t understand that everyone knows the child is there. They think that if they can only raise awareness, force the people of Ocabos to understand, then everyone will reject whatever foul force allowed the imprisonment and abuse of that child."

7. A tale of two vessels lost at sea (June 20) "On a superficial level, these two events at sea speak to the vastly different worlds in which human beings live: some getting to pursue and even die for their dreams and passions; some driven by extreme life circumstances into cruel, anonymous deaths."

8. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is fighting a losing battle against the site's moderators (June 20) "Moderators of many of Reddit’s most popular subreddits, however, began revolting after it became clear that the company wouldn’t merely target the biggest artificial intelligence firms but also smaller developers like Apollo, which makes an alternative mobile app experience of Reddit, and third-party moderation tools they depend upon to monitor their communities."

9. First in the nation gender-affirming care ban struck down in Arkansas (June 20) "'Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the State undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,' the ruling reads. 'The testimony of well-credentialed experts, doctors who provide gender-affirming medical care in Arkansas, and families that rely on that care directly refutes any claim by the State that the Act advances an interest in protecting children.'"

And this quote from later in the article: "The court found three of the state's witnesses had been recruited at a meeting of the Christian advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom held specifically to gather witnesses trained in various fields that would be willing to testify in favor of laws passed that limit transgender care." Ewww gross, how will I explain ADF to my children? (I used to support ADF- they are an offshoot of Focus on the Family. And their entire schtick is bearing false witness against queer people made in the image of God. Eww.)

10. You may have grown up evangelical in the 90's if you saw a trailer for the new Marvel movie "Secret Invasion" and then you couldn't get this song out of your head:

[content note: video shows Jesus' crucifixion]

Michael W. Smith - Secret Ambition



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Thursday, January 2, 2020

Blogaround

1. There's a Dangerous Racial Bias in the Body Mass Index (posted 2017) So basically the correlation between BMI and certain diseases is different for different ethnic groups. And doctors aren't screening for stuff like diabetes because your BMI is "healthy." This is a problem.

2. The Tulsa Massacre Warns Us Not to Trust History to Judge Trump on Impeachment (posted December 23) [content note: anti-black violence] "Incidents like the Greenwood massacre are omitted from our textbooks, and students become adults without learning about moments incongruous with an idea of the Exceptional America."

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Thursday, May 2, 2019

Blogaround

Tony Stark testing the Iron Man hand blasters in the 2008 Iron Man movie. Image source.
1. Elizabeth Warren rolls out plan to reward hospitals that make childbirth safer for African-American women (posted April 24) "Both Warren and the questioner pointed to the fact that those disproportionately high mortality rates transcended the economic status of the women in danger. The issue recently made headlines outside of medical and political spheres after tennis great Serena Williams went public with her own near-deadly experience in childbirth, saying both a doctor and nurse dismissed her concerns over potentially life-threatening blood clotting -- conditions that were subsequently confirmed with a CT scan."

2. How Thanos Fits Into Real-World Myths of Overpopulation and Scarcity (posted April 24) [content note: does not have spoilers for "Avengers: Endgame", but has spoilers for "Avengers: Infinity War"]

3. Women Did Everything Right. Then Work Got ‘Greedy.’ (posted April 26) "This is not about educated women opting out of work (they are the least likely to stop working after having children, even if they move to less demanding jobs). It’s about how the nature of work has changed in ways that push couples who have equal career potential to take on unequal roles."

4. Epic Christian Fails: The Cross and the Clitoris (posted April 23) LOL!

5. The disabled Christians reinterpreting the Bible (posted April 28) "When I was about 12 years old, I felt God didn't love me as much as other people because I am in a wheelchair and because I can't do lots of the things that other people can do. I felt this way because I did not see anyone with a wheelchair in the Bible, and nearly all the disabled people in the Bible get healed by Jesus - so they are not like me."

6. The Absent School Board Prayer I Never Noticed (posted April 29) "As a teen ensconced in the Christian Right, I had thought leaving prayer out of local government meetings of this sort was akin to making a statement—in other words, I had thought that it was something that would be noticed."

7. Avengers Endgame Spoiler Review (posted April 26) From the Super Carlin Brothers.

8. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Had a Fat Joke Problem (posted April 29) [content note: spoilers for "Avengers: Endgame"] "All these jokes underline an idea that fat people are told again and again: fat people cannot be heroes."

9. Joseph's Fabulous Technicolor Dreamcoat (posted 2006) "I mean, he’s got this fabulous rainbow-colored coat, everyone comments on how cute he is, and he refuses to sleep with that Egyptian hottie. He’s totally gay."

10. The 2019 Reader Survey is currently open! If you haven't taken it yet, go do it ~ it's open until June 1.

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Thursday, January 10, 2019

Blogaround

A baby wearing a squirtle costume. Image source.
1. One type of diversity we don't talk about at work: Body size (posted January 3) "Studies show that discrimination increases the higher a person's body mass index."

2. Trump’s tweet about migrant kids' deaths caps a year that was horrible for children (posted December 31) [content note: mention of child death] "The rash of school shootings and the effects of immigration policies are glaring examples of direct harm to children, but there are a host of less visible issues that also are devastating to children."

Children are the most vulnerable members of society. Within any oppressed group that suffers discrimination, violence, poverty, etc, it's the children who suffer most. I believe that's why Jesus said the kingdom of heaven belongs to children. We need to do better. We need to prioritize children's needs.

3. Our Bail System Costs the Country $15 Billion Per Year (posted December 20)

4. The Women’s Resistance We Aren’t Hearing About is Happening Now In Kerala. (posted January 5) "On New Year’s Day, 5.5 million women formed a human chain across 385 miles spanning the state of Kerala, India. They demanded that the Hindu temple at Sabarimala should open its gates to women in accordance with a ruling by the Indian Supreme Court in September 2018."

5. ‘Sheer Joy’: Ireland Will Have Free Abortion Care on January 1 (posted December 17) "Abortion in Ireland will be free, safe, and legal up to 12 weeks into pregnancy starting January 1, a major blow to the Catholic Church and opponents of the country’s abortion rights law, who tried to drag out the legislative process with support from U.S. anti-choice advisers." Good news~

6. Film Theory: What is Disney's Body Count? (posted December 9) and part 2 and part 3. Wow. Matpat goes through every Disney movie (not including sequels) and overanalyzes everything in order to calculate death counts. I love it.

7. Every congressperson along southern border opposes border wall funding (posted January 8) "One thing they actually all do have in common is that they all agree with virtual wall protection but not physical wall protection."

8. James Dobson Wants You to Pray and Fast to Protect Trump from Impeachment (posted January 8) Grosssssssssss. How will I explain this to my children.

9. Why Was Dumbledore Teaching Defense Against The Dark Arts? | Harry Potter Theory (posted January 8) I LOOOOOVE videos like this because it's EXACTLY THE SAME THING as biblical apologetics. In this case, Jon Carlin noticed that the timeline implied by a comment by Dumbledore in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (set in the 1990s, published in 2005) seems to contradict what we see in the movie "Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald" (set in the 1920s, released in 2018). Because of our firm belief that both of these sources are inerrant and set in the same universe, we need to go on a grand research quest to resolve this problem. It involves reconstructing timelines based on offhand mentions of durations and dates contained throughout the canon, quibbling about sentence structure and how something may or may not mean what it first seemed to mean, and completely missing the point of the story. Yep, that's apologetics.

10. Why a Medieval Woman Had Lapis Lazuli Hidden in Her Teeth (posted January 9) Science!

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Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Perfect Number Watches VeggieTales "A Snoodle's Tale" (2004)






































































































































This is a really really good message. Also, it was presented as UNCONDITIONAL. The snoodle was good and amazing the whole time (he just didn't know it) even though he didn't believe in God at the beginning of the story. There was NOT A WORD about "if you believe" or "if Jesus is in your life"- no, it was presented as EVERYONE is intrinsically good and valuable and talented. Because God made them that way. And it's true regardless of whether they even believe in God.
Just want to emphasize how GOOD this message is.





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To see all my VeggieTales reviews: Perfect Number Watches VeggieTales (Master Post)

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