Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Problems with the Asexuality Identification Scale (May 27) "The AIS is not bad research. But the potential uses are few, while the potential misuses are greater."

Also from Siggy: Why loans cost money (May  28) "If you’re keeping track, that means that not only is it expensive to be poor, it is nonlinearly expensive. Poor people have a greater need for loans, and they tend to pay higher interest rates on loans."

2. I Transferred a Pokemon from Gen 1 to Scarlet & Violet. Here's How... (March 12) [16-minute video] "Was this worth it? Umm, not really. Was it cool? Yes." Wowww this is fantastic. I have so much nostalgia- the pokemon games I played back in the day were Pokemon Blue, Pokemon Gold, and Pokemon Diamond. Of those, I spent the most time on Pokemon Gold. Pokemon Gold was my game.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. A certain man went down to Jericho and fell among leopards (May 28) "This clarifies how grossly misleading and stupid-making that language of “illegal aliens” turns out to be, creating a false impression of invaders and interlopers when the overwhelming reality is that most “illegal aliens” are people like Eriksen — good neighbors who work hard, follow the rules, care for their families, pay their taxes, and live responsibly, but who will also, inevitably, have some equivalent to a missing Form I-751 somewhere in their past."

2. Federal trade court blocks Trump's emergency tariffs, saying he overstepped authority (May 28) "In their ruling, the court's three-judge panel wrote that Trump's worldwide tariffs had exceeded his power under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA, which the Trump administration cited in imposing those tariffs."

But apparently some of the tariffs are still in effect? I can't even keep up any more.

3. Rubio says U.S. will 'aggressively' revoke visas for many Chinese students (May 28) WTF?

And related to that: U.S. stops scheduling visa interviews for foreign students (May 28)

And also: An Own-Goal of Historic Proportions (May 29) "For decades, a degree from a U.S. university was the golden ticket, and not just for the prestige and the improved job prospects back home. It was often the start of a lifelong affinity for America, its values, and its people. Some of China’s best-known reformers and tech founders were educated in the U.S. They returned to China with not just skills and credentials, but admiration for an open society that welcomed them. Those days are ending. We are actively teaching the next generation of global talent that America is hostile, capricious, and unwelcoming. We are ceding the moral high ground — one that was, I’ll grant, already eroding fast — with alarming speed."

I just don't get this. Wasn't Marco Rubio friends with any international students when he was in college?

(Also, anyone remember during the campaign, a video surfaced where that felon floated the idea of giving international students US green cards on graduation? See this is why you shouldn't take anything he says seriously.)

4. Trump administration cancels plans to develop a bird flu vaccine (May 28) "Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown University's Pandemic Center, said the decision was 'disappointing, but unsurprising given the politically-motivated, evidence-free rhetoric that tries to paint mRNA vaccines as being dangerous.'"

Remember when that felon was president the first time, and the actual greatest accomplishment of his term was the programs that produced the mRNA vaccines for covid? But I guess now the MAGAs think that's bad.

5. Marco Rubio said no one has died due to U.S. aid cuts. This mom disagrees (May 28) [content note: child death] "Babagana's doctor at the clinic — Edifre Jacob — says he'll never know exactly what happened to the youngster because he did not get medical help before dying, but Jacob feels confident his team could have prevented his death."

6. Judge says Rubio 'likely' violated Constitution in ordering Mahmoud Khalil deported (May 28) "In a statement issued by the ACLU, Khalil's lawyers vowed to keep fighting for his release."

(Marco Rubio has really done a lot to restore my belief in hell.)

7. The White House is sued over lack of sign language interpreters at press briefings (May 29) Good. 

8. Trump administration seeks to end basic rights and protections for child immigrants in its custody (May 22) "The protections, which are drawn from a 1997 consent decree known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, limit the amount of time children can be detained by immigration officials. It also requires the government to provide children in its custody with adequate food, water and clean clothes." Children. Children.

9. Ice arrests at immigration courts across the US stirring panic: ‘It’s terrifying’ (May 22) "Arrests near or in the immigration courts, which are part of the US Department of Justice, are typically rare – in part due to concerns that the fear of being detained by Ice officers could discourage people from appearing. 'It’s bad policy,' said Lindsay Toczylowski, president of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef). 'By putting immigration officers in the courtrooms, they’re discouraging people from following the processes, punishing people for following the rules.'"

And Wonkette explains how exactly this loophole is being used: ICE's One Weird Trick To Deport Asylum Seekers Who Come To Court! (May 30) "Isn’t that great, especially how the people being grabbed were dumb enough to think that following the law and attending their scheduled court hearings would do them any good? They couldn’t be 'following the law' anyway, because after all they’re illegals, dummy."

Team Rocket Should Get Real Jobs

James, Jessie, and Meowth. Image source.

My son watches a lot of pokemon- the old cartoon from when I was growing up- and I have a hot take about it. I have mentioned this many times to my husband and son but they don't seem as worked up about it as I am, so let me post it on the blog. I need to get this out.

Okay here it is: Team Rocket should get real jobs.

Every single episode, Jessie and James are following Ash around, trying to make trouble, and they always fail. Don't they have anything better they could be doing with their time? They have a lot of skills- you see this in every single episode- surely they could get real jobs?

What's going on here? Is the economy of pokemon world in such bad shape that they really can't find any other job besides following a preteen around, like the world's most pathetic groupies? Have they been blacklisted by all normal employers for trying to start a union? Whyyyy don't they get real jobs?

You only have one life to live. Don't you want to spend it on something worthwhile, rather than following around some pokemon trainer all the time, and continually failing to kidnap pikachu? I'm just really concerned about them. They could do so much better.

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Do you have any strong opinions about inconsequential details of children's media? Leave them in the comments section~

Blogaround

1. Egypt is certified malaria-free by WHO (October 20, via) This is great!

2. Lauren Stratford, The Survivor Who Never Was (October 15) "True change cannot be built on falsehoods, and people who try to do so create more victims, not fewer."

3. China’s Solution for Trash-Strewn Mountains: Robot Dog Porters (October 24) "The four-legged robots could be seen trotting up and down the steps of Mount Tai, or Taishan, in eastern China’s Shandong province last weekend, often laden with huge bags of garbage, sparking amusement among the hordes of tourists at the site."

Also from Sixth Tone: What’s Chinese for ‘Midwest Nice’? (October 24) LOLLL oh this is so real. You text with customer service on Taobao (Chinese shopping app) and they constantly call you "qin" [亲]. A dictionary will tell you this means "dear"- and I have seen plenty of Chinese people using "dear" in English the way they use "qin", which just sounds odd, like "Dear, can you bring in these documents next week?"- but I've always felt like it shouldn't be understood as "dear" but more like a polite title you use in administrative sorts of interactions. Loved reading this article about how Chinese people also find it weird to be called "qin" on Taobao all the time.

And also: Signs of Unity: Can China’s Deaf Community Find a Common Language? (October 28) "China’s large size, coupled with a history of sign language use dating back at least 1,500 years, have made China’s sign languages especially fragmented."

4. Former envoy says Americans in Canada ‘could determine’ next president (October 20) Love this! Americans living abroad, VOTE VOTE VOTE!

5. Nazi shit (intra ecclesiam nulla salus) (October 23) "'Round them up and put them in camps' is unadorned Nazi shit. It just is. There’s no way of qualifying or caviling or weaseling out of that. 'Round them up and put them in camps' is the essence of the thing itself."

6. What NOT To Say To People Trapped In The MAGA Cult (October 24) "One day he’ll be gone [hopefully very soon] and you’ll need to be there to help them process what happened and perhaps find a way back to sanity."

7. Police and poll workers train for possible election threats (October 24) 

8. American Airlines fined $50 million for its treatment of passengers with disabilities (October 23) "Duckworth said airlines routinely damage her own wheelchairs and others. In fact, Duckworth says they broke 892 wheelchairs in a single month last year. 'Imagine if the American public saw that the airlines broke 892 pairs of legs in a single month. There would be hue and cry, but there hasn't been.'"

9. Biden apologizes for forced Native American boarding school policy that caused abuse and deaths of children (October 26) "President Joe Biden delivered an apology Friday for a United States policy that forcibly separated generations of indigenous children from their families for more than 150 years and sent them to federally backed boarding schools for forced assimilation."

10. MAGA’s Closing Argument: Dad’s Coming Home (October 28) "The core MAGA message is that all these problems are really one problem: The world feels wrong now, because people don’t know how to behave."

11. Your Fave Is Problematic Politics (October 18) "This is an annoying approach to media analysis. It is a batshit approach to getting people to vote for a candidate."

12. Relatable: AOC Doesn't Want Four More Years Of Waking Up To Trump's Bullsh*t (October 29) "We should not have to live that way again. We shouldn’t have to wake up every morning and think “OK, what’s it gonna be today?” Our elected officials shouldn’t be spending their time crafting responses to everything he says or does, only for no one to even remember what they were the next day because the next day we’re onto another horrible thing."

13. Many state abortion bans include exceptions for rape. How often are they granted? (October 26, via) "Bertram Roberts says she’s never seen anyone in that state get an exemption — for any reason, let alone rape."

14. New Acquisitions: 1933 and the Definition of Fascism (October 25) "Indeed, an unprecedented number of Donald Trump’s closest, handpicked aides and advisors have refused to endorse him, many warning publicly that Trump was a danger to democracy. It is rare for any advisor or official so close to the president to refuse to endorse them; nearly half of Trump’s have so refused."

15. 《目标是宝可梦大师》中文版MV 腾格尔 (October 26) For fun, here's a Chinese song about pokemon!

Blogaround

A photo of a shiny metal playground slide in the sun, labelled with types "Fire" and "Steel" as if it's a pokemon. This twitter post has a bunch of slides with pokemon types and it's FANTASTIC.

1. Months-Long Dutch Church Service To Protect Migrants Ends After Policy Shift (posted January 31) YES. The kingdom of heaven is like ^

2. My #ExposeChristianSchools Story (posted February 1) "Taking advantage of these natural and normal vulnerabilities of children and minors with an agenda is exploitative. And yet it is normalized in Christian schools in the name of love."

3. Fake News About Abortion in Virginia (posted February 1) [note: the language in this article assumes pregnant people are all women, but that's not true~ trans people exist!] "But there’s contempt for women embedded in the idea that, absent legal prohibition, someone on the verge of giving birth might instead terminate her pregnancy to avoid the brutalities of labor. 'No matter what the law were, in real life, these things don’t happen[.]'"

4. Queering Eve (posted January 31) "Eve becomes the heroine of the story when she resolves to call God’s bluff. She decides that obtaining the knowledge of good and evil is worth the risk of death; that she doesn’t want to live under God’s thumb, unable to fully understand the world in which she resides." I love this! You know, my favorite type of bible fan fiction to write is re-imagining the stories of biblical characters who are portrayed as "bad guys." (Like Achan and Ham.)

5. It’s OK to Question White Evangelicals Adopting Black Kids (posted January 28) "She calls a Black woman “racist” for asking whether she’s introducing her Black children to Black culture—and ignores the existence of real racism."

6. Meet the Chicago woman who rented hotel rooms for the homeless during deep freeze (posted February 1) The kingdom of heaven is like ^

7. A Birth Plan for Dying (posted September 2018) [content note: child death] "The worst of it this: If you show this map to anyone, to try to give shape to the contours of the greatest, most difficult act of love you have ever committed, you will be called a murderer." An account of a "late-term" abortion of a wanted pregnancy.

8. Epiphany: Jesus wept (posted January 6) "And then God Almighty — God who laid the foundation of the earth, who determined its measurements when the morning stars sang together, God who commands the morning and causes the dawn to know its place, God who bound the chains of the Pleiades and loosed the cords of Orion — wept."

9. Inside the Scam of the "Purity" Movement (posted February 5) "Using the hashtag, women shared stories of waiting indefinitely for a husband to materialize, spending years lonely and riddled with guilt if they masturbated, or blaming themselves for their sexual abuse."

10. Before judging 'late-term abortion,' understand what it means, doctors say (posted February 6) [note: the language in this article assumes pregnant people are all women, but that's not true~ trans people exist!] "Abortion later in pregnancy is not used as an alternative to delivering healthy women's full-term, viable pregnancies. Additionally, it's callous to suggest that healthy women with viable pregnancies at term abruptly change their minds and seek abortion care as the solution." PREACH.

11. US sees limitations on reuniting migrant families (posted February 2) "'The Trump administration’s response is a shocking concession that it can’t easily find thousands of children it ripped from parents, and doesn’t even think it’s worth the time to locate each of them,' said Lee Gelernt, the lead ACLU attorney." Oh god this is bad.

12. The Ugly Nihilism of Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Comments About Why It Doesn’t Matter if Trump Is Immoral (posted January 2) "And it’s a 'distortion,' he said, to imagine that the country as a whole should love its neighbors and help the poor just because Jesus told individuals to do so."

13. On Raising Strong Daughters (posted February 5) "Having a daughter who is willing and able to talk back, and push back—and does mine ever —may sometimes make parenting more difficult in the moment, but it also makes her safer."

Blogaround

Two kitties laying on a giant snorlax pillow. Image source.

1. An Ohio Bill Would Charge Therapists With a Felony if They Don't Out Trans Kids to Their Parents (posted June 26) Whoa, not cool.

2. In honor of Justice Kennedy's retirement, here is information on abortion funds for each state that criminalized or extremely limited abortion prior to Roe v. Wade (posted June 28) Twitter thread. Donate to protect abortion access.

3. I Had a Giant Testicle for Two Years and Didn't Tell Anyone (posted 2015) Well this is quite gross. This is what purity culture does to people.

4. Hidden portraits: rare photos of African American life get a spotlight (posted June 21) "[Frederick Douglass's] spellbinding words are the inspiration for the exhibition African American Portraits: Photographs from the 1940s and 1950s, which opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on 26 June."

5. Democrats’ Views on Immigration Have Changed—Dramatically (posted June 25) This is an article about how Democrats' support for immigrants is way higher now than it was in the past. Probably as a response to the orange antichrist's violent and dehumanizing words and policies. But, Libby Anne points out, Obama wasn't really that good for undocumented immigrants either, and where were we back then? Shame on us for only caring about immigrants when it becomes a huge partisan issue.

Blogaround

First frame: Darth Vader says "The circle is now complete..." Second frame: Suddenly Darth Vader's head is replaced with Korg's, who says, "But not a real circle, more like a freaky circle." Image source.

1. Biblical Teaching On Divorce: Start With Ezra (posted May 10) "What does the book of Ezra teach us about “the rules” for divorce? It teaches us that men who consider the purity of their rules more important than the lives of women will delude themselves into committing monstrous atrocities."

2. Asexual Intercourse (posted 2014) [content note: explicit description of sex, very NSFW] This is an asexual man writing about his thoughts the first time he had sex, and it all sounds so realistic to me. Other stuff I've read, like sexy fan fiction, has people saying things like "I NEED to have you INSIDE ME" like... is that real? Would anyone actually say something like that? Would anyone feel something like that? Wtf? But this, this asexual description of sex, this feels so real.

3. Will Christians Stand Up for Transgender Inmates? (posted May 30)

4. Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu & Eevee vs. Pokémon Yellow - Graphics Comparison (Switch vs Game Boy) (posted May 30) WOWWWWW they took the trailer for the new pokemon game, "Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee", and recreated it in Pokemon Yellow. Wowwwwwww.

5. And my 2018 Reader Survey is still open (until June 9). Thanks so much to those of you who took the time to do the survey~ Love you~

Blogaround

A doggie in a bathtub with foamy bubbles on its head. Image source.

1. University Of Texas Students Start School Year With ‘Cocks Not Glocks’ Anti-Gun Protest (posted August 25) "On Wednesday, protests organizers shouting slogans like: “If you are packing heat, we are packing meat,” handed out hundreds of sex toys, many donated by area stores. They also handed out plastic zip ties so that protesters could strap the sex toys on to their backpacks in a sign of defiance against campus carry."

2. Pokemon Go on xkcd. I lolled so much.

3. Franchesca Ramsey explains why these “excuses for slavery” need to stop (posted August 26) "If aliens abducted your brother, sister, and favorite uncle, and stuck a feeding tube down their throats while forcing them to build their emperor's house, would you think 'well at least the aliens fed my family'?"

4. This Star Wars trailer, which uses scenes from all 7 movies, is pretty cool.


5. The Burkini-Bikini False Equivalence and Your Disproportionate Outrage (posted August 24) "When a woman’s community acceptance, respect, dignity, employability, marriagiability, physical safety, enfranchisement, social mobility, access to social institutions, freedom, and autonomy hinge upon her daily, unwavering, public adherence to the bikini, then we can make this comparison."

6. How It Feels To Conquer Your Shame (posted August 16) [content note: descriptions of sexual assault] "I tell them I’ve been in “ex-gay” therapy my whole life, that I’m still there today."

7. Pro-Life Science and Abortion (posted August 7) "'Scientifically' life does not begin, it is transmitted. There is no non-living link in human reproduction. The scientific answer to 'When does life begin?' is 'Three billion years ago.'"

8. How Hair Style Could Be Linked to Weight in Teen Girls (posted August 25) "Are black adolescent girls engaging in sports less often because of concerns about their hair?"

9. Complaint: Citing Catholic Rules, Doctor Turns Away Bleeding Woman With Dislodged IUD (posted August 23) "Not only could she not help her, the doctor said, but no one in Jones’ health insurance network could remove the IUD, because all of them followed similar restrictions."

10. By the Skin on My Teeth (posted August 29) "I survived the battle, yes, but the battle did happen, and it fucking hurt."

11. Someone Made a Sign for Religious People Outside a Memorial Service (posted August 28) Good.

12. Pixar Theory: Toy Story's True Villain (posted August 25) Oooh. Lots of evidence for this fan theory.

13. How the Trigger Warning Debate Exposes Our F*cked Up Views on Mental Illness (posted August 29) "It’s interesting how our society has such a stigma against going to therapy, but bring up trigger warnings, and suddenly everyone’s a tireless advocate for 'exposure therapy.'"

14. Data Raps. Any Star Trek fans? This is fantastic.

15. Here’s How an Off-the-Grid Homeschooled Christian Girl Escaped Her Parents and Became a Legal Human (posted August 31)

Blogaround

A screenshot from Pokemon Go showing a 3D representation of an eevee next to an actual real similar-looking dog. Image source.

1. Why it’s impossible to calculate the percentage of police shootings that are legitimate (posted July 14) "In truth, the only gun in Ellis’ home was a pellet gun, and the crime lab couldn’t even get it to fire. Yet for the purposes of data collection, Lori Jean Ellis would be listed as an armed suspect who fired a gun at police."

2. This Isn't Funny Anymore. American Democracy Is at Stake. (posted July 14) "And damn all members of the media who treat this dangerous fluke of a campaign as being in any way business as usual. Any support for He, Trump is, at this point, an act of moral cowardice. Anyone who supports him, or runs with him, or enables his victory, or even speaks well of him, is a traitor to the American idea."

3. Women are calling Donald Trump’s campaign to report on their periods (posted July 15) "Are you bleeding out of your wherever? Let @realDonaldTrump know!"

4. Catholic Bishop’s Advice For Divorced, Remarried Catholics: Stop Having Sex (posted July 7) "In addition to reminding divorced and remarried couples to live chastely, Philadelphia’s archdiocese also made it clear that these Catholics shouldn’t hold positions of responsibility in a parish, to avoid 'giving scandal or implying that Christ’s teaching can be set aside.'" Wow. Reminds me of something I read somewhere about straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

5. Here’s the Problem With ‘You Can’t Love Someone Else Until You Love Yourself’ (posted March 28) "To tell a depressed person that they're incapable of loving someone because of their illness is harmful."

6. Government drones spray prairie dogs with M&Ms to help ferrets (posted July 13) Cool!

7. Pokemon Go helps people with anxiety, stress, and more! (posted July 13) "3 years of agoraphobia and it turns out all i needed to get me to leave the house was pokemon"

8. The Parable of the Good Samaritan, revised (posted July 15) "There was once a young black man, traveling alone."

9. Is Josh Harris Actually Taking Responsibility? (posted July 14) "It’s become all the rage for would-be hip pastors like Harris to denounce formulas. They deride any attempt to add rules to the word of God—that is, until some young Christian blogger points out that the New Testament is way more hung up on greed than it is on sex before marriage, and that maybe we should be focusing more on love than on how people use their private parts. And then, suddenly, these hip pastors are a-okay with standing up and shouting “NO NO NO THE BIBLE IS VERY CLEAR ON THAT” as though they aren’t, in fact, adding to the Bible by doing so. They’re all about not using formulas, except for, you know, their own formulas."

10. First responders and guns (cont’d.) (posted July 16) "No one has ever called the police saying, 'My relative is having a mental health crisis, I want you to come here and shoot them dead.'"

Also this: Subsidiarity: ‘Policing was never meant to solve all those problems’

11. Pokémon Go Could Be A Death Sentence For A Black Man (posted July 9) "I spent the other 14 minutes being distracted from the game by thoughts of the countless Black Men who have had the police called on them because they looked “suspicious” or wondering what a second amendment exercising individual might do if I walked past their window a 3rd or 4th time in search of a Jigglypuff."

12. You Aren't a Different Person When You Drink (posted June) [content note: rape] "We all know that the work I and they do in keeping safe when we go out is something of a charade. But we also know that if something does happen, if someone decides to rape them, we need to be able to tell the police that we were taking “all the precautions,” because those questions will come up. If, by some chance, the incident makes the media, we’ll have to defend ourselves against all kinds of accusations and “advice” about what we should have done."

13. Why Hispanics Are “White” on Surveys (and Other Things) (posted July 19) "This act restricted annual immigration from any given country to 2% of the number of foreign-born individuals from that country who had been living in the U.S. in 1890. Why 1890? Because before 1890 most immigrants were from northern and western Europe while after 1890 most immigrants were from southern and eastern Europe, and southern and eastern European immigrants were viewed as inferior by many Americans."

14. Creationist Ken Ham Caught Misleading People About Ark Encounter’s Attendance on Opening Day (posted July 15)

15. WATCH: Emotional First Trailer For Adam Nimoy’s ‘Spock’ Documentary (posted July 19)

16. Rewriting evangelicals’ past to preserve our mistakes (posted July 18) So, Christianity Today said that refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than arguments made for segregation back in the day, because those were just about racism and nobody thought of it as a religious or moral issue. And then everybody who knows anything about history was like LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

Blogaround

#AllLivesMatter in biblical times. Images shows Jesus preaching "Blessed are you who are poor..." and someone interrupts with "Blessed are we all, Jesus!" Image source.

1. More Second-Trimester Abortions Occurred Under Texas Law: Exclusive (posted July 6) "Texas passed its 2013 omnibus abortion bill in the name of protecting women's health — a rationale roundly rejected by the Supreme Court last month. Now, newly released data shows the law may have actually had the opposite effect, putting women at greater risk by increasing the number of later abortions."

2. What is Asexuality? This is a massive list of links for information about asexuality. My favorite are the "An Asexual's Guide To ..." posts because they actually like, explained SO MUCH about what sex is, instead of assuming we're all supposed to just naturally understand it. And those posts are so incredibly affirming of bodily autonomy- they talk about sex and masturbation like "here's how to do it, but you don't have to do it that way, some people like other ways, and if you don't like it at all then there's no reason you 'have to' do it."

3. thy word is a lamp unto my feet (posted July 6) "I still don’t know what other Christians experience when they say they hear God’s voice."

4. Dallas police used a robot to kill a gunman, a new tactic that raises ethical questions (posted July 8) I work in robotics, and yeah, there are ethical questions.

5. The Bahamas Just Issued A Travel Advisory For The U.S., Citing Police Violence (posted July 9)

6. The inspiring way hundreds of Asian Americans are teaching their families about Black Lives Matter (posted July 8) "It was a letter explaining why black lives mattered, too — drawing Asians to the side of another racial group whose decades-long struggle for rights and recognition has directly benefited people of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese descent, along with many other ethnicities." Wow, this is amazing. English (US) version here. Chinese version here.

7. The Legacy of Diamond Reynolds’ Video (posted July 8) "What is new is that a story that might once have been easily ignored is now forcefully pushed onto the front page by the democratic power of video—and, in particular, live video."

8. Former Evangelical Pastor Rethinks His Approach To Courtship (posted July 10) Joshua Harris on NPR.

9. Scenes from Ark Encounter’s Opening Day (Inside the Ark) (posted July 7) Answers in Genesis has built a full-size ark. The Friendly Atheist blog takes you inside.

10. Why do people believe myths about the Confederacy? Because our textbooks and monuments are wrong. (posted 2015)

11. The Psalms and the word of God (posted July 11) "Or, rather, it would be a beautiful, moving, heartfelt hymn of praise if it hadn’t been the product of “plenary verbal inspiration.” But if we read that assuming that every word of it was chosen and determined by God — by the very same God who is the apparent subject of all that praise and adoration — then it just becomes something weird and kind of creepy."

12. Holocaust Museum to visitors: Please stop catching Pokemon here (posted July 12)

13. Log Cabin Republicans: Party passes ‘most anti-LGBT platform’ in GOP history (posted July 12) "Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there."

14. what does it take to be a Christian? (posted July 13) "To my childhood self– and to many others– the above paragraph is heresy. I’d toss it out, and the rest of this blog, wholesale on that paragraph alone."

15. What the Ark Encounter Reveals about Science, the Bible, and Entertainment (posted July 12) "In some sense, Ham approaches the pre-flood society with a sort of science fiction perspective—anything could have existed, and in some sense, everything did (think dinosaurs)."

Blogaround

Image source.

1. How to Bake Scientifically Accurate Cake Planets (posted March 27) I have a new goal for my life.

2. Artist Makes A Vehicle That Prints Propaganda Phrases On The Ground As It Moves (posted March 31) This is so cool- a bike that uses water to write Chinese characters on the ground.

3. The Pokeymans Project. Badly-drawn pokemon. This is hilarious!!!

4. Christians don’t abandon 10,000 children (unless we’re standing up for our beliefs?) (posted April 3) Lord have mercy.

5. Oldest Case of Cancer Discovered in Ancient Skeleton (posted March 18)

Blogaround

Image source.

1. Big Bang breakthrough announced; gravity waves detected (posted March 17) "Scientists believe that in the fabric of space-time, there are tiny ripples called quantum fluctuations. If you could look at space-time on the smallest scale possible, you would, in theory, see them, even today." Sounds like Star Trek.

2. Respecting Every BODY (posted March 12) "Thinking about it, I realized something. Bobby wanted back in the bucket because he trusted me. He knew I would listen to him and get him out as soon as he was done. He knows I respect him and his body."

3. Lies, Damn Lies, and [Church Divorce] Statistics (posted March 14) "Think about it. You and your wife both attend church faithfully. You have your marriage difficulties and get divorced. The chance of both of you still attending the same church are pretty much nil."

4. The Particle Zoo: Subatomic Particle Softies. So cute.

5. Finnish reindeer now have glowing antlers to protect them from cars (posted February 18) "Bonus: Now ANYONE can guide the sleigh!"

6. Setting the record straight on Jesus, ‘the friend of sinners’ (posted March 20) "I asked him about the notions espoused by Carter and others that the 'sinners' with whom Jesus fellowshipped were actually followers. Burge replied, 'I’m surprised that someone would actually say that.'"

7. Poke2048, another variation on the game I linked to last week.

8. India beats the odds, beats polio (posted March 22) Great!

9. Guy Sings Katy Perry's Dark Horse in 20 Different Styles and It's Awesome (posted March 21) Wow.

Blogaround

Image source.

1. Stay-at-home Dad Leaves Post-Its for his Wife (posted January 13) "I don't buy a toy thinking about how much the kid will like playing with it. I buy it based on how much it will hurt when I eventually step on it in the dark."

2. Noah’s Extremely Bad Animal Husbandry Advice (posted December 5, 2013) "If I saw something like that in my neighbor’s garage, I’d call animal welfare."

3. This Nigerian doctor runs his hospital on corn cobs and used bike parts (posted January 9)

4. These kittens:

Image source.

5. Unstoppable Grace: Thoughts on the Gay Christian Network Conference (posted January 15) "I speak at dozens of Christian conferences in a given year, and I can say without hesitation that I’ve never attended a Christian conference so energized by the Spirit, so devoid of empty showmanship or preoccupation with image, so grounded in love and abounding in grace."

6. China's noisy dancing retirees have local residents up in arms (posted January 19) Posting this because it is SO TRUE. There are always groups of old people dancing outside in the evenings in China.

7. Ask an Open Theist (Greg Boyd)... Response (posted January 16) "But when events take place that God knew were improbable, it makes sense to say he experiences something like surprise."

Blogaround

1. 10 Photos Of Plus-Size Models We Deserve A Pat On The Back For Running (posted November 26) "Please share this slideshow and tell everyone how astonishing we are."

2. This video of Stephen Colbert doing a "liturgical dance":

3. You can’t have a 10,000-year-old house in a 7,000-year-old universe (posted December 2) "Young-Earth creationism creates a kind of faith that is vulnerable to being falsified by something as simple as a highway expansion project in Israel."

4. What An Amazing Dam. Wait... What’s That? Are Those...? No Way! (posted November 29) These goats. Wow.

5. Amazing Grace (Gotta Catch ‘Em All) (posted December 13) Yep.

Blogaround

Image source.

1. The saddest graph you'll see today (posted January 7) :(

And, since that graphic condenses a ton of statistics into an overly simple form, there's some criticism: This Rape Infographic Is Going Viral. Too Bad It's Wrong. (posted January 8)

The basic idea is true though, and that's horrible.

2. 16 Tons and bricks without straw: Christianity Today wants to bring back the company town (posted January 8) "Christianity Today is required by law to provide every member of its staff access to booze and porn."

3. Drug or Pokemon? (sporcle quiz) I got 21/40. And I was a pokemon nerd back in the day.

4. Why I don't believe in grace (posted January 9) "The truth is, grace is offensive."

5. Where Christians Get Environmentalism Wrong (posted January 9) "Because Jesus holds this world together, oil spills are an insult to His design."

6. Roe at 40: New Infographics Illustrate Key Facts About Abortion in the United States (posted January 8)

7. just shut up. (posted December 27) "I don’t know about you, but when I was a child, nobody sat down with me after I watched Beauty and the Beast and said, 'Okay, this is a movie, and it’s okay to enjoy this movie! It’s okay to think this movie is great! But just so you know, if someone in real life did to you the things the Beast does to Belle, that wouldn’t be okay. That wouldn’t be right.'"

8. The Gay Community and That One Time Jesus Called Me the ‘N-word’ (posted January 7)

9. “you’re a pretty good speaker for a woman” and other wacky memories (posted January 7)

10. new year, new self-control (posted December 2011) "So, would it have been better to live during a time when well-fed women were hailed as beauties? I doubt it. Because the issue is not 'fat versus thin' – it is 'perfect versus imperfect'. There has never been a time when women have not defined themselves by (enslaved themselves to?) some ideal of physical beauty."

11. Telling God’s Story, Not the Old Testament’s (posted January 4) How do we teach kids the (completely bizarre) bible stories in the Old Testament?

12. 'Smart power': Army making cultural training a priority (posted January 12) This is super-important.

13. Killing My Voice Mail (posted January 3) "Hi, this is John Scalzi. I will never ever ever ever listen to the voice mail you’re about to leave, because voice mail is a pain in the ass."