"Science" doesn't offer a full, definitive picture of what the universe is. It is a means of offering plausible explanations based on observable data. It's also acceptable, when looking at the world through a scientific lens, to say "I don't know, but I really want to find out" and have that be an acceptable answer.

Everything needs cats.

I wish more comic book art was like this. I was especially pleased to hear that you draw from models - there is some art out there that I find hard to believe is intended to depict actual human beings.

That was my feeling as well. Poor little cactus!

Paving the way through

For Ray Bradbury

That was a rush! Let's do it again!

Sure thing! Here it is - I saw it when Serenada linked it on the ODeck.

Celia, did you happen to hear about Readercon's recent harassment mishandling? Their apology for that whole thing was really good, too. Surprisingly good, thorough, and full of plans for improvements.

It reminds me of the 8-bit video game episode of Community, where the study group is rendered into 8-bit avatars in the game. They're all testing out the controls, and Britta asks "Which one am I? I assume nothing because I'm not racist."

No, actually - I'd read the book when I was 14. The movie was out but my parents wouldn't let me see it, so I read the book. Even at 14, I was thinking to myself, "Whoa - okay, this can't be what he really thinks, so it must be an over-the-top satire to show the negative effects of this type of thinking." It's hard…

You know, I read Heinlein's Starship Troopers as a brilliant take-down of glorying in the excesses of war, and the effect that would have on the soldiers and the citizenry involved.

I think you left part of your sentence unfinished. It should probably read "feeding orphans to sharks" or something similar.

The fact is that sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes. Most of the victims of this type of crime never see the inside of a court room, because they did not report out of a legitimate fear that they would not be believed. That these assaults were never reported doesn't mean that they didn't happen,…

What courts find and what occurred in reality are not always the same thing.

I'm all for laughing and ridicule, but that doesn't mean that the shit he "mis-spoke" should go unchallenged or un-debunked.

Most sexual assaults are committed by a person that the victim knows. I find the idea of date rape being some kind of "grey area" very troubling.

Akin tried to "science-ify" his anti-abortion stance with blatant falsehoods. This article presented the actual evidence. Seems appropriate to me.

What Akin meant by "legitimate" is a kind of double-speak that people use when they are trying to minimize rape. They believe, or at least they claim that many of the sexual assaults that are committed are false claims by women who "were asking for it" or "were sluts" or something.