Visit the second link - it's a lot more of an indictment than the first. It's screenshots of the bio pages of various organizations, illustrating how all of the major players are white guys.

Any kid who tried to engage me that way would have my full attention, because he seems to want things to be better. I wanted to help him, and the whole class, after watching that. I've never felt like I'd make a good teacher, but that is a kid I could teach, I'm sure of it.

I love names like that, though. Opal and Pearl are awesome.

Yep - that was also the theory behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Turning the "blonde chick who gets killed first in every horror movie" trope on it's head by making her the ass-kicking leader/protagonist, and giving her a cheerleader name.

For the social security lists, no, they don't aggregate different spellings of the same pronounced name. So you will see Brittany and Britney listed separately.

Stephen Andrew. They thought I was going to be a boy, and converted the names when I was born.

He was probably like "Really, where?" And then he remember it was him, so he kept going.

My mom would have picked Neil Diamond, so I know this wasn't her.

You guys can fight over these two.

I thought I had seen it before!

So, your roommate is a potential tester for my "couch cushion washing machine" invention, then? :)

What IS that?! Yikes. [hides under desk]

There should be a dating/meetup service for people with these odd hobbies, because I know a troll doll nut who would love to meet this woman.

Doesn't that only work once, though?

"Tastes like PEZ" is a lot more useful description about the taste of a wine than we usually get from wine snobs. Can we get more wine critiques like this, please?

Wouldn't we then be asking these sames questions about the couch, though? :)

A couple other staples to add to the cleaning cupboard - hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and (sparingly) ammonia. Used in various combinations with vinegar and borax, you can get most anything out. Check out DIY cleaning recipes in various places (pinterest users post LOTS of these) for the right combinations. And some…

I just posted http://martwhim.tumblr.com/post/400615460… that shows some sternum diagrams in a separate comment.

It seemed like I'd seen this discussion long before the Tor article, so I hunted around and found this analysis by Mart on tumblr that was much discussed several months ago. Still an interesting discussion, but check out that one as well for some interesting ideas.

Nope. In fact he had serious doubts about her because she was much prettier and feminine than he envisioned Brienne. When she auditioned, he changed his mind because she basically walked in and took the role.