Link Roundup!
The ethics of paying homeless people with mental illness to test drugs aside (there’s a lot to consider there, and it’s not ALL bad), this is the part that made me go UHHH NO:
The initial safety studies, known as Phase I trials, are almost pure risk and no benefit. A sick patient who signed up for such a study might need to stop taking an approved drug—a drug that might well be helping—in order to test the toxicity of an experimental treatment.
Yet this is precisely what happens with antipsychotics, which are tested first on mentally ill patients who will often need to stop taking medication in order to join a trial. And these are trials that offer little chance of therapeutic benefit, because most drugs fail at some point during testing. One study looked at central nervous system drugs that emerged from a company’s own labs and entered human tests; only 8 percent were eventually approved.
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This is something that makes me FURIOUS, and, seriously, it does not shock me, because when you google “vitamin k shot newborn” it’s horrifying how many intensely woo-y garbage sources crowd out reality. GET THE NEWBORN VITAMIN K SHOT. It does not cause cancer. You will not replace its importance by just not circumcising or delaying cord clamping or breastfeeding.
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Deleted comment of the day:
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Undeleted Facebook comment of the day from a Man Who Thinks We Don’t Get Ayn Rand But Thinks He Can Help:
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On preferring “black” over “African-American.”
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“overwhelmingly white and male“
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And before we go any further, let me just say that I FEEL YOU. I love my brother and sister, but they sometimes locked me in the closet and when my parents got home (yep, olden times) they just laughed at the silly tomfoolery we all got up to while they were away. Years later when I was about 24, my mom found a note I wrote to her as a kid that said, essentially, “Please, PLEASE do something about these sadistic fucking jackals.” She sent me the note because she thought I would think it was hilarious. And because I still had trouble crying and telling the truth about how bad I felt, I DID think it was hilarious. I laughed and laughed and showed it to my friend and she was like, HOLY SHIT THIS IS TRAGIC AND SAD. And I was all NO IT’S FUNNY BLAH BLAH BLAH SHUT UP IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS HA HA FUCK OFF.
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yes:
20. Does she really think this is the best use of her time and image?
She used her time and image and attention to help create a game that million of people have played, and that millions of people love, and which in turn is generating millions of dollars in revenue. Some people write mean-spirited content on the internet for pennies, in order to make their rich male bosses even richer. We make decisions in life.
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Mallory and I are in a real Ras Trent singing phase right now:
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
Seriously, I'm not sure how many of those Jezebel commenters just wrote THE TOAST in all caps in the comments, but that's what they ought to be doing.
Also: god, [email protected], yes
It's the DETAILS in that deleted comment that really make it. Hillary Cliton
That's my porn name.
And mentalhealth.com, to add some weight and authority to his diagnosis!
Dollars to donuts that's my ex. I KNOW IT'S YOU, FRIEND.
Ain't gonna lie, an ex who will spend hours on vajazzling sounds OK. Like, I'd try to redirect them to French Braiding or fantastic nail art, but grooming is very soothing.
Had to run down to say I saw that Jezebel post yesterday and just thought…hmm…why bother asking that question? The perfect website already exists.
Oh! The fb-er thinks we'd be IMPRESSED with him! Sweet sweet soul
Did he seriously equate being a libertarian with being queer and in the closet?
<img src="http://creoleindc.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c5e0053ef01a73d88394b970d-pi">
*right-click save*
You know, I've tried to read his comment several times now, and I haven't gotten more than two-thirds of the way through before my eyes roll themselves away of their own volition.
ugh, same. I keep trying because I know it will be comedic gold, but my body knows better.
Wow, he truly is our John Galt.
"Who is Jim Bland?"
"if I were to guess…" yeah, please don't.
What was it they said on the Dawkins article yesterday? "For all their self-proclaimed bravery, they only ever seem to want people who aren’t them to bear the risks of the conversation."
That doesn't follow as well as I thought it did. Damn.
The gist of the article was "If some Dawkins theories weren't about evolution upholding the status quo, it would be nice. One. Please."
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2014/0…
He has only read half the book, but being male he knows all and must educate us.
*eye roll*
would you like me to read it to you?
Everything sounds more interesting in your deep, sonorous voice.
Morgan Freeman Reads the Galt Speech
That would be the acid test of Morgan Freeman's voice. He passed the phonebook test, right? That's on youtube somewhere?
Well, we MIGHT, but probably not in the way he thinks.
You will very specifically not replace Vitamin K by breast feeding! Evidencebasedbirth.com is a site I found helpful, and might appeal to some other Toasties as well. My birth class teacher, who is stalwart and no-nonsense, recommended it. When you read the evidence for the vitamin K shot, you will seriously just want to flip a table when people are like, "but, TOXINS". Fuck your toxins! Brain bleeds! Those are the stakes.
Isn't Vitamin K, like, super vital for blood clotting and not bleeding out and dying? (I only know this because of an informational flyer on the inside of my middle school bathroom, which talked about how you can get Vitamin K from leafy greens and it is important. It is entirely possible I am remembering this incorrectly.)
The flier spoke the truth. Babies don't have it. Formula-fed babies (whose care providers use the formula as directed and don't dilute it with water to make it last or with rice cereal because grandma said it would make the baby sleep) get it from formula, because formula companies back up dumptrucks full of it into every batch, but for all the benefits of exclusive breast feeding, this is not one of them. Even if the nursing person just eats kale and kale alone all day long, exclusively breast fed babies are still at risk of uncontrolled bleeding, including brain bleeding. The shot's documented side effects include: soreness.
That's fascinating! So are all vitamins non-breastmilk-transmittable, or just K (and possibly others)?
From what I've read, you MOSTLY do fine with very low levels of vitamin K, and clotting occurs anyway. It's just when you drop below those levels, you're in trouble. With vitamin K, there are two types, one from food and one from gut bacteria, and newborns don't really have the gut bacteria they need until they're a bit older, so unless they have an outside source, they're at risk for bleeding. Not sure how transmission of other vitamins through breast milk works. Mostly just fine, probably? But, yeah, some babies really did and do just die. In your face, intelligent design.
My information comes from an episode of Dr. House, but a middle-aged woman with a vitamin K deficiency was VOMITING BLOOD. So yeah, my takeaway is that vitamin K is pretty important.
thanks for the link! this shit is insane. whatever valid/nonvalid feelings people may have about vaccines/vaccine schedules – conflating Vitamin K with vaccines is…. not good.
I hate the word "toxins" so much because it has just turned into this buzzword for pseudoscience. The morning hosts on the radio station I listen to in the morning were talking about oil pulling yesterday, reading an article from Self about how it "removes the toxins" and they both just kinda stopped and laughed about how much hooey it was.
Toxins: I don't think that word means what you think it means
One of my Tumblr friends posted this screed about how walking barefoot is good for your health because it lets you "draw electrons out of the earth" and "stabilize the electron count of your red blood cells" and lower your blood pressure. My finger hovered over the unfollow button for a looong time.
You're better than me, because my fingers would not have been hovering over the "hahahahahahahaha are you for real?" keys, but striking them with great force.
…what
Just said this out loud to my empty apartment. But really, WHAT?
Oh wowwww, I just had to google that so I could send it to my Science Friend, who will lose his shit. Once I sent him stuff on oil pulling or whatever, just so I could relish his Science Rage. It was beautiful.
My BFF is finishing up a PhD in biology and sometimes I will ask her absurd questions just to bug her. In return she regales me with the stupidest answers she gets on her tests (she TAs intro-level anatomy & physiology courses). My favourite was the student who answered "Name the main function of human skin" with "You can make leather from it."
Ahhhhhhhh oh god, I just facepalmed. That's not a thing. That shouldn't be a thing. You didn't even try! Ohhhhhhh *giggles*
Maybe he did try and he's just a serial killer.
I mean… it worked for that dude in Silence of the Lambs. The kid wasn't WRONG, he was just off-base in terms of it being the *main* function.
She must be at Harvard, where they have a book covered in human skin
This is why I could not teach a "practical" subject. I headdesk enough while reading the answers my students write, but at least no one's health outcomes are riding on their belief that the underworld is encircled by the River Stynx.
BEAUTIFUL, more please
Well, that was my best one by far. I giggle every time I think about it. But I also liked the student who wrote that the only way to defeat the Sphinx was to "stab it."
They also tend to switch to Harry Potter Latin when they can't remember the actual words.
Oh that's perfect
My wife is my Science Friend, and watching her rage out about this nonsense is truly cathartic.
your username is BRILLIANT
It also enables the introduction of heartworms, glass, and other fun things into your feet. There is REASON shoes were invented
But they're organic, all-natural, free-range heartworms, how bad can they be?
They're full of ANTIOXIDANTS and REDUCE FREE RADICALS. Gosh.
Are you sure they just weren't reposting something from Fake Science?
It was reblogged from one of those stereotypical Smug Hipster Vegan tumblrs :(
Nooo…
I knew it probably wasn't but I was hoping to maybe salvage it!
Are they getting their info from Shailene Woodley? They're getting their info from Shailene Woodley.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sun my vagina to prevent yeast infections.
If stars never talked about health science this world would be a better place.
*raised eyebrow and severe side-eye in the general direction of Alicia Silverstone*
At the gym early yesterday morning, one of the TVs was showing an old episode of Laguna Beach on MTV. When Kristen Cavalleri came on, I thought to myself, Isn't that the ignorant wife of Jay Cutler with 18 zillion unimmunized kids?
But yes, Alicia Silverstone too. And bleeping Jenny McCarthy.
Shailene Woodley can do no wrong. When she says things that would make me violently roll my eyes were anyone else saying them, I just want to pat her hair and go on barefoot walk in the woods with her.
She eaaatttsss claaaayyy! Also because of "toxins" and "heavy metals." You mean like the kinds created in the core of a dying star? Yes, those are also in your tummy for sure.
Sooo… she has pica?
Yes! I think this is sometimes called "grounding" and there are even devices you can buy to replicate this if you can't walk on the grass. I love being barefoot in the summer…. but like, on my parent's porch, where I am unlikely to step on bees or broken glass. I think this is one of those weird romanticizing the olden days dealios that people do.
wat even
That's like…half stay around for the trainwreck, but half unfollow to save yourself some future stress right there.
It bothers me because toxic substances are obviously real. Obviously! Very small amounts of some substances cause harm, indisputably. But making ~toxin~ avoidance into the mother of all consumer choice issues insultingly ignores say, the environmental racism of putting polluting facilities in poor neighborhoods, exposing kids to way bigger doses of way worse substances than any used to preserve vaccines or vitamin shots. It's so much smug magical thinking. "Oh, I've cracked the code, and I won't let Big Pharma tell me what to do." When, no.
Yeah, I've actually been at a discussion about environmental justice where white "progressives" tried to shut down the conversation using that point. "Oh, it's developers exaggerating the impact and presence of heavy metals in the soil to keep people away from the space."
NO. HEAVY METALS LEFT BY INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES ARE ACTUALLY A THING THAT HAS DESTROYED WHOLE NEIGHBORHOODS.
OH MY GOD. "Exaggerating the impact and presence of heavy metals in the soil." I think you're a fellow Baltimorean, right? How and why could you possibly even begin exaggerating even the presence or the impact around here? What hyperbole could even be possible?
Yes, and YES. For reference, they were talking about the waterfront space down by the Port Covington Walmart (where Faerie Fest is and everything), which, yes, it's fantastic that there is watefront space that residents can get to easily, but you know, it was a port and maybe we should be cognizant of that?
Also, you know, Fairfield. D:
ETA: I'm skeptical of developers too but.. o_O
One summer many years ago, I lived with a MICA student who had this really cool idea of building guerrilla gardens in vacant lots in West Baltimore. By digging into the soil and planting vegetable seeds. Because, fresh tomatoes!
I was 22 and I thought literally everything was a good idea, but even then I was like "Oh my God, what are you thinking! Have you ever heard of lead?"
I used to work for [REDACTED ENV ORGANIZATION] and I swear I've had that conversation 12908123 times about food and food deserts.
On this note though: Urban Community Gardeners' Knowledge and Perceptions of Soil Contaminant Risks. WHOOPS.
I have this one neighbor I call YardChard and make fun of a lot because one time she said something disparaging about my dog (my good dog! Not even the bad one), and she's got this very nice veg garden right in her front yard, inches from a major east-west thoroughfare that was a major road for years before they took the lead out of gas. I frequently make the point to my spouse that YardChard probably just has brain damage, and that's why she dared to insult my perfect dog.
I also become a humorless lecturer on this subject when people ask for coffee grounds from my business for composting.
NO NO ABSOLUTELY NOT. I mentioned below that I'm in environmental consulting and at least here in NJ this is something that we take VERY SERIOUSLY (in fact I just submitted some samples for heavy metals and PCBs from one of my more urban sites yesterday) because of how bad they are.
Yes, exactly!! Toxin is a phrase I'm more used to associating with Love Canal, not some hipster bullshit fad. I work in environmental consulting and to me "toxin" is a benzene compound, not something Big Pharma is doing to poison us all into submission. Eyeroll.
Well, it's sort of like "chemicals." No one is saying that there aren't chemicals that are bad for you. But literally everything is a chemical, so…
Ah poop. I posted before I saw your comment. Well said!
I was just reading last night about Minamata Bay and the mercury poisoning of everybody around there. I am way more concerned about that than the ~*~toxins~*~ in a vitamin K shot. Or, for that matter, in my cheetos.
Also "chemicals" as Mallory has yelled about at length before. As in, "oh god, this food contains CHEMICALS." The logic being, basically, "All lifeforms are made of carbon. Pencils are made of carbon. Cows are lifeforms. BEEF IS MADE OF PENCILS, SHEEPLE!"
Some things just can't be said too many times or with too much CAPSLOCK.
A few months ago there were those pictures going around of an "all-natural banana" broken down into its chemical compounds, and I thought that was an excellent response. We are all made of star stuff, yes, but what do you think star stuff is??
Chemicals are made in laboratories by Monsanto villains. I AM MADE OF ALL-NATURAL NUTRIENTS DERIVED FROM SEAWEED AND ORGANIC HEMP FIBERS.
What is the deal with that? How did we survive before formula if breast milk doesn't provide a super necessary nutrient?? (Note: I am not saying this to deny that the Vitamin K shot is necessary. I'm genuinely curious, if any science-minded Toasties could help me out)
I would assume it's because throughout history, Some Babies Just Died. Today we call it SIDS, but….honestly, Some Babies Just Died is probably the truth. And it's all kinds of things we wouldn't know about today–failure to thrive, or an undiagnosed allergy, or brain bleed, or ingested something disgusting off the floor, or got an infection, or whatever. The mortality rate of babies was astronomical in a lot of societies, and I'm willing to bet that "no blood clot makers" was just a very small part of that.
Makes sad sense. So the Vitamin K deficiency is one of those "it doesn't happen all the time but when it does it's REALLY BAD so take the damn shot" kinda things?
Not just some. SO MANY babies died. Enough to drag down the average age of death by so much that there's still a widespread misconception that most people died by 40 for most of history.
Oh, trust me, I know. I discuss the difference between "life expectancy" and "mortality rate" and "average age of death" at all times, whenever anyone gives me leave to.
I love this place. My people!
In fact, I'm sure I've ranted about it, at length, here on the Toast before, and quite probably multiple times. I CAN'T HELP IT IT'S A PARTICULAR BUGABOO OF MINE.
I'm giving you leave to talk about it FOREVER.
MISSION ACCEPTED
A quick google search of statistics comes up with these sobering in numbers: in 1919 in Canada, the province with the lowest rate of infant mortality was Saskatchewan with 91 infant deaths per 1000 live births to Quebec at the highest of 153 infant deaths per 1000: http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/…
Seriously, that was less than a 100 years ago, after a lot of medical advances. And the infant mortality rate was still so high. And now our society has forgotten how common it used to be to the point of forgoing lifesaving preventative shots.
What? I didn't know that. Mind blown. Thank you!
You're welcome! It's moments like this that make being a loudmouth on the internet worth while!
I put some of this in another reply, but mostly, you do OK with very low levels, and mostly, you're fine. Babies are usually not doing anything too rough that would cause bruising or bleeding (and if they are getting thrown around or shaken, they have ither problems) and they start to get some good bacteria to produce one type of vitamin K as they get older. But lack of vitamin K, in combination with some other conditions, and sometimes in combination with nothing detectable, can cause catastrophic consequences.
In a written statement provided for this article, Mercola elaborated on his views. He said that as a doctor, he has personally seen "direct evidence of trauma from injections,"…
Trauma? You mean because the baby was stuck with a needle? Yeah, we all have minor trauma when we get shots, dude, but 30 seconds of crying DOES NOT OUTWEIGH BRAIN BLEEDING. This guy needs to shut his dang piehole.
Plus, I'm pretty sure the whole damn BEING SQUEEZED OUT THE BIRTH CANAL thing is probably a tiny bit more traumatic overall.
Yep. Last year I got three vaccines in one visit (Hep A, Hep B, TDAP) and then passed out in the phlebotomist's chair (apparently 3 needles is my limit) and my arm was sore for days.
Still not as traumatic as tetanus or diphtheria.
This is the specific, well-cited article from which I'm drawing my information. http://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-for-the-vi…
The linked articles in the roundup itself are also pretty compelling, except for the way they will make your head explode with frustration at the consequences of these parents' choices and the dangerous assholes who have propagated the falsehoods that lead to these choices.
Thanks for sharing!
Maybe this is not the time or the place, but I'm gonna unload some Mom Guilt right here:
I did not get my daughter the vitamin K shot. AND I DON'T KNOW WHY.
I had every intention of getting it for her and knew why it was necessary, blah blah blah. But for some reason, I was so out of it right after she was born — and they brought the consent form RIGHT after she was born — that I asked the nurse, "Oh, is this necessary?" And she said, "No, just keep an eye on her."
??? It wasn't a woo-hippie hospital at all – in fact, they have a pretty bad reputation for dealing with non-medicated birth. I have no idea what the nurse was thinking, or what I was thinking in checking the "no" box.
Of course, the same hospital was about to release me without giving me the rhogam shot to prevent my body from rejecting future pregnancies, so maybe they just sucked. Anyway, I was lucky, my kid was fine, but I guess my advice is to know your plan before you give birth and not make last-minute decisions based on some nurse whose face you don't even remember?
WTF that nurse??? I think you can let yourself off the hook for that one. You trusted a medical professional who went through years of schooling and professional training, which is very understandable, especially when you're exhausted from giving birth!
If it hadn't been for some very firm guidance from that birth class teacher to check out the evidence ahead of time, I would've been like, "Pass," because they do all kinds of weird stuff in hospitals, and intuitively it made very little sense to me that a random vitamin injection would be remotely necessary. That's one reason I'm a little bit of an evangelist about it, because this is one case where it seems like common sense is not the winner of the day. Definitely not trying to make anybody guilty, though! Wth, NURSE?
Oh, you're not making me feel guilty. I felt guilty myself as soon as I came to my senses — When I think about it, I still get a pit in my stomach like you do when your baby teeters over right in front of you and you fail to catch him/her. Evangelize away! It is ridiculous that the anti-vaccine madness is spreading to vitamin K.
I'm pregnant again and really planning not to go back to that hospital. Thanks to both of you for the kind words!
My doula would have merrily encouraged me to skip EVERYTHING, which is why I hired her as a doula and not as a medical care provider. SIDE EYE TO NURSE.
This seems really common! And so many of the things just blur together. honestly. I got the eye goop for her, but I was all ughhhhh about it because, you know, they had tested me for gonorrhea like nineteen times during pregnancy and I knew I did not have gonorrhea, and they wake you up every five seconds to test your vitals when you are the most tired you have ever been. Your advice about MAKING A PLAN is good.
Me, I held off on Hep B for a couple of months, not for any super-good reason, but because it was something they waited on in Canada and I was fully-immunized against it myself, but I think newborn Hep B is now standard there as well, and I plan on just following the standard schedule with my next birth.
Holy crap, do things blur together after your kid is born. I had a scheduled C-section (high-risk pregnancy) with a spinal that kept torpedoing my blood pressure, so they had to give me max doses of adrenaline to keep me conscious.
So it's not surprising that the nurses showed me the baby, then whisked her away to get eye-dropped/Vitamin K'd/etc/etc. They knew I wasn't going to be much help in decision-making at that point.
(At least my husband got to cut the cord.)
A plan is a really good thing and one that someone other than you is in charge of implementing! Things really blur together and you've got so many various agendas happening after your baby is born -there's the liability issues, the public health issues, the checking a box issues, and oh yeah, the making sure the baby has the best start in life issues. Coming up with your evidence based post childcare treatment plan is awesome.
I think it gets really muddled in those first hours post partum because some of it really has plenty of evidence to be life saving, as in thank heavens we're born in this century and can get a Vit K shot at birth, and some of it is a public health issue, as in, this may be the last time we get our hands on this individual, so let's give them a shot they need if they're living with people that have Hep B or are using something that involves sharing needles but if not, they don't really need it until they become sexually active. And some of it is just plain stupid and liability based. MoFos you tested me for goddamn clap a zillion times, I'm in a 15 year monogamous relationship, my kid and I were in labor for 2 and a half days and the last thing I want is you smearing shit on his eyes that I get to see for the first time in all of our lives. Fuck off…we need to sleep and learn how to breastfeed.
I'm a research scientist and if it's not obvious, I chose to totally go for the vit K shot (hell yeah!) but not to get the eye goop or the hep B shot since our work requires us to have Hep B immunizations and our titers are checked regularly. He wasn't going to get it from us, and he sure as hell wasn't going to be getting it from IV drug use or sexual fluids when he was 1 day old.
Parenting really sucks sometimes. The no vaccines cuz cancer and autism people are super annoying (some of my favorite parents otherwise fall into that category) but equally culpable, in my mind, is the arrogant way information from the medical and science community has been historically communicated. There's a trust issue and we're paying the price now (or will be) with all the no-vaccine stuff.
Add me to the severe side-eye to the nurse category here. GET WITH IT, NURSE.
More importantly at this point, I'm glad your kiddo is fine and it's always okay to unload some Mom Guilt on us.
REAL TALK
last night I indulged in a lengthy monologue that ended along the lines of —
"…and then i will LAUGH"
bf: silence
me: Did I just sound like a cartoon villain?
bf: You sounded like Mallory.
so, Toast, its working
ps: third and last day of the CA bar, PLS WHISPER MY NAME IN ALL OF TODAYS RITUALISTIC SACRIFICES
I feel like if we all whisper "plspassthePinot" with all our ritualistic sentences we will all be drunk by the end of the day.
Everybody wins!
1. Good luck on the bar! I will pray to SpaceWitch for you.
2. Last night, in a ringing voice, I demanded: "Boyfriend, bring me a slice of cake!" and he did. Heady stuff.
Did you already have cake in the house?
Yes, because a mere half-hour earlier, we were at Whole Foods specifically so I could get a slice of the chocolate cake they have that I like and when they were out of individual cake slices, Mr.BHam looked at me, went up to the counter, and ordered a full-size cake as a compromise.
Yes good continue with that choice of life partner.
Excellent compromise! He sounds like a keeper.
He will be spared come the Misandrist Revolution.
Yesterday, I confirmed that none of my (male) coworkers can tell when I'm being serious and when I'm just messing with their heads. They have to help each other figure out when I'm trolling them. It's woorkiiiiiiing
good luck good luck good luck! You'll do not just fine, but wonderfully, on this last day of Bar Hell, and tonight eat all the cake and drink all the pinot to celebrate.
Good luck on the bar!! I hope I never have to take another.
Guys please tell me I'm not the only one who has lost several hours to the Kim Kardashian game.
NO RAGRETS
My only regret is that there's no option to push Willow Pape in front of a bus. Maybe one day…
Throwing a drink in her face is not enough.
#Illuminati
I made it to the A-list yesterday!
nothing better than punching pigeons for dollars…
The WiFi on my phone doesn't work and I can't get it repaired right now, so I CAN'T PLAY and I'm really mad about it.
I played it for a week and made it to the A list and then deleted it because I had achieved my mission. It was pretty fun.
I think Ras Trent just commented on my blog http://uncommon-courtesy.com/2014/07/30/does-pot-…
that weed wedding article was just beyond.
wow that Bustle list is patronizing. I never thought I'd ever say this, but I have new respect for K. Kardashian.
I have huge respect for Kim K — she made herself rich and famous without any talent other than being smart about fame! I wish I had a lucrative career based on doing the stuff I wanted to do anyway.
It's crazy, isn't it? I watched a few minutes of Keeping Up the other day and the whole family was vacationing in Tahiti, and I was thinking about how the Kardashians not only don't pay for these vacations, they GET paid to take them and be filmed. We have collectively bestowed wealth upon this family for no other reason than… they are good at being famous? It's all very interesting indeed.
I love that one of the biggest dramas around the Thailand vacation was not "WTF, Rob did not show up for this incredibly expensive first-class flight halfway across the world, we are now out like $3000" but rather "Wahhhh Rob is so insecure, I miss him, I want to go home because I'm not happy without Rob here." I would have gotten beheaded (and quite right, too) if I had just not shown up and cost my parents a bazillion dollars just because I felt fat and sad about my sister's divorce.
No shit. It's okay if you don't like her–whatever, nobody has to like everybody, and there are many stars in Hollywood I wouldn't want to be friends with–but really? "Does she know what a video game is?" Well, she's appallingly wealthy and lives on planet Earth, so….yes……
I like the people who think that building a massive media empire just kinda HAPPENS, like they're all sour grapes that the right assistants and hangers-on haven't manifested from the aether to clamp onto them and lift them to stardom while they do nothing but sit around and be their wonderful selves.
There's certainly more respectable ways to make a living than selling yourself and nothing else, but turning your persona into $45 million is still an accomplishment that likely none of us are capable of.
I also have huge respect for Kim K! She is obviously a total business whiz and very intelligent. I'm really looking forward to reading a biography of her written by AHP in like 20 years to learn some of her secrets. I think there's a ton of misogyny wrapped up in all the Kim hate — people who are scared of women in power and control of their own images, and jealous that she's made fame and fortune out of almost literally thin air, and made it LOOK easy.
JUST GIVE YOUR KID THE VITAMIN K SHOT JESUS CHRIST
Also, I can't tell what my favorite part of that facebook comment is, but I know my favorite part of the deleted Toast comment is the name. Hillary Cliton.
<img src="http://i.qkme.me/35esmb.jpg">
OMG it IS! I hadn't noticed! :D
I've been watching a lot of Canadian Sci-Fi tv lately, and those shows are all about the women! The Canadians are doing it better.
OOH like what? I need new shows and all the good scifi stuff seems to be from Canada/shot in Canada.
I'm obsessed with Orphan Black, which is quite feminist and very well acted. Lost Girl is good, trashy fun, and last night I watched the first two episodes of Continuum. Not great actors, but the cast seems pretty diverse.
ORPHAN BLACK IS EVERYTHING. Oh my lord, I can't even deal with how much I love it.
Lost Girl is ridiculous and I love it so much.
LOST GIRL. Bo! BO!!!!
Also, here's a quote from the creator, Michelle Lovretta, re: Lost Girl:
"When Prodigy (our studio) asked me to create a show about some kind of bisexual superhero who uses sex as part of her arsenal, my first thought was "hell, yes!"…The challenge was to create a fun, sex-positive world that celebrates provocative cheesecake for everyone, without falling into base stereotypes or misogynistic (or misandristic) exploitation along the way…Bo has lots of sex, with men, women, humans, Fae, threesomes… and she's still our hero, still a good person worthy (and capable) of love, and that's a rare portrayal of female sexuality…It's also rare to have a female lead who is so honestly sexual, without judgment…I think the single element I will remain proudest of is just that we've been able to create and put out into the world a sex positive universe where a person's sexual orientation is unapologetically present and yet neither defines them as a character, nor the show as a whole…I felt it was crucial to also demonstrate that sex and romance aren't the only ways that Bo measures a relationship's worth, to give the show balance…Fans may have noticed that Kenzi clarified her hetero orientation at the end of ep 101…That line was necessary because…I was determined to protect their platonic-yet-epic BFF-ness, so I made sure it was written in as canon. Partly, this was to debunk the gay-panic cliche that bisexual people sexualize everyone, and are incapable of platonic friendship. But there was another, simpler and more personal reason: I think friendship is the fifth element…So, hidden in amongst all the romance and cleavage and threesomes, the Lost Girl Bo and Kenzi relationship is my own little love poem to all the BFFs out there who do it right"
I really tried to shorten that quote but all of it makes me squeal with glee and I could not. I LOVE Lost Girl SO MUCH.
[Full disclosure, though: There waaaaaas one episode that sort of fell on its face pretty egregiously wrt transphobia, though, which was deeply disappointing :( I can't remember which, now, but it made me sad.]
The one with the Amazon prison! I just started watching season 3 recently, and that episode what a big fat. . . wait, what?! But I hear you on everything else.
Ugh, yes, that one! I'm not the most perceptive of viewers, generally — usually people have to point things out to me or I have to do a bunch of reading about a topic before I feel comfortable being like THAT. THAT WAS SOME MESSED UP SHIT.
But GOD. That episode. Even someone as oblivious as me was like come on guys, really???
They issued a seemingly pretty genuine apology once they were called out, though, which is heartening. I hope in season 4 they introduce a trans character who is treated as respectfully and awesomely as Bo is.
Honestly, that's not really an apology. They said, "hey, that character was clearly not trans at all, sorry if you misinterpreted that."
Ugh see this is what I mean re: me being bad at interpreting things. Because I went into that expecting a more fakey "sorry you were offended," and that at least felt a little more heartfelt, to me, esp the whole "we are super into everyone being who they are without judgement!"
Then again, you'd think a show with a mission statement like Lost Girl's would be a leeeeettle less tone deaf in terms of transphobia. :-/
Well, it's not the worst apology statement ever, but it's not the best.
I loved the episode where the monster of the week was literal slut-shaming. Self-doubt is the ACTUAL POISON that wears women down and kills their souls, thank you show.
Are you talking about Continuum? Because I just watched an entire season of that. Hot cops! Dramatic speeches! Time travel paradoxes! It's my jam.
(I'm also assuming Orphan Black, ofc)
What silly phone games do y'all like? I'm really into Fashion Story. I tried most of the other Stories too, like Restaurant, Bakery and Pet Shop, and lost interest in them, but my love for Fashion Story abides. I am determined to get to level 4 on all the outfits, although I might not succeed since they add a new one every week. (That's how they get you!)
I stopped Candy Crush in a fit of rage after I changed phones and lost my level 145. Now I can't stop with the stupid Kardashian game. But my husband beats all–he is addicted to Clash of Clans and has three separate games going–one on his phone, one on mine, and one on the Ipad.
I'd really thought my addiction to Marvel Puzzle Quest would have gone away by now and yet here I am still playing it, so that's good. (It does not involve outfits but it does involve collecting and match-3-puzzle stuff.)
All I want in life right now is to get Captain Marvel. I switched phones recently and lost all my progress and I'm SO SAD.
oh man that would KILL me. I guess because I was connected enough to Facebook, when I got a new phone it was all still there? (I have a Captain Marvel! And two covers of her! She has a great outfit.)
I still don't have her, but I got She-Hulk, which makes me happy.
I am appallingly addicted to Triple Town, which involves no levels or story line per se, it's just a put-the-things-together-to-get-a-bigger-thing type game. It has been MONTHS.
I LOVE TRIPLE TOWN.
I have historically been really into Underworld Empire, in which you build a crime syndicate and collect cool-looking weapons and gang members and commit lots of crimes. I even joined an empire, but ever since they started harassing me over in-game messages to join more battles, I've sort of lost interest. Highly recommend in any case.
My three most played right now are Bubble Witch Saga (which I started because I just got SO MAD at Candy Crush), Monster High Ghouls & Jewels (it's like Candy Crush! But with a dressup option for your monster!!), and surprisingly enough, the bush's baked beans sponsor game. Sponsor games are usually terrible but this one is actually a cute and fun little side-scrolling platformer??
I am remarkably intrigued by your endorsement of the Bush's Baked Beans game. Do you happen to know if it's iOS only, or…?
I have an android device and know it is available on google play!
I don't even like baked beans that much but the game is SURPRISINGLY FUN.
Two Dots is amazing. I love puzzle games. The soundtrack is AH MAZING and they actually are selling it on itunes now.
Oh, I forgot that was coming out!! Do you know if it's available for Android devices yet? I know we had to wait a bit for regular Dots. :(
I've been playing Hay Day forever. They keep expanding it which is great.
I am obsessed with a game called blendoku (like sudoku but with blending colors, I guess?) which is basically a grid of spaces and colored squares that you arrange in them according to color theory to form gradients.
If there's anything more soothing than assembling a perfect color gradient, in any medium, I don't want to know about it.
Continuity (and its sequel, Continuity II) is really fun too; it's a combination puzzle game and platformer with minimalist graphics.
Blendoku is one of my favorites!
I've replaced my phone twice and it always bums me out to have to restart, and also the 4th level is IMPOSSIBLE on a regular phone screen, it really needs a tablet, which is also a bummer.
I'm that weirdo who will play it over and over with no problem, so I don't really mind restarting. And I did eventually manage to do the Master level on my phone, but only in a darkened room, and even then, I misfire a lot.
It's just so, so great. Very good at calming the mindgrapes.
Oh, yeah, I keep replaying anyway, but I lost all my Best Times, and it's dismaying to be all "yay, I have filled in squares for all three sections!" and then they're blank again.
It was the very first game I downloaded for my phone, back in May 2013, and I immediately bought an expansion pack because I adored it so much. :D I don't spend money on games easily, either.
my favorite part is all the staggered gradients that you get when you finish level, and also on the screen where you choose your level when you swipe across. so pretty~~~~
I loved Tiny Tower, and oh my god Pocket Trains I just played until I had literally gotten every achievement in the game (I love trains a lot.) I played Bakery Story but it didn't really stick. Right now all I'm playing is the Doctor Who: Legacy game, which is pretty entertaining.
THERE'S A DOCTOR WHO GAME FOR PHONES WHAT OMG
I've been playing Doctor Who Legacy, which is kind of dumb and basically just Candy Crush, but it is super addicting.
The last 3 weeks I've been ALL ABOUT Line's Disney Tsumtsum which is a connect-three type game using organic patterns instead of rectangular grids (because each object is an oval, not a square, and the playing field is a circle, like a basket all the Tsums drop into). It is super cute if you like cute Disney things, and has adorable sound effects, imo.
It's super duper popular in Asia, and has this whole line of toys at the Japanese Disney stores, and just got introduced in the states. The Dallas-Fort Worth area Disney stores are completely sold out of the little plush toys as of this week. (They only came out around July 7!)
I've been ensnared by QuizUp, but I'm pretending it's educational. See, I'm not wasting time: I'm learning! About sitcoms. And…uh, flags and stuff.
Michigan Toasties! I just found out that Roxane Gay will be reading/signing in Ann Arbor on the 7th. Does anyone want to make a meetup out of it?
YES. I was planning on being there. Meet at ABC beforehand maybe? I forget what time it is but I won't be able to get in to town until 6 bc of work.
DONE. It starts at 7 so lets do 6ish at ABC? Maybe we can drum up some more toasties if we post in the open thread tomorrow.
Yay! I hope so! This will be so fun.
Hi! I've been lurking on the Toast for ages (and reading all the comments), but it took finding Michigan Toasties to finally commit to a username. :D I'm really bummed that I can't make that reading, but I'd love meet you all another time! I just moved to Lansing, and where better to find awesome people in the area than on the Toast?
Cackling because I just got a "3 things that REPEL MEN" sidebar ad on this post. Please, internet, I can repel men in my SLEEP.
That Ask Polly column — wow.
That column was a sucker-punch to the gut right as I am dealing with dysfunctional family issues. Polly always seems to know what I'm going through!
Hmmm. I didn't like the column. I think what the LW needed to hear was 1) you have a right to protect yourself from people who hurt you, and 2) if you do choose to stay in contact with your mother, healthy boundaries are essential.
Perhaps I need to reread it, but I think its unhelpful and dangerous the way Polly conflates accepting one's self and accepting one's abuser. You don't have to forgive and make nice with an abusive person (and open yourself up to more abuse) in order to come to terms with yourself!
I don't think that was quite what she was saying. It read to me as "you could cut your mom off, she certainly doesn't deserve better, but you might benefit more from learning to communicate directly with her about her awfulness, because going right to the source can be a good way of learning to stand up for for the validity of your own self." I think it should be taken with a grain of salt, too, because when you try to do that it's really easy to get sucked in again by the abuser, even if you understand the dynamic. I agree that there should have been more emphasis on healthy boundaries. But I get where Polly's coming from.
really hit home, that one.
That Dear Polly…ALL THE FEELZ.
Right?! It is so hard to make good choices when all your life you've been told that no one is happy, everybody dies frustrated & sad and that is beautiful. I remember in high school, telling my dad that I thought I was depressed, and being told "Everyone is depressed. I'm depressed. Life is depressing." HELPFUL! THANKS DAD! Even now that I'm aware of it, I can't get past this pattern of thinking, "Maybe my life as it is could be good enough. It's probably unreasonable to expect more."
It's a family legend of ours that when my mother told her parents that she wasn't happy in her marriage, her father said "what's this happy shit?"
She retells it as if it's a cute story :(
We have a lot of unacknowledged– much less treated– depression in my family.
Oh my god though with Polly's breakdown of the LW's "It's a dream, and I can't wait to start a family blah blah blah." statement:
"That "blah blah blah" says, "I don't feel comfortable expressing that I'm just another fool for this mainstream heteronormative fairy tale," sure, but it also says, "I don't feel comfortable expressing any hope about my future, or even a desire to love and be loved, because I don't have a right to happiness like that and anyway fuck you, it's none of your fucking business anyway." It also says, "I sort of want to get married and have kids, but if it all falls apart I won't be surprised, really, because my whole life up to now has been a shitshow of epic proportions."
Btwn that and the "you have to find a way to let your old self be part of who you are today too" message, it's painful, but beautiful.
A DVD OF COOL RUNNINGS
yakka yakka yakka yow
Livin' in the shanty dorms!
MURDER, SHE WROTE
DIDDLY WOOAHHH
This is my favorite to yell. My second favorite is "Me toil part time at ja Cold Stone Creamery"
I'm really glad my sister and I aren't the only ones who go through periodic Ras Trent singing phases!
A DVD OF COOL RUNNINGS
Oh god – Polly is incredible! She somehow sees through the letter thats written to what the problem actually is. And then she makes me cry a bucket load.
I save Polly columns for a time when it won't be disastrous to dissolve into a mess of snot and tears, because she gets me almost every time.
Ohhhhh my god. "Toxins" is the scourge of our generation.
Fun fact regarding the deleted comment: There is no such thing as "clinically insane." Insanity is a legal term and is not used as a clinical of diagnostic label. (Rides away on a "the more you know" shooting star)
Nothing in this world is as good as Ras Trent
ME TOIL PART TIME AT JAH COLD STONE CREAMERY
And the source of the JayZ – Beyonce rumors is, you guess it:
Frank Stallone
Not Jackie? My money was on Jackie. She is, after all, a gifted psychic. (By which I mean of course that she reads butts.)
I had to feed my dog vitamin k when my incompetent building managers poisoned him with rat poison a couple months ago, I do not understand why a baby would need a shot of it? Is the baby full of poison? IDGI
I wish there was a way to make tiny text but: there are kinda better pieces about the Kim K Hollywood game by women writers like Samantha Allen (http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/hating-kim-kardashian-makes-her-stronger/) and Gita Jackson (http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/07/kim-kardashian-hollywood-and-the-price-of-fame.html) ok thx bai.
There are good explanations of the Vitamin K shot upthread! See the thread started by Frenz_lo.
Don't know nuthin bout no vitamins for babies. But I do know someone who was born with a vitamin K deficiency. She has little ability to clot, so is in danger of bleeding to death when the rest of us would just clean up and get on with our day. She almost died in childbirth only because no one knew of her clotting troubles (a long time ago) and she was losing blood. Now she tells every medical person she encounters about her need of K shot in advance of surgery.
My guess is that the rat poison was one of the many ones that work via interrupting coagulation, causing the rats (and anything that ingests the poison) to bleed to death, because little behbehs get Vitamin K shots to make sure their blood clots properly.
You guys I haven't even read the link roundup yet today but I just have to share the ad that's showing up for me on this page I CANNOT MAKE THIS UP:
<img src="http://s30.postimg.org/431k16x0h/Capture.png">
I think they are being awfully alarmist about horizontal stripes. Truth is, if my horizontally striped shirts made men run screaming, I would wear them more often.
In my lovely fantasy world, the lady pictured there is about to share her amazing misandrist advice with us. Bravo, stripey lady! Bravo!
I know, right? If only more things actually repelled men, rather than made them want to talk to you so they could tell you what you're doing wrong, or how you're kind of hot but would be even hotter if [blank], or explain to you how you've totally misinterpreted what they said/did, or accuse you of being a lesbian, or whatever.
Also, horizontal stripes forever and ever.
OMG we're talking about a similar but different version of this same ad over in the Dirtbag Tales thread. It is AMAZING.
I FUCKING LOVE RAS TRENT
now i'm gonna have it stuck in my head all day.
i feel like the world would be 9000% better if that "rude" song was mysteriously replaced by ras trent.
last night I was in a packed subway car full of Liverpool fans and I couldn't tell if the guy standing in front of me looked more like Kyle Beckerman or RRRRRRAS Trent. I wanna say Ras Trent.
("EXCUSE I")
OH HOT STEPPA
(I cannot read any comments about Ras Trent without wanting to finish the song, this is bad)
I can't read the article about testing drugs on the homeless because I don't want to cry at work, but wow.
There's a drug-testing company in town that runs radio ads all like "are you tired? unable to focus?" blah blah, general symptoms of ADD or depression, and suggest you come in for a screening and possibly get paid to try new drugs. And I'm like ICK ICK. But.
I was desperate for something a few years ago (when I was only listening to NPR, so hadn't heard the ads), and found them after googling for mental health drug trials, because without insurance, I didn't know of any other way to get drugs to help. And they were like "wow, you're too depressed for most of our trials, but maybe there's another one you can do" and worked me in and I actually got on the test drug (we know because a) whatever I was on made an immediate difference and b) after the trial, we had me take a few others for a couple months until we ruled out the placebos and whatnot, since it was double-blind), AND I earned $450 for three months of weekly, then biweekly, visits to check my mental state and see if I was having any side effects. For being in between jobs, behind on my bills, and desperate for medication to fight my depression (it's the kind that responds to SNRI treatment), that drug trial was a godsend, and I'm so grateful to them for looking for one I could do, and also to help me find a drug that worked afterwards, for free.
They've called me a few times since, but I don't want to have to quit a drug we know works to test something new out, even if I could use the cash, and I really liked knowing that I was Patient #948583 or whatever in the experiment, possibly helping bring a new drug to market to help people like me. (It's still not on the market – it was for time-release Savella, instead of twice-daily Savella. It's sold in other countries, but the FDA wants more tests or something still, I guess.)
Anyway. I was really lucky that I got an active drug in the double-blind study and it worked for me. That $450 wasn't part of my decision to call them up, but it helped a lot with travel to the clinic and the time spent. I think about people who are desperate for the money, not so much for the medication, which they also need, like the homeless folk, and it kills me. I can't bear to stop taking my meds now, but for folks who need the money and are willing to trade their medication for it? I can see how it's very tempting, and when you're well medicated, it's easy to think that you don't really need the medicine anymore, so what's the harm in stopping.
And as much as the company running the trial needs people to participate, it makes me uncomfortable to hear the advertising that's all about "and get paid for it, too!".
One of the things I like to do whenever someone comes up to me asking what cultural appropriation is is to show them the video for Ras Trent, because it is the most perfect representation without even trying. I don't think they were trying, at least.
MY ROOMMATE NATE IS AN IGNORANT BALD-HEAD
"because it is the most perfect representation without even trying. I don't think they were trying, at least. "
What weren't they trying? I mean, they're clearly making fun of Trent for picking up a religion and culture he knows nothing about as if it's a trendy accessory. Seems like an obvious and intentional critique of cultural appropriation to me, even if the creators might not use those terms.
5. Do her eyes just glaze over until the words “shopping,” “money,” and “hot” pop up?
No. Successful women are very good at active listening and interpersonal communication.
I'm really sick of people dismissing [Kim Kardashian/Paris Hilton/etc] as vacuous, parasitic non-people. A woman has found a way to turn her enjoyment of stereotypically "feminine" things like clothes and parties into a revenue stream! But she's doing girl stuff, so she must be a moron, a layabout, and probably engaged in a great deal of indiscriminate sex with terrible people, which is the worst thing a woman can do.
Note: I dislike "reality" stars and other people who are famous merely for being famous, and who get paid a great deal for buying a lot of things. But that's a societal problem that's been around a lot longer than Kim Kardashian. Also, I respond to unlikeable reality stars by ignoring their existence, which I find makes me a great deal happier.
Revenge of the Note: I misspelled "vacuous" at first, and spellcheck suggested both the correct spelling and "curvaceous" as options, lol.
Ok, the complete lack of diversity in films in general and Sci Fi and Fantasy in particular is upsetting and needs to be fixed, but I am kind of obsessed with the following sentence: "of the eight protagonists of color, six are Will Smith."
Lmfao most Mozart piano stuff isn't that difficult and also is kinda boring, imho.
1,000 internet points and one crescendo of pianos for YOU!
<img src="http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mehjadnXU51qhep2vo1_500.gif">