Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.
Knocking the stuffing out of each other may also set a record if Oregon State University students are recognized for what they hope was the largest pillow fight in history.
Unofficially, 766 people showed up at Oregon State on Friday to take part in the jumbo pillow fight in hopes of topping the Guinness Book of Records mark set by 645 people who staged a mass pillow brawl in Garnett, Kan., last June.
That sounds like so much fun!
(via Prairie)
Local weekly newspaper The Stranger has an excellent summary of Gary Ridgeway’s day in court confessing to 48 counts of murder as the Green River Killer — and plea bargaining to avoid the death sentence in the process — in the form of a 24-panel black and white comic strip. Very nicely done.
I’m really torn as to the matter of his plea bargain. Firstly, I’ve never been a huge fan of the death penalty (yes, I’m afraid I’m one of those flaming liberals). At the same time, if there were ever a case extreme enough to justify the death penalty, this could be it — 48 women dead over 20-some years, merely because Ridgeway didn’t like prostitutes. Obviously, rehabilitation isn’t an option in some cases, and while Ridgeway’s death certainly wouldn’t bring any of his victims back, or ease the pain for their families, it could provide a sense of closure and finality for many people that merely locking him away for the rest of his life wouldn’t do. But what got the judge to accept the plea bargain and to allow Ridgeway to live was Ridgeway’s promise to reveal the location of even more remains so that they can be exhumed, identified, and hopefully returned to their families, which I can only see as a good thing, allowing more people to get a certain amount of closure in the death of their loved ones.
It’s certainly not an easy situation. I don’t envy the judge, nor any of the other people involved in this case. No matter what, not everyone is going to be satisfied with the final outcome.
(via pops)
From The Guardian: the top 10 scientific hoaxes of all time. A very interesting list, some of which I’d heard of, some of which I hadn’t, and one that I’d never heard was a hoax.
2. The amazing Tasaday tribe
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In 1971 Manuel Elizalde, a Philippine government minister, discovered a small stone age tribe living in utter isolation on the island of Mindanao. These people, the Tasaday, spoke a strange language, gathered wild food, used stone tools, lived in caves, wore leaves for clothes, and settled matters by gentle persuasion. They made love, not war, and became icons of innocence; reminders of a vanished Eden.
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They also made the television news headlines, the cover of National Geographic, were the subject of a bestselling book, and were visited by Charles A Lindbergh and Gina Lollobrigida. Anthropologists tried to get a more sustained look, but President Marcos declared a 45,000-acre Tasaday reserve and closed it to all visitors.
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After Marcos was deposed in 1986, two journalists got in and found that the Tasaday lived in houses, traded smoked meat with local farmers, wore Levi’s T-shirts and spoke a recognisable local dialect. The Tasadays explained that they had only moved into caves, donned leaves and performed for cameras under pressure from Elizalde – who had fled the country in 1983 along with millions from a foundation set up to protect the Tasaday. Elizalde died in 1997.
I remember reading about the Tasaday tribe in National Geographic (though as the issue was printed in 1972, the year before my birth, it must have been much later when I found it) and being absolutely fascinated that they’d been able to survive unchanged for so long. A bit of a bummer that it was a hoax, but not terribly surprising.
(via MeFi)
One of the many reasons why I love the English language is how sentences can parse in entirely unintentional ways. For instance, from the Washington Post:
Those poor activists! Someone really needs to cheer them up — but first, get them away from that Girl Scout!
The copyeditors really should have caught that one before it made it to press…
(via The Usual Suspects)
Singapore sounds like a rather odd place at times. Never having been there, of course, all I can judge by is the occasional news story that makes the rounds over here, when I find out that in Singapore, prostitution is legal, the age of consent is 16 — but oral sex is illegal.
Like the title says…;)
(via Prairie)
While for most people these days, any discussion of men with breasts will immediately lead to quotes from Fight Club (“This is Bob. Bob had bitch tits.”), it’s a very real medical condition called Gynecomastia, sometimes developed as a result of Klienfelter Syndrome.
Klienfelters is a genetic condition, caused and characterized by having an extra bit of gene make up. Where most people have either a 36 YY or 26 XY Genetic make up depending if they are male or female, some people have variations of the standard. Klienfelters Syndrome people typically have a 37XXY Gene. Technically this makes them neither male or female. Klienfelters Syndrome people appear and are accepted as male. In many cases, people who have the condition may not realise they have it.
Some symptoms of Klienfelters include:
- Slight outward turning of legs, similar to Downs Syndrome.
- Slight to significant brain retardation and hence slow learning.
- Problems with linguistics; reading and language skills.
- Short attention spans.
- Development of breasts at puberty.
- Wider hips than normal.
- Appear to be overweight from puberty (some Internet sites say the opposite).
- Infertility.
- Short life spans.
The best and most definitive way to work out if a person has Klienfelters is to have a test for the 37XXY genetic makeup from a blood sample.
I happened across one person’s website about their experiences growing up in a small town with Klienfelters Syndrome.
His story fascinated me. While you’d expect that someone in his position in a small town would be regarded as a “freak” of some sort, he actually was lucky enough to be very accepted by his (predominantly female) family and the community. Raised with three sisters and a mother who didn’t enforce the usual gender stereotypes, he lived mostly as a girl from an early age. At the onset of puberty, the development of his breasts enforced this, and while he knew he was a boy, he was able to spend most of his childhood comfortably, without being ostracized, harassed, or abused by the people around him.
As he grew older and moved out into the world, of course, things didn’t always go as smoothly, and he now lives most of his life in public appearing masculine, but still primarily self-identifying as feminine — though not homosexual — when he’s at home. Even in a society that is (slowly, but finally) becoming more tolerant of homosexuality, trans-gendered people, and the entire GLBT spectrum, it’s interesting to hear from people like this who still “fall through the cracks,” and don’t quite fit into any of the nice, neat little boxes that we’re forever trying to fit people into.
(via Something Positive)
[Update:]{.underline}
Sure, it’s possible that his story is a load of hooey. I still find the gender identity issues interesting.
Some days I think I’m doing okay in my life. I may not have a set career or a ton of money or anything along those lines, but I’m not doing too badly.
Then, I find things like this: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age…
At age 30:
Mark Twain published his first short story, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog.”
Danish novelist Hans Christian Andersen published his book of fairy tales.
Nat Turner led a slave rebellion.
U.S. mariner Moses Rogers made the first ocean steamboat voyage.
Donald Trump persuaded bankers to lend him \$80 million so he could buy the Commodore Hotel.
Samuel Morse’s assistant, Alfred Lewis Vail, devised Morse code.
Physicist Armand H. L. Fizeau measured the speed of light.
Dr. Narinder Kapany invented fiber optics and designed a glass gastroscope which can be snaked down the throat for a detailed view of the stomach.
Hank Williams overdosed on drugs and alcohol.
Bill Gates was the first person ever to become a billionaire by age 30.
Earl Vickers started the Dollar Project, in which dollar bills were rubber-stamped as being lost, with a reward offered for their safe return.
(via MeFi)
For the first time in their three decades of existence, the disco band The Village People have inducted an openly Episcopal man, igniting a controversy that threatens to tear the fabled group asunder.
Holding a press conference in New York City today, The Construction Worker, a prominent member of The Village People since its inception in the 1970s, urged “tolerance and understanding” for its latest member, The Episcopal Guy, who joined the group over the weekend.
“From the start, The Village People have been all about inclusiveness,” The Construction Worker said. “And introducing The Episcopal Guy as our latest member is part of that tradition.”
While The Indian Chief and The Fireman were reportedly in agreement with The Construction Worker about including The Episcopal Guy in the band, The Policeman, The Cowboy, and the Leather-clad Guy were reportedly opposed, creating speculation that The Village People might split up into two smaller, somewhat less influential disco bands.
(from Dad)
According to CNN, Prince Charles has come out to publicly announce that the allegations are “totally untrue and without a shred of substance.”
Just to further clear up the matter a bit:
I certainly hope that this clears up some of the misinformation, and that the rumors surrounding this incident cease forthwith.
Thank you for your time.
(via Neil Gaiman)
After far too much controversy — which is, unfortunately, far from finished — Gene Robinson was consecrated as Bishop on Sunday. It sounds like, while there were objections raised and protests held near the site of the consecration, overall it went pleasantly and without any undue problems.
After the objections were raised, [Presiding Bishop Frank T.] Griswold thanked attendees “for bringing their concerns before us.” But he also seemed to make a case for unity when he related a story of a primate who told him that “the Holy Spirit can do different things in different places,” adding, “That is precisely what we are doing here.”
Robinson received a more effusive endorsement from the Rev. Douglas Theuner, who he is replacing. Concluding a humorous and wide-ranging address that lightened the mood in the arena, Theuner told Robinson that his consecration is not the defining battle in the history of the church that some have made it out to be.
“When a young man unsure of his sexual orientation reads ‘The Episcopal Church Welcomes You’ on a sign outside the church and enters that church, that’s a defining moment in Christian life,” he said.
Many congratulations and best wishes go out to Bishop Robinson.