On benefiting from the “ethnic casting craze”:
Until recently, Hollywood offered only a handful of roles to actors of color. The majority of my opportunities have fallen into two categories: Scary Black and Funny Black. The scary parts are when I’m asked to become people my grandmother told me to avoid when I was growing up: generic cameos usually named “Thug #1” or “Gang Member #3.” These names tell me they’re not characters but criminal stereotypes lined up by the number. And on the comedy side, for some reason, there is one significant black comedy star every decade. Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle is a great representation of this. In the 1987 film, there’s a scene in which 10 actors are waiting to audition for the part of “an Eddie Murphy type.” They’re literally dressed as Murphy, practicing his laugh, repeating the phrase “Murphy-esque” to themselves. It’s a hilarious indictment especially because the life of black actors today is not so different from that scene. Everyone is asked to approximate how that famous actor would play a role while also being asked to “be yourself.”
*
The Food Babe takedown we have all waited for:
Vani Hari, a.k.a. the Food Babe, has amassed a loyal following in her Food Babe Army. The recent subject of profiles and interviews in the New York Times, the New York Post and New York Magazine, Hari implores her soldiers to petition food companies to change their formulas. She’s also written a bestselling book telling you that you can change your life in 21 days by “breaking free of the hidden toxins in your life.” She and her army are out to change the world.
She’s also utterly full of shit.
I am an analytical chemist with a background in forensics and toxicology. Before working full-time as a science writer and public speaker, I worked as a chemistry professor, a toxicology chemist, and in research analyzing pesticides for safety. I now run my own blog, Science Babe, dedicated to debunking pseudoscience that tends to proliferate in the blogosphere. Reading Hari’s site, it’s rare to come across a single scientific fact. Between her egregious abuse of the word “toxin” anytime there’s a chemical she can’t pronounce and asserting that everyone who disagrees with her is a paid shill, it’s hard to pinpoint her biggest sin.
VIDA (after listening) now incorporating the stats for authors who are WOC into their annual project, and it is, of course, depressing as balls.
Lovely thing by Jane Marie.
Half of residential use is outdoors, primarily lawns, Ms. Cooley said. “And what Californians see as beautiful,” she said, “has been a lawn that has been the standard for front yards and backyards.”
Now, with utilities paying people to replace thirsty traditional grass turf with water-sipping native plants and other drought-tolerant shrubbery, long-held aesthetics are shifting. “This will change what Californians see as beautiful,” she said.
But even a significant drop in residential water use will not move the consumption needle nearly as much as even a small reduction by farmers. Of all the surface water consumed in the state, roughly 80 percent is earmarked for the agricultural sector.
This is exactly what happens when you put a trans woman in a men’s prison, and just one of the many, many reasons this should never happen.
I woke up at three am to breastfeed, and started casually re-reading my favourite fic (Mystrade but gender-swapped) that Rainbow Rowell THAT FUCKING BITCH MONSTER told me to read originally and then I literally could not go back to bed, I had to read the whole thing again. Ugh, you have to read it, it’s literally the best gender-swapped Mystrade fic you will ever read, and I usually strenuously object to any gender-swap that makes fic het.
Jaya is rockin’ over at The Hairpin for the rest of the month, make sure to give her your pageviews!
legit adorable deleted comment
“sounds made up to me!” awww.
Sometimes I think these comments are (and should be) deleted more for the commenter’s well-being than anything else.
I am totally in favor of fixing lawns to be better suited to the environment. I grew up in Colorado and would see it sometimes – although not nearly as much as one should – and it looked so cool, seeing all the proper desert plants and stuff. And you’d think it would be easier on the person who has to maintain it. No grass mowing and stuff.
I have a complicated relationship with my lawn. I went to school for landscape architecture, and it left me very conflicted about them, even though I’m not in the field any longer. My house is surrounded by lawn – not big, but it exists. I refuse to water or fertilize or attempt to keep out any weeds. I still feel a little guilty every time I enjoy the scent of my yard after I mow. I keep telling myself that the next house I own won’t have a lawn.
I live in a part of the world where it does not take much to maintain grass, but most houses don’t really have lawns – people have a lot of gardens, but they tend to be a lot smaller. Front gardens for shrubberies and flowers and such. In the backyards paved areas are more common, with garden bits at the edges – I guess because it’s easier to have barbecues with the back area paved? Maybe rich people have lawns though, I don’t know a ton of those. My supervisor even has the paved backyard thing (as I recall).
The development where my mom’s house is* has banned lawns! All the lots are supposed to be done with native plants and shrubs. It’s gorgeous, honestly. I love beach plants and it’s just a whole lot of them with some houses sticking out.
*way to think ahead, Northern Michigan developers
That is really awesome. Especially since Northern Michigan is unlikely to face fresh water shortages any time soon — it’s an excellent initiative.
I loathe the cabins and cottages in Ontario where people have ripped up all the beautiful native plants and have put in lawns. What’s the point???
That’s awesome! I’m in Chicago and even though we’re not in any danger of a water shortage in the near future, I think native prairie/beach plants are great and super important for the bees, monarchs, and other pollinators. Plant wildflowers and milkweed, y’all!
Yup. We’re letting our yard go to ground cover and wildflowers and milkweed, pretty much entirely.
I would love un-lawn my front yard. It’s a slope (so a bear to mow), it’s full-sun all summer, and whatever water sticks around between thunderstorms seems to just get bogarted by weeds. Maybe I could put down a more dry-tolerant grass, but it would have to also tolerate the occasional string of heavy T-storms (not to mention crazy Wisconsin winters).
We would love to unlawn our property, because of worsening aquifer conditions in Florida and also we can’t keep the crab grass at bay, but the stupid HOA has a hissy fit at us if it gets so much as 1% too close to brown even in the dry winter months. >:(
My lawn has big dead patches that are never going to grow back because there’s not enough light. I keep trying to spread the moss, but then the downstairs roommate aggressively rakes leaves, and the new moss is gone again.
The lawn issue is so tough. We turned our sprinklers off completely in late 2013 and have yet to turn them back on again and doubt we ever will. The grass in the front just keeps on trucking, due in part to an awesome China berry tree that provides amazing shade. In the back, we have a patch that turns to burrs if we let it go and we’ve got a little kid and a dog and I wish I could figure out the playsurface/animal angle of this whole thing.
I honestly feel kind of sorry for people who buy into the THERE’S TOXINS IN OUR FOOD!!!! myths, because clearly the world is such a scary place to them that they’d rather hunker down into a convenient shelter of made-up persecution than try to understand it.
I tend to feel (sometimes unfairly) that toxin-fearers must not have a lot of ACTUAL worries, because if you can get concerned about whether your food is organic enough, you don’t really have concerns about getting enough food. It feels to me like the way that White middle-class cishet Americans crave persecution so that we don’t have to take on the burden of being responsible for our privilege. You don’t have to worry about other people getting enough food if you’re convinced that Big Ag is trying to poison your family. It feels like a way of sloughing off responsibility for others.
As I say, this is not always fair, as a lot of people with actual precariousness also fear their food is contaminated, and sometimes it is. It’s just that I feel a lot more sympathetic and like there’s a reason for that fear when the person expressing it isn’t in the upper echelons of American financial class, because people who promote fad eating and the fear of toxins often seem to be the people with the greatest access to the best food.
Oooh, you set off my bat signal, now just let me get up on this here soapbox… *clears throat*
It’s verrrry difficult to learn about science if you don’t have access to real education, even in the internet age. I know, because I’ve tried! That’s why I’m super passionate in discussions about self-education. The problem is that you don’t have any trusted teachers or textbooks, which means you have NO STANDARD to compare new information to. Instead of reading a few great sources, you have to read a billion sources that seem credible without being sure they’re actually good. You can guess that stuff that pops up in many different trustworthy-seeming places might be true, but you have no way to be sure – they may be feeding off each other (case in point: bro science). You may not even know what a good science piece should look like! No one and nothing has set a standard for you (“what about high school textbooks?” They’re deliberately made to be easy and shove their sources in an appendix, so if you choose texts that look like your old biology book, you’ll be reading unsourced popsci). And if you don’t know that there should be many many sources and that certain journals are better than others, you may be happy with a blog post that has two or three scientific sources at the bottom. But even a blog post or magazine article with sources could be wrong or misleading – it may not be clear which facts in the blog post actually come from the studies (and you may not know that it should be very clearly referenced, instead assuming that every fact comes from the sources), maybe the studies are known to be bad, maybe the writer isn’t actually knowledgeable, maybe they draw too many conclusions from too little. Also, you probably don’t know which common facts are myths and which are actual facts, so you can’t use “oh I know that, this seems legit” to judge the standard. There’s no way to know that “toxins” and “detoxing” aren’t real (well some things in some doses are toxic but you know), or that sugar doesn’t cause ADHD or acting out in kids (not to mention that ADHD is not the same thing as hyperactivity, and temporary hyperactivity is not the same as actual hyperactivity), or that carbs aren’t literally dangerous, because there are SO MANY PEOPLE saying those things that you get the impression that it’s a consensus.
What about the toxins? Well, you know that pesticides and environmental toxins exist, and that they might end up in food (that happens sometimes, after all). You know that cancerogenes exist, also in food. You know that the apples you buy in your grocery store probably have been approved by someone, but you want to know for yourself. You’re hearing that there may be dangerous levels of toxins in food, and you want to find out if that’s true. What do you do? You can’t just google “pesticides” and find out exactly what’s in them and what the stuff does and how much pesticides is too much in an apple. Information isn’t organised. You’d be overwhelmed – there are so many different kinds and you have no idea of knowing which pesticide in what dose is in your apples, the actual recipes may be industry secrets, the science articles are paywalled, and you’d need to teach yourself organic chemistry and biology to really understand what pesticides are and what they do to you. And then you’d have to somehow find out how the different industries regulate their use, so you can make an educated guess about what’s actually in your apple. And THEN you can make an informed choice! But probably you’ll stop somewhere before reaching that point.
So, basically, it’s not that people don’t question things, it’s that there’s no one to ask. And also no way to know if you’re asking the wrong question.
Lack of critical thinking skills. One of the first lessons: Consider The Source. After that one: Verify. Those who learn those two know to check medical info at WebMD (our tax dollars at work) and then verify at places with a reputation to maintain, such as Mayo Clinic.
I’m with you in that we as a society are failing to teach critical thinking. And failing to teach Consider The Source and Verify.
I’m actually not saying that we don’t teach critical thinking skills enough (though we don’t), I’m saying that an amateur with good critical thinking will still go wrong because of lack of knowledge. Thinking isn’t enough. It’s REALLY difficult to bootstrap theoretical knowledge, because you don’t know what you’re supposed to learn and you don’t know if you’ve successfully learned the right things. If I’m teaching myself a practical skill, such as playing a musical instrument, it’s easier to see for myself if I’m making the right progress. Does it sound like music? Then it’s music! Can I wear these clothes? Then I’ve successfully made clothes. But if I’m trying to learn science, I have nothing to compare myself to.
Also, most science knowledge is protected by gatekeepers like journal access, so it’s really hard to verify anything. Most accessible information like WebMD aren’t actually that great as sources for knowledge. Even if they reference articles, how do you know the studies are credible? Many misleading sources also quote studies.
*applause*
Yes, these are points that I do not see raised very often.
This is why libraries are still so important: librarians can help people learn to navigate and evaluate sources and do their own research. It’s just not widely known that you can go to your public librarian for help with this kind of thing.
I’m not a scientist, but I know that science is a process — often circular. Ideas are revisited until there’s really nothing else to do with them. And that it’s more about weighing evidence than finding Solid Proof.
And I’m enough of a grad student to know that there ARE good sources and bad sources, and a whole bunch of mediocre sources between the two, and to check the first source against several others. Food Babe is a bad source and her claims aren’t supported by WebMD, Mayo Clinic, CDC, NIH, or other more reputable sources. Thus, Food Babe isn’t a reliable or valid source.
I’m also enough of a grad student to know that people with scientific training (even grad students IN sciences) can at least point me in the right direction for self-education, even if their sources tend toward the academese.
Good for you, but most people never go to grad school. Most people don’t know any scientists to ask. And everyone can say they’re a scientist or a credible science organisation on the internet, so you still need to have some science knowledge to be able to spot the liars. It’s like if someone shows you a fake police badge – no matter how critically you think and how much the badge differs from other badges, you need to have the actual knowledge of what a police badge is supposed to look like to know which one’s the fake. If you find a lot of sources saying that one badge is right, you might believe that. But what if they’re all misinformed? This is super common with food science, there are sooo many apparently credible people saying similar things that even the best critical thinker will go wrong if they don’t have previous knowledge. The Food Babe fans aren’t all stupid, even though some (or many) well could be.
I posted that Science Babe article to my FB yesterday afternoon and was legitimately thrilled at how many of my friends are also out of patience with toxins and chemicals and blah blah blah, especially since several of them have posted that appalling “20 Beers You Should Never Drink” bs article in the last couple of weeks and I desperately needed my faith in my friends restored.
“What beer article?”
“Oh, what the CHRIST?”
http://organics.org/8-beers-that-you-should-stop-…
Yeah, I’ve cut back my beer drinking because of GMOs, that’s it. I’ll bet I’ll even LOSE weight drinking organic ales!
“I contacted Samuel Adams, the largest craft brewer in the U.S. about their ingredients, but they did not respond to my questions, which raises questions.”
PRETTY FUCKING SHIFTY!
That’s the one. INCENDIARY ANGER.
Wow. This is, coincidentally, the beer menu at 90% of American bars.
Perhaps someone knows better than I do: when a brewer adds corn syrup, it just goes into the fermentation process & gets turned into alcohol, right? Like, there’s no functional difference in what form of sugar one uses, and the consumer isn’t actually consuming any corn syrup at the time the beer reaches them?
It retains its evil, even after the brewing process. That resultant bit of sugar is a BAD SEED. Bad don’t wash out.
(there’s some sugar in beer and wine, it’s gone when it’s distilled into liquor) (beyond that it’s all witchcraft to me)
you would think I’d remember what happens to the added sugars, with all the brewery tours I’ve done in my life. But at that part of the tour everyone’s just like “I think I see the tasting room around the corner!”
Though of course I remember the Miller tour and the giant black vat of corn syrup marked with a skull & crossbones and occasionally hissing “MUUUURRRRDERRRRRRR.”
There was a similar giant black vat of corn syrup on my Harpoon brewery tour last year, only it said “MUUUUURRRRDERRRRR” with a broad Boston accent.
(“MEUHDUH?”)
Yeah, I mean, I think people should stop drinking most of what’s on that list too, but that’s because light beer is a sin against God and mankind, not because of isinglass or, as you correctly theorize, corn syrup that ferments into alcohol anyway.
You also don’t say anything embarrassing or neglect all that food you ordered/cooked when you drink organic beer. FACTS.
Also, organic beer only gives you cravings for kale and sunshine, not peanuts and bratwurst.
I posted the article to my Facebook last night and it’s turned into an epic shitshow. My one Wacky New-Age Aunt and this girl I sort of know who used to be cool back when she was a heroin addict but has gone totally OFF THE RAILS with the tinfoil hat chemtrails nonsense since she got sober are fighting about the article with one of my cousins. They’ve been going at it since 8 pm. I sort of want to delete the whole mess but it’s pretty amusing, tbh.
I know exactly what you mean. It’s kind of wonderful/kind of appalling when people get into epic fights in your facebook threads.
Mmmm. Guinness.
That Science Babe article is EVERYTHING. I have never heard of Food Babe before that article went up yesterday, but I am now obsessed with how terrible she is.
Same. Never heard of her before. Want to rant about how terrible she is to everyone I know now.
Yuuuuup. A friend posted the Science Babe article yesterday, and it sent me into an hours-long blackhole last night of hate-reading Food Babe things and being satisfyingly angry.
My favourite favourite part of the Food Babe’s arguments was the theory that *water* responds negatively when you say the words “Hitler” or “Stalin” to it.
What other villainous historical figures does water recognize? Mussolini? Robespierre? Ivan the Terrible?
or is it just people so infamous that their very names have soaked into the ground we walk on, the air we breathe, and the water we drink?
RIGHT? Like if I whisper “Gandhi” to it, will subsequently make me a better person? Will I better understand and advocate for the rights of trans* people if I lean close and murmur “Laverne Cox”? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS FOR FOOD BABE.
How does water stay on top of the headlines? How does it keep up with current affairs and history?
Well I’ve heard tell that the wind whispers Mary, so presumably the wind is whispering other things and the water has started eavesdropping.
Other pressing question, if you whispered “Hitler” or “Stalin” to water in 1929 or 1933, would it have the same effect? Did water intuitively know the evil, or did it only pick up on it after the atrocities were committed and publicly broadcast?
wait I thought that was just a joke that the science lady made up help
Just googled it. WHAT. I love/hate everything about this.
my mind noped out of that pretty quickly, how is that plausible? I totally get the GMO and organic stuff, even if she clearly doesn’t do research, but now I want to whisper Pol Pot to my water.
that’s the part where my “it’s all performance art!” theory* kicks in.
* by theory I mean “only way I can justify 90% of the bullshit in the world to myself”
So did I until I read the Food Babe article linked. ACTUALLY A THING
It’s actually not that far from the underlying theory of homeopathy (which also doesn’t work)–I can see how the right kind of crazy mind would make the jump.
I whisper Hugo Schwyzer’s name into a glass of water before I serve it to my enemies.
Now that’s just cruel.
My mother works as the general counsel of a company that makes feed supplements. Mostly for animal feed, but they have a few human products too. And everything they make is derived from naturally occurring molecules, but the Hari apparently decided that one of the molecules used in some of their products was evilscarybad and started campaigning against it and now they get weekly phone calls from people worried that their products contain poison. Now, my mother is the calmest, most collected person I know, and I have heard her swear maybe 3 times, total, in my life, but about two months ago she called me up after Hari wrote the first article mentioning this chemical and unleashed a 5 minute long string of invective that blistered my ears. It was absolutely glorious. I sent her this article as soon as I saw it and when I talked to her on the phone last night, she was cackling. I’m very happy that Hari’s finally getting called on her bullshit.
In Houston I think getting my yard to conform to local natural environmental conditions would mean just making it a swamp. Well, more of a swamp.
BRB buying some baby alligators.
I see no downside to this.
My pibble may disagree. He fears everything, including the cat. Alligators would… unhinge him.
“won’t you give me a loving home, Dave”
He looks distinctly gruntled.
In case anyone was wondering, not knowing what a pibble is and Google image searching it is an excellent choice if you want to see some cute things, I recommend it.
Beans is a pibble.
Oh, Beans! Patient sweet square head 😀
BEANS
OH MY GOD SANTA BEANS
There’s a Halloween pic (scroll down thread a bit). Somewhere I have a pic of him in a pirate sweater that, sadly, got too stretched out to wear.
OH PUPPY I LOVE YOU
I want to offer my hand for sniffing and ask Beans if I may rub his head. He’s magnetic!
Also Halloween Beans. Dude just loves wearing clothes. I think they feel like perma-hugs.
Oh wow. The tutu really adds a lot to this photo.
This is the theory behind the thundershirt, which does seem to help my poor anxious pibble.
Awww, pibble! This has made my entire day, thanks!
Prairie is also an option! But then I think you have to set it on fire every couple years.
True fact: lighting our yard on fire was my science fair project in 5th grade. It’s part of the joy of having a firefighter for a dad.
EPIC
I got to use a drip torch!
I kind of can’t believe that Californians didn’t start getting rid of their water-gulping lawns years ago.
Also, though, I hate HATE lawns, despite living in a place where there’s plenty of water for them. Probably for personal reasons (“mowing the lawn” was my job growing up, and if there’s ever been an exercise in futility like chop off the top half inch of your three-inch grass once a week I can’t imagine what it is), but lawns are indelibly etched in my imagination as the archetype of bourgeois conspicuous consumption.
(man, maybe my whole politics would have been different if my dad had let me replace the lawn with concrete the way I kept asking?)
I feel that pain.
–“mowing the lawn” was my job growing up–
People who say they like the smell of cut grass…..we’re not gonna see eye to eye. That smell means “it’s hot out here and I don’t want to be doing this! Goddamn Florida!”
I noticed, years later, when asked to steam soy milk at the Borders cafe that hot soy milk smells like HOT GRASS! (at least to me) Anyone who therefore wanted soy milk was my enemy.
I can still smell mown grass from miles away during the summer.
My uncle ran a lawnscaping business and had his own looking absolutely gorgeous. Then a few years later, looked at his water bill, and said Fuck It. So now his Florida yard is gravel with spanish swords and succulents and local flowers. It looks really nice, because it’s still lawnscaped and has the greenery from the palms and even a giant aloe plant, but saves SO MUCH water and he’s not fighting the crab grass all the time.
I’ve been trying to convince the Burgomaster to pave our back yard for years. Years. He’s not budging.
I wanted a skate park, because my mom wouldn’t let me skateboard in the street.
Seriously. You can’t forbid skating in the street without providing a skate park in the back yard.
Here’s a big surprise–the big, water-gulping lawns tend to be in the upscale towns and neighborhoods (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-big-water-users-beverly-hills-newport-brown-cuts-20150403-story.html) so yeah, it’s literally conspicuous consumption and the 1% haven’t become any less conspicuous in this than in any other arena in recent years.
LA is really pushing people to replace their lawns with drought-resistant plants–they have a list of approved plants and you can get a hefty rebate for using them. My building just relandscaped and saved a ton of money on the plants, and between that and the new drip irrigation system we’ll have a significantly lower water bill forever. Even the owners who don’t really care about the environmental aspect are thrilled about the cost savings.
Yeah, basically since forever the only purpose of having a lawn is letting the neighbors know that you have the time and money to take care of a lawn.
As far as I am concerned the purpose of a lawn is to let you lie on it and read Victorian novels, which is why I love lawns in spite of myself.
bah, if you were really committed to reading books you’d lie on jagged rocks and rotten leaves like the rest of the proletariat
but the ITCH oh god no
For some reason lawns in parks with all the clover and random grasses don’t do that to me, but residential lawns that are all one single type of super dark green grass is sooooo itchy and I just can’t.
As an aside, my personal favourite observation of rich-neighbourhood conspicuous consumption occurred in Houston, where the McMansions appeared to have natural gas lanterns of either side of their doors that burned natural gas 24/7/365. TEXAS. OIL. ETC.
My parents are relandscaping and got $1000 from the city/county/whoever for ripping out their lawn that no one ever even looked at anyway. (Seriously, it was in a little side area of the front yard hidden by a wall – NO ONE saw it.) They’re doing xeriscaping and I’m pleased.
Still, even if every lawn in the state was replaced by xeriscaping tomorrow, we’d save a single digit % of our state’s water consumption. Removing lawns is helpful for individuals to save money and honestly looks better imo, but is not actually a solution to the drought problem. We’re gonna have to rely on the agricultural industry for that 🙁
What part of “despite a complete lack of evidence” did not tip you off that this was satire, you poor sweet mansplaining commenter?
Or, like, which part of every other part of the article?
“I think crows sink into the ground to from a giant aggregate crow-mass every night.”
“Oh, no, that’s not crows, you must be thinking of ravens.”
“…what?”
If I substitute ravens for crows, it all suddenly makes sense! Thanks, deleted comment man!
Why won’t the Toast give us the weekly deleted comments post we crave ?
Conversation I had with someone upon sending them a Toast article (The Rock’s eating habits)
Me: “You should see the amazing cod math going on in the comments section!”
Them: “oh, no, I never read Internet comments on anything. So much stupidity”
They have no idea what they’re missing when they skip the incredibly maintained Toast comment sections
I had a similar conversation about the Buffy article. Their loss.
Cod math is my favorite math.
I really do appreciate the lovingly-curated comments section here.
I assumed the commenter was a woman! I guess I assume that anyone so sweetly enthusiastic about the merits of corvidae must be a lady.
(evidence: I am a lady and really like crows)
I assumed the commenter was a woman, too! I read the comment as a silly/cute joke…
So did I!
I have no thoughts on their gender, but I read it as a joke too.
I read that gender-swapped Mystrade fic on your recommendation and it remains one of my favorite fics of all time.
Mollcroft is my personal preference but most of the fic is sweet enough to rot your teeth (and therefore be irrelevant to who I think Mycroft is as a person) so I have to stick to the gritty realistic ones, which are few and far between.
Also, my hair is turning grey super-fast so I like to think I’m aging into Georgiana, the silver fox of Scotland Yard.
Only very slightly related: the boy and I spotted each others’ first grey hairs a few weeks ago! We were very excited about our surely impending respectability.
Aren’t they so sparkly?
Now all you have to do is tase the British government and you can LARP the crap outta that story.
One of my life goals is to go gray as well as Rupert Graves has. Sadly, my hair isn’t cooperating with that plan very well.
If only we could all age into Georgiana or a magnificent alternative.
I am very excited to read that fic tonight when I get home, but Mystrade as a primary pairing is not my fave. I think it’s lovely when Johnlock has a passing mention of it or they double-date or something equally awkward, but I really really love Mollstrade, and it seems that Gatiss & Moffat are dropping little clues or hints that it might become canon at some point in the show.
I will be so happy if Mollstrade becomes canon. They both so deserve to be happy! Have you read An Avalanche of Detour Signs? It’s my favorite.
I was thinking about Mollstrade the other day as I was driving, like one does, and I was trying to recall the name of that fic and couldn’t and then it was another hour until I got home and at that point I’d completely forgotten to try to find it again. Thank you! I’m reading this when I get home today.
So happy to help!
Definitely checking this one out. Thanks!
I am an analytical chemist with a background in forensics and toxicology. Before working full-time as a science writer and public speaker, I worked as a chemistry professor, a toxicology chemist, and in research analyzing pesticides for safety.
Take me now.
I love that Mystrade fic so much.
That Food Babe takedown might replace the Guy Fieri restaurant review that I read when I’m feeling bad about myself and need some good ol’ fashioned schadenfreude
Also yeah adorable comment person is adorable and also RIGHT have y’all SEEN that documentary on crows?? They’re so great and I refuse to hear otherwise
Oh man the Guy Fieri restaurant review. I almost forgot about that one, except that I live in NYC and sometimes go to Broadway shows near that restaurant and all the schadenfreude comes flooding back. So good.
In a similar vein: http://nedroidcomics.tumblr.com/post/43078937407/…
“Hi I’m Guy Fieri. Have you seen my sunglasses? Oh, there they are, on the back of my head. I’m just bein’ silly guys”
oh my god thank you I didn’t know how much I needed that
I always end up convulsing with laughter every time I re-read that post.
Hi I’m Guy Fieri. This pancake is totally monsterballs. All this food is just bonkers nonsense. Who even did this, where am I
Hi I’m Guy Fieri. My car trunk is filled with shimp scampi. It’s not for the show, it’s just something I always do.
Hi, I’m Guy Fieri. I wear my sunglasses on the back of my head to block out the past which is always haunting me.
TEARS
I kind of hate the whole phenomenon of bloggers who call themselves chick or babe or whatever. I get that it’s ironic or whatever but it’s still annoyingly cute and calling attention to whoa, girls can think.
I get a gross “Don’t worry, I’m pretty!” vibe about the Babe and Chick trend.
Her husband suggested it.
From theatlantic : http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02…
Otherwise, an excerpt from the article: “Her personal brand is always family-friendly, in the traditional sense. She says the “babe” branding—an interesting approach in a scientific arena notoriously dismissive of female voices—was never her idea. When she asked her tech-savvy husband to procure a domain name for her blog, as she recalls, EatHealthierForever.com was taken. So he suggested FoodBabe.com, which was somehow available for $10.”
My reaction when I first read that, “Wot?” … and then The Toast came out with the article “Things My Male Tech Colleagues Have Actually Said to Me” and I thought, ah, Stockholm Syndrome. Someone save her. But now I think not, no, nothing to save … nothing to see here move on.
Yeah, but the other girl is right there with “Science Babe” too. I get that it works as a very clear brand, but uuuugh.
I don’t think it’s even an Ironic Hipster thing either or reclaiming the word “babe.” Maybe it’s like in the book “Gone Girl”, trying to be the Cool Chick? Can’t seem too serious about science! It’s not feminine! Uuuuugh and uuuuugh.
It mostly annoys me because science is SO FULL OF FUN-SOUNDING WORDS and you pick “babe?” Give me five minutes with your field and Google and I’ll find something better.
I think she intentionally chose the name to mock (set herself up in direct opposition to?) the Food Babe woman, though. Re: “Hari’s campaign last year against the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte drove me to launch my site…”
Yeah, when she said her blog name was “Science Babe” I was like D:
Of course what is the Atlantic doing using idiotic sentences like “family-friendly, in the traditional sense”? I don’t even know what that means.
There’s a lot of it around: ChickTech, SkepChick, etc. It isn’t just these two. I understand where it is coming from and there’s plenty of worthwhile work that uses that kind of branding, but it’s easy to see it as self-trivializing. Bill Nye, Science Guy is never going to join NASA either.
“Bill Nye the Science Guy” strikes me as different–that was a brand for children, and now that the original fans of his TV show are grown-up they/we tend to take him seriously. And he did help develop something that went into space! If he were a blogger calling himself The Science Bro I might be less inclined to consider him an authority.
I’ve definitely seen natural disaster segments on cable news where Bill Nye Science Guy was the talking head they brought in to explain how tidal waves work.
I’m just sad he never explains things with a visual aid OF SCIENCE.
Definitely in favor of using native plants in landscaping. If you’re in the ohio/ky/Indiana area, the Lexington Zoo website is a great resource for finding indigenous plants and grasses.
Although, if you’re in KY and having a hard time thinking of a native grass, I really don’t know what to do with you.
Destroying your plant illusions:
From the wikipedia article – Poa pratensis, commonly known as Kentucky bluegrass, smooth meadow-grass, or common meadow-grass, is a perennial species of grass native to Europe, Asia, North America, and northern Africa. Canada thistle is also from Europe.
Happily, goldenrod is native to North America. But no worries, because the allergy is actually to ragweed pollen, not to goldenrod pollen. Ragweed is also native to North America.
Good on Jane Marie for posting that. It needs to get said more that whether you work or not, giving all your other interests up when you have kids is a terrible idea. For the kid as well as you.
I read Jane Marie’s article a few days ago, and wow I needed that. I probably needed to read it before now, but it didn’t exist. Just SO GOOD.
Also, I think I am in love with Science Babe.
Why was it deleted though? Looked OK to me??
Because on the Toast, you can get deleted for not getting the joke, and it’s fabulous.
Were they not also joking, though? That’s how I read it.
I hadn’t realized that and I love this place 1,000,000,000% more now.
Ugh, someone on my Facebook went on a huge pro-Food Babe rant after reading the Gawker article. She had never heard of her, but somehow read the article and decided that CLEARLY Big Ag is out to get Food Babe and the article was a “hit piece” blah blah toxins in our foods blah.
I just don’t get how you can read a properly cited takedown of something and come out of it convinced that the charlatan is in fact a victim.
When I first read the Gawker article (and to be super clear, I agree with it and have only the deepest, most incredulous scorn for Food Babe’s toxin alarmism and general snake oil bullshit), I remember thinking that, althought it’s great on the science front, it falls down a bit when it comes to the part where the author tries to debunk Food Babe’s claims of being persecuted/silenced. The author uses a LOT of words and phrases that set off my bullshit meter: using hyperbole like “nefarious,” “sinister,” and “evildoer” to mockingly characterize her opponent’s stance, saying she “[flings] accusations” while in the very next sentence another person quite reasonably “respond[s],” echoing the time-honored plaint of trolls (“Any dissent couldn’t possibly have merit within the ranks of the Food Babe Army”) in response to her removing people she doesn’t like from her own Facebook page, etc. These are all things that sound untrustworthy on the Internet.
As someone who was already predisposed to look kindly on the author for the mere fact that she was going after *Food Babe*, who is terrible, I overlooked that section and kept reading on to the next science section, where the article immediately got better again. But if I were approaching the article from a neutral perspective, I might have stopped reading there. And if I were predisposed to agree with Food Babe, the tactics the author used in that section might have bolstered my belief that she was exaggerating the Food Babe’s science fails and using over-the-top tactics to try to smear her.
I think the article would have been better without “A Force to Disagree With,” is what I’m saying. Your Facebook acquaintance might have glommed on to that aspect of it and had a similar negative reaction to mine, but compounded by the fact that she didn’t already agree with the article’s premise.
I had never heard of The Food Babe until I saw a swathe of articles declaring that she was ridiculous and there is no beaver butt in our ice cream.
NO SHIT, SHERLOCK.
Speaking of Sherlock, I haven’t read any gender-swap fic in a very, very long time, so clearly this will need to be fixed. It will also pull me out of my current “MUST READ ALL ‘THE 100’ FIC” rut that I got into this weekend.
I had to unfollow someone on Tumblr, even though I loved 90% of what she posted, because she went on this major “exercise and healthy eating” kick and started reblogging nonsense like that.
DID YOU KNOW THAT ANYTHING VANILLA-FLAVOURED CONTAINS BEAVER ANUSES?
ALL RED OR PINK FOODS WORLD-WIDE ARE DYED WITH CRUSHED BUGS.
THE FORESTRY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX IS PUTTING WOOD PULP INTO ALL OUR FOODS!
I remember thinking the first time I hear the beaver-but thing that it had to be false because beaver butts would have to be WAY more expensive than actual vanilla, and how many beavers would have to die to make enough fake vanilla for just one brand of ice cream, not to mention anything else with artificial vanilla flavor. It makes no sense.
Maybe the beavers aren’t killed, they just rub their buttholes all over our food before the packaging is sealed.
Yes, that must be it. So much more affordable.
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU’RE SWEETENING YOUR TEA WITH BEE VOMIT??!!!
I really wanted to love the Food Babe takedown, and I mostly did because Food Babe is ridiculous. But is really the only other side of this argument “pesticides are all fine and there’s no benefit to organic, our agricultural system is fine and safe and nothing’s wrong here?” This ignores the environmental impacts of our food system, the impact on farmworkers who have prolonged exposure to these pesticides, and the very real ways that big industry is careless with our health. The reason people like the Food Babe end up with power is that people are frustrated and scared by how little food and medical industry seems to value our health over profits, it’s hard to get real answers about things, so they fall for pseudoscience. Overall this “takedown” left a bad taste in my mouth, as much as I love to make fun of Food Babe.
Yeah. I kept wanting to say “I don’t buy organic because it’s healthier for ME.” I know that’s bullshit.
Yeah, definitely – I try to buy organic dairy products, but not because I think they’re any better for me, just because dairy cows have (somewhat) better living conditions under organic standards. http://www.soilassociation.org/whatisorganic/orga… My health isn’t the issue.
I was actually just discussing this with friends over drinks. I’ve been buying milk lately that comes from dairies that don’t use hormones or antibiotics, let their cows eat grass, etc. Yes, ok, I don’t particularly want my food to come pre-antibiotic-ed, but I’m more concerned with the cows’ freedom to wander around in the sun eating whatever they want. The real joy is that both approaches arrive at the same place, and that place is full of cows roaming around in open pasture.
Kinda reminds me of the controversy about mercury amalgam dental fillings, and how the question is always “are your fillings poisoning you?” rather than “is it good for dentists and dental assistants and hygienists to have so much mercury in their work spaces when we know how that’s affected workers in the past?” Seems like it’s always easier to find outrage about the consumer side of the equation.
yeah, I think this is what bothers me so much about many of these takedowns: are they a takedown of someone who is wrong and why they are wrong? or is it an argument in favor of, say, genetically modified food or pesticides? As an example of the former, I liked this one just fine. But I see so few of the latter that don’t come across as “have you SEEN all the crackpots on the other side of that issue? Obviously there is no merit to that side!”
YES thanks so much for saying this! I was trying to formulate a coherent comment but you have put it so much better than I am able to right now.
“Organic” doesn’t imply the *food* is healthier–it means the place it was grown is (hopefully, definitely not always, but still maybe somewhat) left in a more sustainable condition.
And the thing about people like Food Babe is they polarize the whole discussion, when really it’s the middle ground that we need to be exploring.
The middle ground part is what’s so important. Because basically what leads to all these stupid debates is our inability to accept uncertainty. Humans don’t know and don’t understand a lot of things! Science doesn’t understand everything! We can’t cure cancer! It’s annoying when scientists act like everything they do or say is perfect and infallible and we should never question what they say, just like it’s irritating when people make wild non-scientific claims. Science is the best method we have to learn about the world, but when scientists give off the attitude of “we know everything so shut up and stop asking questions”, that shuts everyone down.
YES. “Stop asking questions” is the anti-science, and it sucks when scientists use it to put people down.
Exactly. Personal example: I eat vegan (and try not to buy animal products in general, where possible, yadda yadda) because it makes me feel better about living in a place and time where I really cannot avoid harming someone, somewhere down the line, just by going about my life acquiring the things I need to continue living. I’ve found that a lot of vegans, while they will correctly identify the ways in which large-scale animal husbandry has a negative impact on the environment, assume that going vegan is therefore a glourious and wondrous magickale fixative to the Entire Problem, when, no, it is not a perfect fix, would not be a perfect fix even if we hit 100% vegan saturation of the population tomorrow, and is actually harmful in some ways because of things like animal testing for life-saving medicine and the existence of dietary restrictions that make eating a balanced diet while vegan impossible and things like that. It’s hard for everyone to deal with that murky moral space, I guess. I wish we talked about grayness more and less about absolutes.
Exactly! The problem I have with GMOs is not that I think they are bad for me to eat. I think they’re bad for the environment and bad for farmers. But that aspect is much harder to explain than “GMOs give you cancer!” so the people shouting that are the ones who get the most attention.
I have literally never heard anyone make the GMO argument about the environment that you just referred to (and the only person I’ve heard make the argument about farmers was Michael Pollan, who I also regard with some suspicion on the science front) and wow, if the anti-GMO movement were saying things like that instead of “zomg Frankenfood!” it would be so much more effective. Basically I’ve never thought about those before because no one has ever put it that way and in the space of a 4-sentence comment you just did more to convince me that caution is warranted when it comes to GMOs than the last 5 years of ever.
The best piece I’ve ever read that lays out some real environmental concerns about GMOs is by Barbara Kingsolver, from her essay collection Small Wonder. I found a copy online here, if you’re interested: https://www.organicconsumers.org/old_articles/gef…
That’s the thing, though, GMOs and the environment may not be as clear as GMOs and human health (we just don’t have the same amount of data), but there are ways that GMOs can actually really help the environment. Particularly, engineering genetically insect resistant crops means less pesticide use. So farmers and the environment would be less exposed to chemicals that may harm them.
Plus there is just the fact that we need improved techniques for farming.. Organic farming just isn’t going to cut it at this point. Personally, I would love to combine the better parts of organic farming and the best parts of GMOs, but no one seems to be ready to have that conversation.
Also I just can’t forgive the anti-GMO people for torpedoing golden rice, which could save 500,000 children a year from dying of vitamin A deficiency, and 2 million from going blind.
I know Bittman can be a sillyhead too, but this article is pretty good in terms of some of the concerns about GMO’s: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/opinion/stop-ma…
I wouldn’t personally even describe myself as anti-GMO, I was referring more to industrial agriculture in general. It is clear in so many ways that the way we produce food in this country is effing up the environment, and I do believe that it impacts our health as well– just not in a mysterious toxins kind of way.
Yes this so much.
YES Thank you! This is what has been bothering me, and you put it so well. Food Babe is ridiculous, but so are the people I see posting this article on facebook who think that because they’ve taken some chemistry classes they know everything about every agricultural practice and also human nutrition, and anyone who doesn’t immediately agree with them is an ignorant medieval peasant.
I don’t even know what plants are native to my area (other than trees). But then my problem is that the grass GROWS AND GROWS AND GROWS all summer and DOESN’T STOP GROWING EVEN WHEN YOU WANT IT TO so you have to mow it all the time or your neighbours complain. So maybe it IS grass. Gah, never living in a place with a lawn again.
Mr. Rose and I had the luxury of an acre in the woods where we were free to allow meadows and groves to do their thang without interference. We did throw seed of native plants that we hoped would take hold, but it was up to them after our initial toss. Researching what was native led to this wonderful discovery: Buffalo Grass.
Buffalo Grass is native, in differing varieties, to many parts of the US. The coolest part: it has a predictable height. Grows to that height and stops. No mowing!
The variety that managed a toehold in our acre of wilderness grew to about 7 inches tall. We left it. Mowed a wide belt around the house to tell the mice to stay away, but otherwise, NO MOWING. Every two years or so we’d look for someone to bring a tractor and mow down all the meadows, just to mimic nature’s wildfires. We’re not into fire.
I want to hug this Food Babe article for clearly pointing out facts and not being horribly condescending. There is so much perplexing and conflicting information out there about food that I can’t really blame folks for being uninformed (sure, Food Babe’s stuff is so egregious that it SHOULD raise all the red flags, but they’re just waving in a sea of red flags raised by everyone else with a new diet or cancer study). Like, I’m a skeptical & well-educated person, but as a non-chemist, I can’t really articulate *why* that yoga-mat stuff isn’t a big deal.
There’s just such a fine line with this stuff, between “I’m chipping away at scientific illiteracy” and “I’m patting myself on the back for not falling for it.”
That Food Babe piece reminded me of a local homeopathy/essential oils/vaguely-defined-“wellness” shop I once popped into because they seem to be the only store near my place that sells glass dropper bottles. Their webpage on essential oils is a masterpiece of quackery.
“Since [essential oils] are all-natural, they do not contain chemicals.”
“Addressing anger, stress, anxiety or other emotions successfully is accomplished without the utilization of medications or chemicals.”
“Even bone fractures or other types of emergencies in humans or animals are relieved without the need for pharmaceuticals or chemicals.” Broke your leg? Put some oil on it! No need to go to the hospital!
“nearly 85 percent of cancer is directly attributable to the choice of lifestyle”
“Sandalwood, for example, inhibits over 98 percent of breast cancer cells.” Fuck your regularly-scheduled mammogram, rub some sandalwood on those puppies and you’ll be fine!
I was talking about this with a friend last night and it’s only slightly related, but this idea that health is directly related to lifestyle is so damaging. For one, I know a lot of people who don’t seek treatment or even diagnosis for problems because they (subconsciously) believe that if something is wrong with them, it’s because they did something bad and they are bad people now. For another, it makes me feel so bad about my damaged health, when it’s actually impossible to know to what degree different factors are causing what, and that’s just making my health worse because I feel terrible and defeatist. You’re not in control of everything! Sometimes things just happen.
It’s so damaging, but I can sort of understand it. If cancer (or other life-altering diseases) are all about lifestyle, then cancer must be controllable–and moreover, anyone who gets cancer deserves it, because they didn’t properly perform the rites that would have kept it at bay. “Things just happen” is a much better fit with the evidence, but it’s… scarier.
Yeah, as someone with a chronic condition (endometriosis), it’s incredibly frustrating. It seems like all the medical sites are like “idk, take some Advil and probably you’ll have to have surgery again?” and nothing about lifestyle management or ways to mitigate flares, but everything else is like “ESSENTIAL OILS AND VEGANISM CURED MY ENDO, and probably you got it because you ate too many TOXINS,” and there’s nothing in between. So I’m stuck with trial and error and “hmm, if I cut this out, do I feel any better?” Which, isn’t that what doctors are for?
The essential oil thing makes me so mad. I live in Utah and something like 30 of the top 100 employers (by numbers) in the state are nutraceutical/essential oil companies. So many people are jumping on this bandwagon, and while I think there’s some value in oils (like using lavender for relaxation) relying on basil oil to cure your toddler’s ear infection seems like a bad lifestyle choice.
and it’s not just that they’re EO companies, but the vast majority are MLM/pyramid schemes, too. 🙁 it makes me so angry (that they’re MLMs and preying on SAHMs in many cases, I mean, and also especially that they’re doing all of the above)
Ugh, yes. I have a friend from childhood who sells essential oils in one of these schemes. She’s a lovely, intelligent, kind person, but has been dealt a rough hand by life (poor family, didn’t get to go to college, both of her parents died young, her husband walked out, etc.) and is doing an amazing job at small-town making-ends-meet life and at raising her child on her own. And then she spent all her vacation time and money last year going to the annual convention for the essential oils pyramid scheme and it made me so sad and angry on her behalf.
I agree with the weird hype about oils (still not sure how oil pulling is supposed to work), but garlic oil actually is a legitimate home remedy for ear infections. You can just get that from a pharmacy (or your frying pan), though, so doterra et. al. are probably not pushing that too much.
Garlic is seriously amazing. And I hate the “omg nature has cures for everything, and cancer is caused by negative thoughts and also chemicals” crowd for making me sound like a nutjob when I try to tell people about the many medicinal uses of garlic.
As an example, garlic is a powerful antifungal agent, and helped me out when I got ringworm from pets.
Yes! Garlic forever!
“”Sandalwood, for example, inhibits over 98 percent of breast cancer cells.” Fuck your regularly-scheduled mammogram, rub some sandalwood on those puppies and you’ll be fine!”
Quick, someone tell them over at Men’s Health!
I live in the deep south, so even though I’ve never watered or treated my lawn in any way, still it exists, carrying on back there. Actually, I have a fence around it, and my HOA used to come in and mow for me as long as the gate was unlocked, but they have quit doing that? So now the lawn is being taken over by clover and wild flowers and also two stands of pampas grass which have reached roughly 10 feet in both height and diameter. I see no downside, except that the clover makes it hard to see fire ant hills and dog poop, and snakes are going to be hiding out in the pampas grass once it’s warm.
You didn’t just give het fic a backhanded insult, right Nicole? Because I’d hate to have to fight you. (Mostly because you’re in much better shape than me and would kick my ass.)
Het fic is fine! It is when characters are gender-swapped into being het fic (except this particular story) that I get mad.
“No it’s ok because one of them has a vagina now, so it’s not gay.”
I am always pleased to see someone mention “Hollywood Shuffle”, and I’m always happy to mention it myself.
I had never heard of the Food Babe before this morning, but OMFG her post on air travel, ohhhh lord. She’s outraged that the air in the cabin contains NITROGEN! Shouldn’t airlines be giving us pure oxygen? It’s all one big cover-up!
Pure oxygen on a flight… best flight ever!
Wait, really? LOLOLOL
Food Babe is really blowing up the travel industry.
Baron Vaughn AND June Diane Raphael*? What show is this? That’s a great starting ground for a hysterical show!
*Watch Burning Love, people!
But I suspect that people aren’t going to take any kind of concerns about food production seriously as long as the discussion is dominated by total fuckwits who think that corn is causing autism or whatever. If you’re a farmer or a chemist or someone else with a stake in the industry, are you even going to consider listening to people who are part of this crowd? Or are you just going to feel like you’re being unfairly targeted by people who don’t know shit about what it is you do? I think if you’re on the side of reasonable regulations you need to start by distancing yourself HARD from the wackos and demonstrating that you’re willing to listen to other perspectives.
I mean. . .I think I’ve made my distance from Food Babe pretty clear with my comments. I can’t really help who the loudest voices are, but there’s not a lack of reasonable and scientific writing about the problems with our food system. And if you’re a farmer or a chemist or a scientist of any kind, you have a responsibility to take real concerns seriously whether they make you feel attacked or not. I have way more respect for scientists then wackos so I find it more disappointing when they’re unwilling to be self-reflective at all.
I get that, but I don’t see it too much in the article linked. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we need to make it clear that we want to work WITH people in agriculture to make reasonable changes rather than always approaching them with an attitude of suspicion.
I took an ag sci class in college to fulfill a gen ed requirement and the professor was an expert in livestock management or something who also happened to be a full-time cattle farmer. When people raised questions in class about the safety of our food system he had this really knee-jerk reaction that he was under attack by a bunch of busybody city folks who didn’t know what it meant to work off the land and just wanted to put him out of business. But he seemed very open to reform ideas when they came from within his field. I think about that guy whenever I read debates about food– how do we make this case in a way that appeals to the people who actually have the power to implement changes? Unfortunately people are not naturally inclined to take every concern seriously, especially when they are facing practical and economic pressures to keep doing what they do. It’s on us to make a very clear and sympathetic argument.
OK, I see what you’re saying. I don’t think we completely disagree, though I did see more of the attitudes that bother me in the linked article than you do. My SIL grew up on a dairy farm and can be very defensive about this stuff– and I think that’s in large part because people don’t understand that small family farmers also use conventional methods sometimes, it’s not all big industrial farms.
For instance– the anti-vaxxer movement. These people are nutso, yes.But why don’t I see anyone in the medical community asking “Why is there such widespread distrust of the medical industry that otherwise well-educated, intelligent people are turning to wacko nonsense? Is it possibly because even people with the best insurance and resources can find it near impossible to find a compassionate doctor who spends time with them, listens to their questions, and doesn’t fat-shame or belittle them? Is there anything we can change that would make people trust us more?” By saying nothing except “LOL wackos”, the medical community is missing a really important chance for self-reflection. Yes, I have no respect for wackos but I expect better from doctors and scientists.
I feel like this most recent spate of vaccine arguing had a lot of great articles come out of it, mostly ones that showed the power of the first-person narrative about the importance of vaccines/”I’m a doctor and this is how I approach vaccines”/”I have autism and it’s not a fate worse than death”/”I lived through one of those epidemics we don’t have in the US anymore.” Etc.
And, at the same time, a lot of “See what you get for being a crackpot? Measles, that’s what.”
I dunno, it’s like I keep seeing the same folks bemoaning how scientifically illiterate our society is and simultaneously not realizing how rare and lucky they are for being able to parse all those facts, so they don’t empathize with people struggling to figure out what is true among all the misinformation and barriers to getting good care/good food.
While it’s good that they’re actually making significant changes in residential California (i.e. THE LAWN), that Times article, and most news outlets’ reporting on the water reduction measures seem to be trying real hard to not talk about how industrial/agricultural water use is the major problem. I know this article mentioned it, but it was like one paragraph. It’s just a perpetuation of the idea that individuals alone can solve environmental crises, and putting that onus on people instead of the giant institutions that actually cause the problems just makes me SO MAD. And I know it happens because money and lobbying and politicians wanting to keep their jobs, but still. SO MAD.
I agree with this so hard! I think it’s because people around the country want to blame California’s problems on the people of California, rather than have to take a look at themselves. If everyone in the country gave up almond milk it would do a lot more to save water in California than if all Californians just stopped showering as often.
Of course showering less often doesn’t risk people’s jobs, the way lowering almond consumption does. So it’s definitely a complicated issue, but still. I’m sick of seeing people act as though this wouldn’t be a problem if Californians weren’t always watering their laws and swimming in their pools. It would still be a massive problem, and it’s a problem that affects the entire country.
Well, it’s one paragraph in that particular article because there have been about 150 thousand articles in the Times recently about agricultural water usage. Being the Times, they’re weaseling around about coming right out and saying that agriculture needs to cut back, but they’re at least raising the issue.
i feel this way SO HARD about arizona. it’s hard not to side-eye how water conservation methods are always targeted at individuals but golf courses (so many goddamn golf courses!) and resorts are free to water the fuck out of their palatial and pristine green grasses. so stupid.
I saw What the Bleep Do We Know!? years ago, and there was a whole section on water responding to emotions that was based on the work of this guy, Masaru Emoto. In that film, it was presented as fact, and I totally bought it until I looked it up some days or weeks later, because without a science background, a lot of actually true things sound equally out there to me, so I rely a lot on looking things up. This is a good reason for me not to become a science writer and also not to instruct others on science and what to put into their bodies, but apparently not a reason for the Food Babe to avoid writing on science and instructing others.
I had a college instructor who showed us that part of the “What the Bleep” film in class. A business management class, to be precise. He had a real “cult of personality” kind of vibe going on, and lots of students fell immediately in line behind him and competed to be his preferred students, who were chosen to help put on a small-time management conference every year.
It still freaks me out how easily he was able to present that stuff as undeniable fact, and how quickly people jumped on board. That’s not to insult those who did (hell, it was in a college course. you’re supposed to be able to trust it, right?), just to say it worries me that someone in an educational environment could present such pseudoscience as fact and face no consequences.
What I particularly remember about that film is that they cut together interviews with actual scientists with great credentials, Ancient Aliens style, so that it looks like all these reputable people are endorsing the New Age bullshit. I didn’t know anything about the film before I saw it; I was just excited to see Marlee Matlin as the big name and wanted to see it because of her. When I actually looked it up, it wasn’t hard to find all of the people who were debunking the film, but in the moment, seeing it without context, I found it pretty convincing. I have just enough knowledge of science to be in that dangerous zone where I feel like I can identify bullshit, because I sometimes can, when I will actually miss out on a lot.
Oh man, that reminds me of the time I devoured the novel-length gender-swapped Sherlock/Watson fic I saw recommended on the Toast and it BLEW MY MIND.
That is one of my favorite fics ever. If you’re a fan of meticulously well-researched and immersive Sherlock fic, check out one of her other stories The Violet Hour. It’s not gender-swapped, but it is lovely.
I am SO EXCITED that link is f/f. I wasn’t sure both were swapped and was afraid to click when I was at work but now that I’m home and can look at fanfic all I want, I checked it out and I am SO READY to get dragged into it, there is never enough novel-length f/f in my life. ever. i am parched for it.
OH! Sold.
But wouldn’t organic food be healthier because we’re not consuming pesticide residues? I completely agree that the food wouldn’t be any healthier–in the sense of more vitamins, minerals, etc.–than non-organic foods. But for foods where pesticide residues linger, it seems like there is a health benefit to eating organic.
Nope. Organic doesn’t mean that no pesticides have been used, it just means that the pesticides that have been used are “natural”. Real Clear Science has a pretty good explanation here.
In re: the California drought stuff, I live in Tucson (and FEAR THE DIMINISHING WATER TABLE), and one of the things I love about it here is that most people really embrace the desert aesthetic. The best houses are the xeriscaped ones with ocotillo and paddle cacti and (if you’re lucky) a saguaro – lawns are pretty rare.
(Not that AZ doesn’t have its own problems.)
Yes, Tuscon has always been such an attractive place.
Well. Thanks, Nicole, for that frankly gorgeous fanfic and also having missed the majority of my work day.
DAMMIT NICOLE, NOW I’M RE-READING THE WHOLE DAMN THING.
On the California drought- has anyone come across which part of “first ever state-wide mandatory water restrictions” is the part that’s “first”? I’ve lived lots of places in the West (although never California) and I’ve probably lived with some kind of water restriction the majority of years that I’ve lived somewhere where we were on city rather than well water. Heck, you haven’t been able to water your lawn more than once a week in Austin since 2012 or something. So I’m assuming there have been at least city level water restrictions before? Is it the part where the restrictions are mandatory? The state-wideness? For some reason this is my burning question about the whole deal. (The focusing on lawns rather than agriculture I kind of get- on the whole, it seems more useful to use a gallon of water to grow food rather than lawns…whether it’s remotely enough to solve the problem is a whole other thing…)
Toasties, I am going to be ~out of the country (temporarily living internationally???) for the next open thread, so of course I feel it is my sworn duty to alert you to this most excellent thing that you can buy for your walls. If I have enough monies to spare upon my return I will perhaps buy it for my own self.
Aaaah why would you link me to that Mystrade story I have WORK to do today!!!! I can’t reread this for the thousandth time!
There was a similar giant black vat of corn syrup on my Harpoon brewery tour last year, only it said "MUUUUURRRRDERRRRR" with a broad Boston accent.
("MEUHDUH?")
I've always thought of that attitude as the preserve of science fanboys rather than scientists, per se – though of course there is some overlap in the two groups. One otherproblem might be that as a scientist, I've got used to saying "blah blah blah is happening" to my colleagues, and all of us know that is shorthand for "based on the evidence, blah blah blah is probably happening" but we forget that other people don't necessarily know it is a shorthand.
Seriously, when I got diagnosed I was looking at the recommendations and I was like THESE ARE ALL THINGS I ALREADY DO. what. how. My mom was like, "But I never even let her stand near the microwave!"
I just take my pills and try to use glass food storage containers. People really like to feel like they have control… until they don't.
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That Science Babe article is EVERYTHING. I have never heard of Food Babe before that article went up yesterday, but I am now obsessed with how terrible she is.