Dangerous Ideas

I realized I can’t go to BlogHer on Saturday. Mostly because I managed to convince myself until yesterday that it was happening on Sunday (which, realistically, I probably couldn’t have gone to, either, with all the packing going on).

If you want to go, e-mail me at jennyw at dangerousideas dot com.

I love that my company has such a diverse client base! Some days are all about social justice, some days we work next to fire engines, some days we help businesses recover from disasters, some days we help people give money where it’s needed. And some days, we help people enrich their sex lives. ;-)

I was at Babeland today meeting with them about their Web site (parts of which we’ll be redoing in Ruby on Rails). While I was there, I got an update on Project Sex Toy, a contest that they created that’s kind of like Project Runway (one of V’s favorite shows!) meets HBO’s Real Sex.

Contest entries have been up on their Web site for a while with the event culminating in the final day at Babeland’s Los Angeles store where celebrity judges chose the winner. A lot of press folks went, and photos of the event will be published soon. Unfortunately, there’s no video! I so wish I had been down in LA for this with my new MacBook and a video camera … Maybe next time!

Exactly what made Sony think having a black and white model fight was a good way to promote their products? What were they thinking?

What’s even more disturbing than the ad itself is the response from some people. Some people are slamming Leland Yee and the NAACP saying they shouldn’t care what happens across the Atlantic.

Then there are the people who think that any publicity is good publicity and Sony is going to benefit from the controversy. I’d hate to think this was deliberate, but who knows?

This comes in the category of things that we probably shouldn’t be able to do, but now that we can (from the Guardian)…

Prof Nayernia also hopes to create sperm from female embryonic stem cells, and eventually, eggs from stem cells.

If he is successful, the work could give single men and women the possibility of providing both sperm and eggs for embryos - effectively allowing them to mate with themselves. Gay couples would be able to have children which are genetically their own.

Wow. I don’t even know where to start with this. This is still in the nascent stages, but I could see this being applied in the next 20 years or so. It probably seems like a dream to many, and a nightmare to many, also (and there’s probably a lot of overlap in the two camps).

The Internet changed society in ways that it would have been hard to predict twenty years before the Web, but twenty years from now? The human species could be completely changed. Some government, somewhere in the world is going to let this technology be applied. And then we’ll have the same things with humans that we have with GMO crops … there will be cross fertilization ad then … wow, just wow.

I had signed up for RailsConf a while ago and was completely oblivious to the date being Pride weekend. I was thinking I would have to miss out on pride celebrations in San Francisco, but then I realized that Chicago has their LGBT Pride celebration the same weekend. There’s also a Chicago Dyke March, although it takes place earlier than the San Francisco Dyke March. The Dyke March in San Francisco is always a good event – unlike the parade on Sunday, it’s refreshingly non-commercial, and it’s always on the cutting edge of progressive politics. And it’s a fun day in Dolores Park for all sorts of people, not just dykes. It would have been interesting to see Chicago’s version, and also their parade (which is probably a lot different than San Francisco’s which is ridiculously huge and overly commercial), but, alas, I’m not going to Chicago after all since there’s too much to do here.

Yesterday, I ran across an article saying that DC Comics is reinventing Batwoman as a lesbian. (I didn’t even know there was a Batwoman … Is this Batgirl grown-up? Or was Batgirl a TV invention like Saturday morning cartoon’s Batmite? It’s so bat confusing …).

Apparently, Batwoman isn’t the only comic book character who’s undergone some dramatic change. Today, I read Jeff Chang’s column on about Asian super-heroes – apparently, a bunch of old characters are being reinvented as Asians. In one case, a white male villain has now become a female Japanese hero.

I think the diversity is great for a lot of reasons (even if I don’t read the comics). I wonder if this will help them diversify their audience, too? I think the Asian characters will be good for Asians, as evidenced by Chang’s column. But will Batwoman attract more lesbian readers? Given the illustration they showed of her in the article, I don’t know if she’s being marketed to women. It looks like she’s wearing high heels and a push-up bra. I wouldn’t have thought that either would be a big help in crime fighting, but at least the men don’t have much more practical outfits. If they were really daring, they would have made her a butch.

By the way, here’s an interesting take on what would comic book covers would look like if they objectified the men as much as they do the women.

The Indy 500 is tomorrow, and it wouldn’t take an expert to prodict there’s heaps of expectations on Danica Patrick. I’ve never been a big fan of racing (heck, I didn’t even realize what the difference was between NASCAR and Indy last year), but I tuned in to the 2005 Indy 500 to see Danica race. I think it’s great to see women competing against men in sports, and not just do well but be contenders to place first (see also 16-year old Michelle Wie). One of the big things for me is that although a lot of sexism and racism is a lot subtler these days (and can therefore be dismissed by people who don’t want to see it), people like Danica really bring make some people express themselves plainly, if stupidly (from the SJ Mercury/Knight Ridder):

”I just don’t think it’s a sport for women,” Petty told the Associated Press. “And so far, it’s proved out. It’s really not. It’s good for them to come in. It gives us a lot of publicity. It gives them publicity. But as far as being a real true racer, making a living out of it, it’s kind of tough.”

That quote is especially ridiculous since there are probably more people who know who Danica Patrick is than this Petty person, even if he is some sort of big champion.

A victory by Danica tomorrow would certainly (okay, hopefully) put these sorts of comments to rest, and maybe do change the minds of some less outspoken people with similar views about what’s proper for women, and what our limits are.

I’m rootin’ for you, Danica!

Just saw this on a mailing list …

Craigslist Foundation is hosting a “Nonprofit Boot Camp”. That link is to the Acteva page; they also have a page on the event on the Craigslist Foundation web site, but it strangely does not have a link to sign up (that I saw as I was posting this).

The cost is $50 per person, and the event takes place at UC Berkeley. From the sign-up page:

Boot Camp Highlights:

• 1300 emerging nonprofit leaders and social entrepreneurs
• Seminars and workshops on how to to start and run a nonprofit
• The involvement of leading local and national nonprofit support organizations as track co-presenters
• An Exhibit Hall featuring organizations that serve nonprofits and social enterprises
• Community Lounge, featuring Career Counseling and Ask the Experts
• Networking Reception with complimentary hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and entertainment
• Eco-friendly event

Speaking of eco-friendly, I was pretty impressed that they have both vegetarian and vegan meal options!

Just saw this article about a Web site that can name a tune through keyboard taps to the rhythm. Nifty!

Ever have a song stuck in your head, but can’t remember what it’s called, or even who sang it? If you at least know how it goes, try this astonishing Web site, suggested to me by a reader: It’s SongTapper.com.

One of the reasons I use a PC as my main computer is because Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the best speech recognition software I’ve used, only runs on Windows. Of course, now Macs can run Windows, and it turns out that NaturallySpeaking runs great on a MacBookPro. Not quite as nice as a native port, but very promising for those of us with sore hands (and other RSI).

KittenAuth is a really clever idea to filter out spambots. Ars Technica has an article with photos of the method. Spambots in recent times have gotten really good at figuring out the obscured letters-and-numbers tests that a lot of services (e.g. Yahoo!) use to determine whether human beings are at the other end or not.

I heard about some spambots that did the clever (and insiduous) thing of filling out these forms by tricking humans into figuring out their tests for them. They did this by offering porn or something for free, but only for people who passed a test which was copied from the site they’re trying to set up spamming from. Of course, that’d be a lot of trouble to go through for every blog they’d want to spam, so this might be a pretty good tool to stop blog spam.

Jen

Someone on a vegetarian mailing list I’m on forwarded this great article on how much fossil fuel goes into bringing food to the kitchen table. It was published in the March 26 Sunday SF Chronicle and written by Chad Heeter. One striking paragraph:

What they’ve discovered is astonishing. According to researchers at the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture, an average of more than 7 calories of fossil fuel is burned up for every calorie of energy we get from our food. This means that in eating my 400-calorie breakfast, I will, in effect, have consumed 2,800 calories of fossil fuel energy. (Some researchers claim the ratio is as high as 10 to 1.)

I’ve thought about this before, but I didn’t realize the ratio was so high. I like to buy as much as possible from the nearby Alemany Farmers’ Market, but even that involves farmers driving here to bring their produce (a lot less fuel is consumed, though).

In addition to the usage of fossil fuels, having a distributed food network like this is kind of a concern in times of emergency. If there aren’t local sources of food and other necessities, then a major disruption like an earthquake can be of even more consequence than the immediate damage.

Of course, I’m not likely to grow my own food any time soon, but maybe some some day …

There’s a new study showing that G movies feature male characters far more often than female characters.

I’ve enjoyed Pixar’s movies, but every time I see one of their films, I think “Where are the girls or women?” The “Incredibles” is the only film of Pixar’s I can think of where female characters get almost equal screen time. And, of course, it’s wasn’t rated G, so wasn’t even included in the study.

I just got a save the dates e-mail for the 21st Bay Area Storytelling Festival: May 20 and 21, 2006. It’s an event I’ve always liked the idea of, but have never managed to go to. Although when I was in the Do-It-Herself Collective, we did do a Stories in Dolores event, where we met in Dolores Park and for a story circle. People could bring whatever they wanted, but we especially encouraged stories that were handed down. It turned out quite nicely. I talked to my parents about stories they had from their youth. One story they told was about Qu Yuan, whose death and life are celebrated by the Dragon Boat Festival. This is a story I had heard before, too. My Grand Aunt was probably the first to tell the story to my sister and I, and it was probably around the kitchen when she was making joong (aka zongzi). A lot of Chinese stories seem to have to do with food. ;-) My dad also told stories about his mom, who was a very strong woman, dealing with all kinds of troubles from snakes to violent neighbors.