Will Shetterly's Blog, page 130

An article for racists who take IQ out of context

Here's a nice and easy article so busy people with short attention spans will have no excuse:IQ isn't fixed at birth, can increase – USATODAY.com

In 1955, Norway began extending compulsory middle school education by two years. Galloway and her colleague Christian Brinch, from the department of economics at the University of Oslo, analyzed how this additional schooling might affect IQ.

Using

The silliest thing Audre Lorde ever said?

"The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House" is the title of an essay by Audre Lorde that some feminists love. I haven't read it, so I can't critique the content, but I can critique the title. Anyone who has worked with a hammer or a pick knows the master's tool are among the very best things for dismantling the master's house.

I'm reminded of this bit from Somerset Maugham's "

dance video of the day: Kiesza - Hideaway - one take!

Kiesza - Hideaway (Official Video) - YouTube:

Writers, two tips for what to do when a scene isn't working

1. Delete it. Not everything has to be shown in a story. As good playwrights know, having things happen offstage can be the best choice.

2. Heighten the tension. That advice underlies Raymond Chandler's advice for murder mysteries: "When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand." But tension can also be psychological. In a strong scene, several kinds of tension will be at

why socialist atheists in the US should be more tolerant of religion

AtHow Do You Know You Know? | The Dream Café, I left this comment:

I'm going to say a little about religion and then I'm going to drop it because Steve's an atheist and I don't like disagreeing with people's beliefs on their blogs without a better reason than "I disagree".

There are at least two approaches to religion, one that focuses on certainty and one that accepts mystery. These are not

Euthanasia Rollercoaster: A Good Way to Die for Someone Else

The Euthanasia Rollercoasteris not a good way to die for me, because I hate rollercoasters. But it's still all the awesome. Here's the designer's description, fromProjects - euthanasia-coaster - Julijonas Urbonas:

“Euthanasia Coaster” is a hypothetic euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely – with elegance and euphoria – take the life of a human being. Riding

rationalizing animal: on bias and memory

How Your Brain Justifies Torture | TIME.com: "a deep body of work showing that all people—very young children included—have a powerful bias toward remembering good things about in-group members and an equal tendency to remember bad things about out-groupers."

Hypoxia, the best way to die?

I think the death penalty is wrong and, lest anyone worry, I would only consider suicide if I was in pain and a doctor said there was no hope I would get better. But I believe being able to end life mercifully goes hand-in-hand with being able to prolong it, so good ways to die fascinate me. Hypoxia(being deprived of oxygen) is now on the list.

Earlier:Apocarteresis, a natural way to die,

What a patriarchy looks like

I think gross generalizations about patriarchy and rape culture are, well gross generalizations by people who are unable or unwilling to look below the surface, but the terms are useful in specific situations. Like here:“Fuck the Patriarchy” – guest post by Clare.Let a kid enjoy her prom. And, I confess, I can't help but wonder if part of what upset the folks in charge was a pretty white woman

Eleanor Marx on socialist feminism and bourgeois feminism

FromEleanor Marx: Working Women vs. Bourgeois Feminism:

As women we certainly have a lively concern about winning for women the same rights as men, including working men, already possess today. But we believe that this ‘women’s question’ is an essential component in thegeneralquestion of the emancipation of labour.

There is no doubt that there is a women’s question. But for us – who gain the