(no subject)

* The Syrian Opposition says they have shot down a war plane.

* On Paul Ryan's belief that sperm and eggs have rights, but adult women not so much: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48654635

( Embed: )

* Paul Ryan and the history of Republican attempts to abolish Social Security and Medicare: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48654715

( Embed: )

* Romney and Ryan want to remind you that their plan to cause 40-50 million people to lose their insurance is a small price to pay for a huge tax break for the super rich (Romney's effective personal tax rate is projected to drop below 1%) and a massive give away to insurance companies. BTW, do not expect any thanks or even acknowledgement of the sacrifices they are expecting you to make on the alter of their greed and ideology respectively. After all, they think they are entitled to take the insurance you paid for away from you. Honestly, to me Mitt Romney looks like a collection of souless ambition and boundless greed decided to put on a man suit. Similarly, I know people are referring to Paul Ryan as "the next Cheney," but I think he is infinity more dangerous and worse, both from a policy perspective and because he's charismatic. *shudder*

* "Trans in the Media: Unlearning the 'Trapped' Narrative and Taking Control of our Bodies"http://janetmock.com/2012/07/09/josie-romero-dateline-transgender-trapped-body/

"Why don’t I like it? Because it places me in the role of victim, and to those who take mainstream media depictions as truth I’m seen as a human to be pitied because I’m someone who needs to be saved, rather than a self-determined woman with agency and choice and the ability to define who I am in this society and who I will become in spite of it."

* "FAA Updates Medical Rules For Trans Pilots:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/08/faa-updates-medical-rules-for-trans.html

* Support for Homo rudolfensis as being a separate species: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19184370

* "Susita Site Yields Surprises:" http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/158683#.UCncCaPNmKw

* Anglo-Saxon Burials on Salisbury Plain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/06/soldiers-archaeology-somerset-discovery-afghanistan

* "DNA unravels clues to shipwrecked Anglesey bone setter:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-19012179

* Tracing the "Black Drink:" http://news.discovery.com/history/vomit-drink-black-native-caffeine-120807.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1

* A feature on the Paris Catacombs: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/02/world/europe/wus-france-catacombs/index.html

* They think a volcano eruption caused a global catastrophe that may have killed off a third of London in 1258: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/05/medieval-volcano-disaster-london-graves

Remember how a while ago I was saying there was a global cooling trend starting in the 13th century that was hitting crops in areas not touched by Mongols? Looks like one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in the past 10,000 years may have caused it.

In real life, things like the depopulation in Eurasia and North Africa that reached it's peak around 1400 tend to have multiple causes. This is an example of one of those factors we saw the effects of on things like tree rings, Antarctic core samples, population/crop/disease stats without seeing a crucial causative event. You can add in things like Mongols slaughtering cities and disrupting irrigation systems, and pathogens traveling trade routes, but can we really say that it was all one thing or the other? I'm betting the Summer that wasn't and resulting crop failure followed by human and herd deaths is more to do with volcanic ash in the atmosphere, while the massive depopulation in the Middle east in the generation after the Mongols road through is easier to attribute to the horsemen. Meanwhile geopolitics, trade routes, and the periodic starvation the climate factors brought certainly contributed to the spread and deadliness of the Great Pestilence, but you still have to give primary credit or blame to the Pathogen for the deaths it caused while acknowledging the factors that made it a perfect storm of epidemic.

History is messy, and this volcanic eruption is an excellent example of how it's hard to know all the factors.

* I had two things to do today, but was clearly to tired for the one that required me getting up early and leaving the house. The other, I did do. I also found a pump that worked better than the one in the bedroom and switched them out and discovered the aqua heater I found in the equipment box was also compromised, by electrocuting myself again. A bunch of the plants are clearly dying now that they are inside. I have no idea how to save them.

* Olympics Day 15 and 16: ( Blahblahblah: )

* Can anyone tell me why the London Olympic committee chose a trouser snake for a mascot? Because I'm still kind of baffled by that.

* As part of the NBC Olympic coverage, they ran a featurette on the blitz. Through the wrinkles and white hair, I saw the face of a seven year old boy, pulled from the arms of his dying mother in the wreckage of a bomb shelter. All these decades later the shock and loss on his face was so fresh and sharp it pierced my heart. Then later, when he talked about going to meet the Dresden survivors to share pictures of their dead parents? Ouch. And yet utterly beautiful. The worst and best of humanity compressed into a few short sentences and the expressions on an old mans face, a terrible beauty.

* "Semenya Gets 800m Silver:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/08/2012-olympic-watch-semenya-gets-800m.html

* Fund raising signal boosts: http://djinni.livejournal.com/438916.html

* "True Blood: This use of “Teenage Dream” feels oddly familiar:" http://lettersfromtitan.com/2012/08/13/true-blood-this-use-of-teenage-dream-feels-oddly-familiar/

(no subject)

* The Syrian Opposition says they have shot down a war plane.

* On Paul Ryan's belief that sperm and eggs have rights, but adult women not so much: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48654635

( Embed: )

* Paul Ryan and the history of Republican attempts to abolish Social Security and Medicare: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48654715

( Embed: )

* Romney and Ryan want to remind you that their plan to cause 40-50 million people to lose their insurance is a small price to pay for a huge tax break for the super rich (Romney's effective personal tax rate is projected to drop below 1%) and a massive give away to insurance companies. BTW, do not expect any thanks or even acknowledgement of the sacrifices they are expecting you to make on the alter of their greed and ideology respectively. After all, they think they are entitled to take the insurance you paid for away from you. Honestly, to me Mitt Romney looks like a collection of souless ambition and boundless greed decided to put on a man suit. Similarly, I know people are referring to Paul Ryan as "the next Cheney," but I think he is infinity more dangerous and worse, both from a policy perspective and because he's charismatic. *shudder*

* "Trans in the Media: Unlearning the 'Trapped' Narrative and Taking Control of our Bodies"http://janetmock.com/2012/07/09/josie-romero-dateline-transgender-trapped-body/

"Why don’t I like it? Because it places me in the role of victim, and to those who take mainstream media depictions as truth I’m seen as a human to be pitied because I’m someone who needs to be saved, rather than a self-determined woman with agency and choice and the ability to define who I am in this society and who I will become in spite of it."

* "FAA Updates Medical Rules For Trans Pilots:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/08/faa-updates-medical-rules-for-trans.html

* Support for Homo rudolfensis as being a separate species: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19184370

* "Susita Site Yields Surprises:" http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/158683#.UCncCaPNmKw

* Anglo-Saxon Burials on Salisbury Plain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/06/soldiers-archaeology-somerset-discovery-afghanistan

* "DNA unravels clues to shipwrecked Anglesey bone setter:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-19012179

* Tracing the "Black Drink:" http://news.discovery.com/history/vomit-drink-black-native-caffeine-120807.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1

* A feature on the Paris Catacombs: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/02/world/europe/wus-france-catacombs/index.html

* They think a volcano eruption caused a global catastrophe that may have killed off a third of London in 1258: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/05/medieval-volcano-disaster-london-graves

Remember how a while ago I was saying there was a global cooling trend starting in the 13th century that was hitting crops in areas not touched by Mongols? Looks like one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in the past 10,000 years may have caused it.

In real life, things like the depopulation in Eurasia and North Africa that reached it's peak around 1400 tend to have multiple causes. This is an example of one of those factors we saw the effects of on things like tree rings, Antarctic core samples, population/crop/disease stats without seeing a crucial causative event. You can add in things like Mongols slaughtering cities and disrupting irrigation systems, and pathogens traveling trade routes, but can we really say that it was all one thing or the other? I'm betting the Summer that wasn't and resulting crop failure followed by human and herd deaths is more to do with volcanic ash in the atmosphere, while the massive depopulation in the Middle east in the generation after the Mongols road through is easier to attribute to the horsemen. Meanwhile geopolitics, trade routes, and the periodic starvation the climate factors brought certainly contributed to the spread and deadliness of the Great Pestilence, but you still have to give primary credit or blame to the Pathogen for the deaths it caused while acknowledging the factors that made it a perfect storm of epidemic.

History is messy, and this volcanic eruption is an excellent example of how it's hard to know all the factors.

* I had two things to do today, but was clearly to tired for the one that required me getting up early and leaving the house. The other, I did do. I also found a pump that worked better than the one in the bedroom and switched them out and discovered the aqua heater I found in the equipment box was also compromised, by electrocuting myself again. A bunch of the plants are clearly dying now that they are inside. I have no idea how to save them.

* Olympics Day 15 and 16: ( Blahblahblah: )

* Can anyone tell me why the London Olympic committee chose a trouser snake for a mascot? Because I'm still kind of baffled by that.

* As part of the NBC Olympic coverage, they ran a featurette on the blitz. Through the wrinkles and white hair, I saw the face of a seven year old boy, pulled from the arms of his dying mother in the wreckage of a bomb shelter. All these decades later the shock and loss on his face was so fresh and sharp it pierced my heart. Then later, when he talked about going to meet the Dresden survivors to share pictures of their dead parents? Ouch. And yet utterly beautiful. The worst and best of humanity compressed into a few short sentences and the expressions on an old mans face, a terrible beauty.

* "Semenya Gets 800m Silver:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/08/2012-olympic-watch-semenya-gets-800m.html

* Fund raising signal boosts: http://djinni.livejournal.com/438916.html

* "True Blood: This use of “Teenage Dream” feels oddly familiar:" http://lettersfromtitan.com/2012/08/13/true-blood-this-use-of-teenage-dream-feels-oddly-familiar/