“A special collection of problems that were given to select applicants during oral entrance exams to the math department of Moscow State University. These problems were designed to prevent Jews and other undesirables from getting a passing grade.” I am useless at math so I have no idea what these problems mean. Thank you, the nice person who tweeted the link to me, anyways.
An absolutely essential post on stimulant medication use among the US children. I think everybody needs to read it. Hopefully, twice.
A post on performing masculinity by the very talented Noah Brand. And here is part two.
A man who loves a transwoman isn’t gay. An important wakeup call for the transphobic folks.
A powerful post on the horrible and barbaric practice of bride kidnapping.
A first-hand account of the Occupy Toronto protests.
Prudishness masquerading as feminism: “This whole scene, from when we the viewer enter through the door until fade lasts 30 seconds with 16 instances of objectification. A woman is being objectified literally every two seconds.” And yes, this seems to have been written completely in earnest.
Another brilliant post on Occupy protests from Maha. I agree with everything except the last paragraph.
Clarissa's Blog 
Re Jewish math problems: tough ones indeed.
And MSU was known for this kind of shit. And is still known as a cradle of Russian nationalism.
When I was a kid, I took math correspondence classes at MSU. (For Russian speakers – “maly mehmat”) The successful completion of classes allegedly translated into some advantages when joining MSU. To the best of my knowledge, I completed those classes successfully. Guess what – they did not give me a diploma. I inquired why I did not get a diploma, and was just ignored… I did not plan to go to Moscow anyway, but it pissed me off. And one has to really make an effort to interpret my name as Jewish, although it is definitely more Jewish than Ivan Petrov, for example.
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Actually, I think both your first and last names do sound kind of Jewish.
Once, my father was speaking English to my sister on the bus. “Look, this guy is speaking Jewish to the little girl,” passengers whispered.
Everything that was a bit different often was labeled Jewish just to be on the safe side.
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—Actually, I think both your first and last names do sound kind of Jewish.
Apparently those people of MSU shared your opinion… 🙂
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Topeka stopped enforcing misdemeanors “and as long as you make sure to beat your wife without a weapon, domestic violence is a misdemeanor in Topeka.”
Against Medical Marijuana: A civil liberties argument against a humanistic farce Written by a doctor.
Amanda gets vaccinated against whooping cough, which came back because of anti-vaccinaton parents.
Badtux explains why the Chinese ambassador begs Bernanke not to print money despite:
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That one about the GUST ad lost me when they got to “the very phallic mic”. Its almost as if science and efficiency of the various inventions throughout history just don’t matter anymore and anything with even the slightest resemblance of a phallic shape has suddenly had its history rewritten to say that it was made that way to pay homage to the penis. (Seriously I’ve even seen people try to argue that guns are all about the penis, damn the physics behind bullet travel, velocity, and accuracy I guess).
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Its not just about the mic tho. Its about the way it was shot.
There are two instances – one of a heavily made up female mouth, the second of a female mouth infront of a mic making very obviously sexual lipmovements.
The blog post was a response to someone asking “whats sexist about it then?”. This video was designed to encourage people to become involved with Glasgow University Student Television and was written, performed, filmed and directed by then. I happen to know that GUST isnt entirely female – so why are there only females in the film? …and if all the females were on camera – who did the filming?
The whole middle scene is filled with comehither looks, signals of sexual desire and phallic imagery. It is aimed at attracting the viewer, and the manner in which they have chosen to attract the viewer is through female sexuality. So ultimately we have a promo designed to attract new recruits to a student society, where the female members of the society perform in a sexual manner.
There is precisely one instance where a woman is seen with technical equipment using it as it should be used, in all other instances it is either being used as a prop, or the manner of filming is deliberately sexualised. That is interspersed with random shots of women behind curtains and sexualised imagery which is completely unrelated to purpose.
In their defence it is pretty well shot, and the final scene of doll-like women briefly illuminated then falling into darkness as a shadowy camera is trained on them approaches Arthouse.
If this were a student project to develop a short illustrating how women are objectified in film, it would get an A rating – its not tho, its designed to attract new filmmakers.
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And why did they all look like Stepford wives?
Danny, please don’t tell me you didn’t see that in the video?! The extreme close-up of the woman’s tongue rolling around her lips directly over the rounded top of a penis size & shaped object didn’t suggest anything to you?
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General info article:
Debate stirs in Israel: Is prisoner exchange worth the cost? (Abducted by Hamas in 2006 Israeli soldier will be swapped for 1027 Palestinians, many of them with blood on their hands.)
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I’m probably being a pain in the butt with this one, but I would love for folks to consider contributing to the Domestic Violence Awareness Month blog carnival if they can.
I also wrote a book review of the young adult novel Romeo’s Ex: Rosaline’s Story. As someone who’s read and taught Shakespeare’s play more times than I care to count, this novel was in some ways very satisfying.
Fart Pose in Chairs — Part of an intermittent series on chair yoga, this one looks at wind-relieving pose for people who might need or want the assistance of a chair.
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And why did they all look like Stepford wives?
Danny, please don’t tell me you didn’t see that in the video?! The extreme close-up of the woman’s tongue rolling around her lips directly over the rounded top of a penis size & shaped object didn’t suggest anything to you?
Actually, no I didn’t take it that way.
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Well, do you see it now that it’s been pointed out to you? And realize that you must have been aware of it subconsciously at least?
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Yes I can see it now that its been pointed out but how does that translate into I must have known about it subconsciously?
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Danny, I don’t think being consciously aware of the symbolism or resemblance is necessary for it to be effective in getting a certain response or in sending a particular message. And do you think it is even remotely possible that the crew who conceived, story-boarded, acted, directed and edited that shot never saw the resemblance?
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