Lydia Schoch

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, videos and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

Discrimination Against the Long-Term Unemployed. Sad.

What Makes Sex Good? So it’s spring and once again street preachers are asking strangers what I consider extremely personal questions. Not everyone considers the topic of religion to be a private matter, of course, but I’ve often wondered how they would react if I started asking them  for a detailed description of their sex lives. Would they realize I was making a point about the (in)appropriateness of certain topics when meeting someone new? Eh, probably not. 😉

Lady Magazine. To be honest these kind of magazines all but satirize themselves. It’s still a funny picture, though.

The Red Ball Project. Because our world needs more whimsy.

President Obama On Trayvon Martin’s death (if you haven’t heard of Trayvon Martin the link does explains his death in more detail):

My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. And you know, I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

Interesting speech:

What have you been reading?

Time: 1943

Place: Clinton, Iowa

Don’t you wish you could slide into an empty seat and listen in on these  conversations?

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, photographs and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

Did Stone Age Cavemen Talk to Each Other in Symbols? We need a Rosetta Stone for these symbols.

Four Seasons, One Photo. What the same patch of land looks like in all four seasons.

Music Lessons. If you give a dog a music lesson…he or she just might learn something!

Thanks to Daphne for sharing this video with me a little while ago!

What have you been reading?

Forgotten Heroes is a series of posts about extraordinary men and women who are (probably) not remembered by the average person.  Previous heroes include Nellie Bly,  Charles Loring Brace and Emily Murphy.

If you know of a forgotten hero who should be included in this series let me know about him or her in the comment section or via my contact form. 

 Time: 1968

Place: Toronto

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

To whom does your neighbourhood belong?

Businesses?

Politicians?

Advertisers?

Jane Jacobs thought it belongs to you.

Well maybe not legally. But she saw a difference between building a city for cars and building it for people.

She thought of a city – of any community, really – as a living thing. Just as you or I wouldn’t survive very long if we traded in our livers for an extra stomach Jacobs believed that cities need to be mixed-use and dense in population in order to prosper over the long haul.

If all of the businesses are at one end of a city and all houses on the other it’s going to be pretty difficult to maintain a sense of community. Everyone will be too busy driving from one end of the city to the other to go to work or pick up a loaf of bread.

There was a time when I spent four hours a day travelling to and from work. It doesn’t leave much time for getting to know the neighbours…or to browse at a local store.

A few generations ago it was common for people from every class, but especially the poor, to live in the same neighbourhood in which they worked. Sometimes shopkeepers lived in the same building as their shops and business owners sold products from their living rooms.

Fashions and zoning laws changed and this isn’t something you hear about very often these days.

I wonder if it will ever be allowed again?

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, short stories and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

From Why I am a Male Feminist:

The following day, I attended a workshop about preventing gender violence, facilitated by Katz. There, he posed a question to all of the men in the room: “Men, what things do you do to protect yourself from being raped or sexually assaulted?”

Not one man, including myself, could quickly answer the question. Finally, one man raised his hand and said, “Nothing.”

Taking Care of the Basics. This is marketed to people living with serious mental illnesses but the message is universal.

From The Big Event:

From a personnel standpoint, it’s like herding cats. Delicate, finicky cats that only eat quail meat and that need silt from the Nile to fill their litter boxes.

Existential Parenting. When my youngest brother was a preschooler he used to tell us stories about what he did and thought in the womb. Specifically, he talked about “seeing red blood cells float by.” I don’t remember him ever talking about his pre-existence but this link reminded me of that story.

Some science fiction stories make you wish our world actually had their technological advancements. As comforting as it would be to (sort of) survive even the most horrific accident Her Husband’s Hands is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the technology we’d need to make that world possible.

What have you been reading?

If there comes a little thaw,
Still the air is chill and raw,
Here and there a patch of snow,
Dirtier than the ground below,
Dribbles down a marshy flood;
Ankle-deep you stick in mud
In the meadows while you sing,
“This is Spring.”

• C. P. Cranch, A Spring Growl.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, short stories and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

From Notes from the Field:

You hear a lot of talk about relocalization and deindustrialization. The pastoral life, the good old days. How romantic! Reality pays you a visit when your pick-axe hits a rock, a chunk hits your face, and you taste your own blood.

Right Versus Pragmatic. This is so true.

From Why Anti-Authoritarians are Diagnosed as Mentally Ill:

Americans have been increasingly socialized to equate inattention, anger, anxiety, and immobilizing despair with a medical condition, and to seek medical treatment rather than political remedies. What better way to maintain the status quo than to view inattention, anger, anxiety, and depression as biochemical problems of those who are mentally ill rather than normal reactions to an increasingly authoritarian society.

Interesting premise!

Combing the Fringe: Death of the Mayans. A year from now will anyone actually admit to believing they thought the world would end in 2012? This whole thing reminds me of the Y2K hype. I spent that world-ending night  earning easy cash by babysitting for family friends – their kids went to bed early and I stayed up to see if all of the computers actually were going to crash 😉

Let’s Look at Amazing Photos. The link title says it all.

I’m still trying to figure out what I think about Nancy Fulda’s Movement. What have you been reading?