CategorySociety

An anthro major observes the world

China update

C

Since my first blog entry on China (The new Yellow Menace?), I’ve continued to monitor the news, mostly via the New York Times, and note the trends. It’s been really interesting! There was a fallow period of a few weeks after the pet food, medicine, and toy scandals, but the spotlight is back with a vengeance this week. Here are some major stories I read over the weekend: Scandal and...

IBARW Addendum

I

I only got out one post for International Blog Against Racism Week while it was still happening, but you know… there’s never a wrong time to call out this shit when it happens. And lo and behold, yesterday, when I was at work, something gross and racist happened. I’m a computer geek, and on Sunday I spent my day reorganizing the server room. We had a lot of cables left over...

Racism begone!

R

It’s the second annual International Blog Against Racism Week. Think racism is a thing of the past? That it happens some other place, not where you live, or in your favorite entertainment, or in your virtual hangouts? If so, you should read some of these posts as background material, then follow up with these. One data point that ties directly to one of my favorite topics, television: The...

The new Yellow Menace?

T

What’s with all the negative articles about China in the New York Times lately? Our household has been getting the Sunday Times for the past couple of months, so I’ve been paying closer attention to their content. The first couple of China articles were interesting and disturbing. But after the third and fourth, I started to wonder, are things really that bad in China? Or does the...

Internet civility, or lack thereof

I

For those who have missed it, there’s been quite a controversy in the blogosphere lately about the lack of civility on the internet and what ought to be done about it. What sparked the conversation was a post by tech blogger Kathy Sierra about the harassment and death threats she received on several comment threads in mid-March. Pretty much everyone agrees that the threats she received were not...

Sunday laughs

S

This past Sunday I laughed harder than I have in quite a while. It all started with the NY Times news roundup of George Bush’s trip to Latin America. I will quote it in full since it wasn’t an article per se, and the NY Times will “disappear” it from their web site soon. On Bush’s Trip, a Name Unspoken and a Surprising Phrase MÉRIDA, Mexico, March 14 — Try as they might to...

Jean Grey, meet Jane Eyre

J

A couple of weekends ago, I watched X-Men: The Last Stand, the most recent installment in the X-Men movie franchise. On the same night, I finished reading Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. You might think that a 9-month-old superhero movie and a 160-year-old realistic novel don’t have anything in common, but you’d be wrong… Both fictions take on the subject of women and...

All hail Momofuku Ando!

A

I didn’t even know before this past week that there was a creator of instant ramen noodles. They seemed eternal in their delicious, three-minute glory. Surely they had always been, and always would be? But lo! I have learned that one single man was the architect of the ramen revolution that nourished me through college. His name was Momofuku Ando, and at age 96, he has gone to meet his...

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