Three Interesting Things

1.  A post looking at the differences in care and information and process with the illness or death of a loved human versus a cat. 

2. I found this post about a 2007 rule change and the subsequent change in Patriots fumble statistics very interesting.

3. And maybe you eat healthier if you excercise or play first.

Alarms, Security and Other Things

Not too long ago, a friend and I were eating dinner and the fire alarm went off.  There were no obvious signs of smoke and while several patrons left and headed out the door none of the employees did, so we waited.  Now, of course, this was not the wisest course of action.  After all, fires and other emergencies often move faster than you can perceive them, which is why fire alarms exist.  But I think we've all reached at state of alarm ennui.  Car alarms.  Store security alarms go off so frequently that half the time even the security guard seems to wave, too tired to figure out why it's been set off.  I watched one employee head into the back, and return with the alarm still going.  At that point my friend and I decided to leave partly, I confess, because it was really noisy in there.  Other establishments (although not all) already had employees and patrons out on the sidewalk.  And yet we still found a nice bench to chat, finish up dinner, and watch the fire trucks go by.  (They left pretty quickly, so hopefully all was well all along.)

Three Interesting Things

1. I found this look at the gender disparity in fields perceived to be slanted towards geniuses or innately brilliant folks, and how fictional portrayals of such might reinforce that interesting.

2. Justina Ireland went on a rant about the myth that writers of color just try to get published less and how that ends up causing harm.

3. In a similar vein, Celeste Ng was told that there just weren't that many Asian authors.  She compiled this list of published authors as a start.

Talking About Diversity is Tiring

So, the Oscar nominations were announced and there were a number of notable things.  There was of course, the ever present wait that but not that?  Really?  There were a notable lack of people of color, particularly in the acting, and directing categories.  There were a notable lack of women in, well, most categories that didn't require you to be female.  And sure, it's boring to have to keep pointing this out.  To have to keep discussing that yes, there should be better pipelines in place so that women and people of color have a greater breadth of opportunities available to them. And yes, it's not that there were no movies directed by women this year, no movies featuring people of color this year.  There are even ones that have been nominated and awarded for other things.  (And look, it's a sticky thing comparing award shows to award shows when the pool of voters and the process involved is distinct for each. But at least that suggests that it wasn't that there were no good movies made by women or featuring actors of color.) 

But, we need to keep having this conversation, tiring though it may be.  Because when people say this is the whitest it's been since the nineties, well, um the nineties are certainly not far back enough for us to call this a blip. There isn't an easy solution.  This probably requires addressing on multiple fronts, but by continuing to have this discussion, we keep remembering that there is work to do.  We support those already out there working.  And we remind those who feel, understandably, that this process is stacked against them, that we noticed.  We saw. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Erica Williams Simon wrote a fascinating post about how reflections on the selective deafness trick she, um, maybe used to use on her father helped her understand a lot of discussions on twitter and how that is used to derail.

2. Science has in fact determined that the best cure for heartbreak (other than time) is in fact, kvetching about it.

3. And I think in this increasingly connected age people have notices that they get more ideas in the shower, which might be, as this article about the value in being bored suggests, because it's one place you probably don't bring all your devices.  Probably.