loxosceles

I am a Japanese school teacher. "You know, before we come to Japan, they tell us a lot of ultimately useless stuff. What kind of computer to bring, if our DVD's will work, clothing sizes, that kind of nonsense. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, in the 3-4 months of orientations did anyone ever mention that at some point, a Japanese kid may try to stick their fingers up our butt. That's something I would have liked to know, personally."

An interview with a Dr. Michael Carrera about sex-ed classes (he directs a program that teaches sex-ed in addition to other things).

[Abstinence-only] programs assume that young people cannot process comprehensive information when it comes to their own sexuality, or that if we fully discuss this information with them, it will encourage them to become sexually active. It amuses me when I hear this rationale, because it sure doesn't apply to cleaning their rooms, doing their homework, behaving respectfully, or eating healthier. If only we were that powerful!

(meanwhile, in abstinence-only Texas, some 16-year-olds made a movie about contraception called Toothpaste. Some schools are now showing it.)

Indecipherable scripts can remain indecipherable: this is a really cool writeup of how various unknown scripts were deciphered, and what clues you do and don't need.

In the words of Alice Kober, who helped decipher Linear B, "an unknown language written in an unknown script cannot be deciphered, bilingual or no bilingual."

What obsolete skill are you? Dumb quiz, but at least I got a good result. Last time I took it, I got "French". :(

You are 'programming in QBASIC'. This programming language (of which the acronym stands for 'Quick Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code'), which is so primitive that it cannot easily be used for any purpose involving the Internet nor even sound, was current more than a decade ago. You are independent, in a good way. When something which you need cannot be found, you make it yourself. In writing and in talking with people, you value clarity and precision; your friends may not realize how important that is. When necessary, you are prepared to be a mediator in conflicts between your friends. You are very rational, and you think of things in terms of logic and common sense. Unfortunately, your emotionally unstable friends may be put off by your devotion to logic; they may even accuse you of pedantry and insensitivity. Your problem is that programming in QBASIC has been obsolete for a long time.

hand gestures help speech: this one doesn't surprise me. I often use gestures to abbreviate things to myself: "so we have this thing, and that thing, right?" "This" and "that" will be represented by, say, grabbing at two different spots on the table. Now that I have a spatial relationship between the two, I can sort of talk about them better. When I talk about "this", I'll gesture at its spot. I may even pick up the "this" and move it around to indicate a change in plans, or point at a spot between "this" and "that" to indicate a compromise. I guess the downside to this is that I expect people to understand what I'm pointing at, and they look at me like I'm crazy.

Some awesome visuals:

• vintage girlie mag covers
• space art in children's books
• sand sculptures and more sand sculptures (these are amazing)
• early aircraft design, sketches from patent applications
• isometric pixel art (a tutorial)
• old ads and stuff on EphemeraNOW
• vintage mexican pinups, including space babes
• There's more, but I think you've had enough for now.