May 2012
1 post
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Check out my #WaronWomen Pinterest project →
And let me know if you want to contribute or know of any bills that have been brought forward this year that I may have missed (I know there’s been many.. too many!).
April 2012
4 posts
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Equal Pay: Will We Ever Get There? An Interview... →
April is the month every year when the paychecks of women working full-time, year-round catch up with what men earned by the previous December 31. This year Equal Pay Day falls on April 17.
There are a number of causes for the pay gap, including job segregation (so-called “men’s jobs” pay more than “women’s jobs”) and the fact that working moms are often seen as less serious or less reliable,...
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The Politics Of Safety For Women →
Trigger warning, but a moving piece on safety for women (especially women of color), street harassment, violence against women, and fear.
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March 2012
2 posts
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Women writers' neglect is a class issue →
Middle-class writers such as Sylvia Townsend Warner have enough champions. What about Ethel Carnie Holdsworth?
For about four decades now, rediscovering and promoting the work of women writers deemed to have been “abandoned” by readers has been a staple of the literary feminist. It is the raison d’être of the publishing house Virago, which has brought us many books that would...
February 2012
10 posts
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“I woke up this morning and my uterus was really heavy…and then I realized...”
– Liz Chadderon at WIN’s Young Women of Achievement awards ceremony last night.
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Rowling Returns With a New Book, This Time for... →
J.K. Rowling, the British author whose “Harry Potter” fantasy series ignited a passion for reading for millions of children around the world, has emerged from a five-year publishing hiatus with a new book: this time for adults. Little, Brown and Company, part of the Hachette Book Group, said on Thursday it had acquired the rights to publish the book, whose title and publication date was not...
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Komen Foundation: Selling Us for the Cure →
Komen has been eager to accept corporate funds from the likes of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, but Eli Lilly also happens to be the sole producer of rGBH, a bovine growth hormone which, when it ends up in our dairy products, is known to increase cancer risks. What’s more, while Komen tells their supporters that the foundation’s partnership with the drugmaker is in service of finding...
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30 Clients Using Computer-Generated Stories... →
Forbes has joined a group of 30 clients using Narrative Science software to write computer-generated stories.
Here’s more about the program, used in one corner of Forbes‘ website: “Narrative Science has developed a technology solution that creates rich narrative content from data. Narratives are seamlessly created from structured data sources and can be fully customized to fit a customer’s...
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“Andy: Who can tell me the safest form of safe sex?
Darryl: Condoms.
Andy:...”
– -The Office
I’m posting this because it was on my tear-off Office calendar yesterday — only the most appropriate quote of the day given the contraception fiasco yesterday.
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The Wonderful and Terrible Habit of Buying Too... →
There are just too many books to read. And while one might make the very good point that you could just wait to buy them when you have more room, there’s something about putting them in a row with other books, read and unread, that creates the cumulative impression of your reading self. Because, when it comes to reading, there will always be more book that you haven’t read than books that you...
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“I think it’s really curiouser and curiouser that as we get further into...”
– Pelosi on the ridiculousness of yesterday.
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NEWSFLASH: “Fetal Personhood” Law Passes Oklahoma... →
A bill declaring a fertilized egg to be a “person” with constitutional rights has passed the Oklahoma Senate. The bill is expected to pass the Republican-controlled House and be signed into law by the state’s anti-abortion governor, Mary Fallin.
Personhood laws would drastically limit women’s medical options:
By giving constitutional rights to a fertilized egg, the amendment could ban emergency...
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“Poor women are now at greater risk for breast cancer death because of less...”
– American Cancer Society report
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Can bells and whistles save the book? →
Attempts to invigorate books with video and other digital bells and whistles keep bumping up against this fundamental problem: You can’t really pay much attention to anything else while you’re reading, so in order to play with any of these new features, you have to stop reading. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, then the attentional tug of all these peripheral doodads is vaguely annoying,...
January 2012
15 posts
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WatchLIVE: Occupy Reproductive Freedom at the Supreme Court
Note: you may only be able to view the video through Tumblr. Click here for the original link.
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NBC News Launches Digital Imprint →
NBC News has launched a new eBook imprint called NBC Publishing. The imprint will release enhanced eBooks with videos inside.
The launch follows the media company’s success in the eBook business. Last year NBC worked with Penguin and The Perseus Books Group on various enhanced eBook titles including: JFK: 50 Days, Roots, D-Day:The Battle for Normandy and Berlin 1961.
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Trust Women Week →
I hope all of my readers are with me on this, but I support women’s reproductive rights (access to affordable birth control, legal abortions, et al). This week is Trust Women Week, and I hope as many women (and men!) possible join in the Silver Ribbon efforts:
From January 20 to 27, join the first-ever “Trust Women Week,” an online mass mobilization for women’s lives and...
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Slut-shaming 2.0 →
The content [on TheDirty] is submitted by scorned exes, former friends and total strangers. A typical post calls out a woman, using her full name and at least one photo, for either having too much sex or for being unattractive…
A similar site, IsAnyoneUp.com, boasts a whopping 30 million page views a month, according to owner Hunter Moore. The site takes the naming and shaming one step...
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Mitt Romney’s birth control fake-out →
Give Rick Santorum this much credit for influencing the debate: His open hostility to contraception has managed to reframe things such that in Saturday night’s debate, George Stephanopoulos took the unusual step of asking Mitt Romney if he thought states should be able to ban contraception. Romney responded first by playing dumb and hedging, then by not answering the question at all.
“George,...
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Traditional books, dressed to kill… →
The immediate future of the book is clear. E (electronic) is for easy; P (print) is for posterity. Book readers today are leading double lives. We are faithful to our libraries at home, but stray towards the delights of digital the moment we board a plane, train or automobile.
The pleasures of E means downloading the new book we fancy, from reviews, word-of-mouth or plain curiosity. The...
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Libraries are the best counter to piracy →
In 2002, almost 10 years ago, Tim O’Reilly penned a famous essay entitled “Piracy is Progressive Taxation” in which he discussed O’Reilly Media’s decision to release ebooks without DRM, and O’Reilly’s belief that piracy was not a significant threat to their sales or reputation. Tim ends the essay by quoting from Star Wars’ Hans Solo: “Give the wookie what he wants!” — in other words, by filling...
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New Study Shows E-Textbooks Saved Many Students... →
Despite the promise that digital textbooks can lead to huge cost savings for students, a new study at Daytona State College has found that many who tried e-textbooks saved only one dollar, compared with their counterparts who purchased traditional printed material.
The study, conducted over four semesters, compared four different means of textbook distribution: traditional print purchase, print...
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Amazon To Publish James Franco's Novel →
Now he’s announced that he’ll be penning a second book, “Actor’s Anonymous,” which, according to “The Observer,” will be a “fictionalized version of Mr. Franco’s experiences as an actor (and grad student?)”
But here’s the kicker: he’s decided to forgo the traditional publishing houses, and has signed with Amazon.
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“A book is a bound bundle of mental stimulation and transportation, and when you...”
– Gabe Habash
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December 2011
13 posts
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HOLLAday campaign
I know there are many deserving organizations all asking for money as December 31 approaches, but I want to call particular attention to Hollaback!, a crowd-sourced, non-profit movement dedicated to ending street harassment by using mobile technology. Street harassment and other forms of public, gender-based harassment are some of the most pervasive forms of gender-based violence and some of the...
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Thousands Of Rare Books, Journals, Writings Burned... →
Institute d’Egypte, a research center set up by Napoleon Bonaparte during France’s invasion in the late 18th century, caught fire during clashes between protesters and Egypt’s military over the weekend. It was home to a treasure trove of writings, most notably the handwritten 24-volume Description de l’Egypte, which began during the 1798-1801 French occupation.
The...
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Erotic Poem Written By Woman In 16th Century... →
A crude love poem written almost 450 years ago by a Roman Catholic woman and sent to a Protestant scholar who served Edward VI has been discovered in the back of a book by a British academic.
When Professor Treharne took her class of undergraduates on a tour of medieval literature in the library of West Virginia University, she thought she was introducing another year of eager literature students...
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Don’t Support Your Local Bookseller →
Compared with online retailers, bookstores present a frustrating consumer experience. A physical store—whether it’s your favorite indie or the humongous Barnes & Noble at the mall offers a relatively paltry selection, no customer reviews, no reliable way to find what you’re looking for, and a dubious recommendations engine. Amazon suggests books based on others you’ve read; your local store...
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Amazon Sets Up $6 Million Royalty Fund for Lending... →
Amazon has set up a $6 million annual royalty fund designed to encourage self-published authors and publishers to do two things: Make their work available exclusively in the Kindle Store for the first 90 days it’s published and include their work in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library…
Before now, independent authors and publishers were not eligible to participate in the Lending Library....
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Plan to Widen Availability of Morning-After Pill... →
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the Food and Drug Administration’s decision Wednesday that emergency contraceptives be sold freely over the counter, including to teenagers 16 years old and younger.
The pill, called Plan B One-Step, has been available without a prescription to women 17 and older, but those 16 and younger have needed a prescription — and still will...
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OccupyEducated Creates a Virtual Library for the... →
..how can the movement preserve the work that’s been done in these physical spaces? One project that is looking at just this question is theOccupyEducated.org initiative. In response to the confiscation and physical destruction of books at Occupy Wall Street, a group of activists have created a virtual library and education center that provides a list of primer books; hand-selected articles...
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Selling Books by Their Gilded Covers →
Even as more readers switch to the convenience of e-books, publishers are giving old-fashioned print books a makeover.
Many new releases have design elements usually reserved for special occasions — deckle edges, colored endpapers, high-quality paper and exquisite jackets that push the creative boundaries of bookmaking. If e-books are about ease and expedience, the publishers reason, then print...
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jessicavalenti:
The Politics of Plan B from Media Education Foundation on Vimeo.
On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration will announce whether it will approve making Plan B (the brand name for emergency contraception or the morning after pill) available for purchase on drugstore shelves - that’s right, next to the condoms and pregnancy tests. Reproductive justice advocates I’ve...
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Consequences of Fear of Crime for Women
Fear of circulating freely at any time of day: Restricted mobility.
Obstacles to participation in social life: physical and recreational activities, studies, work, social or political involvement.
Dependence on protection by someone else (real or virtual man) or gadgets (alarms, etc.)
Lack of self-confidence, lack of autonomy
Restricted choices (foregoing an evening activity)
Perception of...
November 2011
34 posts
2 tags
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“Ask the Siri, the new iPhone 4 assistant, where to get an abortion, and, if you...”
– 10 things the iPhone Siri will help you get instead of an abortion | The Raw Story
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Apple's Siri Won't Tell You Where To Find... →
Want to use Apple’s new interactive “Siri” on your iPhone? “She” has tons of information — just as long as you don’t ask about birth control, abortion, emergency contraception, or even mammograms.
After experimenting with a few easy reproductive health questions, it was discovered that Siri appears to have a blind spot when it comes to women’s...
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Reasons Not to Self-Publish in 2011-2012: A List →
…there’s the always-chilling question: With mounting pressure to turn a profit, how do editors justify publishing an amazing book that might not speak to a large audience? Talented authors — new and mid-list — are bound to get lost in this system.
And yet. And yet. I read good books by large publishing houses all the time, books that take my breath away, make me laugh and cry and wonder at...
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“A book like this is a club sandwich, with turkey, salami, tomato, cheese,...”
– Umberto Eco on the relationship between books and their films