Miscellaneous Articles You Should Read (2 Viewers)

[Cormcolash]

Haha https://www.vulture.com/article/hollywood-nepotism-babies-list-taxonomy.html

There's a rake in there that I just never thought about, like that Washington lad for instance.
Can't bate the Chaplins though.

 

[pete]

Horror stories of cryonics: The gruesome fates of futurists hoping for immortality

Cryonics is the practice of freezing your body in the hope of resurrection by future medicine. Some pioneers met a fate grislier than death.

bigthink.com

 

[Deadmanposting]

This is a strong piece on the economics of thinness
It upends even our more recent understanding of why poor people are fat, and ties a lot of things together including the shift toward 'wellness' over dieting and the persistence of an ideal size/shape for women

The economics of thinness

We analyse the economic factors driving thinness, including the impact of the weight-loss industry and societal costs of diet culture

www.economist.com

The Economist doesn't do bylines, but it's clearly written by a woman
The dusty old newspaper is quite woke these past 5 years or so. Probably the influence of Beddoes being in charge.


ETA
I am trying to attach pdfs from sites I know have hard paywalls - not sure if it works or not

 

[egg_]

This is a strong piece on the economics of thinness
It upends even our more recent understanding of why poor people are fat, and ties a lot of things together including the shift toward 'wellness' over dieting and the persistence of an ideal size/shape for women

Hmm I dunno about "strong". Feels to me like it's trying to shoehorn some measurements into an overarching story of oppression, without really managing to identify who the oppressor is

(pdf worked btw)

 

[Deadmanposting]

Hmm I dunno about "strong". Feels to me like it's trying to shoehorn some measurements into an overarching story of oppression, without really managing to identify who the oppressor is

(pdf worked btw)

I'm pretty sure it's all, or most, of us

The smoking gun is the implicit bias tests

 

[egg_]

If we're all guilty, and it's not clear how to change things, then I don't know how any of this is useful or meaningful

 

[seanc]

If we're all guilty, and it's not clear how to change things, then I don't know how any of this is useful or meaningful

Economists gonna economist.

I thought there was some interesting looking at the data stuff going on. Not sure what to draw from it though.

 

[Deadmanposting]

Well the numbers on attitudes to gays a d black people kind of speak for themselves
So there's some lessons there

The most striking thing for me was the proposition that poor people aren't fat because they're poor, they're poor because they're fat. And that the data only applies to women. I mean it's kinda messed up that society is like this.


You can highlight a problem, or say "Hey, we may have been looking at this problem arseways" without necessarily having a solution

 

[Deadmanposting]

If we're all guilty, and it's not clear how to change things, then I don't know how any of this is useful or meaningful

The comments on the IG story are a testament to how deep this bias runs

If it weren't such a tragedy, it'd be funny

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Fucking ponderous, man

 

[Lili Marlene]

The most striking thing for me was the proposition that poor people aren't fat because they're poor, they're poor because they're fat.

Thank you for the article, and I mean that.

It ties together many of my least favourite things, The Economist in general, Roxane Gay, and Jia Tolentino being treated as an oracle.

I agree with your conclusion, because it's the same conclusion The Economist always comes to, whether it's about Ireland in the 1840s, or poor people in 2022: "These people are poor because of a moral failing on their part and the solution is to change nothing because nothing can change. Look at these graphs which prove nothing can change."

You either buy into it at a fundamental level or you don't. I'm gonna finish reading 500 years of economic history in about 20 years and get back to you with my own conclusions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/09/05/when-the-economist-blamed-irish-peasants-for-starving-to-death/

 

[Deadmanposting]

Thank you for the article, and I mean that.

It ties together many of my least favourite things, The Economist in general, Roxane Gay, and Jia Tolentino being treated as an oracle.

I agree with your conclusion, because it's the same conclusion The Economist always comes to, whether it's about Ireland in the 1840s, or poor people in 2022: "These people are poor because of a moral failing on their part and the solution is to change nothing because nothing can change. Look at these graphs which prove nothing can change."

You either buy into it at a fundamental level or you don't. I'm gonna finish reading 500 years of economic history in about 20 years and get back to you with my own conclusions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/09/05/when-the-economist-blamed-irish-peasants-for-starving-to-death/

Listen, I have a strong dislike for Jia T also, but she's given the issue considerable thought and the quote on the persistence of the ideal is well-taken - or I think so anyways

I have next to zero time for Roxane Gay, but she's in the piece partly because the onset of her obesity was after a horrific sexual assault - which really doesn't put any moral failing on her whatsoever.

The piece has no explanation for the explosion of obesity in the 80s (no one does) but what it's saying (by my reading) is that the physical, emotional and financial costs are being suffered by mostly poor women, and that society has not even figured out how to alleviate these costs.

Very simply put, the thesis I get is that we have gone from blaming individuals to blaming capitalism (creating poor people who get fat), when it's really the patriarchy (punishing fat people into poverty) - which is kind of back to where we started.

I really get no reading of this where the writer puts a moral failing on obese people.

Pity all (most) the ladies have left Thumped.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Listen, I have a strong dislike for Jia T also, but she's given the issue considerable thought and the quote on the persistence of the ideal is well-taken - or I think so anyways

I actually quite like her stuff! She's great at distilling what's in the air, and a fine, eh, stylist. I just don't like how people treat her stuff like she has it all figured out! I certainly don't get that from her work myself.

I jave next to zero time for Roxane Gay, but she's in the piece partly because the onset of her obesity was after a horrific sexual assault - which really doesn't put any moral failing on her whatsoever.

Hey, I'm allowed complain about the people being used in the article!

The piece has no explanation for the explosion of obesity in the 80s (no one does) but what it's saying (by my reading) is that the physical, emotional and financial costs are being suffered by mostly poor women, and that society has not even figured out how to alleviate these costs.

Very simply put, the thesis I get is that we have gone from blaming individuals to blaming capitalism (creating poor people who get fat), when it's really the patriarchy (punishing fat people into poverty) - which is kind of back to where we started.

Yes, i do think that is the thesis, and I think that's precisely what the job of the Economist is, to deflect any criticism of laizzes faire economics elsewhere, in this case into vaguely undefined patriarchy. The job of this piece is to stop people blaming capitalism, as you say yourself.

If you're not reading the Economist as a magazine whose sole job is to promote a certain form of economics (it's in the title!) then you're not reading the Economist.

And it's a magazine worth reading!

I really get no reading of this where the writer puts a moral failing on obese people.

It's a 21st century version, to handwring and say, as this piece concludes, "the tragedy is that there is no escape." The whole thing is premised on the idea that the system cannot be changed, and we can all feel bad about it, and castigate ourselves over it, but we sure as hell can't change it.

 

[Deadmanposting]

All fair enough
I am pretty sure that Jia Tolentino was one of the Gawker people that doxxed that Sony executive's Amazon account and made great public sport over criticising and goofing on her choice of feminine hygiene products and sex toys and stuff. And wrote a long piece saying it was okay for David Bowie to fuck 13guear-olds She can fuck off, generally Pretty sure it was her.

Also, [Pagliacci voice] I am an economist :-(

 

[egg_]

Driving home from Wexford in a bleak mood today (my Da in the outskirts of dementia, Mrs. egg_'s long COVID symptoms bad again cos she has actual COVID again), and I think I finally put my finger on what I don't like about this article...

The facts in the article boil down to "poorer women are fatter". Everything else is the superposition of a story on top of those facts, the story in this case being "patriarchy = bad". But there's so many other stories that fit the reported facts just as well. Maybe if you examined how the data is clustered you'd see that it just boils down to NY women being skinny and Mississippi women being fat, and it's all to do with local food culture and geographic differences in wealth. Or maybe it's simply that beauty (or "conforming to arbitrary beauty standards" if you wanna be woke about it) pays a premium. "Poor women are fatter" could just be the inverse of "beautiful women have more opportunities to get rich" which is unlikely to surprise anyone

 

[Cormcolash]

The piece has no explanation for the explosion of obesity in the 80s (no one does)

Eh the rise of ever more easily accessed takeaway junk food coupled with ever less physically active jobs?

 

[pete]

A difficult read.

What Horrible Things Did We Do To Our Penises Last Year? | Defector

Here is some of the finest groin destruction achieved in America.

defector.com

 

[Cormcolash]

An even harder read when you just get bombarded with options to give them money and can't actually read it

 

[seanc]

Gotta agree. It was rough battling through the shite to get to the actual article. and then the article.....crotchingful, if that's a word.

 

[pete]

Spoiler

It takes stubbornness to get something stuck inside you, but all it takes is one moment of poor judgment, or a stroke of bad luck, to do something terrible to the bits that dangle. Here is some of the finest groin destruction achieved in America in the last year.

All descriptions are taken verbatim from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s database of emergency room visits:

• WAS MAKING COFFEE WHEN HIS FRENCH PRESS BROKE AND SPILLED COFFEE ON HIS PENIS
• HIS HAIR BECAME WRAPPED AROUND PENIS
• LEANED FORWARD SLIGHTLY WHILE LAYING IN BED, ACCIDENTALLY DISCHARGED HIS .45 CALIBER HANDGUN INTO THE BASE OF HIS PENIS
• TRIED TO RIDE DOG, PENIS CONTUSION
• TRIED TO CIRCUMCIZE HIMSELF WITH A PAIR OF SCISSORS
• QUICKLY RAN TO THE BATHROOM YESTERDAY MORNING, PUSHED THE DOOR OPEN, BUT THERE WAS SOMETHING BEHIND THE DOOR AND THE DOOR DID NOT OPEN VERY FAR. PATIENT SQUEEZED HIMSELF THROUGH THE DOOR AND BUMPED HIS SCROTUM AGAINST THE DOOR
• TAKING A SHOWER AND CLEANING HIS PENIS WHEN HE PULLED ON IT TOO HARD AND IT STARTED TO BLEED
• PENIS PAIN AFTER SCRUBBING PENIS TOO HARD USING LOOFAH
• REPORTS BEING HIT TWO TIMES IN HIS GROIN WITH A BASKETBALL AND THEN WITH SOMEONE’S HAND OVER THE PAST TWO WEEKS
• PLAYING WITH A TOY DINOSAUR AND MADE IT BITE HIS PENIS
• CAUGHT HIS PENIS IN A ZIPPER FROM HIS PANTS. HE STILL HAD THE ZIPPER ATTACHED TO HIS PENIS WHEN HE ARRIVED AT THE HOSPITAL
• WAS DANCING AND ACCIDENTALLY HIT HIS PENIS ON THE TOILET OR GROUND
• HIS SON KARATE CHOPPED HIM IN THE BALLS ABOUT 10 DAYS AGO
• SIBLING THREW A SPRAY PAINT CAN INTO A BONFIRE WHICH EXPLODED, BURNS TO PENIS
• WAS SITTING ON THE TOILET AT HOME HOLDING A NAIL FILE, HE LEANED FORWARD TO GRAB TOILET PAPER WHILE HOLDING THE NAIL FILE IN HIS GROIN CREASE, FELL FORWARD AND CUT THE BASE OF HIS PENIS
• WORKING OUT WITH ELASTIC EXERCISE BANDS WITH HIS FRIEND WHEN THE BAND SLIPPED FROM HIS FRIEND’S HAND AND THE HANDLE HIT THE PATIENT IN HIS PENIS
• WAS DRIBBLING A BASKETBALL WHEN IT BOUNCED UP AND HIT HIM IN THE SHAFT OF THE PENIS
• WAS HAVING A PILLOW FIGHT WITH HIS DOG WHEN THE DOG LUNGED FOR THE PILLOW AND ACCIDENTALLY BIT PATIENT IN HIS PENIS
• WAS LAYING IN BED, PLAYING VIDEO GAMES WHEN HE NOTICED HE WAS HAVING PENIS PAIN
• HAD A PIERCING ON PENIS WHICH GOT CAUGHT IN CAR DOOR
• TESTICLE PAIN AFTER RETRACTING DOG LEASH DEVICE THAT HE PUSHED THE REWIND BUTTON & IT FLEW AT HIM
• TOOK SOME MALE ENHANCEMENT PILL & USED A PENIS PUMP, HEARD A ‘POP FROM A VEIN IN HIS GROIN AREA’
• KICKED IN THE TESTICLES BY A PIT BULL
• SITTING ON A FRESHLY LACQUERED BENCH NAKED IN FRONT OF HIS WOOD STOVE. HE LEANED OVER TO PICK UP A PIECE OF WOOD, HIS TESTICLES STUCK TO THE LACQUER SMASHING HIS TESTICLE BETWEEN THE BENCH AND HIS LEG
• WAS HAVING SEX AND NOW HIS PENIS IS ENTANGLED IN SIGNIFICANT OTHER’S CLOTHING
• WAS WALKING OUT OF HIS BEDROOM AND NOT WATCHING WHERE HE WAS GOING, LEADING TO HIM PINCHING HIS PENIS BETWEEN THE DOOR AND HIS LEG
• TRIED TO DO A ‘SLIDE OUT’ ON DIRT BIKE, TIRE BRUSHED UP ON A TREE, PATIENT FELL OFF BIKE, ‘SPLIT SCROTUM IN HALF’
• PATIENT WAS HANGING ON SHOWERHEAD AND LOST HIS GRIP, FALLING ON THE SHOWER KNOB AND INJURING HIS LEFT TESTICLE
• WAS HAVING A SEXUAL GAME WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND AND PLACED A ZIP TIE ON THE BASE OF HIS PENIS
• TESTICULAR PAIN AND SWELLING AFTER SITTING DOWN REALLY HARD ON A CHAIR
• RAN INTO A GAMING CHAIR LAST NIGHT, HITTING HIS RIGHT TESTICLE
• CLOSED AN EYEGLASS CASE ON HIS PENIS
• WAS SLEEPING IN BED WITH SOMEONE WHO WAS LYING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTION IN BED AND ACCIDENTALLY KICKED HIM IN RIGHT TESTICLE
• OLDER SIBLING CAME IN BATHROOM WHILE PATIENT WAS PEEING SIBLING SLAMMED THE TOILET SEAT ONTO PENIS
• WAS HIT IN THE GROIN WITH A SOCCER BALL EARLIER TODAY, HE THEN WAS PLAYING FOOTBALL AND GOT HIT IN THE LEFT TESTICLE WITH A FOOTBALL
• WAS SPINNING A NON-LIT FIRE SPINNER BATON 1–2 DAYS AGO WHEN IT STRUCK HIS SCROTUM
• PAIN TO TESTICLES WHICH STARTED WHEN HE WAS GIVEN ORAL SEX AFTER HE WAS SPRAYED IN THE EYES WITH PEPPER SPRAY
• WAS DRINKING AT HIS BACHELOR PARTY, PASSED OUT AND HIS FRIENDS GLUED HIS PENIS TO HIS ABDOMEN
• TESTICLE PAIN ONSET AFTER PATIENt TIED A CORD AROUND HIS TESTICLES AND PENIS
• CLOSED PENIS IN FRIDGE DOOR
• FRIEND SHOT HIM IIN GROIN WITH A PAINTBALL AT POINT-BLANK RANGE AS A JOKE
• STUCK TWO MAGNETS ON HIS FORESKIN UNABLE TO REMOVE
• WAS PLAYING DODGE BALL ON TUESDAY WHEN HE WAS HIT MULTIPLE TIMES IN HIS TESTICLES BY HIS STEP BROTHER
• INTOXICATED AND THOUGHT WAS APPLYING SEXUAL STIMULANT TO SCROTUM AND INSTEAD APPLIED TOILET BOWL CLEANER
• WAS PLAYING BASKETBALL WHEN A BASEBALL FROM A NEARBY FIELD STRUCK PATIENT IN PENIS
• WAS SHAVING AROUND HIS PENIS WHEN HE NICKED HIS PENIS WITH THE RAZOR AND POURED RUBBING ALCOHOL ON THE SITE NOW IT’S BURNING
• CUT THE TIP OF HIS FORESKIN WITH PLASTIC KNIFE TO PLACE PLASTIC BEAD INTO THE OPENING THAT HE MADE IN HIS FORESKIN, CUT TOO DEEP
• WAS UNLOADING HIS DISHWASHER WITHOUT ANY CLOTHING ON AND HE HAS A PENIS RING AND THE PENIS RING CAUGHT ON THE DOOR OF THE DISHWASHER AND IT FORCEFULLY REMOVED FROM HIS PENIS
• PLAYING WITH POCKETKNIFE AND ACCIDENTALLY STABBED PENIS
• TESTICLE AND GROIN PAIN AFTER USING ECSTASY AND DOING A LOT OF DANCING
• WAS WALKING THIS MORNING RAN INTO THE TIP OF MOP HANDLE DIRECTLY ONTO PENIS
• LOWER BACK AND PENIS PAIN AFTER FALLING FROM CHAIR WHEN ZIPPING PENIS UP IN HIS PANTS 2 DAYS AGO
• PLAYING SOCCER HIT IN TESTES BEFORE LANDING ON THE BALL ON HIS TESTES
• WEDDING RING STUCK ON BASE OF PENIS
• WATCHING FOOTBALL, GOT EXCITED WHEN TEAM SCORED AND ACCIDENTALLY PUNCHED SELF IN PENIS

 

[Deadmanposting]

Eh the rise of ever more easily accessed takeaway junk food coupled with ever less physically active jobs?

All sorts of theories, including that, but no smoking gun. But also increased automation of everything, hormones in food, chemicals in food, portion sizes, more driving/less walking, high fructose corn syrup, less time spent on PE in schools etc etc etc
Maybe all of the above, maybe some of the above