Apparently mothers talk about math very differently to their daughters than to their sons. A study has found that the women studied used concrete numbers and numerical concepts more often when talking to their sons.
A response to n+1′s piece about ladyblogs and feminism online, which is both better written and much more reasonable than the original piece.
This short story imagining a underground network of women distributing birth control is not nearly far enough from the realm of possibility.
Millie’s real name is a source of confusion for many people, so reading a paper on how people form more positive impressions of people with easily pronounceable names is a bit disheartening.
Millie loooooved Carmen Sandiego when she was little, and this essay about how she’s a very positive Latina role model is well worth reading.
Grandmotherly advice about social media etiquette.
Want to know who’s trying to track your clicks on the internet? Collusion is a Firefox add-on that tells you who’s trying to track you.
On the implausibility of the Death Star trash compacter.
Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords fame won an Oscar. Good for him! And good for us, because it’s an excuse for some gratuitous New Zealand folk-rap. (Though we don’t really need an excuse.)
Bret won an oscar? I am living under a rock, i had no idea!
I can believe that about the difficult to pronounce names. I have got from a near on impossible one (Eirich) which essentially forced everyone at work to just call me by my first name like i was madonna or beyonce or someone, to a marginally less impossible one (MacLeod) that still no one outside Scotland can spell. I’m not surprised it puts people off.
Yeah, he one for best song with one of the Muppet movie songs.
I know how to spell/pronounce M(a)cLeod! There was a street very near to where I grew up named McLeod something or other. My first name, depending on location/language, is very easily misgendered too, which adds a whole other level of confusion (but is great for weeding out telemarketers). I love my name, but it’s frustrating to have to explain it whenever I have to write it down somewhere for someone, and I always make a joke about it to try to diffuse some of the “that’s seriously how you spell your name?” incredulity. My last name is entirely straightforward though.
Hmmm, maybe I should reconsider not changing my name when I get married. My last name is SO unpronounceable! But, it’s still mine
I read the short story…and it gave me chills.
Yaaaaaay Bret! A great day for kiwi comedy musical duos, indeed.
Insofar as unusual names, go, my job–which involves a lot of googling of people–has made it so that I really appreciate odd and unique names. The John Smiths are so much more work! (Also, as someone with a not-very-unusual name that nevertheless gets misspelled and renamed all the time, I sympathize.)