Deliberatepixel is a log of ideas about tech, media and feminism by Jen Myers, a writer and web designer in Columbus, Ohio. More...
Startup Weekend is scheduled to hit Columbus on July 18-20. Designers, developers and all other startup-minded folk can register at the event website. There's a great tech community here in town, so registration will likely fill up fast.
Back in the day, one of my favorite Saturday morning traditions was watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the SciFi Channel. Now, I've found a another one in that same vein of backhanded bad movie appreciation - The Flop House podcast.
Like many others, I stumbled on this podcast a couple of weeks ago thanks to Gawker, and its hilarious (possibly drunken) discussion about recent film flops made it an instant favorite. Yeah, the sound quality on the first handful of episodes suck, but not only have the hosts cleared that up in the newer episodes, it's worth dealing with for their commentary. The drubbing they give the Bratz movie is priceless.
You have to be a certain type of movie fanatic to truly, truly find enjoyment in bad movies, but if you are, you'll love this. My only suggestion, guys? Bring in a female perspective now and again. No one can tear apart Jessica Alba's dubious talents like a sarcastic woman can.
The May Scientae blog carnival, with posts from women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, is currently up at A Cat Nap. It's a really great collection about changing career goals.
P.S. - I will be hosting October's Scientae carnival here on DP.
If you are creating a new Web 2.0 site and you want to go viral, you target women. Young women drive virality and so all the new innovation is targeted towards them. That means that the gender gap on social networks (and increasingly in all of social media) is only going to widen. More and more innovation will be targeted towards women and they will continue to get more engaged. And while we expect men’s adoption to social media to continue to increase, it will likely be slower than the rate of adoption by women.
A Rapleaf study concludes women care more about social networks.
(Hat tip: Christine.)
The one thing I was never very excited about doing as a parent was potty training, but, like other perks of parenthood (like being up in the middle of the night to take care of nosebleeds in the nose of one who will not sit still, the joy of which I was reminded last night), it must be done.
Little One ® used to be excited about the potty, but now, for no apparent reason, she has started to refuse to use it. I asked her why this morning, and she said, very decidedly, "Because the potty's not fun."
I'm perplexed as to how I should respond to this. I have a hard time stating with a straight face that the potty is indeed fun, and yet clearly I have to say something. At the time, I gave her to standard line about being a big girl - which has worked in the past, but now seems useless.
This led me to doing some research on potty training videos and books, all of which are so enthusiastic about the potty process that they disturb me a bit - but I guess that is what we need to counteract the prevailing opinion that the potty isn't "fun." If any other parents have suggestions, please do forward them.
A collection of photos of and links to sites about classic movie theaters.
From Columbus's own Earwig. Also, Donewaiting has a interesting remix.
Okay, so I should probably stop linking to every new column Annalee Newitz writes, but she's just so right. Why does it seem no one else is writing about the promises and implications of technology like she does? Anyway, I think she's got a great point about digital publishing versus traditional:
But books can be burned. All copies of a book can be wiped out by one crappy political regime bent on censorship. Online it's much more difficult to burn a book. Just try deleting a book or movie or sound file you want suppressed. Ten copies pop up elsewhere. Then 10,000 copies. And they're stored on servers all over the world, in countries where your shock troops can't reach, in high school kids' closets where even their parents can't reach.
I too would like to see a more legitimate standing for online publication, but I think all it will take is time. After all, it's really only been a few years, hasn't it? It seems like blogs have been around for a lot longer, given the growth they've had.
My involvement with all the great people* at Skepchick has made me realize that I really enjoy being part of a skeptical community, and led me to seek out opportunities for meeting up with skeptics locally. Unfortunately, finding them hasn't been the easiest - there's a student freethought group at OSU and an area humanist group, but Central Ohioans for Rational Inquiry, a group that was active for about 9-10 years, has recently been inactive. I contacted CORI's last president, Charlie Hazlett, to get the details, and he kindly offered not only the details, but encouragement to get things started again. So I've decided to at least try.
I know that I've got too much on my plate to jump right into building up a big organization, but I thought maybe I'd put the word out, and see if we can't start a few casual meetups, and gather together a new group. If there seems to be a good interest, I figure we could move on from there setting up a stronger structure, bringing in speakers, etc. If there's one thing I can do, it's use social media, so I will be reviving the ohioskeptic.org domain (also kindly offered by Charlie Hazlett), and setting up some Facebook/MySpace/Twitter/etc. pages.
So, what I'm looking for is: any and all central Ohio skeptics, secular humanists, atheists, rational thinkers, or any other related types who are interested in participating in any capacity at all. Even if it's to say, "Hey, I might show up to one of those," let me know, because that's how I can decide whether or not this is a worthwhile project. Please just leave a comment with your info, jump on over to my contact page, or ping me on any social media sites on which you might already know me.
And if you're just curious as to what this is all about, please contact me with your questions, and I'll do my best to answer them!
*Seriously, all of you - contributors, commenters, readers - you rock and I love writing with/for you.
In case you missed it, Waxy has a fascinating story of the lost Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy sequel computer game.
Plus, Neil Gaiman just posted the introduction he wrote for an Adams biography:
I think that perhaps what Douglas was was probably something we don’t even have a word for yet. A Futurologist, or an Explainer, or something. That one day they’ll realise that the most important job out there is for someone who can explain the world to itself in ways that the world won’t forget. Who can dramatise the plight of endangered species as easily (or at least, as astonishingly well, for nothing Douglas did was ever exactly easy) as he can explain to an analog race what it means to find yourself going digital. Someone whose dreams and ideas, practical or impractical, are always the size of a planet, and who is going to keep going forward, and taking the rest of us with him.
I could not have possibly said it better myself:
The fact that these movies [non-traditional female-led films] have been hits, while films like The Holiday, Music and Lyrics, and 27 Dresses have failed to reap huge profits, should be a wakeup call to producers. These high-budget flops all feature white, ultra-skinny heroines prancing against the backdrop of suburban mansions or windowed penthouses. I know they take place in cities, or towns, but I'm not sure which ones. The heroines dress fabulously and have nary a wrinkle, or an accent of any kind, and usually lack back-stories or families - or even much personality besides a frenetic cutesiness. And even when they do feature unusual characters, they ignore them.
It's definitely time to define "movies interesting to women" as something else than the bland, formulaic and privileged territory currently allotted to the chick flick genre.
