New at Rosetta Stones: Ice Age Adventures at the Burke!

We had a lot on the agenda this month, but don’t think I forgot about our virtual tour of the Burke Museum! In Part 4, we visit Washington’s Ice Age, make friends with a very huge mastodon, and see the beautiful, functional art created by the first human residents. Enjoy!

Image shows a mastodon skeleton's leg. It's standing on rocky ground, beside a tan boulder almost its own color. There is a bit of blue-white glacial ice in the background.

New at Rosetta Stones: Ice Age Adventures at the Burke!
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Please Help Me and Misha Make Rent! Donate to ETEV Today!

It’s a long story that my Facebook friends already know, but the canvassing job I had over the summer ended. I do have another job to supplement writing income, but it’s commission-based and I won’t see any proceeds for at least another couple of weeks. In the meantime, Misha and I could use your help to keep us both fed and housed, plus meet other expenses that decided to pile up at a bad time. The car still needs repair, and its tag is expiring in a few days. So if you’ve got a bit to spare, we could definitely use your help!


And you’ll get perks! There are even new perks! Here’s what you get with your donation: Continue reading “Please Help Me and Misha Make Rent! Donate to ETEV Today!”

Please Help Me and Misha Make Rent! Donate to ETEV Today!

All Cis Men Need To Read This, Right Now

This is important. I want all of the cis men who clicked on this post to read this exchange. Start with this photo and click all the way through to the end. (Source:  my excellent Facebook friend Anna Jobsis).

Content note for sexual assault, victim-blaming bullshit, rape culture apologia.

If you think Carlos is making really good points and sounds really reasonable, you need to start educating yourself on what rape culture is. Now. Before you open your mouth to advise a woman on what she should or shouldn’t do. Before you nod along with your fellow dudes while they’re explaining this shit at women. Before you ever say one more fucking word, shut up and do some learning.

And keep in the forefront of your mind that what I’m saying applies to trans women, genderfluid, and nonbinary people just as much. Cis and trans women, along with people coded or read as women or femme, but who don’t identify as women, all have to deal with all this shit. And it’s constant. Carlos is just one vivid example in an endless septic ocean of them. Carlos is just one guy among millions who thinks he’s a nice dude and helping women out, but who is actually throwing toxic sludge all over them.

And you, dear reader, may also be a Carlos. I know you don’t mean to be. But you’ve been socialized that way, and most of you haven’t spent much time rethinking your assumptions. I know this because I was once a Carlita. I absorbed those same toxic rape culture messages and passed them on. Yes, women can perpetuate this shit, too, but it’s mostly men doing it, and we need you to stop. It can be done. If I can learn it, anyone can.

Image is the boss from Office Space. Caption says, "Yeah, if you could stop promoting rape culture, that'd be great."

So let’s go back through Carlos’s lecture. As you’re reading, ask yourself some questions: Continue reading “All Cis Men Need To Read This, Right Now”

All Cis Men Need To Read This, Right Now

(Repost) “An Unmitigated Disaster” – Escape Chapter 15: Hawaii

This chapter really highlights how dysfunctional Carolyn’s family is, and how fucked up FLDS doctrine is – and keep in mind, this is before Warren Jeffs took over and it got extreme.

Imagine getting the opportunity to vacation in Hawaii. Awesome! Only… you have to go with the husband you hate. Not as awesome. And he’s taking two of his other wives… so not awesome. And your husband doesn’t even bother to tell you and your sister wives that you’re going: he just kind of lets you find out on your own… even less awesome. And you’re pregnant and have horrible morning sickness. Now we’re pretty fucking far from awesome.

Content note: emetophobia, emotional abuse, family drama, mention of rape.

Merril usually isn’t interested in his wives other than Barbara, but in the FLDS, you have to at least keep up an appearance of treating all wives equally, and his tendency to only take Barbara on long trips is getting noticed. Because a woman can only get messages from God through her husband, it can damage his standing in the community if he appears to be failing at the task of keeping his family under control. Merril has tried to keep the illusion of equality going by keeping most of his younger wives pregnant. But that only gets him so far. So he figures he’ll knock down three long trips in one and haul three of his wives to Hawaii. Continue reading “(Repost) “An Unmitigated Disaster” – Escape Chapter 15: Hawaii”

(Repost) “An Unmitigated Disaster” – Escape Chapter 15: Hawaii

Supernatural Summary S1 E14 – “Nightmare”

Today’s summary comes courtesy of Zeroth, who kindly took over the task for me. I’ve added counts, but if you want all the luscious screenshots, you gotta click the link.

Thank you, Zeroth!

Content note: suicide, interpersonal violence, child physical abuse

This week,  Sam’s nightmares are coming true, people are dying, and Dean gets shot.

The cold open starts with an ordinary oldish car being driven at night through a suburban neighborhood. The middle-aged man driving the car pulls into his garage. As the garage door closes, the doors suddenly get locked and will not let him out.

The engine turns back on and the exhaust starts suffocating the man. He struggles to get out of the car, eventually succumbing to the fumes.

Death by Monstrosity: 1

After a flash of light, Sam wakes up, sweaty, in yet another seedy motel room. He pushes Dean to get up and get to the victim Sam just dreamed about.

In the Impala, Sam pretends to be a Michigan state trooper and calls in the license plate details he saw in his dream. Continue reading “Supernatural Summary S1 E14 – “Nightmare””

Supernatural Summary S1 E14 – “Nightmare”

(Repost) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education IVc: Wherein the Climate Heats Up

Onward, Christianist weather! We’re warming up with some global warming talk today. While SPC was content to devote a mere text box to climate change, basically blowing raspberries at anyone who gives a shit about it and waving off dramatic increases in greenhouse gas emissions by proclaiming hey, plants love carbon dioxide!, BJU’s Earth Science 4th Edition isn’t satisfied with blurting a few facts and moving on. No, there’s a whole chapter on the subject. And, people, they are the totes reasonable ones. They’re right in the middle. Look: they sneer at both sides!

They begin with a very telling couplet of sentences: Continue reading “(Repost) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education IVc: Wherein the Climate Heats Up”

(Repost) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education IVc: Wherein the Climate Heats Up

Adventures in ACE XXVI: God Piles on the Pressure

We’ve survived a lot of atmospheric nonsense and learned that you should never allow anyone associated with ACE to water your lawn. Now things are about to heat up. Yes, they are on about temperature. And in looking it over, I don’t think this section has been updated since the Cold War.

Seriously. All their talk of thermometers and thermographs and such like make no mention of digital thermometers or computers. None of the equipment mentioned for monitoring temperature over time records observations electronically. The photographs look like they’re straight out of the 70s.

Image shows a double set of maximum and minimum mercury thermometers nailed to a wooden plank inside of a white slatted enclosure. There's a hand reaching toward the first set of thermometers. It all looks tres last century.
Photo from page 22 of ACE Science PACE 1088

It’s pretty sad.

There’s some mildly-interesting history of the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales, but delivered in that pompous and pedantic ACE tone that sucks any joy out of it. Continue reading “Adventures in ACE XXVI: God Piles on the Pressure”

Adventures in ACE XXVI: God Piles on the Pressure

New at Rosetta Stones: July/August Best Geo! Plus Fracking n Earthquakes

Clear your calendars, my darlings, because I have a linkfest of epic proportions for you. If you’ve been yearning for lots of delicious geology, you’re going to get it. Plus, you’ll get all the answers you ever wanted about fracking and earthquakes!

Here’s the Best of the Geoblogosphere for July and August. Prepare to scream – a lot of the images in this edition are top notch! Be sure to click the links!

And here is everything about fracking and induced earthquakes you need to know. Well, at least, here’s an appreciable chunk of it.

After reading about all that fracking and stuff, do you want to see where in the US water’s used for fracking? Of course you do. Here you are!

Image is a line drawing map of the US. The fracking wells are indicated in various shades of blue. Most of them are concentrated from the Dakotas to Texas, and on the back of America's turkey neck.
2011-2014 Hydraulic Fracturing Water Use (square meters/well). Image and caption courtesy USGS.
New at Rosetta Stones: July/August Best Geo! Plus Fracking n Earthquakes

(Repost) “A Destiny I Wasn’t Really Seeking” – Escape Chapter 14: My Patriarchal Blessing

This is a super-short chapter. It basically centers around one religious event in Carolyn’s life: her patriarchal blessing. The blessing is the most important part of a woman’s life outside of her marriage and childbearing. It’s delivered by one of the church’s patriarchs (the dudes just below the Prophet and his apostles), and generally consists of them telling a young woman that she’s going to “become a faithful wife and a mother in Zion, raising faithful children up to the Lord.”

Carolyn hadn’t gotten her blessing prior to getting married and having kids, so her patriarch, Joseph Barlow, has to get creative. He pulls out all the stops. He puts his hands on Carolyn’s head, and informs her that she’s “a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus Christ.” In fact, “The pure blood of Jesus Christ runs through” her veins.

Waal okay then.

Then he tells her she’s a totes special spirit that God was saving up for the last days. She’s been born on this earth “to be part of ushering in a thousand years of peace.” And she’ll even get to see Jesus hisownself in this lifetime!

Why so special? Because she’d “been an enormous influence in casting the devil out of heaven.” She’d been super-smart in that whole kerfluffle. And because she was so smart, God had decided to use her on Earth. She could tell if someone was good or evil just by looking at ’em. (Well, she’d pretty much proved that with Merril, right?)

So God has spirits watching over her, and will be using her “to protect his people in the last days.” She’ll “work in the temple and be responsible for many people receiving their priesthood training.”

But that’s not all! Continue reading “(Repost) “A Destiny I Wasn’t Really Seeking” – Escape Chapter 14: My Patriarchal Blessing”

(Repost) “A Destiny I Wasn’t Really Seeking” – Escape Chapter 14: My Patriarchal Blessing