Links...

Apr. 10th, 2024 10:44 pm
shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
1. Murderbot Cast headed by Alexander Starskard

2. Suffering shouldn't be a normal part of womanhood - Time Magazine

Women’s pain is all too frequently ignored or simply minimized as women being hysterical or overly dramatic. Even the word hysteria is most often associated with females, as it is derived from “hystera,” the Greek word for uterus. The linguistic implication is that being born with a uterus makes one more inclined to unfounded, uncontrollable emotional exaggeration, which is, of course, untrue. Back in 2020, more than 200 women were not believed when they complained mightily of excruciating pain during their egg retrievals at a Yale fertility clinic. The following year, a nurse at the facility pleaded guilty to tampering with the fentanyl meant for the women’s procedures, having replaced the opioid with saline. Now ask yourself why it took five months and two hundred women before anyone figured out what was going on.

3. 13 Books that Will Actually Make you Laugh Out Loud - Literary Hub

Eh, I don't know? I've read some of those books and I kind of laughed and cried? A Prayer for Owen Meany falls into the crying and laughing category.

And "A Confederacy of Dunces" is definitely not for everyone and underscores the notion that humor is in the eye of the beholder?

4. For the mystery lover? 9 Novels about Homes Brimming with Secrets - more thriller or gothic horror than mystery, I think?

5. 5 Surefire Ways to Make Friends While Traveling - Outside Magazine - I found this easier to do when I was much younger, weirdly the social anxiety has grown worse as I've aged. Now? I think in terms of trips with groups. Which isn't necessarily easier.

6. From Business Insider - America's New Age of Retirement Anxiety

Yup, the closer retirement comes the scarier and more exciting it is. I want it and don't at the same time?

7. "Why America Fell for Guns" by Megan Kang and Sam Hasleby in Aeon


"In 1970, amid a national confrontation with the United States’ gun culture following the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, the historian Richard Hofstadter struggled to make sense of how the country had become the ‘only industrial nation in which the possession of rifles, shotguns, and handguns is lawfully prevalent among large numbers of its population.’ Writing for the magazine American Heritage, he expressed grave concern for a country ‘afloat with weapons – perhaps as many as 50 million of them – in civilian hands.’ If the US was afloat then, it’s flooded now.

Half a century later, Americans own approximately 400 million firearms and the country carries the unfortunate distinction of being the only one in the world in which guns are known to be the leading cause of child and adolescent death. Today, Americans live with around 1.2 guns per capita – double that of the next-highest scoring country, Yemen. Despite having less than 5 per cent of the global population, the US possesses nearly half of the world’s civilian-owned guns. Moreover, in recent years Americans have witnessed a surge in gun sales and gun-related deaths, unfolding against a backdrop of increasingly lenient gun laws across states.

In light of these developments, Hofstadter’s question takes on renewed urgency: ‘Why is it that in all other modern democratic societies those endangered ask to have such men disarmed, while in the United States alone they insist on arming themselves?’ How did the US come to be so terribly exceptional with regards to its guns?"

--

"Guns, primarily used for hunting and sport in the mid-20th century, became largely owned for protection against fellow civilians – a reflection of a modern fear, the tyranny of uncertainty from each other.

In a country in which tens of millions of people own guns, public safety becomes a personal responsibility, and so individuals often decide that it is in their best interest to protect themselves by buying a gun. This desire to be protected against those who have guns by getting a gun, multiplied across millions of people, has resulted in an arms race that makes everyone less safe. Historical events along with policy choices have shaped this explosion in gun ownership, leading to a society in which many people have grown to associate guns with a sense of personal security. As a result, we hear all the time about guns being used in shared spaces of learning, worship and leisure."

Date: 2024-04-11 09:02 pm (UTC)
yourlibrarian: Sam and Dean on a Tandem Bike (SPN-TandemBike-moodymuse19)
From: [personal profile] yourlibrarian
I expected the retirement article to go into a lot more detail. It's definitely a big change to go from pensions to 401ks. Not that pensions are entirely reliable -- companies can go out of business and pension funds can be mismanaged or benefits get changed due to company mergers or legislative changes. But when people are making their own investment decisions, on the whole most of them don't make good ones. So it's a risk either way.

Also, there's always talk about how people feel lost after a few years in retirement, but I really don't see why. I suspect a much bigger problem is that people have lots of plans but then someone's health gets in the way or there's some kind of big change that upends everything.

I still remember reading a story about a couple who retired in Central America and then just a few years into this move had to come back to the U.S. to help family that were having problems.

Date: 2024-04-12 12:32 am (UTC)
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From: [personal profile] svgurl
I'm going to check out the mystery link. At the very least, my sister enjoys thrillers so I will see if anything would work for her. Thanks for sharing! :D

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