SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap
A very Cool Tool indeed for cat owners—and wouldn’t it work for small dogs as well?
Hard-won tribal knowledge: “Do not go there, oh my son, for I have been, and it is bad.”
When I was in graduate school in Iowa City, 24, I had four impacted wisdom teeth removed at a blow, figuratively speaking. (I was under general anæsthesia, but I feel certain it must have been four blows.) While I was in recovery, a person that in my (frequent) retelling I call “a woman in a white dress” but at the time I (naively) assumed was a nurse, passed by my bed and pointed to the icepack around my jaws. “You can take the icepack off,” she said, and walked on. I never saw her again, possibly she had been wearing a wig.
So I removed the icepack, and after a short pause—a beat, little more—the skin at the corner of my jaws was dry, red, hot and swelling visibly. I could feel it swell, and that is not an exaggeration: the rate was fast and the extent large.
“So,” I said later, buttonholing anyone who paused facing me at a party, “I then realized that it was no nurse. It was a crazy woman who would put on a white dress of an afternoon, and wander through the hospital, dispensing optimistic advice: “Are those tubes uncomfortable? You can just remove them.” “Is the machine noise bothering you? You can just turn it off.” “You can take those icepacks off now.”
So I told it through the years. And two days ago, The Elder Grandson, 15, had his four wisdom teeth removed at once. There were two nurses in Recovery, doing the old Brusque Nurse, Nice Nurse routine. TEG was struggling to get his shirt on over the icepack around his jaws, when Brusque Nurse uttered the fabled words: “You can take the icepack off.” TEG, who at 15 had heard the story dozens if not hundreds of times, literally froze, every sense alert. Slowly, carefully articulating, firmly, and prepared to fight, he said, “No. I don’t have to wear the shirt. I can just put on my coat.” He slowly reached for his coat, watching her closely in case she made a grab for the icepack. Brusque Nurse looked at him, shrugged, and walked away.
Nice Nurse came in and saw that TEG was still wearing his icepack. “You’ve still got your icepack. Good. They say ’20 minutes on, 20 minutes off,’ but I say keep it on as much as you can stand.”
Obviously, oral tradition and tribal warnings do indeed work. And obviously, too, Good and Evil contend everywhere, and an entire group of oral surgery nurses wants to get those icepacks off after 20 minutes, “just for a while, 20 minutes, then right back on,” ignoring the fact that in 20 minutes your jaws will have expanded to muskmelon proportions and that the icepack will be laughably too small and ridiculously after the fact—which, I suppose, is the idea: for that group, our sufferings are their amusement. Seems familiar, somehow. But only a very small percentage of people would be that way.
A clear picture of a false view
Not much blogging today, as you see: another day primarily devoted to rest and recuperation. I did venture out to PO, to pharmacy (eye-related: bought 8 large boxes of Kleenex tissues—I was out, and now Safeway is—and filled a prescription for pain med should I need it), to library (returned bag of books and movies, checked out three on reserve: ironically, as we now say and frankly I don’t know what other word to use—help sought—Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink (yes, I know it’s not the eye thing, but still, eye-catching, wouldn’t you say?), a novel, and a nonfiction book on CD—Gut Feelings, on the same topic as Gladwell’s book, a topic that’s lately caught my … attention.
And now, Paul Krugman in today’s NY Times has a truly remarkable column. It’s remarkable because it shows clearly how the Republican position is totally false, and it shows that their ideals are false, and… well, read it:
Mitch Daniels, the former Bush budget director who is now Indiana’s governor, made the Republicans’ reply to President Obama’s State of the Union address. His performance was, well, boring. But he did say something thought-provoking — and I mean that in the worst way.
For Mr. Daniels tried to wrap his party in the mantle of the late Steve Jobs, whom he portrayed as a great job creator — which is one thing that Jobs definitely wasn’t. And if we ask why Apple has created so few American jobs, we get an insight into what is wrong with the ideology dominating much of our politics.
Mr. Daniels first berated the president for his “constant disparagement of people in business,” which happens to be a complete fabrication. Mr. Obama has never done anything of the sort. He went on: “The late Steve Jobs — what a fitting name he had — created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the president borrowed and blew.”
Clearly, Mr. Daniels doesn’t have much of a future in the humor business. But, more to the point, anyone who reads The New York Times knows that his assertion about job creation was completely false: Apple employs very few people in this country.
A big report in The Times last Sunday laid out the facts. Although Apple is now America’s biggest U.S. corporation as measured by market value, it employs only 43,000 people in the United States, a tenth as many as General Motors employed when it was the largest American firm.
Apple does, however, indirectly employ around 700,000 people in its various suppliers. Unfortunately, almost none of those people are in America.
Why does Apple manufacture abroad, and especially in China? As the article explained, it’s not just about low wages. China also derives big advantages from the fact that so much of the supply chain is already there. A former Apple executive explained: “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away.”
This is familiar territory to students of economic geography: the advantages of industrial clusters — in which producers, specialized suppliers, and workers huddle together to their mutual benefit — have been a running theme since the 19th century.
And Chinese manufacturing isn’t the only conspicuous example of these advantages in the modern world. Germany remains a highly successful exporter even with workers who cost, on average, $44 an hour — much more than the average cost of American workers. And this success has a lot to do with the support its small and medium-sized companies — the famed Mittelstand — provide to each other via shared suppliers and the maintenance of a skilled work force.
The point is that successful companies — or, at any rate, companies that make a large contribution to a nation’s economy — don’t exist in isolation. Prosperity depends on the synergy between companies, on the cluster, not the individual entrepreneur.
But the current Republican worldview has no room for such considerations. From the G.O.P.’s perspective, it’s all about the heroic entrepreneur, the John Galt, I mean Steve Jobs-type “job creator” who showers benefits on the rest of us and who must, of course, be rewarded with tax rates lower than those paid by many middle-class workers.
And this vision helps explain why Republicans were so furiously opposed to the single most successful policy initiative of recent years: the auto industry bailout. . . .
Dr. Selby at Alt-Innsbruck, checking out the iKon
This is the Dr. Selby regular shaving cream (rather than the 3x, which is more like a soap), and though it produced a fine lather, it does not, I fear, hold a candle to the Speick I used yesterday. This Emilion Victorian brush, which I got on Todd O’s recommendation, does indeed have curious properties. It’s a hooked badger: the tips have slight hooks that engage as it dries, so it looks porcupinish, though it is easily brushed smooth (which I do automatically, so I’ve yet to get a photo of it—I’ll try again). But when the brush is wet, after rinsing, and your run your fingers over it, the hooks (I assume) produce a peculiar and not unpleasant “grabby” sensation, like a kind of tacky glue that leaves no residue. And it does a fine job of creating and applying lather, with the tips feeling quite soft.
Greg of iKon saw my blog post recently where I displayed the collection of iKon razors I’ve purchased over the years, and he kindly sent me, gratis, a bamboo handle (shown above) to complete the collection (for now). A very nic gesture, and I do like the feel of the handle.
Three smooth passes with a Swedish Gillette blade, and then a little squirt of Alt-Innsbruck. I just recently used Primalan aftershave balm, and I was struck by the close resemblance beeween the two. I don’t recognize anything in the Alt-Innsbruck that corresponds to the almond oil in Primalan, but they did seem a lot alike, and both seem to separate on standing—so shake well before squirting out a tiny dab to massage into your face post-shave.
All in all, a fine shave.
Eye gets better day by day, though last night I did experience some pain, and at 2:00 a.m., The Wife drove me to the ER for an IV, which helped immediately. I then slept soundly the rest of the night and today I have only a certain flow of tears with which to contend. I’m mending, and within a week should be doing quie well indeed. My advice remains: don’t jerk your head around while getting eye surgery. (Live and learn.)
Fascinating update on 3-D printing
Transforming data files to objects on the table-top:
Internet out of control—and that’s good, on the whole
One thing that was long taken as just a fact of life is that mass communication channels, being expensive to run and maintain, would be under the control of big-money entities: businesses (large businesses frequently, but even the local radio station is run by a business with business interests) or the government (theoretically in service to the public, but more often in service to business). With the Internet, however, private citizens suddenly have a voice and a platform.
Of course, millions upon millions of small blogs don’t really move much—this blog is reasonably successful for a private blog, I would say, but gets only 2000 hits/day.
BUT: it’s very easy to pass along links that catch one’s eye, and as these take fire, things can spread quickly. The blog has had more than 3,800,000 views over its life, and the biggest day (when it was linked from high-traffic sites) it got 11,718 views. So there’s always the possibility that some post may explode, and this possibility is quite unsettling to those who once were firmly in control of what as communicated to the public.
Here’s an intriguing example, reported in The Scientist by Hannah Waters:
In the latest instance of the scientific process taking place over the internet, an anonymous internet-user has made a YouTube video exhibiting more than 60 purportedly manipulated images from 24 papers, complete with background music.
The whistleblower, who told ScienceInsider that he works in the life sciences and goes by the handle “Juuichi Jigen,” has created websites documenting misconduct by half a dozen Japanese researchers. And his efforts have paid off before. One University of Tokyo scientist called out by Jigen was found guilty of plagiarism and resigned from his post in 2010; another had several papers retracted.
The latest case focuses on work led by molecular endocrinologist Shigeaki Kato from the University of Tokyo. In the video, the images are presented as a series of slides, with arrows pointing out the altered sections. Jigen has contacted the university, and a spokesperson told ScienceInsider that “the university is conducting preliminary investigations,” including looking into two papers that the group retracted last summer.
Jigen has posted more details at his website dedicated to the potential case of research misconduct.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) holds TSA’s feet to the fire
And that is where those feet belong. Story at ProPublica by Michael Grabell:
Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the homeland security committee, plans to introduce a bill in the coming days that would require a new health study of the X-ray body scanners used to screen airline passengers nationwide.
The Transportation Security Administration began using the machines for routine screening in 2009 and sped up deployment after the so-called underwear bomber tried to blow up a plane on Christmas Day of that year.
But the X-ray scanners have caused concerns because they emit low levels of ionizing radiation, a form of energy that has been shown to damage DNA and mutate genes, potentially leading to cancer. ProPublica and PBS NewsHour reported in November that the TSA had glossed over cancer concerns. Studies suggested that six or 100 airline passengers each year could develop cancer from the machines.
Shortly after our report, the European Union separately announced that it would prohibit X-ray body scanners at its airports for the time being “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.”
The new bill drafted by Collins would require the TSA to choose an independent laboratory to measure the radiation emitted by a scanner currently in use at an airport checkpoint. The peer-reviewed study, to be submitted to Congress, would also evaluate the safety mechanisms on the machine and determine whether there are any biological signs of cellular damage caused by the scans.
In addition, the bill would require the TSA to place prominent signs at the start of checkpoint lines informing travelers that they can request a physical pat-down instead of going through the scanner. Right now, the TSA has signs in front of the machines noting that passengers can opt out. But the signs mostly highlight the images created rather than possible health risks.
The bill is the latest volley in a back-and-forth between Collins and the TSA. At a hearing in November, TSA administrator John Pistole agreed to a request from Sen. Collins to conduct a new independent health study.
But a week later at another hearing, Pistole backed off the commitment citing a yet-to-be-released report on the machines by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.
“I have urged TSA to move toward only radiation-free screening technology,” Collins said in a statement to ProPublica. “In the meantime, an independent study is needed to protect the public and to determine what technology is worthy of taxpayer dollars.” . . .
Continue reading. The boldface part clearly shows that John Pistole is simply not to be trusted: he lies, and once starting down the path of prevarication, who knows at what point he will stop? Right now, I think he should be relieved of his duties forthwith.
Surgery update
Saw the opthalmologist this morning. The problems in my eye have several sources. One is that having taken Flomax (a medication to shrink the prostrate, which in many men grows with aging) affects the eyes (weirdly)—sort of setting things somewhat adrift, near as I can make out. It’s not as though discontinuing it two weeks before surgery or the like would help: if you’ve once taken it, it’s a problem. But the man thing was that I made an abrupt movement and though the doctor quickly retracted the instruments, he wasn’t quite quick enough, and the vitreous sack was torn, releasing vitreous fluid, and that had to be cleaned up with other instruments. So not only was there the injury, the surgical procedure was extended.
He said that he did get everything cleaned up, and the lens is in, and all the cataract was removed. So mostly it’s a matter of allowing time for things to heal. I got an additional med (Diox capsules, a sulfa drug) to reduce pressure (now around 20) and this morning also got a fourth eyedrop to use threice daily. Bt he thinks it will heal relatively quickly and thngs will get better, but (he said) I might have to wear glasses. Big deal. I’ve worn them since second grade, so no worries, mate.
I got another eyedrop to take—four different kinds, two of them twice daily, two thrice daily.
Time will tell.
UPDATE: Still sleeping a lot, but on awaking from nap I can see my feet rather well with my left eye. “Clearly” is a stretch, but I certainly can see them, what they’re wearing, their position, etc. (I mention my feet in particular because as I sit in my recliner, they are more or less directly in front of me.) I think the Diox and additional eyedrop are immediately helping.
I am now optimistic.
Speick: Terrific!
Absolutely terrific shave today, for all that it was one-eyed. Speick shaving cream turns out not only to have a great sort of spruce-forest fragrance, it softens the beard wonderfully. Definitely worth a try for shaving-cream fans. Morris & Forndran—this is the Medium size from Vintage Blades LLC—is a very nice brush indeed, and three passes of the iKon OSS with a brand-new Gillette 7 O’Clock SharpEdge balde—well, 2.97 passes: I started with the Shark Chrome that was in there, but immediately realized that replacement was desirable—gave me a wonderfully smooth, easy shave with a fine, smooth finish. At one time the 7 O’Clock SharpEdge was too sharp for my skill, but now it’s definitely a favorite blade and this morning’s shave shows its value.
A good splash of Speick, then off to a blood draw for some tests. Morning weight: 168.5. We’re getting down around high-school levels here. (Yesterday I just didn’t feel like eating, but made up for when we went out for breakfast this morning.)
Cataract surgery progress report
I just got up and had a bit of supper after sleeping most of the day, in my reclining chair with Megs on my lap or in bed with Megs on my hip. The Wife got my sulfa pills from the pharmacy, and I took one of those before going back to sleep (around 4:00 pm. here—it’s now 7:00), and she also put the drops in my eyes. When she did, she said my eye already looked much better: more like an eye and less like a rotten turnip. (My phrasing, not hers.) The sulfa is supposed to help the swelling, which was caused by the doctors need to spend extra time digging around in my eye to remove a (benign) growth: he said that caused the cornea to swell, which is why I was blind that eye (the left) most of the day.
I see the doctor tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. for brief check up, but now I can make out my computer screen with the left eye and see the blue bar and that there is text. So this is big improvement from morning, when all I could do was recognize light and dark. So I’m postponing Googling for eye-patches. (Anyone else old enough to remember the The Man in the Hathaway Shirt ads with the debonair guy wearing a black eye patch—right eye in his case as I recall… yes, right eye.
I’ve spent most of the day sleeping and hope to do the same tonight. Things last time righted themselves fairly quickly, so I’m hoping to see much progress by end of week.
Do your “avoid cataract” exercises religiously. Whatever they are.
On a side note: Weber Razors is now completely out of stock, apparently due in part to my Sharpologist article. 
I received an email—apparently he had seen the article—and he said that the initial production run had been small, to test the market, and now they’ve re-ordered and should have the razors back in stock in a couple of weeks.
May be light blogging tomorrow—depends on the eye. Glad the first operation was easy so that I sailed into this pretty care-free. Had this one bee first, I’d have been beside myself before the second—and this one, of course, is now over. All’s well if it ends well.
Shaving note: I forgot to set alarm (we had to leave for surgery center at 6:10 a.m. this morning) and The Wife called to let me know she was about to pick me up—and I was totally, soundly asleep: shower, shave (two passes only, I’ll admit), dressed and ready to go in 9 minutes. No nicks. Horsehair brush, Slant Bar, Martin de Candre soap, Primalan aftersnave.
Decline of America: Infrastructure division
And of course America can’t work on its infrastructure because it costs money, and we must NEVER raise taxes on the wealthy to what they were under, say, Ronald Reagan. And we don’t want the government to spend any money anyway. So let the country gradually slide downhill—and do you notice it seems to be accelerating?
Note this James Fallows post:
Often I forget to mention items appearing on Patrick Smith’s Ask the Pilot site, probably because I’ve assumed that people interested in airlines, airplanes, airports, and aviation security will already have seen them.
Here’s an exception I want to highlight (and thanks to reader SG). That is because it clarifies something that is well known to people who have spent time outside America but that often goes unnoticed or undiscussed inside our country. I’ll let Smith lay it out:
With scattered exceptions, U.S. airports don’t have a whole lot going for them. Putting aside aesthetics, cleanliness and a lack of public transport options, another thing that doesn’t help, and which you don’t hear about much, is that American airports simply do not recognize the “in transit” concept. All passengers arriving from overseas, even if they’re merely transiting to a third country, are forced to clear customs and immigration, recheck their luggage, pass through TSA screening, etc. It’s an enormous hassle that you don’t find in most places overseas. Compare it to Singapore, Dubai, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and so on, where transit passengers walk from one gate to the next with a minimum of fuss. [JF note: The exception in my experience is Frankfurt, where connections are often a hassle.]
Here’s how this hurts us: Flying from Australia to Europe, for instance, a traveler has the option of flying westbound, via Asia (namely Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong) or the Middle East (Dubai, Qatar), or eastbound via the U.S. West Coast (Los Angeles or San Francisco).Even though the distance and flying times are about the same, almost everybody will opt for the westbound option. [ie, avoiding America.] The airports are spotless and packed with amenities, while the connection is painless and efficient.
Change planes at LAX or SFO, on the other hand, and you’d have to stand in at least three different lines, be photographed and fingerprinted, collect and recheck your bags, endure the TSA rigmarole, and so on, just to change planes. Few passengers will choose this option, and I suspect it costs our airlines many millions annually in lost revenue. Indeed, this is part of what has made carriers like Emirates, Singapore Airlines and others so successful.
This might seem a small thing — hey, so what if these foreign jet-setters endure some hassle? — but I think it is emblematic of some cumulatively larger issues. Americans are habituated to griping about our airports and airlines, but I sense that people haven’t internalized how comparatively backward and unpleasant this part of our “modern” infrastructure has become. Along with our freeways, bridges, subways, buses, and other transport-related aspects of our built environment. To put it another way: we love to bitch about American “decline” but are usually thinking in metaphorical terms, or about whatever political trend we deplore. The truth is, when you go to other countries you see that many of them seem more modern and efficient than America does. In a very tangible sense America looks old and “declined.”
I think there is a similar failure of imagination about how . . .
Marine who order killing of civilians will serve NO time
Interesting email I just received from the LA Times:
Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will serve no time for his guilty plea in the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha in 2005, a military judge said Tuesday.
UPDATE: And here’s the full story today. At this point, I can’t figure out what an American would have to do to be accused of a war crime. Everything goes, so far as I can tell.
From the LA Times story yesterday:
Among the dead in Haditha were seven children, including a toddler, three women and a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair. Some of the victims, a prosecutor said, were essentially executed, their wounds caused by gunshots so close that they left powder burns on the bodies.
One Marine, who was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, told of how he had urinated on a dead civilian’s head.
The case and its aftermath have also impeded U.S. efforts in the Middle East.
I would imagine it has. People over there probably don’t view the US in a good light, but in a very negative way. We did, of course, invade Iraq without any real provocation—the reasons given were lies and were known at the time to be lies, and the NY Times was cheering the war on—indeed, threatening to fire reporters who filed stories questioning the run-up to the war and the (faked) evidence to support our war of aggression—and it was a war of aggression. And then US troops murder civilians with no punishment at all—and of course the Blackwell massacre of civilians. The US has become an ugly aggressor abroad. And those who commit the atrocities get off scot-free. As do our torturers and murderers.
We’ve seen nations act this way before. In the past, we fought them.
Meanwhile we continue to imprison indefinitely suspects at Guantánamo, along with some we know are innocent of any wrongdoing, but keeping them imprisoned is fairly easy, so what the hell, eh?
Science and the obvious: Psychedelic mushrooms
Many don’t see the point of scientists investigating what everyone already knows to be true, despite repeated instances of science discovering that what everyone knows to be true is in fact false. (As you might expect, those who reject science usually are the same as those who fail to learn from experience—if they learned by experience, they would look to experience for learning (i.e., science).) Latest discovery is that psychedelic mushrooms do not achieve their effects by spinning up brain activity, which everyone assumed was the case. It’s the opposite. Ruth Williams reports in The Scientist:
The geometric visuals and vivid imaginings experienced by those tripping on mushrooms are not, as scientists had suspected, the result of increased brain activity, according to a report out today (23 January) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Instead, under the influence of psilocybin—the psychedelic component of magic mushrooms—brain activity and connectivity decrease. The reduced connectivity might be what frees people’s minds from normal constraints, the researchers propose.
“It was often thought to be the case that these classic hallucinogens must increase brain function—you know, they expand awareness, expand consciousness—but in fact what we see is decreased activity,” said Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, who was not involved in the study.
“I have to say this was totally unexpected,” said David Nutt of Imperial College London, who led the study. But, he added, “when you get exactly the opposite result to what you predict, you know it is right, because there is no bias.”
Although humans have used magic mushrooms for centuries if not millennia, very little is known about how they work. Soon after psychedelics gained widespread popularity in the 1950s and 60s, “the drugs were criminalized and the research into their beneficial uses was suppressed,” explained Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which partly funded the study.
Because of psilocybin’s illegality, organizing and performing the new study was a regulatory ordeal, said Nutt. “You have to go through lots of hoops and get special licenses. You’ve got to have special cupboards and fridges to hold it… it’s a real rigmarole.”
There was also the ethical concern that . . .
The TSA and Rand Paul
This report is fascinating, and note the comments Fallows posts as well. My hope, of course, is that TSA goons will start jerking (unrecognized) US Senators into a back room and slapping them around a little to straighten out their attitude. That could induce some quick reforms, depending on how strong the authoritarian wing of the Federal government has become. (At a certain point, the goons gain control.)
Shave report and morning situation
No photo, of all things. I apparently am a bit distracted by upcoming (tomorrow) cataract surgery. :sigh: Oh, well.
Eddy of Australia send me a bit of Art of Shaving Sandalwood shaving cream, which I used this morning with the Rooney Emilion Victorian. An okay lather but, to be honest, disappointing. I am not impressed with AoS products, mainly due to their performance. (The price, though, is impressive, in a sense.) I do get much better lather from other shaving creams.
With the Eclipse Red Ring, three very smooth passes. A splash of Blue Floïd, and I’m ready to get ready. I did the two eye drops this morning, and my bathroom mirror again bears the little dry-erase matrix for marking the doses. Post surgery, three different eye drops daily, two of them thrice daily, one once: marking the doses is essential or I get totally confused because, with luck, there’s nothing to distinguish one dose from another. (Without luck, it’s easier: “I know I took the drops this morning because I accidentally knocked over the razor rack in the process…” sort of thing: uneventful in this arena is good but not memorable.)
My bro-in-law called and we talked about The Garner Files, which he’s also read. I had not realized what a violent person Garner was. Not particularly seeking fights, but perfectly willing to throw a punch and indeed the first punch. He also received some serious punches in return. I have lived my entire adult life without striking another adult. Somehow, I think that’s normal, but then I never played contact sports, so perhaps in different circles physical violence of one adult toward another is more common.
In Garner’s case it seems to stem in part from his temper, and that doubtless has its roots in the terrible physical abuse he suffered from his step-mother, who seems to have been crazy. (His brother was the victim of sexual abuse from her as well when he was still in grade school.) Early traumatic experiences of that sort definitely shape a personality, and on the whole, Garner seems to have done well with what life offered. Interesting book, particularly if you like movies. And, speaking of physical abuse, reading the book drained all desire to have been a movie action star. One detail: they all traded info on knee replacement surgery and the quality of various artificial knees. Go players don’t have those conversations, I find.
Not much blogging: surgery soon.
The invention of the hetersexual
Very interesting interview of Hanne Blank by Thomas Rogers in Salon.com:
If you met Hanne Blank and her partner on the street, you might have a lot of trouble classifying them. While Blank looks like a feminine woman, her partner is extremely androgynous, with little to no facial hair and a fine smooth complexion. Hanne’s partner is neither fully male, nor fully female; he was born with an unconventional set of chromosomes, XXY, that provide him with both male genitalia and feminine characteristics. As a result, Blank’s partner has been mistaken for a gay woman, a straight man, a transman — and their relationship has been classified as gay, straight and everything in between.
Blank mentions her personal story at the beginning of her provocative new history of heterosexuality, “Straight,” as a way of illustrating just how artificial our notions of “straightness” really are. In her book, Blank, a writer and historian who has written extensively about sexuality and culture, looks at the ways in which social trends and the rise of psychiatry conspired to create this new category in the late 19th and early 20th century. Along the way, she examines the changing definition of marriage, which evolved from a businesslike agreement into a romantic union centered around love, and how social Darwinist ideas shaped the divisions between gay and straight. With her eye-opening book, Blank tactfully deconstructs a facet of modern sexuality that most of us take for granted.
Salon spoke to Blank over the phone about the origins of heterosexuality, the evolution of marriage and why the rise of the “bromance” is a very good thing.
Men and woman have been having sex for as long as there have been humans. So how can we talk about there being a “history” of heterosexuality? . . .
The modern multiblade cartridge razor
The guys at Wicked_Edge have been having some fun with the new Schick Hydro® 5 Power Select™’s “easy-to-read LED screen [that] communicates visually to clearly distinguish which vibration level is in use” (full specifications).
tommij points out this:
You know you’re getting rather deep into shaving when you start enjoying shaving comedy.
