Interesting Links for 9-1-2011

[andrewducker]

• Alien: A Film Franchise Based Entirely on Rape
  (tags: alien rape movies Giger)
• Dynamic periodic table done entirely in HTML. Very neat.
  (tags: science chemistry reference periodictable)
• Do 600 unwanted pregnancies really make an exceptional story? (Answer - no. Implanon still incredibly reliable)
  (tags: pregnancy contraception statistics)
• Barbie even more unrealistic now than in 1990
  (tags: barbie toys feminism)
• The Wormworld Saga. Absolutely beautiful art. Gorgeous use of colour. Oh, and the start of a lovely little story too.
  (tags: comics art illustration webcomic comic)
• A call for calm in the face of the shooting of Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
  (tags: politics usa)
• Harlan Ellison vs. Hitler. Kind-of a Downfall video. But more hilarious than most. And different.
  (tags: HarlanEllison hitler downfall video funny scifi)
• U.S. Passports to no long have "mother" and "father", but "parent 1" and "parent 2"
  (tags: gender lgbt usa identity)

Comments

[draigwen]

They were discussing the Implanon thing on the Jeremy Vine show the other day, and the general impression I got was that a lot of the failures - the ones that were successfully being sued over - were because they weren't put in correctly rather than that the Implanon had failed.

I don't have much sympathy for people who complain that they've got pregnant on contraception unless it is due to negligence as in some of the Implanon cases. You're warned from the start that there's a risk and there's always the option of using a condom in addition. It's not like you go into it thinking "there's absolutely no chance I can get pregnant".

[jack]

Hm. "Even the best contraception isn't 100%" probably is news even though it shouldn't be. But it's criminally irresponsible to talk up the failures of a good method, while ignoring those of other methods that are probably less good (including abstinence)...

[marrog.livejournal.com]

In fairness, those proportions are more realistic, in particular, the shape of her torso, her abdomen and her backside are way, way better in the newer model - particularly pleasing is the fact she actually has a slightly convex belly. Sure, she's still way too skinny to be 'average' (particularly in the thigh department from what we can see) but there are actually women shaped that way. No one is shaped like 90s Barbie.

Really what might be nice would be a combination of the two - the shape of the 00s Barbie but with more of the proportion of the 90s one - a broader ribcage and hips maybe, bigger thighs - combined with the new shape we might actually get a nice figure that way. Frankly, though, I'd prefer new Barbie to 90s Barbie any day.

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

It's admittedly harder to tell, considering the untimely decapitation of the older model in those pictures, but I think the slender ribcage contributes to her head's looking even more freakishly large.

That being said, I agree: I've never seen a human woman shaped like '90s Barbie, I have seen ones who look like the more recent Barbie. I'm sure the manufacturers claim they're just saving on plastic, though....

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Someone observed in comments that the dolls' heads need to be proportionately overlarge because the clothing is so much proportionately thicker that otherwise the heads would look undersized on the dressed doll - and, after all, they're meant to be dressed, not naked.

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

Oh, good point. I guess most of my Barbies ended up naked, dismembered, and crayoned-upon, but I was rough on my toys as a wee thing.

When they were in high school, my mother and her sister used to make Barbie clothes, and when I was older I was allowed access to their '60s dolls and wardrobes. I always liked the Barbies that had the little pixie cuts so short their hair was made of plastic, just like Ken's; it seemed somehow more efficient and truer to the exercise.

[innerbrat]

mmmmm "cracked.com" and "rape" in the same URL. There's no way this can end badly.

*clicks anyway*