All Thoughts Being Equal

The New Yorker piece on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, provocatively titled "The Earthquake That Will Devastate Seattle," sent tremors through the Internet recently. (Oh yes, I will make all the quake puns I want, thank you very much.) It also happens to be a pile of hot street trash doing irresponsible things with some actual facts, but this is the New Yorker and they spell cooperation as "coöperation" so they're obviously untrustworthy. Who does the New Yorker talk to? Chris Goldfinger, a paleoseismologist at OSU Kenneth Murphy, director of FEMA for the Oregon-Washington-Idaho-Alaska region Jay Wilson, chair of the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission Ian Madin, director of Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries  Kevin Cupples, city planner for Seaside, OR  Doug Dougherty, superintendent of schools for Seaside That's six sources, two of whom are people whose freaking jobs involve planning for the absolute worst, one...

Can't remember how I came across this post— We Are Not Things: Mad Max versus Game of Thrones —but I think it's worth talking about at some length, if not a full post length. Two portrayals of a world where women hold dubious power and are seen as “things.” One of these is roundly criticized for it. One of them is roundly celebrated for it. Game of Thrones catches hell for its portrayal of women and this subject. Mad Max is wreathed in a garland of bike chains and hubcabs for it. What, then, is the difference? Here we go. I'll just come out and say that I think the article misunderstands how the themes of Mad Max and Game of Thrones are different: Max Max is about liberation , while Game of Thrones is about the nature and abuse of power. The article focuses on frequency and point-of-view as two points of contrast between MM and GoT . I'm not sure of the author believes that sexual assault should never be depicted, or if depicted, only once? Frequ...