Thursday News: New web browsers, cosplay and comics, country music’s liberation, and brilliant women in science
DA has some January ad space. Email [email protected]. Thanks!
- Zone 2: 25 SOV space
- Zone 3: 25 SOV space
- Leaderboard: 50 SOV space
Project Maelstrom: The Internet We Build Next – So BitTorrent is in the process of trying to revolutionize the internet by basically creating a shadow world wide web, one that is created, populated, and run by its users. As Gigaom notes, this decentralized web browser is a broader variant of file sharing. On one level it’s a radically democratized vision, but, of course, any system is only as sound as its participants. There’s also concern that this kind of browser would lead to more piracy (of course the fear of piracy is like a rampant virus, so it doesn’t take much to keep it going).
If we are successful, we believe this project has the potential to help address some of the most vexing problems facing the Internet today. How can we keep the Internet open? How can we keep access to the Internet neutral? How can we better ensure our private data is not misused by large companies? How can we help the Internet scale efficiently for content? –BitTorrent Blog
The Comic-Book Guys Quivering in Fear of Cosplay – Although I’ve found a number of Noah Berlatsky’s Atlantic columns unimpressive, his identification of a conflict in comics between an overly masculinized “ideal” and a denigrated feminine is well articulated here. I think the piece still plays fast and loose with the analytical implications of the problem he identifies – and there’s some conflation of gender and sexuality — but I like that he takes on the ridiculousness of the idea that cosplay is somehow detrimental to “real” comics, whatever those are.
The question is, why do folks like Broderick and Ellis find that threatening? How exactly does someone cosplaying Power-Girl next to your booth damage you? People sometimes make vague claims about loss of revenue, or that the cosplayers don’t buy enough comics—though it’s hard to figure how more people at a convention filing past your table is going to damage your bottom line. The real vitriol, in any case, as in Ellis’s statement, seems to be directed at the sexuality of cosplay, and even more at its artificiality. It’s the same mentality behind the fake geek girl meme—the idea that women cosplayers aren’t real fans, and, beyond that, aren’t actually real people. As Julia Serano argues in her 2007 book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, the feminine is often denigrated as artificial and sexualized. The cosplayers threaten to undermine the authentic purity and virtue of the comics industry. A woman is getting her picture taken close by—how can we ever take our magic wishing-rings and giant-sized Man-Things seriously again?! –Yahoo News
‘Girl in a Country Song’ hits No. 1 by mocking bro country. The bros aren’t laughing. – There seems to be a small epidemic of guys taking themselves too seriously right now. Witness the response to Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye’s chart-topping country song that makes the modest suggestion that the women of country music may not want to sit in the passenger seat of some guy’s truck wearing a skimpy tank top and short-shorts. The popularity of the song alone reflects the potency and timeliness of its message, but the guys singing about all those sexy sidekicks are reacting pretty badly. Oh, the irony; it burns.
As we said before: Gauntlet thrown down. When it first hit this summer, the song was widely praised as ushering a new era. Now, its No. 1 status makes history: Maddie & Tae are the first female duo in eight years to top the charts with a debut single. Dye admitted that initially, they were nervous about playing the song for Borchetta, since it called out so many top artists — some that he represents. So they were relieved when the label head not only loved it, but thought it was hilarious. He signed them to a record deal almost immediately.
But despite the critical acclaim, one group is definitely not laughing about the success of “Girl in a Country Song”: The alpha bros themselves. –The Washington Post
Blood, Simpler One woman’s drive to upend medical testing. – Every once in a while I read something and think, ‘that person would make a great Romance protagonist,’ and Elizabeth Holmes is the most recent example. Her company, Theranos, has developed easier, and much cheaper, technology for testing blood, which is both gaining popularity and raising a number of concerns because Holmes runs her company much the same way Steve Jobs ran Apple — with a lot of secrecy she insists is necessary to thwart competition. Her story — and the story of her success — are fascinating, though, and I would love to see a heroine like her — including her inventive testing methods — in, say, a Romantic Suspense.
Holmes told the audience that blood testing can be done more quickly, conveniently, and inexpensively, and that lives can be saved as a consequence. She was wearing her daily uniform—a black suit and a black cotton turtleneck, reminiscent of Steve Jobs—and had pinned her hair into an unruly bun. As she spoke, she paced slowly, her eyes rarely blinking, her hands clasped at her waist. Holmes started Theranos in 2003, when she was nineteen; she dropped out of Stanford the following year. Since then, she told the audience, the company has developed blood tests that can help detect dozens of medical conditions, from high cholesterol to cancer, based on a drop or two of blood drawn with a pinprick from your finger. Theranos is working to make its testing available to several hospital systems and is in advanced discussions with the Cleveland Clinic. It has also opened centers in forty-one Walgreens pharmacies, with plans to open thousands more. If you show the pharmacist your I.D., your insurance card, and a doctor’s note, you can have your blood drawn right there. (The sample is then sent to a Theranos lab.) From that one sample, Holmes said, several tests can be run—all less expensive than standard blood tests, sometimes as much as ninety per cent below the rates that Medicare sets. A typical lab test for cholesterol can cost fifty dollars or more; the Theranos test at Walgreens costs two dollars and ninety-nine cents. –The New Yorker
As a medical laboratory professional for over 30 years, I found the article about Elizabeth Holmesand her company, Theranos, interesting. However, I have many of the same questions and concerns as are voiced by some people quoted in the story. Much as the labs in doctor’s offices were upgraded, standardized and monitored starting in the 1980’s due to problems and concerns about the level and quality of the testing, I think there are still many concerns about the fingerstick technology being promoted by Theranos. Yes, many point-of-care devices exist to test a drop of blood. However, it is a far stretch of current established medical and clinical criteria to think that is the end-all-be-all of laboratory testing. We have come a long way in the past few years in tearing down many barriers for patients and quality medical care. I think there is a safe and practical middle ground yet to be found. Thanks for bringing Ms. Holmes and Theranos to our attention.
My husband and son listen to country music and I really hate it but after seeing your twitter posts yesterday I bought Girl in a Country Song the single. I love it. It has the twangy thing going that I usually hate but the words make it great.
Guess which song I’ll be purchasing this evening as soon as I get home. :)
“She was wearing her daily uniform—a black suit and a black cotton turtleneck, reminiscent of Steve Jobs—and had pinned her hair into an unruly bun”
So why did the author of this article feel the need to tell readers -practically the first thing! – about a successful and inventive business executive is her fashion choices and how she wears her hair?
I’m trying to remember an article about, say, Bill Gates that starts off with describing his blue jeans and his shaggy haircut.
What could *possibly* be the difference?
Guess which song I’ll be purchasing this evening as soon as I get home.
@Little Red: Oops, sorry. I thought my first post hadn’t gone through.
@hapax: Yes, thought the same thing about the bun. It’s such an odd thing to mention.
Re the links cited on cosplay and on “Girl in a Country Song”: Men need to get over themselves.
For those who appreciate “Girl in a Country Song,” I also suggest Kacey Musgraves.
@lawless: The smell of butthurt coming off that article was overwhelming.
And a sweet perfume it was too ;)