Rotundus.com

This Christianity Today piece - The Media and the Massacre: True compassion requires turning off the news seems to me to be worth reading and thinking about:

Not a single person in that airport was assisted in any way by these ghastly disclosures, pat press releases, and offensive atheologies. But this is the ironclad logic of continuous broadcasting: Broadcasting must be continuous. Someone must always be saying something even when there is nothing new to say. The most basic lesson for those who would comfort the victims of tragedy is that the first, best response to tragedy is presence, and often the best form of presence is silence. The grieving, the sick, and the dying sometimes need our words, sometimes need our touch, but almost always they need our presence. And there is no contradiction between presence and silence in the embodied life for which we were all created, to which we are all called, into which God himself entered. Bodies can be present without a word. That is the beauty of bodies.
Mediated communication, on the other hand—any form of communication that places something "in the middle," between persons—cannot abide silence. Radio hates dead air. Television hates sound without movement. ... silence is not an option in social media. Not to tweet or post or blog is not to be silently present—it is to be mutely absent.

Silence also seems useful in other areas - the world could stand not only a more prominent presence with the grieving but more contemplation as well.

Some people seem to think of Fifty Shades of Gray's rampant popularity as something novel and a shift in the way women think. I really don't think that that's the case. Consider the following outline of a 1919 novel: An independent woman ventures out into the desert, is kidnapped by an Arab Sheik, raped repeatedly, manages to escape, is recaptured, decides she loves him, is kidnapped by some other guy, rescued by her original captor, and they then speak of their love for each other.

Sound weird? Obscure? Something immediately offensive to most women? It was actually a bestselling novel and the author's most popular book, resulting in a 1921 movie which

... was a major success with audiences, smashing attendance records where it debuted. In its first week of release it set attendance records at two of New York's major theatres, the Rialto and the Rivoli. The New York Telegraph estimated that in the first few weeks 125,000 people had seen the film.

The exception to the movie's popularity seems to have been not amongst women but amongst men. Here's how a 2008 NPR article described the lead male actor:

Valentino's playful treatment of the character captivated female audiences and established him as Hollywood's first male sex symbol. Mary Brewer Barkley, who was 13 years old when the film was released, recalls newspaper reports that young women were running off to the Middle East in the hope of being abducted by handsome Arabs.

Have things changed? Not much I'd argue. It's not just the purchase of novels such as Fifty Shades of Grey - there's actually a body of peer-reviewed research on the subject. I could say more, but sometimes the details are better unsaid.

HT: 22 Words

Handbook instructs U.S. GIs NOT to speak up for women's rights or condemn pedophilia in Afghanistan

"An Army handbook advising American soldiers to not speak badly of the Taliban, advocate women's rights or criticize pedophilia in Afghanistan has been leaked, to particular disapproval by the U.S.’ commanding Afghan general. The proposed 75-page document, obtained by the Wall Street Journal, suggests soldiers' ignorance of Afghan culture is partially to blame for a rise in deadly insider attacks"

Eight Toronto pedestrians hit in 45 minutes: Police warn pre-dawn pedestrians of dangers of walking in winter weather

A policeman quoted in the article said "You need to be a conspicuous pedestrian, meaning you have to be visible to those people operating motor vehicles." Seems like common sense, but a similar statement about women's clothing seemed to be enough to spark the series of "SlutWalks." There are certain crosswalks I know to be extra careful of at night else the odds of being run down can be pretty high.

Don't forget to recharge your jacket

"The finished jacket weighs about 650 grams, can maintain internal temperatures of between 20 and 40°C and can operate in ambient temperatures between −50 and 50°C. It runs for about eight hours on a single charge." I wonder how much the charge time is affected by the specific outside temperature. Apparently the things works somewhat like a heat pump rather than directly incorporating heating elements.

Western media concealing facts about female rock band’s desecration of Russian cathedral

"While America’s pop culture royalty and media establishment fawn over the jailed trio, Russian performers have been loath to associate themselves with their cause, including the nation’s two biggest rock stars, Zemfira and Mumiy Troll. Some, like the star singer Elena Vaenga, have even denounced them publicly, stating, “I’ll personally drink to the health of the judge who’ll slap them with some jail time.” ... Even sympathetic Russian journalist Michael Idov admits in a recent article for the New York Times that “the hometown opinion on Pussy Riot is mixed at best. Even the liberal response has involved language like ‘They should let these chicks go with a slap on the ass.’”