toastykitten

Don't know about you but I need to read/watch nice things right now:

• The 1977 Disability Rights Protest That Broke Records and Changed Laws - One often-ignored group integral to the protesters’ success: Oakland’s Black Panther Party. Beginning that first week and continuing until the end of the occupation, local Panthers cooked and carried wholesome, hot meals—meatloaf, fried chicken, rolls, and salad—across the bay to San Francisco every single day.
• 700,000 Female Farmworkers Stand with Hollywood Actors Against Sexual Assault
• Crazy Rich Asians first look.

Going through my bookmarks:

• There is nothing more tedious in Asian America than debating and policing who Asian Americans should be fucking.
• Buzzfeed on Chasing Amy 20 years later. I think I watched the first two thirds of this? Still think Kevin Smith talks too much and makes too much stuff about himself.
• Found this essay from Laila Lalami about public vs private self very resonant.

I feel like I just watched all of this happen on Person of Interest already.

• Fake news and fake solutions: How Do We Build a Civics of Trust?
• Bruce Schneier on the New Security Threats From the Internet of Things
• Woman escapes kidnapper by leaping out of trunk of moving car.
• Ad industry lobbyists look forward to impending death of online privacy.
• Facebook tells developers to quit it with the surveillance already
• Google's new open source JPEG compression algorithm can reduce images by 35 percent without loss of quality.

Hyperpartisan sites owned by the same people.
List of Arab American writers.
person of interest list of songs. This show's music is surprisingly good.
Former Google engineer blasts company's HR practices after sexual harassment revelations.

I made a blog where I post links to things I think Mark will find amusing, interesting or funny. You may also be interested if you like Nintendo, Battlestar Galactica, and silly Youtube videos.

What Every American Should Know About The Middle East:

1. Arabs are part of an ethnic group, not a religion. Arabs were around long before Islam, and there have been (and still are) Arab Christians and Arab Jews. In general, you’re an Arab if you 1) are of Arab descent (blood), or 2) speak the main Arab language (Arabic).

2. Not all Arabs are Muslim. There are significant populations of Arab Christians throughout the world, including in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Northern Africa and Palestine/Israel.

P.S. Don't read the comments.

Perhaps I should write one, too about what Americans should know about China:

1. Nobody in China eats General Tso's chicken.
2. There are different ethnicities within China.

According to LAist, April is National Grilled Cheese Month. Perhaps I should tell Mark to get some halloumi. I have no idea what other sorts of cheeses are grillable.

Is anybody else watching Top Chef this season? I just watched the last episode, in which the Quickfire was to make an "upscale taco" and the Elimination Challenge was to make food from the pantries of a neighborhood in Chicago for a block party. So far, no one's really standing out, but I do know who's pissing me off - from Eric the bald dude who said that "Mexican food is soul food not upscale food" (shut up, dude) to Valerie (I think that's her name) who fucked up macaroni and cheese with Velveeta, not learning from her mistake the previous time. Another thing I hated was how they made all the women give soundbites about how hard it is to be a woman in the kitchen. I'm pretty sure it's true, but the way it was edited, no one said anything useful and it came across as kind of whiny. Come on, Top Chef editors.2.