juliet

Just to get rid of open FF tabs again...

• Sexism at Newsweek: in 1970 and now; also a comment piece over at Racialicious drawing attention to the very-white-focussed nature of the Newsweek article.
• The Economist on the demise of cap-and-trade in the US. Unfortunately this appears to be largely down to public denial in the face of climate change, rather than, e.g., because carbon trading fundamentally sucks.
• What to do now the Digital Economy Bill has been rushed through Parliament (aka: it's not quite over yet).
• Drugs, maths, hallucinations, and the visual neurons (with thanks to doop). Well worth a read. I particularly like the research scientist who conducted his research by taking peyote. Sadly this was in the 1920s, and his modern equivalents do not do such things; or at least, they don't admit to it.
• Apparently this is very good chocolate. I would like to buy some, but the shipping is as much as the chocolate, so I'll wait till I'm next over in Kensington & can visit Rococo, which sadly will take rather longer to happen than it would have done when I was still working in Kensington. OTOH, this way I don't drop nearly a fiver on chocolate, which is quite a lot of money however good the chocolate is.

ION: have had a lovely fortnight's holiday in, variously, Northern Ireland, and Boston (Lincolnshire, not the other one); of that latter, more anon. Now I am back in London & surprisingly busy for someone whose work is only full-time in the loosest possible sense (i.e. that sense in which it is the only thing that I am doing in the paid work line, rather than any sense in which I actually work an approximation to what this society considers to be full-time hours. I like it very much this way.). The dog continues to be adorable, time-consuming, and an agent of chaos. And it is spring properly today ftb I wore my sandals to the park. Down with proper shoes! Also the first tiny asparagus shoots are appearing in the allotment.

The head of the IPCC has walked out of the Bella Centre to join the protestors. Bloody hell. (the Bella Centre is where the current main talks are happening).

Various NGOs including Friends of the Earth have been banned from the talks (FoE held a sit-in in the reception). Tear gas and police batons being used on the protestors outside.

More information as-it-happens here: http://www.scribblelive.com/Event/Reclaim_Power_Cop15

Meanwhile, back in the UK, tar sands protest yesterday outside the Canadian Embassy went very well. Photos here, and Canadian press coverage here.

There's a demo tomorrow (Thu) outside the Danish embassy about the treatment of protestors in Copenhagen. Address: 55 Sloane Street, London, SW1X 9SR; time: 16:00; dress code: black; mood: pissed off.