Tech Curiosities: Boounce, ReadyBoost, and Fonolo

Admin.Jane
Three items have piqued my technical curiosity in the past week.  One I am excited about sharing because I had good results with it, one that I plan to try, and one I think is likely not ready for consumer prime time . . .

Boounce:

I heard about this on the local public radio community spotlight of a local techical start-up.  Billed by its producer as a low-footprint browser add-on that hyper-charges internet searching, Boounce (pronounced "bounce") returns searches from multitudes of standard and vertical search engines as well as niche websites concurrently.  With search results organized by clickable icons (when in "Toolbar" mode), Bounce claims to dive deeper and vastly outperform standard search engines in the amount and quality of results -- Because any given single

The Damage of Child Beauty Pageants

Riot.Jane
This is the first time I've seen a non-hysterical critique of the phenomenon of child beauty pageants.  Most of the time it seems like it's moon-bat crazy people throwing tantrums either for or against the concept. 

In this blog post Mary Jo Rapini, LPC discusses whether it's the contestant or the parent that is actually benefiting from the pageant experience.  She also suggests better ways to help children learn the lessons they need to be successful people than crawling the beauty pageant circuit.

Beauty Pageants For Toddlers; Who Are They For?


A Postcard from The Single (Mom) Life

Megan DaGata
I am not having a good day; it has been trying to say the least. There is still not much to do at work, so its always quiet. Which is a problem for someone whose mind is always on...I am constantly left to my thoughts. It makes the days long.

The nights are so short though, and I don't get to think. I get home at 7 pm, and I try to get the kids in bed by 9. I am not happy. I only get to spend 2 hours a day with my boys. No sir I'm not happy! A mother's place is raising her kids, and I don't get to do that. Right now I am paying someone more than half my salary to raise them, and get frustrated when things aren't done the way that I would do them. I say something and it's like I haven't said a word, which only pisses me off more.

QOTD: The Internet Breeds Entitlement

Riot.Jane
Today's quotation:
The Web is truly customizable: You can listen to radios that play only your preferred tunes and read newspapers that cover only your favorite subjects. "We're used to having our tastes perfectly matched, whcih leads to entitlement," [Elias] Aboujaoude [author of Virtually You] says. If we don't experience novel things or sit through experiences we don't enjoy, we'll become a nation of spoiled, sheletered brats.

Bartz, Andrea. "The E-Ego." Psychology Today. Jun 2011: 25. Print

Today in 1945: Arthur C. Clarke Invents the Communications Satellite

Riot.Jane
If one particular man in history had died of polio as a child, you might not be reading this.  In fact, I daresay that modern Western life would indeed be very different.

On this day in 1945, Arthur C. Clarke began privately circulating his academic paper The Space-Station: Its Radio Applications.  (.pdf-page 34)

This privately-circulated paper and another published in Wireless World in October of the same year, Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations GiveWorld-Wide Radio Coverage? (.pdf-page 38), oth "discussed the special characteristics of geosynchronous orbit that would enable three satellites in that orbit to provide global communications." (.pdf-page 23.)

Sexy Sundays | "The Morning After" the "First Time"

Riot.Jane
A blog post by Mary Jo Rapini, LPC, caught my attention.  How you feel about losing your virginity depends...are you a guy or girl? begins with a discussion about the gender differences in the after-effects of the first sexual encounter as determined by a recent academic study (Body image and first sexual intercourse in late adolescence) and winds up with with the author's own views on the same.
[From How you feel] The morning after can be difficult no matter if you are a guy or a girl, but it seems to be more difficult for girls than guys. A study from researchers at Pennsylvania State University reports male university students' body images improved after having sexual intercourse for the first time, while the opposite pattern was found with females. The study which was published in the Journal of Adolescents and reported on 100 students from the university between the ages of 17 and 19 years of age who had sex for the first time during their time at the university.

Reason #9 I Love My Bestie

Riot.Jane
Conversation had this past Thursday afternoon whilst planning the lunch where she would meet my boyfriend for the first time . . .

ME: Okay, I have to ask you this because you're the only woman I could ever ask this of.
HER: Okkkkaaaaayyyyyyy.
ME: You have to not wear one of your plunging necklines.
HER: Ummmmmmm, what?  Oh.  Okay.  Sure.
ME: Great, you're awesome, thanks!
HER: Ummmmmmm, why?
ME: My boyfriend's a total perv!  And I want him staring at my chest, not yours.

A Crazy Woman in a Sporty Car

Riot.Jane
I recently had an interesting experience with a stranger in a strip center parking lot.  This strip center is probably 50 years old (no exaggeration), and the parking spaces are quite narrow.  The parking stops are actually integrated into the concrete in a large zig-zag pattern, not just lengths of concrete bolted to the parking surface (and therefore movable).  As a result, the parking spaces are really not reconfigurable.

I've visited this strip center often, as a friend works nearby and we've had lunch there on many occasions.  As a result, I'm familiar with the narrow parking spots.  I drive a small-model sedan, so the narrow spots hadn't presented a problem before the particular day I'm going to share with  you.

Sexy Sundays | 50% Off @ Adam & Eve! (Updated)

Riot.Jane
Use promotional code sexy28 for 50% off at Adam and Eve, plus receive free DVDs and a surprise mystery gift! (Seen on a television commercial.)

They're also offering $10 off if you sign up for their newsletter . . . I have no idea if these two discounts will stack. It's worth a shot, right?

Update: 05/09/11, 19:00 CST:

The e-mail list $10 off is not stackable with the above 50% off discount code.  I just placed and order, and here's what the discount code gave me:

Another Bill to Restrict Reproductive Freedom: HR 3 (UPDATED)

Riot.Jane
I just received the following e-mail, and the topic is news to me.  This is surprising because I'm usually pretty current on matters of reproductive freedom . . . More on this topic to come.

This is not an advocation that anyone should contribute, it's just the method by which I learned of the existence of HR 3.

The link in the e-mail: http://www.dccc.org/page/m/1d63cab1/1b83fc72/4a3c2f65/4e0ce84b/2346893725/VEsE/ .


Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish: Osama bin Laden

Riot.Jane
Everywhere I turned today, people were jubilant that Osama bin Laden is dead.  Watching news footage of the spontaneous crowds that gathered at the White House and in Times Square last night made me queasy.  It made me the same kind of queasy that the videos of Arabs chanting "Death to America" did when we saw that footage years ago.

I'm just not very good at processing that level of hatred.



Sexy Sundays | Pulling a Rabbit out of the Hat

Riot.Jane
Keeping one's sex life interesting over the long term is sometimes difficult.  Reading and hearing advice can help, but sometimes advice is of poor quality, poorly understood, or poorly implemented.  This can lead to bad experiences and devastating consequences.

The most common advice I've seen over the years runs along the line of thought of Do something new, Surprise your partner, Step out of the same-old stuff, Introduce some variety, et cetera.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with such platitudes as these, the practical implementation of them as suggested is fraught with danger.  Let's examine the potential complications with specific examples.

Honoring the Females in Your Life with GEMS


Admin.Jane
E-mail we received from the Girls Educational & Mentoring Service (GEMS):

Mother's Day is quickly approaching!

As an annual celebration of the women and girls in our lives, GEMS invites you to upload your favorite photos of you and your mother, daughters, or other amazing, influential women and girls in your life. Share your photos and stories with us as we honor women this holiday! We set up a special Shutterfly page so that supporters can easily upload your photos: http://gemsmothersday.shutterfly.com.

Very Old and Very Sexy…An Oxymoron?

Hattie RetroAge
There was a time when I would have judged that combination to be not only absurd… but totally repulsive. That’s no longer the case.

What happened to turn that around?

Here goes…

When I was about five years old, my immigrant mother took me to the Steam Baths in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Just a mere pre-schooler, choking in the heat, I peered up with disgust at what I perceived to be “fat, old ladies”. Then and there I decided if that’s what being a lady looks like, I’ll never grow up.

Generation -- The Repetition of Addiction

Karin L. Burke
Generation: Because the act of writing about my alcoholism turns out to be the act of writing about my father’s alcoholism, and recovery from my addiction is actually a recovery from his.

They say that. That alcoholism is a family disease. Give or take genetic tendencies, we are who we are because we are what our parents gave us. It is common to hear a drunk, or maybe even a normal person, say they swore to never be like their father while shaking their head and looking off into the distance. That gaze, that middle distance, turns out to be important. It turns out to be the thing we have to look at.

Having Coffee With The Lunatics In My Head

Riot.Jane
Sometimes I wonder how many individual nutcases are loose in my head. Seriously, when I consider the things that I believe concurrently, many of them mutually-exclusive, I have to wonder when it was that I began renting out rooms in my mind and where all of that rent money is going. After all, it's not going up my nose or the pocketbooks of prostitutes, so I should have a really wicked savings account built up with the rent money from these freakin' lunatics . . . 

Oh, and by the way you lamers, the rent is due!

Some of the things that I believe:

Ad Vocabulary Re-Enforcing Gender Stereotypes

Riot.Jane
Crystal Smith, author of The Achilles Effect, blogs about the the impact of kids’ popular culture on young boys becuase she has been regularly disappointed by the film and television offerings available to her two young sons.

She has analyzed the incidences of words used in advertising toys for boys and girls during after-school cartoon blocks.  She discussed this a bit in her book, but now she has tranfsormed the collated data into wordclouds. 

While admitting that this is not an exhaustive study, she finds the graphical representation quite interesting and a place to begin a discussion.  I agree.

Who Can Become an Addict?

Riot.Jane
In Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good, brain scientist and neuroscience professor at Johns Hopkins University David J. Linden, PhD, describes the physiological processes of how the human brain reacts to different types of pleasure.  He's found that the effects of both our vices and our virtues are virtually indistinguishable within the brain.

In an interview with Salon, he briefly discusses the biological causes vs. societal reactions to addiction.  A particularly striking paragraph (emphasis mine):

Riot.Jane Guest Blogs for "The Business Coach for Moms"

Riot.Jane
Lady T contacted me and asked me to write about workplace dress for her audience.  This is a thorny topic with a wide variety of perspectives.  I thought about the issues again and realized that I hadn't changed my mind since this past August when I blogged about the topic.  She's posted my thoughts, Owning vs. Emphasizing Your Femininity, on her blog today.

Lady T coaches and empowers women to change the world through entrepreneurship. She provides motivational workshops, spiritual retreats and one on one coaching that helps moms grow purposeful, flourishing home businesses. You can click here to learn more about this mompreneur expert and click here to to read my thoughts on one facet of existing as a woman in the workplace.

~Riot.Jane

Words for the Co-Dependent Set

Megan DaGata
What did I do? What can I do? How can I help? What else do you need? Where am I? Ahhh . . . The life of the co-dependent soul. Yes, you are an angel from heaven and an addicts dream.

WAKE the F--- UP!

I don't know how else to put this. I am not going to sugar-coat it for you . . . And I don't think I can. If you are in a relationship that you feel you are doing 90% of the work, then you need to check out your priorities. Ask yourself a few questions for a change . . . How am I? Do I like myself? Do I have enough self respect to leave? Do I make myself happy being in this relationship?


Understanding Human Warfare

Riot.Jane
I am currently reading American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.  Twice already I've laughed out loud, and twice I've been made to really think about the nature of Man.  This was one of the latter:
There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe that they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.
-- Neil Gaiman, American Gods

"The Breast Milk Baby" Controversy

Admin.Jane
If you haven't heard, a new doll (i.e. toy for girls) will be introduced to the US market this spring.  Called "The Breast Milk Baby," it was introduced in Europe in 2009 by Spanish toy company Berjuan Toys under the name "Bebe Gloton" (transliterates to Baby Glutton). The Bebe Gloton version already available at Amazon.

Americans are, to say the least, conflicted about the existence of this doll, much less its marketing to little girls and parents.  Quite a bit of vitriol has been spouted about it, and I really couldn't understand the the spazz-fest that seemed to surround any mention of it.  There doesn't seem to be much middle ground in opinion regarding this doll . . . People seem to either love it ecstatically or hate it violently.

Sexy Sundays | The Ins & Outs of Anal Sex (Part 1) (NSFW)

MellissaY
We're introducing a new feature -- Sexy Sundays!  In this feature (which we hope to post every week) we will discuss topics related to everyone's favorite activity. We're always looking for ideas and contributions, so get those e-mails to us!

This, the first Sexy Sundays post, is an overview of anal sex written by a couple who want to share their experiences with same.  The next Sexy Sundays post will address the nuts-and-bolts and techniques of the topic with lots of information for beginners! 

Unintentionally Insulting? "Guide to Dating Fat Women"

Riot.Jane
I stumbled across Guide to Dating Fat Women, a piece at MadeMan.  MadeMan is a website that bills itself as a service "giving guys the info they need to live life well . . . smart advice on everything from beating a speeding ticket to scoring a hot model."

I think the fact that it was written by a woman might have given me some hope for the quality of its content. Regardless of why, upon first glance I expected something weighty and insightful, maybe even a bit witty.  What I found was anything but . . .

Maintaining a Sex Life While Co-Sleeping


Bess Bedell
Bess Bedell has agreed to share her experiences maintaining a sex life while co-sleeping (children sleeping in the same bed as the parent/s).  She's shared her experience and offers advice to fellow parents interested in the topic. 

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Being a parent is hard. Being a parent and having a gratifying sexual life can sometimes feel impossible. And when you throw a baby in the middle of the bed, smack center between you and your spouse - sex can become a rare commodity. The number one concern of many parents is: If they co-sleep with their baby, how will they ever have sex? As a co-sleeping mom who has had 1-2 children in the bed with her every night for the past 2 ½ years, I can help you with that question.

Even Nurses Get Duped By Doctors

Laura Giesman, NP
Laura Giesman is a nurse practioner that has shared her personal experience with a ENT whose treatment style leaves something to be desired.  We're quite pleased that she's sharing this with us, and we look forward to seeing more of her work. More information about Laura, her practice, and her website can be found at the end of her post.
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Well, all my readers know I'm a nurse practitioner. But we get sick too and need to go to practitioners and doctors! So I'm going to share a personal story with you this time...because what happened to me happens everyday to someone out there. And it's wrong.

PC Air Adds Kathoey to Cabin Crews

Riot.Jane
I've been fascinated for years by the societal phenomenon of the kathoey (or ladyboy) of Thailand.  The kathoey are men who live as women within their own society.

The kathoey generally pass very well (as snapshots show) partially due to the diminutive size of many Thai males, partially due to inexpensive sexual-reassignment surgery, and partially because of sheer determination.

Introducing "Current Research!" Page!

Hello, Janes & Joes!

We often try to gather data, input, and opinions from others while writing posts.  In an effort to reach more people than just our e-mail contact list, we've introduced a new page to TJP.  

On "Current Research!", you'll find information on what we're currently seeking for posts-in-development.  When a new post idea is being developed, we'll place information on what we're seeking on that page, and when a post is completed or an idea scrapped, we'll remove that info from the page.  We'll probably also post on the main page when we are looking for something on the "Current Research!" page, just as a head's up to you, Dear Reader.

We're currently seeking input on a post about the breast-feeding doll, so check out the "Current Research!" page and participate if you can!

~Admin.Jane

An Atheist at Prayer

Karin L. Burke
I am not mature enough to be a Christian. I don’t have the moral flexibility necessary to embrace a thing so dangerous. Nor do I have the capacity to align myself to some other creed; there is attraction to other myths, and other stories, but ultimately similar difficulties come up. All this difficulty between language and practice, love and violence, power and corruption. No matter how attracted I am, I remain with a sense of being inauthentic, a kind of cultural predator. Someone suggested – since it does seem to be a monastic, embodied and mindful life I’m trying to find – that I become a Buddhist. “Acknowledge the fact that you are” a Buddhist said. But I am too aware of culture to think I could do such a thing without coming dangerously close to racism.

The Wrong Lessons to Teach Your Child 101

Some Michiganders and Ohioans are on the front lines of living lessons we shouldn’t be teaching our children, namely that physical violence is the proper response to not getting your own way.

Within the last month, a mother-daughter team attacked a discount department store greeter in Ohio, and a mother-father team attacked a school crossing guard in Michigan. Both attacks occurred with children of the attackers present, and both attacks occurred in public places with witnesses present.

Victim-Blaming Part 2: The Reasons We Do It

In Victim-Blaming Part 1: Texas Gang Rape of a Child, we discussed the facts around the case of a gang-raped 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, TX.  We touched upon the victim-blaming of the 11-year-old victim that is occurring in the press and among the local populace, and we reminded readers of the case of Samantha Kelly, who died by suicide Nov. 8, 2010 after being terrorized by her town and schoolmates.  The Kelly case is pertinent to this discussion of victim-blame because that assault, victim-blame, and suicide occurred between the Cleveland girl's first and final assaults.

Victim-Blaming Part 1: Texas Gang-Rape of a Child

In Cleveland, Texas, 19 suspects have been charged in the sexual assault of an 11-year-old child. While heartbreaking, this is not earth-shattering news. All too often, we hear of things like this and shake our heads, and maybe some of us say a prayer for the victim.

The details of this particular case are particularly noteworthy.

This child was assaulted repeatedly over the course of six weeks in late 2010 by different individuals/groups at different times in different locations. The perpetrators ranged in age from 14 to 27. Cell-phone-recorded video and photographs were widely disseminated to non-participants.

Broadband Research = Free Wireless Router!

Techies wanting to play a part in research that will provide US consumers with accurate broadband statistics (and maybe receive a free wireless router in the process!) should consider joining the Test My ISP project.

The Federal Communications Commision (FCC) and SamKnows are joining forces to test, measure, and provide reliable US home broadband connection statistics by placing 10,000 routers in homes across the country. They're actually distributing 10,000 free Netgear WNR3500L wireless-N routers pre-loaded with testing firmware to participants.

Alcoholic Insanity (Different than you probably think)

Karin L. Burke
Karin L. Burke is a woman at large, full-time unemployed, writing a book, and sleeping on other people’s couches.  She started writing a blog that deals with domestic violence, alcoholism and recovery, and yoga as healing when a friend said she needed to publish her letters. 

"You have to give this away," the friend said, "This is what you needed to hear when you were getting sober.  This is what you needed when you were trying to leave that abusive *****.  This is what I've needed, at so many points in my life.  You have to give this away.  It isn't yours to keep."   

(More of Karen's bio at the end of post, after the jump.)

We are flattered that she has chosed to share some of her experience with the special insanity of alchoholism with us.

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"The only thing there is to say," said another recovering drunk, "Is that alcoholic insanity is the mistaken belief that ‘this time it will be different’; it doesn’t have anything to do with ‘insanity’ in the way most people would use the word. It’s just that one simple thing: we keep drinking, thinking this time we’ll stay in control."

The word ‘insanity’ as used by Bill Wilson was supposed to mimic Einstein’s definition, or doing the same thing expecting different results.

If You Would Only Like Me


I don't read much mainstream fiction, but on the advice of a close friend, I'm currently reading Boy's Life by Robert McCammon.  Here's a single paragraph from it . . .

I had been in the presence of Chile Willow only a short time, but what is time when a heart speaks?  My heart was speaking to Chile Willow in that moment, as she bathed my cuts and gave me a smile. My heart was saying If you were my girlfriend I would give you a hundred lightning bugs in a green glass jar, so you could always see your way.  I would give you a meadow full of wildflowers, where no two blossoms would ever be alike. I would give you my bicycle, with its golden eye to protect you. I would write a story for you, and make you a princess who lived in a white marble castle.  If you would only like me, I would give you magic.  If you would only like me.
The innocence of youth combined with the first stirrings of love . . . This paragraph takes my breath away!

~Riot.Jane 

Unveiling The Jane Project 2.6

Hello, Constant Reader!

We're proud to unveil the latest generation of The Jane Project.  After the last six months of hacking up our template to obtain desired functionality, the post-truncation (i.e. the "Continue >>" links) function was inoperable and our many-layered tinkerings had simply killed the blog's load-time. The logo was ugly, and the template was difficult to read for any length of time. 

Since Blogger finally  released its own widgets that provide the functionality intended by our hacks, we gleefully ditched those hacks in favor of Blogger's tools.  Now we have a modern, easily-read template that we only had to customize with Blogger's integrated tools.  All the functionality works without hack-ups, and the blog loads so much faster !

Do tell us what you think and what you'd like to see! 

~Admin.Jane

“Love is an Attacker in the Dark”

One of my work spouses (in this sense I am polygamous) recently made this statement to me openly, in front of other co-workers. He simply walked up to us and said that, without apparent provocation “love is like an attacker in the dark”.

“Tell me more,” I said.

He went on to tell me that, when you’re walking down a dark alley, trying to get from here to there, just going along your merry way . . . BAM! Around the corner it swoops . . . An attacker in the dark . . . A blur of motion and limbs and shock that overtakes you before you can blink, before you can register the occurrence . . . Knocking you down and taking control of you.

“Are you seriously equating romantic love with a high-speed mugging?” I asked.

Response Posted for 15-Year-Old "Anonymous"

To the 15-year-old female who asked a question in the comments section of How to Wash Your Vulva - For Real! on 3/21/2011 . . .

Please note that we've addressed your question in a follow-up comment on that post-page.  Your question was very important, and we are not only flattered that you asked us, but also rather concerned that you might not have anyone else of whom you can ask these things.  We are humbled to answer your question to the best of our ability, and we are also overwhelmed with gratitude  to have the opportunity to address it to a greater depth than you might have otherwise had access.

Ode to Rubenesque Women


Het Pelsken
Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Thin is in? I disagree. I've always been an admirer of full-figured women. Thanks to the baroque artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens (example works), we now have the term "Rubenesque" to describe the type of amply-endowed women he painted. Over time, “Rubenesque” has evolved into modern terms such as full-figured or BBW (Big Beautiful Women). History or terminology lessons aside, my admiration (which borders on adoration) of Rubenesque women makes me feel like I am squarely in the minority, thanks to modern advertising. And what stuns me is how people are swayed by models (who look they actually only eat one full meal a week) because of that simple phrase "Thin is in". 

Sine Cerere 1
Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Though I am a male who will be age 50 in 2011, my admiration of full-figured women goes back as long as I can remember. An ample bosom or a full-figured curvaceous body has always set my heart racing far more than any beautiful, thin woman could. Deep down, a Rubenesque woman exudes a warmth and comfort that a firm, athletic (or fit) woman could never offer. Soft, supple hips versus sharp angular ones. A body that is full and inviting compared to a body that is hard and unyielding. Even the term "Rubenesque" sounds softer than the term "Anorexia".


Balancing Sexuality with Spirit

This topic can really be a confronting one. Generally spirituality exists in an entirely different realm from sexuality. In fact, they are often regarded as diametrically opposed to each other.

While writing my memoir, which is now titled Sex and the Single Senior: A Cougar’s Search for Love, I spent quite a bit of time pondering the best title for my autobiography. I wanted the title to communicate what my journey was all about, and also to reveal that I had struck a balance between two contrasting aspects of my life.

Hattie

The first title I came up with was ‘The Saint/Slut Syndrome”. That pretty much said it for me. The saint part was to have referred to my integrity — no cheating, no lies, and the second part, the slut, well, that requires no explanation!

Thinking it over, it seemed not to be such a good idea, as calling it a syndrome seemed to require scientific assessment of a psychological pattern to which I was giving a new name. So I dropped that one …reluctantly, may I add. It would have been fun to be the originator of a unique term for a new phenomenon…something like the “zipless fuck” that was introduced by Erica Jong in the 60’s.

So, regrettably, the Saint/Slut Syndrome term never made it to Webster’s…or the cover of my memoir.