Picture this. Walking down 135th street in Harlem, you spot a park in the distance. As you walk closer, you hear a basketball bouncing and kids yelling. It’s a small, outdoor court, well-maintained with fresh paint and a sturdy chain-link fence surrounding it. The ball is constantly in motion, being passed, dribbled, and shot from […]

Television distorts, mocks and marginalizes fat people. Fat characters are reduced to caricatures whose stories and identities aren’t developed and don’t matter. In one study by Tzoutzou et al., all 36 compliments about appearance given to women were for thin women. Not one positive message was included for a woman of an average or overweight […]

Over the course of the past year, M&M’s have been plastered all over the news, social media, and even Super Bowl commercials. In January 2022, Mars Wrigley gave the brown M&M shorter heels and replaced the green M&M’s boots with sneakers in a push toward more inclusive marketing.  What resulted was outrage. Tucker Carlson became […]

A recent photo from Dina Litovsky showing a model’s inflamed feet in slingback heels went viral, with reposts from National Geographic and a whole host of Instagram influencers. The photo garnered just over 500k likes and comments criticizing the prioritization of beauty over pain. This is not the first time these images have gone viral. […]

How are borders made? State borders are the product of political conflict, nationalist discourse, unequal economic systems, and, as this essay shows, significant public financial investment. Public policy and political narratives naturalize state borders, often hiding how their origins are arbitrary and violent. State borders often mark space following war and conflict, but they also […]

Societies grow and change all the time, but it can be tough to think about big-picture shifts when you’re living through the practical details of the day to day. Take the recent popularity of large language models (LLMs). In the short term, we face important sociological questions about how they fit into the norms of […]

In recent weeks, we’ve seen multiple examples of women on the political right straddling two kinds of womanhood: the girlboss and the tradwife. The visibility of these women exposes a hidden link between conservative womanhood and girlboss feminism that deserves our attention.  Katie Britt broadcast her response to the State of the Union from her kitchen. Michelle […]

One of the biggest challenges and joys I have in teaching Introduction to Sociology is making ideas like social construction, cultural objects, or bureaucracy visible and intuitive to students. A big part of our value as a general education course is in showing students how to use these ideas in the world. I make a […]

“Good rule of thumb: those who frequently use the word “disinformation” are the ones most likely to be pushing it” — Elon Musk

Guest: Mike McCormick, "Joe Biden Unauthorized"

"The Blue Team is protected by the sheer audacity of their betrayal of Americans. For most, their approach is literally beyond belief." — Bret Weinstein

"Most people do not get a clear opportunity to vote against Communism and prevent a historical evil from taking hold. We have that opportunity. Vote Trump." — James Lindsay

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Journalist Elizabeth Nickson, MK Ultra and other Reindeer Games

Be careful what you wish for

"People in the media are aware of how illegitimately they've done their jobs that they think they're on the verge of being locked up" —Scott Adams

頂きます(itadakimasu)

    Meaning: to receive
    Example:

  [ View this entry online ]

  Examples:  

• 頂きます。
  Thanks for the food (Before eating)
• お言葉に甘えてもう一杯頂きます。
  If you insist I'll have another drink.
• コーヒーをやめて紅茶を頂きます。
  I'd like to have tea instead of coffee.
• 今日は大統領から手紙を頂きました。
  I have received a letter from the president today.
• 先生に辞書をいただきました。
  I received a dictionary from the teacher.
• 社員「すみません、あした用事があるので、仕事を休ませていただきたいんですが。」社長「あしたか。ちょっと急でこまるんだけれど。」
  Employee: "please, tomorrow I have things to do. Would you let me have a day off ?" Boss: "Tomorrow? It is pretty sudden and I am bothered..."
• 火曜日、木曜日、土曜日にしていただけませんか。
  Would you mind do it on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday?

I also use Drapbox… Photo courtesy of Bryan Lunt. Charm found in Japan. 

Never name your pigs… Photo courtesy of Cande Gyrl. Spotted in China. 

Photo courtesy of Cheryl Smith. Bag found in Japan. 

Pity all night long… Photo courtesy of Candita R. Shopping bag found in Japan. 

Photo courtesy of Colin W. Spotted in Japan. 

Photo courtesy of Casey Gooden. T-shirt found in Japan. 

Keep live the natural… Photo courtesy of Chris Carlier. Found on a bag in Japan.