This I found on the blog of, of all blogs the esteemed century-old journal of liberal opinion, The New Republic. It’s a story about the death of Solange Magnano, 38, and mother of two. Her death is deemed newsworthy because she is a former Ms. Argentina, and because she died as a result of glutal plastic surgery, the story is being milked for laughs–for example, when the reporter choses the word “dernier”. Jon Chait, a commentator I always respected even when I could not agree with him, reposted the story under the jokey headline, “Dolce Et Decorum Est Pro Ass Mori,” a play on a verse of the Latin poet Horace, ” Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,” or, in English, “It is glorious and honourable to die for one’s country.” Even the ABC news outlet proclaims, in bold 42-sized font, “Former Miss Argentina Dies ‘For Firmer Ass.'”
Magnano is beyond dignity and indignity now. But her family at least could be considered.
Via an email with a layout far more jumbled than one would expect from the Communications Listserve:
Marquette University’s Converged Student Media presents: BODY IMAGE WEEK with content distributed throughout campus and online Monday-Friday of this week.
Check out http://marquettestudentmedia.org for all the details.
Monday 11/30:
MUTV Marquette On The Line: 7-730pm, and The Variety Show/Get Baked with Morgan White: 8:30-9pm
Tuesday 12/1:
Tribune Closer Look: Marquette Athlete Body Image Wednesday 12/2:
MU Student Media LAUNCH PARTY
5-7pm in the AMU, 1st floor
Viewing of Marquette On The Line/The Variety Show
“What Is Convergence?”
WMUR Live
Activities and Food Thursday 12/3:
Journal – Eating Disorders, Beauty, Plastic Surgery
Tribune – Closer Look, Student Health Services; Marquee: Hot Yoga
Friday 12/4:
Finally, artwork by a woman for what’s supposed to be a feminist blog. I think the creature in the lower left-hand corner
a.) represents the riddiculousness of all human strivings for freedom in the chaotic and irrational world presupposed by the Surrealists, a reading reinforced by the apparently endless sequence of doors going nowhere, and
b.) is an Aye-aye, though those living outside of paint do not have wings.
Empowerment’s last event for the year will be on Wednesday Dec. 3 from 4 pm-5pm in Cudahay rm. 144. Via the event’s Facebook page:
Have questions about life in academia? Being a woman in a demanding career? How Marquette treats its female faculty?
Empowerment is sponsoring a panel of Marquette Professors and Grad Students that will talk about being a woman in academia and who will answer any questions you have. The panelists are from diverse backgrounds, from Computer Science to Philosophy, and the discussion will be guided by your questions.
Also, there may be baked good!
Hopefully one of our commentors will be kind enough to provide a list of panelists. Hint hint.
The Commission of Investigation into Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese has concluded that there is “no doubt” that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the archdiocese and other Church authorities. The commission’s report covers the period between January 1st 1975 and April 30th 2004. It said there cover-ups took place over much of this period.
In its report, published this afternoon, it has also found that “the structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.” It also found that “the State authorities facilitated the cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes.”
Over the period within its remit “the welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages,” it said. “Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members – the priests [.]”
The sitting Aauxiliary Bishop of Dublin Eamonn Walsh has called for a cessation of further inquiry, claiming:
…[W]e’d be far better using our time, energy and money in consolidating our church-protection services, our school-protection services and all of the legislation that will enable it.
[A] report in May sought to document the scale of abuse as well as the reasons why church and state authorities didn’t stop it, whereas Thursday’s 720-page report focused on why church leaders in the Dublin Archdiocese – home to a quarter of Ireland’s 4 million Catholics – did not tell police about a single abuse complaint against a priest until 1995. By then, the investigators found, successive archbishops and their senior deputies – among them qualified lawyers – already had compiled confidential files on more than 100 parish priests who had sexually abused children since 1940. Those files had remained locked in the Dublin archbishop’s private vault.
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The investigators also dug up a paper trail documenting the church’s long-secret insurance policy, taken out in 1987, to cover potential lawsuits and compensation demands. Dublin church leaders publicly denied the existence of the problem for a decade afterward – but since the mid-1990s have paid out more than euro10 million ($15 million) in settlements and legal bills.
In my family we’re not big on Thanksgiving. We don’t invite all of our relatives from the far reaches of the country to our house where we spend the whole day cooking turkey(s), mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, cranberry sauce, pies, and all that Thanksgiving entails. We certainly do not go shopping on Black Friday. I like to think of my family as the ultimate misanthropes. We really don’t like people, and we certainly do not like the people we’re related to. Don’t get me wrong, my family loves each other, and we love our friends, and by necessity we love the family we don’t like, we’re just not people persons. In fact this year my Mum told our extended family who live in Madison (we’re I’m from) that we would be volunteering at our church (even though I identify as Jewish and no one in my family has actually gone to this church since my sister was confirmed) so we could not get together with them for Thanksgiving. This made my Dad and I incredibly happy. I did not want another Thanksgiving where I had to get up at 9 AM and go drive to Adam’s Friendship (it’s a Podunk town in Northern Wisconsin) to eat a crappy Turkey lunch at a weird restaurant and watch my uncle and cousin get sloshed on screw-drivers and chardonnay while I try to have a half decent conversation with my other cousin who doesn’t even know who Gandhi is, even though she’s getting her Ph.D from UW Madison (granted it’s in Business, but I would expect someone with a MA to know who Gandhi is). After several failed attempts at conversation and trying to teach my little cousin who is 4 how to say “categorical imperative” and “Aunt Ginny sucks” (Ginny is always trying to get him to say “Aunt Ginny is the best”) I would eventually join my Dad at his end of the table where he would be grumbling under his breath and making hilarious snide remarks about the people around us. After dinner we would drive home and my Mum would chide my Dad and me for not being more pleasant. Well this year none of that happened. I woke up at 12:30 PM took a shower and went on a hike with my parents came home, invited my roommate, who is having Thanksgiving with her Aunt in Madison, over for dessert, and then finished a metaphysics paper in the kitchen as my parents started cooking our small turkey, mashed potatoes, et all. This might be the best Thanksgiving ever. I hope all of yours are/were as enjoyable and relaxing.
Compelling new data that chemical and fossil evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars was carried to Earth in a Martian meteorite is being elevated to a higher plane by the same NASA team which made the initial discovery 13 years ago.
Sources tell Spaceflight Now that the new data are providing a powerful new case for the Allen Hills Meteorite to have carried strong evidence of Martian life to Earth — evidence that is increasingly standing up to scrutiny as new analytical tools are used to examine the specimen.
The latest findings are the product of new research using more advanced High Resolution Electron Microscopy than was in existence when the initial findings were made and announced by NASA and the White House in 1996. Those laboratory sensors are being focused directly on carbonate discs and associated tiny magnetite crystals present inside the meteorite Allen Hills ALH 84001…[M]ore detailed data on magnetite crystals and carbonate discs now available largely counter a wide range of opposing theories as to why the finding should not be supported as biological in origin.
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The new work centers on so-called magnetic bacteria that on Earth, and apparently Mars as well, leave distinctively-shaped remnants in the rock. In addition the features test with a high chemical purity more like a biological feature than geological.
These are just like the magnetite-related life forms found in the meteorite believed to represent Martian life forms, says Dr. Dennis Bazylinski, who peer reviewed the new findings. He also studies such Earth life forms in his laboratory at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Impossible Question Wednesday: If life on another planet wouldn’t be the most significant discovery since Wallace and Darwin cracked natural selection or Einstein described relativity, what would be?
The Word Warrior 