dustin : Dustin M. Wax

Organization Strategies for Students

Santa Fe Community College has a page chock-full of good information for students trying to manage their time as well as possible. The entire page merits a close reading, but I especially like the section on making to-do lists, a little step that can have huge payoffs in productivity, if taken seriously.

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57 Tips for Writing Your Term Paper

DegreeTutor.com’s 57 Tips for Writing Your Term Paper is an incredible resource, extending far beyond 3×5 cards and proper citations. It’s almost a holistic approach to writing that encompasses where, when, and how to research, write, and format your work. My favorite part is the first, “Know Thy Professor” — a pretty keen insight into the life of us academics, and excellent advice for students to whom our lives are, I think, something of a mystery: [Continue reading]

Modesty::Raunch Culture

This is good. [Continue reading]

Female Genital Cutting, Sexuality, and Anti-FGC Advocacy

This post is a response to the increasingly heated thread at Feministe on Female Genital Cutting (FGC). Nearly every mention of FGC in our society elicits condemnation of the practices and the people who practice them as “bestial”, “barbarian”, “inhuman”, “uncivilized”, “heinous”, etc., which has a tendency to set me off. For a long time I’ve wondered about the incredible and disproportional response FGC incites in Westerners, feminists and non-feminists alike, responses which generally are very far removed from the reported responses and experiences of women who have undergone some form of FGC. [Continue reading]

What Is Sex For, Anyway

With the issue of what people do with their genitals looming larger with every passing day, I’ve been thinking about the way people talk about the function of sex. “It’s for procreation”, they say. Asked why, they may point to Genesis, saying “God said so.” Or they may point to Darwin, claiming “natural selection says so.” Underlying even sex-postivist, ethical slut, reclaiming cunt attitudes is a sense that reproduction is the primary function of intercourse — they just believe we’re lucky enough to be smart enough to figure out ways to forestall reproduction and still have the sex. [Continue reading]

Who Drives Tech? Wankers Drive Tech!

Porn Industry Again at the Tech Forefront: LA Times story on the role of the porn industry in driving technological advancement. Nothing new, but nice to see that acknowledged in a major outlet. Money quote: “Historically, the porn industry has adopted new technologies more nimbly than Hollywood. It embraced home video in the late 1970s, allowing people to bypass seedy theaters and watch the movies in their living rooms. Mainstream studios, by contrast, fought home video all the way to the Supreme Court before making it one of the most profitable pieces of their business.” [Continue reading]

Ex-Gay? Unhappy (about losing)?

From USA Today: Christian group backs off case against blog parody [Continue reading]

Ex-Gay? Unhappy?

Parody billboard Justinsomnia posted this great parody of “ex-gay” ministry Exodus International’s recruiting billboard (original pictured below). Justinsomnia received a cease-and-desist letter from Exodus International. Screw Exodus International, parody is free speech. [Continue reading]

Straight? Unhappy?

Froggy Went a’ Courtin’