I started playing Magic The Gathering when I was at Stanford back in early 1994, and introduced it to my high school friends when I went back to Atlanta that summer. One of those friends was Jay Schneider, who has this amazing habit of taking up a hobby and turning it into something world-class, so […]
History of the Sligh / Geeba deck in MTG Read More »
I just heard Tom Lehrer died yesterday at the age of 97. I first heard of Tom Lehrer reading the lyrics to The Hunting Song in one of my Dad’s old Mad Magazines, though like many of my generation I didn’t realize he was the same guy who sang Silent E, L-Y and a bunch
Remembering Tom Lehrer Read More »
Kaiser Permanente just announced that as of August 29th they will stop offering gender-affirming surgeries for patients under the age of nineteen, following a similar pause by Stanford Medicine announced last month. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding to institutions that provide gender-affirming care of any kind, and a few weeks ago
Kaiser pauses gender-affirming surgeries for patients under nineteen Read More »
As the latest term of the Supreme Court mercifully comes to an end, here’s your occasional reminder that the current court is illegitimate. Not because senate Republicans blocked any nomination by a Democratic president from even coming to a vote, or because Justice Thomas was caught red-handed soliciting and accepting undisclosed bribes gifts to remain
Reminder that the Roberts Court is illegitimate… Read More »
My seven-year-old daughter hasn’t gotten into chapter books yet, even for bedtime stories, but she absolutely loves graphic novels. One of her favorite authors / cartoonists is San Francisco native Raina Telgemeier, whose graphic novels have become my go-to for bedtime reading after she invariably loses interest in whatever book I wanted to read after
The Cartoonists Club Read More »
You may have heard that about a month ago scientists at Berkeley and UW announced they have “discovered” a new never-before-seen color, which they call olo. (Here’s a quick video overview from their paper.) Before I get into what they did, here’s a quick refresher on how we see color. White light is made up
The argument: If you let trans women use public restrooms that match their gender identity then men will claim to be trans women so they can ogle, harass and/or sexually assault women. The reality: Harassment, sexual assault and invasion of privacy is already illegal, and incidents of harassment didn’t increase in places that passed non-discrimination
The tip of the spear: bathroom bans Read More »
The argument: The arguments against trans women playing in women’s sports runs the gamut between “trans women have an unfair advantage because of natal testosterone when they were younger” to Trump’s position that “trans women are actually men who are either delusional or lying to get an unfair advantage”. There’s also a secondary argument that
The tip of the spear: trans women in women’s sports Read More »
The argument: The argument against treating minors boils down to “Kids are too young to know what’s best for them, so we should hold off making irreversible decisions until they’re adults. We should also wait until there’s more research showing gender-affirming care is safe and effective.” There’s also a fair amount of “They just think
The tip of the spear: gender-affirming care for minors Read More »
Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility! During his first two weeks President Trump issued four executive orders targeting transgender children and adults, in keeping with his campaign promises and his inaugural address. The through-line is that, “there are only two genders: male and female” and that a person’s gender is equivalent to their biological sex
The tip of the spear: debunking anti-trans rhetoric Read More »