Array-ne Way back in August of last year I posted a couple of entries about Linda Cardellini’s wonderful role in Scooby Doo 2.
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In this post, I’d like to address a question that I’ve raised before, namely: what are the essential Jewish values in the realm of sex and relationships, and where do they come from?Michelle Shain offers some of the most articulate criticism of the Dorf/Nevins/Reisner teshuvah* that I’ve seen from a Conservative layperson: These authors and the ten rabbis who voted with them on Wednesday, have chosen to ignore divine will as expressed by centuries of clear and uncontested halakhic jurisprudence, in favor of a 21st-century American value.This is actually a reasonable characterization of the teshuvah. Extra-marital sex is prohibited for a married woman, but a married man who has sex with a single woman has not transgressed the letter of the law. To suggest that they do not come from the Torah or from the halakhic tradition would seem to be a recipe for chaos, but I’m not sure that we can honestly assert the contrary.[CORRECTION: As Mar Gavriel points out in this long and intricate post, pre-marital sex is probably prohibited rabbinically, if not midde’oraita’ (that is, according to the rabbinic understanding of Torah law), at least in situations that cannot be defined halakhically as pilagshut (usually translated concubinbage.) My point stands, however: the penalty for marital sex without mikveh use is unquestionably more severe than the penalty for premarital sex with mikveh use.
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-ne I’m still here, just not managing to compose a decent blog post.I’m now past 37 weeks, so whenever Mini makes her big debut, she will be considered full-term.I’m now too big to comfortably watch dishes (belly gets in the way), do downward dogs, carry laundry baskets, or any number of other things that I used to take for granted.I was looking at a picture of me from a couple of years ago, and I thought my god, I was skinny. And I’m sure once we have the baby we will think of a whole lot more stuff we need, but that can wait for later.I think the baby way have dropped. In first time mothers, the baby can drop up to 4 weeks before labor, so it doesn’t mean anything except that I am uncomfortable in different places.At night lately, as I lay awake on my side contemplating whether another position would be more comfortable, I notice that my arms ache for something to hold.
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——————-Dance music is a singles genre, and so here it is - the best thirty tracks that have landed on our turntables this year.The most noticeable trend is how many of these tracks crossed over: our top ten especially were tracks played across the board, at techno nights, at house nights, in nu-disco sets, in prog sets and at breaks parties.We even heard number 28 in the toilet at Reus Airport, Catalonia.The list speaks for itself really, but a word or two about glaring omissions: Many huge tracks are noticably absent (Paul Woolford’s ‘Erotic Discourse’, Trentemoller’s remix of ‘Les Djinns’ and Carl Craig’s remix of ‘Falling Up’ spring to mind).Perhaps it’s because these tracks came out early in the year and we clubbers have fewer memory neurons than most.Also, don’t go looking for âéme’s ‘Rej’ - it came out in October 2005 and was explicitly banned on the voting form.Not that it didn’t stop one of contributors from voting for it.Makes you wonder which one of these tracks will be voted for again in 2007, doesn’t it?But this RA Poll is not just a boring old list.To celebrate the end of a great year in dance music, RA is making many of the tracks in our top 30, and many tracks elsewhere in our poll, available for exclusive download for free.Our thanks go out to all of the labels and artists for releasing this music, and special thanks go out to the labels who are pitching in tracks for this exclusive one-off deal.Some tracks will be available until the end of January, and some are for limited download only - so get in quick.Also, keep checking back over the next week or so for additions to this free download special - many labels are on holiday now and, fingers crossed, they’ll give us the nod when they get back to the office.But remember, this new power that the Internet give us comes with a responsibility: to choose to give back to the artists.So if you like what you hear, please support the artists and the labels by going out and buying their records.They need that cash more than we do (well, maybe not Depeche Mode, but you get the idea.)More info about tracks:http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature_view.asp?ID=781This release is proudly assembled & spreaded by SiCK…
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Controlling for height, Asian women are still the lightest by far: Continuing the topic of fatness, I thought a close look at how much women weigh would anger any feminists passing through, so I decided I had to do it. I looked at the National Health Interview Survey to calculate the mean weight of American women by ethnic group. Here’s what I got:Women’s mean weight (without shoes):Black 160.0American Indian 150.3White 143.4Hispanic 143.1Asian 122.3Not surprisingly, the Black mean is a lot higher and the Asian mean a lot lower than the others, but this is an unfair comparison because of height differences. So what do the means look like if we focus on the modal height–5′4?Black 156.9American Indian 149.7Hispanic 142.6White 141.7Asian 125.3A thirty pound difference between blacks and Asians, but again this is not really fair because of frame differences.I also wanted to look at the age curve of womens weight:age 18, 134age 22, 137age 26, 140age 30, 143age 37, 147age 43, 150age 51, 153age 57, 156From age 18 to 30, it only takes 4 years of aging to add an average of 3 pounds. So the 20s are the real weight gaining years, some of it due, Im sure, to pregnancy.After 30 the weight gain slows: it takes around 7 years to gain an additional three pounds until the peak weight of 156 is reached at age 57. After this age, the weight declines gradually and by age 82, women have fallen to the same weight they had at age 18. Some of this reduction is due to the higher mortality rates of obese women.Labels: Weight, Women
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-ne “When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now,Will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?If I’d been out ’till quarter to three, would you lock the door?Will you still need me, will you still feed me,When I’m sixty-four?”Is there romance after 30? “Is there romance after 30?”Because, the thing is that just because the middle starts spreading, just because the only time love now figures in the conversation is when they’re talking about your love handles doesn’t mean that Ye Ole Dil stops yearning for a spot of pyaar-mohabbat. Wot I mean ter say, me munchkins, is that as far as romance goes, the dil never stops saying, “More!”And if you don’t believe me, ask the Internet. I mean, even a 38- year old Shahrukh Khan is forced to play an army major who can pass off as a college brat - look a little closer at these websites. Which is what I did.And found that the world is crawling with grizzled After-30’s geezers looking for….er, what are they looking for? One website doesn’t make a whole nation of Over-the-hill-30’s craving for romance. By 50, you’ll settle for a 4-legged Martian with green skin and one eye, as long as he’s clean and can read the label on your bottle of medication for hot flushes.) I got 80 web pages of possibilities – We already knew that the world is full of Over-The-Hill-of-Thirty married men looking to scratch that seven-year itch (thus labeled because it happens after 7 years and stays on for 7 years) one last time before everything droops and sags. If the 37 pages of men are looking for matching Over-40 romance partners, they ain’t gonna find it on these 5 pages. we women always bay for the moon and that’s when the garden manure hits the ceiling….So are we saying that after 30, women are done with romance? married to a good, decent man isn’t inoculation against romance. Look at Leela and Dil Chahata Hai and Freaky Chakra and you’ll know that even at the doddering old age of 40, we aren’t ready yet to hang up our foolishly hopeful, hopelessly romantic little hearts. So, is there romance after 30?
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