When I woke up at 2.30 this morning with a rush of a panic attack, layered over it were two emotions: annoyance because high stress and panic attacks make it hard to sleep at 2.30 in the morning in a heatwave with a cat on my bed where my knees should be, and relief, because I can use the adrenalin.

If I use it, of course.

EVERYTHING THIS MAN SAYS IS TRUE: (except for the bit about Stegosaurs.) Trust me, I'm a palaeontologist.

Science

Something Deeply Wrong with Chemistry, or: why it took me longer than 'normal' scientists to complete my PhD.

Scientists are 'normal' people, children discover - i especially like the girls observation. Not that the boys is surprsing, but with children who are shaping an image of 'self' before they worry about 'others' I think it's more important to normalise a girl's expectations of her gender than shape how a boy thinks of others. (That can come later).

Politiconomics

Apparently there was some thing about money or something last week? Oh, right, the Emergency Budget, which I didn't watch because i don't have time or the attention, and because it's much more useful to let the important elements rise to the surface of my hand-selected corner of the blogosphere and see what happens.

And well, it was a Conservative Budget, wasn't it? I'm glad I'm getting out of the country to avoid that 20% VAT, but I wasn't exactly expecting the Tories to produce a nice Budget, even with our guys playing; I said at the beginning of the coalition that I wanted Electoral Reform and a freedom bill, and while not treating poor people like criminals would be nice, I never expected a left-ish budget from this Government. But here are some opinions from people more informed than me.

Caron's Musings - Value Added Fairness to counter VAT rise

The Public Sector shouldn't have to be the scapegoat - Dai Hudd, Deputy General Secretary of Prospect (public sector workers' union)

What the Tories did and what the Lib Dems look like - tyrell is right; there're some horrible things in the budget, but watching the LibDem leadership scramble to make excuses is painful, too. Sadly, this is what they have to do, because it's their Government. Fortunately, Lib Dems ourselves are allowed to call foul.

As an example of this, see Why the VAT rise had to happen by Vince Cable, and read the comments from party members.

Myopic Millibland's Misplaced Attack - matgb calls Labour out on attcking the junior partner in the Coalition.

Face facts, Labour fingerprints were all over the Budget - Laurie Penny: Osborne may have smacked us in the face but Harman, Darling and co stabbed us in the back.

Charlotte Gore thinks the complainants had Stupid Expectations:

They don’t seem to get the same buzz of adrenaline from uncertainty and change – instead it makes them miserable and depressed, pessimistic and concerned more about what they’re going to lose than what they might gain in the long run.

And not on the Budget: Harsh But Fair from Heresy Corneron Britain's role in Afghanistan:

We are America's allies in that we're fighting alongside (or, rather, under) them. We are not America's allies in the sense that our participation makes a blind bit of difference. If British troops left tomorrow the Pentagon would scarcely notice the extra cost of replacing them. If American troops left tomorrow British troops would be on the same flight.

Diversity Politics

Faith Schools/Schmaith Schools - Musings/Schmusings

My atheism is based around scepticism – I ask questions and expect evidence-based answers. Within this context atheism is not afraid to stand up and demonstrate its veracity next to a range of belief systems. It doesn’t need to segregate itself out of fear. The aim is not for ‘us’ to win, but for all of us to win – a notion of integrated ‘society’ that isn’t politically or religiously loaded.

Where are my keys I lost my phone - by Isabel on Feminiiste; a post about ADD and what it's like to live with ADD, and the experiences shared in the comments are well worth a read, too.

ADD is not about “not trying.” People with ADD are trying. They are probably trying harder than any non-ADD person ever has at the very tasks at which they fail, because guess what: non-ADD people don’t have to try that hard! You can bet your fucking ass I’m trying, on a regular basis, not to misplace my wallet again, because that shit is annoying and also, given my history of losing wallets/keys/cell phones/glasses/FUCKING EVERYTHING, scary. Most people don't understand this, because most people don’t understand how it could be so fucking hard not to lose a wallet. Just put it in the same place every time! Simple as that!

Hollywood Broken Leg Theory - by mrissa on how the way disability is portrayed messes with all our expectations.

Rolling back the discrimination - a gay teenager is taking WalMart to task after being stripped of his duties and forced to wear identifying clothing at work.

Comics

Too Busy Thinking About My Comics has a series of excellent (if wordy in that way that rubs me up the wrong way and leaves me thinking 'pretentious' - if that affects you too, get past it) posts on two characters in the Secret Six on reading Six Degrees of Devastation:

• Deadshot
• Scandal Savage Part One
• Scandal Savage Part Two

An interview on CBR with Dan Didio and Jim Lee includes a lovely preview page for JHW3's upcoming Batwoman title, but also contains just a little bit of fail: I'd ask "What past that?" There seems to be a concern about us pulling back in diversity, and we identify Ryan Choi, but we don't identify what more than that.

Oh, I don't know, Dan. Maybe Cassandra Cain, Connor Hawke, Gehenna, Jason Rusch, Sin, Lian Harper, and any others I can't identify just offhand?

DC doesn't stand for Diversity Comics - by A Lee Martinez

But in the world of comics, there seems to be a surprisingly firm stand against listening to fans who complain about the treatment and portrayal of female and minority characters. Part of it stems from "Well, I'm not racist so nothing I could've created could've been racist", which is a mistake. Part of it stems from an old school dismissal of any part of the audience that isn't white and male (or, more honestly, the caricature of what a white male reader wants), which is where the creators tend to aim their stories. And part of it is just old-fashioned pig-headed stubbornness, a refusal to just admit when you're wrong, even by accident.

Definitive proof that Batman exists by pope_guilty . Read the comments.

And finally...

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