maia bittner

Not Just Marriage: The Other Fights for Gay and Trans Rights

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:54:05 -0800

Not Just Marriage: The Other Fights for Gay and Trans Rights

My rdio account is linked to my Facebook profile, and posts all...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:27:30 -0800

My rdio account is linked to my Facebook profile, and posts all the music I listen to. Some critics of this (and the many similar services) say they are invasive, and that they don’t want everyone to know, e.g. what music they listen to.

I like it though! I think it can help us become more comfortable with who were are and accepting of everybody else. Quite recently, I’ve been getting really frustrated that my friends and other people I know just blindly circulate this narrow social standard of coolness that we all seem to, unwillingly, be held to. I’m astonished how much flak I get for going to bed early on a saturday, getting a mocha from starbucks, or listening to Taylor Swift — pretty inconsequential things! Further, I know my friends!! I know that they’re kind of weird and have their faults and are a little bit lame about some things… just like everyone else.

Anyway, I guess my point is that if that little insecure voice inside of us causes us to really think that everyone else is perfect and cool and happy, maybe my rdio posts and foursquare checkins will be a voice that talks back and says “Hey, I’m Maia. Parts of me align with your idea of what’s cool, and parts of me don’t, and that’s who I am. and that’s ok, and you know, whoever you are — that’s ok too”

Coding Horror: Farewell Stack Exchange

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:57:52 -0800

Coding Horror: Farewell Stack Exchange

Self-driving cars: Yes, please! Now, please! | Molly Rants - CNET News

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:10:16 -0800

Self-driving cars: Yes, please! Now, please! | Molly Rants - CNET News

"exploring and embracing the idea that dance through the ages has always offered participants the..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:31:35 -0800

“exploring and embracing the idea that dance through the ages has always offered participants the liberty to explore all kinds of identity performance — including gender-as-performance.”

- Harmonix on Gender, Self-Expression, in Dance Central

Denmark voted best OECD country for work/life balance

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:07:00 -0800

Denmark voted best OECD country for work/life balance:

The US was ranked 23rd… last.

Gender Stereotypes Hurt Everyone

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:58:00 -0800

I’m Mad at You Because You’re an Idiot, Not Because I’m a Woman is being posted all over my Facebook newsfeed now. In it, Litsa Dremousis explains how when she became angry in response to men’s actions, the men attributed her anger as stemming from her emotional womanhood, and not due to the situation at hand. She rallies:

it’s time for more men to understand our behavior isn’t aberrant, and for more women not to feel “guilty” for not staying in the narrow range of traditionally accepted emotional responses

Though I agree with the article, I think it’s important to recognize that men are also limited in the emotions they feel they can exhibit. While women’s emotional responses, especially being sad, angry, and upset, are sometimes viewed as being caused by their gender, men live in fear of having their gender called into question if they exhibit the emotional responses that women are free to, like being loving and caring.

A thoughtful post by Clarisse Thorn on the subject references Precarious Manhood^(PDF), a paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2008. It reports on the sober state of being a man:

Our findings suggest that real men experience their gender as a tenuous status that they may at any time lose and about which they readily experience anxiety and threat.

As a result, many people are reluctant to show their true emotions if they lie outside of the expected emotions of their gender. It becomes more important to them to focus on the stereotype by rejecting or reinforcing it. In either case, it harms the person by taking the focus away from their emotions. How sad is that, that our culture is so loathe to recognize nonconforming human emotions? Thorn writes:

And if we can reject the Oppression Olympics for just one minute and stop thinking about who’s got it worse, it becomes clear that the advantages and drawbacks associated with being both male and female are intertwined. The two systems reinforce, and cannot function without, each other.

An Irrational Guide to Gifts

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:38:28 -0800

An Irrational Guide to Gifts:

I just finished Predictably Irrational, a birthday gift from Bennett. I loved it, for the same reason people usually enjoy books — I learned a couple things and it reinforced many of my existing beliefs :) But seriously, I think Dan Ariely presented many pop sci findings that are extremely relevant to daily life. Because of this, I’m delighted to see that his explanation for a good gift: one that the recipient wants, but would feel too guilty to buy.

(via lilzet)

I’m putting together a Christmas gift for my sister of...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 08:49:00 -0800

Cute printed reusable produce bag

Vat of Papalote's roasted tomato salsa

Local/In-season cookbook

Reusable produce bags (farmer's markets!

I’m putting together a Christmas gift for my sister of local food products. So far I have a fresh jar of Papalote salsa, a signed copy of BiRite’s Eat Good Food, cookbook/local shopping guide, some reusable produce bags , and I’m going to “wrap” it all in a printed produce bag. Future purchases may include Cowgirl Creamery cheese, Blue Bottle coffee, Napa valley wine, Hummus Guy hummus, Tcho chocolate, and sourdough bread, though I’m worried how some of these will keep/travel.

I’m posting because I’ve written the above list for a lot of fellow SF transplants who’ve liked the idea for their own foodies at home, and I thought it might be useful for more people!

PS: If you want to get a copy of Eat Good Food signed, there are 2 events this week! Check their calendar for the details.

I recently got the chance to attend Tesla Motor’s launch...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:16:00 -0700

Brian & I under the Tesla sign

Alpha model. No-emissions: test indoors!

Assembly robots

Wheeling out the clay model

Battery pack

I recently got the chance to attend Tesla Motor’s launch party for their Model S Beta. The party was held at their Fremont factory, where the cars will be produced. We could not get over how beautiful the factory was — the branding was spot-on. All the manufacturing robots were painted in bright Tesla red, the floors were glossy white, and all the accents were stark white or Tesla gray. Getting this behind the scenes look reminded me of taking apart my iPhone: beautiful things still look beautiful when you see how they’re made.

Tried to snag some good pictures to share, but I only had my phone. You can see more (with videos! and panoramas!) on Flickr.

"A designer who does not write markup and css is not designing for the web, but drawing pictures."

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 10:36:02 -0700

“A designer who does not write markup and css is not designing for the web, but drawing pictures.”

- Andy Rutledge, Web Design is Product Design (via jonathanmoore)

I just don’t understand how Boston weather is compatible...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:26:27 -0700

I just don’t understand how Boston weather is compatible with human habitation

Last weekend I went to Big Sur, which was gorgeous and amazing....

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:29:00 -0700

Last weekend I went to Big Sur, which was gorgeous and amazing. My favorite part was actually the Henry Miller Library; I wrote up my experiences with it in a yelp review. You can see my pictures in a set on flickr, and I tried to capture the vast wonder with some photosynth panoramas of brian, sand dollar beach, and the bixby bridge.

We’re going back this weekend. Wanna come?

Humans as Sensors: Visualizing the spread of earthquake tweets

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:55:36 -0700

Humans as Sensors: Visualizing the spread of earthquake tweets:

via Marco

"The recent fuss over the over-sharing, over the loss of privacy is just noisy ignorance. You know,..."

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:50:09 -0700

“The recent fuss over the over-sharing, over the loss of privacy is just noisy ignorance. You know, as a citizen of the Internet, you obfuscate the truth of your character. You hide your fears and transgressions and vulnerable yearnings for meaning, for purpose, for connection. In a world where you can control everything presented to an audience both domestic or imaginary, what is laid bare depends on who you believe is on the other side of the screen. You fret over your father or your aunt asking to be your Facebook friend. What will they think of that version of you? In flesh or photons, it seems built-in, this desire to conceal some aspects of yourself in one group while exposing them in others. You can be vulnerable in many different ways but not all at once it seems.”

- From one of my favorite blogs, you are not so smart, in an article on how we view our own actions as being context-dependent, but others as less versatile.

Santa Cruz: beach, bonfire, boys

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:48:55 -0700

Santa Cruz:

beach, bonfire, boys

Dustin first posted this well done, if overdone video. I’d...

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:54:58 -0700

Dustin first posted this well done, if overdone video. I’d only known the basics of Stuxnet and enjoyed learning more, even in video game trailer style. Dustin goes on to include some quotes relating stuxnet to the (late news now) lulzsec chaos.

Andy’s staying at our house and pointed me to an excellent article about Stuxnet on Ars Technica, everybody’s favorite intelligent tech writing establishment. Totally recommended if you’re interested in learning more about “the first weapon made entirely out of code”.

Guys, this internet thing is mad cool. and mad important.

"The data we produced on Reddit and Tumblr is interesting in itself, of course (and we’ll be..."

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:39:02 -0700

“

The data we produced on Reddit and Tumblr is interesting in itself, of course (and we’ll be releasing more of it), but we did it because we wanted unique insight into the community and we wanted a source list.

We wanted to know who to get drunk with.

”

- MediaShift . The Necessity of Data Journalism in the New Digital Community | PBS (via nickdouglas)

The 3 ingredient summer cocktail recipes that have been making...

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:50:07 -0700

The 3 ingredient summer cocktail recipes that have been making the rounds on the internet recently look amazing. I think their appeal is probably compounded for me since they’re like, the antithesis of all the long, obscure recipes I’ve been reading in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails lately. It’s refreshing — can’t wait to try one!

"Learn to savor the spirits of rum, gin, brandy, whiskey, and the entire spectrum… Vodka..."

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 11:40:13 -0700

“Learn to savor the spirits of rum, gin, brandy, whiskey, and the entire spectrum… Vodka cocktails will never teach you anything”

- Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails