Virginia Woolf om moren sin

Living voices in many parts of the world still speak of her as of someone who is actually a fact in life. Whether she came merry, wrathful or in impulsive sympathy, it does not matter; they speak of her as of a thing that happened, recalling, as though all round her grew significant, how she stood and turned and how the bird sang loudly, or a great cloud passed across the sky. Where has she gone? What she said has never ceased.

post-påske

Jeg har begynt å skrive for hånd igjen, i den gamle notatboka. Det er sol inn vinduet hver morgen, så sterk at papiret lyser. I dag har jeg første jobbdag i en dansk boghandel. (Og jeg gleder meg.)

Lager små tegneserier nesten hver dag, for å øve meg. Og en lang, jeg tegner en lang også.

Spiser mest havregrøt og potetsuppe.

Men det er greit. Det er sol, vi bor i Køben, jeg er glad.

Ben Goldacre om vitenskap, kosmetikkindustrien og Barbie

Just like the national lottery, the cosmetics industry is playing on people's dreams, and people are free to waste their money. I can very happily view posh cosmetics – and other forms of quackery – as a special, self-administered, voluntary tax on people who don't understand science properly. I would also be the first to agree that people don't buy expensive cosmetics simply because they have a belief in their efficacy, because it's 'a bit more complicated than that': these are luzury goods, a status items, and they are bought for all kinds of interesting reasons.

But it's not entirely morally neutral. Firstly, the manufacturers of these products sell shortcuts to smokers and the obese; they sell the idea that a healthy body can be attained by using expensive potions, rather than simple old-fashioned exercise and eating your greens. This is a recurring theme throughout the world of bad science.
More than that, these adverts sell a dubious world view. They sell the idea that science is not about the delicate relationship between evidence and theory. They suggest, instead, with all the might of their international advertising budgets, their Microcellular Complexes, their Neutrillium XY, their Tenseur Peptidique Végétal and the rest, that science is about impenetrable nonsense involving equations, molecules, sciencey diagrims, sweeping didactic statements from authority figures in white coats, and that this sciencey-sounding stuff might just as well be made up, concocted, confabulated out of thin air, in order to make money. They sell the idea that science is incomprehensible, with all their might, and they sell this idea mainly to attractive young women, who are dissappointingly underrepresented in the sciences.  

In fact, they sell the world view of 'Teen Talk Barbie' from Mattel, who shipped with a sweet little voice circuit inside her so she could say things like, 'Math class is tough!', 'I love shopping!' and 'Will we ever have enough clothes?' when you pressed her buttons. In December 1992 the feminist direct-action Barbie Liberation Organization switched the voice circuits of hundreds of Teen Talk Barbies and GI Joe dolls in American shops. On Christmas Day Barbie said 'Dead men tell no lies' in a nice assertive voice, and the boys got soldiers under the tree telling them 'Math class is tough!' and asking 'Wanna go shopping?'

(Fra boka Bad Science. Ben Goldacre finnes også her. Han er fin.) 

Oh, to be counted among them

Dan Turèll om den fornemmelsen

den fornemmelse når hjernen selv går amok og sætter sig fast

hæfter sig ved ét eller andet codfylt funny

à la 'mennesket består af 80% vand'

og så går man dèr i den tanke hele dagen

80% vand der tager bad i 100% vand absurd

80% vand der smider 80 andre % vand på sengen

og vand har ikke køn

og hvor meget vand er så sæd mon

80% vand der sidder og skændes med 80% vand

over 60% whisky d.v.s. 40% vand

og 80% vand der udenfor løber byen rundt i alle størrelser

og myrder og elsker og voldtager

og hvis man også kendte indholdet af jern kalk fosfor og B-vitamin

kviksølv cholesterol og LSD-25

ville man aldrig nogen sinde komme videre

Det er ferdig nå. Søknadene er sendt inn og jeg har fått all tida tilbake. Jeg har lagt den på skrivebordet mens jeg rydder.

the real reason we like it, though, is that it is like sunshine

Våkner tidlig om morgenen, står opp og åpner vinduet, åpner musklene, drikker kaffe. Prøver å holde ryggen rett, hodet rett over nakken, høre på fysioterapeuten. Prøver å ikke få vondt. Skal tegne hele dagen og hele uka. 

Suzanne Brøgger om å gå alene hjem om natten

Hvis man nu forsøger at afmystificere eller dechiffrere koden: «Dav, skat, dejlig aften» og svarer igen – ikke på koden, men på talens reelle indhold og siger «ja, det er en dejlig aften, men jeg vil ikke ligge i en seng med Dem,» så lyder det så tosset, at man også selv skal blive tosset i hovedet af det. Men hvis en kvinde ikke kan sige godaften uden risiko for, at hendes frihed ikke vil blive respekteret, så er den kvinde ikke fri. Manden, der ikke kan sige godaften uden at komme i tanke om sine genitalier, er forresten heller ikke fri.