Scholarship Opportunity

The Hazel Fund Scholarship is available to women who

• have experienced barriers related to violence and abuse;
• are residents of Peterborough, City of Kawartha Lakes or Haliburton Counties; and
• are furthering their formal or informal education.

More information is available on the YWCA of Peterborough website. The application date is 15 March 2011 and 2 letters of recommendation are required, so if you are interested in applying, hop to.

The F Word: Who Wants to be a Feminist

This documentary, which is available to watch online at Cbc.ca/doczone, touches on a lot of what we have been discussing in WMST1000.

A good use of an hour or so, if you have one to spare - or you might want to consider using it as part of your exam review.

Black History Month

What do you think about setting aside one month per year as Black History Month?

I have heard a lot of opinions about it - on both sides.

Me, I don't really have a strong opinion either way ... and it seems to me that I really don't need to have one since it is not really my issue, is it? I do, however, think that the more people learn about anything & everything - including Canadian history and the reality that we are not as innocent & accepting as we would like to believe - the better.

Anyway... I'm only thinking about it because I have been wandering through threads on babble.ca (rabble.ca's discussion forums) and came across a link to this post on Womanist Musings: Why I am Skipping Black History Month ...which references some of the topics we touched on last semester.

Uncontacted Peoples

Survival International has posted actual footage of one of about 100 tribes of uncontacted peoples on their site. There is also a petition there to sign, asking Peru's government to protect what little tracts of land these people have left.

Also lots of other videos, articles, FAQs and more information - I found it all fascinating.... although some of the online chatter about these people is truly disturbing. There are some who - like me - think we should leave them alone - if they, at some point, wish contact, they can initiate it and otherwise, in my opinion, we should just not go there (but, of course, leaving them alone includes not allowing their lands to be clearcut/taken over).

There are also, however, ~well meaning~ folks who think that we should at least do things like "send in a doctor to check and make sure they are healthy" (of course, the FAQ makes clear that these people are highly vulnerable to our diseases and that in the past, 50% or more of some groups have been wiped out by such ~well-meaning~ visitors.

And then there are, as always on the net, the out and out idjits who think nothing of imposing their will on these people - they don't pay taxes so have no rights to resources/protection, and so on ... blah blah blah ... oh...and the whole it's a hoax and they are actors bunch ... I had to stop following any of those sorts of conversations because they were making me crazy (surprise, surprise, right? LOL)

Anyway ... I do encourage you to stop by and check out the video, and consider signing the petition, and/or passing the links/info on to others.

Tag Clouds

So ... I said I would post something ...and finally did manage to get to it!


Here you go ... both of these sites allow you to make tag cloud images with any text that you can cut & paste. Most (but not all) pdfs that you download from JSTOR or other library resources work just fine (although you will get better results if you omit the reference list, as those do tend to muck it up some).

Tag Cloud is probably the easiest to use - and lets you save as a pdf file:

But Wordle is way more fun - check out the randomize button!

If you are not offered an option to save your image you can use the print screen button (look at top row of your keyboard - unless it is a Mac, you will probably have a PrtScn button; if you have a Mac, I don't know how but I bet google does). Whatever is on your screen when you hit the button gets copied to your clipboard and can be pasted.

I use Paint Shop Pro, so I paste there and crop to the selection I want ... but you can paste into Word and crop there, or pretty much any image program will do.

Have fun!

All three of these word clouds used the Sisters In Spirit 2010 Report: What Their Voices Tell Us. To view larger, click on the thumbnail.

Break time

Hope you all are having a great holiday break... I wish I were!!!! LOL

Too darn much work to do to relax and enjoy any of it... but on the plus side, I am more than halfway through exam-marking and so far you are

• not boring me! (this is good - marking is a chore at the best of times - but even more so when everyone chooses the same questions to answer in similar ways - which you have not done and which I SO appreciate!)
• and not sucking :) So far, at least, not one person has failed, and most everyone has done very well... so relax and enjoy your holidays, why don't you?

Remembrance & Action

Reminder - people from both seminars are welcome to join Amanda at OC, E common room (whatever that means! I've never been in the residence so don't ask me) any time after 11 a.m. this Wednesday, December 8 to discuss the exam questions.

I am otherwise engaged until probably 1/1:30 p.m. but will drop by when I get clear if people are still around then.