GCB Archives: May 2010

In May 2010 I introduced the blogs of Gudrun, web-famous member of Germany's Pirate Party, acclaimed movie stylist Smilla Dankert, visual connoisseur Liisa, and graphic artist Aurora. 

I myself also happened to get interviewed about the GCB project by the Mädchenmannschaft only a couple of days after I discovered The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies. If you haven't heard of that yet, click the link provided or jump right into the subject matter below:

GCB Shares: There's No Such Thing as a Bikini Body

Photo: Alba Yruela (via)

An article that has been making the blog rounds lately and that I wouldn't want to keep from you in light of all those swimwear adverts on display is There Is No Such Thing As A Bikini Body. 

Alba Yruela, who was born in Spain in 1989, doesn't only take her own pictures (see above), but also runs her own tumblr: it wasn't enough. 

Spoiled Yogi shares the 5 things Yoga poses have taught her about life. My favorite: You are capable of more than you ever thought possible.

Die Klappentexterin stellt das neue Bloggerkollektiv Jüdische Lebenswelten in Form eines spannenden Interviews vor.

Die "Stinkesocke" Jule beantwortet ganze 80 LeserInnen-Fragen rund um ihr Leben mit Querschnittslähmung. 

Anne Feldkamp stellt die Bauhaus-Teppichkünstlerin Anni Albers vor: anni, königin des diy. Bei Interesse: Weitere Bauhaus-Frauen hat Ulrike Müller in ihrem Band Bauhaus-Frauen - Meisterinnen in Kunst, Handwerk und Design versammelt.

Laura vom Missy Blog zählt die gesundheitlichen Vorteile des Bierkonsums auf: Hopfen und Malz, ab in den Hals! Aber in welchen genau?

The Greatest Pleasure in Life

Photo: Source

Lynn Casper

After a long wait, please let me introduce to you today another achieved female blogger: Lynn Casper. Amongst other projects, Lynn produces Homoground, a weekly queer music podcast, and runs a personal tumblr called scantron.

If you'd like to find out how blogging helps us strengthen our personalities, why dead blogs are part of the process, and what unfortunate umbrellas have to do with Lynn's work, just follow the jump! :)

OKCon 2011

On 30th June and the 1st of July, the 6th Annual Open Knowledge Conference will take place in Berlin. The event aims at bringing together individuals and organizations interested in all things open knowledge. If you've been following GCB, you know that I agree with the organizers' assumption that  

open knowledge promises significant social and economic benefits in a wide range of areas from governance to science, culture to technology. Opening up access to content and data can radically increase access and reuse, bridge gaps, improve transparency and thus foster innovation and increase societal welfare. 

The conference programme looks super interesting, and I'm keen to go! Let's hope my boss sees the necessity of me being there, too, since both conference days are weekdays... Tickets are available for one or two days respectively - there's still a chance to grab some at early bird rates before 31st May.

I Posted Naked Pictures of Myself...

Image: Source

GCB Shares: "I will only tell this story once."

Brave as any woman can be, CBS reporter Lara Logan recalls the February night on Tahrir Square in Egypt, when a mob tore off her clothes and violently sexually assaulted her in the middle of the road. She decided she would only tell this story once, hoping that this one telling is heard by as many people as possible. (Source)

Roseanne-cast in Season 1: Source

In another US TV-related story, Roseanne Barr, one of my childhood heroines, has written an essay on sexism in the media industry and her difficult rise to stardom: And I should know. I  loved the part where ABC sent her a cake to celebrate her show's one year anniversary in 1988; knowing what men were given for equal success, Roseanne and her co-star George Clooney took the cake outside where she snapped a picture of him hitting it with a baseball bat to send it to the producers. You go, girl! (Source)

Apparently, Yoga benefits breast cancer patients. Among affected women tested, those practicing Yoga while in treatment were of better general health, had lower stress hormone levels and saw improvement of their physical state altogether. Source and more information.

While I have recently stopped eating meat and have been very good at forgoing fish, too, I am aware that not all of us are willing to give up the tastes we grew up with for ecological reasons just yet. So I was happy to see that Canadian blogger Eco Yogini collected a bunch of eco-tips for eating fish.

Im Missy Blog analysiert das TeamBaselPop die Frauenfiguren in Tarantino-Filmen: Von Kampfmaschinen und Sexobjekten.

Das LaDIY-Fest, ein Mitmachfestival in Berlin, sucht noch Helferinnen. Freiwillige vor!

Cathrin Karras erklärt uns Nicht-VietnamesINNen die Geschichte der Phở, dem vermutlich bekanntesten vietnamesischen Gericht weltweit: Das Leben ist zu kurz für schlechte Suppe.

Blica gibt es zu: Manchmal macht Bloggen echt keinen Spaß!

Boy's Corner:

Leo has advice on how to deal with negative people. Can't we all use that sometimes?

Sascha Lobo beschreibt im Forschungs-Blog des Fraunhofer-Instituts, warum Frühwarnsysteme für Erdbeben am besten funktionieren, wenn sie aus der Luft kommen: Vor dem Beben ist vor dem Beben.

I Love You More Than the 90s Loved Grunge

Image: Source

Like GCB ? ... !

Better late than never: I added Facebook's LIKE button to my posts. As of now, you may finally like, share and recommend whatever tickles your fancy here. Especially installed for those who like to show appreciation in silence. ;) Or you may directly mail posts to your friends on Facebook via the SEND option. Definitely an improvement in service quality, innit?

Besser spät als nie: Ich habe den LIKE-Button unter meine Posts gesetzt. Ab heute könnt Ihr endlich mögen, teilen und empfehlen, was auch immer Euch hier gefällt. Extra für diejenigen unter Euch, die am liebsten ohne Worte Komplimente machen! ;) Oder Ihr mailt Eure Lieblingspost direkt an Eure  Facebook-Freunde über die SEND-Option. Auf jeden Fall eine Steigerung der hiesigen Servicequalität, oder?

The Black Weblog Awards

Yesterday, the Black Weblog Awards published this year's nominees for the prize in a bunch of categories: From 'Best Business Blog' to 'Best Comic Blog', over 150 people have been nominated in a total of 37 categories (!) for their social media work. Wow, that's a whole load of new information sources to explore!

Founded in 2005, the Black Weblog Awards give recognition to Black bloggers (and those of the African diaspora) which were largely overlooked by other Internet award events online. Participants of the contest come from over 90 countries which probably makes the award the most widespread Internet award event for Black bloggers. Please find more info on the contest and how to participate in the future here.

Cee Cee

Nina Trippel, one of the editors of fashion magazine derze.it*, and her colleague Sven Hausherr started a newsletter project: Cee Cee is a bilingual, weekly service on all things hip and trendy in Berlin. Subscription is free and I recommend you English and/ or German speakers in the area give it a shot! :)

* Remember my essay The Dead Never Sleep in their INSOMNIA issue (page 17)?

GCB Shares: Girls Watch Porn, Too!

Girls watch porn, too - not sure why anyone thought they wouldn't? Nice video campaign in any case...

(Clip sources Mädchenmannschaft and Jezebel.)

Check out this free PDF-manual on Basic Internet Security. (Via.)

Erin recommends a different approach to to-do lists: Might they need a makeover?

Anne Feldkamp aka Blica points out an article in The Guardian explaining why cheap fashion is killing our planet.

Diese Woche in der Radiosendung Trackback zu Gast: Elke Brüns, die bundesweit erste Armutsbloggerin. Hier geht's lang zum Interview mit ihr (ab Minute 21) und da ist mein Küchengespräch mit Marcus Richter, dem Moderator der Sendung.

Birdie erklärt, wie grillen ohne Fleisch funktioniert und Franziska Schmid gibt eine praktische Übersicht vegetarischer und veganer Restaurants in München und veröffentlich ihre persönliche lokale Best-of-Liste von Brezn bis Yoga.

Und zu guter letzt gibt uns die Mädchenmannschaft eine kleine Lektion im BH-kaufen.

GCB Archives: April 2010

Source

In April 2010, the second month GCB existed, I introduced the following bloggers:  

Art historian Carola Muysers, journalist Kommander Kaufmann, gender studies expert Nadine Lantzsch, famous fashion photographer Mary Scherpe,  music journalist Ann-Kathrin Eickhoff, and pro-blogger Nikola Richter, who recently wrote a piece for a large German daily on what she called 'virtual workers': Digitale Arbeiter.

Leah Leslie of Fuck Yeah, Book Arts

tumblr, a comparatively new blog software, has caused quite a stir in the blogosphere since its launch in 2007. Albeit the multi-media possibilities the platform offers, it has mainly been used to quickly and easily share images - often anonymously. 

All the more happy I am to be able to introduce to you today Leah Leslie, editor of the wonderfully overflowing art collection Fuck Yeah, Book Arts. Please follow the jump below for an interesting interview with the mind behind this beautiful and super-successful project.

Sailing Rivers

 

Josephine, 27, is currently sailing from London to Istanbul with a bunch of other people. Check out her blog to follow their journey across Europe's rivers (!) on RiversideStories.

Abortion in the United States

Source: Mädchenblog.

For German Readers: McKinsey Technology Lab 2011

Die Unternehmensberatung McKinsey lädt StudentInnen und Young Professionals ein, zwischen dem 7. und 10. Juli am Zürichsee über die "globale Vernetzung von Gegenständen und Diensten" nachzudenken. Gemeinsam mit "Vordenkern aus Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft" sollen Ideen diskutiert und konkrete Lösungen erarbeitet werden: Von intelligenten Stromnetzen, sogenannten "Smart Grids", bis hin zu Kühlschränken, die selbst entscheiden, wann Nachschub in ihrem Inneren nötig ist, kann man sich in Teamarbeit und Vorträgen futuristische Anwendungsszenarien ausdenken. Klingt nach Spaß? Bewerbungen werden noch bis zum 22. Mai entgegengenommen, mehr Informationen gibt es hier.

Relief

Image: Source

Anne Roth

If it weren't for Anne Roth of annalist, perhaps there would be no GIRLS CAN BLOG today. It was Anne who, a little over a year ago, initiated a discussion on the invisibility of female bloggers: Where and who were they? Why would mainstream media only ever refer to our male colleagues? Inspired by Nadine Lantzsch (whose portrait is available here), I wrote my first post on the matter and created GCB... And wow, what a ride this blog has been! 

But back to Anne and her admirable pragmatism. Just ask yourself this: How would you react if your partner was mistaken for a terrorist and put into jail on the grounds of, well, nothing? 

More on Anne's story and her famous political blog after the jump... 

For German Readers: Blogger gegen Tierversuche

Zwischendurch mal wieder eine kleine Mitmach-Aktion: Die Pseudoerbse, die ich erst heute über den veganen Blog Food and Fotos entdeckte, ruft dazu auf, den links abgebildeten Button auf dem eigenen Blog einzubinden und damit ein Zeichen gegen Tierversuche zu setzen. Die Idee ist, hinter dem Icon auf http://bgt.pseudoerbse.de zu verlinken, wo Informationen rund um Tierschutz gesammelt und zur Verfügung gestellt werden sollen. Ganz nebenbei entsteht so eine Linksammlung von Blogs, die sich für das Thema interessieren. Clever!

GCB Shares Extra Long: More Than 40 Centimetres!

Blogger V. of Picked Pics posted this photo while standing at a traffic light in Seoul,
South Korea, amazed at what technology can do these days...

Elke Brüns discusses the question whether a poor childhood can make you a sick adult. She found an article entitled The Poverty Clinic in the New Yorker and sums it up in a German post whose title is borrowed from a professor working at Harvard Medical School: Neuronen und Nachbarschaften.

Micro-payment service Flattr is now open to all: No need to spend at least 2€ a month to participate anymore, and Flattr buttons will never turn inactive again. I like!

Katy Derbyshire discusses Anna Blumbach's erotica novel Kurze Nächte, wondering why there aren't many more female German novelists writing hot, explicit sex scenes: This Book turned me on!

The Mädchenmannschaft elaborates on an English-language interview with media activist Jaclyn Friedman. Amongst other things, Jaclyn is co-editor of an anthology entitled Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World without Rape. She also spoke at this year's Re:publica.

Helga, also Mädchenmannschaft, adds this video to the discussion of how women are portrayed in mainstream media. In the clip, a very cool Anita Sarkeesian explains the so-called Smurfette Syndrome. (Source: Frauenbilder in Film und Fernsehen unter der Lupe)

 ...and on the other side of the world in Hamburg, Germany,
Lantzschi is amazed at what little girls can do these days.

Svenja of Synaesthetisch came across an interview with author Arno Geiger and philosopher Klaus Mainzer. I am linking to it in spite of their conversation being published in Chrismon, a christian/protestant magazine, because the word God is not mentioned once. Also, I recently finished Geiger's brilliant new novel Der alte König in seinem Exil which deals with his father's Alzheimer's. My friend Simone Finkenwirth has also read the book and published a German review here.

A brief peek behind the scenes for everyone interested in computing: Kathleen of the Official Gmail Blog introduces her colleague Petra, a software engineer.

Eva Ricarda Lautsch discusses the shortcomings of leftist political activism in Germany: Die unspezifische Revolution.

Nachdem ich sie vorletzte Woche vorgeschlagen hatte, durfte Ninia LaGrande am letzten Samstag ein Telefoninterview mit Marcus von Trackback führen. Es geht um den deutschen Werberat, Poetry Slams und DIE Blog. Yeah! Bei Minute 51:47 geht's los!

Nikola Richter hat einen Artikel für den Tagesspiegel geschrieben, der auf ihrem eigenen Blog in der Vollversion erhältlich ist. Darin geht es im weitesten Sinne um selbständige Arbeit zu Hause und die damit verbundenen Risiken. Der Nachrichtendienst Turi2 hat das aufgegriffen und mit folgenden Worten zusammengefasst: ‎"Nikola Richter beklagt die Lage der digitalen Arbeiter, die zwar vom Zwang der täglichen Anwesenheit in der Firma befreit sind, dafür aber den Preis der "Unsichtbarkeit" zahlen. Ihr Burnout finde unbemerkt im Home Office statt. Der krankmachende Stress treffe aber alle: Die "Festen" in Verlagen, Stiftungen, Firmen und Agenturen, sowie die "freien" Journalisten, Designer, Autoren und Berater." Chapeau, Nikola, das war ein Ritterinnenschlag! 

Simone Finkenwirth wurde nach unserem Vortrag auf der #rp11 vom Buchreport zur Seite genommen, dem sie den Unterschied zwischen Literaturblogs und dem Feuilleton erklärt: Das Internet erreicht mehr Leser. 

Das Missy Magazin verlost 20 Hörbücher über die Geschichte des Frauenfußballs. Alles, was es braucht, um mitzumachen, ist ne kurze Email. Interesse? Hier geht's lang!

Nadine Lantzsch hat vor einer Weile einen Vortrag zu queeren/ feministischen Blogs gehalten und ihre Folien und Links hier veröffentlicht. Außerdem hat sie mir obiges cooles Foto von sich und ihrer GCB Bag Tracey beschert, das  natürlich sofort in mein GCB Bags in Action!-Album auf Facebook gewandert ist.

Immer wieder lustig: Anderer Leute Lieblingstweets.

I am not sure where this one was taken, but all signs point at
in front of a brick wall. (Source) 

Boy's Corner

Leo turns 38 and shares 38 Life Lessons he has learned so far.

Markus Beckedahl lists and links to the 10 Tools of Online Suppressors.

Hakan erklärt seine Schwierigkeiten damit, die Staatsbürgerschaft seines Heimatlandes gegen die deutsche einzutauschen: Aufgeben? Ich kenne das Problem: Auch wenn ich als geborene Schweizerin nicht so weitreichenden Repressalien ausgesetzt war wie unsere türkischen Mitbürger es noch heute sind, musste ich doch zwanzig Jahre warten, bis Deutschland 2007  SchweizerInnen die doppelte Staatsbürgerschaft gewährte. (Wenn es Euch interessiert, schreibe ich zu dem Thema vielleicht ein anderes Mal mehr?)

Ofrin - Blankets

Via Gunnar @ Spreeblick