The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot A non-fiction book that’s basically two different narratives. One is about a breed of cervical cancer cells sampled that are able to thrive in culture — which has been a tremendous boon to scientists. With a constant supply of unchanging cells, research has opened for developing commercial drugs, IVF, and vaccines. This part also brings up issues of medical ethics and who owns your cells. Because the other part is about Henrietta Lacks, the person from whom those cells were “donated”. Also her family, and the author’s journey to find out about her. Henrietta Lacks died shortly after her cells were…
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The Empty Cube
There’s something broken about modern business. I can’t make friends at work. I can’t make personal relationships. Why? Because I might disappear at any time, like in Logan’s Run or 1984. There’s probably a term for it. Hiring practices, termination, lay-offs. It’s ruining company morale and worker morale. I think it’s because these policies haven’t changed in decades, even though the world has. I’ve been laid off. I’ve been fired. I’ve quit. I’ve been under three month contracts. So I’ve gotten the full experience from the employee side. They tell you to come to a meeting that’s not on your calendar. It’s always at the end of the day, about a…
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Where’s the Sex in The Hunger Games?
This’ll probably get some false positives on the google searches (sorry), but I had to mention this. I saw this on Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2010. What? Where the hell was The Hunger Games sexually explicit? There wasn’t a single sex scene, no nudity. Someone needs to tell me where that part was, because I sure as hell want to read that part again. This is why censorship sucks. Because these mother-hen “concerned parents” always have their heads up their asses. They never read the book in question, and if they do, they always misinterpret it, take it out of context, or never understand the context that it’s in.…
