The Big Three Questions Of Media Analysis: What The Author Wanted To Say, What They Actually Said, And

For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, excerpt from “The Poet’s Tale” (via larmoyante)

I must explain to my American followers. Follow me on this thought experiment.

Read these questions. You do not need to answer, just read them.

Who is the current head of government of Ethiopia?

Are they a king, queen, president, prime minister, dictator, or tsar?

Are they generally liked or generally disliked by their people? Why?

Are they seen as conventionally attractive?

What was their most recent scandal?

What’s a weird outfit they’ve worn while in office?

What are their interior design preferences?

Has anyone tried to assassinate them? How many times?

What’s their favourite food?

Does Ethiopia have a national anthem?

What are the top 3 most iconic symbols of Ethiopia?

What’s the most prevalent religion in Ethiopia?

What are 5 Ethiopian TV series?

What languages are spoken in Ethiopia?

What are 5 Ethiopian celebrities?

Can you draw the Ethiopian flag?

What are 5 rights or privileges granted to citizens of Ethiopia?

What structure do Ethiopian school systems follow?

What are 5 Ethiopian foods?

What are 5 Ethiopian exports?

What countries are allied with Ethiopia?

What is one topic in Ethiopia that you are more educated on than in America?

What are 3 Ethiopian stereotypes?

Does Ethiopia have States, Provinces, or neither?

Where is Ethiopia’s government capital?

What currency is used in Ethiopia?

What animal is the Ethiopian symbol? Do they have one?

What is Ethiopia’s ethnic majority?

Who was their first government leader of Ethiopia? What is an interesting fact about them?

Who has Ethiopia gone to war against? Why?

Can you name 3 wars Ethiopia was involved in?

Can you name 3 Ethiopian women famous for their beauty?

What is the current Ethiopian political climate?

What areas of Ethiopia are considered rural or urban?

Can you name 3 major Ethiopian landmarks?

Can you name 3 Ethiopian amusement parks?

Can you name 3 Ethiopian national parks?

Can a civilian openly carry a gun in Ethiopia?

At what age can a person begin drinking Alcohol in Ethiopia?

What is the age of consent in Ethiopia?

Can you name 3 infamous Ethiopian criminals?

Can you name 3 Ethiopian comedians?

What was the most recent major natural disaster to hit Ethiopia?

Is Ethiopian culture as a whole generally considered more conservative or more progressive than your own?

Roughly how much money goes into the Ethiopian military budget? Millions or billions?

What are the staple crops in Ethiopia?

What is something that was invented in Ethiopia?

Who are 3 famous Ethiopian businessmen?

What are 5 wildly popular Ethiopian musicians?

What was one viral fashion trend among Ethiopian youth?

If you could correctly answer around 40 of these, then congratulations! That is what every other English speaker feels like living in proximity to America

That is the extent to which American media leeches into everything

Yes, it is weird

Watch: Bill Nye’s graduation speech was as fiery and inspiring as you’d expect 

I was on a retail website on my phone recently and I was trying to get to some information it did not seem to want to provide -- and just in case, out of desperation, I clicked on the little "universal sign for wheelchair user" logo in one corner.

It pulled up this menu, which was intriguing...

[ID: A website sidebar menu, headed "Accessibility features"; it offers the option of turning on a number of features including those for blindness and colorblindness, epilepsy, motor skills disorders, dyslexia, and crucially for me, ADHD.]

I'm not someone who uses digital accessibility tools much but still, I don't think I've ever seen such a visible accessibility function on a website before, and I've definitely never seen one that offered ADHD accessibility. What did that even do? So...I clicked it, and:

[ID: A screengrab of the website with the ADHD accessibility turned on; most of the site is greyed out, including a header listing my subscriptions and a subscription ID. A narrow bar of the site is illuminated in normal white, showing my next shipment is July 25th and offering me the option to view or skip it.]

The damn thing darkens the entire page except for a narrow "light" bar that highlights whatever your looking at, which you can drag up and down the site with your finger. Honestly it's super cool. It's not something I desperately need, but I may go looking to see if there's an app I could acquire that would do the same for me across browser and e-reader functions on my phone.

a big lesson for me was learning that most things are not as fragile as I’d believed. missing a class, or turning in a bad assignment, won’t instantly destroy your professor’s opinion of you. accidentally saying something harsh won’t make your friend want to end the friendship. it takes work to repair these things - it takes effort and research and sometimes a sincere apology - but you can do that because they’re not irreparably broken. what you’ve worked to build, in academia and in relationships and in life, is stronger and more enduring that your mind may teach you to believe. don’t let imagined fragility lead you to giving up

Life tip for the 18-26 crowd: if you’re considering a career in a field where the big selling point is that soon all the [Generational Cohort] will retire and all the jobs will open up, don’t do it. And don’t get a Masters degree in it.

Moreover, unless you have family or spousal money to fall back on, stay away from fields where management weaponizes employees’ “passion” against their need for a wage commensurate with COL in their area.

Get an MBA, get project management experience, learn about organizational psychology, and start getting those experiences as soon as you can.

I don’t regret my choices; they’ve led me to the very exciting place I am now with a book coming out, and some amazing interviews lined up. But if I knew 12 years ago what I know now, I would have made some alterations.

“in order to create loving males we need to love males” means teach boys that they can be themselves without being less of a man. it means being encouraging and nurturing of their emotions so they don’t become cold and hateful. it means showing boys, early in their lives, that they have value outside of what our society deems proper masculinity. what it doesn’t mean is that it’s our job to handhold men who see women as walking sex toys through the concept of empathy, and maybe if we’re really really nice to them and don’t say things that hurt their feelings they’ll stop killing us for saying no

I'll example you with thievery: The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears; the earth's a thief, That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n From general excrement: each thing's a thief: The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power Have uncheck'd theft.

Timon William Shakespeare "Timon of Athens" Act IV, Scene iii

The Art and Making of Hannibal: The Television Series.