Monthly Archives: February 2015

Loving Earth Can Sometimes Require Leaving It

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TIME

It’s a good thing you can’t see human suffering in infrared wavelengths. That kind of pain is something seen in the visible, felt in the viscera. If it showed up in the infrared it would mean that with the right instruments, you could see it from space, and that would change everything. There’s not a person who’s ever left the planet who hasn’t commented on the transcendent beauty of the blue, green, white Earth hanging in what otherwise appears to be a void. But what if Syria glowed scarlet like the open wound it is? What if West Africa went dark and cold to reflect the Ebola deaths that are still happening there?

Astronauts are spared such sights—or at least most of them are. But Ron Garan saw them anyway. Garan spent two weeks aboard the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station in 2008, then returned to space…

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And the Award for Dumbest Hashtag Feminism Goes To…

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TIME

I am alternately disgusted and saddened that women continue to be valued for their beauty and their reproductive capabilities over their accomplishments. I fully support Patricia Arquette’s dutiful writing out of her acceptance speech for Best Actress in a Supporting Role so that she could thank everyone and fit in a call for gender equality, even if she got some legitimate criticism for it. Yet, despite my ardent support for feminism, I found that the #AskHerMore campaign, which advocates that reporters talk to actresses about what’s inside their minds rather than what they’re wearing, and which was begun by Amy Poehler—and re-ignited for Oscars 2015 by Reese Witherspoon—to be eye-rollingly annoying. It is yet another offering from a brand of feminism that includes things like the Dove Real Beauty Campaign and lowers the movement into something cheap and silly, and suggests that a simplified, liberal critique around the importance of…

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Sorry, Haters: America Loved Lady Gaga at the Oscars

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TIME

Some were skeptical when they heard Lady Gaga would be honoring the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music. After all, the star is better known for elaborate pop spectacles than for her vocal dexterity, and the movie’s songs demand a certain irony-free commitment it was unclear if Gaga could pull off.

But from the second she started singing a medley of songs from the 1965 Oscar-winning musical, it seened clear she was quite worthy of the honor. Even Julie Andrews, the star from the original film, praised Gaga for her performance.

And TIME readers agree, voting in a poll 97% to 3% that they loved the performance. Though Gaga’s performance seems to be one of the few uncontroversial aspects of an unpopular ceremony, it’s not too late to register your dismay, or hop on the Gaga bandwagon.

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