Links round-up: healthcare, gaming, and more

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer Time

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Life at the end: historical reflections on palliative medicine is a fantastic introduction to the (extremely recent) history of end-of-life care. The linked article is a brief overview, but itself links to the detailed study results and discussion, which are freely available online.

Almost a year ago, blogger and novelist and straight-white-guy John Scalzi wrote an article entitled Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is. Predictably, the Internet kind of erupted. Last week, Samantha Allen (PhD student, instructor in Women's and Gender Studies, trans woman) described how she extended Scalzi's metaphor as a teaching exercise for a 100-level class in the article All Skulls On: Teaching Intersectionality Through Halo.

Reni Eddo-Lodge writes an excellent follow-up to her critique of Caitlin Moran and the response it received: This is white privilege.

There's been some very difficult talking going on over at Captain Awkward this week. The Captain let her own frustration get the better of her when answering a letter, but subsequently followed up with a lot more compassion, a lot of soul-searching, and a healthy dose of following her own advice when it comes to acknowledging being wrong. staranise, a therapist-in-training, provided perspective on dealing professionally with one's feelings about and towards one's clients; recessional responded with Righteous Wroth Rarely Is, an analysis of the high we get from righteous anger, and how it can seduce us away from compassion and intersectional thinking.

Jason Collins, star NBA player, has come out of the closet - the first time a current athelete in any US major sport has done so. "Pro basketball is a family. And pretty much every family I know has a brother, sister or cousin who's gay. In the brotherhood of the NBA, I just happen to be the one who's out."