That's What Xu Said

• 2013-05-15

  

  slavin:

  “DELIVERY workers tramp through tunnels under Gaza — carrying bags and buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

  The famous fast food has gone underground as Palestinians order the takeaways from Egypt.

  Boxes and bags emblazoned with Colonel Sanders famous red and white logo move swiftly through the smuggling tunnels that run beneath the border.

  The fried food has to make its subterranean journey across as there is no KFC restaurant in the Palestinian region.

  Israeli restrictions on Gaza crossings make it difficult to open an international fast food branch in the area.”

  Yet another example of the semipermeable nature of geopolitical boundaries and how human desires (in this case, for fried chicken) find outlandish ways to prevail. Particularly when greased (sorry) with the potential for profit!

  It reminds me of one of my favorite comic books, Chew, which is set in a society that differs from ours mostly in that chicken is entirely illegal. (Okay, and in that people have food-related superpowers.) Tony Chu is a cibopathic (he gets psychic readings from things he eats) detective who apprehensively nibbles his way through the complex underground that has sprung up to smuggle and counterfeit chicken.

  It’s beautifully illustrated, very clever, and a great story—best served with some fried chicken, of course!

  Source: thesun.co.uk

• 2013-05-12

  

  Mother-daughter bonding, 2008.

  I took this photo while I was doing a series of portraits of people illuminated by their screens. My mom is a database programmer for a very large insurance company, and I thought she’d be a great addition to the photo series. After snapping a few portraits, she suggested we take a picture together. 

  My mom and I moved to the US in 1995, half a year after my dad went to Ohio State for grad school. We thought we were visiting for a few months and ended up staying for 18 years (and counting!). Despite her prestigious college degree and previous job as a high-ranking chemical engineer, she had an impossible time finding work in the US: no local accreditations, no work permits, no English.

  So she did what lots of other women in our community did: she waited tables at Chinese restaurants full-time to support our entire family while also going to community college full-time to get a computer science degree. My mom has no real love of technology and she’s not responsible for my web-obsession, but she’s a damn good coder and I cherish the moments when we can both curl up with our laptops in the dark, like this one.

  When we talk about “women in tech”, how often do we think about the women who work corporate, not startup, jobs? Of immigrant women and their stories? How often, for that matter, do we think of anyone not living on the coasts? When we don’t, we’re missing a big part of the picture.

  And that sucks for you, because my mom is awesome.

  Source: Flickr / crimsonninjagirl