effex | Entries tagged with links: articles and essays

A couple of links:

* Al Jazeera's 'Disaster in Japan' live blog for March 15th (previous days linked in the post)

* On Good.is: Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan: How to Help

* Nuclear energy 101: Inside the "black box" of power plants. Also, Fukushima Nuclear Accident – a simple and accurate explanation.

* Al Jazeera's spotlight on Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, and Algeria.

~*~

There's more - sweet baby bunnies, there's more - but I'm not in a good headspace for going over it right now. Let's talk about TV instead.

I've been faithfully watching Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko) since Crunchy Roll started airing it and folks, let me tell you, this show is amazing. Amazing. You should click on that link and watch it (it's free!).

Wandering Son's a lovely, slow, slice of life story about trans kids in Japan - growing up, struggling with identity, and love, and family, and friendship, and puberty. It's gorgeous, beautifully animated and acted and full of sympathetic characters and, just [flails].

Let's move on to something I can talk about coherently, shall we? My roommate D and I spent Saturday afternoon burning through both seasons of The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers and, well. Never have I seen that much Awesome and that much Fail packed into the same space.

The basics: LXD (for short) is a webseries that runs on Hulu. It's about dancers! There's a nominal plot, but mostly it's about showing off the work of some incredible artists.

The awesome: The vast majority of the characters are people of color - something like 13 out of 19 of the reoccuring characters (in the first season). Ditto for the background dancers (though I didn't go back and count, heh). Every single one of them is a fucking amazing dancer. We've got b-boying, we've got ballet, tricking, krumping, hip-hop, roboting, popping, tap... all integrated into the environment and the (again, nominal) plot. There's no special effect or wire work, everything's shot on location, the cinematography is beautiful. Also, there is Harry Shum, Jr.

The fail: The show is really, really, really bad with woman. Only 3 of the aforementioned repeating characters are female, only two of them are dancers (there are more in the background, but not many). All three are love interests/plot devices and, ugh. In the 7th episode of season 1 (S1Ep7), one of them literally has control of her body stolen by a dude in a sequence that should come with a trigger warning. The only all-female dance routine (S2Ep5) is all about how women seduce and kill men, good times. There's also some messed up race stuff (especially the Eaters in S2Ep3 - black demons, really?) and ablism (the psychiatric hospital scenes, especially in S2Ep8). There's also a weird weaponization of dance/art that I'm iffy about.

The neutral: The writing is terrible - they basically threw a bunch of Cool Stuff (~~chi~~ ~~chakra~~ Ra! Secret organizations! Boarding schools! The occult! Love triangles! Etc!) at a wall to see what would stick. The end of season 2 is so hilariously bad it comes out into awesome. The acting's not great either, but most of these guys are dancers, not actors.

So. If you want to watch a bunch of amazing, often adorable and/or attractive dudes dance and can ignore the fail (and the plot), LXD's worth a look. If nothing else, you should catch Harry Shum, Jr's intro chapter (he shows up at 1:08, dancing starts at 2:20):

Why is there no fanfic for this, fandom? I am disappoint.

* Signal Boost:

delight needs help paying bills for hirself and hir family.

* I've recently added two news sources to my regular feeds - Colorlines and ProPublica. Colorlines covers 'race, culture, and organizing', Propublica does in depth investigative reporting. Both are fantastic.

* Remember the protests at the Toronto G20 Summit last year? The CBC's just released a report on the civil abuses/police violence that went on.

* On Racialicious - Support Planned Parenthood. Three reasons to stand with Planned Parenthood.

* On Tiger Beatdown - The War on Reproductive Rights: A Recap

* A week ago, 15 women and 2 men (all of them veterans or active duty servicemembers) brought a federal lawsuit against the Pentagon based on rampant sexual assault within the military. My sister was offered a spot at West Point when she graduated high school and we did our damndest to talk her out of it. This is one of the reasons why.

* Also on Racialicious - Paul Rudd Fondles Eva Mendes for Laughs; Rosario Dawson Fondles Paul Rudd for Feminism

*

adsartha has been posting link roundups and first person reports of the protests in Wisconsin.

* When Fangirls Attack has a massive roundup of Dwayne McDuffie memorial posts.

* In honor of MCDuffie, Project: Rooftop is holding a redesign contest for Static. I like

oxboxer's concept a lot (but I always like

oxboxer's concepts).

* On Colorlines: A Food Crisis Is Coming, But Urban America Already Has It Solved

* Sady Doyle has a Tumblr piece up on Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network, West Wing, and general douchiness.

* Ta-Nehisi Coates has a literary crush on Jane Austin and it's awesome. I've never read her books (I tried P&P once, but it was too dry for 12yr old me), but this makes me want to.

* The Slacktivist blog is moving to Patheos. I love the Slacktivist, he reminds me that all Christians aren't horrible and/or uninformed about their own religion (bitter ex-Christian right here, oh yes). He's been doing a series of posts on Hell that I've particularly enjoyed. I also highly recommend his ongoing dissection of the Left Behind series (which I read in it's entirety as a preteen, joy).

* From Terry Pratchett's blog: There has been one hell of a lot of rumours regarding a Good Omens adaptation over the past few weeks, mostly started by me at the SFX Weekender. So, ladies and gentleman, I can hereby exclusively reveal that - YES - Neil and myself have shaken hands and received groats from Rod Brown sealing a TV deal. At least it's not a movie?

* Check it: Donald Glover as Spiderman. This would have been the best thing ever, Donald, you will always be my Spiderman.

* Speaking of Donald, did you know Troy and the rest of the Community crew have Twitter accounts?

* Comics types, you know about the Super Dictionary, right? Then you'll understand why this made me choke on my oatmeal this morning.

* Mutatos - The Mutato-Archive is a collection of non-standard fruits, roots and vegetables, displaying a dazzling variety of forms, colours and textures, that only reveal themselves when lawfully enforced standards cease to exist.

* How far away is the moon?

* This is just cool - Tiny Spheres Turn Regular Microscopes Into Nanoscopes. The Future, we're living it.

* If you want to keep on top of the protests in Africa & the Middle East, the quake in New Zealand, and the Union Strikes in Wisconsin,

politics is the place to be (I'm assuming you already know about Al Jazeera and The Guardian). The folks over there are fantastic.

* Mother Jones continues in it's excellent current events primer series with What's Happening in Wisconsin Explained and What's Happening in Libya Explained.

* Dwayne McDuffie, founder of Milestone Comics, writer, and creator of beloved canons, has died. Comics (and the world) is poorer for the loss.

And a couple videos off my Google Reader:

( Janelle gets to be outside the cut. )

* The big news: Hosni Mubarak has resigned as Egypt's president. Fuck yes, Egypt! If you haven't been following along at home, Al Jazeera has a timeline of events.

Don't stop paying attention to Africa and the Middle East - this'll have major impact on the protests in other countries.

* On Good.is: Americans Have No Idea How Much Welfare They're Getting. The rise of the anti-big government Tea Party movement in America has also seen a rise in the number of citizens publicly decrying both taxes and the social welfare programs for which those taxes provide. A recent study shows, however, that many Americans actually have no idea that they're on the dole, calling into question the validity of their attacks on government handouts.

* On BoingBoing: StartingPage now returns Google search results, privately. Google and other search engines track what users search; over time, the data collected can be pretty revealing, so much so that the DOJ wants access. For the most part, privacy policies are only as good as the lawyers backing them, and "law of the land" can trump anything. And all of that adds up to worrisome prospects for all of us.

*

the_future_modernes has been doing info roundups on anonymous vs. private security firms/Bank of America/US chamber of congress/lots of people. Informative and entertaining!

* I found this article on death on Mt. Everest both interesting and deeply disturbing - WARNING FOR GRAPHIC PHOTOS.

Moving on...

* Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Dinosaur Sex

*

pollums has posted a bunch of beautiful, sensual, turn of the century ads for men's Interwoven Socks. They are amazing.

pollums regularly posts vintage illustrations and is an amazing artist in her own right, you should check out her journal.

* We're going to get new Avatar comics!

* The owners of Project:Messiah, an industrial grade 3D animation program, are trying an experiment - they're offering the entry version for $10 (regularly $499) and the whole package for $40 (regularly $1195). Everyone needs a chance to show what they can do. That chance is more often limited by money; maybe that's you, maybe that's someone you know; a parent, a friend, some students of yours. We got a chance to prove what we could do starting out, and now we're giving one to you. I'm a little stunned.

* Boingboing again: Mike Mignola talks setting and architecture.

* Google recently launched Art Project, virtual tours of some of the world's best art museums. Shiny!

*

build_a_world's February/March challenge is 'Create and Use a Conlang'. Even if you're not participating, the resource post is worth raiding.

A quick one today, for I am ill and also swamped at work (hurray).

* There are major protests going on in Egypt and Yemen and smaller ones going on in Libya, Jordan, Algeria, and other North African and Middle Eastern countries. There have been several protester deaths in Egypt and the Egyption government is attempting to shut down internet access and restrict information...and the twitter feed I'm following (@SultanAlQassemi, an Op Ed writer for The National) says army vehicles are moving into Cairo. This is a big deal, folks. Al Jazeera has a spotlight on Egypt, BBC News - Middle East has general coverage. Mother Jones has 'What's going on in Egypt, explained.'

*

colorblue has a followup/link roundup to the last round of Book!Pirates: piracy & literary festivals

* Speaking of book pirating, History is a weapon has the entirety of Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States' online. Fellow USians (and anyone else who's interested), if you haven't read this yet you need to. Know your history.

* The first Potluck food carnival, as hosted by

glass_icarus, is live! YUM.

*

notgreenorblue, a characters of color in comics fest, is open for prompt claiming! I snagged 'Jaime Reyes, an a/u in which Jaime Reyes is part of the Young Avengers' because I am incredibly predictable.

* Porn Battle XI is up and running until Feb. 3rd!

*

bb_shousetsu is still taking signups for their all-women Bang*Bang Special #1.

*

purimgifts is open for signups

*

festivids has gone live! Sweet, sweet vidding goodness. I'm especially fond of Space Oddity (Community).

*

talitha78 has a roundup of three incredible non-festivids vids.

*

the_future_modernes has a post up about pretty, pretty dreadlocked dolls.

* Al Jazeera has a spotlight on the revolution in Tunisia with breaking news, video, opinion, etc. Mother Jones has a basic (and several days out of date) primer here.

* Christopher Nolan is making another Batman movie, which is enough to piss me off all on it's own (no movie's made me angry like The Dark Knight made me angry). The antagonists this time around are Bane and Catwoman, to be played by Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway. Which is interesting, because Bane's latino. Selina is/probably is as well, though I'm having trouble tracking down canon verification. I'm not super familiar with the Gotham crowd, though, so I'll leave this to others.

Back to the point, which is: whitewashing. It's not a surprise, considering the previous films have been rife with whitewashing (Ra's al Ghul), erasure (Renee Montoya ((link seems to be missing it's scans)) and Barbara Gordon), and fridging (Rachel Dawes) but still. Fuck you, Nolan.

* There's another round of discussion re: book piracy, authors and copyright going on.

troisroyaumes has an excellent collection of posts up, I'd like to point to

colorblue's this is not a post about yoga in particular.

* On a related note: 'Underground' Artist Steve Lieber Wins Over 4chan. Rather than berating the thread for more or less pirating he and Parker's creator-owned work in a public forum, Lieber instead answered questions about his career and pointed out that those who liked what they read could buy the book in print. The response was almost resoundingly positive with a lot of readers expressing interest in paying for the comic or simply being excited to have access to a creator willing to share insights about the industry. Though I doubt things would have gone as well if Lieber wasn't a (presumably) straight white dude.

* The European Southern Observatory issued a challenge last October to amateur astronomers everywhere: Find the best photos that ESO's professional image processors overlooked. The winning shot of the Orion Nebula is stunning (the others are pretty nice too) and I immediatly made it my new desktop background at work.

Then I thought about it a while and decided it needed a TARDIS. ( So that happened too. )

* On BoingBoing: video of the last known living Thylacine, filmed in 1933. Disturbing (to me, YMMV) in a 'last of a species/we wiped them out of existance' kind of way.

* Making the rounds again: Let's Bury the Not-a-Word Myth. Also Bookshelf Porn, which I never get tired of.

* Via Colorlines: Visibility Project, a portraiture series devoted to showcasing a vast array of queer API folks.

Let's start with disaster relief:

* The flooding in Australia is still bad, bad, bad, but you probably know that already. Both the Australian Red Cross and the Queensland Government homepage are good places to donate (via

copperbadge).

* There's also flooding in Brazil, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. And Columbia is still recovering from flooding in early December. Googling gets me the Brazilian Red Cross (in Portuguese), the Philippine Red Cross, the Malaysian Red Crescent, the Thai Red Cross, the Sri Lanka Red Cross, and the Columbian Red Cross (in Spanish). Anyone know of other repudiable organizations?

* It's been a year since the earthquake in Haiti and they're still rebuilding (while fighting a malaria outbreak) -

help_haiti has a roundup of organizations still operating in the country.

( Opinions go under a cut )

Enough opinionating, on with the links:

* Why is nobody calling Jared Loughner a terrorist?

* On Tiger Beatdown - The Arizona Shooting: An FAQ

* On Slacktivist - Only a crazy person would take what we say seriously

* From Ta-Nehisi Coates - On Loughner

Comments were good reading on all of these last time I checked.

Other things:

* From Sara Mayeux, one of Ta-Nehisi Coates' recent guest bloggers Fun with numbers, high school student drug use edition

* From Jamelle Bouie, also a guest blogger - A brief history of welfare for middle class Americans

* On boingboing - US orders Twitter to hand over account data on Wikileaks and multiple Wikileaks supporters

* You've heard about the 'Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior' article on the Wall Street Journal, yes? Turns out it had been edited without [Chua's] input, and by the time she saw the version they intended to run, she was limited in what she could do to alter it.

"I was very surprised," [Chua] says. "The Journal basically strung together the most controversial sections of the book. And I had no idea they'd put that kind of a title on it. But the worst thing was, they didn't even hint that the book is about a journey, and that the person at the beginning of the book is different from the person at the end -- that I get my comeuppance and retreat from this very strict Chinese parenting model."

Good job, WSJ.

( Fun shiny things go under a cut )

( Videos go under a cut. Wow, this post is long. )

glass_icarus is starting an ongoing food carnival! Potluck is intended to be a carnival for multicultural and intersectional discussions of food.

* Questioning Transphobia has an article on Raising (Potentially) Trans Children. It's good advice.

* Over at Native Appropriations - An Acceptable Ignorance: The comments were not rude, they were not even unexpected, but what struck me was how acceptable this level of ignorance was. No one was embarrassed or ashamed by their lack of knowledge, no one found it out of the ordinary. They shared without any hesitation, without apology.

* If you've missed it, the AO3 has implemented a 'kudos' button, similar to Facebook's 'like' thingit. Nifty! Also, Fanlore is out of beta.

* Universal Subtitles is a new tool that lets anyone add subtitles/captioning to any online video that has the code installed. The possibilities are amazing.

* Via BoingBoing: an infographic exploring the business of malware.

* Did any of you see the lunar eclipse Monday night/Tuesday morning? We got lucky - My roommates and I went up to the roof of our building around 2am (us central, about halfway through the eclipse) to see it and there wasn't any cloud cover blocking our view. It was a fantastic reddish color, so cool <3. Both Wired Science and Bad Astronomy have info and photos.

* I got my Yuletide story uploaded on time! And it turns out you can edit after the deadline! Which is good because there were a couple of things I needed to fix. I might do something for Yuletide Madness again this year, but first I want to trawl through

fandom_stocking for wishlists to fill (mine is here, in case you were wondering).

I wrote a drabble for

angelgazing's cuddle!meme a couple weeks ago (Well, I wrote several, but only one I liked enough to post):

( Untitled Yusuf/Saito-ish drabble under the cut. )

( Many links about Delicious (not actually being shut down!), politics, Wikileaks, science, and stuff. )

I've got another 12 or so, mostly fannish stuff, but I'll post them tomorrow. Now is the time for YULETIDE PANIC, OH SHIT. There's 3.5 hours to the defaulting deadline, which is the deadline I gave myself for getting my first draft done. Because if it's not done by then I might as well give up, you know? :/

But I'm close! So 'night (or morning, or afternoon), y'all, have a good one.

JFC, Yahoo is shutting down Delicious. What. WHAT. WHAT.

I have 2700 bookmarks saved there right now, most of them (1613) fic. A lot of my fannish friends do too. And fannish comms. And challenges. And kink memes. And International Blogging Against Racism Week, and...

This isn't 'LJ's going under' levels of oshit, but it's still going to be bad - there really isn't anywhere (afaik) for people to go. A couple people (we're talking about this over on Twitter as I type) have mentioned Pinboard, which looks shiny, but that $7 sign-up fee's a big obstacle to fannish migration.

In conclusion, WHAT.

ETA: Both

bookshop (DW/LJ) and

copperbadge (DW/LJ) are hosting OMG WTF WHAT DO WE DO discussions.

Also, it turns out the AO3 can bookmark external links! Except there's no import and the interface is not-good. Maybe they can fix that?

ETA 2: Actually, everyone is hosting OMG WTF WHAT DO WE DO discussions. Via

cimorene: 11 Ways to Backup your del.icio.us bookmarks. That's the first, most important step. Don't forget to do it!

ETA 3: The OTW just tweeted about the Delicious shut down and recommend the AO3, with a promise of more news to follow. So they know about it, at least!

Meanwhile, over at

deliciouslymad, a former Delicious employee is talking about starting up a new fannish-friendly bookmarking service.

I'm trying to organize my blog and tumblr feeds so that I actually read them - my current solution is setting the Morning Coffee Firefox add-on to show me my DW rlist, LJ flist, Google Reader and Tumblr dashboard every morning and then restructuring the shit out of all four. Down with redundancy!

And I figure heck, while I've got these links pulled up, might as well share them.

( Blogs (warning: many links) )

( News Sites )

I'm still figuring this tumblr thing out, all I'm following right now are Microagressions, Clients From Hell, and a couple friends. Anybody have recs? Fashion, art, music, social issues, etc, it's all good.

And while we're sharing, please link your favorite blogs and news sites too! More sources of information = best thing. And my blogroll looks long but not nearly long enough.

* I'm in a constant state of [facepalm] re: Wikileaks and the way things are going down (when I'm not busy being struck by the cyber-thriller narrative - did you know Anonymous has gotten involved?). I'll put up more links in my next readalong but in the meantime: Boing Boing is a good (if unabashedly biased) source for news. Also,

tsukinofaerii has a minor PSA + links: "Keep up on the WikiLeaks news. Whether you agree with what they do or think that they're dangerous, read the documents".

* Sarah Dopp wants to build an online marketplace for gender-variant clothing solutions and could use some help.

* via

copperbadge: the USA network's Characters Unite campaign is donating $1 to charity for every pledge made on its website. It's very rahrah USA and kind of pompous but hey, a dollar is a dollar and pledging is free.

* Also from

copperbadge: A Not So Brief Lesson In Holiday Giving. To sum up: when people ask you for money, be critical. Know who's getting your money, know what they believe, and if you can't get hard facts, be suspicious.. Many links in the comments.

* via

bossymarmalade:

fandom_stocking is open for wishlists and fills! Recs, icons, fic, art, music, vids, it's all good. Mine is here :D

* Thought of You is a beautiful short animated piece (if you can get it to work, Vimeo's giving me grief).

~*~

* The Hathor Legacy has a holiday gift guide up: 66 Gifts for the Rockin’ Anti-Sexist, Anti-Racist on YOUR Friends List

* So does Boing Boing (I don't have anyone to give the Giant Bucket of Legos to but omg, a giant bucket of legos! Also I think I'll bite the productivity bullet and check out Minecraft.).

*

rm is hosting a marketplace for small business, artists, authors, crafters, and other entrepreneurial types.

* If you've missed it,

denise has complied lists of artisans and other creative types (with things to sell) in the DW community.

* If you like comic books and are interested in supporting indie artist, a couple of my favorite webcomic creators have holiday packages up: Family Man, Hanna is Not a Boy's Name, and Lackadaisy. Spike of Templar, Arizona has her shirts on clearance (I <3 my Phineas Rage shirt). And any time is a good time to buy Hark, A Vagrant! swag (I <3 my Curies in Love shirt too).

Other artists who are not having sales (so far!) but have awesome stuff: The Thrilling Adventures of Babbage and Lovelace, Girl Genius, Gunnerkrigg Court (books separately available at Better World Books! And, you know. Amazon and places), The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal (I just got a couple prints and they are gorgeous) and wow, I did not mean to shill quite that hard but there you go.

* While I'm at it, remember: the Hayate x Blade v.1-3 Omnibus is out in stores!

Do any of you folks have favorite indie artists, authors, musicians, creatives, et al that are selling things this holiday season?

~*~

I've got plenty of interest in the One Piece thing (reread? readalong? book club? I need a name for this thing), hurray! I'll get the details together and put a post up later this week.

~*~

* Today's the first day of Hanukkah! Happy holidays to everyone who's celebrating.

* Today is also World Aids Day.

* As well as the 55th anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of a bus.

* Speaking of WAD, via the BBC: Pope's condom views clarified by Vatican.

* Daily Pill Greatly Lowers AIDS Risk, Study Finds. Not perfect (and I'm weirded out by their test demographics), but there seems to be potential here.

* Meanwhile, things with North Korea continue to be tense. Does anyone know of a column or blog to watch for good analysis? Right now all I've got is the BBC and Al Jazeera.

* EDIT: From Ask a Korean (thanks,

troisroyaumes!): North Korea's Shelling of Yeonpyeong-do -- What You Need to Know

* I could swear I already linked to this but it's in my notes (and bears repeating), so: Governments Remove Sexual Orientation from UN Resolution Condemning Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. In other words, the UN has a resolution that 'urges States to protect the right to life of all people, including by calling on states to investigate killings based on discriminatory grounds'. Sexual orientation was on the list of 'discriminatory grounds' for 10 years. They voted it off, 79 to 70.

* More on the TSA:

axelrod points out how bad current procedure is for trans people and links to resources.

dopegirlfresh talks about the complexities of the situation.

compilerbitch dissects the safety issues.

*

kalichan has an essay up on fandom, love, fail, and justice.

deepad has a tangential thought.

* Labrys, a LGBT organization in Kyrgyzstan, is accepting donations to help build a safe house.

* On politics.co.uk: The hypocrisy of the media attack on Wikileaks

* The Zombie Network: Beware 'Free Public WiFi'.

*

glockgal has a tutorial up: Drawing Characters of Colour.

*

angelgazing is hosting a pan-fandom cuddling meme!

* Reasoning with Vampires, for all your Twilight snark/educational writing guide needs.

* The

intoabar amnesty round is open, HURRAY!!! I should have my fic up in an hour or so :DDDD

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow USians! I am ensconced at my parent's ranch, hanging out and digesting the fantastic dinner my sister put together (18 separate appetizers, dishes, and desserts, NOM. Also, oof, full). I'm glad to be with my family (and that they're well enough to be here) and I'm glad for the friends that aren't here today and I'm glad for all of you (some of whom fit in the previous category - you get gladness twice over!).

Holiday felicitations aside, it's important to remember that the myths we tell ourselves about Thanksgiving are just that, myths. Inaccurate and damaging myths.

~*~

And for something completely different (via

crossedwires) - name a character from one of my fandoms/shows/anything and I'll give you:

(a) Three facts about them from my personal fanon.
(b) A reason he/she sucks.
(c) A reason he/she is amazing.
(d) Five things that I'd like to see happen to them.
(e) Five people that I can't ship that character with and why.

C'mon, we're about to watch the new Karate Kid, Jaden Smith is cute but not so cute I don't need a distraction.

~*~

I still don't have any food icons.

I'm back in Dallas! And at work but it's fine, it's Friday. And next week's a short week, so.

The Bay Area was fab - it's kinda counterintuitive to go to a bigger city (in a different state) to get away from people but there's something about being by yourself in a crowd, you know? Not to mention Angel Island (have I talked enough about how much I loved that place?):

I've got a couple more photos to post, will probably get to that tomorrow-ish.

( Next: internet readalong is cut to spare your reading list. )

It's been nearly a week and I still don't know how to talk about

skywardprodigal's death. We never talked or interacted, but she was a name and a voice I trusted in every conversation I saw her in. She was a bright light, brilliant.

Here is

brightfame's original post sharing the news and here is the followup. There are many memorial posts scattered about the community -

spiralsheep's is particularly eloquent and collects links to others in the comments.

~*~

On Elizabeth Moon and WisCon:

* N. K. Jemisin posts about her experiences with the concom and her decision not to attend the con. Followup after Moon's disinvitation here.

*

karnythia has responses to some common defensive arguments.

* From

vito_excalibur: A Short Play in Four Acts.

*

cofax07 reminds us what censorship is and is not (hint: the SF3 isn't actually censoring Elizabeth Moon!).

On asexuality:

* Via

zanzando:

ontd_feminism is failtastic,

mercredigirl responds.

* The Asexual Visibility and Education Network is a good place to educate yourself on what asexuality is and isn't. Here is a bonus article on aromanticism.

*

asexual_fandom has even more resources.

* They're also hosting The Ace Manifestos Project! Here's the intro/rules post, here's the claims post.

Other things:

*

lamardeuse's thoughts on Spirit Day: What I'm saying is this: it's fine for this day to be whatever you want it to be, and encompass more than what or who these young men were. But if we're going to point to these six individuals, these six lives, as examples, then we're not honouring them by losing sight of their individuality in the quest for symbolism. They deserved a hell of a lot more than they got in their short lives, and they certainly deserve more than a one-click, five second reblog from us.

* A federal appeals panel blocked the lower court ruling halting DADT enforcement. "In order to provide this court with an opportunity to consider fully the issues presented," whatever the fuck that means.

* Paypal: still trying to screw you over.

* A guy named Jason Packman has collected everything Ta-Nehisi Coates has written on the US Civil War in one handy location. Shiny.

* I was going to link y'all to this thing on 4chan (I know, I know) where somebody posted all of Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker's Underground and Steve Lieber showed up and was very classy about everything. It's down now - hopefully I can dig up screencaps but, in the meantime, Steve Lieber is a classy dude and Underground (note: I've only read the first two issues) is a classy comic. ETA: HA, Steve has an archived version of the 4chan thread (including all the page scans, looks like) on his site.

* Old school anime fans, brace for nostalgia - 18 years of Out Magazine covers.

~*~

Yuletide nominations are closed! I managed a last minute swap from UnderCovers (because it was nominated a million times) to Templar, Arizona (which had never been nominated). It's a great comic and everybody should read it.

All six of my nominations qualify for the

dark_agenda challenge to one degree or another, which is awesome because it's an awesome challenge, and I'll be doing the same with my requests. If you haven't checked it out yet, I encourage you to do so!

First, two signal boosts:

* Super creepy account of a family being driven out of house by law enforcement/child services conspiracy. Please spread this around, they need all the help they can get.

* From

rydra_wong - The Scarleteen Blog-A-Thon: On the 15th, Scarleteen is starting a month-long blog-a-thon/blog carnival to encourage people to donate towards their annual operating budget and enable them to expand their services.

And now some links:

* You've all heard of the It Gets Better project at this point, yes?

forthwritten has a post up about the program's flaws and there's a lot of good discussion in the comments. Remember, just because Dan Savage is an uber-douche doesn't mean everyone who submitted a video is or that we can't get something useful out of it.

* In the meantime, there are alternatives - check out the Make it Better and We Got Your Back projects, as well as

copperbadge's list of resources. These are mostly US/North American focused - anyone have links to international/worldwide efforts?

* On Good Kids and Total Fucking Assholes by Kate Harding: You know what’s total bullshit? When two legal adults make and distribute a video of two other people engaging in sexual activity, without the knowledge or consent of those two other people, and then everyone falls all over themselves insisting that the first two legal adults are really good kids who would totally never hurt anyone!

* I was going to copy over links from

glass_icarus's latest linkspam, but the list got too long. Head over that way instead!

* via

the_future_modernes - Driving While Brown: Apparently la migra can stop anyone within 100 miles of the U.S. Border, including both coasts, and the Gulf of Mexico.This means anyone in the cities of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Houston, among many others, can be stopped. ... No warrant or probable cause is needed for what the government calls a "routine search."

* A Supplement to the Texas US History Textbook: This book is a protest to the Texas Board of Education's US history and social studies textbooks. It is a pro-test in the fullest, truest sense of the word, a testimony that contests the version of history espoused by the Texas Board of Education. In this sense this textbook aims at fidelity to the rich history of democratic protest that makes up American history.

* Mr Data Converter - Haven't tested this yet, but apparently it converts Excel data into one of several web-friendly formats, including HTML, JSON and XML.

* Yaoi and Yuri Manga for GBLTQ Readers

* Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo (aka oh, the places Wikipedia will take you.)

In other news, I'm crossing both Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt and No Ordinary Family off my currently-watching list - they've both gotten bad very quickly. Switched over to UnderCovers, which is proving much more entertaining.

* Y'all know this already, but

meloukhia is hosting an anonymous love meme. I'm on there, as are many other wonderful people deserving of love (indexed by

dingsi).

* The second round of

thelosers_kink is open for prompts and fills!

*

copperbadge has put together a special Radio Free Monday post on LGBT rights and the struggles of queer youth. Because it's been a terrible couple of weeks. Contains a ton of links to organizations and resources.

* The Texas State Board of Education continues to fail: The State Board of Education narrowly approved a resolution Friday [Sep. 24th] that instructs publishers to counter a “pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias” in future world history textbooks.

* An older links:

deepad's roundup of responses to Elizabeth Moon.

* From roommate S, who knows some of the people involved and asked that this be spread around: The FBI recently raided the homes of antiwar activists in Chicago and Minneapolis on very flimsy charges. More information and the latest news can be found at fightbacknews.org.

* ( Avatar remix - A.V.A.T.A.R. (Anglos Valiantly Aiding Tragic Awe-inspiring Races) )

* The same people also made 300: This is Revisionism, which I plan on playing the next time my family tries to make me watch it. Fucking wretched film.

* Karen Healey talks about the anti-vaccination movement

* I never read Christoper Pike as a tween and now I am grateful. Geez'um.

* Stumbled across while doing fic research: Your Rights and Remedies When Stopped or Confronted for Photography.

* Ten things you should know when using Google Search

* Wow, Park 51 is going to be pretty. Look at that latticework!

* BoingBoing has the scoop on newly discovered, potentially habitable planet Gliese 581g. Additional info/caveats over at Bad Astronomy.

*

rm's keeps mentioning Inception: The Musical, a wondrous (it has to be, just look at that title) thing created by

mithrigil and being put on at some unspecified future date in New York. I can't find out much aside that it's in rehearsal and

rm's playing Arthur, but I'm crossing my fingers it'll eventually end up online. Inception! The Musical!

[checks 'post linkspam already' off to-do list] Next up, updating the Yusuf post! And posting about last night's karaoke adventure, it was magical.

The latest LJ ruckus seems to be over, but in case you missed it:

*

zvi did an informative roundup.

*

cleolinda posted about the bigger social media picture: And now Livejournal's [syncing up with Facebook] too. The real reason this is a problem--besides any general concerns you might have about the centralization of everything on the internet ever--is that Facebook is a massive collection of dicks.

* I'm four years late to the party on this one, but

rydra_wong's been keeping up a massive Great Race Discussion Linkspam.

*

deepad recently hosted a discussion on the morality of electronic piracy.

*

jonquil has a review up for Tim Gunn, A Guide To Quality, Taste and Style. It sounds fabulous.

*

yuki_onna wants to know what male-bodied orgasms feel like. The responses are informative!

* 75% viral marketing, 25% shits and giggles: Ikea let loose a herd of 100 cats into one of their stores (after mostly-cat proofing and with supervision) to see what would happen.

In Inception (I swear I have other fandoms) news:

*

zanzando talks about what actually goes into Arthur's job (hint: a lot!)

*

butterflythread talks about Arthur's clothes in the movie and what it means for the character (aka What Fanon Is Getting Wrong)

*

ineffort biosex swapped the cast (with bonus chromatic casting!). The photos zie used are really lovely, to boot.

help_pakistan is a fannish auction (a la

help_haiti raising funds to help with recovery efforts after the flooding in Pakistan. I've got an offer up for a dozen (delicious) bran muffins - be sure to check it - and everything else - out!

* Tamora Pierce has more information, both on the flooding in Pakistan and the mudslides in China, and a short list of ways to help.

* ETA: Better yet,

kairia has a linkspam + list of places to donate.

* Folks, a couple things you should know about the 'Ground Zero Mosque': A) it's not a mosque, B) it's not at ground zero and C) it's not being built by extremists. It is, in fact, a community center being built two blocks away on the site of an old Burlington Coat Factory. Ebert says some smart things about it. So does Charlie Brooker and Daryl Lang. You can learn more about the Park51 Community Center at their website.

* Satoshi Kon, director of Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Perfect Blue, and the tv show Paranoia Agent, passed away Monday. He was 46 and a brilliant director; animation - hell, movies in general - has lost a lot with his death.

* Also, Studio Ghibli will close if their next film doesn't do well at the box office. This can't happen, folks. Studio Ghibli gave us Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, Ponyo, Howl's Moving Castle and other amazing films - I don't want to imagine a world where there aren't any more.

* The Accidental Hedonist has information on the US egg recall and how you can tell if you've got bad eggs.

* Philadelphia is requiring bloggers who have advertising on their site buy a business privilege license and pay taxes on any profits they make.

* I knew that Greek and Roman art was a lot brighter then their white marble remnants imply, but seeing them digitally repainted is still stunning.

* Inception fandom is still going strong and brings us wonderful things like How to Dress Your Man/Character: An Informal Tutorial Heavy on the PicSpam and the Saito and Cobb Ship Manifesto.

* I got my art draft for

c_im_bigbang in just under the wire, hurray! Author claims are currently in progress, I am pretty excited about the one who claimed me.

* Sanctuary continues to be terrible (though not as much as the first season) and I love it anyway. Possibly because it is really, incredibly gay. Seriously, no matter how gay you think your 'ship is (unless it is a canon 'ship), Henry and Bigfoot are gayer.

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