effex | Entries tagged with links: articles and essays

* Our third roommate is here! A day early even; she did the DC to Dallas drive in two days instead of three. We're throwing a housewarming party tomorrow night to celebrate (y'all are totes invited) which means I'll spend tonight unpacking all those boxes I've been ignoring in the living room.

* Saturday is also Scott Pilgrim day! The plan is to drag as many people to see it as possible and then head to the aforementioned party. It will be a good day.

* Speaking of Scott Pilgrim, this review on Monkey See sums up my feelings on a lot of the other reviews.

*

zanzando pointed me to this post (NSFW) about one of Oscar Jaenada's (Cougar in The Losers) role in a movie called Lisistrata and, well. Well. Tracked it down and watched it with Dee (in Spanish and sans subtitles, but Dee translated the best bits for me) and it's just as hilarious (and gay) as it looks. Full of gender issues and history!fail and not enough lesbians, but hilarious.

* Signups are open for

eid_ka_chand and

daysofawesome is gearing up! For extra amazing,

rydra_wong is holding a prompt-a-thon for combinations of the two.

* On BoingBoing: Yakuza 3 (the game) as reviewed by actual Yakuza.

* I'm still keeping an eye on the Google/Verizon deal-not-a-deal - Propublica has a article on the 'policy announcement' and net neutrality here

* I haven't had a chance to watch Maddow's segment on DADT yet, but I've been hearing very good things.

* My whole family is in a state of flux right now - my grandparents may need to move to assisted living, my sister's graduating from college next year, my brother's graduating from college *this* year, my parents may be moving to Germany - and it's strange. My family's always been the stablest part of my life and... it'll be interesting, I guess, to see how things work with all the pieces moved around.

* PROP 8 HAS BEEN OVERTURNED! Day old news, whatever, this party will last all week. BOOGIE DOWN.

*

cofax7 has choice excerpts from the judge's most excellent ruling and a link to the whole text. Go read it folks, it's amazing.

rm has a series of posts on the topic:

* A reminder that despite the ruling, no legal same-sex marriages can currently be performed in CA. There are several hoops left to jump through and "Other than momentum and hope, today is exactly like yesterday."

* A sprawling, melancholy post on stories, mourning, and " taking a cab because I couldn't be on the subway with people who didn't know or wouldn't care or might, if I was so stupid as to try to talk to them, congratulate me on having my humanity affirmed."

* Actually a thread, where someone shows up to claim that 'we' might have won, Democracy Lost. Many people proceed to explain to hir how much zie had missed in civics class.

*

sherrold wants to know if you have a Fannish Executor. I have all my user names and passwords on a thumb drive in my room, which would be awesome if anyone knew to look for it. Time to set up something more formal, I think.

* Apparently a bunch of billionaires are pledging to give away half their wealth? List included Bill Gates and George Lucas, last I heard.

* Also, Google and Verizon are going to eat the internet. Anyone know more about this? How worried should I be?

* Casting calls are out for the Runaways movie. Alex's race is specified, Nico's is not. Mostly I'm surprised that I'm surprised ~~fuck you, Hollywood, fuck yoooooooooooou~~.

* Feminist Hulk/Old Spice Man/Judith Butler = BEST OT3 EVER.

* INCEPTION!

bookshop has a post of meta and joy and hilarious pic memes up here. I am eternally amused by Leo's squinty face.

* LOSERS!!!

zanzando and I have been all Losers, all the time over on Twitter, trying to hash out ranks and branches and units and things. Are they CIA SAD? Green Beret? Delta Force? we wondered. And then Zan was all 'why don't we just ask Andy Diggle?' And then zie did. And he went home and looked through his notes for hir. Turns out they're Army, 5th Special Forces Group! ~~which doesn't actually make sense given the make-up of the team but WHATEVER, THEY'RE SPECIAL.~~ You can read the whole conversation here for, idk, the lulz.

And then Zan was bemoaning the lack of a Losers College!AU. And then halfway through my enthusiastic response (Pooch and Jensen are roommates! Clay and Roque are professors! Cougar's a grad.... in the astronomy program. MAX COULD TEACH ETHICS!) zie's all "and it could be an Inception crossover! :D :D :D"

So yeah. That's happening.

* I haven't read it yet, but there's an official Inception prequel comic up for reading online. I think it's about the job Arthur and Cobb were pulling on Saito?

* Speaking of Inception, there's an awesome interview with Yusuf 's actor, Dileep Rao, here.

* And

bookshop has a ton of Inception links and resources here.

* Giving some airtime to my other fandom du jour: The Losers is out on DVD ~~tomorrow!~~ from

zillah975

* Photos from the Westboro Baptist Church counter-protest at ComicCon <3

* For those of you who've missed it, WikiLeaks recently received and released a bunch of secret douments petaining to the war in Afghanistan during Bush's presidency. They gave the New York Time, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel an advance look at the war logs and each have done extensive writeups.

DALLAS = STILL HOT. And overly pollinated. And yesterday, while I was home sick, ants crawled out of a hole in the bathroom and got into Suzie's cat food dish (which I keep in my bedroom). My roommate and I killed all the ants we could find and blocked up the hole with cinnamon (an effective ant deterrent, turns out) but we didn't find all of them... which meant I spent the rest of the day with ants popping up in random places (including on me) in my bedroom.

I hate summer. I really, really do.

On the upside, I cleaned the hell out of the bathroom, then the kitchen (better safe, etc), and lit a couple cinnamon candles. Mmm, cinnamon.

Some linkage:

* To Kill a Mockingbird, Huck Finn, High School Curriculums, and Canon by

sanguinity:

Basically: I see some very compelling arguments for seriously downgrading where Huck Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird tend to stand in high school curricula, and even for removing them from high school curricula altogether. Additionally, I get growly when the ALA holds up Huck Finn as OMG THEY WANT TO BAN THIS BELOVED AND WHOLLY WORTHY CLASSIC, SEE HOW WRONG AND MISGUIDED BOOK BANNERS ARE? I've yet to see evidence that anyone is trying to remove Huck Finn from school libraries or otherwise prevent access to it; the usual reason Huck Finn gets on that list is because a parent is trying to have the wholly reasonable discussion of what is worth spending class time on, how, and at what personal costs to which students.

* From the Washington Post:

"Top Secret America" is a project nearly two years in the making that describes the huge national security buildup in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

When it comes to national security, all too often no expense is spared and few questions are asked - with the result an enterprise so massive that nobody in government has a full understanding of it. It is, as Dana Priest and William M. Arkin have found, ubiquitous, often inefficient and mostly invisible to the people it is meant to protect and who fund it.

sparkindarkness has collected links to articles discussing homophobia and homophobic violence worldwide. WARNING: RAPE AND ASSAULT TRIGGERS.

* On BoingBoing - Donor 45: The weird world of AIDS "non-progressors": Last week, news broke that antibodies discovered in a man known only as Donor 45 could, potentially, be used to create a vaccine to protect against HIV/AIDS.

* Mental Floss has a roundup of interesting library-related links.

* Looks like the rest of the big manga scanslation sites are shutting down - OneManga just announced that they plan to have all scans off the site by next week. It'll be interesting to see how this develops (though on a selfish level I'm worried about how this will affect our Hikaru no Go reread).

* I'm really loving the interview with Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (creators of A:TLA) about The Legend of Korra. Also, via

cofax07, have a hi-res version of the promo image!

Between the constant state of emergency at work (I *hate* prepping for back to school season), the heat, and my brand new allergies, my ability to brain is non-existent. Gone. Kaput. On the upside, I'm too tired to be angry at everything!

Except The Real L Word, which I'm watching with my roommate. Where 'watching' means 'yelling at the screen because some of these women are abusive assholes, holy shit.' Also Hell House, which upset me so much I had to make hot cocoa and mainline some Studio Ghibli. Anyway.

* Your thinky post for the day - Ablism bingo: when you fail, you win!. In which

lightgetsin dismantles some common anti-warning/anti-accommodation arguments.

And I've got to say this. Personally, as an artist/writer/designer, my desire to elicit a particular emotion or reaction from my audience DOES NOT PRECLUDE my audience's right not to be hurt by my work.

( Warning, brief description of emotional abuse and resulting panic attack. )

On to more pleasant things:

* NASA's website for astronaut photos of Earth is amazing.

* So's the art of Simon Lok. The part of Southern California he paints in is very close to where I grew up; looking at these paintings gives me a wonderful, achy homesickness.

* Via the Digital Democracy Project Einstein Project: Photos by children in Guatemala's Zona Reyna.

*

thingswithwings just put up a really excellent Lem/Phil Better Off Ted vid. Yay, Better Off Ted love!

* A little older, but I keep going back to watch

tavven's Jack/Ianto Torchwood vid. Ianto's little face. I miss it.

*

brownbetty gives excellent instructions on the correct way to pet a dog.

* Did you know that most of Wodehouse's work is up on Project Gutenberg? And you can download the ebooks for free? No, me neither.

* And speaking of Wodehouse, James Nicholl has a chart up comparing Bertie and Bruce Wayne (I am also firmly in the 'Bertie is smarter than he seems' camp. I mean, the books are told as if he had written them. Think about it.).

* Last weekend was rough for Toranto -

twig_tea has a series of posts up about the protests, police brutality, and hir own experiences at the jail solidarity rally. G20 Protest and Aftermath is the big one with followups here, here and here. Most major news outlets have *some* coverage of the event - I've been following Rabble.ca and The Globe and Mail in particular.

* The Russian spy story continues to develop.

jonquil comments

* On Mother Jones - Uniformed Cops on BP Payroll? Enter the ACLU: Louisiana police don't have any right to tell you you can't walk onto a public beach. However, they do have the right to mislead you about who they're really working for. In Louisiana, as in many places, it's legal for police officers to wear their uniforms regardless of whether they're acting in an official capacity or working for a private corporation.

* On

ontd_political - A license to witch-hunt: The 6-3 decision of the court, announced June 21, upholds a portion of the 2001 Patriot Act that classifies some speech and other "intangible assistance" as material aid to terrorists.

*

bell has posted a comprehensive linkspam on Cornell University's Clitoriplasty on Intersex Children. Zie's serious about hir TRIGGER WARNING.

* The Last Airbender is out today and the terrible reviews it's getting (currently 5% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes!) makes me all tingly inside. I recommend camping out at

racebending for up to date info, but The Last Airbender: Pre-Screening, M. Night defends the casting on TV, It sucks to be right. It sucks to be right and Roger Ebert's review (half a star) are good places to start.

* Wonder Woman is getting a new backstory and a new outfit, which the internet seems incredibly divided on. I'm with

oxboxer on the outfit - it's kickin' (yes, the jacket too, c'mon it's awesome) - and am withholding opinion on the backstory.

* Johnny Depp has apparently been cast as The Doctor in a US remake/movie of Doctor Who, which. Why is this necessary? I know you're bitter, RTD, but you don't need to hurt us like this. Assisting the US with our cultural appropriation problem is also Not Cool.

* Cindy Pon's Phoenix books have been rebranded and the new covers are awful. Whitewashing, culturefail (is the model seriously wearing a sequined tank top on the second one?), designfail and photoshopfail all in two shitty packages.

* Photoshop Sweded (from this photoset) is amazing. A++ for creative illustration.

* How to forecast the weather

* One small apartment, 24 rooms (I need to go back and watch this with the sound on).

* Flying cars!

* I Hugged a Man in His Underwear. And I am Proud.: I spent the day at Chicago’s Pride Parade. Some friends and I, with The Marin Foundation, wore shirts with “I’m Sorry” written on it. We had signs that said, “I’m sorry that Christians judge you,” “I’m sorry the way churches have treated you,” “I used to be a bible-banging homophobe, sorry.” We wanted to be an alternative Christian voice from the protestors that were there speaking hate into megaphones.

* The Last Airbender opens on the 5th.

ssj10 lays out why you shouldn't see it: If you pay for this movie, knowing full well why its cast and its production are racist and problematic, then you are actively, in good conscience, supporting institutionalized racism. Period.

* Related: Racialicious' Of Hollywood and 'the American People': How the status quo is maintained and The Hathor Legacy's classic Why film schools teach screenwriters not to pass the Bechdel test.

* In comics news, DC's been killing off or otherwise sidelining heroes of color in favor of white characters. And they're being assholes when confronted about it. Racialicious talks about it here and >here and A. Lee Martinez takes a whack at it here. Now with bonus misogyny.

* There's an active conversation about scans/scanslations over in the manga blogosphere - Erica Friedman has The Solution to the Scanslation Solution (crossposted to Hooded Utilitarian) and Jake Forbes has Dear Manga, You Are Broken and Dear Manga, a Postscript. Some of you might have noticed that MangaFox was asked to take down the licensed properties on their site and complied - chances are good OneManga and other distribution sites will follow.

* On the NYTimes - In Nigeria, Oil Spills are a Longtime Scourge: The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless.

* Discussion about the current round of Racefail is still going strong -

amazonziti's original links+ discussion post reached it's LJ limit, you can find the new one here. There are many, many worthwile essays to read through but I especially want to point out

facetofcathy's How Could They? How Could Anyone?,

ephemere's Itys and

maychorian's On Fandom Reactions.

TRIGGER WARNING ON BOTH OF THESE (abusive relationships):

* Fugitivus - On Interpersonal Badness: If somebody is putting in the work to knock you down, it’s because they’ve got something to fear about you if you’re standing up.

* From

issendai - How to Keep Someone With You Forever

AND ALSO THIS (body image, fat shaming):

* Golda Poretsky over at Body Love Wellness has an interview with Kai Hibbard, a finalist on The Biggest Loser: From seeing her fellow contestants forced to workout with injuries against doctor’s orders, to the extreme dehydration prior to weigh-ins, to the resultant eating disorder that Kai still is working to heal, the story she told was nothing like the fantasy that the Biggest Loser seeks to promote. | Part one | Part two | Part three |

Also, Perez Hilton is a plagiarist.

* Via

redroanchronicles - Your Office Chair Is Killing You. Eep. [mentally rearranges home office]

*

cleolinda talks about the tent city that sprung up for the 'Eclipse' premiere. 'Ware the comments on the linked ONTD post.

A heads up, folks - there's a fresh round of racefail going on over at the SPN/J2 Big Bang, centered around the fic Caught Between the Earth and Sky by

gatorgrrrl. We're not talking minor fail, either. We're talking:

Warnings/Spoilers: angst, bad words, m/m sex, non-graphic death of children

Summary: The setting is Haiti, post-earthquake. Jensen Ackles is an American doctor who's running from his past, trying to make up for his mistakes in this broken place and live up to the promise he made to his brother half a lifetime ago. Jared Padalecki is a naive photojournalist who's hiding from himself, hoping to find one more story in a place already forgotten by the rest of the world. When he learns about all the good things Jensen and his friend, Haitian nurse Abraham Joseph, are doing around the ravaged country, he thinks he's found his story. Jensen, of course, thinks otherwise. But Jared is nothing if not persistent, and when circumstances work to throw them together, he quickly learns that Dr. Jensen Ackles is more than just a story and that sometimes, stories can become personal.

And it gets worse from there.

*

bossymarmalade waded through the story and posted the really choice bits here.

* The fic's

spnpermanon thread is here.

*

amazonziti has an extensive link roundup and commentary here.

*

cofax7 has a couple more links here, with discussion in the comments.

This is fucked up, y'all. It's racist, exploitative, compassionless and NOT OKAY. Also NOT OKAY is the way noone - not her artist, not her beta, not her pre-readers, not a good chunk of her reader-readers - noticed anything was wrong. What the hell, people.

No recent events today, honey. I have a headache.

* I also have allergies, which has never happened to me before. I am not dealing with it gracefully.

* We do have internet, sort of - Time Warner Guy told us something had gotten into the walls, eaten our ~~internet~~ cables, and the wait for repair was so long we'd be better off waiting until we could hook up our new apartment. My Dad's let us borrow an AT&T 3G wireless thingit which works as long as we don't stress it out too much. The PC unit hooked up to the TV doesn't get wireless, though, so we're still show-less (and I can't work from home).

The lack of TV's made us pretty productive, actually. Dee's taken up jogging.

* The Trouble With Tolerance by Tim Wise: So what is tolerance anyway? As I see it, tolerance means I don't burn your church down, or tie you to a fence and leave you to die, or drag you down a dirt road behind my pickup. It means I tolerate your existence and little else. I let you live and breathe for another day. How nice of me.

* Perry Moore's Who Cares About the Death of a Gay Superhero Anyway?: A History of Gays in Comic Books. By which he means the mainstream DC and Marvel 'verses with some Dark Horse and Image thrown in, but it's still a comprehensive and depressing list. [saves commentary on Moore's gender issues for another time, progress for women in comics my spandex clad ass]

* Queer Tropes by

neo_prodigy: As many of you know, June is the month of LGBTQ Pride and I couldn't think of a better time to call out a few tropes that inundate comics and media when it comes LGBTQ characters/themes. Basic but a good read nonetheless.

* On The Nation, Brace Yourself: Good News on Africa: But in a world in which the conventional wisdom that Africa is a basket case is so strong, it's hard to break through. The Sala-i-Martin/Pinkovskiy paper "is going to produce a storm, but unfortunately it will be just among the academic types," Chege predicted. So far, it has been more of a mild breeze than a storm, but Chege was right in foreseeing that the study wouldn't get much attention beyond the world of professional economists. Fits in well with How to Write About Africa and a couple TEDTalks I need to dig up.

* A fourth season has been announced for Torchwood. It'll be airing on Starz. I... don't think I'll be watching it (unless fandom convinces me otherwise [peers through fingers]).

* LGBTFest fic is back from the editors and I'm 1/4 of the way through revisions (there are a lot) - super exciting! It's only ~4000 words long, about the same as Recoil and Grace, but I've accepted that as my current limit. Gotta be able to handle this length before I can get all those epics out of my head.

* This article was a kick in the pants and the... spark, I guess? For a series of personal revelations about myself and my creativity. ( Cut for a quick talk about depression and me )

* HikaGo post will go up when I get back from lunch! Mmm, lunch.

* We have an apartment! It is actually in the complex I was turning my nose up at a month-ish ago, it is amazing how much more appealing it is after a tour and also weeks of apartment hunting. The new lease starts up on the 11th and our current lease ends on the 26th, which gives us a nice bumper and also means we have to start packing, like, now.

* Almost, almost done with a finished draft of my LGBTFest fic - the goal is to have it done and out to beta by Saturday. Which means I have to find a beta, hmm. [eyes

nepenthe and

zanzando]

~*~

* More on the Gulf oil crisis - has a ton of information and links up that I strongly recommend looking through.

* This video - about proper booming techniques and BP complete failure to use them - has been making the rounds. Important bit starts at 1:57.

* On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court ruled that "Criminal suspects must now unambiguously invoke their right to remain silent — which counterintuitively requires them to speak," [Sotomayor, who voted against the measure] said. "At the same time, suspects will be legally presumed to have waived their rights even if they have given no clear expression of their intent to do so." Yes. You must now explicitly invoke your right to remain silent - if you don't (if you, say, choose to physically remain silent), the police can assume you've waived that right and "can keep shooting questions at a suspect who refuses to talk as long as they want in hopes that the person will crack and give them some information."

* Mary Anne Mohanraj, Guest of Honor at Wiscon 34, has her speech up on her website:

Because here is one truth I know --

The world is in terrible danger. You have been chosen, you are needed, you are each and every one of you the only one who can save it, if you will just be brave enough. And it will be hard. But heroism isn't about not being afraid. It is about being afraid, and doing the work anyway. Fighting for what you know is right. And I promise you this -- for every time you stand up for the cause you believe in, every time you break down one of the walls of fear to speak out, you will emerge stronger and braver on the other side. I found it incredibly inspiring. [stalks site until video goes up]

[yawns hugely] I am going to go home and nap hard, y'all, it's been a week.

* My sister took the (very vast) majority of photos on our DC trip - I plan on aquiring them and putting together a post this weekend. The short version - yay DC! yay

bookshop! yay monuments! omfg my feet!

* I need to put together a post on the Castle season finale. Enough time's passed that I can probably be reasonable about it.

Onto the linkspam:

* More fanfic meta - this piece by

copperbadge and Fan the Flames

yuki_onna (author Catherynne M. Valente).

* Actually,

yuki_onna's on a bit of a roll - you should also check out The Lost World, which is about Lost in specific (spoiler warning!) and genre shows in general. Good stuff.

* The Third Virtual Season of Torchwood,

tw_itallchanges, has wrapped up and, folks. It was brilliant.

* Also brilliant is Janelle Monáe's new album, The ArchAndroid. [has it on repeat]

* Arizona Fights Back Against Boycott Threats Due to Immigration Law. Warning - if you're anything like me, you won't be able to do anything but mutter dicks under your breath for a good five minutes after reading. DICKS.

* Current-ish status on the Gulf oil spill, courtesy of BoingBoing.

* The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a comic about the MMR vaccination 'controversy'. Relatedly, an older article from Wired: An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All.

* Last night, group of people banded together on MetaFilter to help keep two Russian woman from being sold into sexual slavery. Really (as far as I can tell, anyway. Hell of a hoax if it's not true).

* Follow Friday! I've named both these people before but it bears repeating - if you like my linkspams you should absolutely be following

cofax7 and

rm (although the latter is only posting on LJ, which may be cheating). Both have regular link posts and a bunch (fanfic! recs! meta! stuff!) of other interesting things besides.

Folks, there is stuff going on on the internet! Lots of it!

* George R.R. Martin has entered the fanfiction fray (okay, it's more like he never left) and has made a bunch of unsubstantiated claims, including saying Lovecraft died poor and alone because of fanfic.

nihilistic_kid takes that one apart with style and grace. Be sure to check out the bonus Marion Zimmer Bradley history lesson in the comments.

* From

fourthvine: Professional Writers vs. The People Who Love Their Work, Round Umpty-Snout

* And

cesperanza suggests the creation of a new internet law.

~*~

*

bookshop has a new post up titled Fannish spaces, girls, and the culture of silence: Fandom is not woman-positive. Fandom needs all the urging it can get just to talk about female characters, let alone talk about them nicely. Fandom prioritizes men above everything. Fandom prioritizes male-based fantasies, and fandom prioritizes the status of the people who write those fantasies.

*

rm adds her voice here which, as a bonus, segues me nicely into the current WinCon/Unsafe Spaces/Victim Blaming debacle (POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNINGS):

* On

unfunnybusiness - It's Saturday Night And SPN fandom Brings the Unfunny: Wincon, 2008. Baltimore. Fangirls gather, fun is had, but not quite by all. Some con attendees are made to feel unsafe by actions taken by thenyxie, thenyxie's husband and their guests at the con. Includes massive amounts of documentation and links.

seperis has been following this closely and has posted with links and meta here and here.

* Semi related -

trouble with Ignore Them And They'll Go Away: There seems to be a theory in the blogosphere that some people can just take it; that somehow this type of harassment is okay because they're getting something out of it. They're "big enough" that talking about them - as opposed to their ideas - is okay. They're getting attention, right? They're Big Names, and Big Names don't deserve the same respect or response you'd give to someone smaller.

~*~

* I deleted my RL Facebook account last night - the mounting privacy concerns are getting ridiculous and I never used it much anyway. For those of you sticking with it (and I understand how vital a tool it can be), I suggest you check out How to restore your Facebook privacy on LifeHacker.

* I've also officially turned off comments and most crossposting over at

_fx - these link spams will still go up (as long as they don't contain links to vendor sites) along with the occasional announcement (like the HikaGo reread), but that'll be it.

~*~

( This is getting long, so everything else - including information on how to help with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, how to pack your luggage, and Tyra Banks' new YA Fantasy series - goes under the cut. )

~*~

* REMINDER! The discussion post for the first volume (the first 7 chapters) of Hikaru no Go goes up tomorrow!

* Lastly, the charity auction for Deb Mensinger's liver transplant -

debsliverlovers - is still going on. Be sure to stop by and check it out!

Okay, so, this fanfic thing has turned out dozens of excellent posts (mmm, rampent meta on my rlist is my favorite):

* The original post on Fandom Wank - Diana Gabaldon, author of the wildly popular Outlander series, has an opinion on fan fiction: I think it’s immoral, I _know_ it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters.

* From

bookshop - I'm done explaining to people why fanfic is okay: Dear AotW. Fanfic is not about you. Fanfic is not about you. Fanfic is not about you.

*

facetofcathy - Why I write fic...: But you see, her sex was approved by her corporate overlords, and she knew when she was writing it what she was allowed to write about and what she was not. Her porn has the publisher's stamp of approval while what fandom writes is unfettered by any higher authority. I rather expect that scares her a little, and I expect she doesn't think her porn is the same as our porn at all.

*

kate_nepveu - An open letter to professionally-published authors who despise fanfic of their own works: You can be revolted by the idea of fanfic of your own works. But you are so unlikely to be able to stop it that you are better off saving your time and energy for other pursuits. Put your position on the record as above and then do your best to ignore it.

* On The Blotter Blog - If Stories Come to You, Care For Them: But I think, most of all, what people have forgotten is what I remember from being that six year-old writing a Star Trek story; adults are just kids all grown up. And we love to play. We love to pretend. We love to wrap ourselves into a world not of our making because, let's face it, sometimes this world really doesn't cut it.

And in other news:

* Wow, the situation in the Gulf of Mexico is even worse than I thought it was. 90 days to stop the damn leak?

* On Racialicious - Black and Asian (and Jewish?): But, you see – that’s what this post is about. In spite of all the claimed “differences” between the two groups, there are black Asian people. There are Asian black people. There are actually quite a lot of them. When I talk about my mixed background with my students, it never fails to bring a grin to my face (and give me hope) at how many of my “black” students tell me that they have Asian blood, as well. Filipino and black mixes are the most common, but there are so many other mixed-race black/Asian people out there. Because, get this – the communities are entwined.

* Dancers Among Us, 'a collection of NYC dance photographs featuring members of the Paul Taylor, Mark Morris and Martha Graham Dance Companies'. Incredibly amazing.

*

the_future_modernes has an excellent roundup of women's voices in rock

My laptop died in the middle of organizing Friday's link spam, which was exciting. It needs a new battery, which has been sent away for, and my internet presence will be a little sporadic in the meantime (...okay, so I still have my work computer, my home desktop system, and my ipod. But it's just not the same!).

This is abbreviated and not nearly everything I wanted to post but. I suspect it would have been kind of overwhelming and also overly cranky, so. Links!

* An update and comprehensive timeline on the Neil Gaiman thing by Deb over at American Indians in Children's Literature.

* And while we're talking about fail and references to Native Americans, did you know James Cameron is... I don't even know what to call him. Aside from an ignorant, appropriative douchebag. Who thinks that if the Lakota had only fought harder when they were 'asked to displace' they wouldn't have all these problems now. The Lakota.

And a couple more while we're on the theme:

* LINKAGE: The Feather In Your “Native” Cap on Threadbared: In the last few weeks, several writers have tackled the concatenation of concerns surrounding “native appropriations” in so-called hipster fashions.

* Feminist Intersection: On hipsters/hippies and Native culture on Racialiciious

* Feathers and Fashion: Native American is in Style on Sociological Images

*

deepad posts an Open Letter to Charlie Tan (his response and her response to his response linked at the end): I do not understand how you can consider writers to be a proletariat worthy of defending against the elite excesses of their readers. Racefail was primarily about the impact of books on readers and how we saw the world, whether we aspired to write ourselves or not. Critiquing a book's faults because we find it hurtful, offensive, unresearched or otherwise lacking in craftsmanship is something we do in our free time, without payment, out of a sense of community with others who may have struggled against the same issues. To demand that such criticism place the needs of supporting authors above our own needs as readers devalues us.

*

antumbral has a good summery of what, exactly, LJ is doing to your outbound links and why you should be upset about it.

* Relatedly,

stepps has posted the amazingly comprehensive What to do with Dreamwidth: a list of tutorials and information

And finally, Roger Ebert vs Every Video Game Ever:

* Last year, Kellee Santiago gave a TedTalk at TEDxUSC about how of course video games are an art form (or capable of being an art form), can we please move this discussion forward?

* On April 16th, Roger Ebert posted Video games can never be art in response.

* Kellee Santiago replied with My Response To Roger Ebert, Video Game Skeptic

* Penny Arcade has an excellent summery of the whole thing here.

Okay, finally x2 via

rm:

Deb Mensinger needs a new liver, because hers has been destroyed by a genetic form of porphyria. The hope is that Deb's brother will be able to be the live donor (livers are awesome that way). However, Deb's brother lives on the opposite coast and is uninsured, which means there are a lot of expenses involved in all of this that Deb's insurance won't pick up.

So a fandom auction is stepping in to help Deb, her wife (Laurie J. Marks, author of the Elemental Logic series, the Children of the Triad series, The Watcher's Mask, and Dancing Jack, and guest of honor at WisCon 31) and her brother. The auction will open for bidding on May 1, but right now we need people to offer things to bid on! Please visit debsliverlovers to offer items to bid on, and please help spread the word. Thank you!

Nothing to add, except that Laurie J. Marks' Elemental Logic series is fantastic and I suspect her other writing is too.

Arizona's governor has just signed 'Immigration' bill S.B. 1070 into law, which is... terrifying. From the New York Times article earlier this week:

The Arizona Senate passed one of the most stringent immigration laws in the country on Monday, marking a new level of influence for a Republican state senator who not long ago was seen by many as an eccentric firebrand.

Passage of the law, which would, among other things, allow the authorities to demand proof of legal entry into the United States from anyone suspected of being in the country illegally, testified to the relative lack of political power of Arizona Latinos, and to the hardened views toward illegal immigration among Republican politicians both here and nationally.

Take a moment to let that sink in - Anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. Which means if you're Hispanic, or brown, or look like you might be brown and you left your identifying documents at home that day, you are fucked. American citizen, permanent resident, temporary resident, illegal resident, it doesn't matter.

Why was this passed? Says the bill's Republican sponsor, state Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa:

"Illegal is illegal [...] We'll have less crime. We'll have lower taxes. We'll have safer neighborhoods. We'll have shorter lines in the emergency rooms. We'll have smaller classrooms."

I'm too angry to even start unpacking the fuckery in that statement (but if we only got rid of those icky illegals who clutter up our schools and hospitals and neighborhoods, why then, this would be paradise!). But this isn't racial profiling, folks, why would you think that?

A Phoenix Law Enforcement Association representative acknowledged that racial profiling can occur but said fears associated with the bill are unfounded.

"We're not targeting any particular group," said Levi Bolton, a retired police detective. "Cops are not here to do these things to you."

This is not the answer to our 'immigration problem'. This is fucked up, and racist, and oppressive, and wrong.

* So Neil Gaiman has started his own round of fail, which is exciting. I have been a big fan for a very long time (and also I strongly associate him with my dad) and, while I knew he'd screw up eventually (everybody does, after all), I had hoped he'd acquit himself with grace. Fucking hell.

* Sonoma County CA separates elderly gay couple and sells their possessions. Because, among other people, our culture still hates people who are gay and/or elderly. Warning: Chances are good this will make you cry or break things.

* In separate, less heartbreaking news - the wholesome, heartwarming story of a girl and a fish.

* New equations say that every black hole could contain another universe (aka Reality is always stranger than fiction or, Science, Fuck Yeah).

*

copperbadge has been voted Best unpublished author blog in the Author Blog Awards! YAY SAM!

~*~

I have been cooking like a great cooking thing the past week: ( recipes and blather under the cut. )

~*~

* My sister and I are going to Washington DC next month! Apparently there is this thing called a 'vacation' (and places that are not Texas!), we are going to try it out (this is actually true for my sister - she's 19 and hasn't had a trip that didn't end in a horse show since she was 10). We will hit up the Library of Congress! And the Mall! Get lost in the Smithsonian! Take ridiculous pictures outside the White House! Meet fabulous people! Other things!

And I'll be getting first hand references for the Princess Project (totally not why I pushed for DC. Totally), I am so excited.

* Speaking of the Library of Congress, did you hear that they've acquired the entirety of the Twitter archive?

* Speaking of fabulous people, authors Sarah Rees Brennen and Holly Black are stopping in Dallas (for some unfathomable reason) during their US tour, ALSO next month! Shortly after I get back from DC, even. I have no idea where they'll be, seeing as how Dallas doesn't have a single indie bookstore to its name, but wherever it is I will be there.

* There is a volcano going off in Iceland (photos!) - are all you northern European types doing okay?

* A coworker brought in one of his dogs yesterday - a sweet yellow Lab who weighed in at about 96lbs. Which is admittedly large for a Lab! But everyone was all 'oh, he's so big' and 'oh, he's the size of a pony' and 'oh, that dog is huge' - all of which apparently pushes a great big Annoy button I didn't know I had.

You know what are big dogs? English Mastiffs (also all the other breeds of Mastiff). St. Bernards. Great Danes. Irish Wolfhounds (also Borzois. I <3 Borzois). Hell, even Rottweiler's weigh more than that (my parent's old Rotti/Heeler cross was 110lbs). 96lbs is big compared to, idk, a Jack Russell, but it's a pretty normal weight.

[sheepish] This is probably the stupidest rant I've gone on - I know not everyone grew up on a farm or has a veterinarian for a mother or has been otherwise exposed to large breed dogs (or has ponies available to compare said large breed dogs too), but still.

* I know I just linked him yesterday, but y'all should check out Ta-Nehisi Coates' Honoring CHM: One Drop and the discussion in the comments (TNC's blog is the only mainstream blog I'll ever say that for).

* As you might have seen making it's way around the internet,

evilpuppy (who has suffered back injuries and requires assistance while traveling) had a truly horrible experience with United Airlines: "I won't apologize for her actions and I'm not sorry for what happened to you. It's not in our contract to assist passengers with their luggage and we reserve the right to refuse assistance to anyone. If that's what you need, then perhaps in the future, you should make other travel arrangements."

* Relatedly,

feyandstrange offers up Disabled air travel: how to survive.

* A possible cure for melanoma has been found. Full recovery in 16% of patients, you guys. Full recovery.

* On altmuslimah - The dos and don'ts of defending Muslim women: If a Muslim woman doesn’t ask you to be her voice or speak for her, don’t. If you wish to help a Muslim woman you feel is voiceless, help her get a voice. Never assume you have the right to speak on someone else’s behalf.

* The Hathor Legacy profiles Dr. Clelia Mosher: Among other accomplishments, she polled 45 women who’d been sexually active during the Victorian Era about their sex lives between 1892 and 1920 – or in other words, conducted one of the earliest known sex surveys. The results serve as a reminder that history is a tale told by the winners.

*

cimorene has a brief essay up on Karl Marx, the US Civil War, and how history is taught in the States.

* Speaking of the civil war, Ta-Nehisi Coates has an amazing essay up on The Ghost of Bobby Lee. It's the latest in a long series of pieces he's done on the war and the culture that surrounded it - if you're interested in intelligent, thoughtful, and informative discussion, Ta-Nehisi is your man.

* Karen Healey - who's old Girls Read Comics blog was super formative for baby!feminist Effex - has written a book! AN AMAZING BOOK!

bookshop will tell you all about it and also ~~give away her copy, which is more then you'll get from me. [clutches book tight]~~ giving away an extra copy!

*

copperbadge is watching all the old Doctor Who series and doing writeups - Series One just went up and is an excellent read for those of us who've only seen New Who.

*

cleolinda has done a 15 Minutes for Clash of the Titans!

* Joss Whedon is going to direct the Avengers movie. I'm not particularly happy about this. [shakes fist] WHEEEEDON!

* 1 Chicken, 17 Healthy Meals, $26 Bucks, No Mayo. My roommate and I are totally going to try this.

Lastly, some art/creative stuff:

* A great list of links and resources for artists.

* Compare Your Life to Pixar

ciderpress has a lovely long list of BBC audio slideshows up that y'all should check out.

* From

iambickilometer - META: Five+ Ways Being Transgender in Fandom Really Sucks, and Why I Stick With It Anyway: There are almost no transgender characters. I can't think of any transgender TV personalities or celebrities. No sports stars, few "out" politicians. You know what sucks about being a transgender fan? There are so few people to identify with.

* Racebending.com has their WonderCon Supporters Gallery up - 200 photos and counting!

* Folks, they found recent lava flow on Venus! Our sister planet is now confirmed as geologically active, this is so cool.

* On io9 - 5 Ways The Google Book Settlement Will Change The Future of Reading: If you care about the future of books, you need to understand the Google Book Settlement. It's a complicated legal document, but we've talked to some of its architects, detractors, and defenders - and break it all down for you. A very important read (h/t to

bookshop) - I still cannot believe Google got away with this.

* ( And now some TED Talks on the future of medicine! )

* NEW WHO, YOU GUYS, NEW WHO. I'm sure there is stuff to critique and dissect and discuss in 'The Eleventh Hour' but I find myself completely unable to do so because NEW WHOOOOOOOOO.

copperbadge and

jonquil have hopping posts here and here if you're looking for fannish spaces to squee/discuss in.

* While we're on the topic of Whoverse-ness, those as might be interested should check out

tw_itallchanges - it's a virtual season three for Torchwood (ignoring CoE, yay!) and amazingly fantastic so far. New episodes come out on Friday (they're cuurently up to episode 7).

* And the new Dresden Files book is out today! And Hayate x Blade 6 is winging its way to me and there's new Castle to watch and it is a very good week to be fannish [twirls around].

* It has not, however, been a good week with regards to the US military (this is a terrible segue):

# On BoingBoing - Iraq: Wikileaks video of US military killing journalists and Wikileaks: More background material on Iraq massacre leak

# On the NYTimes - Afghan Investigators Say U.S. Troops Tried to Cover Up Evidence in Botched Raid

# On Nieman Watchdog - U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan are committing atrocities, lying, and getting away with it

* Via

cofax7 - The Collapse of Complex Business Models: About 15 years ago, the supply part of media’s supply-and-demand curve went parabolic, with a predictably inverse effect on price. Since then, a battalion of media elites have lined up to declare that exactly the opposite thing will start happening any day now.

* Privacy and Control by Bruce Schneier: People, including the younger generation, still care about privacy. Yes, they're far more public on the Internet than their parents: writing personal details on Facebook, posting embarrassing photos on Flickr and having intimate conversations on Twitter. But they take steps to protect their privacy and vociferously complain when they feel it violated. They're not technically sophisticated about privacy and make mistakes all the time, but that's mostly the fault of companies and Web sites that try to manipulate them for financial gain.

*

fiction_theory on the cost of art: That is part of what I believe divides good art from bad art. The good artist pays up out of their own pocket and does not ask others to sacrifice to unwillingly, unknowingly things for them, does not force people to become participants in something by virtue of ramification. The bad artist? Makes sure the check goes to another table, makes sure they get a free ride, ropes people into being part of their art whether they want to or not. Discusses Amanda Palmer and Erykah Badu in particular.

* 420: Thoughts on Pot vs. Alcohol from a Former Police Chief: All of which begs the question. If one of these two drugs is implicated in dire health effects, high mortality rates, and physical violence--and the other is not--what are we to make of our nation's marijuana laws? Or alcohol laws, for that matter.

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