We’re having a worse than usual flu epidemic in our area. Several people I know either have pneumonia or had it over the holiday. And my husband and I are still trying to shake off the cold/flu or whatever it is we’ve been fighting for weeks.
Anyway, here are links to stories I found interesting, sorted by category.
Links of the Week
Rejected Princesses: The Queens of the Sydney Underworld.
Florida activists continue to feed homeless, despite arrests by police.
This Week in Friendship
Obama throws Joe Biden the best surprise party ever.
This Week in Weather
Portland experiences the heaviest snowfall in a decade.
This Week in Difficult to Classify
Punitive Practices Do Not Keep Children Safer at School. We Need More Supportive Policies.
4 Ridiculous Questions People Asked Me When My 11-Year-Old Came Out as Gay.
This week in awful news
A Nevada woman dies of a superbug resistant to every available antibiotic in the US.
News for queers and our allies:
Cynthia Nixon Reminds The World That LGBT Families are Just Families.
9 Books to Better Understand Today’s Sexual Landscape.
George Michael Was the Kind of Gay Man We Now Whisper About.
KERRY SORRY FOR PAST STATE DEP’T DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAYS.
Moonlight Named Best Picture by National Society of Film Critics.
IBM Just Debuted a New Logo and the Reasoning Will Make You Smile.
Science!
A Massive Tunnel Tree in California Has Fallen.
Earliest, Brightest Galaxies Shine A Ghostly Green In Surprising New Find.
NASA just explained why Moon dust is ‘levitating’ above the lunar surface.
The Milky Way’s black hole is spewing out planet-size ‘spitballs’.
Your appendix might serve an important biological function after all.
Obama is the first US president to author an article in Science magazine.
A star heading this way could knock millions of asteroids towards Earth.
There’s A Massive Metal Dragon Hiding Inside Earth’s Outer Core.
We always knew our ancestors were microbes. Now we found them.
Flipping A Switch In The Brain Turns Lab Rodents Into Killer Mice.
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!
The CW Renews The Flash, Supernatural, Crazy Ex and 4 Others.
Disturbed by Lovecraft, whose racism and hate weren’t merely a product of his times.
Turns Out, ‘Young Justice’ Had Gay Superheroes All Along. Except this is, once again, a creator claiming it afterward, trying to get credit while being too timid to actually represent…
The Hugo Awards (2016 – 2017).
Tech 100: How Princess Leia Influenced This Woman in STEM.
Chuck Tingle Launches Buttbart, a Lovecraftian, Anus-Rich Parody of Breitbart.
The Future Alternative Past: this dystopian hope. Nisi Shawl, an author I greatly admire, is now doing a regular sf/f column for the Seattle Review of Books. Check out this, her third monthly column!
Did Inadequate Women’s Healthcare Destroy Star Wars’ Old Republic?
This week in Writing
This week in Words
Transgender vs. Transsexual: What’s the Difference?
This Week in Tech
Using real names online ‘leads to discrimination and harrassment’.
This Week in Inclusion
How not to write about gay guys in 2017.
Behind the Scenes of Queer, Latina Remake of ‘One Day at a Time’.
Culture war news:
Nearly a quarter of Americans are not religious: Why doesn’t that diversity show up in politics? About 1 in 4 Americans has no religious affiliation — but only 1of 538 members of Congress admits to that
HRC Mourns India Monroe, Misgendered After December Murder.
What’s Behind the New Wave of Transgender ‘Bathroom Bills’.
Virginia bathroom bill is even worse than North Carolina’s.
Black LGBT Ministers Speak Out About Kim Burrell, Shirley Caesar.
Please Note: The Legislator Behind Virginia’s New Anti-Trans Bill Is Completely Nuts.
Republicans plan to overwhelm you so you don’t know what’s going on. And it’s going to work.
Watch Cory Booker Reprimand Jeff Sessions for Years of Voting Against Marginalized Americans.
This Week in Fighting Back in the Culture War:
Graphic essay: What the Civil Rights Movement can teach us about surviving Trump.
WHO IS TO RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE? A RESPONSE TO KIM BURRELL’S HOMOPHOBIC SERMON.
News of Orange Julius Ceasar
BBC’s Paul Wood: There Are Four Sources For Claims of Possible Trump-Russia Blackmail.
Trump’s Plan To Isolate Himself From Company During Presidency Falls Short Of Blind Trust.
Donald Trump Is Very Upset That The Media And American People Are Mocking Him.
This week in Politics:
Chuck Wendig on “Why We Need the Affordable Care Act”.
Trump’s best option on Obamacare is to get Democrats to walk the plank with him.
Major Christian group condemns Trump’s cabinet picks, policy agenda. In a statement, the group calls his cabinet picks “morally inconsistent with Christian principles.”
Sanders urges Dems against obstructing Trump. I… have no words.
State Department Apologizes for 1950s Anti-LGBT Witch Hunt.
This Week in Racists, White Nationalists, and the deplorables
Searching for Richard Spencer: What I Found in a Small Montana Town at the Center of a Neo-Nazi Troll Storm. Pulitzer-winning local author Eli Sanders spent Christmas with relatives in Whitefish, which has become embroiled in a dispute with the guy who literally invented the term “alt-right” to rebrand white supremacists.
Jeff Sessions Wanted to ‘Drop the Case’ Against KKK Lynching, Attorney Testified.
Donald Trump and the Tainted Presidency.
Activists catch James O’Keefe’s group bribing people to riot at Trump’s inauguration.
Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him.
Kellyanne Conway dispatched to scare up money after Trump ‘struggled’ to pay for transition team.
Nazi Group Fails To Raise $125 Permit Fee For Planned Rally, Claims Event Will Be Rescheduled.
This Week in Hate Crimes
Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre.
Farewells:
Clare Hollingworth, Reporter Who Broke News of World War II, Dies at 105.
Utah artist James C. Christensen dies at age 74.
Tony Rosato, cast member on both SNL and SCTV, dead at 62.
Bronski Beat keyboardist Larry Steinbachek dies at 56.
Things I wrote:
Weekend Update 1/7/2017: Funeral for our favorite general and other stories….
Living in a bubble–more thoughts on social medi.
Bubbles and misinformation (going way beyond confirmation bias).
Writing Concoctions: scenes, chapters, and other artifices.
Videos!
Oregon Zoo polar bear Nora and other animals in the Portland zoo play in snow 2017:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy ORIGINAL VIDEO:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Michael Is Alive: Official Trailer #2 | Season 5 | PRISON BREAK:
(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)
Font Folly 
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