It’s the third Friday in December. And tomorrow is the third Saturday, which means that we’ll be hosting the annual Holiday Party and Ghost Story Challenge. Yay!

I, along with several co-workers, came down sick this week. I’ve seen on various social media a number of friends and acquaintances have as well. I guess it is that time of year.

Anyway, here are links to stories I found interesting, sorted by category.

Links of the Week

Farewell, America: No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently.

Illuminating reindeer hat for this German Sheperd.

Some Garbage I Used To Believe About Equality.

This Week in Restoring Our Faith in Humanity

MAN ACCUSED OF PUNCHING TRUMP PROTESTER APOLOGIZES IN FAYETTEVILLE COURT.

This week in white privilege

HOW DO I EXPLAIN THE ELECTION RESULTS TO MY SON WHEN HE’S SO PRIVILEGED THAT THEY WON’T HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST IMPACT ON HIS LIFE?

This Week in Difficult to Classify

Europeans greatly overestimate Muslim population, poll shows. It’s not just Europeans…

One Seattle Murder, Two Devastated Families, and a Question: What Constitutes Justice?

Read This Letter from the Murdered Man’s Brother to the Court. No, really. You won’t regret it.

This week in awful news

Vancouver men who started wildfire ordered to pay state $2.3 million. “Court documents say the fire started July 19, 2015 after Taylor, his brother Adrian Taylor and Michael Estrada Cardenas used propane tanks and soda cans for target practice near Woodland…”

After Meeting With Trump, Bill Gates Proves That He Can’t Be Trusted to Fight Climate Change.

This week in awful people

Alabama Prosecutor Sets the Penalties and Fills the Coffer.

News for queers and our allies:

Orlando shooting victims remembered on six-month anniversary.

Non-gendered pronouns are progress for trans and non-trans people alike.

Pittsburgh Mayor To Sign Conversion Therapy Ban For Minors.

Science!

DNA evidence helps free a service dog from death row.

Did ‘dark stars’ help form the Universe?

Arctic heating up at twice as fast as rest of globe.

Why don’t humans have a penis bone? Scientists may now know.

It’s Not an Impossible Fish Tank, It’s Just Physics.

Viruses have evolved to be more deadly for men than women, study suggests.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Boron Under Ancient Martian Lakebed.

Cosmic Bling: Jupiter Sports Stormy ‘Pearl’ in New Juno Photo.

Mount St. Helens shakes 120 times within a week as volcano recharges, scientists say.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

‘Sense8: A Christmas Special’ Is Coming to Netflix.

“When I read a story, I skip the explanations”. I have some quibbles. I should probably write a blog post.

GUEST POST: THREE SHORT STORIES BY FRENCH WOMEN SF WRITERS PRE-1969: “THE DEVIL’S GODDAUGHTER” (1960), SUZANNE MALAVAL, “MOON-FISHERS” (1959), NATHALIE HENNEBERG, “THE CHAIN OF LOVE” (1955), CATHERINE CLIFF.

GUEST POST: TWO SPECULATIVE FICTIONS FROM THE 1890S: “THE YELLOW WALLPAPER” (1892), CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, “THE LITTLE ROOM”(1895), MADELINE YALE WYNNE.

Let Us Now Praise “Famous” Authors.

Corie Weaver: Mad scientist should be an equal opportunity career.

Complaint About Term “Neo-Nazi” Results in Foz Meadows Post Moving from Black Gate to Amazing Stories.

Jim C. Hines: Fundraiser for Transgender Michigan. An auction a day of very interesting sf/f stuff!

SF History: Harlan Ellison stands up to a bullying Frank Sinatra.

This week in Writing

Navigating the In-Between: Demisexuality in YA Lit.

18 MIDDLE GRADE AUTHORS ON WRITING GIRL CHARACTERS AFTER ELECTION.

This week in Words

‘The Feud’ recalls a classic literary dust-up: Nabokov’s huge literary feud with Edmund Wilson.

This Week in Tech

Evernote’s new not-so-privacy policy will let employees read your notes.

How to deactivate and reactivate your Evernote account.

14 eyebrow-raising personal details Google knows about you.

Yahoo’s billion account breach: 5 things you should do to stay safe. All of these suggestions are things you should do even if you were never a Yahoo user.

The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S..

This Week in Covering the News

Racism With No Racists: The President Trump Conundrum.

Welcome back, Andrew Sullivan! Let the criticism commence! I wish he’d actually left… and stayed gone…

Where Do We Go from Here?

Christmas Is Bigger Than Trump. “They can have my yuletide joy when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.”

The practical guide to resisting Trump, by former Congressional staffers.

Not Safe For Work: Slouching Toward 2017.

This Week in Inclusion

Colored streaks on Asian Women: The damaging trope.

This Week in Police Problems

Killings by US police logged at twice the previous rate under new federal program.

Culture war news:

Todd Starnes Lies About Texas School “Censoring” Poster That Illegally Promoted Christianity.

Merry Christmas! Anti-gay preacher tells kids Santa isn’t real.

“Atheists Want to Abort Baby Jesus,” Says Christian Who Doesn’t Understand the Law (or Abortions).

If we took ‘Gamergate’ harassment seriously, ‘Pizzagate’ might never have happened.

Christians React to the Death of Atheist Activist Rob Sherman: “Great News!” “Wonderful!”.

Louisiana Governor’s LGBT Rights Order Thrown out by Judge.

This Week in Fighting Back in the Culture War:

To fight hate crimes, philanthropist George Soros’s organization begins by tracking them.

News of Orange Julius Ceasar

Trump biographer: Stop overestimating him — he’s a cross between a junkie and a hungry chicken.

Donald Trump still does not understand the unemployment rate. Though to be fair, lots of people, not all of them as ignorant as Trump, don’t understand it…

Reports: Trump Campaign Is Threatening Electors To Vote For Him Or Else.

Former CIA Officer On Trump’s Battle With Intelligence Community.

Trump’s Inaugural Committee offered ‘diplomatic posts’ to bookers able to land A-list talent.

Donald Trump’s Denial About Russia.

Poll: Public disapproval, doubt about Trump.

This week in Politics:

Donald Trump has lost popular vote by greater margin than any US President.

Stop It! There Are No Big Lessons From the 2016 Election.

Self-Described “White Trash Hillbilly” Nails Exactly What’s Wrong with America.

NC Gov. Roy Cooper slams General Assembly proposals to limit governor’s power.

This Week in Racists, White Nationalists, and the deplorables

White Nationalist Terrorist Dylann Roof Found Guilty in Charleston Church Massacre.

(In case you forgot: DYLANN ROOF CONFESSES: SAYS HE WANTED TO START ‘RACE WAR’.)

Dylann Roof Trial: Evidence Shows Extent of His Violent Hatred.

Men’s-Rights Activists Are Finding a New Home With the Alt-Right. No, they aren’t. I’ve been dealing with MRA assholes for years and every single one of them already was deep in the racist tank. They’ve always been there.

How the alt-right’s sexism lures men into white supremacy. This is a less naive take on the topic…

Hate’s Insidious Face: UW-Milwaukee and the “Alt-Right”.

The neo-Nazi murder trial revealing Germany’s darkest secrets.

This Week in Hate Crimes

Loretta Lynch’s Speech Against Hate Crimes Is a Brilliant, Stinging Rebuke to Trumpism.

Farewells:

Alan Thicke Dies at 69.

Bernard Fox, Who Played Dr. Bombay on ‘Bewitched,’ Dies at 89.

Things I wrote:

Anniversary flowers and other silliness.

Six months out, Pulse shooting still hurts.

Totally not-Gay Aaron Schock in the news again.

Confessions of a sentence-wrangler.

Videos!

Carol of the Bells: Petra Haden:

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Carol of the Bells – Peter Hollens & Friends:

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The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Neil Gaiman:

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The advert for Danish electronics retailer Elgiganten Denmark, titled ‘Let the Gifts Talk’, features a young transgender woman at home with her parents for Christmas:

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Good Grief, It’s A Stephen Colbert Christmas Special:

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It’s the second Friday in December. And while 2016 is almost over, it is clearly not through with us, yet.

Since I was the kind of nerd who had toy rockets as a kid and watched the news whenever NASA had a mission on the air back in the 60s, I’m more than a bit saddened that John Glenn has left us.

Last weekend we got the outdoor Christmas lights up, set up and decorated the tree, and assembled and hung the wreaths on the door. I also got out lights to put in the windows and had planned all week long to put those up, but I haven’t. I’ll try to get that done this weekend.

Anyway, here are links to stories I found interesting, sorted by category.

Links of the Week

A Tumblr called Trumpgrets – schadenfreude therapy.

Dr. Seuss was not even in the general vicinity of fucking around. His pre-WWII political cartoons will surprise you!

How to be a silent movie heroine. It’s not what you think!

This Week in Restoring Our Faith in Humanity

Introducing ‘I Have a Name/Yo Tengo Nombre’ – ‘I Have a Name’ is an online visual database to help identify migrants who died crossing the Texas-Mexico border.

This Week in the Longest of Long Shots

Electoral College: Make Hillary Clinton President.

This week in awful news

Police: Gun-brandishing man sought to investigate conspiracy theory. This headline really needs some work…

33 dead at warehouse party fire in Oakland – community mourns, fears backlash.

Fatalities In The War On Cars Are Never In Cars.

This week in awful people

Former execs charged with bribing doctors to prescribe potent painkiller.

News for queers and our allies:

Your Holiday Mom – Offering Our LGBTQ Youth A Virtual Home For The Holidays.

Incoming North Carolina governor says repealing anti-LGBT law is a priority.

A Watershed Moment for Equality – The defeat of North Carolina’s Pat McCrory proves that progress has not completely ground to a halt.

Science!

How Reading A Novel Changes Your Brain.

Bees of the sea: Tiny crustaceans pollinate underwater plants.

Mysterious Ocean Blob Found for First Time in a Century.

First Dinosaur Tail Found Preserved in Amber.

Growing underground: the Lowline urban garden buried in New York’s catacombs.

Saturn’s Moons May Be Younger than Previously Thought.

Inside the big dish that brought us TV from the Moon.

Ancient Space Dust Washes Up in Rooftop Gutters.

Does This Neutron Star Confirm an 80-Year-Old Quantum Prediction?

A stunning fireball just lit up the sky in Siberia.

Why You Should Give a Damn About the Potentially Endangered Island Marble Butterfly.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

THE BEASTS WHO FOUGHT FOR FAIRYLAND UNTIL THE VERY END AND FURTHER STILL. A fantasy story.

WOMEN DISAPPEARED IN GAME INDUSTRY, DESIGNER SAYS.

The Annual Epic Best Books of 2016 List You Can’t Miss!

This week in Writing

The Hero’s Journey in Trans YA.

This week in Words

Why Do We ‘Bury the Lede?’ We buried ‘lead’ so far down that we forgot how to spell it.

Book Review: LET THERE BE LAUGHTER.

‘Chef’: the Word We Borrowed Twice.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Read the powerfully defiant message that San Francisco’s government sent to Donald Trump.

Surrender Donald! A Queer Call to Action Since 1989.

Sherman Alexie Talks About Writing in the Era of Trump. “Trump won because of two specific groups of white people. The moderate working-class whites and the leftist Jill Stein voters. One side rooting for an America that never existed and one side rooting for an America that is never going to exist. It was the romantic dreams of both sides that gave us Trump. And it’s a small population in the swing states: It comes down to 250,000 people. If 250,000 of them over seven states changed their mind, this would have been a Clinton blowout. So it’s not just a certain kind of conservative voter we need to be appealing to. We also need to straighten out those leftist assholes. I’m a far leftist who thinks no one like me should be in charge of shit.”

Culture war news:

There Is No “War On Christmas,” Unless You Count The Battle For Christian Supremacy.

Ohio’s “Heartbeat Bill” Would Ban Abortion Even Before Some Women Know They’re Pregnant.

Now That Trump Is President, We Can’t Feed People Who Say “Merry Christmas” To The Lions Anymore.

Minnesota Business Owners Sue For Right To Discriminate Against Gay Couples.

New Texas bill endangers LGBT youth: Behind the legislation that could lead to a surge in anti-gay conversion therapy.

Arkansas Supreme Court: It’s A “Basic Biological Truth” That Gay Spouses Can’t Be Listed On Birth Certificates.

This week in the deplorables

Of course Mike Pence supported ex-gay therapy.

Trump’s Transition Team Is All Tied Up With Anti-Gay Pseudoscience.

The Daily 202: The art of punching down.

WATCH: Colbert on #PizzaGate Conspiracy Theorists, Alex Jones, Wikileaks, Reddit Trolls: ‘Grow the F*ck Up’.

This week in Politics:

Sen. Collins Signals GOP Wall On Obamacare and Medicare Is Cracking.

McCrory concedes gubernatorial race to Cooper. The one race in the nation that was all about an anti-trans and pro-other-kind-of-discrimination bill, and it went the right way.

Recount Update: Jill Stein’s Quixotic Battle For Democracy Continues Apace .

Federal judge’s ruling halts Michigan presidential election recount.

Holocaust attorney sues FBI over election interference that could ‘lead to impeachment’ of Trump.

The press is ignoring it, but Democrats told the GOP to get bent, and Republicans did as instructed.

This Week in Racism

Jury Can’t Decide If Shooting A Fleeing, Unarmed Black Man Five Times In The Back Is A Crime.

I’m Not Your Racial Confessor.

This Week in Sexism

On Pandering.

This is why we Still Need Feminism.

Farewells:

Sammy Lee, diver who became first Asian American to win Olympic medal, dies at 96.

John Glenn, first American to orbit Earth, dies at age 95.

John Glenn: The Last American Hero?

John Glenn, Hero and Political Cautionary Tale.

John Glenn was a total badass, these facts prove it.

Things I wrote:

It’s all about the glitches.

The President Hasn’t Actually Been Elected, Yet.

Which Christmas Ghost should I write?

Emotional swings and misses.

Freaks — caffeinated or not.

Videos!

Ingrid Michaelson – Girls Chase Boys (An Homage to Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible”) – OFFICIAL:

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Teaser Trailer:

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Quick D: Cup Levitation & Train Track Rescue:

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FIRST OFFICIAL Trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming:

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Kacey Musgraves – What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?:

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[OFFICIAL VIDEO] God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Pentatonix:

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It’s a Friday. The first Friday in December and oh my goodness where has the year gone?

I’m not working from home today. Which is a good thing for this blog post because what with trying to finish both NaNoWriMo and another writing deadline I had, I didn’t have as much time to work on the links this week as usual.

Anyway, here are links to stories I found interesting, sorted by category.

Links of the Week

Comment of the Day: Paying For a More Civilized Society. An oldie, but well worth revisiting.

THE WORLD’S OLDEST LIBRARY: FOUNDED BY A WOMAN, RESTORED BY A WOMAN – ON THE PAST AND FUTURE OF MOROCCO’S AL-QARAWIYYIN LIBRARY.

WHY SO MANY LIBERAL WHITE GUYS JUST CAN’T ADMIT THE ELECTION WAS ABOUT RACE, EXPLAINED.

This week in awful news

Gatlinburg hotels, homes destroyed in Tenn. wildfires.

Investigators look for motive behind Ohio State knife attack.

Fabulous, Darling!

What the Hell is Modern Architecture? Part Two: Mid-Century Madness.

How to Make a Low Carb Cheese Board.

News for queers and our allies:

Merriam-Webster Has Become A Hilarious, Shade-Throwing LGBTQ Ally.

‘Mom, I’m Dying’: How Family Rejection Charts Trans Youth Toward Death.

Family Research Council creates false persecution controversy & defends white supremacist enabling publication.

Woman Stands Up To Homophobic Neighbor… With 10,000 Rainbow Christmas Lights. The photo of the rainbow bushes in front of the house is cool!

Pence Trolled By New D.C. Neighbors Who Hung Rainbow Flags All Over Their Yards.

Why People With HIV Are Still Going To Prison Even When They Can’t Transmit The Virus.

America East Conference and Maine Men’s Basketball to Protest HB2, Transphobia at Duke Game.

Whoopi Goldberg Gets Emotional Receiving Award for AIDS Activism from Elizabeth Taylor’s Grandson – WATCH.

Michigan Neighborhood Drowns Out Complaint Over Gay Pride Flag with ‘Wall of Flags’.

Science!

Homeopathic Medicine Labels Now Must State Products Do Not Work. About bloody time…

Amid government ignorance and equivocal science, Flint residents mold their lives around perpetual crisis and endless unanswerable questions.. I’m putting this under science in part because of some of the scary things it says about our entire water supply and how little we understand it: “We know very little about the microbial water quality in pipes and distribution systems and household plumbing,” said Joan Rose, a microbiologist at Michigan State University who has been actively researching the emerging Flint crisis since 2014. In March, Rose was awarded the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize for her research into water quality, microbiology, and public health. “You mean we know very little about that in Flint?” I asked. “No, I mean we don’t know that much about it at all, anywhere.” “Well,” I replied, “that’s kind of terrifying.” “It should be,” she said.

Five things elevators teach us about design, psychology and hats.

Ötzi’s Sartorial Splendor.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

Flyover Country. A science fiction story…

This week in Writing

Knowing the Course Ahead, in Running as in Writing.

Oh, The People You’ll Sue! (When You’re Dr. Seuss Enterprises).

Bad Reasons to Choose Self-Publishing.

This Week in Covering the News

How to Deal With the Lies of Donald Trump: Guidelines for the Media. “Our journalistic and political assumption is that each side to a debate will “try” to tell the truth — and will count it as a setback if they’re caught making things up. Until now the idea has been that if you can show a contrast between words and actions, claim and reality, it may not bring the politician down, but it will hurt… None of this works with Donald Trump. He doesn’t care, and at least so far the institutional GOP hasn’t either.”

Where Do We Go from Here?

The People Chose Hillary Clinton. Now We Need To Stop Donald Trump From Trashing Our Democracy.

Trump: The Choice We Face. “I grew up knowing that my great-grandfather smuggled guns into the Bialystok ghetto for the resistance…”

This week in Health

How Many People Just Voted Themselves Out of Health Care? (Updated) (Updated again) (And again).

House lawmakers passed the biggest health reform bill since the Affordable Care Act. aka, instituting welfare for pharmaceutical companies…

This Week in Inclusion

#12DaysofDiversity — Retelling Readathon Signup.

This Week in Fighting Back in the Culture War:

This Is What Safe Spaces & Trigger Warnings Actually Are.

This week in the deplorables

Potential Conflicts Around the Globe for Trump, the Businessman President.

Why Donald Trump Is Lying About the Popular Vote.

NYT publishes damning, deep look at Trump’s commercial/presidential conflicts of interests, so Trump tweets crazy fake-vote conspiracy.

Here Are the Only Times the U.S. Government Can Revoke Your Citizenship. …under current law… unless they change it…

Graham challenges Trump to prove claims of voter fraud.

Bloomberg: Breitbart writer Milo makes money from gay “sugar daddies”. The headline is a little misleading; it’s not the Bloomberg published an expose of a scandalous secret: Milo bragged in the interview about the tens of thousands of dollars men have paid him for having sex with them. What? This story is short and hilarous, go read it!

Donald Trump Wants You to Burn the Flag While He Burns the Constitution.

Here’s What You Really Need to Know About Trump’s Carrier Deal.

Trump promised he’d make Carrier ‘pay a damn tax.’ Instead he’s doing the exact opposite..

Carrier Will Receive $7 Million in Tax Breaks to Keep Jobs in Indiana.

This week in Politics:

It’s Time for Bernie Sanders to Apologize to his Supporters, and to President Obama. And it’s time for certain of his supporters to admit some things, as well…

Fact-check: Did 3 million undocumented immigrants vote in this year’s election?

Wisconsin officials OK speedy recount, defend tally.

It’s Time to Raise the Minimum Wage.

This Week in Racism

They said despicable things about the Obamas but say they’re not racists. Yes, they are.

The Miseducation of Native American Students.

Evanston police officers on leave after arresting black man collecting signatures. He was collecting signatures in order to run for political office. Not only isn’t it illegal to collect signatures on a public street, in this case it is actually mandated by law…

This Week in Hate Crimes

Hate Crime Surged Following Donald Trump’s Election And He’s Been Passive About It.

The hate divide: Hate crimes are up, up, up and Trump supporters want to deny, deny, deny.

New York Attorney General Mobilizes to Battle Trump-Inspired Hate Crimes.

Farewells:

Firefly’s Shepherd, Ron Glass, Dies at 71 (Update).

Ron Glass, Emmy-Nominated Actor Known for ‘Barney Miller’ and ‘Firefly,’ Dies at 71.

Ron Glass Dead: Nathan Fillion And ‘Firefly’ Cast Mourn Shepherd Book Actor.

In Unmourned Departures:

Fidel Castro is dead. This Miami Herald obituary is incredible!

Things I wrote:

Thanksgiving with Grandma Wanda, and other news updates.

To absent friends….

Hit the word count again, but….

Videos!

The John:

The John from Thornbird Productions on Vimeo.

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Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus and Pentatonix: “Jolene” – The Voice 2016:

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Neon Trees – Songs I Can’t Listen To:

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Back 2 Paradise (Extended Version from the movie ‘Were the World Mine’):

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Dwayne Johnson – You’re Welcome (From “Moana”):

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2CELLOS – The Show Must Go On [OFFICIAL VIDEO]:

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It’s a Friday. I’m getting over the shock and depression. This means that my mood is shifting to righteous outrage, which is probably going to drive some people crazy. I hope mostly it’s just the deserving.

Last week I re-organized the Links post to put all the non-election (and mostly happy) links first so readers could avoid all that news if they just stopped at the warning. This week I’m going back to something close to my usual layout. Still trying to get most of the fun and happy news (such as there is) first.

Links of the Week

Can’t Hurry Love: Rare Snail Finds Romance After Global Search.

The ACLU’s Donation Website Couldn’t Keep Up With Everyone Trying To Donate After Trump Won.

Dear Trump Supporter who says they love me.

News for queers and our allies:

Ian Thorpe On Coming Out: “I Always Thought Of It As A Negative”.

New Kids On The Block Singer Jonathan Knight Proposes To Boyfriend In Africa.

You have to see how people reacted when a trans woman’s car was graffitied with hate slurs.

Here’s How LGBTQ People Can Protect Themselves Before Trump Takes Office.

Baptist church in Dallas votes to accept LGBT members.

Science!

The Supermoon and Global Warming: A Taste of Things to Come.

Hubble Just Spotted an Enormous Bubble in Space. This actually happened back in April, but the article I linked to then didn’t have the pretty pictures.

Man dissolves after trying to soak in Yellowstone hot pool.

Scientists have measured the smallest fragment of time ever.

Seriously beautiful science cocktails will have you rethinking your alcohol choices.

Oil and Gas Industry Ensnarled in Spate of Oklahoma Earthquakes.

Thank Neanderthal and Denisovan genes for health and skin colour.

Physicists just discovered a second state of liquid water.

CERN boffins see strange … oh, wait, that’s just New Zealand moving 2m north.

How Teamwork Brings Home the Tuna in Lego Land.

Some Dinosaurs Were Iridescent.

Antarctic quest to find ‘oldest ice’.

WHY THE DISCOVERY OF ‘GLOBULAR CLUSTERS’ COULD HELP US UNDERSTAND HOW GALAXIES ARE CREATED.

Geologists discover how a tectonic plate sank.

Thousands of dead fish clogged a New York canal. Why?

Humans are still evolving – but in ways that might surprise you.

Huddled mice could change the way we think about evolution.

Watch How Slime Mold Smartly Crawls By Itself All Over Everything.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

‘MARVEL’S THE INHUMANS’ COMING TO IMAX & ABC IN 2017.

All the science fiction and fantasy novels you need to make it through winter.

Arrival shows there’s still room for literary science fiction films in Hollywood.

12 YA Books With Characters of Color and LGBTQ Characters.

This Week in Tech

How to encrypt your entire life in less than an hour.

Facebook’s Fight Against Fake News Was Undercut by Fear of Conservative Backlash.

Culture war news:

LGBTQ People Are Scared About What Trump’s Victory Means for Them. Here’s Why.

God Magicked Donald Trump Into the White House, Says Pastor Who Doesn’t Get the Electoral College.

Which LGBT rights are on the chopping block?

Baptist Churches in Dallas, Austin Expelled Over LGBT-Affirming Stance.

A Survivor Of Gay Conversion Therapy Shares His Chilling Story.

On Day 1 President Donald Trump will take away Rights of The LGBTQ Community!

This Week in Fighting Back in the Culture War:

The Resistance: How to Defeat Donald Trump’s Plot Against America.

The Democrats must change – here’s how they can do it.

DONALD TRUMP WILL BE PRESIDENT. THIS IS WHAT WE DO NEXT.

Progressives must lead the Democratic Party and develop its economic populism.

This Week in Difficult to Classify

HOLY FUCK THE ELECTION. This isn’t an article, it’s not quite a game… but go answer a few questions and get some answers…

This week in why the Electoral College must go

CLEARING UP THE CONFUSION SURROUNDING VALLEY HIGH’S HOMECOMING KING SELECTION PROCESS.

This week in Comments, Trolls, and Wankers

Twitter Just Banned a Bunch of Alt-Right Mouthpieces.

Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’.

This week in the deplorables

Gay man attacked by Trump fan who warned ‘my new president says we can kill all you f*ggots now’.

Trump is already consorting with a hate group.

If Your Election Postmortem Ignores Racism and Misogyny, It’s Probably Wrong.

THINKING BIG IN A SMALL WORLD.

‘An ape in heels’: WV officials slur Michelle Obama — and say Melania Trump will be ‘refreshing’.

Here’s Why It’s Fair—and Necessary—to Call Trump’s Chief Strategist a White Nationalist Champion.

Trump draws sharp rebuke, concerns over newly appointed chief White House strategist Stephen Bannon.

This Is Not Normal.

Bernie Sanders: Trump already breaking campaign promise to ‘drain the swamp’.

Trump Supporter Uses Japanese Internment Camps To Defend A Muslim Registry.

This week in Politics:

The Majority of American Voters Did Not Choose Trump for President.

Hillary Clinton Didn’t Shatter the Glass Ceiling.

THE MYTHS DEMOCRATS SWALLOWED THAT COST THEM THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

Congressional GOP Pursues Codified Discrimination Against Range of Identities.

Terrorism deaths fall despite widening impact of attacks, global study reveals.

What the Hell Just Happened?

This Week in Hate Crimes

Hundreds of hate attacks recorded in US since election.

This map tracks where people are being harassed by Trump supporters.

Anti-Semitic propaganda was mailed to me at my home. This is not normal.

Farewells:

Robert Vaughn, ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ Star, Dies at 83.

Robert Vaughn may be best known for ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,’ but he had a range of colors to display.

Gwen Ifill, Host Of ‘Washington Week’ And ‘PBS NewsHour,’ Dies.

Gwen Ifill, legendary PBS reporter, is dead at 61.

Farewell to the Irreplaceable Gwen Ifill.

Things I wrote:

Facing an existential threat yet again….

Stop saying ‘We’ll get through this’ because not everyone will.

Imagining hope.

Getting indicted, still faking it (badly), & other weekend updates.

Five months later, Pulse shooting still a gut punch.

Not forgotten.

I am a writer, have pity on my husband.

Just keep writing, just keep writing, cry when you need to, just keep writing.

Videos!

Robbie Williams | Love My Life – Official Video:

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SAINT MOTEL – “Move” (Official Video):

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Alicia Keys – Blended Family (What You Do For Love) ft. A$AP Rocky:

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Passenger | When We Were Young (Official Video):

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It’s a Friday. I’m usually happy and excited that the work week is almost over. Happy is not an emotion I’m feeling right now.

However, I also know what a grind it is to confront nothing but more stories about the big thing that happened this week. So I’m changing the format of this post from the usual. We’re going to start with a couple of music videos, followed by Science links and so forth that have nothing to do with the election or its fallout. Then I’ll have a warning that the rest of the links are on the other topic, so you can stop scrolling down and go read some other part of the web instead if you want.

Videos!

Nathan Sykes – Famous:

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Eli Lieb – Until You’ve Fallen Down:

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Science!

Fastest Animals: Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat Takes Top Mammal Spot From Cheetah.

Rats Can Laugh—Provided You’re Willing to Tickle Them.

Power outage in the brain may be source of Alzheimer’s.

Extinction or Evolution? The Answer Isn’t Always Clear.

Oldest Beer Brewed from Shipwreck’s 220-Year-Old Yeast Microbes.

A funnel on Mars could be a place to look for life.

Wireless brain-to-spine connection gets paralyzed primates walking.

Your flu risk may be linked to the year you were born.

Electrons cooled close to absolute zero reveal their quantum nature.

Beetle Bailing: Beetles represent about 40% of all insects and 25% of all animals.

The Difference Between Highly Sensitive and Hypersensitive: High sensitivity is biological. Hypersensitivity is a coping style..

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

Joshua Sky interviews legendary author Larry Niven.

Fabulous, Darling!

‘Mr. Robot’ Star Rami Malek to Play Freddie Mercury in Queen Biopic.

Orlando to buy Pulse nightclub, turn it into memorial.

Why anti-gay discrimination is illegal, in one short footnote.

Human Rights Campaign President “Formally Apologizes” To Transgender Community.

Drawn to Comics: Annie Mok’s “No Exit” Will Make Your Heart Stronger.

This Week in Tech

Many iCloud users receiving spam Calendar & Photo Sharing invitations, here’s how to fix.

New MacBook Pro has already outsold every other notebook in 2016.

LONG LIVE THE MACINTOSH STARTUP CHIME.

How to restore the classic Mac startup chime to Apple’s new 2016 MacBook Pros.

Farewells:

Janet Reno, First Woman to Serve as U.S. Attorney General, Dies at 78.

2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell Remembers ‘True Florida Icon’ Janet Reno.

Leonard Cohen, singer/songwriter and master poet, dies at 82.

Leonard Cohen Dead at 82.

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Dreadful Things

If you don’t want to read anything about the election, turn back now…

Ain’t That a Kick to the Rubber Parts?

Margaret and Helen: This too shall pass… like a kidney stone.

It Really Is That Bad.

What Happened on Election Day.

Elections have consequences.

The Audacity of Hopelessness .

This Week in Denial

On “Woke” White People Advertising their Shock that Racism just won a Presidency.

This week in Topics Most People Can’t Be Rational About

Consider a Monarchy, America.

This Week in Enablers

Media obsession with a bullshit email scandal helped Trump to the White House.

AMID CLINTON CONTROVERSY, FBI DOCUMENTS SHOW WHY AMERICANS SHOULD WORRY ABOUT INTELLIGENCE GATHERING.

States that passed voting restrictions saw decreased turnout, flipped to Trump.

This Week in Understanding

The Cinemax Theory of Racism.

I’m a Coastal Elite From the Midwest: The Real Bubble is Rural America.

This Week in Dismay

I Still Love America. But, After Trump’s Victory, I Don’t Trust It: I’ve never felt less American and more Jewish. I hear my grandmother’s voice in my ear: As Jews, we know history doesn’t always march forward toward a better day.

In America, Love Does Not Trump Hate.

Trans group reports suicides post-election; LGBTQ hotline calls surge.

Love Will Be the Center of My Resistance. “This election was a referendum on how this country values the humanity of marginalized people, and the message we received is that we are not valued by a vast number of our fellow countrypeople.”

This Week in Wishful Thinking

Despite Republican pledges, ‘repealing Obamacare’ will be almost impossible — but it could be vandalized. Since kicking 8 million children off of insurance rolls in one of the things this article classifies as “vandalism”…

Culture War and Hate Crimes

Transgender Woman Shot to Death in Virginia.

Pence confirms once and for all that Trump will be an anti-LGBT president.

Vandals Scrawl Nazi and Pro-Trump Messages in Philadelphia.

Maple Grove School Investigating Racist, Pro-Trump Graffiti.

Anti-LGBT activists set out their plan to roll back equality under President Trump.

Message Left on a Car in North Carolina: ‘Gay Families = Burn in Hell. Trump 2016’.

Day 1 In Trump’s America.

Ku Klux Klan Steps Up Recruiting After Trump’s Win: Stand Up For The White Man And Fight “Black Savages”.

White Supremacist Leader: Trump’s Victory Means We Now Can Drive A Stake Into Jews And Minorities.

This Week in Cracking Down

Trump’s potential Homeland Security chief says anti-Trump protests ‘must be quelled’.

How I got arrested while recording New York City’s first protest against President-elect Trump.

Trump Shows Every Sign of Carrying Out Sweeping Immigration Crackdown.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Calexit: Californians want to secede now that Trump won.

Here’s What We Can Do When the Trump Administration Challenges LGBTQ Rights.

Muslim Americans Grapple with a Trump Presidency.

No, Let’s Not Congratulate Him.

DONALD TRUMP WILL BE PRESIDENT. THIS IS WHAT WE DO NEXT.

How to preserve the ideals of liberal democracy in the face of a Trump presidency.

It’s a Friday! But it’s November already. How did THAT happen?!

I’m doing NaNoWriMo again, and we a little surprised at how many links I amassed even though I’m spending less time reading that news.

Anyway, here are links to some of the interesting things I read on the web this week, sorted into various topic areas.

Links of the Week

7 Appearance Related Comments Trans People Wish You’d Stop Making.

Geocachers find woman trapped in wrecked car at bottom of ravine.

7 Reasons So Many Guys Don’t Understand Sexual Consent.

This week in white privilege

“While land rights and anti-Washington activists greeted the jury’s decision as a long-overdue victory for American liberty, others called it a terrifying invitation for armed protesters to occupy federal land and buildings with impunity, potentially putting federal workers at risk.”.

Suspect in ‘ambush-style’ killings of two Iowa police officers taken into custody.

This week in the deplorables

DOJ To Send Elections Monitors To Four Counties In North Carolina.

This week in awful news

Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors, and reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world’s conflicts.

This week in awful people

Twitter Suspends Account Posting Voter Misinformation Aimed At Minorities. But only after being shamed in the media about not suspending the account earlier…

News for queers and our allies:

Diana Davies Recorded Early Gay Lib. Here Are Some Of Her Incredible Photos.

The great gay subversion of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”.

These TV Shows Are Finally Giving Queer Women Happy Endings.

Science!

Australians, Pacific Islanders carry DNA of unknown human species, research analysis suggests.

Meet the Seattle scientist who composes horror film music.

Men Pull Out Of Male Birth Control Trial After Experiencing Side Effects Women Have Been Told for Decades Were Just In Their Heads.

Study blames ‘exceptional warmth’ for low snowpack levels.

Scientific Proof That Support For Trump Is Driven By Anger At Women.

DNA clues to how chipmunk earned its stripes.

[Most Articles About] Supermoons Are Super Dumb.

“Parking-garage” structures in nuclear astrophysics and cellular biophysics.

Abandoned in space in 1967, a US satellite has started transmitting again.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

Jillian Holtzmann: queer as a salty parabola, she’s not here for straight people.

Fear of a Feminist Future: The alt-right hopes to be saved by the apocalypse.

We Have Always Been Here, Motherfucker.

Groot’s best friend.

This week in Writing

Maybe You Like Comma Splices, Maybe You Don’t: Jane Austen and Lewis Carroll used comma splices, but your English teacher might have a problem with them.

The POC Guide to Writing Dialect In Fiction.

HOW ROUGH A ROUGH DRAFT REALLY IS.

The connection between writing and dancing: What Beyonce Taught Me.

This Week in History

Which Political Party Has Created More Jobs?

This Week in Tech

No, Facebook, ‘Diversity’ Doesn’t Explain Your Support of Thiel.

Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users by Race. And in at least some cases this is an actual violation of federal law.

I am in a test for Twitter’s new @ reply design and it is a mess. When users are confused, it is not because users are dumb, it’s because the design is bad. Unfortunately, the sort of designers/engineers who assume it is because the users are dumb always make the design even worse when trying to fix it.

How Apple could have avoided much of the controversy. “A lot of it boils down to this concept: We demand Apple innovate, but we insist they don’t change anything.” … “If you think about it, perhaps the biggest change from my older, 2013 laptop is that it’s gone from having seven (yes, that many) ports, each with a specific purpose to having four points, each customizable by a cable to dongle to solve the problem you have… My laptop has a power port, an SD card port, 3 Thunderbolt ports and two USB ports. I know that in the four years I’ve owned it, I’ve never used the SD card, I use the Power port, one Thunderbolt port, and occasionally plug a USB cable in. So half the ports in this thing are never used — and yet I paid for them because they were built into the computer.”

No SD Card slot? It’s the camera companies you should be upset with, not Apple.

How black people built social media.

This week in Health

How the Fight to Legalize Cannabis Balms and Lotions Gave People with Chronic Pain More Options.

Feeling Happy for Others Can Make You Happy.

This Week in Inclusion

Why Queer Retellings of Classic Stories Are So Necessary.

Once Taboo, Gay Characters Are Taking Over YA Fiction. Not exactly…

TV Is Better for L.G.B.T.Q. Characters than Ever—Unless You’re a Lesbian.

This week in Difficult to Classify

Who is buying these $66 collard greens from Neiman Marcus?

Culture war news:

fundamentalism, satan, and the end of a loyal opposition.

School won’t host haunted house depicting Pulse shooting.

‘Token’ civil rights leader attacks Obama’s racial heritage for supporting lgbt community.

‘Ex-Gay’ Speakers Warn That Satan Tries To Drag People Back Into Homosexuality.

Mom wants ‘graphic’ book pulled from high school library.

Christian Dominionism’s Fruitful Distortion of American History.

Anti-LGBT Activist Steve Hotze: Gays Are Eating Away America’s Moral Fabric Like Termites.

The headline should be, “White Supremacist Militia Plots Domestic Terrorism as Election Nears” U.S. militia girds for trouble as presidential election nears.

Justice Department to North Carolina: Stop Illegally Purging Black Voters From the Rolls.

This Week in Fighting Back in the Culture War:

Universities work to purge male students of their ‘toxic’ masculinity.

This Week in Hate Crimes

University of Wisconsin-Stout Student From Saudi Arabia Killed.

This Week Regarding the Lying Liar:

The Ku Klux Klan makes it official, endorses Donald Trump saying ‘Make America Great Again’.

370 Economists Debunk Trump’s Right-Wing Media Myths On The Economy.

Fran Leibowitz on Donald Trump –”He’s a Poor Person’s Idea of a Rich Person”. Watch.

Best reason not to vote for Trump: Franklin Graham: Vote Trump Or Else Right Wing Christians Will Lose Control Of America.

This week in Puff Pieces about the Election:

Staving Off the Apocalypse in Cleveland: I Canvassed in Ohio with Gary Shteyngart and We Saw the Real America.

The Only Article You Need To Read About Why Trump Voters Are Angry. “But, except for roughly 7,200 articles on the subject, there has been scant effort made by the mainstream media to understand the kind of voters who say Trump speaks for them.”

This week in Politics:

CNN confirms James Comey violated FBI policy today by trying to sabotage Hillary Clinton.

FBI’s Comey opposed naming Russians, citing election timing: Source.

Republicans Pile On James Comey Over Handling Of Clinton Probe.

Five Reasons Not to Panic About Hillary Clinton Right Now.

Growing evidence of a hidden women’s vote for Clinton.

FBI Agents Are Attempting to Sway a Presidential Election. That’s Horrifying.

The Strange Career of the Voter-Fraud Myth.

GMA Fined $18 Million over Cover Up in GMO Labeling Fight. That’s my state’s attorney general winning the largest campaign finance fine in history, in this case against the Grocery Manufacturers Association for failing to disclose the source of $11million dollars worth of fundraising they did to defeat a food labelling initiative.

This Week in Racism

Why I Left My Dream Job at Second City.

White nationalists plot Election Day show of force: KKK, neo-Nazis and militias plan to monitor urban polling places and suppress the black vote. It’s not a show of force, it is domestic terrorism.

This Week in Hate Crimes

Met Police ‘sorry’ for not investigating homophobia.

This Week in Sexism

The first time a man hurt me, I was 8. My story isn’t unusual.

Frank Cho & Milo Manara Prove They’ve Learned Nothing at “Art and Women” Panel.

Farewells:

Legendary horror host John Zacherle passes away.

John Zacherle, Host With a Ghoulish Perspective, Dies at 98.

Don Marshall, Actor on ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Land of the Giants,’ Dies at 80.

Star Trek’s Don Marshall Dies at 80, But His Lt. Boma Profoundly Changed Spock.

Things I wrote:

No one else can tell the stories I have to tell.

False equivalency and taking a page from J. Edgar Hoover.

I’d rather be talking about Tricks and Treats!

It’s NaNoWriMo time again!

There wolf! There castle! why sf/f doesn’t have to be serious.

Videos!

Feelin’ Alt-Right (Act 1, Part 1) | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee:

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Feelin’ Alt-Right (Act 1, Part 2) | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee :

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Halloween Treat: Obama Sings ‘Purple Rain’; Halloween 2016 at the White House:

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Beyoncé performance at CMA Awards 50th ft. Dixie Chicks | Daddy Lessons Full Video:

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WONDER WOMAN – Official Trailer [HD] (this is the first DC movie that looked interesting in a long time):

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It’s a Friday! And it’s the third Friday in October! Halloween is sooooooo close!

I’m still trying to recover from the cold/flu thing, so I haven’t had much energy to do anything other than work.

Anyway, here are links to some of the interesting things I read on the web this week, sorted into various topic areas.

Links of the Week

Why I Was a Teenage Hoarder. “only some compulsive hoarding is comprised of the need to acquire; many hoarders are driven only by the need to retain.”

“They Were Taken Alive, We Want Them Back Alive!” (Artists for Empathy, Part 2).

This Week in Restoring Our Faith in Humanity

City says liens against Pulse nightclub property will be nixed.

This week in mildly unnerving

Hospital Ward Gripped by Mysterious Hallucinations Quarantined After Five Fall Ill.

This week in Comments, Trolls, and Wankers

A third of pro-Trump tweets are generated by bots.

Twitter’s troll problem likely killed Disney’s bid.

Anti-Semitic Posts, Many From Trump Supporters, Surge on Twitter.

This Week in Difficult to Classify

The white flight of Derek Black: one man’s journey out of White Supremacy.

Voices From Wells Fargo: ‘I Thought I Was Having a Heart Attack’.

News for queers and our allies:

The most important gay rights case since marriage equality was won.

LBGT Students Are Not Safe at School.

New survey finds more U.S. cities protecting LGBTQ rights.

MICHELLE VISAGE HELPS GAY TEEN FIND SHELTER AFTER HE WAS KICKED OUT OF PARENTS’ HOUSE.

Hillary Clinton: “It is important that we not reverse marriage equality”.

Thousands of Men to Be Pardoned for Gay Sex, Once a Crime in Britain.

The Gay Film That Survived the Nazis Is Premiering in NYC.

Science!

5 Ways to Deal With a Psychopath.

A possible ninth planet may be the reason for a tilt in our solar system.

Radio galaxies: the mysterious, secretive “beasts” of the Universe.

Biggest map of giant voids and clusters in the universe solves major cosmological puzzle.

‘Extremely rare’ ancient swordfish fossils unearthed in outback Queensland.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

Mary W. Shelley: Life After the Monster.

GeekGirlCon Seattle 2016.

This week in Writing

Ann Leckie: On Blacklisting.

This Week in Tech

Samsung Issues Takedown On Video Of Grand Theft Auto 5 Mod Turning Galaxy Note 7 Into A Weapon.

Samsung sets up airport kiosks for last-minute Galaxy Note 7 exchanges.

7 LESSONS FROM SAMSUNG’S GALAXY NOTE 7 CRISIS.

This Week in Inclusion

There were enough women outlaws in the old west to justify an entire nonfiction comic series.

This week in Topics Most People Can’t Be Rational About

First criminal case filed from Washington state’s two year old background check law.

Culture war news:

After Pulse, coalition wants to drive change on gun laws.

GOP State Lawmakers Sign Brief Opposing Same-Sex Benefits.

Outrageous! Felony Charges Given to Journalist Filming Anti-Pipeline Protest.

How Trump Took Hate Groups Mainstream.

Louisiana attorney general wins court victory in fight against gay rights order.

Memo For The NY Times – The US Has Inequality, Not Child Poverty.

‘Calm down, dear’: how bishops talk down to gay people – by leading bishop.

Hyperpartisan Facebook Pages Are Publishing False And Misleading Information At An Alarming Rate.

This Week Regarding the Lying Liar:

Burning Down the House.

How Trump’s Casino Bankruptcies Screwed His Workers out of Millions in Retirement Saving.

Trump Incorrectly Blames Clinton Campaign For Rally Violence.

Hillary Clinton’s 3 debate performances left the Trump campaign in ruins.

This week in Politics:

‘Rigged?’ Western PA Republican circulates fake meme about online voting in PA.

Miami Herald recommends Patrick Murphy for U.S. Senate.

Inequality Defines the American Election.

Why Was There No LGBT Question in the Debates?

RNC Warns Against Poll Watching, Citing Decades-Old Court Decree.

The American Public Overwhelmingly Sides with Clinton over Trump on Immigration Policy and Politics.

This Week in Racism

How Interracial Romance ‘Loving’ Became the Most Relevant Movie This Election Season. Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton star in the true-life story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a Virginia couple arrested in 1958 for marrying.

New report details Trump-inspired surge in anti-Semitism.

This Week in Hate Crimes

‘Walking while trans’ can be a death sentence in the U.S..

This Week in Misogyny

The silver lining of Trump’s misogyny? More men are decrying his ways.

‘I refuse to be victimized anymore’: Former WA first lady on sexual harassment.

2016’S MANIFEST MISOGYNY.

Think It’s #NotAllMen? These 4 Facts Prove You’re Just Plain Wrong.

Farewells:

Bhumibol, a King of the People, Leaves Them to the Generals.

Things I wrote:

Amazing and heart-wrenching: Cracked explains this election so accurately it hurts.

Judging or policing, or maybe just taking note.

False dichotomies: talking weather, mostly.

Trust the reader to keep up.

Videos!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Sneak Peek:

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BAD HOMBRES, NASTY WOMEN (ft. “Weird Al” Yankovic):

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Cher: I Got You Bae:

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