I’m sorry that I’m not going to be as funny as the Saturday Night Live crew, but I had to share a few updates on some of the things I linked to just yesterday:
While Indiana and Arkansas have passed so-called Religious Freedom bills, a democratic legislator in Georgia may have successfully derailed the bill there simply by proposing an amendment to add language that the bill isn’t meant to condone discrimination. The amendment failed, but: How To Kill A Discriminatory ‘Religious Liberty’ Bill: Call The Bluff.
This is article is a couple of years old, but How Many American Men Are Gay? is still a difficult question to answer. “More than one quarter of gay men hide their sexuality from anonymous surveys. The evidence also suggests that a large number of gay men are married to women.”
CA attorney general vows to halt ballot measure that would legalize killing gay people. I posted a link to a story about this when the lawyer first filed it, but now that the state Attorney General has determined that she is legally obligated to let this bill (which explicitly authorizes any citizen to murder someone they believe to be gay and forbids any state or local official from arresting, charging, or punishing said murderer) onto the ballot, the rest of the news world has noticed the story.
I Can Text You A Pile of Poo, But I Can’t Type My Name. We can’t ignore the composition of the Unicode Consortium’s members, directors, and officers — the people who define the everyday writing systems of all languages across the globe.
It just didn’t seem right to put some of the more sordid headlines I’d collected last week next to the announcement of Terry Pratchett’s death, so I posted a truncated from of Friday Links yesterday. Here are a few things that came up after I posted, along with a bunch of the news stories that I left out:
It’s Friday. I should be excited, but yesterday the world lost a great, witty, and wonderful writer. And learning that one of my favorite writers had died was only the beginning of a really, really not fun day. So, I guess I’m just glad that Thursday is finally over.
Anyway, here is a shorter-than-usual collection of some of the things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:
It’s Friday! The first Friday in March. Already! I should be more excited, but I’ve been sick all week and while I’m hopeful that the antibiotics will get rid of this cough sometime soon, I’m just too tired to be enthusiastic about anything.
Anyway, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:
“Get Over It!” How not to respond to critics of 50 Shades of Grey. “It doesn’t matter that it’s “just fiction.” Before Jaws hit theaters in 1975, great white sharks weren’t the villains we now believe them to be. But when the movie–which was purely fiction–became a blockbuster, it directly caused humans to seek out and kill sharks, causing widespread population drops in shark species across the board. The influence of that piece of fiction (coincidentally also based on a novel) even coined its own name: The Jaws Effect.”
ALis Franklin: Fat Chicks in SFF. “I knew, at the tender age of thirteen, that I would never be a hero because I was a girl, and I was fat.”
The Epidemic of Facelessness. I have a fundamental disagreement with the article: I don’t believe most of those who threaten (as opposed to just say insulting things when they disagree) are genuinely surprised that anyone took them seriously. They are genuinely surprised that it had real world consequences. Two distinctly different situations,
There is only one day left to nominate works for the Ursa Major Awards. It just so happens a story of mine published last year qualifies, The Luminous Pearl. You can read it at the link. If you like it, please consider enrolling at the Ursa Major site and nominating it in the short fiction category.
Much more recently I wrote about Literary digressions and how I accidentally wrote a book one night.
Nala the 5-year-old Norwegian Forest/Maine Coon cat from Norway loves going outside and playing in snow. She especially loves playing catch with it. Her humans put together this compilation of her snow obsession and included a few clips of her other adorable antics.:
JD Crowe, Alabama Media Group, al.com (Click to embiggen)It’s the second Friday in February, not to mention the day before Valentine’s Day as well as the birthday of my good friend, Jared.
Anyway, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:
Significant Ruling Against Conversion Therapy. ‘it “is a misrepresentation in violation of [New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act], in advertising or selling conversion therapy services, to describe homosexuality, not as being a normal variation of human sexuality, but as being a mental illness, disease, disorder, or equivalent…”‘
January has come and gone. Here we are, at the first Friday in the marvelous month of February. It was a heartbreaking Superbowl, but the possibility of loss is what makes the game exciting. Looking forward to next season!
Anyway, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:
“If you were a kid in 1964 and you had a TV, chances are, you wanted to be Jonny Quest.” Over two hours long, but a very well made documentary about how the Jonny Quest series came to be (along the way, explaining how animation, which had been thought to be too expensive for television, was used to make prime time hits). This link is for part 1 of 3.
I’m sorry that I’m not going to be as funny as the Saturday Night Live crew, but I had to share a few updates on some of the things I linked to just yesterday:
Font Folly 