Little self promotion here.
If you want to know when I get published with my YA sci-fi about superheroes or my adult fantasy about Wheel of Time trope subversion, here is my newsletter.
I won't be updating this until I'm published, so no worries about spam!
QUEER WRITERS OF COLOR (ESPECIALLY TRANS WOMEN)
"This fund is for queer writers of color who are in critical need due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With thanks to the Philadelphia Assembly and the Money in the Streets initiative, we'll be able to provide 40 queer writers of color with $250 each.
This fund will prioritize trans women writers of color.
The deadline to apply is May 13 at 11:59PM PST. You will be notified in late May of your status."
https://theshadejournal.submittable.com/submit/191635/queer-writers-of-color-relief-fund-round-2
Delete Chrome. Now.
Google is using its exceptionally powerful position to make *the browser itself* analyze your browsing behavior and serve that on a plate in the form of "cohorts" to anyone interested.
They are transforming Chrome into a "browsing-history-passport" - right now.
If you care about your intellectual freedom even a little bit, you must put Chrome out of your life as soon as possible. Support others doing the same.
in australia, where rabbits are an invasive species that cause awful damage to the native ecosystem, a lot of people celebrate with easter bilbies instead of easter bunnies! the bilby is native to australia and is pretty cute and has just as much business laying eggs as bunnies if you think about it
and yes, you can get chocolate easter bilbies too!
Covid vaccine good news
So: Pfizor is safe to use in kids, works against the varients, works for at least six months (and probably longer, but we won't know that until it stops working, and it hasn't yet), and they are making a version that they hope to be even more effective against the variants, even though their current clinical trial shows it as being 100% effective (small trail though.)
So: It works great. Lets make it even fucking better BECAUSE WE CAN SO WHY NOT
New link on extinction.fyi: It took the Suez Canal crisis to highlight the scale of the polluting shipping sector
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/04/01/took-suez-canal-crisis-highlight-scale-polluting-shipping-sector/
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She ought to kill it.
A shroomling. Fox-like with a body of gnarled, animated dead wood. Back covered in a bright, ominous carpet of mushroom caps. Hollow eyes with points of green light gazing out.
They were deadly to plantlings, she knew, and all growing things. Many of the fungi they carried were parasitic, or even toxic to the soil they touched.
As a plant mage, it was her duty to kill any she might find. For the sake of her garden, and the plantlings she tended.
Reason # 65,774 the Catholic Church can take a long walk off a short pier when it comes to passing legislation. Actually, when it comes to anything, anywhere, ever. https://www.insider.com/catholic-church-lobbied-against-suicide-hotline-supporting-lgbt-people-2021-3
I don't have the time or energy to formalize sources or whatever, but deindustrialization is absolutely *not* a good idea in the year of our lord 2021. we could absolutely convert to 100% renewable energy, and start sequestering carbon; we have the technological capability right now. it would just go against the profit motive. if we dedicated everything we currently put towards growth to sustainability and improved efficiency, we'd be fine; we don't need to get rid of all our industry to do it.
sincere wall of text
Adam Curtis, the documentary maker, speaks fluent Russian and some of his early documentaries, made during Glastnost, were about the Soviet system trying to sort out it's problems and survive. There was an observation about Stalinism that I think is from one of these documentaries that sticks with me:
Stalin was worried about counter-revolutionaries in the academy, so what they did was train engineers only to do engineering and kept them away from philosophy. It was like deciding that because people ~can~ get along with only three fingers that they ~should~ get along with only three fingers. So people who had only studied STEM were left making decisions that required synthesis of ideas and knowledges beyond anything they'd been trained in. This did not lead to good outcomes.
Now, in western countries, the 1% are trying to hoard the humanities. Liberal Arts colleges are failing across the US, for want to less money than Bezos "earns" in an afternoon. And people who have only done STEM are trying to design social interactions and democracy itself.
Literally the thing that destroyed communism in Russia is going to destroy capitalism in the US and replace it with feudalism / human exteniction and everyone with actual power thinks this is great because being a feudal lord on Mars sounds fun.
Honestly the best female character design I've ever seen is from a Valve concept artists pitch to add female characters to TF2 that never ended up being added.
They're just... They're not afraid to play around with body sizes and they're not weirdly sexual, any of them. It's just fun character design and I love it
The GAZ (Groundhog Autonomous Zone) is pleased to announce we have finished building a "duckpond" nearby our burrow, so that ducklings who've caught a glimpse of Iktomi's lyrics can find a space to collect themselves and their bearings.
[The GAZ is a distributed decolonial land stewardship effort. We now have a space for people to learn more about what that means, so they can see if it's something they want to participate in themselves.]
IRL has been keeping me busy for the last year. Haven’t had time to write, let alone post much, so I apologize for being so quiet. I know a lot of important things have been going on and I do have thoughts on them, just don’t have time to craft a toot.
I’ll probably will reveal what’s up at some point, but not yet. So no one worries, it’s nothing bad, just I have to put all my focus on it.
I cleaned the dog door today and now Dog refuses to go though it because it’s clear again. 🤦♀️ #dogs
Two books that I was gifted and enjoyed very much and want someone else to enjoy! £2 each?
YA sci-fi and fantasy writer. Science geek, sculpts dragons, and is just a little featherbrained. She/her pronouns.