Russian Witch Baba Yaga’s Guide To Feminism

6. Promote healthy consent by asking visitors to your hut if they came of their own free will. (Or were sent by someone else.) It’s important for your students/admirers/victims to understand that they have bodily autonomy and don’t have to wander around the woods looking for weird witchy huts if they don’t want to. Have some diagrams and source materials ready, just in case you need to get more in-depth on the topic of enthusiastic consent.

Q. and A.: Ken Liu on Science Fiction and Chinese History

A Social History of Jell-O Salad

The [Americans with Disabilities Act] at 25: How One Law Helped Usher in An Age of Accessible Design

I strongly suspect this article is a bit too optimistic about the so-called Age of Accessible Design, but it’s a great read nonetheless.

Qantas staff ‘cursed’ after removing ceremonial boomerangs from flight, says Doomadgee

MWF stuff: Excellent post on Mark Latham’s MWF panel: “If You Don’t Like It, You Can Fuck Off”: A Reluctant Recap Of Mark Latham’s Melbourne Writers Festival Talk; fun little MWF ‘reviewer for a day’ review How to Review Voicing Race at Melbourne Writers Festival 2015: A Guide in Three Parts.

Eleanor Robertson went to a panel on “grievance feminism” so we didn’t have to.

…anyone who’s actually thought about this beyond Baby’s First John Stuart Mill pop-up book realises that the issue is far more complex than three-word slogans can handle.

Twitter blocks access to some accounts that archive political tweets (specifically political tweets that then get deleted). Our dystopia is here~

A wombat joins Tinder. Wombats are the best.  Even this total “why do lady wombats always say they want nice guys and then hook up with jerk wombats?” fedora-sporting nice guy.

Is It Legal To Release Balloons Into The Air? Not in NSW. But MORALLY and ETHICALLY, just don’t do it. I know it’s beautiful, it’s meaningful, it’s a memorial. But it’s terrible pollution, in Australia it’s literally like throwing three dozen condoms straight into the water. Just like that. Don’t do it.

Unsourced ‘cos we found it in the comments to an article about cyclists: Cycling-in-the-News Bingo.

Having feelings about this article on why Al Jazeera stopped using the word migrant. I love it so much.

No Award refuses to be drawn into a conversation about gun control, but this quote about how a temporary ban on the Adler shotgun has been lifted in exchange for a vote from Leyonhjelm is interesting:

Senator Wright said the Government had traded gun safety for Senator Leyonhjelm’s key crossbench vote.

“He’s traded off a vote in relation to migration law to push forward a weakening on gun laws and it highlights the risk he will push the Coalition further to water down their gun laws,” she said.

Obviously, by ‘interesting’, No Award means are you shitting me, a deal on migration and guns? Like that’s not a loaded statement. But, I mean, whatever makes old white men happy, I guess.

This video game is quite offensive and highly problematic, if you are Liz.

A very important work of credible non-fiction: John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular: How SJWs Always Lie About Our Comparative Popularity Levels by Theophilous Pratt.

Most helpful review:

Brilliant and, in all modesty, possibly one of the great works of the 21st century. I especially liked the Chapter layout and how they were sequentialized. This groundbreaking tome once and for all settles the matter of the perfidious John Scalzi’s popularity! This book actually has THREE bonus Chapter Fives, unlike some other lesser works which give you barely two. This NEEDS to be nominated for a Best Editor award next year!

Awesome Australian film Gayby Baby was banned by the NSW Premier from being screened in schools as inappropriate during school time. A good school is one that teaches pupils to think for themselves; Labor MP Penny Sharpe Perfectly Sums Up The ‘Gayby Baby’ Furore In This Passionate Speech; The NSW Government’s In Seriously Hot Water For Caving To The Daily Telegraph Over ‘Gayby Baby’.

It’s been a busy day for progressive Australians on Twitter, forcing Australian Border Force to go from promising neo-fascist visa checks on the streets of Melbourne over the weekend to cancelling the whole thing.  Three cheers for successful social media outrage coupled with a successful protest (organised in less than an hour, mind, and held on a work day).

Buzzfeed has the breakdown:

A Timeline Of The Border Force’s Very Bad, No Good, Terrible Day

The Guardian’s rolling coverage has a bit more detail, and, with no disrespect to Buzzfeed, gravitas.

Useful source for the next time this happens: what to do if the immigration department demands to see your papers.

Remember, if you see a person being subjected to harassment, and you feel safe doing so, grab your smartphone and start recording.  (Friend of No Award Amanda almost got punched in the face in a Hungry Jacks once after she confronted a guy being rude to a Singaporean employee, so use your best judgement.  No Award takes no responsibility for any assaults you may suffer while doing the right thing.)