Let’s just say that this week isn’t happy under the cut, but it is full of compassion and anger both
Category: links
The linkspam is over
It’s Friday, and that means … linkspam!
And also a scheduling change: thanks to a certain penguin cancelling her presentation at Continuum, Liz will be on the Fandom Drama and Journalism panel at 3 pm on Sunday. (That’s my birthday, so you have to be nice.)
All the linkspam you left behind
Last weekend’s gluten-free, vegan black forest cake pancake stack. No food is featured in this linkspam. Continue reading “All the linkspam you left behind”
the gilt of the linkspam
If you’re into Chinese identity politics, human rights and amazing voices and you’re not reading Sixth Tone, you are missing out. Some of Steph’s recent highlights as reads are: Love in the Lowlands as a Muslim Lesbian Tomboy; Beijing NGO Relieves Pressure on Peeing; Temples Put Profits Over Enlightenment.
Come talk to Steph about this article at the Toast: “You left your culture at the door”: Relationships, Misogyny, and Asian American Inside Baseball
This post at the WaPo on food politics and racism is American but still great reading; many of its concepts apply in Australia. How Americans pretend to love ‘ethnic food’
But we have incorporated these foods on our terms — not on theirs. We want “ethnic food” to be authentic, but we are almost never willing to pay for it.
Squids and octopuses thrive as ‘weeds of the sea’ warm to hotter oceans
Related: Do you care about animals? Then you really shouldn’t eat octopus
(What Liz is taking away from this, as a person who already doesn’t eat cephalopods, is that you can adopt an octopus in NZ. Guys. GUYS.)
This piece is REALLY INTERESTING: How an Ad Campaign Made Lesbians Fall in Love with Subaru
What worked were winks and nudges. One ad campaign showed Subaru cars that had license plates that said “Xena LVR” (a reference to Xena: Warrior Princess, a TV show whose female protagonists seemed to be lovers) or “P-TOWN” (a moniker for Provincetown, Massachusetts, a popular LGBT vacation spot). Many ads had taglines with double meanings. “Get Out. And Stay Out” could refer to exploring the outdoors in a Subaru—or coming out as gay. “It’s Not a Choice. It’s the Way We’re Built” could refer to all Subarus coming with all-wheel-drive—or LGBT identity.
“Each year we’ve done this, we’ve learned more about our target audience,” John Nash, the creative director of the ad agency has said. “We’ve found that playful coding is really, really appreciated by our consumers. They like deciphering it.”
Steph is having a lot of feelings about coding and decoding in queer communities and acceptance/decriminalisation through marketing and capitalism.
Huge, exquisite egg sandwiches found around Tokyo. I (Liz, the non-vegan half of NA) just love tamago so much.
Cadavers in pearls: meet the Anatomical Venus
Erotic … anatomical models? Yes. Yes, there was a time when people (male people) thought that was a good thing that should exist.
Liz notes: I found this fascinating and not especially visceral or horrific except in the abstract, but others may wish to take note of the content warning in the first paragraph:
It is a truism of sitcoms that, whenever there’s a conversation about violence towards testicles, men always cross their legs. As a woman, reading Anatomical Venus, you will want to fold yourself protectively over everything, wrap your arms around your kidneys and liver, run some barbed wire round your reproductive area.
Love craft, hate yarnbombing, want to do something for refugees, and you live in Melbourne? The West Welcome Wagon is accepting donations of blankets, door snakes, cardigans and slippers, and also (I think?) fabric that can be turned into such things: Welcome Warmth.
Meet Cleverman: our first Aboriginal screen superhero, with healing powers and a political edge
all that glitters is linkspam
Psychic Snail Sex Couldn’t Replace the Telegraph, But One Frenchman Sure Tried
…wait, what?
Benoît and Biat had determined that snails, once mated, remained not only monogamous but, through the exchange of “sympathetic fluids,” bound in a lifelong telepathic bond. Poke a snail with an electrical current in one location, they decided, and its partner, however distant, would react in kind as a result of a phenomenon they termed “escargotic commotion.” By placing a letter next to each snail, this evolutionary loophole could be exploited to transmit messages at the speed of thought, across any distance.
SCIENCE*
* Not really.
Abigail Nussbaum has a roundup of the curiously muted critiques of Captain America: Civil War.
Suburbs in the Sky: High‑rise commission flats and the Melbourne imagination – a little piece on gentrification and class in Melbourne’s inner north
THE GREATEST ARTICLE ON MEDIUM EVER: I Am A Cyclist, And I Am Here To Fuck You Up
Here’s how I’m doing it: I am squeezing between your passenger side door and the curb. I am riding a hill slower than you would like me to. I am taking a second to gain momentum at the stop sign. I am doing all of this on purpose, to make you hit me, so you will be late again and it will be my fault. That is my goal, dream, purpose, the thing for which I was thrust from the womb and into this blinding sunlit world. I will only be happy when my bones are ground to dust in the road and my flesh has adhered to the asphalt and you are late for your 9:00 Meeting with the Board.
GLORIOUS, thanks to Friend of No Award Rivqa for making sure Steph saw this very important article.
OMG: Astronomers crack the secret of this gorgeous poem by Sappho
This is a super interesting piece on a state of transience enforced by our government: Noncitizens Down Under: How Migrant Belonging is Changing in a Nation of Immigrants
Plagiarism in the productivity community (I LOVE THE INTERNET): The Case of the Plagiarizing Productivity Pundit
The day we discovered our parents were Russian spies — this one’s for you, fellow Americans fans!
There’s a protest happening right now in Melbourne’s City Square, some updates:
Homeless people camp out in Melbourne’s city square
Conversations with Melbourne’s homeless protesters
Those occupying the space were happy to chat; that is, once I’d assured them that I don’t work for the Herald Sun. They explained that it was an article published in that paper, making unfair and sweeping accusations against Melbourne’s homeless for being aggressive, that was the catalyst for their decision to occupy the Square.
They’re tired of not being respected — a word that came up over and over with everyone I spoke to — as if, because they’re homeless, they have no right to it.
Homeless protesters vow to continue demonstration after authorities break up camp in Melbourne’s CBD
from the linkspam well
Week one of eight in this election cycle, and it’s already terrible.
the tiniest linkspam
In our defence, we’ve been busy! Feel free to chuck links of your own in the comments.
Male speakers boycott all-male panels to protest lack of female representation
This is cool, keep it up, where ‘it’ is compassion and usefulness: Lilydale Football Club lets homeless people use the showers at its Main St ground
Why Is Hollywood Still Casting White Actors in Asian Roles?
How to Help Your Friend Who Recently Discovered The Americans (Stephanie emailed this to Liz, who suspects it may contain some kind of coded message.)
Don’t dream it’s linkspam
This week included World Penguin Day! (There are no penguins under the cut except me AT OVERLAND)
gimme another linkspam
Ooh we read a lot this week, what is up with that
life is a linkspam
Subway etiquette around the world – in pictures — highlights from an exhibition at the New York Transit Museum, one of Liz’s all-time favourite museums. It’s funny, men keep insisting that manspreading is not a thing, yet here are signs criticising it dating back decades!
Sesame Street’s new Muppet takes on the Taliban (and the trolls)
One guy asked if Zari would wear a suicide vest. Another said “Any ‘christian’ characters? If not, i am offended”. A user called MSM Is Corrupt said: “OMFG – no way in hell I will let my child watch this shit. Get all liberals out of TV they are poisonous to children.”
(Trolls Are Mad About Diversity In Children’s Media And It’s Hilarious is totally our new brand.)
Steph must read this book as soon as possible: An architect turned evil & became the greatest bank robber in history #lifespiration
The great escape: Inky the octopus legs it to freedom from New Zealand aquarium
Because octopuses have no bones they are able to fit into extremely small spaces, and have been filmed squeezing through gaps the size of coins. They are also understood to be extremely intelligent and capable of using tools.
High quality legal shenanigans: Council of the Law Society of NSW v Griffin [2016] NSWCATOD 40
Or, things you should never, ever say to a judge:
…you are not an expert in the English language and not qualified to make such a comment or give such an opinion while I have an Honours degree with distinction including honours cognates in English. I consider that this comment is clearly vindictive and naive and contrary to current theory regarding what non-erroneous expression is or what ‘correct’ expression should be. Neither you nor your Associate are qualified to make this comment and it displays infant school and pedantic understanding of what language actually is. I also consider that this comment evinces a purile and petty intention to belittle a person which is an attitude that has no place in the administration of justice.
Indigenous SF series Cleverman will debut here and in the US on 2 June! Here’s the trailer:
no-award.net 