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2013-05-29 01:31:17 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Totally awesome. She manages to respond to criticism of her last video in here, too.

One thing I'd like to home in on: not every single example could reasonably be called sexist. The problem is not with individual stories, but with the fact that the same story gets repeated over and over and over and over again, always focused on gendered patterns.  Each individual story is probably harmless; it's the fact that such narratives exist in society and these stories are repeatedly using, continuing and amplifying these narratives that matters. That makes this argument distinct from, say, 'violent video games cause violence', which implies a directly causative relationship.

2013-05-22 12:21:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Everything you could possibly want to know about intersex biology, illustrated with textas. Includes some very biting commentaries on social/medical standards, such as: "What is particularly noteworthy is that doctors speak of the sex-reassigned patient with aphallia as growing up to have “normal female sexual function.” “Normal,” for a female, is thus medically defined as being capable of receiving a penis in a vagina, not having sexual pleasure."

2013-05-16 02:20:22 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

My brain cannot cope with two columns. Just doesn't work for me. To change it to single column, click 'more' (next to all your circles near the top) and at the bottom of that dropdown, there's 'stream layout' -- choose single column if you want that).

I should be glad at least that there's an option. I'd really like more customisation -- for isntance, let me set the column width, or what appears in the sidebars. Let me put this crap on the top into the side; vertical screen real estate is more important than side. But yeah, it's the Apple-isation of the web -- do it our way or go home, with no options because options just make things HARDER.

2013-05-13 10:24:13 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

The definition of derp.

2013-05-13 10:23:18 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

2013-05-04 01:32:04 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Loyalty Day? >.>

2013-05-03 14:33:19 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Say 'No' to May the 4th (Paid for by the Emperor's Committee to destroy May the 4th). 
Star Wars Day Attack Ad: Say No to May the 4th

2013-05-03 05:03:00 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

School uniform rules as part of the continual process in women's lives of having their dress and sexuality audited by others.

2013-04-30 08:29:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

I am not sure why this is not bigger news, considering that there are first-person reports of all of the relevant details:

For the vast majority of the files Wikileaks released, a team of redactors made sure that no individuals would face retaliation for the information revealed by the cables. Except for those related to Russia and Belarus. (In retrospect, considering that Assange later accepted a job for Russian state media, this might be unsurprising.)

Almost immediately after receiving them, Assange handed unexpurgated files on the Belarusian opposition to a neo-Nazi Belarusan intelligence asset. Now the Belarusan dictator is now cheerfully using the information to persecute any opposition figure who had any sort of contact with the Americans.

I am not sure why almost everyone who supports Assange is unaware of this.

2013-04-25 11:55:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Speaking of good book covers...

(See if you can guess the book, without looking at the article.)

2013-04-25 13:24:24 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

dude. transmet.

also #googleglass

via z-glass.tumblr.com/post/25777270718

2013-04-24 05:19:17 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

+Jane Rakali Mail sent today! I meant to send yesterday, but couldn't get my shit together. Public holiday tomorrow, so probably arrive Friday.

2013-04-24 01:12:09 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Not all sexism is hostile but it's still sexism. Here's a good explanation of some types of sexism and why it's still important to call it what it is.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/2013/04/02/benevolent-sexism/

2013-04-23 11:12:06 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Liz Shaw is, really, pretty damn cool.

2013-04-22 08:12:08 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Watching Crest of the Stars. It's amazing how much voice acting will change my opinions of a character. +Jane Rakali, if you want a sci-fi rec and don't mind anime, it's worth a watch! But watch it in sub -- the dub is possibly the worst I have EVER heard. The female lead is completely flat.

2013-04-22 06:58:05 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

A note: CISPA has not yet passed the Senate, so it is not law in the US yet. It passed the House last year as well, and failed to get enough votes in the Senate to override a veto (requires 60 votes). If Obama follows through on his pledge to veto it, it would require 67 votes to pass.

It's still not certain, so protests and awareness-raising is good. However, it's not law yet. (I do see a lot of people urging Americans to contact their representative; contact your Senators instead, they're in a position to do something about it.)

2013-04-22 03:57:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Poetry. Awesome.

2013-04-20 03:46:47 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

2013-04-17 01:32:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

TOO CUTE

2013-04-16 14:23:58 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Just last month I was bemoaning the lack of any computer game versions of Space Hulk that just did the simple thing of taking the board game and putting it on computer. Well, problem solved.

2013-04-16 03:24:34 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Drone strikes:

1) Kill civilians
2) Help to radicalise youth against America
3) Provide a legal argument to condone attacks against America; if it's legal for the US to attack potential combatants 'wherever they find them', the reverse is true as well.

2013-04-15 01:44:34 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Another thread got me thinking about a few things. Editing this together from my comments and a few new ideas.
 
Femen: I support many of their activities. The topless protests make a very valid point, and there’s no reason that someone like Amina should be facing any sort of punishment, particularly official punishment. This is all awesome. I also really like seeing people trying to work to improve their home countries, so home-grown feminist/etc movements, this is awesome.
 
What gets me cranky is when they start trying to ‘liberate’ Muslim women. And yes, I can object to that without saying everything is awesome for Muslim women or that Islam is universally amazing. It isn’t, in both cases. However, liberating movements that are imposed from the outside are rarely successful and serve the interests of the originating community, not the target one. To be successful, and toavoid the... more »

2012-11-20 06:56:12 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Something that has long annoyed me. Toss this onto the pile with narratives about 'proper' vs 'broken' English, etc etc.

The video's funny, too.

2012-11-16 03:59:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

There's been discussion about the disparity between white/male and POC/female vote in the US Presidential Election. Here are some charts that put it into perspective: what the map would have looked like had particular sections of the population not been permitted to vote (including a map for the vote without 18-23-year-olds).

2012-11-15 03:06:44 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Argument #1569 that disempowers victims: "But we shouldn't investigate, stirring up all the memories might hurt victims."

Bullshit! Yes, some victims would rather it all stayed buried. Others need the investigation to happen so they can get closure. If it's something big enough, then it has ramifications beyond perpetrator-and-victim, too.

I am sick of seeing perpetrators hide behind the pain of the victim, exploiting it just as they exploited their vulnerability in the first place. It's a continued victimisation that denies them the power to determine their OWN destiny.

The ur-example of this is Roman Polanski, who to this day continues to use his victim to shield himself from punishment. Right now? Catholic Church, I am looking at you. We're finally getting a Royal Commission -- one backed by survivors, and necessary for our whole society to heal... more »

2012-11-09 01:30:31 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

An excellent discussion about transition & de-transition

2012-11-07 05:47:58 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/the-new-most-popular-tweet-of-all-time

2012-11-06 22:54:01 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

So voting's over, apart from some places where it's been extended. I'm pretty confident of an Obama victory, but the vote-rigging, voter intimidation and disenfranchisement efforts have me scared.

I'll breathe tomorrow.

2012-10-18 04:44:33 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Romney, the Boring. 

#BindersOfWomen  

2012-10-17 05:17:12 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Link found in Friday's Crikey.

2012-10-17 04:06:32 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Bu...but...we MUST treat women like stupid children! The real misogyny is in letting them act like real human beings...you know, like us MEN.

2012-10-11 04:32:23 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

This article, too. There is a level at which transgender narratives reinforce the gender binary. So we think that trans*ness is 'legitimate' when it involves someone who has always acted like 'the other' gender.

First, screw the gender binary. Any 'male' or 'female' behaviours are as likely to be culturally-imbued than innate traits.

Second, this ends up hostile to trans* people who do not embody the societal ideal of their actual gender. It denies the existence of femme transboys or gay transwomen. It also denies gender-ambiguous, androgynous, genderless or gender-fluid people. (Witness the Daily Mail's headline that Stephen Ira was 'rethinking' being trans* because he was beginning to present a bit more femme.)

It places a huge burden on trans* folk, who feel they have to live up to gender stereotypes in order to not be... more »

2012-10-11 00:29:53 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Oh yeah, this speech. This is awesome.

One thing that has struck me in the narrative around Abbott's sexism is the notion that someone has to hate women in order to be sexist. His wife's defence of him was particularly illustrative. The line that still sticks in my head is the one where she says that three daughters will turn any man into a feminist.

No, it doesn't. It might make him concerned about welfare of women, yes. It doesn't make him a feminist, because being a feminist is more than being concerned about the position of women. It's not about wanting to protect or defend women, or even speak for them. It's about respecting women, about seeing them as able to protect themselves, and not speaking for them but getting out of their way so they can speak for themselves.

So yeah, Abbott's sexist. He may or may not hate women, but he doesn't... more »

2012-09-23 10:07:09 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

So, this is easily the best video review ever put on the internet. Even if you're not someone who generally watches video reviews, give this one a shot. Thanks to +Greg Dean who originally put me onto this guy... earlier this year? I forget. 

So, this is a Good Thing. I now declare this a thread for people to post more Good Things! Let's get a collection going.

2012-09-20 09:12:18 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

I got excited earlier this year when the Labour Party had what was essentially a back-bench revolution and managed to get Marriage Equality on the agenda. I thought, yes, finally the leadership can speak their mind without being gagged by party policy.

They've finally had a chance, and their tune hasn't changed. A 'gay marriage' (I hate that term) bill was put up, rushed to debate specifically because it was doomed to fail without more time to cook. The Labour Party allowed a conscience vote, the Liberals didn't. 26 Labour members in the lower house, including the Prime Minister and Treasurer, voted against it.

The debate was awful. The worst was the Liberal Senator who said it would lead to bestiality (canned from the front bench, but still). We had an endless parade of people saying that marriage was for children, children were better off with mother and father.... more »

2012-09-19 05:40:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Best reactions ever.

2012-09-19 05:39:22 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

I love whoever it was that leaked the Romney video. Bless.

So what's the take-home from the video? For me, it's not the lack of empathy, the bad figures or the vileness. I knew that about him already (perhaps because I'm on the side of his opposition, but still). This is a guy who was dismissive of gay families and put forward a budget based entirely around taking money away from the poor and giving it to the rich. He's a man who warned a woman dying due to her pregnancy that she'd be excommunicated if she had an abortion, and considers himself 'not really rich'.

Much has been made of his flip-flop on issues such as health care and abortion, that he's a cynical political operator who changes his tune depending on his audience. Well, I think it's clear now that the above summary isn't true: he's buying his own product, with a mindset malleable... more »

2012-09-14 00:33:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Funky Barn promotional pics from Facebook!

2012-09-14 00:27:20 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

The game I'm working on has been officially announced!

2012-08-27 10:10:43 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Started a new job today. QA at Tantalus Interactive. I'm working on video games, woo!

2012-08-09 13:27:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

The best escalator EVER? We think so.

2012-08-09 13:25:15 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

This is for the GMs out there. Ever get the feeling that your players just don't trust you?

2012-08-09 01:39:04 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

2012-08-09 01:34:12 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

So, you have a creepy guy in your group...
It amazes me that people need to have this explained to them, FFS.

2012-08-08 10:08:50 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 1 +1s)

Go Grenada! (currently #1 in medal count by GDP and population)

2012-08-08 08:53:29 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Sex, porn and fidelity in the Stone Age. What do we know? Answer: not much. Lot of speculation, though. What I love is seeing the preconceptions everyone brings to the table. Darwin, for instance, couldn't imagine that the sexes mixed freely, that jealousy would get in the way. To what extent, however, is jealousy cultural? Monogamy is definitely at least partly culturally coded. Others seem to hold to the belief that the stone age was a period of sexual enlightenment, before civilisation got in the way and created inequality. We can get some glimpses by looking at more recent tribes, but human cultura varies wildly and as much as we like to see tribal cultures as unchanging, they certainly did change over time as they adapted to climate and technological advances.

Anyway, here you go. And yes, I chose the Roman three-way porn graffiti for the link image. You're welcome.

2012-08-08 06:27:32 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Women in science. One interesting side-effect of transgender people transitioning is that you begin to get some revealing datasets. Here, a transgender man talks about his experience as a younger, apparently female, neurobiologist. The article could do with the author referencing the GLAAD media guide, but the substance is good and revealing.
(Link found at Feministing)

2012-08-07 04:27:30 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Christopher Priest talks Star Trek, Worf, comic books and racism.

2012-08-06 13:21:51 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

George Brandis, on Q&A, claimed that Australia is paying $400,000 an hour in interest payments on its debt. Quite impressive, since that would be about 3.5 trillion a year on a debt that's only in the tens of billions. I think that's unlikely, George, to tell you the truth.

Correction: maths error. Fekt. The stupid, it burns.

2012-08-06 10:19:29 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

"it's sad that as a culture we don't know the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim. People see a turban and that's all they see."
- an American commenting on the recent shooting at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin.
and yes, ignorance of the difference between Sikhs and Muslims is sad, but... wait, what? does that mean that if this person had shot people at a mosque, that would be okay?

so, no, I don't think the problem here is with people not realising that a person wearing a turban is not necessarily Muslim. I think the problem is with people thinking all Muslims are evil.