The variety of odd and slightly suspect (pseudo-?) scientific research that wiggles its way into the pages of the media never ceases to amaze me.
The following link is courtesy of one of my Facebook contacts, who lives North of the border...
An agony aunt and broadcaster has hit out at romantic novels for the impact they have on women’s sexual health. In a paper entitled: “He seized her in his manly arms and bent his lips to hers”, Susan Quilliam argues that the “rose-tinted” view of relationships in the likes of Mills and Boon publications makes itself felt in the problems which women bring to the consulting room.
Could someone remind me which century we're living in?
"Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall has spent the past year working on an epic opera starring 300 schoolchildren. Now his backers have pulled out, in a bitter row over a character's sexuality."
This one's been doing the rounds at work - mainly because one of my colleagues does a spot of cake decorating herself. But you may be more interested in the second extract.
No doubt pressured by the likes of the Daily Mail, six months ago the UK government launched a review into the "Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood". Oh yes. It was led by a chap called Reg Bailey, who's the Chief Executive of Mothers' Union. The organisation then criticised the report for "not going far enough" in its recommendations. Ho hum.
The recommendations include:
I've just read this Independent article about the recent attempts to overrule Judge Vaughn Walker's 2008 ruling on Proposition 8.
So I then hopped onto Google News, and discovered that Judge James Ware has now ruled that Walker's judgement stands. Here's one article briefly mentioning the decision, and the Google News feed.
While trawling YouTube the other day (as you do), I found a one hour documentary (split into four parts) about a 17/18 year old trans girl called Lucy. As well as narration, it features contributions from her mum, grandparents, therapist, breast augmentation surgeon, best friend and Lucy herself (through video diaries). Needless to say, as well as the usual tensions, there's also friction between Lucy's typical teenage "I want it all and I want it now" attitude and reality.
So you've just written a story. Well done! Now, you understandably want to obtain some kind of measure of how popular it is with the readers. So you look to the three statistics above. But what are they, and what do they mean? Can they give any indication of how good or popular your story is?
Courtesy of a link on Warwickshire's corporate intranet homepage, I've discovered that apparently today has been "IDAHoT 2011" - International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
Apparently May 17th was chosen because the date is the anniversary of the World Health Organization’s May 1990 decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders.
It looks as though Waterloo Road (which bills itself as a "Contemporary drama series set in a challenging comprehensive school") is including a TG storyline in the current series.
From the synopsis of tonight's episode (already available on iPlayer): "A shy and effeminate year 12 pupil is branded a 'perv' when he is caught poring over a lingerie magazine - but the truth is far more complicated than Chris imagines." (Judging by the cast list, Chris is probably Christopher Mead, Deputy Head)
As a counterpoint to the discussion over T* related labels, I thought it might be interesting to have a more light-hearted discussion of the various other labels we may apply to ourselves (i.e. not related to gender, sexuality or political affiliation) to describe certain aspects of who we are and what we do.
For example, as I'm more knowledgeable than average about computers, and actively enjoy using them, I consider myself a "Geek" (although according to some definitions, I'm actually closer to "Nerd").
I don't normally post two blog articles in succession, but BBC News is carrying the story of a rather unusual orchiectomy...
A mother of four accused of biting off her boyfriend's testicles has denied grievous bodily harm. Maria Topp, 43, allegedly attacked Martin Douglas at his Newcastle flat at 0400 GMT on 18 February. He required emergency hospital treatment for his injuries.
The Malaysian authorities are at the centre of an increasingly heated row after it emerged that 66 Muslim boys identified by teachers as "effeminate" had been dispatched to a special camp to discourage them from becoming gay.
You may have noticed that neither I nor PS have been updating the Bike summary spreadsheet recently. Unfortunately, we've both been quite busy recently, and as I often now read it first thing in the morning before heading to work, I don't have time to update it until the evening, when I tend to forget to re-read the last episode and update it.
In the desire to enhance their environmental credentials, many local authorities have started installing cycle facilities (e.g. cycle lanes, shared use paths). One UK cyclist has started noticing there are some excellent (*cough*) examples of cycle facility design out there, and for the past few years has compiled a "Cycle Facility of the Month" page.
It may seem a slightly odd question, but a new charity launched yesterday, called "Action for Happiness" (I kid you not - here's proof!).
Apparently, they've worked out that although average incomes have consistently risen over the past five decades, happiness hasn't.
To attempt to make us happier, they've published a list of fifty actions, most of which appear to be backed up by videos, text explaining why you should do it, and a bunch of resources.
So apparently Prince William is feeling pre-wedding nerves. He's also inviting everyone from the helicopter base where he's currently training to the wedding.
But evidently, that's not quite newsworthy enough for the Daily Wail (a far more appropriate name for the newspaper!). So they've done some digging and found one of his colleagues is transgendered... and yes, the tone of the article is about what you'd expect from that publication.
The other day I was sufficiently bored to browse my way through a lively comment war on one of Stefani Germanotta's videos (no prizes for guessing either the song or the entrenched sides), and came across this interesting theory, which I've quoted verbatim (so spelling / grammatical errors in the quote are the commenters, not mine!):
Apparently this week is the 100th anniversary of the Cheltenham Festival, so a betting company commissioned some designers to create some appropriate footwear to auction off for charity.
Apparently they feature an imitation hoof made from carbon fibre and up to 5,000 individual horse hairs. And have a guide price of £1,300.
A slightly odd story idea that came to me in a dream...
A group of teenagers arrive at a disused holiday camp (in the dream it appeared as a pair of linked islands, the North containing a mini-mansion designed for group leaders, the South containing deteriorating simple log platforms and structures designed for use for camper accommodation) determined to 'do it up' as they enjoyed their times there and didn't want it sold off to a developer.
OK, so they're more Batman than Superman (i.e. no extraordinary abilities), but according to The Currant Bun, there are at least sixteen patrolling the streets of Britain. And they're probably not TG, but nonetheless may be of interest to fans of the Comics Retcon Universe (and similarly themed stories)...
Here's something for fans of a certain pedal-powered form of locomotion - a series of ten radio programmes about the social and cultural history of the bicycle. It started on Monday, so there are currently two programmes available to listen to, but as they're only being made available for a week after broadcast...
Completely off-topic, but it's doing the rounds and worth a giggle.
You've probably all seen people busy texting on their mobile phones while walking around the streets, probably not paying too much attention to where they're going. Well, a few days ago, in Pennsylvania, one woman got her comeuppance in a shopping centre - and it was caught on CCTV...
So as the first complete calendar year of my presence here draws to an end (I signed up sometime in 2009), I thought I'd kick off the greetings. And what better way to do that than via this message which is currently going viral in Facebook statuses...
Just a quickie to let you know I'll be offline for a few days - so you'll have to cope without your daily dose of random weirdness in the comments section of your stories :) No doubt you'll also spot plenty of catching up comments when I return mid-week :)
Anyway, on with the main point of this post: wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Or, for the benefit of some readers, Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.
Apparently a few days ago, the Gawker network of sites was hacked and the perpetrators managed to get hold of the password database of contributors. In amongst the stuff they've republished is an anonymised list of over 188,000 entries from the password database.
I remembered a few minutes ago that it had been a while since we had a new chapter for Goddess' Tears, so sauntered over to Persephone's author page to find out more...
...only to find that only the title pages for her stories (Frozen Balance, Goddess' Tears, Healing Dagger) remain, and all the story content appears to have been pulled. I don't recall reading any blog entries announcing her departure, so does anyone know what happened?
Something that may be of interest to Whateley-ites and Retconners - an infographic about Marvel ®, courtesy of an outfit called "Online Schools".
They normally expect it to be embedded in pages, but since it's about 4,700 pixels tall, I thought it more prudent to link to an embedded copy elsewhere - i.e. the site where I found it.
So, if you're interested, click on this link to view.
...but since 140 tunes would be a big stretch for anyone to complete on their own, I've made it world writable, so if you click on the link above, you can fill in the ones you can solve there and then... as well as seeing what others on BCTS have found.
Ever spent an entire morning swimming underwater, the afternoon having an intensive workout,
followed by an evening trying to reason with an alien AI with an obnoxious personality? It's all in a day's work for Rena...
With thanks to Lilith, Lynceus and EnemyOfFun - you know your roles in producing this!
Image credits: Original: DC Comics
(found @ ComicVine) Modified: mittfh
A silly idea came to me (and turned into this nonsense within an hour) - what if a blackmailer hadn't done his research and what he assumes is the target's devastating secret isn't (exactly)(much of) a secret...
I'm hoping at the weekend to get a big chunk of AquaGirl 2 written - as it's currently >5,000 words long and I've only covered half a day; and I'm intending this episode to last several days (more water-based training, starting her 'day job', evening computer fiddling, and her first mission), it might take a while longer to finish (although hopefully before a rather portly superhero piloting a rather improbable vehicle makes his seasonal appearance!)
There have been numerous ways devised over the years to control pests. The most obvious is to dig out bottles of pesticide - unfortunately, if they're over-used, they can have damaging impacts on the human population. For larger pests, capture and sterilisation has been used. But what if your pest is an insect?
How about spraying the crops with a wax powder coated with female insect pheromones? It obviously doesn't affect female insects, but for the poor males who pick up the particles and end up wafting female pheromones about the place...
Stephen Fry (possibly the most well-known homosexual in Britain, also actor, comedian and host of QI) has caused a few raised eyebrows over the weekend. In an interview for November's "Attitude" magazine, he apparently said:
"If women liked sex as much as men, there would be straight cruising areas in the way there are gay cruising areas...It doesn't happen. Why? Because the only women you can have sex with like that wish to be paid for it."
Newsbiscuit carries a variety of spoof / satirical news stories, but this particular one (evidently compiled by a history buff) had me chuckling far more than most...
The supposed dating site advert:
‘Young-at-heart widower seeks like-minded companion of child-bearing age for fun, adventure and to sire a male heir to the throne. GSOH and an intolerance of Catholics an advantage.’
The dissatisfied customer? Miss Katherine Parr, age 31. No prizes for guessing who supposedly posted the ad (with obligatory misleading portrait)...
From the company that once advised people asking for driving directions between Europe and the US to "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean", try entering these searches into Google Maps and watch out for some rather suspicious looking directions...
From: Japan To: China (Step 43)
From: Seattle To: Sydney (the suspicious direction appears thrice!)
From: Seattle To: Beijing (both modes of water transport)
Apparently it works for a lot of trans-Pacific routes - but sadly they haven't reimplemented the very long swim on the other side of the globe :(
You may vaguely recall a story I wrote a while ago called "The Genie". Somehow I got this crazy idea in my head of recording myself reading it...
...so at 5:30pm today, trying to ignore the fact the temperature was dropping from 8 °C to 3 °C (hence the thick coat!), I sat at the edge of a local monument and did the deed.
Thinking about the October contest last night, this opening idea came to me while I was dreaming, and was sufficiently wacky for me to recall it after waking...
I've had my little Suzuki Alto since new (2002), and apart from a couple of incidents in late 2004 (one of which involved taking a corner too fast in icy weather, the other someone shunting the car's rear end), I'd driven without incident until last November...
Since Mads and Bev have given their 2p worth, I thought I'd join the club - but to be different, I'll give a rough outline of the weekend's events. I've also deliberately left a lot of it vague, to both tease you and not spoil things in case any of the other attendees decide to write in more detail about proceedings.
Saturday, 5am.
The things I do in the name of fun... waking up at a ridiculously early hour on a weekend to travel half way across the country to spend a weekend with a bunch of random people I've met on the internet. On the one hand, I'm a little nervous and apprehensive (for a variety of fairly obvious reasons); on the other I'm excited about finally putting faces and voices to some of the people whose writing I read every day here on TopShelf.
Oh, and there's also the small matter of this being the third bunch of random internet strangers I've met - the first being regulars on this blog (and what could be stranger than fans of a blog of a radio news magazine show?!); the second being fans / participants of this project held last year.
I saw this pop up in my 'Recommended' list on YouTube, and couldn't resist sharing it. I know we're generally not car nuts here, but this ain't an ordinary "car" (and I use the term tentatively)...
Introducing the Ferdinand GT3 RS. It is an Austrian vehicle (currently on show in the Lentos Museum of Art, in Linz, Austria) built with an "ultra light construction", and all "unnecessary" components have been removed. As a result, it weighs less than 100kg, has zero emissions, and is completely silent.
So what's the catch? Well, one of the "unnecessary" components was the engine...
A decent sized chunk of my next AquaGirl story is going to involve her swimming around in Lake Michigan. But being a UK citizen, I know virtually nothing about it other than what I can dig up on a Wikipedia trawl. So, since I figure some of you probably live a little nearer it than I do, I thought I'd pick your brains... :)
Background: A person who was coming to the end of a secondment from GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) to MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service) was discovered dead in his flat, his body contained within a bag within his bath. The first post mortem was inconclusive, and there's speculation he'd been killed two weeks beforehand. As there was no sign of forced entry, it's believed the victim knew his attacker - so his private life is being investigated.
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
