“Iconic entertainer Bill Cosby was convicted on three counts of sexual assault, a decision that punctuates one of the most thundering falls from grace in American cultural history.” Wow. Good.
Links
Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.
This isn’t released until a couple weeks after my birthday, but this new LEGO rollercoaster would still make a great (late) birthday present, on the off chance one of you has a spare $380 to spend on me. ;)
Toronto van attack: The cop who didn’t shoot: “What held his finger? Bravery? Training? Compassion? Perhaps we will find out in the days ahead. But whatever it is, it deserves attention.”
Linkdump for April 15th through April 18th
Sometime between April 15th and April 18th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- Freshly Remember’d: Kirk Drift: “There is no other way to put this: essentially everything about Popular Consciousness Kirk is bullshit. Kirk, as received through mass culture memory and reflected in its productive imaginary (and subsequent franchise output, including the reboot movies), has little or no basis in Shatner’s performance and the television show as aired. Macho, brash Kirk is a mass hallucination.”
- Discovery Needs to Put Section 31 Down and Back Away Slowly: "Section 31 literally destroys the the idea of a better tomorrow, which is the very backbone of Star Trek. Because, if Section 31 is real then tomorrow is way worse than today. I refuse to believe that."
- ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ USS Enterprise Design Change Clarified As Creative Decision, Not A Legal One: Correction regarding a link I posted earlier in the week that said there were legal reasons for the Enterprise design changes: "CBS TV Studios does, in fact, have the right to use the U.S.S. Enterprise ship design from the past TV series, and are not legally required to make changes. The changes in the ship design were creative ones, made to utilize 2018’s VFX technology."
- Woman Who Shared Philadelphia Starbucks Arrest Video Tells Her Story: “People ignore this kind of stuff. They don’t believe that it happens. People are saying that there must be more to this story. There is not. This would never happen to someone who looks like me. People don’t believe black people when they say this stuff happens. It does. They want to know the extenuating circumstances. There are none.”
- Star Trek: Discovery’s Version of the Enterprise Had to Be Modified for Legal Reasons: Interesting tidbit of information. While Discovery’s been a bit hit-and-miss for me, I’ll admit that in the moment, the end-of-season reveal did just what it was intended to do. I’m not too put off by the design changes to the Enterprise, either; it was a given that it wouldn’t be identical, and I thought they did a reasonably good job of staying true to the classic form while updating it for modern needs (and a much better job than the oddly lumpy NuTrek version).
If being an inflatable T-Rex isn’t your thing, perhaps you’d prefer being an inflatable velociraptor, triceratops, or pterodactyl?
Linkdump for April 12th through April 15th
Sometime between April 12th and April 15th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- GrayKey iPhone unlocker poses serious security concerns: “The existence of the GrayKey isn’t hugely surprising, nor is it a sign that the sky is falling. However, it does mean that an iPhone’s security cannot be ensured if it falls into a third party’s hands.”
- While TOS is my home fandom, I’m of the belief that as a whole, DS9 is the best of the various Star Trek series.: "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was not a perfect show but its treatment of imperialism, war crimes, and genocide was light-years ahead of some of the stuff coming out today (looking at you, Star Wars)."
- A short history ~700 years of “they” as an English gender-neutral singular pronoun:: “Bath ware made sun and mon, / Aiþer wit þer ouen light [Both were made sun and moon / Either with their own light]” —Cursor Mundi (~1325)
- poor people deserve things they want, too.: "These tiny luxuries you give yourself are not sins as dictated from on high by some divine economist who decided you must earn your freedom through oppressive sorrow. These luxuries are the handholds you need to climb out of that pit, to have stamina, to keep focus, to remember that there is another type of life. It can be had, and by you too."
- Charities/organisations to avoid (with links to reasons):: PETA, FCKH8, Autism Speaks, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, The Salvation Army, Wounded Warrior (I knew all of these already, but it's good to have a handy reference)
The Transformers version of this Valkyrie mech was one of the coolest toys I ever had. I will always be disappointed that it disappeared at some point and I don’t have it anymore.
I’ve joked about this for years, and am really excited that it will soon be a real thing: Contact Lenses That Darken in Sunlight Are Going to Give You Some Creepy Alien Eyes.
Linkdump for February 27th through April 12th
Sometime between February 27th and April 12th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- poor people deserve things they want, too.: "These tiny luxuries you give yourself are not sins as dictated from on high by some divine economist who decided you must earn your freedom through oppressive sorrow. These luxuries are the handholds you need to climb out of that pit, to have stamina, to keep focus, to remember that there is another type of life. It can be had, and by you too."
- Charities/organisations to avoid (with links to reasons):: PETA, FCKH8, Autism Speaks, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, The Salvation Army, Wounded Warrior (I knew all of these already, but it's good to have a handy reference)
- ‘The Simpsons’ To ‘The Problem With Apu’: Drop Dead: "In other words: We have heard how we have hurt people, and we honestly don't care."
- Molly Ringwald Revisits “The Breakfast Club” in the Age of #MeToo: “Erasing history is a dangerous road when it comes to art—change is essential, but so, too, is remembering the past, in all of its transgression and barbarism, so that we may properly gauge how far we have come, and also how far we still need to go.”
- Gun injuries go down by 20% during NRA conventions: “When the NRA holds its annual convention, the national rate of gun injuries goes down temporarily by 20%."
- If You Want To Be An Effective Ally, Be Quiet And Know Your Place: "The lesson of 'Black Panther' for white allies is this: They must learn to be the sidekick, to be at the fringe, to give up power, to have people of color in their ears directing them on how to be useful in fighting for the cause of justice." [SPOILERS]
Linkdump for February 26th from 08:00 to 08:06
Sometime between 08:00 and 08:06 on February 26th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- The Second Amendment was ratified to preserve slavery: "The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says 'State' instead of 'Country' (the Framers knew the difference – see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia’s vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too."
- Gun Rights, ‘Positive Good’ and the Evolution of Mutually Assured Massacre: "In the abstract, where no humans actually exist, there’s actually a compelling logic to this. If I know you’re armed, I’ll be on my best behavior. You will too because you know I’m armed. Of course, in practice, almost everything is wrong with this logic."
- The AR-15 Is Different: What I Learned Treating Parkland Victims: "With an AR-15, the shooter does not have to be particularly accurate. The victim does not have to be unlucky. If a victim takes a direct hit to the liver from an AR-15, the damage is far graver than that of a simple handgun-shot injury. Handgun injuries to the liver are generally survivable unless the bullet hits the main blood supply to the liver. An AR-15 bullet wound to the middle of the liver would cause so much bleeding that the patient would likely never make it to the trauma center to receive our care."
- Inside The Federal Bureau Of Way Too Many Guns: "There's no telling how many guns we have in America—and when one gets used in a crime, no way for the cops to connect it to its owner. The only place the police can turn for help is a Kafkaesque agency in West Virginia, where, thanks to the gun lobby, computers are illegal and detective work is absurdly antiquated. On purpose."
- Why the Second Amendment does not stymie gun control: "Nearly every gun regulation under discussion today—from expanded background checks to bans on military-style weapons—would seem to pass constitutional muster."
- Slavery, the Second Amendment, and the Origins of Public-Carry Jurisprudence: "The idea that citizens have an unfettered constitutional right to carry weapons in public originates in the antebellum South, and its culture of violence and honor."