Oakfairy

tastefullyoffensive:

Dogs are such majestic creatures. [imgur]

Windows: Whether you're troubleshooting poor performance on your own wireless network, or you're trying to figure out how overloaded the hotel Wi-Fi is where you're staying, Who Is On My Wi-Fi is a free Windows utility that can show you exactly what the name implies.

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Sonys senaste mobilsatsning Xperia Z1 Compact ska så vitt vi vet börja säljas i Sverige nästa månad kring månadsskiftet. I nuläget kretsar priset för telefonen kring 4600 kronor. Det innebär att Compact i alla fall inledningsvis kostar ungefär lika mycket som (eller strax över) andra Snapdragon 800-enheter som Xperia Z1, LG G2 och Galaxy S4 Plus.

För den penningen får kunder ovanligt kompetent hårdvara med tanke på skärmstorleken: 2GB arbetsminne, 21MP-kamera, främre 2MP-kamera, 16GB lagringsutrymme, minneskortsplats, LTE, ett 2300mAh-batteri och fyrkärniga chippet Qualcomm Snapdragon 800.

Även om det dröjer lite innan Xperia Z1 Compact landar i Sverige har den redan packats upp på andra håll i världen. För de som är nyfikna kommer här en serie bilder på kartongen och dess innehåll. Är det några som redan slagit till på pjäsen och väntar otåligt på leverans?

 Martian sunrises, as seen by the HiRISE orbiter

[source] [h/t: opticallyaroused]

thirdeyeblindjumper:

swat team training for when they encounter sonic the hedgehog in the field

It has probably destroyed your hope of having sex with boring people who aren’t worth your time, yes.

Det verkar inte som om jag kommer mig för med att blogga om detta, som jag tänkt så länge, om jag försöker göra en grundligt genomarbetad essä av det. Så jag försöker att bara kasta ur mig några osorterade tankar så länge, ursäkta om det blir lite rörigt. Det handlar om amatörer och professionella, fans och pros, och deras relation.

Och det som verkligen gnager är att jag inte vill att sf-kongresserna ska reduceras till show, dit folk kommer och är med i tre dagar och tittar på programpunkter utan att alls involvera sig i gemenskapen. För mig är det så himla viktigt att kongresser handlar om att samla folk som älskar samma saker, och låta dem få träffas och umgås — och emellanåt få kreativa infall och smida storslagna planer. Idealiskt är det då intresset som räknas och väger tyngst.

Numera är det så jättemånga människor som läser de fantastiska genrerna, utan att ha varit bekanta med fandom. Jag har alltid undrat varför de inte dras till sf-kongresser och liknande som flugor till midsommarlunchen. Men nu när de faktiskt börjar göra det undrar jag lite var känslan av gemenskap tog vägen. Och sen är det det där med alla författare. Det finns såna som är våra vänner, och sen de där som jag ogint nog inte kan låta bli att undra om de kommer och vill att kongressen ska vara en liten bokmässa där de kan värva läsare.

Men det är egentligen inte författarnas attityd som oroar mig mest, utan fansens. Var är de engagerade fansen, de som ska tanka fannisk rhåkraft på kongresserna? Hur kommer det sig att ytterst få av kongressrapporterna från Fantastika skrevs av vanliga fans och protofans? Det ser ju utifrån ut som om kongressen var mest av och för författare, och till för att framhäva författarna.

Inom fandom har kongresser alltid gjorts som forum för fans att träffas, och det har varit en miljö när fans och författare (som historiskt sett ofta var fans också, eftersom sf-världen är så liten) har varit med på i stort sett samma villkor. Att vara fan har också setts som fint, i alla fall under fanzinens tidsålder, då det verkligen odlades som en identitet. Att vara en engagerad sf-fan kan vara lika fint och bra och en minst lika viktig resurs som en författare. En läsare kan ha lika mycket att säga om litteratur som en författare.

Författare som kommer på kongress utan att vara gäster räknar jag faktiskt som fans. Men författare kan ju inte gärna vara på en kongress utan att också ikläda sig sin professionella roll. Det går inte att att komma på kongressen och plötsligt inte vara en publicerad författare. Och då blir det plötsligt professionellt arbete. Som görs gratis. Känns det lite obekvämt? Det gör det faktiskt för mig ibland. Jag känner att de här nya stora kongresserna vi har här i landet borde vara stora nog för att göra proffsen rättvisa som proffs, fastän det inte riktigt går. Ingen får nån vettig timlön av att vara på kongress, inte ens hedersgästerna, inte ens om de säljer en massa böcker. Och det går ju inte ens att låta alla författare vara gäster.

Samtidigt är jag helt ointresserad av att göra kommersiella grejer. En sf-kongress som arrangeras av amatörer på sin fritid kostar faktiskt bara en tiondel av vad en professionellt arrangerad konferens brukar kosta (om ens det). Och jag vill inte fylla kongresserna med en massa saker jag är ointresserad av bara för att få pengar att snurra.

Det känns ibland som om det här bygget som jag känner som fandom håller på att bryta samman totalt. Är det ens längre en gemenskap för en samling av entusiaster som älskar att läsa sf och fantasy? Det jag älskat mest med fandom är ju att det har varit både en gemenskap och ett sätt att vara aktivt engagerad i sina intressen. Men fanzinen finns knappt längre (i alla fall inte i Sverige), folk som går på sf-pubmöten verkar ibland mer intresserade av öl än att faktiskt göra saker (det är okej det med, men tråkigt när det blir det enda), och kongresserna vet jag inte alltid vem de är till för.

Kanske är det professionella arrangemang folk och fans vill ha?

Det är fint att vara amatör, och göra saker bara för att det verkar kul eller coolt eller bra. Den attityden har jag också odlat. Det är också fint att vara professionell, gå helt in för något och försöka leva på det. Sen finns det en till aspekten av det: ”professionell” säger man ju ofta om någon som är väldigt duktig, oavsett om hen tjänar sitt levebröd på det eller ej. Och utöver det går det att ha en professionell attityd, även som amatör — det finns ibland en berättigad kritik mot kongressarrangörer för att ha för lite av det här.

Jag vill gärna vara amatör. Den bästa sortens amatör, som gör saker för att jag vill det och för att jag tycker om det. Men jag vill också ha en professionell attityd. (Och dessutom är jag faktiskt proffs jag med, för jag försöker också leva på att skriva.)

Alla de här tankarna ställs väldigt mycket på sin spets nu när jag jobbar med årets Swecon, Steampunkfestival. Det kommer att vara en äkta sf-kongress med allt det som jag vill ha. Men den är inbäddad i ett museum, med sin högst professionella verksamhet runtomkring. Det ger oss en hel del fördelar, och är verkligen en unik och jättehäftig möjlighet. En engångshändelse som inte får missas! Men det här med att göra en sf-kongress som en del av ett större evenemang ger mig ändå en sorts kognitiv dissonans, och jag börjar tänka en massa såna här tankar. Saken är den att en massa utländska band hör av sig till mig och vill att vi ska leja in dem att komma och spela på vår festival. Som om vi har budget för sånt — men det säger ju att förväntningarna finns. Och vi ska ju ha en marknad, där kommer folk som hoppas tjäna pengar, och som jag på något sätt måste ta ansvar för. Jag gillar att försöka odla festivalkänsla, men aspekten pengar gör mig obekväm och blodigt allvarlig.

Och jag tänker att detta nog är den sista större sf-kongress jag gör. Sen fantiserar jag om göra små mysiga kongresser, som är till för fans som vill mötas. Utan hedersgäster. Utan gäster alls. Kanske till och med utan försäljare. De författare som kommer får göra det för att de vill vara med och prata litteratur och idéer, precis som vi andra.

Photos by Mark Clifford/Barcroft Media

[dailymail] [h/t: magicalnaturetour]

kadrey:

X-Men only

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
― Albert Einstein

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
― G.K. Chesterton

“Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It’s just a different wolf.”
― Alfred Hitchcock

“Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in the truth that is taught by life.”
― Friedrich von Schiller

thejungleofmufasa:

andrysb24:

down-sizing:

Let’s remember, Jesus was a Jewish man of color, born homeless to an unwed teenager, who spent his formative years as an illegal immigrant before returning to his home country to hang out with twelve men, prostitutes, and socially untouchable tax collectors while he taught a radical social doctrine of equality, love, and forgiveness that included paying taxes, free healthcare, and the sharing of resources within a community.

canon Jesus is better than fandom Jesus

Canon Jesus is better than fandom Jesus

Canon Jesus is better than fandom Jesus
Canon Jesus is better than fandom Jesus
Canon Jesus is better than fandom Jesus
Canon Jesus is better than fandom Jesus

The latest sleep research has revealed a good night's rest is more important than we ever thought. Sleep doesn't just reinforce memories and make you feel alert the next day—it flushes dangerous proteins from your brain, maintaining your mental health into old age. So how to fall asleep fast and get the best rest possible? The experts at Stack Exchange chime in.

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photo by thirdrail

Rob and I were coming back from a date night, taking the Blue Line home on one of the bitterly cold nights last week. There was a couple two seats in front of us with luggage, who looked as if they were coming back from O’Hare. They were sitting at that place on the train where two benches face forward, and two sit at right angles to face across the aisle. The woman was in the seat facing forward and the man she was traveling with was sitting at the perpendicular bench.

Across from him, was a very, very drunk older man.

He was chatty. Really, chatty. They were both trying to be polite and non-confrontational, but also clearly did not want to encourage conversation. Rob and I watched this with that mixed feeling of, “So glad it’s not me” and “Should I step in?” At the same time, he was being chatty but not really doing anything besides that and rolling a cigarette. I made eye contact with the young man a time or two and we shared that “Well, this is awkward” look.

And then it changed.

The drunk man said, “I’m really intoxicated. REALLY intoxicated.” He turned to the woman and pointed at her. “And that’s your fault. Your fault.”

Both of them sort of froze. You could see the young man shift, knowing that he needed to do something but not how to deal with it without an escalation in an enclosed space on a train. So I leaned forward, caught his eye and with a giant ass smile said, “Hey! Oh my god! I didn’t even see you guys there. It’s so good to see you, are you just coming back?”

The woman turned so fast she almost poltergeisted, and met my smile with her own. “Wow! What a happy coincidence that we’re on the same train! So good to see you, too! SO good.”

I patted the chair nearest us. “Come back and we can catch up.”

Rob smiled at them, too. “Yes. We haven’t seen you in too long.”

They were both on their feet, grabbing luggage. The young man said, “Oh! Maybe the seat behind you. There’s more space to put our luggage.”

To the drunk old man,  I said, “Sorry. I just haven’t seen them in ages. You don’t mind if I steal them from you. Old friends. You know.” He looked befuddled and returned to rolling his cigarette.

In moments, they were behind us, settling in with “Thank you. Oh my god. Thank you.”

Rob and I turned to them, presenting a wall of our backs to the drunk old man.

The couple was returning from a trip to New Orleans and had been stranded by weather for thirty hours coming home. They were exhausted and neither of them had the brain space to try to deal with their harasser. We had a pleasant conversation for a couple of stops and then Rob and I got off the train.  I noted the car number and stopped at the ticket booth on my way out to tell them that they had a heavily intoxicated passenger who was harassing women.

Why didn’t I mention that he was harassing the man, too? Because of the moment when he turned to the woman and said “I’m intoxicated and it’s your fault.” That moment, right there, was when it became clear that all of his chat was because she was pretty and close to him, and the man she was traveling with was just an obstacle.

And the thing is, if I had been in their situation, even not exhausted from travel, I don’t know how I would have extricated myself. The fear of escalation is so strong, particularly when dealing with someone whose judgement is clearly impaired. I’m fairly outspoken, but had I been the target I probably would have been afraid to shut him down bluntly. What if he had stepped up the harassment? What if no one intervened? It’s the enclosed space of the train and the fact that there’s a period of time when you can’t get away, that really tipped it over into “WTF do I do?”

The reason I’m telling you this, is that I only know how to use the pretending to be old friends trick because I’d seen a friend of mine use it to extricate someone else. It would be far better if the harassment didn’t happen to begin with, but until then, here’s an extraction strategy for you.

The post In which Rob and I rescue someone from being harassed on the train. appeared first on Mary Robinette Kowal.

I’m sure the top gif most of you recognize. It’s very cool and mind blowing. Unfortunately it isn’t terribly accurate. The person that made it used information from a source who believes there are lizard people controlling the world. 

No, seriously.

It’s always disappointing when you think you’ve learned something cool and then you find out you were given bad information. Getting that sense of pride from acquiring more knowledge and then having it yanked from your squishy organic database.

The main problem with the first gif is that the sun does not lead all the planets like a dog-walker lugging pups in tow. Our little solar system is actually tilted back 60 degrees as shown in the second gif. Sometimes planets are in front of the sun. Sometimes behind.

I don’t feel too duped by this. As far as bad information goes, a 60 degree tilt is certainly not the most egregious error I’ve encountered on the internet. But I do wish there was an animation that was just as cool with an accurate depiction. The one I found kind of makes me nauseous. 

There are some other issues with the video this was gif’d from and some other videos that were made in followup. If you want to read some good science and qualified debunking of this swirly gif and those videos, you can check out Phil Plait’s article here.

Winamp died! And then it came back! So since this classic from days-gone-by has been resurrected, we thought we'd give it another look to see how its reanimated corpse holds up in modern times. You might be surprised how much you can still love a zombie.

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I went to my doctor yesterday, and told him how crummy I’ve been feeling. We talked about a lot of different things, and ultimately decided that it was probably a good idea to change up my brain pills. This morning, I started something new, and I really feel a lot better. I honestly don’t care if it’s a placebo effect at this point, but the end result is the same: I don’t feel despondent, depressed, and shitty about myself.

“You are very hard on yourself,” he told me yesterday.

“I know,” I said, “I just have really high expectations that I want to meet, and with all these incredibly successful friends …” I trailed off because I felt like I was starting to feel sorry for myself.

“Being judgmental about what you make or don’t make doesn’t help you at all,” he said, “you have to do your best every day, even if your best isn’t what you want it to be.”

I knew he was right, and I knew that it was my depression getting in between me knowing that was right, and accepting that it was right. That’s one of the incredibly frustrating things about depression: I can know that the way I feel is just my brain chemicals being messed up, but whether I accept it or not, the end result is the same: I feel awful. It’s a little unfair that it doesn’t work in both directions, but after living with it for my whole life, I can tell you that depression doesn’t care about being fair; it’s really a dick that way.

My doctor said that I was very clear-eyed about my mental illness (psychologists call people like me “the identified patient”), and because I could be rational even when I was feeling irrational, he wanted me to try some cognitive therapy. “When you feel bad, when you are thinking and feeling that you’re worthless or anything like that, I want you to recognize it, and then make an effort to replace those bad feelings with good ones.

“When you are feeling bad about a job you didn’t get, think about a job that you did get, that you feel good about. When you feel bad about not finishing a story, recognize that feeling, and remember how you felt when you published something you’re proud of.”

“That sounds like something I can do,” I said, “and it sounds like it may help me break out of the cycle of depression telling me a suck, then making me feel terrible because I believe that I suck, which makes me depressed, which lets depression tell me that I suck.” I imagined a particularly ugly ouroboros wrapping itself around me.

I don’t think this means that I don’t allow myself to feel disappointment, or frustration, or any of the other emotions that I think we all need to feel to be a fully-functional human. I think this means that I don’t let my mental illness take something like feeling unsure about where a story goes next and turning it into the Very Certain And Unshakable Belief That I Am A Worthless And Stupid And Idiotic Loser Who Everyone Knows Really Sucks. Not, um, that I’ve felt like that a whole lot lately, or anything like that. Um. Right.

So.

Let’s get started, shall we? This weekend, Anne and I went to the mall to pick up some fancy pants I had tailored. While we were there, we noticed that the big old men’s clothing sale was happening, yadda yadda yadda I got three awesome suits for less than the cost of one, if they weren’t on sale.

Guys: it turns out that your beautiful wife telling you, “WOW, you look great in that suit,” is a powerful motivator for buying that suit. And two others. Because reasons.

After we were finished getting them tailored, Anne had to get on the phone to handle a bunch of #VandalEyes business, so I went into the bookstore until she was done. On my way to the Science Fiction section, I stopped to take this picture of their Tabletop game section:

While I was taking this picture, a young man cautiously approached me. “Mister … Mister Wheaton?” He said.

“That’s me!” I said.

“I love your show Tabletop! You are the reason my friends and I play games, and I’m actually here today to find something for one of them.”

I put my phone into my pocket. “That is really awesome,” I said. “The main reason I make Tabletop is to inspire other people to play games.”

He swallowed, nodded, and said, “um, would you, uh … would you help me pick out a game for my friend?”

My heart grew three sizes. “I would love to do that!”

I asked him a bunch of questions about the games they like to play together, his friend’s level of experience, and how much he wanted to spend. Ultimately, he settled on Ticket To Ride. He shook my hand, thanked me several times, and walked away, happily.

“I’m so sorry to bother you,” a voice said behind me. I turned and saw a young woman with a nametag that indicated she worked in the store.

“Yes?” I said.

“This is my section,” she said, pointing to the games, “and it’s here because of your show, Tabletop.”

My heart grew another three sizes.

“We order all the games you play on your show, and we usually sell out of whatever you’ve just played right away.”

“That’s really cool!” I said.

We talked about the games that she had in the section, and I recommended a few new ones for her, including Hive, Love Letter, and Coup.

“I’ll see if I can convince my manager to let me order those,” she said. “Anyway, I don’t want to take up any more of your time. I just wanted to thank you for your show, and for everything you do.”

“It’s my pleasure,” I said, “and it really means a lot to me that you took the time to tell me that.” I started to walk back to the Sci-Fi Books, and stopped. I turned back. “If your distributor doesn’t know what’s coming up on Tabletop — and they should, but if they don’t — please e-mail me and I’ll give you the release schedule, so you can know what to order.”

“That would be great,” she said.

“Awesome.” We shook hands, and I walked back to the Sci-Fi books. Before I could really figure out if I was going to get anything, my phone chirped in my pocket. It was Anne. She was off the phone, and didn’t want to go on a quest to find me in the store. “I’ll be right out,” I replied.

I walked past that Tabletop game section, which was absolutely huge — even bigger than the entire Sci-Fi and Fantasy book section, combined, and a little voice in my head said, “it’s okay to feel a little proud about this.” I listened to it.

…

I’m still frustrated and disappointed when I see a character on a TV show or in a film that I clearly could have played, but didn’t even get to audition for (a casting director recently told my agent that they would not even see me for a role, because “Wil Wheaton can’t play someone in his late 30s,” even though I’m 41, with two children in their 20s, and just letting me spend thirty fucking seconds in their goddamn office to see how I look now and how I interpret the role may change their mind). I’m still frustrated and disappointed that I haven’t produced any original work of fiction of any consequence in a year, and that I haven’t finished Memories of the Future Volume 2.

BUT — and it’s a big but* — instead of focusing on those things, and feeling like I’m being crushed into a singularity by a black hole of depression, I can look at the show I created and brought to life with some very talented people, that is having a very real and lasting impact on a lot of people, in a very positive way.

When I look at the writing I haven’t finished, I can look at the calendar and see all the times I was working on a video game or an audiobook or an animated show, and was on the road to promote Tabletop, and honestly accept that there just wasn’t that much time to write the things I wanted to write, because I was busy working on other things.

I can stop being so hard on myself, and I can stop judging myself, and I can stop holding myself up to standards that are so high, even the people I’m comparing myself to every day would have a hard time reaching them.

Or, at least, I can try, and I can do my best, because that’s all I can do.

*hurr hurr hurr

New research shows 0.6% of rape allegations are false.

and for those interested, you can find the report HERE

Just in case any dudebros are unclear on what this means: it means that your buddy who totally just had some bitch trying to ruin his life by accusing him of rape…almost certainly actually did rape her.  

Just keep that in mind.

bellecosby:

llvnos:

setfabulazerstomaximumcaptain:

pine-cypress:

gynocraticgrrl:

"I think what we need is a colorblind society." Now folks, when you hear somebody say that you know you’re listening to a racist…

- Jane Elliot and Oprah Winfrey discussing racism in 1992 on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

THIS WAS IN

1992

NINETEEN FUCKING NINETY-TWO

"we’re all human, I don’t see color." - white people everywhere

THIS IS HOW YOU  FUCKING ALLY

SVT:s adaption av Karin Boyes roman Kallocain finns nu på SVT:s Öppet arkiv för gratis beskådan. Tv-serien, eller den tudelade långfilmen om man så vill, får nog anses vara en av de bästa svenska science fiction-produktionerna, men har också varit en av de mest svårinförskaffade. Kallocain har endast visats på tv 1981 och aldrig getts ut på hemmaformat.

Huvudpersonen Leo Kall spelas av Sven Wollter, övriga medverkande är bland andra Helena Brodin, Ulf Qvarsebo och Per Oscarsson. Regissör är Hans Abramson och den totala speltiden är tre timmar.

[reddit]

[video] [h/t: cineraria]

[reddit]

[video] [h/t: pleatedjeans]

[imgur] [video]

[video]

Cold and Flu season is in full swing in many parts of the world and with it, the inevitable coughs and sore throats. If you like avoiding the decongestant, antihistamine, and dextromethorphan path for milder symptoms, this recipe for a DIY cough syrup has got you covered.

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