Erykah's Internetlandia

Just stop it

erykah101 — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:52:53 GMT

"Most health experts say making the healthy decision is a matter of willpower. So that if you make an unhealthy decision you simply don’t want it badly enough. Like Bob Newhart in that old Mad TV sketch, they seem to think all you have to do is just “STOP IT!”

Well, it’s not that easy. Otherwise, folks wouldn’t be making these decisions that go against their better judgment. Otherwise, they’d indeed be “stopping it.”

So why do we do it?"

From 8 Reasons Why You Act Against Your Own Better Judgment

Sherlock and the case of not understanding basic cyber security

erykah101 — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:34:36 GMT

My slight re-write of yesterday's Sherlock to make one thing a little less stupid. This may also count as a review. *spoilers*

Holmes: It's a top secret intra-government database. It'll be protected by a password policy incorporating a random series of both alpha-numeric and non-alpha-numeric characters in a variety of cases. It's a password style that's designed to defy logic and reason, so it's beyond even my amazing skills of deduction. It's precisely designed to be. It would take a supercomputer to crack it in the time we have available before that nice werewolf boy goes barmy and kills himself because of an astonishingly ridiculous plot twist that I just can't solve unless I see a photo of the guy and have my vague suspicions about this contrived acronym confirmed. I mean, really, I should have probably looked at him better and maybe noticed something like dirt on his trousers from wandering in the woods regularly, and maybe he had some sort of residue that would tie him to rigging up equipment in a forest clearing... perhaps tying in with earlier when we visited the clearing. Maybe we should have visited in daylight instead of only in the middle of the night when we couldn't really see anything that might have given us some actual evidence to go on (like the wires, pressure pads or fog machines). Then we wouldn't have needed all this bollocks about mind palaces based on a word and a tenuous connection to an obscure CIA program that I may have read about once, wherever the heck it is you accidentally manage to read about top secret US government weapons programs. But when you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Phew, thank goodness I got that fan service line in there, that'll distract them from the giant leaps of illogic in this episode. By the way, sorry about terrorising you by telephone, Watson**. It was all done scientifically, except it actually wasn't, and it was only a slightly evil thing to do to a military vet who canonically suffers from PTSD (sometimes). Oh look, this soldier guy's got quite a few books about Maggie Thatcher...

Watson: Never mind all that. No one will care and they'll praise the writing of this episode as flawless because of the truly witty one liners and incredibly pretty visuals. It'll go down as a classic, even though it doesn't deserve it, on the strength of the other episodes of this show being really rather good. But the password will be a long random series of numbers, letters and characters?

Holmes: Yes! *paces in impotent frustration*

Watson: Like that one. *points at the post-it note* tacked to the computer monitor where the guy has written his very complicated password down so he can remember it*

*credit to Luke Darby for the post-it note idea.
** Telephone Obsession. It's infecting Gatiss.

Equality and privilege in four (and a bit) really simple graphs

erykah101 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:37:58 GMT

Please excuse the crudity of this model, I didn't have time to build it to scale or to paint it. (points if you get that reference *wink*)

This is my explanation of how the process of achieving equality is believed to work and how it actually should work. I've labeled the graphs with men and women, but it can also be applied to religion, sexual orientation, etc. anyplace there's a dominant group and an other or others.

We start with a graph of what a lot of people probably think the current situation is:

In this belief, the place men are at is what we're aiming for, and women are not there but somewhere near it (YMMV as to close how or far you think we are).

Now with this graph in mind it's understandable that people don't like the idea of affirmative action. After all, wont this be the result if we give women special advantages that men don't get...

Oh noes! Matriarchy! *screams in terror*

The problem is that the first graph is wrong. That's not where it actually where we're at. The graph of the current situation starts out looking like this:

Again YMMV on where the women exactly start out. The important part is that the position that men are currently in is not at that equality line. It's easier to grasp what I'm on about if I add an little extra bit of text to this graph...

So, the correct way to frame this is actually what happens if we stop giving the affirmative action to men for a while and give it to women instead...

Bingo! That's the theory anyway. :)

This is what you sound like...

erykah101 — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:03:04 GMT

...when you blame the victim instead of the rapist.

Public Health

erykah101 — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:38:14 GMT

Fascinating documentary about the birth of the British National Health Service and the contemporary opposition to it. Nye Bevan was properly awesome! :-D (The opponents of the NHS actually compared Bevan to Hitler too!)

To cheat or not to cheat on your diet

erykah101 — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:11:51 GMT

Okay, the title of this post is actually complete crap, because it's not about "cheating" and I'm personally not "on a diet". It's more nuanced than than that. It's about when to indulge a desire for something you know may be bad for you, but you really do want to eat it anyway.

For those moments, this pdf link is absolutely priceless! *grin*

Whole9′s Guide to Nutritional Off-Roading

Words words words

erykah101 — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:21:14 GMT

I think it's a mark of there being something deeply morally sick in our society that the term "do-gooder" is considered an insult.

The Devil and the Law

erykah101 — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:15:36 GMT

ROPER: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!

THOMAS MORE: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

ROPER: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

THOMAS MORE: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you--where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast--man's laws, not God's--and if you cut them down--and you're just the man to do it--d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

- Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons

Quote of the day: Human Rights

erykah101 — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:44:53 GMT

"The UK already has a bill of rights. It's called the Human Rights Act."

- Benjamin Ward, It is David Cameron who is 'twisting and misrepresenting' human rights

Solutions; not the language of war against our own country

erykah101 — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:17:40 GMT

IMHO, things we could do which could kick start our economy, revitalise our youth, re-enfranchise everyone, re-create communities and build civic pride.

1) The riots have taken precedence in people minds, so the first thing we could and should do is put a lot more money into youth services. I don't know the best things for them to do, but there are people on the ground who do. Give them power and money to do what they feel needs to be done right now to get us through the current crisis.

2) Houses. Houses. Houses.

We identify the skills we need to build lots and lots of houses, and not just houses but whole communities (including really re-vamping old ones - not just building shopping malls and calling it regeneration). Off the top of my head: we need builders, architects, planners, sanitation specialists, experts in energy efficiency, landscape designers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers. Thousands of jobs; big and small, intellectual and practical.

We don't just bring in cheap foreign workers. We train people. The incentive for doing the training? You complete the courses and start work, and your name goes to the top of the list for getting the completed houses. People could be involved in building their own house, in their own community. We publicize what we need in a major national campaign. Your country needs you. We sell a dream.

Yeah, we - the country - borrow money to pay for the training. Yes, it adds to the deficit in the short term. Or we tax the rich. Deal with it.

Now the houses wouldn't be free and they wouldn't be rented. You'd have to buy them, BUT we exploit the power of the bulk buyer and get good materials in bulk by making this huge. Then we sell the houses to people at or just above cost. They're for everyone who wants one, has at least one person in the household with a job and is born or naturalized as a British Citizen. We flood the market with cheap, good quality houses (we encourage different styles, use local stone, match the environment, etc.) all over the country, destroying all possibility of a house price bubble. We change the rules on buy to let, so people can't try and exploit this. Yeah, we fuck the housing market and some people who bought for buy to let may suffer a bit. But we're all in this together right?

People who can't keep up their payments on their current houses (or who bought houses which were wildly over priced) could have a choice of selling them to the state for a reasonable sum rather than default, they get to stay in their homes and can then they can gradually buy them back at the new cheaper market rates (or pay it off and have some money to spare). If our banks can be saved like this, then so can home owners. Nationalise their debt too. Our homeowners are too big to be allowed to fail. This would also give them a boost of cash in return for "selling" the house, which they can use to pay off their other debts, finance training, put into pensions or savings, or just spend it (which also boosts the economy in the short term).

That mass debt repayment and investment in pensions and savings will help the banks stabilize their money supply. This is how they need our money, not through taxpayer handouts done in vaguely shady deals. We need to be using them as banks, with money going in and out. Then we need them to start loaning out that money in a good way, as mortgages on all the cheap houses. Because we're tying to keep them cheap (£30-50k, is that reasonable?) the risks for the people taking the loan is less and so is the risk for the bank. These would be sound mortgages, not dodgy ones. And we get them to fix the interest rate at something reasonable for all or peg it to something sensible. Result: The banks get a steady flow of money over twenty years pretty much guaranteed. No more mortgage casino. No more housing bubbles to cause pointless instability in peoples lives and break up communities by encouraging people to keep moving instead of putting down roots.

This isn't an anti-capitalist plan. It's pro-responsible capitalism. Everyone becomes home owners if they're willing to work for it. You work, you actually get something. All those trained builders, they can team together and start company's. All the architects. All the plumbers. We can subcontract it to them, to hundreds of small specialist companies working together in their local areas to all do their bit. Build your own community and get paid to do it. You can make money, you can become a community leader, you can make enough to move somewhere else and somewhere bigger if you like. But you start off secure in your own home, and get to build whatever you want from there.

For all these new, expanded and revitalised (because we can't just start completely fresh) communities we need new ideas. We need innovators. We need local entrepreneurs with bright ideas for what to do to make things greener and healthier and more fun. If someone has a good idea, we need development banks to fund them. Screw investment banks; development banks. Sort of like angel investors, only not rich poseurs who laugh at you on television shows.

Weren't we once meant to be a nation of shopkeepers. We're gonna need new high streets in our new communities. Stuff looting Greggs! I've had stuff from Greggs, it's actually not that great but people seem mesmerized by it (people during the rioting were really upset that people had smashed up a branch of it). I don't understand it myself. We have a real bakery near me and the difference is incredible. More local bakers please, less chains. We could train people. Butchers too. Let's encourage all this basic stuff, that's the real trickle down. Butchers shops need farmers; which kick starts other industries. People are upset that the rioters attacked a lot of small businesses... we need to get those kids, and their kids, owning those businesses. A shop, especially with a trade, is a perfect small business to keep a whole family employed. That's how they'll come to understand the value of them. Why else should they? They've been brought up on anonymous mega corps selling them everything. Attacking those faceless boxes is a "victimless" crime, right? The big store on the corner, that must be just another box, not a store with a hundred year history. What does that matter either? It's just another shop.

Our town centres have become places filled with chain shops by day and bars by night. People shop, and they drink, that's it. I like a drink but I hate town centre bars. I think it went downhill when they started removing all the chairs of an evening. Standing up all night encourages binge drinking; shots and huge wine glasses are easier to hold than standing up with a pint. Let's have more sit down pubs again, with big comfy chairs. Let's relax and drink, obviously still a lot (we are English!), but more slowly and followed by less puking in the streets.

We need less shopping malls for our kids to hang out in and more playgrounds, playing fields and activity centres. We need things for kids to do during the holidays; fun things that don't cost a lot. They spend their youth hanging out in shopping malls almost exclusively (the middle class and the poor), then we wonder why they go on a nicking spree when the barrier of the law breaks down.

We need to move culture back into our towns. I'm an athiest but I know lots of people aren't, so let's have areas where there are beautiful churches (when did we stop building beautiful churches? why are the newer ones all so ugly and pathetic?) and gorgeous mosques and synagogues. These things can enhance the looks of our towns. On the TV last week I saw the moving canopy at the mosque (Masjid-E-Haram) in Medina, and OMG! (check it out). It looked so beautiful from above when dozens of them open and close like flowers.

Let's have these religious buildings next to museums and theaters and libraries, so people have choices. We need to build our culture, not just import it. It doesn't have to be backwards looking, here radical thinkers are needed... how do we incorporate online life with real life? Can't we have both in the same space more? If people are going to play video games, especially MMORPGS, can't we do it in real communal spaces instead of locked in our homes? It'd be fun! This could be what it means to be English, or to be British. Can't our phones have apps that are about more than consuming. How about treasure hunts? Or you start walking through a park and your phone picks up on something sent digitally and it asks if you want more information about the area's history and wildlife, not just the local shops and bars. They make a big deal about adverts that react as you walk past them, why adverts? Sod adverts, that tech could be so much fun for telling stories across a whole town! Let's think all a bit happy sci fi again.

Our new communities are going to need schools too. So we need teachers and let's pay them well, because they've got these kids futures in their hands. Since we're building them new, let's put kitchens back into them so we can feed our kids more than just reheated pizza for lunch. Let's also not have so many faith schools, not to have a go at faith, but because only learning about one faith is divisive (whichever one it is) and that's what we're trying to avoid. You want to teach kids about faith, then you do it and have your religious leaders do it in your newly revamped religious buildings. Let's have assemblies where every faith, and no faith, can also say a bit about themselves but why not let everyone have a go? Church attendance is down and a lot of people are apparently lying to get into faith schools... which isn't a great way to start down a religious path. You wanna make your pitch, groovy, but lets make the most important thing morality, not just winning numbers over by catching them young. Do you have faith in your religion to convince people or not? If you do, then you have nothing to lose.

Like I say, atheist here, but I appreciate smart people with innovative ideas. People like Jesus and Mohammad were men of their times and some of the things they said and did were compromises to their times, but a lot of it was basic morality that transcends time. You don't need to believe in their gods to see that. Don't steal (don't loot). Don't kill (don't send the army to kill your kids). People are so scared by Britain being invaded by Muslim hordes, but the reality is that Britain has been invaded many times by many people... and mostly they just ended up becoming British. Those looters on the streets were really rather ethnically diverse. They may have been looters but dammit they were all English looters! And the people standing up to them, both defending their homes and cleaning up afterwards, dammit they were all English too! This is our identity. We're shit and we're cool and we're all bloody well English.

Now we just need to pick our morality and make sure our kids all know it. Mohammad was a smart man, smart enough that he recognised that Jesus was also a smart man. He may not have wanted to worship him, but he understood that and he wrote that fact down. Sharia Law is an attempt to form a morality and a way of living together. There are some bits which are abhorrent to our British eyes, but lets look past them for a moment and see the bits that we share, because we do share those basic ideas of morality. Even my atheist morality is ultimately derived from Christianity, it can't help but be because I live here under the general influence. Muslim morality has it's roots alongside Judaism and Christianity. Over time people fuck up, do stupid things and make rituals and they find different paths to gods (or no path or god at all) but basic tenets of morality can remain universal. Mohammad created a marketplace of ideas by setting up a community centre as part of his mosque. He talked to everyone. If we build the mosques and the churches and synagogues together (right next to the libraries and the museums and the schools), then they're one community (not one religion or idea that has to agree) but one community. If you burn the church, it may literally burn the mosque next door and vice versa.

In the marketplace between the buildings is the place to try and talk people round to the idea that we don't think forced marriages and full veils are a good idea. I personally think translucent burkas could be a fun, very British compromise. Also, great for our weather conditions. You could make them waterproof. Then, in 500 years time when things are all less heated, you'll have people up and down this land of ours sticking their heads out the front door, seeing rainclouds and going "ooh looks like rain, better pop my burka on today..." (over their silver space age-type clothing obviously). You don't get more English than a little bit of practical cultural appropriation.

Oh and, whilst I'm on my soapbox, when we have people move into their new homes, I want street parties. I used to love street parties as a kid. When we first moved in to our new home after the council estate, we had a great big street party. It was awesome. We were all from various council estates and getting out was a dream come true. We kept it up for a few years but then house prices went up and a lot of people moved away. The new people were only there for the housing price boom apparently and there was definite churn rate, so there were no more street parties. Now mum's neighbours look at the elderly foreigners at the house on the corner (our lovely house) and sneer about foreigners living in such nice houses and that they don't deserve it. So, more street parties, with cups of tea and proper Victoria Sponge cake (I'd totally break my diet for a real Vicky Sponge with proper buttercream and raspberry jam). We don't need a Royal wedding to have street parties.

Of course all these ideas would get the newly extreme right wing (a bit of culture I wish we hadn't imported from America) and the free marketeers up in arms, but the thing to remember is that they're not actually conservatives. This land is chock full of "small c" conservatives that have come to love schemes like our NHS, despite it being an apparently odious socialist thing. "Small c" conservatives know how to compromise, just as a lot of lefties do, when it means we all get something good out of it. There are lots of battles to be fought between left and right moderates, but we're not so stuck in our ideologies that we can't find a middle way a lot of the time. It's a very English thing to do. Look at our parliament! We had a monarchy ruling exclusively and it turned out shit. So we chucked them out and had a parliament, and it was a bit shit and turned into a dictatorship. So then we compromised and went with having both instead. I feel it's time to compromise a bit more and turn the House of Lords into a chamber of the people selected by lottery, but that's a different post. *wink*

The point is that the free marketeers and vocal right wing are the extremists. They're the radicals. These suggestions of mine aren't that radical. Cutting the government down to nothing but the army, as the free marketeers that make up the current Conservative government ultimately would like to do, that's the really radical plan! They believe that the free market will magically sort everything out if they hand everything over to it. The Invisible Hand of the Market. Honestly, it's like some weird sacrificial thing they've got going on. Let's appease our golden idol by privatizing everything and things will magically work out when we achieve the perfect moment of deregulation. Labour weren't any better, they're free marketeers too these days. Neo-Liberal, Neo-Conservative, New Labour (all the same). For thirty years, the parties between them have been looting our family silver, selling it for their own profit, and telling us that it's for the best whilst it doesn't seem to ever actually work. My plan's not radical; we spend some money collectively because it's about bargaining power, and we get more stuff in return together than we could each individually manage, hopefully including a community spirit that means we get no more massive scale burning and looting.

In the paleo diet community, people will buy a whole good quality, grass-fed cow together and then divide it up between them. The small farmer gets well paid and everyone gets well fed. It's common sense practicality; a mixture of socialism and capitalism that benefits the many; which includes the individual.

Next time I see kids on the street I desperately want them holding placards, not petrol bombs. I want them smiling at the policemen as they pass them, and the policemen smiling back. What I really don't want is tanks on our streets. I watched the Romanian revolution on the TV with my family in 1989. I watched tanks on the streets attacking the nation's youth. One of my most prized possessions is a flag, with the communist emblem cut out, that flew over the TV station in Cluj whilst it was being attacked. It was handed to me by someone who was there, who wanted people outside the country to remember those terrible days just in case they were ever forgotten again by the Romanians themselves. I never want to see the army on our streets going up against our own people. We shouldn't forget how horrible a thought that really is, not even in the heat of the moment. We shouldn't declare war on ourselves.

PS - After we've built all our cheap, energy efficient, homes and trained up all our people, we send our builders around the world to teach the lessons we've learnt to other people. We become a nation sending builders into the world, rather than soldiers. :-)

Eleventh Doctor Corset

erykah101 — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:49:46 GMT

I made myself something pretty. :)

Here's how I made it...

Typo of the day!

erykah101 — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:26:40 GMT

From Virgin alerts infected customers (that is Virgin Media, alerting their broadband customers)

"The letters stress the seriousness of the situation and urge customers to update their security software and scan their machine to find and remove the malicious program. Alternatively, customers can sign up for a help service that allows a Virgin to remotely find and fix problems."

Doctor Who Series 6 Eps 1 and 2 no spoilers

erykah101 — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:32:46 GMT

Just one word: Telephones. :)

You know one of these days I'm going to use creating a huge list of all the times Moffat uses telephones (with a sub-section for other related communications devices such as dictaphones, television sets, radios, spacesuit headsets) as integral plot devices as an excuse to do a great big re-watch of Press Gang, Joking Apart, Chalk, Coupling, Jekyll, Sherlock and Doctor Who.

ETA: Just realised that I'll have to track down his episodes of Murder Most Horrid too, as at least one of them - if I remember right - uses audio recordings as a key plot point. ;)

(relevant icon is relevant)

Spike Redemption Day

erykah101 — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 09:56:59 GMT

Heads up for Spike fans... tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the first air date of "Intervention". The first episode where Spike does something properly good with no expectation of a reward, and therefore gets a reward that is truly deserved.

So Happy Redemption Day Spike fans!! :D

Souls, morality and the Buffyverse

erykah101 — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:39:53 GMT

You know when you read debates about the souls conundrum in the buffyverse and what their influence is on our lovely souled vampires it all begins to seem so incredibly morally complicated. There's this consideration, oh and that one and that one too!

Allow me to try and condense it somewhat, using canon no less.

"I wanna help because I don't think people should suffer, as they do. Because, if there is no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world... If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do." - Angel, Epiphany

Basically Angel's big ephiphany on morality was that people who want to be good should simply try to do good. The logical endpoint of that thought is that what you should be judging people on is what they do, nothing more and nothing less. The only thing that matters is what you do.

So, let's rack it up:

Angel alive = bit of a bastard

Angel vampire unsouled under bad influence = massive bastard

Angel vampire souled under bad influence = bastard mostly, but some definite signs of improvement before the BtVS Season 8 WTFapoolza. Although his actions can be rationalised as trying too hard to stick to his epiphany on too grand a scale (if a little thing is good, then a big thing must be even better!).

Angel vampire unsouled under good influence = bastard mostly, although not really enough evidence to judge any progression properly. His over reaction at the end of I Only Have Eyes For You may already suggest someone in denial about those good influences having been positive ones for him, and there are signs on Angel too when "Angelus" is brought out again.

Angel vampire souled under good influence = definitely improving, still tending towards a bit of bastard a some of the time (habits die hard), but also capable of great kindness, friendship, love and wonderful acts of heroism

Spike alive = pretty good, although a bit wet

Spike unsouled under bad influence = bastard mostly, but with occasional flashes of good things

Spike unsouled under good influence = started off as a bastard, but steadily changed to doing good things over time when give more good influences

Spike souled under bad influence = if Angel/WR&H counts, then Spike stayed pretty damn good. Under the influence of The First, killed people against his will and hated it

Spike souled under good influence = unambiguously a total fucking hero

I'm not saying the soul isn't a factor, but the evidence of what Spike and Angel actually do on the show in their various states seems to suggest that it may actually be one of the lesser factors on the behaviour.

The influence of the people aroudn you, and how much you let that influence your behaviour is a far greater factor in the good/bad equation. It's a choice you make everyday with every single action you make and it's not always black and white. Harmony is another good example, she's very much influenced by who she's with throughout the course of the show because she has no strong feelings either way and she can choose to go either way.

You don't just see this in the vampires; you see it in the all soul having humans too. It's very apparent in Cordelia and in the Trio. It's there in Willow's dark magic arc. It's totally in Anya's. Oh my god, is it in Faith's! It's even in ups and downs of Buffy's arc, particularly her season 6 relationship with Spike. They create a bad feedback loop because they're both morally adrift throughout the season, but it's all because of their own bad choices and they could change it at any time to the better relationship they have in season 7 (as season 7 proves) by being good influences on each other instead.

Bad people under good influence can become good if they choose to. Good people under bad influence can become bad if they choose to. If you do bad things, it's bad. If you do good things, it's good. And there's a world of grey that you can fall into if you're not careful. Souls can be good catalysts to change but they're gravy and are no good indicator of your moral status, not even minute by minute. On Buffy and on Angel, everyone's moral compass is the company they keep and the people they choose to surround themselves with.

It's a simplistic moral framework and it's fairly deeply embedded in both shows. It's also completely consistent with the moral view an Athiest might hold, even though you could also make an argument for it coming straight out of the Sermon on the Mount.

This amuses me. :)

erykah101 — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:03:53 GMT

Lyrics to ELO's 'Twilight'

The visions dancing in my mind
The early dawn, the shades of time
Twilight crawling through my windowpane
Am I awake or do I dream?
The strangest pictures I have seen
Night is day and twilight's gone away

With your head held high and your scarlet lies
You came down to me from the open skies
It's either real or it's a dream
There's nothing that is in between...

CHORUS:
Twilight, I only meant to stay awhile
Twilight, I gave you time to steal my mind
Away from me.

Across the night I saw your face
You disappeared without a trace
You brought me here, but can you take me back?
Inside the image of your light
That now is day and once was night
You lead me here and then you go away.

REPEAT CHORUS

(You brought me here, but can you take me back again?)

With your head held high and your scarlet lies
You came down to me from the open skies

REPEAT CHORUS

Twilight, I only meant to stay awhile
Twilight, I only meant to stay awhile
Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight.

Quote of the week: Lies, and the lying liars...

erykah101 — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:44:58 GMT

"I don’t want to sit here and say “it doesn’t matter that this isn’t true, because based on what I’ve heard in the past it could easily be true” when what I’ve heard in the past came from exactly the same people that are lying to us now."

- Commented by 'Mike' on Mail claims “backlash” saved UK’s dozen eggs

LOLOL! This pic is so brilliant! :D

erykah101 — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:11:29 GMT

This.

erykah101 — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:37:56 GMT

I am an Eastern European

Election Links from this week and a small rant

erykah101 — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:14:35 GMT

Britain needs a ginger revolution - Monbiot can be a tit, but I like this article. Although I prefer the term "Graphite Revolution" that someone else used, from the pencils we use too cast our vote. ;)

Who's Afraid of a Hung Parliament? - Tory supporter in The Spectator pointing out that a hung parliament isn't actually THAT scary.

Tory attack video full of lies - "Several Tory claims, in a video titled “What happens in 1 Minute of Labour” are seriously inaccurate and misleading – some by factors of nearly 400 per cent."

Bail out local news, Jeremy Dear- Is profit really is the best guarantor of media quality and independence?

British Identity and the Legacy of Empire - Thinky thoughts on where we are in world.

‘Should have never put me with that woman’-gate - This.

On the subject of "Bigot-gate" (-gate suffix is annoying!), speaking as an Eastern European immigrant, Gillian Duffy's lumping together of all Eastern European immigrants as an amorphous mass that's apparently flocking here from somewhere or other did display ignorant bigotry. We're apparently all the same and we all come from somewhere, you know, Eastern, and she really doesn't really know where. But apparently we're responsible for fucking everything up in this country. That is a bigoted view to hold. It just is.

I am what Eastern European immigrants look like, I am one of THEM, and yeah I know, I'm not even like dark skinned or anything! And hey, isn't it bizarre, that I don't talk funny or smell weird! But woooooo aren't I scary?! I'm coming to take your job!!! Run away, run away now!!! I might breathe foreignness on you! Or force you eat paprika with every meal!

*epic eyeroll*

So, hey, bigots! Get to know a real Eastern European immigrant today, instead of believing the ignorant lies out there about us and lumping us all into a mass of otherness that you can blame your problems on! Then after that maybe we could have a real and intelligent debate about how we handle immigration from now on...

ETA: interesting tidbit for anyone who would try to counter my rant with the idea that I'm okay because I was born here and I'm well integrated into British culture, according to the Daily Mail (a newspaper which proudly supported the Nazis in the 30's), being born here and integrated isn't enough. According them, I'm not British at all, and neither are my nephews who were born here to an English mother.

Son of ETA: Just thought it would be amusing to add in this picture of me from Hub 4 (recent Torchwood con):

Now she was related to half of Europe!

Observations on Communications

erykah101 — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:46:36 GMT

I used to have this theory that Stephen Moffat was obsessed with telephones. Seriously, go look back at his work and count the number of times telephones seem to play an important role in the plot. It's really quite striking.

In the past few weeks I've come to expand this theory. He's actually obsessed with all communications devices (probably because you can't always fit telephones into a Doctor Who episode :p ). See Blink, see Silence in the Library and see, well frankly, most of the new doctor Who eps that he's written too. Count the telephones, and the strangely interactive TV screens, and the weird stuff going on with radios.

Moffat's Law: If there's a communications device of any kind appearing in one of his eps, then it will always somehow play an important role in the plot.

Link Spam Again

erykah101 — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:28:06 GMT

Election-y Articles:

The British Election Debates, the Lib Dem Surge and the Americanisation of Our Politics - It's something that I've felt vaguely concerned about myself. I read a lot about American politics but I read almost nothing about European politics. I have opinions on Europe but, actually thinking about it, a staggering lack of knowledge about how other European democracies work and what their issues are and, I also now realise, that UK news programs may be actively helping to keep me ignorant on that score by their bias towards reporting American news stories and not EU ones. And I promised myself I wouldn't spend a lot on Amazon this month, oh well! :p

Is the progressive case for migration truly progressive? - Thoughtful stuff. "There is in truth nothing progressive at all in a ‘laissez faire’ approach to migration which relies for its logic on an extreme neo-liberal position that people should fight ‘dog eat dog’ for economic opportunities wherever they can find them in an unregulated global economy. A new fairer world economic order is not going to be built on this approach."

And the prize for constitutional illiteracy goes to... - Actually me, and probably most of the rest of us too. *goes to read up on concepts of 'sovereignty of parliament'* Loving this election all of a sudden! There's proper deep thinkiness happening out there!

Shameful scare-mongering over a "hung parliament" ignores all the evidence - "David Cameron even had the cheek to say that the rest of Europe must be astonished that the general election might not produce a decisive single party result. I rather think that politicians, commentators and others in Europe are more likely to be astonished at the false, or even genuine, panic and ignorance that is on display. "

UKIP compares immigration with oppression of Native Americans - Fail.

Political Blogs:

OpenDemocracy - Loving this site a little too much right now. It's all progressive and thoughtful.

Liberal Conspiracy - Apart from the awesome name, interesting thoughts coming out from here.

Left Food Forward - Claim to be non-partisan but self labeled as "progressive".

Conservative Home - Seems to be hub of Tory blogging, a useful counter-point to my liberal squee.

Guido Fawkes - Libertarian dude who's totally spinning hard for the Tories right now. Again, interesting alternate viewpoint.

The Straight Choice - Describe themselves as a "real-time election leaflet project". Basically people posting pics of the leaflets that come through their doors.

Other Articles:

Britain's bingers out-boozed by Irish - "Ireland, Romania, Germany and Austria all have a higher rate of binge drinking than the UK, a European Commission survey has found." There's a turn up for the books!

Christina Hendricks Deemed Fat By Someone Named "Psycho Mike" - "A producer for LA radio station KROQ is shocked that his coworkers don't agree that Christina Hendricks "could lose a few pounds."" Yeah, he can just fuck right off.

Fandom Squee:

Bullet dodged: Fox kills Americanized Torchwood - As bad as the idea of a US Torchwood was, one produced by Fox was a million times worse. This is therefore good news.

Allow me a brief bout of hysteria - The ever wonderful gabrielleabelle - who writes the most fantastic Buffy meta - gets mad over intelligent folks being dismissed as just hysterical shippers just because "one of our (many) fandom activities includes reading fanfic about our favorite couple fucking". It's a rant of glorious proportions and I second every single word it.

Oh Dear

erykah101 — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:45:31 GMT

Kind of want to punch the presenter of this piece in the face repeatedly but it's the lack of knowledge of the people in it that's really depressing.

Top of the Morning

erykah101 — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:58:39 GMT

Links:

Hang 'Em - Non-partisan campaign organised by various groups who've been working for a written constitution for Britain and for electoral reform. Basically, they're giving info on minority parties and decent main party candidates who we could vote for in order to bring about a hung parliament, after which we demand real electoral reform and then another election. Possibly the least worst of all possible options right now. There may just be an actual third way. It's not ideal but I'm coming round to this as an actual way to get the First-Past-The-Post system reformed.

Intelligence Squared - Organisation for debating current issues.

Articles:

It's time for voters to wake up and get real lol, the Daily Mail are flat out shitting themselves at the prospect of an election upset for the Tories. Even their own commenter's are calling them on their shit.

New Tory campaign poster – let's cut benefits A 'Big Society' where people all volunteer to help each other, right? Nasty party.

Brown trains his sights on a 'new politics' – with the help of the Lib Dems Brown accidentally scares us all by making a good idea sound crap. Demand number #1 any Lib-Lab coalition must NOT result in Gordon Brown remaining as PM.

Nick Clegg's rise could lock Murdoch and the media elite out of UK politics Completely LOLworthy. Ex-Sun editor comes out against Murdoch and offers a distinctly left-field reason to vote Lib Dem.

Even harsher new ESA medical approved Thanks to Sueworld for this link. How not to create a better, fairer society. More reasons to demand a third option instead.

Heaven: A fool's paradise In a break from election links, apparently Heaven's probably not what you think it is.

Catching My Eye This Morning

erykah101 — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:12:00 GMT

Articles:

Study shows immigration does not increase BNP support

"Their findings suggest that areas that have higher levels of recent immigration than others are not more likely to vote for the BNP. In fact, the more immigration an area has experienced, the lower its support for the far right."

Iranian cleric: Promiscuous women cause quakes

Too many potential jokes and yet not remotely funny.

We haven't got a fucking clue, admit pollsters

ha-ha "BRITAIN'S leading polling organisations have joined forces to admit "we haven't got a fucking clue who's going to win the election"." (this is satire, mostly)

Election 2010: Political celebrities - then and now

Because celeb endorsements is the single most important thing about any election.

How TV viewing became a social experience

Okay, now THIS was the subject of my final university dissertation 13 years ago. The world has finally caught up. Excuse me whilst I go dig it out and send it back to my old uni asking for my degree to be upgraded on the basis that I predicted exactly this happening based on what I could already see happening on the fledgling internet and my tutors actually laughed at me and said it was not going to happen ever because TV viewing was an inherently passive experience! Well turns out I was right, you misogynistic, condescending arseholes! I guess I'm still a little bitter about that. :p

'Goodness, evilness makes you powerful' - like the Force

"Rather than those naturally endowed with superior abilities having the potential to achieve great things for good or evil, says Gray, it is more the case that being very pure or deeply villainous confers corresponding powers."

The religious lobby and women’s rights

"Equality for women cannot be achieved through the religious route as women’s groups have found, when supporting women who are attempting to break through the cultural and religious stranglehold on their aspirations."

Election Silly Things:

Who's Dave Been Talking to? - random quote generator mocking Cameron for his "I have a black friend" faux pas during the first leader debate.
Slapometer - Don't you just sometimes want to slap them all? Not just fun but actually making your presence felt as they will be tallying the slaps dished out during all the leaders debates. :)
MyDavidCameron - Hysterically ripping the piss out of Tory election posters.

I'd post things that weren't just mocking the Tories but I haven't been able to find anything funny enough specifically about the other parties. If you have anything then please link me in! :)

And a couple of slightly older items:

How Labour legitimises the BNP

"People don't vote for the BNP, they vote against New Labour and the rest. And those people feel treated unfairly by the unequal free-market society that not only Westminster politicians and corporate flacks, but also liberal media types benefit from. They are angry at you."

The Sex Scholar: Decades before Kinsey, Stanford professor Clelia Mosher polled Victorian-era women on their bedroom behavior—then kept the startling results under wraps.

Fannish Things:

Just noticed the existence of this convention Da'Con and I really want to go. :)
(Fic) A Crack in Space by StephenT. Awesome, awesome cracky (hahaha) story. Spoilers for Doctor Who 31/5.03 and Buffy 8.34
Does your fandom have an All-Penguin AU? Because the Spuffy fandom does. (You need to read this article to, sort of, understand why)