Wild Unicorn Herd

Former NASA Engineer Awards Kiera Wilmot Scholarship to Space Academy

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:52:06 -0400

Former NASA Engineer Awards Kiera Wilmot Scholarship to Space Academy:

esotericalesbians:

jalylah:

As a show of support, former NASA engineer Homer Hickam awarded Kiera a scholarship to attend the United States Advanced Space Academy (ASA), a branch of the famous Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama!

YESSSSSSSSS!

I LOVE WHEN THIS SHIT HAS A HAPPY ENDING

EXCELLENT

Charges dropped against Florida teen over amateur science experiment — MSNBC

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:16:35 -0400

Charges dropped against Florida teen over amateur science experiment — MSNBC:

hamburgerjack:

duelswords:

lostintrafficlights:

The 16-year-old high school student who was arrested after causing a small explosion on school grounds will not be charged with a crime.

GOOD.

Thank god!

They went after her because they thought no one had her back.

That’s the problem. They go after Black children like this every damn day.

Pieces available online — Shweta Narayan

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:36:23 -0400

Pieces available online — Shweta Narayan:

shwetanarayan:

I just updated my webpage, which was 2+ years out of date, and that included updating the list of stuff I have available online for free. So y’know, link for if you’re bored and want something to read :)

A couple of them by categories people following me might like -

Genderfluid fairy tale -

The River’s Children

Poetry on illness -

Persephone in Grey

Yajñāḥ / Offering

Triumph XIII: Chaaya

Complicated-feels poems about myself & mother (Also, illness, because that’s sort of central to everything for me) -

Epiphyte

Palettes

so i finished madoka in a torrent of ugly crying

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:16:23 -0400

it’s really good
not just as an anime but as science fiction in general
i’m not like a crying at books or movies person really but i was crying for the last 3 episodes straight
the witch art is really, really stunning
also: naked space hug how are they not lesbians

i started watching madoka

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:41:54 -0400

damn, and i thought rizzoli & isles had lesbian subtext

graceishuman's ultimate Kiera Wilmot Storify

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:53:16 -0400

tl:dr; A teenage girl in Florida got charged as an adult with a felony after doing a science experiment. Naturally, Twitter had smart things to say. Here’s @graceishuman’s roundup.

beyondvictoriana: lokisgift: hawkschild: Something I was reminded of:Nobody ever talks about the...

Wed, 01 May 2013 17:46:13 -0400

beyondvictoriana:

lokisgift:

hawkschild:

Something I was reminded of:

Nobody ever talks about the problematic elements in the source material for Steampunk.

I tried to bring it up at a Steampunk-themed convention and got crickets and a room full of stinkeye. Nobody wanted to be reminded that one of the core tropes of the genre was White Male Is A Genius And Builds A Gadget/Robot, Then Goes And Conquers Those PoC Over There And Then Steals Their Treasures.

And damaging Victorian worldviews, morality, and social mores.

And these things DO leak into the revival of Steampunk. Or Neo-Steampunk. Or whatever we want to call it.

And people either don’t know the history of the genre or, if they do, they want to ignore it all.

LET ME THROW LINKS AT YOU

Silver Goggles - “Worn by the steampunk postcolonialist when engaging with issues of race, representation, diversity, and other such exciting adventures as one might find in our genial genre”

Beyond Victoriana - “the oldest-running blog about multicultural steampunk and retro-futurism—that is, steampunk outside of a Western-dominant, Eurocentric framework.”

Ay-Leen the Peacemaker makes zines about antifascism, asian-americans and anti-King Coal activism in steampunk.

Nisi Shawl is writing a steampunk novel set in the Belgian Congo (I LOVE HER)

Amal El-Mohtar is amazing, and has specifically talked about the problem of writing steampunk-without-steam, and addressed it in fiction: To Follow The Waves

(tl;dr I love all these people, and I will really be sad to miss WisCon this year)

Thanks so much for the rec! Let me throw some more at you:

Steampunk Magazine: THE first magazine about steampunk, founded by anarcho-anarchist Magpie Killjoy. They are very much into discussing the -“isms” of steampunk, and are actively pro-social justice and stuffs.

Steampunk Emma Goldman — Putting the politics into your steampunk and steampunk into your politics. And her Facebook too is worth a follow.

The Chronicles of Harriet — On the forefront of steamfunk, African/African-American steampunk, run by Balogun Ojetade

moniquill aka Monique Poirier, social justice blogger, Seaconke Wampanoag steampunk

jhameia aka Jaymee Goh — Owner of Silver Goggles. This be her tumblr.

There are other steampunks who are politically-conscious and want to talk about that. Many of them answered my question about steampunk & politics here: http://beyondvictoriana.tumblr.com/post/47042618748/what-role-do-feminism-and-queer-politics-have-in

Other folks, feel free to shout-out here too!

"When is making a short zombie film an act of protest? When the heroes and heroines are black. When..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:25:06 -0400

“When is making a short zombie film an act of protest?

When the heroes and heroines are black. When there is no Sacrificial Negro to fulfill the fantasy that our lives matter less than white lives. When there is no cooning, shucking or jiving. When no black “Spiritual Guide” exists only to ennoble and enlighten white characters. When artists and backers unite to circumvent cultural barriers to tell our own stories.

As authors and screenwriters, we never set out to become filmmakers. But after years of options, pitches and meetings, we realized Hollywood is just a money machine following the ticket-buying habits of America as a whole. It will never lead. It was time to stop waiting for Hollywood to translate our stories to screen.”

- Why sci-fi power couple Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due are making a zombie movie. Read the whole thing.

vardaesque: maladicta: so this new gen Hogwarts thing has been...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:05:34 -0400

vardaesque:

maladicta:

so this new gen Hogwarts thing has been eating away at my mind and i did a thing

she’s a ravenclaw and she’s into historical revisionism and writes lengthy and intelligent articles for the zine. she’s also into mixing ‘alternative potions’, and plays as a chaser for the ravenclaw quidditch team.

she hates how history of magic is taught at Hogwarts though, its all books written by crusty old white pureblood dudes (“there isn’t a single non-human author in the syllabus, don’t tell me that doesn’t say something.”).

this is beautiful oh my god

slugbox: hausofpancakes: Space Jam vs. The Prince of Egypt |...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:54:50 -0400

slugbox:

hausofpancakes:

Space Jam vs. The Prince of Egypt | Space Plagues

OH MY FUCKING GOD JESUSE ASOIFJAKS YES OH MY GOD FUCKING YES LOL FUCKING USOFDJIAS I AM LAUGHING SO HARD

THIS IS GLORIOUSLY WONDERFUL.

NYT » Shakuntala Devi, “Human Computer” Who...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:51:24 -0400

NYT » Shakuntala Devi, “Human Computer” Who Bested the Machines, Dies at 83

From the obituary’s sidebar: “These are some of the problems that Mrs. Devi solved in 20 seconds or less:”

1. Add:  25,842,278
        111,201,721
        370,247,830
         55,511,315
---------------------
Multiply result by: 9,878
2. ∛188,132,517

3. On what days of the week did the 14th of each month occur in 1935?

As well as being a “mathematical wizard” who beat computers and set world records, “Ms. Devi was also a successful astrologer, cookbook author and novelist.”

Answers: 1. 5,559,369,456,432 2. 573 3. Beginning with January: Tues., Thurs., Thurs., Sun., Tues., Fri., Sun., Wed., Sat., Mon., Thurs., Sun.

sagansense: Mars Terraforming This feat, the “terraforming” of...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:24:15 -0400

sagansense:

Mars Terraforming

This feat, the “terraforming” of Mars from its current lifeless or near-lifeless state to a living, breathing world supporting multitudes of diverse and novel life forms and ecologies, will be one of the greatest and noblest enterprises of the human spirit. No one will be able to contemplate it and not feel prouder to be human.

Life in the initial Mars settlements will be harder than life on Earth for most people, but life in the first North American colonies was much harder than life in Europe as well. People will go to Mars for many of the same reasons they went to colonial America: Because they want to make a mark or a new start, or because they are members of groups who are persecuted on Earth, or because they are members of groups who want to create a society according to their own principles. Many kinds of people will go, with many kinds of skills, but all who will go will be people willing to take a change to do something important with their lives. Out of such people are great projects made and great causes won. Aided by ever-advancing technology, such people can transform a planet and bring a dead world to life.

- Robert Zubrin, Entering Space: Creating A Spacefaring Civilization

how about no

Photo

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:47:28 -0400

aunty-fascist: Great, people are trying to colonize Mars now. Martian people, if you’re there, kill...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:46:49 -0400

aunty-fascist:

Great, people are trying to colonize Mars now.

Martian people, if you’re there, kill them as soon as they show up and keep killing them until they stop sending ships.

johnthemod1: STOP EVERYTHING YOU’RE DOING. THIS IS A VIDEO OF...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:26:02 -0400

johnthemod1:

STOP EVERYTHING YOU’RE DOING.

THIS IS A VIDEO OF JOSH KEATON (VOICE OF SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN) READING A SELECTION OF SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MEMES.

A WINNER IS YOU

"Janelle Monáe is finally ready to follow up her 2010 smash debut, The ArchAndroid. On April 22nd,..."

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:33:22 -0400

“Janelle Monáe is finally ready to follow up her 2010 smash debut, The ArchAndroid. On April 22nd, she’ll release a collaboration with Erykah Badu called “Q.U.E.E.N.”, which serves as the first single off her sophomore album The Electric Lady.”

- (via pitchforkreviews)

youngbadmanbrown: I just want to smoke bongs, play mass effect and sleep all day tomorrow i love...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:06:34 -0400

youngbadmanbrown:

I just want to smoke bongs, play mass effect and sleep all day tomorrow

i love that m. i. a. song

anyway here’s a pic of barca (antonio te maioha) from...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:42:51 -0400

anyway here’s a pic of barca (antonio te maioha) from spartacus have a nice night

in general tho i really like the racial diversity in spartacus. like, rome was really big....

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:31:44 -0400

in general tho i really like the racial diversity in spartacus. like, rome was really big. see:

at the time of spartacus (about 70 bce), the roman republic stretched from spain to the black sea, to the shores of north africa all along the med. so, including people we now would consider “white”, but, like, ethnic white. italian of course, or greek or croatian. like, the olive skinned, hairy, talks with hands, has a front room with plastic covered sofas kind of white. there were also white-white people, like gauls (you know, france). but also berbers. libyans. moroccans. syrians. turks. i’m getting carried away.

anyway, basically, the heart of the republic/empire was a very cosmopolitan, culturally and racially diverse place, and while it doesn’t really work to impose 21st-century racial categories on, you know, a 1st-century-BCE society, it’s fair to say that it was not as full of WASPs as tv would lead you to believe.

ah yes, italians, known for their milky skin, lack of body hair, and english accents

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:42:25 -0400

ah yes, italians, known for their milky skin, lack of body hair, and english accents