djgray | Oct. 6th, 2016

Oct. 6th, 2016

“The first time I called the CDC, I said that I wanted to talk to someone about possibly designing a zombie virus. …So every time I came up with a new iteration of Kellis-Amberlee, I would call back and say, “If I did this, this, this, this, this and this, could I raise the dead?” And every single time they would say, “No.” And I’d say, “OK,” hang up, and go back to working. After about the 17th time, I called and said, “If I did this, this, this, this, this, this and this, could I raise the dead?” And got, “Don’t … don’t do that.” At that point, I knew I had a viable virus.”
-

Seanan McGuire / Mira Grant (via

mmastertheone

)

(chuckle) Persistence in research pays off.

(via dduane)

#somewhere there is a CDC employee #who is both all out of fucks to give #and experiencing a mild level of perpetual background anxiety about maybe being complicit in the future zombie apocalypse #like I’m just imagining this one specific person fielding all of seanan’s phonecalls #maybe two a day over a period of weeks #and progressing from bemused politeness #to genuine amusement #to steadily escalating panic #’what if she’s not really a writer?’ #’what if I’m actually helping a supervillain??’ #’oh god I’m not paid enough for this’ #’I LIKE VIRUSES NOT THE GENERAL PUBLIC’ #’PLEASE TAKE ME OFF PHONE DUTY OH GOD’ #lowering their head gently into their cupped hands with the phone braced between ear and shoulder #’ma’am-’ #’ma’am we really don’t recommend-’ #’ma’am, no, that wouldn’t-’ #’ma’am please I really think-’ #’don’t… don’t do that-’ #and then she just STOPS CALLING #and after three days of radio silence this person starts discreetly checking the news for x-files-style stories about zombies #getting shit from their colleagues for their sudden fascination with trashy newspapers and trying to play it off #’HAHA YOU GUYS YOU’RE SO FUNNY’ #’YEAH ZOMBIE RACCOONS, IT’S TOTALLY HILARIOUS’ #’WHO WOULD EVEN DO THAT AM I RIGHT?’ #’IT’S NOT LIKE THEY’VE GOT US ON THEIR SIDE’ #’HAHA’ #’HAHAHAHAHA’ #*nervously wipes sweat from forehead*

(via fozmeadows)

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prettyarbitrary:

out-there-on-the-maroon:

elodieunderglass:

jncera:

audikatia:

soyoumusik:

rosebrass:

underratedbassists:

soyoumusik:

Got a quick screen grab so you could see what I was talking about.

WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE. WHOEVER MADE THAT NEEDS TO FIGHT ME

honestly this mindset hurts kids who love the arts so much.

imagine constantly fighting high school councilors just to get into the one class that keeps you alive. imagine constantly lying to teachers about what you plan on majoring so you don’t get “the talk”imagine no one you love believing in you, and constantly asking what your “back up plan” is. imagine being kind of miserable at your own graduation and grad party because people are always asking you about your future, and when you tell them they just look at you like your stupid.

imagine constantly being told that what you do isn’t good enough. that you’ll never succeed without changing who you are.

imagine having to try to stop yourself from flat out breaking down and sobbing in front of your professor after your first lesson, because they simply told you “you know what? I think you can do this. If you work hard I think you can be very successful in this field.”

because that’s the first time anyone’s actually believed in you.

yeah, science is great, but putting it above the arts is one of the biggest mistakes this society has ever made.

^^^^^ This is really well put. ^^^^^

In addition to all the other good points on this, I want to point out that Wells Fargo would have had to pay a graphic designer to create this. How can they say the arts are impractical and unnecessary while they are paying someone for their design skills?

and they have a lot of gall to say that considering the work of visual artists is literally everywhere in research labs

from educational posters

to textbook figures

to even the packaging art and design of the reagents we use

so as a scientist i just want to say: without the hard work and expertise of artists, research science, for one, would not be as productive. so thank you. your skills are valuable and you are needed.

and look, science may keep us along longer and make our lives more productive but what is the point if we can’t also do things like watch shows and movies and go to museums and dance performances and listen to music?? STEM is like the flat outline of a drawing. yeah, you can tell what it looks like, and i guess it could function on its own; but the things like humanities and literature and art fill it with color, and shading, and emotion. so much more beautiful, so much more fulfilling right? they make the life that STEM helps improve worth living.

so i’ll be the scientist bc that’s what i’m good at and what i like to do, and you be the dancer, the actor, the artist, the historian, the poet, ok? and together we’ll both make the world a better place :)

And honestly - pursue both. But if you’re paying for a degree, may I suggest that you buy the degree in science and supplement it with add-on minor degrees/modules/hobbies/certificates/expertise in:

Science + performing arts = so now you are an incredibly desirable person, science communicator, teacher, lecturer, demonstrator, media officer, festival performer, comedian, workshop leader, person who is paid to teach these skills to scientists, person who is trained to talk to the media; people throw themselves at your feet, basically you’re primed for a position as a television science presenter (and you just might make it), but you combine skills of performance/charisma with “actually has interesting stuff to talk about” in ways that make you fascinating and successful; if you go into entertainment the marketing writes itself; and if you stay in science/academia you’re damn good at wooing panels, winning grants, convincing people to buy you new labs, and enchanting lecture halls full of hundreds of students; if you stay in both you are part of the scicomm scene and have a tribe of bloodsworn siblings; you are an Outreach Person now;

Science + writing = you’re the popular person who writes the research papers and picks up pocket money editing theses and cover letters. You can sell science writing for money and are extremely good at composing arguments. your English credentials earn themselves back really quickly. There are many, many jobs that want you, and will treat you like a magical beautiful unicorn treasure. Nothing’s stopping you from writing a novel, but in the meantime, you’re doing very important work and always have more fascinating material than you can possibly compile,

Science + fiction = this is a genre, apparently,

Science + poetry = this is a startlingly common combination and was basically a requirement for being a Victorian scientist (and even earlier, before scientific writing became its own thing, books on science were sometimes written as poetry.) Nature, often noted as the most influential and high-impact scientific journal on the planet, used to publish quite a lot poetry in the journal (and still publishes flashes of science fiction on the back page!)

“The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper,” EO Wilson says, and sometimes the poems get written down. There are entire anthologies entirely composed by scientist poets, and some beautiful stuff lands in my inbox every day. Science and nature are some of the most common themes in poetry, to everyone’s benefit:

Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night.

Science + audiovisual/photoshop skills = you do all the figures for the papers and posters, are hired to illustrate textbooks and are a consultant, people think you are magical, perhaps you are a wildlife photographer or videographer, or you can help design items and goods for the museum you work for, or show off your research department to best advantage with some really good posters, hurray;

Science + fine art = the advertising writes itself, your art shows are well-attended and successful; everyone showers you with compliments and buys your work, people find you weirdly fascinating, pieces get written about you in the news, you are never short of subject matter for your art, you also make reasonable income/influence by illustrating papers and textbooks, your presentations are always A+ aesthetic, you never run out of material or ideas,

Science + music = somebody needs to make music for nerds. But even if you don’t make your music about science, there are plenty of professional scientists who do music as a hobby/second income/second career. Off the top of my head I know a cancer biologist who is a concert harpist, planetary scientist in an acclaimed folk-pop band, a biologist opera singer, a paleontologist who busks, and an all-scientist jazz band. This is a surprisingly common and successful balance. They’re frequently successful scientists (and quite secure with work/life balance) as well as successful musicians (many go on to sign record contracts etc, but again, they’re renowned for being practical and balanced.) There are SO MANY scientist-musicians that this article talks about professional scientists who science their music (and then go on to make music about the science of their music).

Science + history = okay this is literally an entire meta-discipline? and can range anywhere from the entire field of anthropology to the field that is literally called science history. It also includes some of those blurry science/humanities fields like archaeology, which vary on whether they are Science or Art, usually depending on how “easy” they are perceived to be and how many women influence the field. “Easy” plus the presence of women = the field is considered an art. Perceived difficulty plus the presence of men = the field is a science.

ARE YOU REALLY, INDIANA? I THOUGHT YOU WERE A PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY WITH A NAUGHTY HABIT OF STEALING ARTIFACTS. I have some issues with your scientific methods, Sir

Science + programming = THE MOST USEFUL PERSON ON THE PLANET, seriously, if you acquire a proven science background and get yourself up to scratch with coding YOU ARE A DEMIGOD,

Science + visual storytelling = your webcomic is beloved even if you can
only draw stick figures (XKCD). You can go adorably pastel (Bird and
Moon) or sarcastic slice of life (PhD Comics) but your stuff is going to
have a lot of appeal and you will never run out of subject matter. Journals
are now suggesting that research could be published in comic form,
there is definitely a place to tie this back to harder science. Or if
you don’t really want to get into that, you can just be popular on
social media.

Science + craft = there are a surprising amount of things to do with this, but a reasonable market lies in making science-themed gifts and items to sell. The popularity of molecule necklaces and virus plushies is due to scientists showing up with craft skills, and people can’t wait to buy it. Everything from knitting patterns to 3D printing mockups to exquisite sculptures of Dunkleosteus to funky clothing and design has a perfect niche market that can’t wait to buy what you’re selling - and you’re apparently one of the few people on earth that can put these ideas together! And you have SO MANY OF THEM!
But, you know, everyone, PLEASE keep perpetuating this concept of a vast and unknowable gulf between science and the arts. PLEASE? Because it makes those of us who bridge the nonexistent gap seem incredibly impressive.

Stronger together, people.

My college, which is focused on environmental science and engineering, is actively trying to coax our students to get more involved in the arts. Those are the skills that will put our students at the next level compared to their fellow graduates who will be competing for the same jobs, and they are the skills that STEM as a whole desperately needs in order to be able to move forward and be of service to society. As much as STEM is getting pushed as a career path, culturally we’re experiencing some massive problems due to the inability of people in the STEM fields to be able to communicate with the rest of the populace and gain their support, trust and ideally their understanding. See: anti-vaxxers, climate denial, funding cuts to education, NIH, NSF, etc. (Because why the hell would we need studies that tell us whether antibacterial soaps increase the chance of liver cancer and frivolous crap like that?)

So it turns out this is in fact a serious issue that poses a danger to society.

And I personally am annoyed by this ad because do you know how hard it is to convince science kids that they need to pay attention to the arts in order to do their jobs well? Turns out it’s pretty damn hard, thanks to the narrative these ads are perpetuating.

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kryptaria:

rachelhaimowitz:

whitepplsucc:

rachelhaimowitz:

bisexual-books:

seananmcguire:

siancrosslin:

Apparently now is the time for uncomfortable truths because I’ve just had it.

How many posts have I seen that talk about fanfiction ‘setting the bar higher’ or about how ‘unoriginal’ published fiction is? How many posts have I seen where someone’s saying “I wish someone would write about X thing that subverts some popular trope!’?

Trans Cinderella? I have a friend who’s written that. Books about people who are actually, for real, bi or ace? My publisher has whole categories for those. How about ABO? Or werewolf stories that aren’t about sex and dominance? Hell, I’ve written that. Enemies-to-lovers? Mecha-wearing cops? These people are some of the most creative and welcoming and kind people I’ve ever met.

And nearly daily, I see fandom deride us like we’re somehow other. And look, I get it. In large part, I think a lot of the pushback is the inaccessibility of publishing in large houses, and the way that those large houses churn out the same tropes over and over again, while enforcing and maintaining the societal status quo.
But hey, those are large presses. Those are The Big Four. There are so many smaller, younger, more inclusive presses running around now, not even to mention self-publishing.

If I read a book that I absolutely love and I immediately develop a writer-crush on that author, 9 times out of 10 I say to myself “I wanna be friends” and then we become friends. It’s great. Authors have no chill about each other, none at all, I love it.

So when I finally caved and came to tumblr and started getting involved in fandom, it was like a bucket of cold water to the face when I found out, over and over, that fanfic writers and readers wanted nothing to do with me and my original fiction. I mention that I’ve finally been writing again, someone asks what pairing, I say it’s orig fic and the immediate disinterest is nearly palpable. There’s the continuous parade of posts talking about how no one ever writes about this, you never see books about that, I wish there was a book like this, with this, not with that, and every time I see those posts I become an incredible combination of sad and indignant.

Because these books do exist, these authors and publishing houses do exist. These editors and artists, they exist. I know because I’ve worked with them, I’ve emailed and tweeted them, I’ve published with them. These posts and this attitude are willfully ignoring and erasing the industry that’s closest to your own works. Do you think mainstream publishing and The Big Four, do you think they’d accept ABO? Do you think they’d accept triads with an ace member? Do you think they’d accept trans love stories? Sweeping epic fantasy where the main character being gay isn’t the driving force behind the plot? Or sweet and fluffy contemporary romance? No, they wouldn’t, because on the whole mainstream publishing, when it deigns to include us, is pretty much only interested in killing us.

Fandom needs to understand that there are queer spaces in publishing too, and we are not the enemy. It really sucks to try to fit in with the people you think will understand you best and have it made clear, time and time again, that you’re still too other for them.

And it is because of these explicitly queer spaces in publishing that the big New York houses are beginning to adjust and allow for more diversity in all aspects. We can make a difference, but we do it by reading and supporting what’s there, not denying it unless it comes from a pre-existing property.

I agree with all of this but I want to add that SO MANY READERS have no clue that smaller presses like that exist.

Smaller queer-friendly presses often have meager marketing budgets and have a harder time getting the word out. So rather than blame readers for not knowing that they exist, I’m going to say that all of us in the writing-publishing-reviewing chain need to do a better job of getting the word out to readers.

- Sarah

We’re here, I promise. Queer presses run by queer staffers publishing queer authors writing books with queer characters. We’re here to represent ourselves, to represent you. To give us all mirrors, role models, happiness and hope. Come visit sometime; we have cookies and no dead lesbians.

And you know what I’m just gonna get a little bit promo-y here (forgive me; I almost never do) because it’s actually @riptidepublishing‘s fifth birthday this month and they’re celebrating by discounting their entire catalog (link) by at least 50% (for books released prior to Sep 6 of this year). There are also over 50 titles at 99 cents. Full-length queer novels you can buy for literally less than a cup of cheap gas-station coffee. And if even 99 cents is currently out of your budget, then head over and check out the free stuff, because there’s some of that too.

Yeah but then again published fiction is never accessible. Too many of us can’t even afford to read your $1.99USD books on Amazon.

And this is where libraries come into play. You don’t even need to go to the library to borrow an ebook that can be read on your phone or computer; all you need is an internet or cell connection to download a book you can borrow for weeks. If you can get to the library, basically every public library in the US has computers you can use while you’re there to read on, and many public libraries now actually lend out e-readers themselves so you can take them home with you and read on your own time. (There are of course print books too, if you can get to a library but don’t have access to a device on which to read ebooks.)

And here’s the thing: little presses like ours? LOVE libraries. Not only are they critical to making queer books accessible to the folks who need and want them, but they’re also important customers for the publishers themselves. If your library doesn’t have something you want? Request it. Nine times out of ten they’ll get it for you, especially because small presses keep library purchase costs very low (a library can buy a book from us, to keep and lend out forever, for about a TENTH the price they can buy a one-year license to lend a book from a major publisher). And if you live somewhere very conservative where your library refuses to purchase a queer book on request, then there are also a large number of free queer libraries, some of which will even mail paperbacks Netflix-style, for free, to folks who need but cannot access the books any other way.

If you can’t afford to pick up CHANGE OF ADDRESS or any other queer original fic, please request it from your local library!

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cutiequeercris:

karadin:

A majority of millennial men failed to see women as equals, according to the study, which looked at how college biology students viewed their classmates’ intelligence and achievements, the Harvard Business Review reported.

Among the findings:

In every biology class surveyed, a man was seen as the most celebrated student, even in instances where women earned significantly better grades.

Men were also found to overestimate the intelligence of their male classmates over that of female ones.

Men continued exaggerating their assessments of the male peers, despite unequivocal evidence that their female peers were performing better.

Women, conversely, weren’t found to display a bias: Their assessments of fellow classmates tended to be spot-on.

The National Institutes of Health researchers pointed out that female STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors drop out at significantly higher rates than their male counterparts.

“The reasons for this difference are complex, and one possible contributing factor is the social environment women experience in the classroom,” they wrote.

Still, scores of men are under the impression that they’ve become the target of reverse sexism. Conservative columnist John Hawkins ranted in Town Hall last year:

“Men have it rougher in America than most people realize. In part, that’s because they’re one of the few groups (along with white people, conservatives, and Christians) it’s cool to crap on at every opportunity. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a nonstop assault on masculinity in America.”

But research has confirmed the reality of gender bias against women. A staggering 90 percent of women reported experiencing gender harassment in the workplace, a 2010 University of Michigan study found. The results suggest that such harassment had the purpose of driving women out of jobs and not the generally assumed motivation of trying to draw women into relationships.

“One could argue that, in these instances, ‘sexual harassment is used both to police and discipline the gender outlaw: the woman who dares to do a man’s job is made to pay,’” the researchers wrote, quoting an article by Katherine M. Franke, an associate professor of law at the University of Arizona College of Law.

As for millennial men specifically, they have been less accepting of female leaders than their older male counterparts, according to a 2014 survey of more than 2,000 adults residing in the United States, the Harvard Business Review reports.

Half of Millenial men said their careers would take priority over their partners’.

Three-fourths of women, on the other hand, said their careers would be at least as important as their husbands’.

oh look its the shit women have been saying all the damn time and antifeminists stamp their feet and cry about

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