Interesting Links for 15-09-2020

[andrewducker]

Apparently there are empty Covid testing centres in England which are turning people away because the booking systems are fucked.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1305208471273566208.html
(tags:testing pandemic epicfail uk OhForFucksSake )

JK Rowling's latest book is about a murderous cis man who dresses as a woman to kill his victims

(tags:jkrowling OhForFucksSake )

Why political parties can't just be based on "what people think"

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1305434347852517376.html
(tags:polls politics UK )

Arm's fired China CEO refuses to leave, company reps banned from Arm China premises

(tags:business China wtf computers )

Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years

(tags:Ocean data Microsoft technology Scotland )

Brexit and the break-up of the UK

(tags:UK Europe Doom )

Public Health Wales had a data breach of Covid sufferers

(tags:pandemic dataprotection fail OhForFucksSake wales )

Whistleblower: There Were Mass Hysterectomies at ICE Facility

(tags:crime USA OhForFucksSake )

A Massachusetts Judge Asked Harvard to Find Out Why So Many Black People Were In Prison. They Could Only Find 1 Answer: Systemic Racism

(tags:USA crime racism police )

Beautifully preserved cave bears emerge from Siberian permafrost

(tags:Russia Bears prehistory )

There's an awful lot of overclocking out there

(tags:Windows computers fail )

Comments

[lilysea]

Re: JK Rowling, my favourite local bookshop had this to say:

Rabble Books & Games: "Hey Rabblers, we want to talk about JK Rowling. We are always trying to make Rabble a safer space for our community, and part of that is trying not to put books by transphobes on the shelves, when we know about them.
.
Here is where we’re at: we’re not going to stock new JK Rowling books and we won’t be keeping Robert Galbraith books (her pseudonym for crime novels) on the shelf anymore*. Though we don’t sell many, we’re going to phase out the Harry Potter books too. We know that HP means a lot to a lot of people and that often you want to share them with the youngsters in your life. We will always be happy to order them in for you, as with any books we don’t stock. For any we do sell, we’ll be donating our profits to transfolkofwa. We’re physically a very small shop, and this opens up so much space for awesome books by Jessica Townsend, Jeremy Lachlan, Tamara Moss, Rebecca Lim, Ambelin Kwaymullina and Akwaeke Emezi and other amazing writers with middle grade and young adult fantasy adventure books.
.
Whilst stocking a book isn’t an endorsement (good grief, that would be a minefield), and we will always take orders for books that aren’t in stock, there are more worthy books to put on the shelf, books that don’t harm communities and won’t make us sad to unpack them.
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*Just a note about this pseudonym - Robert Galbraith Heath was a psychologist who helped develop conversion therapy. Hard to imagine that’s a coincidence. Maybe read Dervla McTiernan and Tara Moss instead?
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What I’d love to hear is your suggested alternatives - what are some queer and trans positive fantasy books for young people and crime books for adults?
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There’s a link in the comments for more info about JK’s latest book, with a heavy CN for transphobia and transmisogyny.
— Nat
.
Image from them [Image is a black background with BOYCOTT TRANS-PHOBES written in block letters, rainbow coloured with a left-to-right blend.]

#TransRightsAreHumanRights

[dewline]

1. That's just frightening. Ottawa's testing centres are consistently facing 'round-the-block-sized lineups during their "open" hours right now. I can't tell you about Gatineau.

2. Yeah, not interested in that book. Now or ever.

3. All of this is true. And cause for ongoing concern.

4. This is just disturbing for reasons I'm not entirely clear on.

6. Echoing some of Charlie Stross' thoughts there.

8. This one looked dubious at first and seems to have garnered more credibility overnight. I see echoes of crimes against Indigenous women in Canada by our medical community and government across the decades in this.

[cmcmck]

She is clearly so determined that it happens against all the evidence to the contrary that she writes a book about it?

How sad is that?

[agoodwinsmith]

Holy Moly - I thought the Rowling thing was satire. It's a good thing my jaw is attached.

[ninetydegrees]

I think the irony is that she doesn't seem to even know that crossdressing and transgenderism are two different things. She's only showing *again* how ignorant she is. Hope this tanks.

So many WTF lately. The world is terrifying.