forthwritten

Pussy Riot
Live blogging of the verdict
Guardian fanvid to Putin Lights Up The Fires (seriously, it's a fanvid, that's fscking adorable)
Amnesty International: Pussy Riot: a travesty of a mockery of a sham
Pussy Riot's closing statement
Manic Pixie Dream Dissidents - interesting look at the reporting of Pussy Riot and how they are simultaneously sexualised and infantilised in order to delegitimise their protest
From Pussy Riot, a lesson in the power of punk
Metal Vicar Rachel Mann: Why Jesus Would Have Been A Pussy Riot Fan
Get on the way, Pussy Riot!
Pussy Riot trial isn’t just about Putin
Meeting Pussy Riot
Pussy Riot's Punk Prayer is pure protest poetry

Assange
I loathe Assange. I like Wikileaks because it prioritises the data over personalities - it's an incredibly powerful thing. Julian Assange has made it All About Him in going on his round-the-world ego trip. It's both disappointing and rage-inducing to see the number of leftie men making apologies for raping people; the very faintest of silver linings is that it's becoming rapidly apparent who not to put your sleeping bag next to in an occupation.

All of the following are likely to be triggering for rape.

Assange, and feminism’s so-called male allies
Rape 101
Before the Law - legal issues surrounding Assange's current stopover in the Ecuadorian embassy
Stavvers: Dear George Galloway
A response to George Galloway, and what we mean by consent
Competitive rape defining

More sexism and misogyny
Who is Manchester Pride really for?
An Open Letter to Manchester Pride and Gaydar Radio
I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is 'I Am Dumb As Dog Shit And I Am A Terrible Human Being'
'Legitimate rape' – a medieval medical concept
Rebecca Solnit: Men Explain Things to Me - most recent mansplaining encounter: after Pride, some trans* tent people and various others went for a meal in town. I ended up sitting next to a random man I'd never met before, who proceeded to inform me of aspects of the history of English. Well, tried to; there was quite a lot that made me cringe.
"Yes," I said, "I actually teach this". I was going to start explaining where he was blatantly wrong when he abruptly changed the subject. Unfortunately he changed the subject to AI, and even more unfortunately he was sitting next to flippac. It made me realise that mansplaining is rarely about getting genuinely excited about something; as soon as this man encountered someone who knew more than he did about his current choice of topic, he shut it down. He didn't actually want to talk about that topic, he wanted to show off. And god forbid anyone might expose his lack of knowledge.

Other stuff
Why does the media still refer to “Bradley” Manning? The Curious Silence Around a Transgender Hero - this is more complicated for several reasons, namely the issue of using private logs. However, Manning is denied a voice and is unable to state their identity; there are also really problematic discourses of trans women being duplicitous and untrustworthy. Regardless of their gender identity, Manning is being treated appallingly.
Natalie Reed: “Harry Benjamin Syndrome” Syndrome
Neither Man Nor Woman: Meet the Agender - not sure why all the people interviewed are FAAB and why it focuses so much on bodies, but interesting article
S E Smith: Asexuality always existed, you just didn't notice it
Olympic suffragettes regroup for women's rights march on parliament - rather charming but "when the women formed a human scaffolding to carry a Christ-like Davison above their heads" is epic lols and I wish there was some way of shoehorning it into my current chapter
Humanities aren’t a science. Stop treating them like one. - as an empirical linguist working with quantitative methods I find this really interesting. In my experience, the big sweeping claims as illustrated in that article tend to be made by a) arts & humanities scholars who've suddenly discovered quantitative/computational methods or b) science-y people who've suddenly discovered arts & humanities. I've heard a fair number of papers where the response has been "yes, and how is this relevant?" because while it's been very clever, it's either telling arts & humanities people stuff they already know or stuff that's irrelevant. In my particular discipline people are very aware of the limits of quantitative work and we acknowledge the interpretive work done by the researcher. It's not unusual to use a triangulated approach of both quantitative and qualitative methods to benefit from the strengths of both and let them balance out each other's weaknesses; corpus linguistics and (critical) discourse analysis or conversation analysis are popular combinations for this reason.
Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against' - "I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production?" A+ Tom Morello
Black Fish activists vow to confront illegal tuna fishing in Mediterranean
Friday Five: Things I Want to See in Doctor Who Series 7
Jinty, Tammy, Misty and the golden age of girls' comics
Fictional ghost cities: where teenage darkness finds a home - call me immature, but I love undercities and shadow worlds
The best parodies of Carol Ann Duffy's Olympic poem
http://bustygirlcomics.com/

okay now I am going to take the big rats out for another thrilling episode of Hoarding Drama and Is Grouting Tasty. I think everyone except Willow is in heat so we'll probably have a bonus round of Furious Humping. This is the joy these creatures bring to my life. Speaking of awful pets, here's Dog Shaming. Sample post: "I eat sheep crap and vomit on the carpet every. single. day".

I have a massive collection of tabs that I don't want to lose, so thought I'd dump them here. Sorry?

Protest:
The protesters seem more adult than politicians and plutocrats

Who is truly the more adult: the protesters or an establishment that regards itself as older and wiser? The protesters have largely been very decorously behaved. They have thus far displayed no propensity to riot or to loot. Their tents are erected in rather neat rows. They hold laboriously consensus-seeking meetings at which they keep minutes and take votes. Their spokespeople are polite and articulate. If they do not have all the answers, they are at least posing some of the right questions. I don't see why they should be criticised for the absence of a manifesto when the leaders of Europe spent months quarrelling and flailing over the euro crisis before scrabbling together an expensively botched compromise.

The protesters shun formal leaders and hierarchies – and I also don't see why they should be criticised for this at a time when conventional leaders and hierarchies have been so conspicuously useless.

Occupy London could be protected by Christian ring of prayer

Christian groups that have publicly sided with the protesters include one of the oldest Christian charities, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the oldest national student organisation, the Student Christian Movement, Christianity Uncut, the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust and the Christian magazine Third Way. In addition, London Catholic Worker, the Society of Sacramental Socialists and Quaker groups have offered their support.

A statement by the groups said: "As Christians, we stand alongside people of all religions who are resisting economic injustice with active nonviolence. The global economic system perpetuates the wealth of the few at the expense of the many. It is based on idolatrous subservience to markets. We cannot worship both God and money."

I think the links between Christian groups and the protests are potentially interesting. There's a history of left-wing/socialist/radical social critique and social justice work in Christianity and it's a shame? disingenuous? frustrating? that this isn't given more attention. Helping out at a homeless shelter isn't very newsworthy though; however, making horribly conservative and heteronormative statements about homosexuality/abortion/marriage/gender is. I'm sure I wasn't always this cynical...

American Paki - Why I Am Not Protesting at Occupy

I don’t protest at Occupy because I know that my name has long existed on some intelligence database and I do not know what on earth it will be used for and how I will be targeted because of it – especially if I begin to show my face more regularly protesting at my local encampment.

[...]

As tempted as many white Occupy protesters are to proclaim “we are all one and the same!”, you cannot expect minorities, whose communities have been subjected to intimidation and abuse, to suddenly throw away the race card and jump on the bandwagon. These are critical times, and as such, it is important for Occupy to get it right. We are all part of the 99% – and the concerns of some should fast transform into the concern for all.

Paul Mason - Global unrest: how the revolution went viral
Paul Mason wrote Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere a few months ago and has expanded these ideas into a book.

For the first time in decades, people are using methods of protest that do not seem archaic or at odds with the contemporary world; the protesters seem more in tune with modernity than the methods of their rulers. Sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris calls what we're seeing the "movement without a name": a trend, a direction, an idea-virus, a meme, a source of energy that can be traced through a large number of spaces and projects. It is also a way of thinking and acting: an agility, an adaptability, a refusal to accept the world as it is, a refusal to get stuck into fixed patterns of thought. Why is it happening now? Ultimately, the explanation lies in three big social changes: in the demographics of revolt, in technology and in human behaviour itself.

Encountering Tear Gas & Pepper Spray, OWS Defending Against Tear Gas (image) and Survive a Mace Attack
Useful for some protesters - be aware of what the police force you're likely to come across are authorised to use.

Trans:
Binary Subverter - To Parents
I'm still mulling this over, but I found it really interesting.

This isn’t about presentation- although it's infuriating as hell that we still live in a world where it’s exceptional for any child to be free in how it presents, this should seriously be the norm- this is about gender. The most masculine trans woman in the world can feel social dysphoria. The most feminine trans man in the world can still feel like he isn’t free to express himself. Because that’s just it. I wasn’t allowed to express myself - by calling me a girl the message was that I was only free to accept myself if myself was a herself, which it wasn't. That masculine trans woman wasn’t allowed to express herself, only a non-existant "himself", that feminine trans man wasn’t allowed to express himself, only a non-existant "herself".

Janet Mock - Trans Day of Remembrance: A Letter of Blessings to my 16-Year-Old Self

Now, more than a decade later, I look at how lucky I was to get to walk out of that car. I now know the world can sadly be a cruel place. I could have been hit or beat or killed. A victim of a hate crime, one that could have been deemed a mistrial due to the trans panic defense, one where my family would have no closure, one where I’d be buried as a boy because no one but my friends knew my dreams of womanhood.

Fucking tired of arguing with people about using they as a singular pronoun
Always useful to have ammunition for this :D

Other stuff:
Queer and Then?

At its best, queer theory has always also been something else—something that will be left out of any purely intellectual history of the movement. Like "I want a dyke for president," it has created a kind of social space. Queer people of various kinds, both inside and outside academe, continue to find their way to it, and find each other through it. In varying degrees, they share in it as a counterpublic. In this far-too-limited zone, it has been possible to keep alive a political imagination of sexuality that is otherwise closed down by the dominant direction of gay and lesbian politics, which increasingly reduces its agenda to military service and marriage, and tends to remain locked in a national and even nationalist frame, leading gay people to present themselves as worthy of dignity because they are "all-American," and thus to forget or disavow the estrangements that they have in common with diasporic or postcolonial queers.

That effect has been possible not just because of the theories themselves, but because of the space of belonging and talk in which theory interacts with ways of life.

I'm pretty much as much of a baby queer theorist as it's possible to get but I did like this essay and am attracted to queer spaces, both physical and intellectual, for similar reasons.

Mysterious paper sculptures in Edinburgh. Gorgeous and imaginative and with a message about the importance of the arts. Well worth a look.

Couple of Doctor Who links: Doctor Who and its Discontents: Part I - Moffat, Misogyny and the Problem with Pond and Fixing Doctor Who – Season Five Edition. I love that someone's outlined an alternative S5 with themes and character development and narrative arcs. No, I do.

I've mainly been sleeping, reading and being fed for the past week. My current tactic with one of my chapters is to stay away from it, then look at it with fresh eyes so I can identify and fill the leaps that are perfectly logical to me but need explaining to anyone else. Hopefully I won't completely forget what I meant...

I also have loads of tabs saved and it's bothering me, so have some more links:

cut cut cut back:
Radical NHS reforms to go ahead

Harsh reality of spending gap challenges vow to protect NHS

So, basically, dissolving Primary Care Trusts and instead putting money directly into the hands of consortia of GPs. Who usually don't want to handle large budgets and will presumably outsource it to the private sector. Who will demand to be paid for their services and will inevitably lead to a postcode lottery and different treatments offered throughout the country. Yep, I'm sure that will end well.

University funding to be cut before increase in tuition fees

The universities minister, David Willetts, is expected to announce that the cuts, which government sources acknowledge could be up to £400m – 6% of the universities budget – will begin next April, 12 months before the new fees regime begins.

By not synchronising the timing of the cuts and the introduction of fees, the government appears to be opening another front in its battle to reform higher education. Some universities have warned they might have to declare bankruptcy because of the cuts, as many would be unlikely to be able to charge the kind of fees that would recoup the money they will no longer receive from the government. There are also questions about the quality of the courses on offer as universities struggle to operate with less income.

The Tory-led government has risked a rift with the Liberal Democrats by slashing 40% from the universities budget and making an 80% cut to the teaching budget.

I would like to headesk repeatedly.

Welcome to the 'chaos theory' of government

The desire to create an upsurge in community involvement is so self-evidently admirable that the coalition's political opponents and commentators find it hard to criticise. But it is also difficult to buy into as a solution to society's problems, particularly at a time of austerity.

The New Yorker magazine recently took a long, detailed look at the coalition's "big society" plans and could not resist a measure of scepticism. "Cameron envisages a garden-fence government in which little platoons of concerned citizens, unhindered by senseless regulations and sclerotic bureaucracies, band together to conceive and execute the governance of their own communities," it said.

The magazine likened it to "Wikipedia government, collectively created by the impassioned, the invested or the bored".

False Economy: What Do The Experts Say?

“A Harvard economist said to me recently that the coalition government's fiscal deficit reduction programme is the biggest macroeconomic experiment in an advanced country in any of our lifetimes - and this was before the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20 October. He argued that no government, unless forced to, would be dumb enough to take such unnecessary risks with the well-being of the nation.

“Every other country will be watching, he said, to ensure they don't repeat the same mistake as George Osborne's wildly unnecessary, misguided, doctrinaire and potentially dangerous spending cuts. They've let the Chancellor jump off the cliff first.”

fight fight fight back:
Taking sides in a riot - the difficulty of reporting a protest.

Kettle tactics risk Hillsborough-style tragedy

A senior doctor has warned that police risk repeating a Hillsborough-type tragedy if they continue with tactics deployed during the recent tuition fee protests.

The anaesthetist from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, who gave medical assistance to the protesters, said that officers forced demonstrators into such a tight "kettle" on Westminster Bridge that they were in danger of being seriously crushed or pushed into the freezing River Thames.

The Broken of Britain - disabled activists and the anti-cuts campaign. There's also a UKUncut guest post by Lisa J. Ellwood, disability & mental health activist.

What next for the UK's student movement? - ten concrete suggestions for what to do next.

UKUncut have some great guest bloggers and there's an article here on the political significance of UKUncut.

Student Theory has some in-depth discussion from a PhD student's perspective on the theory and practice of protesting, and Critical Legal Thinking has a post on Geographies of the Kettle: Containment, Spectacle & Counter-Strategy.

Finally, two resources: Tech Tools for Activists and Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents (.pdf)

other stuff:
The ethics of the superdairies - I find Raymond Blanc's perspective interesting as someone trying to juggle sustainable food, restaurant finances and customer satisfaction.

until we are all equal - huge list of trans resources

http://genderplayful.tumblr.com - genderqueer ("androgynous, unisex, butch, dapper, femme, gender-bending, gender-transgressive, and gender-fanflippingtastic") marketplace needing donations to get up and running, faq here

Disability Research Forum

Favourite culturally untranslatable phrases - I think the thing I find most interesting here is that some languages do have similar phrases, "fscking ants" and "sodomising flies" for example.

I was in the Parliament Square kettle yesterday.

I was feeling okay - tired and stiff and sore but okay - until I read this article, which quotes a Nottingham student,. There were probably one of ours and, despite the frantic texting and calling and ticking names off lists, we left them there, in the kettle and in the dark and with nowhere to go and surrounded by riot police with batons and on horseback. We did that. How could we?

Had the meeting with the Vice-Chancellor. It was mostly frustrating - he dodged questions, didn't give satisfactory answers and said some things which were rather ideologically revealing. I'm a realist - I don't think we're going to go back to the days of free university and grants, but I'd argue that university education is a privilege to be extended to people of all backgrounds. I don't like arguments based on attainment - there are certain school environments where it's easier to gain As than others - and intervention has to start early. The Education Maintenance Allowance isn't meant to be that early intervention; it enables students to say in FE when they might be under pressure to leave. It does a different thing, and it shouldn't be an either/or choice between it and early intervention. Anyway, I shall be protesting on Thursday. Please suggest your witty, eloquent, scathing slogans (and not the "stop the cu*ts" one, I'm bored of that one now).

Anyway, more links. I'm totally biased in favour of those challenging the cuts.

A reply to David Cameron

In truth, the coalition's reforms are ideologically driven. Cameron is making a deliberate choice to reduce state support for universities and marketise our system of higher education. We will become consumers not students; departments will focus on price not free inquiry; research will be funded on grounds of profitability and "impact", not on expanding our collective knowledge. The starkest example of this can be seen in the cuts to arts and humanities, which will lose up to 100 per cent of their funding in many places.

Why aren't we supporting the students? Maybe we've been psychically kettled

Yes, it was exactly like every protest I have been on, and, yes, it was completely different. Some of what was happening was immediately recognisable to me and some new. What is most impressive is how far these students have come in a couple of weeks. They are the opposite of just about every stereotype that is used about them. Call me old-fashioned but I hardly see them as hardcore anarchists, as their main contention is wanting access to state institutions. They do not want to drop out of the system but rather to drop in. They are also way too efficient to be proper anarchists.

Spending cuts are restoring the old role of male breadwinner

[The Women's Budget Group report] finds that lone parents, the vast majority of whom are women, and single female pensioners are hardest hit, losing services equivalent to 18.5% and 12% of their respective incomes. Overall, single women lose 60% more than single men, it adds. "Viewed as a whole, together with the measures announced in the June 2010 emergency budget, the cuts represent an immense reduction in the standard of living and financial independence of millions of women," the report concludes.

I also recommend glitzfrau's post about the value of women's work

Avoiding the depressingly frequent trap of female poverty in old age? Building financial security and a meaningful career? Having a strong sense of self beyond the biological function of motherhood? I always thought these were among the core goals of feminism, but no, they don't really count. Women's paid work isn't really meaningful, in the way that men's paid work is; women's work is only ever set against that of a nursery nurse, and no matter what the skills a woman might learn in the workplace while her children are in childcare, what good she might achieve at work, what pension contributions she might make for an independent old age, what promotions she might attain, what a social network she might build up, these are all irrelevant if her salary is less than the cost of childcare.

Fawcett Society loses court challenge to legality of budget

Ceri Goddard, the Fawcett Society's chief executive, said later she was "obviously disappointed" with the outcome of the case. "We will study the judgment and may well appeal," she said.

But taking court action had led to the government conceding that gender impact assessments did apply to the budget and should have been carried out in two key areas: the public sector pay freeze and certain benefit changes.

The challenge had also led to an investigation of the whole gender issue by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said Goddard.

NUS Protest outside Lynne Featherstone’s office 8th December

We’ve just had an email from Olivia Bailey, the NUS national women’s officer, calling for women to protest outside the office of the Lib Dem Minister for Women and Equalities.

[...]

Those wanting to join the action should meet at 11am on the 8th December, outside Lynne Featherstone’s Office near Crouch End, 62 High Street, London, N8 7NX. Come with whistles, banners, Sashes, Suffragette colours (Purple, Green, White) and Suffragist colours (Green, Red, White).

When they were elected, the Conservatives promised a 'Big Society' in the form of individual/community philanthropy rather than state welfare. Perhaps unfortunately for the Tories, people have rather taken to this notion of citizen volunteers altruistically offering their time to make a better society, but rather than do things like fund school breakfast clubs, carers, libraries and other public services the government would rather not fund, they've decided to do the government a favour and chase up the tax avoiders the government was letting avoid tax. And lo, from UKuncut came Big Society Customs and Revenue. Current targets are Vodaphone and the Arcadia Group.

Got called an anarcho-socialist yesterday for going to a teach-in. Does this mean I get a black or red flag?

Academics pledge to 'fight alongside' students over tuition fees and cuts: [link to letter]

Nearly 300 academics from 76 universities have written to the Guardian to say they understand the "anger of students" over education cuts and to express their support for this week's planned protests.

Praising the "magnificent demonstration" by students and staff earlier this month, the letter's signatories claim that plans to raise tuition fees and scrap the education maintenance allowance will lead to the "destruction of broad-based, critical education".

[...]

The signatories to today's letter – who are drawn from 68 UK universities and eight non-UK education institutions – say they consider themselves to be "involved in a defence, not just of our jobs, but of the values which brought us into higher education, reflecting the wider significance of education to society".

They go on to say that the planned increase in fees means the "effective removal of higher education" for working people.

The letter points to research from the Institute of Fiscal Studies which says that the cuts will lead to "insignificant savings to the taxpayer".

"The ending of the education maintenance allowance and adult learning grants gives the lie to the coalition's attempts to argue that those on lower incomes will retain access – these students will not be able to afford to stay in post-16 education to secure the qualifications they need to apply for further or higher education.

"The coalition has no mandate for its ideologically driven class rule – the anger of students is no surprise to us. Our intention is to fight alongside them in our institutions to defend social science, humanities and the arts and to protect higher and further education for all."

UK: Wrong time to raise fees, say global rivals

The decision to cut the universities' teaching budget in England by 40% and raise the cap on tuition fees threefold to £9,000 (US$14,360) could make foreign students look elsewhere, precisely at the moment when many more options are being made available, they say, and many are hoping to attract UK students seeking cheaper options than at home.

The areas of concern are the likely impact on teaching quality of the cuts in funding if they are not replaced by rises in fee income and the potential deterrent effect to EU and other overseas students of allowing a massive fee hike.

Student protests:

Students unite across the country to oppose tuition fees increase

Thousands of students across the country staged sit-ins, walk-outs and demonstrations today to show their opposition to the increase in tuition fees.

The nationwide protest, organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), saw schoolchildren and sixth-formers as well as university students and lecturers take to the streets to demonstrate.

An estimated 10,000 joined a demonstration in central London. The protests were largely peaceful but there were clashes with police when specialist officers corralled students into a "kettle" in Whitehall.

Student protests: pupil walkouts staged across Britain

It was the number of placards bearing references to Harry Potter that gave the game away. "Now we can't afford to go to Hogwarts", read one. "David Cameron is Voldemort," suggested another.

Of course the veterans of these sort of demonstrations were here: student union representatives, political activists, leftwing teachers, anarchists and stalwarts of the Socialist Workers party.

But a large, excited, very vocal percentage were schoolchildren, some as young as 13 or 14, who had piled out of lessons and joined the clamour against increases in tuition fees and the loss of education maintenance allowances.

Laurie Penny: This isn't just a student protest. It's a children's crusade

This is a leaderless protest with no agenda but justice: it is a new children's crusade, epic and tragic. More fires are lit as the children try to keep warm: they are burning placards and pages from their school planners. A sign saying "Dumbledore would not stand for this shit!" goes up in flames.

This is also an organic movement: unlike previous demos, there are no socialist organisers leading the way, no party flags to rally behind. The word spread through Twitter and Facebook; rumours passed around classrooms and meeting halls: get to Westminster, show them your anger.

Photographs from protests around England

Student protests: The aftermath - includes details of kettling and police violence, including physically assaulting young people and mounted charges at protesters.

Shocking video: when police charged into students on horses

Student protests: video shows mounted police charging London crowd

"I don't think I've ever seen anything quite so frightening. I've seen police on horseback, but this was like a cavalry charge. There was a line of police on foot, and they just moved out of the way, then maybe a hundred yards down the street there was a line of police on horseback. We'd been standing firmly and just moving back slowly, but when the police on horseback charged, that was the moment when we absolutely ran."

Toxic extinguisher fired at student protesters by police medic

Thatcher's children can lead the class of 68 back into action

On Thursday, the day of the meeting, a student occupation was in full swing. The epicentre in the Jeremy Bentham room – where protesters are still camped out – was packed to bursting. A living wage, with the outsourced cleaners brought back in-house, had become one of their key demands. Here, as elsewhere, what started as protests about tuition fees accelerated into a political movement against cuts of all kinds. Inequality, poverty, the shredding of public services, unemployment, bankers and boardroom bonuses had become part of the protest. One fight, one struggle, they said, as if 40 years had suddenly fallen away. Not exactly Paris 1968, but in their sit-in meetings they were beginning to see themselves as the vanguard for a wider campaign. Thatcher's children, selfish, materialist, apathetic? Not at all.

Response to kettling

Disposing of your old kettle in an environmentally friendly way is difficult. Since the police seem to like kettles so much help them out by sending your old kettle to:

Metropolitan Police Service
New Scotland Yard
Broadway
London
SW1H 0BG

Pass the idea on to anyone you know who has an old kettle they want to get rid of or who wants to protest against police tactics. A few thousand kettles should restrict their mobility somewhat.

Student occupations:

Manchester: http://roscoeoccupation.wordpress.com/
Sheffield: http://sheffieldoccupation.tumblr.com/
Royal Holloway: http://rhacc.wordpress.com/
Warwick: http://warwickagainstthecuts.wordpress.com/
UCL: http://ucloccupation.wordpress.com & http://twitter.com/UCLOccupation
Cardiff: http://twitter.com/CDFUniOccupied
Edinburgh: http://edinunianticuts.wordpress.com/
Leeds:
SOAS: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-support-the-SOAS-2010-occupation/167523743280448?v=info & http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/11/soas-students-government

Brief thoughts:

• Shame on the Met for kettling 13 and 14 year olds for nine hours. It was freezing last night, and many of them were dressed only in school uniforms because they'd walked out of lessons. That's horrific.


• Am still dubious about the Met's claim that the police van was occupied by police officers who abandoned it because they felt unsafe. I'm inclined to think that it was abandoned deliberately so the protesters had something to damage, which then gave the Met an excuse for their aggressive response.


• I suspect the Met are trying to make an example out of these protesters and trying to scare off young people from protesting again. I'm not sure if people are frightened by their response, or angered by it.


• I'm kind of touched by the strength of feeling and selflessness shown by protesters. A fair number of them have or will have graduated by the time the cuts to funding and increased tuition fees come in, but they're protesting for those who will be affected. I intend to protest, and when I do, it will be for research, teaching and the students I may one day teach.

Was invited to a unbirthday pancake breakfast by two of my friends - I admit that I am not at my best at 9am, but pancakes and tea and discussions about feminist theology in science fiction make me happy. They made me a big pancake with 25 candles in it. I am amazed I still have eyebrows.

I also set up my monitor and monitor/tv as a dual monitor system, whoo. The monitor is running at 1280x1024 and the monitor/tv is at 1680x1050 - not sure if I want to nudge that down to 1360x1024 though. The nice thing is that I can watch DVDs or TV on the monitor/tv and work on the monitor. I want to fiddle around with the settings a bit more but overall, my room now looks considerably more like a geek lair and I can hold my head up amongst the corpus linguists again (even if, now Matt's left, we aren't being quite so geektastic about hardware).

Interesting links:

Ministry of Type - typography, some really interesting analysis and beautiful, startling design.

Ada Lovelace Day post discussing OTW/AO3 and Dreamwidth and female-led projects

Para-military 101 :

When you apply organised, government-ordained violence to peaceful people, you create paramilitaries: everyone watching the War on Terror knows that. For every Climate Camp invasion the government creates more unstable elements, who feel that only with violence can they force the state to listen. That’s bad for the government, it’s bad for the people, and it’s really bad for the beat coppers caught between the two.

A field trip into Easter - beautiful, meditative post about different religious traditions