Need A Cheat Sheet For Wizard Finance? We Got You

​Naomi Kritzer’s excellent story Cat Pictures Please is up for Best Short Story. It’s also the only non-Rabid Puppy story in that category, if that’s something you care about. You can read it at http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_01_15/ and even if you aren’t planning on voting in the Hugos, you should still take a look -- it’s very good.

A few things about the Hugos

I’m almost through this year’s Voting Packet and would like to say a few things:

1. Hugo voting is for members and supporters of WorldCon. So, to vote, all you need to do is make a $50 donation to WorldCon. (Yes, I know that’s out of reach for many of you, but for others it might be worth it, and the packet often contains multiple full length ebooks).

2. We need more variety in Best Dramatic Presentation, both long and short forms. No, this isn’t a complaint about Doctor Who being nominated every year (the reason Doctor Who gets nominated every year is because Whovians are better at coming to a consensus about which episode to nominate than other fandoms, as far as I can tell).

No, what I mean is: Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form does not equal movie, and Short Form does not equal television episode.

From the Hugo website “The award can be given to a dramatized presentation in any medium.”

This means stage plays (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child if it’s any good) are eligible.

Video games are considered a dramatic presentation per the Hugo rules. I wouldn’t be able to vote for one, but some of the excellent games out there (the 90 minute cutoff would presumably be play time) could use to be recognized.

Audio dramas are eligible. Why has nobody nominated anything from Big Finish?

3. Best Related Work is a disgusting mess. Because so few people nominate, it was taken over by not the Sad Puppies (which has turned into a good thing) but by Vox Day’s Rabid Puppies.

One of the works nominated was outright hateful. Another contained such explicit descriptions of child molestation that MidAmeriCon’s lawyers advised them not to distribute it because of the risk of somebody being arrested for kiddie porn. Or so they say, I didn’t want to risk reading it…

A third was a book about how to fight SJWs by Day himself which - and I feel I can say this - was strewn with personal attacks against multiple people and promoted unethical activity.

The other two were good and I was surprised to find the treatise on Gene Wolfe’s fiction by John C. Wright (another extreme right winger and somebody who’s fiction I find all but unreadable) to be quite well written, interesting and award-worthy.

But outright hate for any group (including Vox Day and his friends) doesn’t belong in the Hugo packet. Neither does, uh…yeah…that.

So, in addition to pointing out to people that they can nominate things other than movies and TV shows, I’d like to toss out a challenge to people - including people who can’t afford the voting fee - to find good Related Works that can be nominated. (Please don’t post exactly five, that’s a slate, and we know those are bad).

Related Works are, essentially, non fiction related to science fiction and fantasy (or “works valuable primarily for things other than fiction”). So, if you find a cool biography of a writer, or even of an actor or director primarily known for genre work, talk about it. Scholarly or fan written works about a book, video game, movie, TV show, etc, also fit into this category. I am also pretty sure that books about writing science fiction and fantasy would be eligible. Collections of art are specifically eligible per the Hugo page. Books about the culture of fandom are eligible - just please don’t promote something that attacks any group or person. If a writer you know has published their memoirs, consider that. Finally, although it’s not clear from the site, it might be possible to nominate “Making of” documentaries associated with a movie, TV show, etc. We really need to get a lot more stuff nominated in this category so it isn’t all coming from one source, and to try and keep out stuff (best fan writer also has some problems in this area - please do nominate your favorite blogger) that promotes a political or social agenda rather than truly being about science fiction, fantasy, and fandom.

When you’re ten years old, a Hogwarts professor comes to teach you how to cast a Patronus. People were worried at first -- they said ten was too young. You can’t even go to Hogwarts. But the grass around your house could be dangerous, and besides, the consequences for mistakes aren’t that bad.

Your natural Patronus is your starting Pokèmon. A lot of people have Rattata Patroni, but not all. Those with more uncommon Patroni get special attention from the Professors. Some of them are given a special spellbook they call a Pokèdex and told to find as many different Patroni as they can.

Patroni want nothing more than to protect their casters from harm. To do that, they practice against other Patroni. This is called a battle. The winning Patronus becomes stronger and better able to protect its caster.

Besides the Patroni of known casters, there are others that wander Great Britain. No one knows quite where they come from. Some say they are the Patroni of people killed in the Battle of Hogwarts. Others say they formed spontaneously from happy memories. Regardless, they roam the lands. Some casters tame them with spells -- a burst of red light, and then they will serve you loyally.

A few Patroni of immense power roam Great Britain as well. They are said to have belonged to tremendously powerful wizards. Over time, they come to be known as “legendary.”

Godric Gryffindor’s is known as Articuno. Only the bravest dare to venture to its frozen home. Ho-oh, guardian of the skies, is mastered by Helga Hufflepuff, protecting Hogwarts with the help of a Patronus. Salazar Slytherin’s is referred to as Rayquaza. It knows how to manipulate others to get its way. Rowena Ravenclaw’s is named Giratina. Its alternate dimension fascinated her, and even today the brightest students of her house are encouraged to seek out and learn from Giratina. Merlin, as a valuer of ideals, cast a Patronus known as Zekrom.

There were others, of course. For centuries, there had been thirty others. But then, shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts, a new legendary Pokèmon appeared out of the remains of Lord Voldemort.

Its name was Yveltal.

Pokemon, but with patronuses

I… have no idea how this would work I’m sorry. Anyone want to reblog this with their thoughts?

Reblog if you go to fictional characters for comfort.

Whether it be when you feel you don’t belong, when you feel upset, when you’re angry, when you’re going through a hard time or when you’re feeling empty. (Social Experiment: I want to see how many people do this)

Note: The phrase “the chart” refers to the graph in iamretrograde’s post, titled “Comparisons of Intimate Partner Violence Against Various Categories.”

I did a reverse image search on the chart, followed by searching for the text. This led me to this site http://chart-mining.com/comparison-of-intimate-partner-violence-against-various-categories/, which has the graph followed by a source. They source it as being from http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04C02 . I followed the link, but it didn’t have the image, just a page telling me that I could use the website’s search bar to help find what I was looking for.

I tried searching for some of the keywords used on the image with the site’s search bar and discovered two things:

1. The site has an extreme anti-LGBT+ agenda and is extremely biased.

2. I could not find any mention of the supposed statistics. I did find this article: http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF08L44.pdf , which says, “ ‘Domestic violence is reported to occur in about 11 percent of lesbian homes,’ the article [this is referencing another study] states. It goes on to claim that this is ,about half the rate of 20 percent reported by heterosexual women.’ However, this comparison fails to note that the highest rates of domestic violence among heterosexuals occur among those who are divorced, separated, cohabiting, or in sexual relationships outside of marriage; married women experience the lowest rates of domestic violence of any household arrangement.” Which, as far as I can tell, is claiming that this is study doesn’t count because heterosexual married women are less likely to experience domestic violence than unmarried heterosexual women who have a male partner. This may be true, I’m not sure, but I fail to see how this proves their point. In addition, these figures are significantly lower in both cases than the figures given on the graph.

I then looked up the article they reference. It’s here: http://www.glma.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=691 . The organization publishing it, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (yes, they will also be biased) has removed the statistic and didn’t cite their sources, so that’s mostly a dead end. I found a few other sources, but all of them have various flaws (convenience sampling, over-specificity, etc.) that make them not useful.

Overall, I could not find anything to back up the statistics in that graph. If we accept the statistics provided by an anti-LGBT+ organization, who have a vested interest in the opposite result, then we have clear evidence that domestic violence occurs at lower rates among two-woman couples than one-man one woman couples. Since two-woman couples would have twice as many opportunities to occur, this would seem to indicate that, from a domestic violence point of view, it is safer for a woman to be in a relationship with another woman than with a man. Furthermore, it is safer overall for everyone than that chart indicates. (This does not mean the given statistics are good! However, they are less bad.)

If someone can find a source to back up the chart, I will absolutely reconsider this; until then, it looks like its claims are false.

Heterosexuality is Stockholm Syndrome

http://news.mit.edu/2016/data-amazonian-piraha-language-debate-0309

It sounds like it’s currently debated.

Taken from: Philosophy Memes For Fantastic Philistines (FB)

Get out.

So this is a really funny post and I realize I’m missing the point but Latin didn’t have a “w.” 

tvmblr, 50 bce

friendly reminder that ivlivs caesar is problematic for he attempts to pass legislation in the senate that does not benefit the eqvites and the optimates, vwv

reblog if you believe that gender neutral bathrooms should be available everywhere

Previously, I’d only seen the first two panels and assumed it was the complete comic.

This version is much better.

How did you become so awesome?

I’m not awesome; awesome people don’t take months to reply to messages. But thank you, Anon!