Link Log for July 26

Link Log day! Categories: Animals, Children's Rights, Fun Stuff, Phenology, Philosophy, Politics, Race Matters, Safety, Winter in July, Writing.




Animals




Dyeing rhinos to prevent the rhinos dying?




http://nowiknow.com/why-dyeing-rhinos-may-keep-them-from-dying/




Children's Rights




I'm getting lots of e-mail from Republicans who oppose the administration's current demand that slum buildings be shoved into middle-class neighborhoods, but not in the same way I do. This petition is typical. I signed it, but now I'm feeling the urge to repeat: I don't give a flip about some Republican's "property values." I'm into the "community values" of staying, nesting, building, bonding, sharing, and actually living in a home, which means that if you think about "property values" you want'em to stay nice and low so more seniors and working parents can stay in your community. But I still think that children, even low-income children who may be new to middle-class neighborhoods, deserve a tree to sit under and a place to keep a dog and, y'know, all the standard compensations our culture traditionally offers children for the frustrations of being children. I don't want to see children living in slums, regardless of the children's color or accent. I want to see children living in decent houses on decent-sized lots.




http://www.obamazone.org/petition/


Fun Stuff


Strandbeests. (What's a Strandbeest? Thanks to Elizabeth Barrette for sharing this link. It explains everything.)


http://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/blog/2015/07/24/strandbeest-boston/


Phenology


Jack Welch discusses how muggy the weather's been this weekend, even in Big Stone Gap:


https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/getting-away-from-it-all/


On Friday morning, when I met Grandma Bonnie Peters in Kingsport but did not spend the day trying to work on the Sickly Snail, thermometers were showing 90, 91, 92 degrees (Fahrenheit, obviously) by 11 a.m. I went back to the Cat Sanctuary, where it was far too humid for air-breathing creatures to enjoy being outdoors, but only 72 degrees. This is a more conspicuous than usual example of the phenomenon of Local Warming. Global warming may be proved or disproved, disastrous or benign, in another fifty years. Local warming is absolutely real...and yes, you can do something about it. One thing I do about it is not drive a car.


Philosophy


Interesting link, and discussion:


http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3732576.html


Politics


Ted Cruz has a serious message for Republicans.


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/07/26/after-stunning-takedown-of-mitch-mcconnell-on-senate-floor-ted-cruz-wants-to-stir-up-a-grassroots-tsunami-against-the-washington-cartel/?


Race Matters, or the Bell Curve Revisited


Elizabeth Barrette shared this link to Nalo Hopkinson's blog:


http://nalohopkinson.com/2015/23/06/historical_research.html


Since I don't know NH, and think I probably should at least know her writing before commenting, my general comment went here:


http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3731974.html?view=16124678#t16124678


Safety (No More Charleston Murders)


No more Charlestons. No more Sandy Hooks. No more Columbines. Worthy causes, yes? Here, for the duration, is documentation of what so many of these "random" or "hate" murders have had in common. It's organized by categories...female murderers, school murderers, "target" murderers...with as much information as is available about which drugs they were on at the time. That, I believe, is the information we really need to keep abominations like the Charleston and Chattanooga murders from happening again...and again, and again, and again. (Thanks to freedomfightersofamerica.blogspot.com for the link.)


http://www.psychdrugshooters.com/category/


Duh...oh, people! People!


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/07/25/police-turn-to-social-media-to-figure-out-why-a-teenager-stabbed-family-to-death/?


Winter in July


(Well, the concept usually makes me smile.) Jack Frost meets the Bogeyman:


http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3731152.html


Writing


Not that it's an especially informative post...well I don't quite understand Tumblr...but anyway, yes, I've composed lots of back-story, forward-story, and sidewise-stories about characters who might or might not ever meet the world in just one published story. (If anybody wants to crowdfund those stories, some of them have been written down in blogform.)


http://themillionhair.tumblr.com/post/124991207429/reblog-if-you-create-infinite-numbers-of-stories


Ursula K. LeGuin has written...a finite, but impressive, number of stories. Many of which are memorable.


http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/articles/2015/7/20/profile-ursula-k-le-guin


If you have time to spend at Persona Paper, and I totally understand if you don't...anyway, +Coral Levang has thought of a cool way to publicize lots of living, struggling writers at that site. (Theoretically they may receive actual money when we read their work, too.)


http://personapaper.com/poll/35546-coral39s-sleuth-challenge-1-what-did-you-discover-and-find-most-interesting