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I was going to be all "Oh man prepare for EPIC Radio Free Monday!" but it turned out a lot of the links in my files were TSA-backscatter related stuff. Because this is more on the informative-activist side of things than it is on the Peeps Need A Hand side, I've put the links at the bottom and under a cut.

And then it turned out I had a lot of other links I didn't know I had, so it's kind of epic anyway. Away we go!

Ways To Give:

Izzy notified me that there was a mine collapse in New Zealand recently, the Pike River disaster, which I otherwise had heard nothing about. 29 miners were killed, most of them with young families living in Greymouth, NZ. The mine has, of course, been closed while the collapse is investigated, which means the rest of the (predominantly mining-based) town is a bit SOL as well. She recommends that if people want to help or read more about the disaster, you can do so at the Pike River Donations website.

Marisa told me about

mandaadventures who is raising money to move to New Orleans. She's offering small gifts for $20 donations, and you can find out more about it at the journal.

This isn't really charitable giving but as it is unavoidably the holiday season and I always have trouble with this, have a list of Cheap, Neutral Gifts For Coworkers (Cheap Neutral falls somewhere between True Neutral and Chaotic Neutral, I think.)

Help Find Things!

sporky_rat's godmother has kittens in Knoxville, TN, that need a home! You can PM Sporky Rat for more info. (Sporky, if you want to repost the infolink, it was busted when I tried to load it, sorry!)

sairaali/

phi has a friend doing a research project on transgender issues for her gender studies PhD program. She's looking for a copy of Jill Mann's translation of Ysengrimus, which her university library doesn't own and which costs $141 to buy. She'd return the book to its owner when she finishes the project. If anyone has it, they can pm

sairaali/

phi or email freshgreenpepper at gmail dot com for more info. (I have tipped her that ILL may be able to help, but ILL can also take a long, long time.)

denise has made a post for Dreamwidth users to link their creative writing and photography available for purchase; you can both check out what DW users are up to and share your own work here.

Learn New Stuff!

For those of you working in fundraising, interested in philanthropy, or fond of snark, Claire at Nonprofity has posted The Big List of Online Popularity Contests for Charities.

Steampunk, while fun, often runs into problems of racism and colonialism because of the era from which the philosophical and aesthetic ideals for it are drawn. Racialicious this week has an article about "Native Steampunk" which discusses the issues surrounding steampunking as a Native American, including avoiding stereotypes and incorporating Native technology.

Okay, this is sneaking in some fannishness, but the White Collar kids are doing PSAs for Characters Unite which you may like to see. Sharif Atkins's is powerful awesome, Tim DeKay's is a little tiny bit heartbreaking, and Matt Bomer's is heartfelt, if vague and confusing. Aw, boys.

aunty_marion let me know that Dawn, from last week, has posted an update and thank you to those who donated, which is lovely.

Say It With Me: Fuck The Backscatter

compilerbitch has a long and very informative post about backscatter devices and how they function, including examples of the kind of images they show.

angelcarrot linked to EPIC, one of the organizations currently challenging the TSA's measures in court, who have requested an injunction on the use of ATIs and advanced pat-downs until the issues are resolved. Angelcarrot also links to some good news from NY and Orlando, and a site that tells you whether your member of congress is a member of the TSA oversight committee.

lavenderspark linked to articles about The TSA handling the military badly and how these delays can actually create potential targets for terrorism.

jadey linked to an article about a TSA pat down that humiliated a cancer survivor and left him covered in urine. Aside from being an account of ill-treatment, this points up serious issues with the way the TSA (and admittedly airlines in general) handle people with disabilities.

florahart links to a story about a man who was told to put his pants on so he could be patted down.

mcgonagalls_cat linked to an article about how if you get in a security line, you could be fined for wanting to get out again.

Let's finish off on an upnote:

monkeypuzzle linked me to this gorgeous shot of Chicago this morning. I replied with "LOL I EVEN KNOW WHERE THAT WAS TAKEN" and totally failed to notice that the blurb below it tells you where it was taken. In some ways it's like a perfect microcosm of my life, that story.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. :) You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com (PMs are kind of a bad way to reach me; email or comments are much preferable). If you're not sure how best to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help.

(Pee Ess: if you're in the US and looking to buy from Lulu, say a certain blogger's new novel, for the rest of the day coupon code CYBER305 will get you 25% off any order at checkout!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Can't

sairaali access it through an inter-library loan? At least down here in Australia, if any other Aussie library has it (e.g. a different university or the National library) your university library can put in a request to have it sent over. Library staff are helpful!

Yup, that's why I suggested ILL :) But it can take time.

And have limited loan limits. I got "A Story Like the Wind" on ILL once, and only had a week to read and return it.

A great deal of it is up on Google Books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=cfi6BDAO3XQC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

I haven't scrolled through the whole thing, but usually I come across a 'this page not available' icon fairly quickly, and I haven't yet.