(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Good morning everyone, and welcome to a later-than-usual Radio Free Monday. Well, I slept in. Let's get to it, shall we?

Ways To Give

keenquing's fandom auction in support of The Jim Collins Foundation goes live today! It's not live yet, but you can find more info here. The Jim Collins foundation provides financial assistance to transgender people for gender-confirming surgery.

iamshadow let me know about the Loud Hands Project, which is raising money for Autistic self-advocacy, specifically to create a website and publish an anthology of writing by neurodiverse authors. You can read more about the Loud Hands Project and find a donation link here.

Shadow also linked me to lumiere42's post about Amelia, a neurodiverse child who needs a kidney transplant. She's being refused even the consideration of a transplant (not a place on the donor list, which she doesn't need, but the idea of a transplant) because, and the doctor actually said this phrase which I didn't think doctors did anymore, of her "mental retardation". This guy called the kid a retard and used it as a justification not to do a kidney transplant. The link above has information about protest activism, and there's also an informational essay about the creepy eugenics-esque vibe of this case here.

Vladadog volunteers with a group that puts on a week-long summer camp for disadvantaged Vermont kids every year. A storyteller who comes to the camp each year wants to make a CD for the kids, and to that end has started a Kickstarter project to raise money to fund the project. You can read more about CAMP! and make a donation here.

Fans Helping Fans

pixel is looking for advice on the cheapest way to get to Chicago from Milwaukee for treatment at the Howard Brown clinic. If anyone does the drive regularly, Pixel is happy to pay for gas.

Is anyone out there good at converting graphics-heavy PDFs into eBooks? darthrami is looking for a hand (the book is hers, this isn't a piracy situation or anything). You can drop a comment here, she's keeping an eye out.

News To Know:

tracy_rowan has a post up (she didn't link me, I just plucked it from my friendslist) about the Girl Scouts of America allowing/encouraging young trans women to join the organisation, even against the protests of some of its members. If you're a girl scout, former girl scout, or just a fan of the cookies, this is information you probably want to have.

darthrami had a link on her facebook this week about a new study that recently found a child abuse rate of 0% among lesbian parents. If, as the religious right contends, gays can't embody family values, they can apparently do a pretty awesome job of faking them.

Just For Fun

tealin let me know that the Beeb has some new photos of the Golden Orb Spider Silk textile, including a second textile work that's been made from spider silk. You can check out the gorgeousness here.

Becca linked me to a song about how you cannot just put some gears on it and call it Steampunk...

Claire, whose antics as Captain Jack Harkness have raised all of our awareness of the plight of Comic Sans, linked me to a website this week that posits the idea of a comic-sans-only universe, and derives some awesome company logos from it.

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. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help. Remember, non-embedded links are love.

Comments

[alicit]

Thanks for the link to that Golden Orb Spider Silk article. Apparently the exhibition starts on Jan 25. Yes! I'll be in London from the 25th to the 30th doing touristy things with some friends from Spain, so I'll make sure to include that in our visit. I had already planned to go to the V&A anyway, but this makes it compulsory!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oooooh enjoy it!

[the_rainbow_jen]

Not sure if you've mentioned this before, but for the global cafe: According to Swedish law, if you want to legally change your gender, the government forces you to undergo sterilization, taking away your reproductive rights. I learned this through a Swede flister, who posted this petition link: http://allout.org/stop_forced_sterilization

I did some research, and found an open letter from the Human Rights Watch here: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/14/sweden-letter-prime-minister-regarding-transgender-law

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Lord. The hell is wrong with people. I will definitely RFM next week.

[the_rainbow_jen]

Further research will show that this is sadly not uncommon. 27 states still have some sort of sterilization laws on the books, though most are historic and race-based. It's a very deep well of horror I'm reluctant to wade into.

[crowsilike.livejournal.com]

Know what makes it worse? We forbade all other forced sterilizations over 30 years ago.

[starlingthefool.livejournal.com]

Someone brought this to my attention the other day.

http://www.thecharitysearch.org/

From their About page:
Charity Search allows you to search the web while helping to donate to charitable causes. Just type in your search and choose a search engine. Charity Search redirects you to your chosen search engine with the search results, and makes a donation. Every month we chose a different organization to donate to. Every search within that month earns funds to go to that month's organization.

It seems pretty awesome. I mean, if I have to look at ads while trawling around the internet, might as well make it for a good cause. They're currently donating to charity: water

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Nice! I will RFM next week.

[jkivela.livejournal.com]

For darthrami: I've converted a few image heavy books into eBook and made my own all image children's book. No guarantee I'm your guy, but I'd be happy to talk about it. PM me?

[abraxas-life.livejournal.com]

Dunno if this is worthy of or appropriate for RFM, but my Doctor's have been starting to throw around the term "pre-diabetes" and my father actually is Diabetic, so in an effort to get off my butt I started riding my bike more, and joined a charity ride for Diabetes, Tour de Cure. My father and I created a team, but we have to both individually raise $200 or we can't participate. He's doing great so far, buuuut I don't know anyone who isn't broke, so I'm doing less well.
It's absolutely not a competition, except for how we're competitive people, so it totally kind of is, hahaha! Any help in kicking his but would be extremely welcome and vindicating. Also I just really really want to do the ride. Our team page is http://main.diabetes.org/goto/teampadilla and to donate one just clicks on either of our names and clicks on the Click Here To Sponsor Me button on the right of the our individual pages.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Definitely RFM-worthy! Good luck! :)

[evilstorm.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the term neurodiverse before but I love it.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I hadn't either, actually, but it's way less of a mouthful than aneurotypical, which is what I was using.

[evilstorm.livejournal.com]

It's just so...inclusive! Without necessarily invalidating disabilities (not all auties/aspies agree with the not-disabled thing).

[daymarket.livejournal.com]

Heya,

I was wondering if you could spread awareness about SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act)? Here is a super quick infographic on why SOPA is a bad idea: http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html. http://americancensorship.org/ gives info on what it is, why it sucks, and what people can do to protest. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111122/04254316872/definitive-post-why-sopa-protect-ip-are-bad-bad-ideas.shtml is another good site. To hit closer to home, it would kill a lot of sites that fandom uses: lj, tumblr, youtube, anything that has just one incriminating link in it has grounds to be blacklisted under SOPA. A lot of sites are proposing an internet blackout tomorrow (Jan. 18th), including Wikipedia and Wordpress.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I know there's blackouts today, so that should raise some awareness, and I'll link in RFM to keep it going.

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

Not sure if this fits the RFM mold, but just stumbled across this Martin Freeman fan appreciation effort (http://slodwick.livejournal.com/1143763.html) and thought it might be worth a share considering your Sherlock appreciation.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd say it does fit the RFM mold in the sense that it's a grassroots movement, but...I'm not gonna lie, I'm finding it kind of creepy to send him all this mail unsolicited. I'm going to pass on this one, but I appreciate you linking!