Eschewed Obfuscation

* shwetha_narayan's wonderful poem "Apsara" is now up at Goblin Fruit for the summer. First link should be permanent, second is where you can read the poem right now (ETA: may also be permanent, and better formatted, if it goes in the archive).

* Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," with audio--perhaps the most famous English-language villanelle.

* Via yhlee, The Periodic Table of Typefaces.

* Geeky article about Lenovo's new keyboard design. Nothing like Dvorak's complete overhaul, just some interesting usability tweaks. I will say this: I love my caps lock key for easily marking out book titles. I really want a big delete key, though... So annoying on this laptop to sloooowly reach up to hit it in the corner.

* Color illusion!

* Notable Unshelved strip.

* Isaiah 55:12--"...and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

* A compendium of beautiful--no, gorgeous--libraries.

* H.E.R.B.--Had Enough Religious Bullshit--amuses me.

* As does this humorous dialogue between an atheist and an agnostic.

* I heard on the radio that Justice Souter is retiring? Here's an article on one possible Obama pick to replace him. Look, he's Asian! Wouldn't that be nice, to have the country's first Asian ever (I think) on the Supreme Court.

* Pledge to cut the "r-word" (retard) from your life.

* Article on a white girl adopted by a black family.


* NewFoundSpecFic is seeking submissions, deadline July 5th, 2009. It is automatically nifty for the pun, O my beloved Newfoundland. Sadly, living abroad I don't qualify (must be a resident of Canada, not necessarily a citizen).

* O Canada!

* In praise of learning alphabets, not characters. YES.

* A friendly note on Dreamwidth advocacy.

* kate_nepveu makes a detailed post about Dreamwidth that I pretty much second all the way through.


* Ooh, shape notes! Heads-up yhlee?

* A Cool Tools review of Finale Allegro.

* From VSL, a modern instrumental composer releases one ditty (doodle? sketch? yhlee had a good word for this but I can't remember) a day for a week. All seven are available to download for free.

* Via yhlee, neato ultra-small artworks.

* Paper typography!

* From Language Log, an interesting analysis of Zhonglish (the specific Chinese-English creole of China, I presume, as opposed to Chinglish of the West).

* Via yhlee, an article on e-publishing in China.

* Tibetans refuse to celebrate the New Year.


* On the atheist community befriending the ex-Muslim. Definitely worth reading from an intersectional perspective.

* A skeptical argument for troll-feeding. I have to agree with this: "I view troll-feeding as a useful tool in the skeptical arsenal--because I owe much of my skeptical "conversion" to reading skeptics' responses to internet trolls."

* Greta Christina on Alternet, presenting 10 Myths and Truths about Atheists. It's a great primer aimed at the totally clueless.

* On being good without God. If you want to call me immoral for possessing relative morality, of course, be my guest. Just don't expect me to pay you much attention.

* Nontheism among Friends (, Society of--aka Quakers). This made me seriously want to try out a meeting sometime, because I do value meditation and silence. But "Quaker atheist" remains somewhat of an oxymoron, especially if one is not born into the faith. And I haven't met many Asian Quakers, either.


* As a rule, I usually don't watch videos online. "Fidelity," however, was a worthwhile and worthy exception. Please click through and judge for yourself. (Warning for liberal bias.)

* And to lighten the mood, Austenbook! Pride and Prejudice as Facebook status updates.

I didn't expect to see the inauguration live, but I did--a lucky coincidence of class scheduling. I was struck by Barack Obama's inclusion of "non-believers" in his list of American faiths; it was an ironic moment in a ceremony of barely veiled religious pageantry. The "invocation" (aka prayer) by Rick Warren, "So help me God" in both Congressional and Presidential oaths, the noticeable shortening of Obama's middle name (Hussein) to simply "H." for fear of alluding to the oh-so-hated Islam--America is still a Christian nation, just as it was until today a white nation. I don't think I will ever live to see an openly atheist or agnostic President take the Oath of Office. I have been honored to witness the inauguration of the first President of color, and I have hope that the first female President is not far behind. But a non-Christian, an atheist President? That is still a pipe dream. Religion is too important to the everyday American. I can only leave it for the next generation to hope.

* Strange Horizons has a wonderful column on genre boundaries.

* varkat on 10 epic fantasy themes we don't see enough [of].

* A cool cheatsheet on the major publishing imprints.

* SF Signal presents various contributors' favorite F/SF subgenres.

* I'm finally reading xkcd, and the fiction rule of thumb is beautiful.

* A moving article on contemporary human bondage.

* copperwise on politics and Joe Six-Pack.

* rachelmanija asks for manga donations to benefit a Native American reservation. I should probably send those two random volumes of Prince of Tennis that are gathering dust on my bookshelf--I love POT, but it's not something one rereads.

* I weep for Terry Pratchett, and am ashamed of it because I know he wouldn't want my pity.

* Top ten weirdest bible verses. I really need to read the danged thing front-to-back someday. It'd definitely be interesting to analyze from a literature, and atheist, perspective.

* What happens if you're locked out of Gmail? Eek.

* An old TIME article called Between Two Worlds, on feeling like the hyphen in Asian-American.

* Greta Christina's obligatory Sarah Palin column, or, Why I Don't Care About A Pregnant 17 Year Old.

* Greta Christina again (her blogging is quite link-worthy!) in defense of atheist blogging.

* If you don't like gay marriage, don't have one. Really.

* On "militant" atheists, a term that I like to think I've redefined a la Gloria Naylor and Christine Leong with nigger and chink respectively.

* EXPOSED: Gravity is absurd, and here's why.

* From shadowhelm, a 12/15 step guide to gaining good writing habits. I really need to follow this advice.


Also, sorry for the abundance of controversial/trigger-issue links recently.

* Via StumbleUpon, examples and explanations of 20 Amazing Optical Illusions.

* coalescent points out a modern version of an old-fashioned game: 3D Pong. I still need to find my old-school Bubble Pong, though.

* Via Mir at Want Not, a back-to-school sale at Threadless. Many tees are $12 apiece, including two of my favorites: Splatter in D Minor and Birds of a Feather. Too bad I already have way too many T-shirts, including a music one (from Delia's, a birthday gift, and awesome-looking).

* Via various blog carnivals pointed at by Greta Christina:
- Religious atheism / Quaker nontheism. The latter basically describes one of my friends (who went to a Quaker school for nine years), and maybe me one day as well. Who knows. If I ever get tired of the atheism racket, I'd be either a nontheist Quaker or a nontheist Buddhist.
- Three Reasons Why Republicans Are Wrong. I especially like #2: America is not a Christian nation. Yes, please. I'd like to hear a compelling, non-faith-based argument against gay marriage. If you're morally against it, where does that particular moral stem from?
- Four Key Battleground States for the upcoming November election. I totally support the popular vote initiative because the electoral system renders certain individual votes useless if you happen to be in the overwhelming majority (or minority) in your state. And because no one ever campaigning in Delaware makes me sad. (Though this might change, now that Biden is running for VP. We'll see.)

Today Tonight, I want to talk about the intersection of religion and race in America, in that insidious institution of privilege. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the majority of those who read this will be nominally or devoutly religious. That is, you believe in the existence of a single (or even multiple) higher being(s). And if so, even if you are a racial minority in the United States, you are part of an overwhelming religious majority.

My current default icon for IBARW states, "Do you really not see race?" And the tone of that question applies to every institutional prejudice; no one can be aware of all of them. For example, until coffeeandink 's excellent post today (warning for pregnancy squick), I didn't know about ableism. Now I do, and even if I later forget, the knowledge will sit in the back of my mind. So I write about religion, only tangentially related to race, because awareness aids all kinds of anti-discrimination.

As my friends well know, I am atheist. I also love to argue. You can see where that might lead to untactful conversations, yes? But I ask you to consider the following, some of which is obvious and some of which is hopefully not as obvious.

1. "In God We Trust"--printed on every U.S. bill of currency (and coin?). So who is this collective "we" that trusts in an unspecified god? I certainly trust no god or goddess, seeing as I am convinced of the non-existence of any deity, with perhaps an exception for a deity that has absolutely no interaction with this plane/universe (including creation).

2. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Interesting fact: I consider myself Chinese-Canadian, i.e. not American. However, I know the Pledge of Allegiance by heart because when I moved here in elementary school, it was a (Communist-esque) mandatory daily recitation. Recent rulings have allowed students to omit the italicized clause, but in practical terms, that does nothing but ostracize the rare prescient student who makes such a choice. Why is the U.S. so insecure that it requires (by an unspoken code of ethics, if not by law) its youngest citizens to recite an oath of allegiance? Freedom should also mean the choice to not be loyal to one's country, so long as you don't break any laws.

3. "*sneeze* Bless you!" This seems to be an American quirk, since I don't recall ever being blessed for sneezing in Newfoundland (and this at a school where we said grace every lunchtime). Whether or not the implied "God" is omitted, I still don't understand why you or your deity would wish to bless me. Especially since I'm going to hell as a blasphemer, etc.

4. Christmas and Easter breaks, now renamed to the politically correct Winter and Spring Breaks. I can accept that Christmas has become a commercialized holiday. However, I see no reason to take a week off from school in the middle of spring every year, somewhere in March or April. Jewish people have excused absences for their holidays, but the major Christian holidays are school-wide vacations.

5. And finally, the little things. For instance, I have a wonderful yoga DVD that I love; I even embrace some of its dubious health claims. But in the Closing Prayer is a jarring farewell note of "God bless you." I assume that the viewer may fill in their own god as necessary--while those of us with no such handy filler must simply ignore it. There are so many little things in life that as a minority--whether that involves belief, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or anything else--one learns to ignore in order to survive sane. Because you can't get offended by everything. You can't argue at every single opportunity. In such an outnumbered battle, you can only choose strategic retreats--and strategy dictates sacrifice of the little things.

Privilege is a wide, overarching influence. If you read or participate in IBARW, I know that other bloggers will gladly enlighten you concerning white privilege. But for many of the non-white people: please consider your religious privilege. Barack Obama has faced undeniable prejudice during his Presidential campaign, but I assure you, if Obama or even any old white man were openly atheist, they wouldn't have a chance in hell at winning. I am Asian, Canadian, female, and atheist; I am also lucky enough to be middle-class, educated, able (physically and mentally), and cisgendered. But of the many minorities I belong to, atheism is by far the most dangerous. So I guess I'm saying, think about the privilege that you take for granted, and don't limit your activism to one cause and one week.

<End of infomercial; we now return to our regularly scheduled topic for this week.>

Via coalescent: The only debate on Intelligent Design that is worthy of its subject. [statement of faith] Also, the wife John McCain callously left behind. Look, Ma, religion and politics in one neat paragraph!

Daniel Abraham (bram452)'s excellent story "The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics" is now up online, albeit in a weird print-scan flash format. It's worth the hassle though, especially if you like the style of Theodora Goss or Ellen Kushner.

Definr is a super-fast online dictionary lookup; it works in the definr.com/whatever form, too, if you want to set up a keyword bookmark or just like working from the address bar.

Recently I attended a speech given by the Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne, a world-renowned English particle physicist and Anglican priest. It was a great experience and I'm posting my notes here, typed in paragraph form.




And my personal opinion: I really enjoyed Dr. Polkinghorne's speech and the ensuing discussion, although I don't agree with many of his views. Though in my opinion he sidestepped the thrust of several audience questions, I'm very glad that I attended the seminar because it was an eminently worthwhile experience.