Linkdump

Presented for your edification, a series of links illustrating the state of the world.

I feel remiss in not blogging more about the UK riots, but I am neither the most qualified to talk on the matter, nor have I been doing a great job in keeping up with the details. This story, however, should chill you to the bone even if you know very little about what's going on. Cameron is talking censorship of social media and other online communications, to the approval of the Chinese government, which has been doing this for quite some time because it isn't a massive fan of free speech. Apparently, you can also now get evicted if you have a family member accused (not convicted) of taking part in the riots. Awesome! I can't fucking believe this is happening.

I think this is a parody, but Iran proposes sending peacekeepers to Britain.

Hahahaha

hahaha

haha

*sob*

Newsflash! The rich actually are different! And by "different," we mean "sociopathic."

Yeah, Cracked.com, I know, but this article on the 6 dumbest things schools are doing in the name of safety really struck home as I approach another no-doubt absurdedly overpoliced school year.

Man, that's depressing. Have an HDR experiment:

Aspirational fiction and cautionary tales

This may seem like a strange thing for an admitted enthusiast of post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction to admit, but I rather wish there were more science fiction stories about institutions that actually worked versus institutions that were one crisis away from shipping off half the populace to concentration camps. Even if the latter sorts of institutions are the ones that we actually have, the result is an individualist narrative where humans in large groups inevitably behave in terrible ways and that the only people capable of saving us are inherently more powerful and special than the downtrodden masses.

( jetlagged fanwank, mostly about Torchwood )

Also, I can't get over how awful the acting is. Was I just spoiled by watching Treme or can absolutely no one on that show act?