links for 2009-07-16
-
If you can't come to our fundraiser on Sunday, July 19 from 5-8pm at the Mandrake, you can show your support by clicking on one of the buttons below – and maybe win fabulous prizes in the process!
-
Myth has it that the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village were the first open queer rebellion against discrimination. Not so. In 1965, the first queer sit-ins on record took place at a late-night Philadelphia coffee shop and lunch counter called Dewey's, a popular hangout for young gays, lesbians and drag queens. The establishment began refusing service to this LGBT clientele, prompting a protest rally on April 25, 1965. Dewey's management turned away more than 150 patrons while the demonstration went on outside. Four teens resisted efforts to force them out and were arrested and later convicted of disorderly conduct. In the ensuing weeks, Dewey's patrons and others from Philadelphia's gay community set up an informational picket line protesting the lunch counter's treatment of gender-variant youth. On May 2, activists staged another sit-in, and the police were again called, but this time made no arrests.
-
And what do Lawrence and Donato plan for Blackbox Republic? First of all, a careful approach to letting folks become involved, and a graduated way for people to learn about each other and to slowly share more details of their identity and interests. As users join, they gain a limited access to the site, being able to see various public aspects of what is going on there. To gain access to more private information, users will have to be vouched for by other established users, and in some cases, invited to join a group: either people known outside of Blackbox Republic, or people that have become connected through the service. In a similar fashion, people who engage in behaviors that anger others can be unvouched for, leading to expulsion from the community. This approach seems to me to apply sensible social policies in an organic way to police the shared space.
-
Nobody knows for sure what the gunk is, but Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says the Coast Guard is sure what it is not.
"It's certainly biological," Hasenauer said. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.
"It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism."