sundries

[rm]

Two days ago Katie Allison Granju's 19-year-old son Henry died. Katie is someone very important to my friend sociallyawkrd and she would like you to know about what happened and how you can help the family.

NYC-area cat needs home ASAP.

Paul Cornell's pilot Pulse is airing tonight. Both Paul and the stuff he makes are good, so if you're in a place you can check out the program, you should.

Tonight, Ovo!

Ceremonies start for domestic partnership in New York. This is complicated, because first they aren't "civil union" they are "domestic partnership" and convey a very limited number of rights that are relevant only at the city level. They are also open to straight couples as well, and in fact more straight people in NYC than gay people register for DPs. On the other hand, it does acknowledge that we deserve better.

Unlimited data plans on mobiles go bye bye. Shit.

Legal protections coming for nannies and other domestic workers in NYC.

Catholic university Seton Hall weighs course on gay marriage.

Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. James Pietrangelo II end hunger strike over DADT.

Two people in Pakistan have been jailed for attempting to perform a 'gay' marriage ceremony. The pair, one of whom keeps having their gender-identity misreported (see comments on this post, not the linked article, for more info), deny they are in a relationship.

A Chinese has launched a program to turn boys into 'real men' amidst fears that boys are becoming 'sissies.' UGH.

Yesterday, the nuclear option for the oil spill briefly made the front page of the New York Times. Holy crap.

It's to Write Shit Like This That We Become Journalists #1: "The Brevard County doctor who was arrested for groping a woman while dressed as Captain America with a burrito in his pants will not go to jail." via womzilla

It's to Write Shit Like This That We Become Journalists #2: "A manhunt is under way today for a fired porn actor who went berserk at a Southern California production studio after he lost his job there, killing one co-worker and wounding two others with a sword that was used as a movie prop, police said." via coyotegoth

Last night on Buffy: Willow goes goth to avenge Tara's death. The opening of this with Willow sobbing over Tara's body, that was wrenching and got me far more than the previous episode. Also, shit, Osiris is scared of her. This is ... DON"T THEY HAVE WATCHERS FOR WITCHES WHO COULD BLOW UP THE WHOLE PLANET?

Comments

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

A guy I knew from college worked at Seton Hall for years, he was a devout Catholic who would never let himself date anyone because he was gay and felt terribly guilty about it. Awesome guy, such sad self-torture. Seton Hall had nothing to do with it; this link just reminded me of him, and I felt sad for him again.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Re: the domestic workers' bill of rights story: about time!

Have fun at the CdS thing!

[thornsilver]

Big thank you for the boost.

[sociallyawkrd.livejournal.com]

The unlimited data plans have an effect on me as I support my company's mobile devices.

[sociallyawkrd.livejournal.com]

hrm. It ate the rest of my comment which was to say 2 GIG is a lot. I don't watch streaming video but am a heavy data user and have never hit that much. Plus our current contract is in effect so we won't lose the unlimited data.

[contrarywise]

Re: the Pakistani marriage case, the younger person involved is a Hijra, who are considered to be neither men nor women, and who have recently received legal recognition as people of a third gender in Pakistan. An earlier BBC story on the incident identifies Rani Sangeeta as a eunuch, which is also problematic but is more accurate than referring to her as gay. I hope for justice and freedom for Rani Sangeeta and Malik Iqbal, whether or not they are in a relationship and intend to marry. BTW, you shouldn't read the comments on the Advocate article if you value your sanity points and blood pressure.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Well, as the thoughtful Stephen Fry thinked into pixels recently, reading the comments on *most* news articles on the Internet is usually not worth the detrimental impact on one's blood-pressure.

I think I had figured out from other articles that this incident did indeed involve a hijra. I hope for justice too - not just for Rani but for all other hijras who might be threatened by similar cases at present or in future.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

I know I'm in the minority, but I loved the season 6 arc, holes & all.

N.

[citrinesunset.livejournal.com]

I'm a big season six fan, too.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Just as a local update -- one of the two people wounded in the sword attack has now died.

Yep, that's Mah Town - Porn Capitol of the World!

no more data

[jnanacandra.livejournal.com]

Re the unlimited data plans: I suspect this is because on Monday AT&T will start offering tethering for iPhones, which is expected to hugely increase the load on their already-burdened network. (See http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/02/atandt-announces-iphone-tethering-and-new-smartphone-data-plans/)

Here's what really worries me, though: my plan with AT&T is a special data-only plan for HoH/deaf people. Is that going away or being charged more for, too? If so, that's a *huge* problem, and potentially legally actionable under the ADA. I depend on that data access because I can't use a telephone.

Re: no more data

[thorn]

To clarify, AT&T has announced they will support iPhone tethering upon the release of iPhone OS 4.0. So it may not be immediate.

Why they have to wait for that release, I have no idea. Stalling, maybe? Because 3.x supports tethering and has been used by non-US carriers for about a year now.

*And* they're going to be charging for tethering, on top of having a data cap. C'mon guys, one or another!

I don't even want to get started on my iPad data plan options changing only a month after purchase....

[crewgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ovo was a great deal of fun. Watch the grasshoppers.

[sethg]

Two things to note about AT&T’s bye-bye-unlimited-data announcement.

AT&T’s high-speed (“3G”) high-speed cellular network is generally reputed to be awful; Verizon and Sprint (whose networks are not compatible with the iPhone) have built out their networks more. The exclusive deal with Apple for iPhones has been a godsend for AT&T, because it gives people an incentive to sign up for AT&T data plans in spite of the crappy network.

My Nokia N900 can connect to Wi-Fi hotspots, and if I’m in a place with such a hotspot, it can automatically send data through Wi-Fi rather than using the cellular network. Is this standard on iPhones and other Web-browsing phones? If so, the restriction on how many megabytes per month you can send through the cellphone network wouldn’t be so onerous.

(Disclaimer: I work for Nokia, which sells phones that work with AT&T’s network, and which competes with Apple in the smartphone market.)

[sociallyawkrd.livejournal.com]

Maybe. I can speak more to non iphone smart phones and blackberry devices. Specifically the blackberries can be set up to do that or if they are on enterprise servers they can be restricted. I will tell you that we have had much much better luck in Memphis with the ATT 3G than with Verizon which made me weep because we had so much data issues. In general outside of that area our users complain about ATT and worship Verizon.

I am pretty sure the iphones can be set up like that because the ipod touch does the same thing.

[tlatzomia.livejournal.com]

If the iPhone can be set up to do that automatically, I have no clue how.

[thorn]

Set up to do what automatically? If you mean joing Wi-Fi networks, all the options are under Settings->Wi-Fi. By default the iPhone asks to join any Wi-Fi networks it sees. If you turn off "Ask to Join Networks", you need to manually select the network.

[tlatzomia.livejournal.com]

Aha! Thanks. :)

[textileowl.livejournal.com]

And even if you don't have it set to automatically join Wi-Fi, when you go to use Safari or an app that requires an internet connection, the phone will ask if you want to connect as long as there is a network available.

[tlatzomia.livejournal.com]

I've never had that happen, but I generally have WiFi turned off for some reason. This should cut down on my AT&T charges....

[textileowl.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. looking at my settings, you have to have the Ask to Join Networks set to On for it to do that.

[tlatzomia.livejournal.com]

I'll play around with it. Currently, I'm on an unlimited plan, so it shouldn't change--I'm more concerned about it changing when I upgrade my phone in July to a different smartphone. If I can keep the usage under control, I can spend less. We checked the bill last night, though, and I was just over 2GB last month.

[textileowl.livejournal.com]

*nods* I've the unlimited as well, and am hoping to keep it for as long as possible though I haven't checked my usage lately.

[tlatzomia.livejournal.com]

I checked it when I heard about the plan changes. To be fair, it would be cheaper to get the cheaper limited plan, but I don't know if I can curb my usage that much! I'm 8 months pregnant, not supposed to be at my computer often, and don't have a laptop. *cries*

DON"T THEY HAVE WATCHERS FOR WITCHES WHO COULD BLOW UP THE WHOLE PLANET?

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

I can't comment. You'll know why when you know why.

[xturncoatxiii.livejournal.com]

I think the part that really offends me is that he was wearing a Captain America costume.

Captain America wouldn't stand for his actions.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Sorry, deleted my comment because I realized even the slightest answer was a spoiler. DAMN IT. Brain, wake up.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Re: Chinese school for 'sissies' - UM, gender disparity causing some unexpected results much? There's a ton of gender stuff to study in that massive experiment called the 'one child policy' - this is the just the latest wrinkle.

Prior ones include fat farms for that one espeshial boy of yours. No, really.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

willow is a lot like ianto, in the 'messy, uncomfortable and awkward to watch crying' way