Interesting Links for 26-01-2015

[andrewducker]

• Saudi Arabia has been holding reformist daughters of the late king under guard for over a decade
  (tags: saudiarabia feminism )
• Landlines: The tech that just won't die
  (tags: phones technology )
• The Story Behind The Xmas Kings Cross Problems (Fascinating story of project-planning gone wrong)
  (tags: planning rail trains uk London )
• Knitting - with

Comments

[rhythmaning]

I read Zoe Keating's blog post earlier. (She's @zoecello, and is fab!) I'd recommend reading it. There's a link to it in that blog post.

It sounds like Google are being very restrictive, detailing what and where creators can share their music. Whilst Google are free to decide their terms of business, it seems very heavy handed, and I would hope it would fall foul of UK business law.

[luckylove]

That's what put me off Torture Garden too. That and the people who help run it delete any comments on accessibility issues if they don't see it as an issue. It doesn't come across as particularly inclusive.

[octopoid_horror]

The not-really enforced dress code became a big problem at the Edinburgh one to the point where it seemed like every third guy was just wearing a plain suit that could easily be worn to work or any club anywhere. It spoiled the event for some of the people who did dress up, since the dressing up is a specific purpose of the event and it changed the tone of the club to almost moving towards something like Confusion Is Sex (which claimed to be totally for people to dress in freaky fetish things but in fact was mostly students and sleazy older guys gawping at the few people who did dress up). The dress code is such because it's absolutely not aimed at being inclusive - it's aimed at allowing the people who can/do dress up to do so in a way that isn't possible elsewhere, without the worry that it'll just be full of a bunch of folk gawping and mocking who are there just to do that

[octopoid_horror]

Maybe it's changed since they realised TG in Edinburgh had a problem with people not bothering to dress up so they tightened up the dress code, but they've been open to people messaging them privately to ask if their outfit was ok as well.

There are a large amount of "plain clothes" fetish events though in large cities, but if the blogger is wanting a chance to wear "normal" clothes but mix with people dressed up to the nines, then that's understandably harder to find.

[luckylove]

I find itreally hard to contact people. I would not be able to contact them to ask if my outfit was ok. My mental illness does not handle rejection well so it's safer to avoid those situations.

[luckylove]

The American Sniper tweets are terrifying. As a PoC who is frequently mistakenly assumed to be Muslim by racist scum*, that makes me afraid to ever go outside again.

*This is why Islamophobia is a race issue and will continue to be a race issue until all the people who wrongly believe brown skin = Muslim either get an education or go the way of the dinosaurs.

[octopoid_horror]

I have no need for my landline other than the requirement to have one - during the day it gets about a call an hour and in the evenings up to five an hour on occasion, all of them either pre-recorded calls or cold sell. TPS does nothing for them unfortunately, and the worst part is that I've never given the number to anyone other than my parents. It's either been whoever had the number previously, or the telephone company just give out their customers landline numbers (which I assume is the case)

[andrewducker]

Yeah, if Julie didn't phone her mum/grandmother all the time, and my phone signal wasn't so appalling, I'd consider unplugging ours :->

[elfy]

I've been to the Kitkat a lot a few years ago, which is similar to TG, just not as goth in comparison and a bit more gay. They also have a strict dresscode - and I am personally in high favor of that. Mostly for her second "for dresscode" reason she states. I once was at (another) fetish party where there was supposed to be a dresscode, but when we were there, more and more people in basically, well, streetclothes showed up. And I can tell you, you can easily feel bad if you are in underwear or half naked and next to you is a group of people dressed in Jeans and T-Shirt. You feel so ... exposed. I really didn't like that. At the same time I had no problem with people in uniforms or tuxedos at the Kitkat - because it was clear they dressed for the event and it was their kink and they wanted to show it.
I am also convinced it is possible to find sometime nice and affordable for anyone that counts as dressing up and still is comfortable for them.

[andrewducker]

Oh, I'm sure it is. And I don't mind them having their rules.

I'm just not comfortable with it, and don't really enjoy that kind of thing (mostly), so it's not for me.