unfridged

• Happy belated Ada Lovelace Day! Over at Maisonneuve, my friend Shannon Palus reflects on the first programmer in her life, her mother.
• Women in Tech has been a bit of a hot button issue these past few weeks (and, well, months really) and an aspect of the debate that I find completely fascinating is how women already working in tech, particularly powerfully-placed women, respond to criticisms of their industry. “‘Fuck You, I Got Mine’: Women in Tech for the Patriarchy” is a really good, almost manifesto-like starting off point to understanding how women apologists are complicit in the rampant discrimination of the tech industry. [Medium]
• Along the same lines, Amanda Marcotte creates a template for every woman-penned defence of misogyny ever written, based on that terrible, terrible Sarah Lacy article, and it is flawless. [Slate]
• Medium also has a list of things to say to people who really liked that terrible, terrible Sarah Lacy article.
• I’m pretty much guaranteed to love anything Becky Chambers writes, and her piece on Tor, about astronauts and science/science fiction symbiosis, is no exception.
• Scientific American blogger Dr. Danielle Lee was treated in an incredibly unprofessional way, blogged about it, then had her response taken down without warning and without a clear reason. Here’s a breakdown of the whole situation. #standingwithdnlee [Jezebel]
• Around this time last year, I wrote an article about creepshots and screen caps and their role in internet misogyny (it’s unfortunately not online, but you can read an excerpt if you’re interested). After weeks of research, I thought I’d seen the worst of it, but Jezebel’s outline of the Chan girl phenomenon, and its long-lasting effects on one girl who participated, has rekindled all the sadness that I remember feeling.
• io9 explores the worst mystical pregnancies in science fiction and fantasy, and once you see all these examples listed one after another, you start realizing how pervasive and ridiculous the trope is. Don’t know what the mystical pregnancy is? No worries, there’s a Feminist Frequency video at the end that explains it all.
• New York Comic Con had a Women of Marvel panel, and it sounds like the Q&A was pretty great. [Bleeding Cool]
• Star Trek might be coming back to television! MAKE IT SO! And the BBC is making a miniseries based on Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell! All the exciting TV news! [The Mary Sue]
• Would you like a totally queer, incredibly in-depth love horoscope? Of course you would. [Autostraddle]
• Halloween is just around the bend, and what better way to get excited than by reading all about historical women who were accused of being witches (or did similarly badass things)? History Witch is on it.
• Oh, and if you want more Bee and PuppyCat episodes, there’s a Kickstarter for that.
• What if there’s a good reason those horrible Wartune ads say “male gamers only”? [The Toast]

Top image from Kate Beaton’s amazing Hark! A Vagrant.