Fire Horse
Feb. 17th, 2026 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melagansmallhobbit today. A happy reminder of the start of The Year of The Fire Horse.I had no idea it only happened once every 60 years
According to Chinese spiritual author Helen Ye Plehn, the horse is "known for freedom, enthusiasm, intelligence, and a strong drive for movement and progress."
Heaven knows we could use some of that. Thank you
smallhobbit!Thanks For Participating in #IFD2026!
Feb. 17th, 2026 08:26 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
otw_news_feedFor International Fanworks Day (IFD) 2026, we once again came together from all corners of the fandom cosmos, and celebrated an Alternate Universe-themed IFD! First, we ran our annual Feedback Fest, where we asked you all to recommend to each other fanworks around your favorite AUs. Fanlore hosted their annual IFD editing event from February 14-20, and we signal boosted several community events along with our own. Some of these are still on-going, so make sure to check out the post!
We also hosted chatrooms and games on our once-a-year IFD Discord server for 30 hours. Thanks to everyone who came by! You can check out the fruits of our collective labor–several fandom-themed poems, song lyrics, and stories–by visiting our collected IFD works on AO3.
We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our IFD activities and events, and give a huge shoutout to our OTW volunteers who modded chats and games! We hope to see you all again for IFD 2027!
What I was watching... um... in summer?
Feb. 17th, 2026 08:33 pmthisbluespiritEye in the Sky (2015)
This was one of the later things I pulled off Jeremy Northam's CV. The JN tumblrs reckoned it was a good one - and it was.
It's about an international military and political operation to capture the three top leaders of an Islamist extremist group in Somalia, with various layers of people involved via video conference - the UK Colonel in charge (Helen Mirren), the US soldiers running the 'eye in the sky' (Aaron Paul, Phoebe Fox), the Somali agents on the ground (esp. Barkhad Abdi), and a small group overseeing it from a meeting room in Whitehall (Alan Rickman as General Benson, Jeremy Northam as the Minister in charge, Monica Dolan as PR), plus various others who need to be consulted, including Iain Glen as the Foreign Secretary. And right there in the middle of it all, is Alia (Aisha Takow), a child who lives close to the target house.
( Cut for more details )
Smartly made modern film, but also exactly the kind of knotty moral problem and intelligent writing you'd have got in a Play of the Month.
Talking of which...
Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape (BBC 1972)
I this via Talking Pictures, after having heard of it forever, and it was great! I really loved it. The creepy concept, the scientific approach - I really wished I had screencaps so I could icon Jane Asher in it (she was wonderful generally, not just icon-able) and everything. The way that the misogyny was used was also great, and took me by surprise because I had felt my one other Nigel Kneale did give way to a 1960s/70s misogynistic trope that I had seen too often by that point, but perhaps the "seen too often" part was more of the problem, because this just made me sit up and do the, "Oh. oh" moment for real. Highly recommended if you like any brand of creepy UK 70s TV. (It IS creepy/disturbing, though. This is not a chirpy watch that will end well, please do note). It starred some other people who weren't Jane Asher, too, like Iain Cutherbertson and they were all also good, I just didn't want to icon them and their face and their red hair in quite the same way. XD
So glad I finally watched it & I enjoyed it even in summer, when I so often can't manage TV downstairs.
Official Secrets (2019)
EitS having been so good, when I realised that this one (featuring one of the 2 brief cameos that are all JN has done since 2016) was also directed by Gavin Hood, I checked for a cheap copy & obtained it poste haste. I really liked this too, and watching them close together made me think even more highly of both - this is the story of a real incident from 2002, while EitS is a theoretical piece behind its tension, but underneath, they're both smartly done morality plays with excellent casts. (Incidentally, there are 3 actors who feature in both - Monica Dolan, John Heffernan and Jeremy Northam).
When I looked up both films online the first description is always "underrated" and the Guardian apparently ran a piece for Keira Knightley's 40th earlier this year recommending a top list of her films to watch, and put Official Secrets at no. 1.
Official Secrets isn't as tightly contained as EitS, as it's based on a real UK whistleblower incident from 2002, but which ended up not having much effect, so it's a really unusual thing to tackle (& as faithfully as this - they had a lot of the real people involved in the production in some way or other). As before, it's a large but excellent cast (Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Adam Bakri, Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Indira Varma & more).
( More under here, although not really spoilery )
Anyway, after watching both, I got excited by clearly liking a director's stuff, so I looked up what Gavin Hood had done since - and the answer was nothing, dammit! (Before that he did Wolverine and Ender's Game, which are not tightly done morality plays. I mean, I assume not?? But I might need to investigate the first half of his CV more closely sometime. He has something upcoming lurking on imdb, which sounds more similar, but I'm not sure if that's real, or just a production hell mythical something or other.)
新年快乐, 恭喜发财 and all that
Feb. 17th, 2026 09:46 pmtrobadoraTime keeps slipping away from me again, and I keep thinking of things I want to post about, but when I finally sit get to down and open DW, I've forgotten all about it.
But I remembered the New Year, at least! *g*
San Jose Can Protect Immigrants by Ending Flock Surveillance System
Feb. 17th, 2026 06:55 pmeff_feed(This appeared as an op-ed published February 12, 2026 in the San Jose Spotlight, written by Huy Tran (SIREN), Jeffrey Wang (CAIR-SFBA), and Jennifer Pinsof.)
As ICE and other federal agencies continue their assault on civil liberties, local leaders are stepping up to protect their communities. This includes pushing back against automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, which are tools of mass surveillance that can be weaponized against immigrants, political dissidents and other targets.
In recent weeks, Mountain View, Los Altos Hills, Santa Cruz, East Palo Alto and Santa Clara County have begun reconsidering their ALPR programs. San Jose should join them. This dangerous technology poses an unacceptable risk to the safety of immigrants and other vulnerable populations.
ALPRs are marketed to promote public safety. But their utility is debatable and they come with significant drawbacks. They don’t just track “criminals.” They track everyone, all the time. Your vehicle’s movements can reveal where you work, worship and obtain medical care. ALPR vendors like Flock Safety put the location information of millions of drivers into databases, allowing anyone with access to instantly reconstruct the public’s movements.
But “anyone with access” is far broader than just local police. Some California law enforcement agencies have used ALPR networks to run searches related to immigration enforcement. In other situations, purported issues with the system’s software have enabled federal agencies to directly access California ALPR data. This is despite the promises of ALPR vendors and clear legal prohibitions.
Communities are saying enough is enough. Just last week, police in Mountain View decided to turn off all of the city’s Flock cameras, following revelations that federal and other unauthorized agencies had accessed their network. The cameras will remain inactive until the City Council provides further direction.
Other localities have shut off the cameras for good. In January, Los Altos Hills terminated its contract with Flock following concerns about ICE. Santa Cruz severed relations with Flock, citing rising tensions with ICE. Most recently, East Palo Alto and Santa Clara County are reconsidering whether to continue their relationships with Flock, given heightened concern for the safety of immigrant communities.
California law prohibits local police from disclosing ALPR data to out-of-state or federal agencies. But at least 75 California police agencies were sharing these records out-of-state as recently as 2023. Just last year, San Francisco police allowed access to out-of-state agencies and 19 searches were related to ICE.
Even without direct access, ICE can exploit local ALPR systems. One investigation found more than 4,000 cases where police had made searches on behalf of federal law enforcement, including for immigration investigations.
Increasing the risk is that law enforcement routinely searches these networks without first obtaining a warrant. In San Jose, police aren’t required to have any suspicion of wrongdoing before searching ALPR databases, which contain a year’s worth of data representing hundreds of millions of records. In a little over a year, San Jose police logged more than 261,000 ALPR searches, or nearly 700 searches a day, all without a warrant.
Two nonprofit organizations, SIREN and CAIR California, represented by Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU of Northern California, are currently suing to stop San Jose’s warrantless searches of ALPR data. But this is only the first step. A better solution is to simply turn these cameras off.
San Jose cannot afford delay. Each day these cameras remain active, they collect sensitive location data that can be misused to target immigrant families and violate fundamental freedoms. It is a risk materializing across California. City leaders must act now to shut down ALPR systems and make clear that public safety will not come at the expense of privacy, human dignity or community trust.
7+3 rainbow heated rivalry icons for lgbtrainbow
Feb. 17th, 2026 09:02 pmtinny![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
lgbtrainbow:I didn't watch many lgbtq+ things that I liked last year, but Heated Rivalry exceeded all my expectations. \o/
( 3 alts )
Chat corner, on repeat
Feb. 17th, 2026 08:57 pmannathecrow posting in dreamwarsHi,
this is your weekly chat corner. Anything SW-related you'd like to talk about?
~ ~ ~
I'm "enjoying" a case of the common cold, so I'm mostly thinking about comfort. Are any Star Wars movies a comfort watch for you? Which ones? Or actually, which of them you've rewatched the most, and which of them the least? Do you have a movie you've only seen once, or not at all?
Fanfiction: Backup Heating (The Goes Wrong Show, everyone/everyone)
Feb. 17th, 2026 07:54 pmrionaleonhartAs this is based on the 2025 stage version of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, be aware that some details may not match up with the original 2017 television version.
The title's not great, but the only other thing I could think of was Baby, It's Cold Inside, which would be considerably worse.
Title: Backup Heating
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show (well, technically Christmas Carol Goes Wrong)
Rating: G
Pairing: slight everyone/everyone
Wordcount: 1,600
Summary: During rehearsals for A Christmas Carol, Chris won't allow anyone to use the heating. Clearly, the Cornley Drama Society is just going to have to huddle for warmth.
( Backup Heating )
When You Say Nothing at All (a Miami Vice Valentine's Day ficlet)
Feb. 17th, 2026 02:27 pmmxcatmoonFandom: Miami Vice
Author: Cat Moon
Rating: G
Words: 290
Characters/Pairing: Sonny’s heart/Rico’s heart
Summary: No matter how much Sonny and Rico try to pretend they’re just friends, their hearts know different. It was always more.
Notes: Here’s a belated Valentine’s Day ficlet
“When You Say Nothing at All,” by Ronan Keating is ‘their’ song if ever there was one.
( When You Say Nothing At All )
Prompt: #482 - Neutral
Feb. 17th, 2026 02:08 pmsweettartheart posting in 100wordsYour response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as inspiration only.
Please use the tag "prompt: #482 - neutral" with your response.
Please put your drabble under a cut tag if it contains potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers for media released in the last month.
If you would like a template for the header information you may use this:
Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title
Post:
Title:
Original (or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:
If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!
Batman: the 1980s TV show
Feb. 17th, 2026 01:31 pmmelannenI had a dream for the third time this week about watching the 1980s live-action Batman show with my sister so I figured it was worth a DW post :P
If you don't know the 1980s live-action Batman that I apparently watch in my dreams here's a quick overview:
- It was a weekly one-hour show that ran for about three seasons. It predates the age of season-long arcs but it had more than the usual number of 2- and 3- part episodes and some character growth even.
- It's clearly intentionally following up on the legacy of the 1960s show because it revels in the fundamental absurdity and plays for comedy, but it was also determined to not get pigeonholed as a kids' show - it has non-cartoon violence and solid emotional arcs.
- For example instead of all the silly Bat-Gadgets, they had Wayne Enterprises (TM) machines. There's a running bit where Tim always makes sure he has access to a Wayne Enterprises (TM) Automatic Soup Dispenser (TM) and nobody can tell if he's just really into soup or if he's modding it to dispense other things.
- Oh yeah, despite being called Batman, it's actually mostly about Tim and Dick. Bruce shows up in every episode for at least a few minutes but is rarely the focus. (Yes, I know the 1980s is early for comics!Tim - I assume the comics character was based on the show character? - and there's no Jay in this continuity, which lets it be a little more lighthearted about their relationships with Bruce.)
- Tim became Robin after Dick "retired" and Bruce finally noticed how neglected the neighbor boy actually was. In the show he's mostly traveling around playing poor little rich boy and Robinning with a rotating guest cast of Teen Titans (nearly every episode is in a different city - they must have had a huge travel/sets budget.)
- Dick is 100% a civilian these days he swears. He's technically in college but never appears to attend. He's always showing up to "hang out" with his little bro, or following Kory to a show, and then having to secretly superhero it up without a costume or name. The show is constantly teasing that this is the episode he'll finally become Nightwing and never follows up.
- When Bruce shows up it's usually not as Bruce, or even Batman, but as his even more useless cousin "Kenneth Wayne", who only shows up in the tabloids when he's done something so ridiculous Bruce has to send Alfred to bail him out, and therefor has an excuse to be places Bruce can't possibly be. He has absolutely 0 natural authority over the boys, who treat him as an embarrassingly untrustworthy uncle, and enjoys the hell out of this.
- Dick is dating Koriand'r, but they insist they're not girlfriend and boyfriend because "Tamaraneans don't have boys and girls, she's just my Kory and I'm her Dick". This is never explored beyond that at all. (Also Kory looks a lot less human and more like Ron Perlman's Beast* (except as a hot not-girl, of course.)
- Tim spends every episode excited and/or worried about the main plot interfering with or facilitating a possible or planned date with a girl. The girls are never named or shown onscreen. Dick teases him about this.
The episode we watched last night involved Tim and Dick renting out an old mansion/party house in Philadelphia that was haunted by a very lazy demon shaped like a yellow cartoon rabbit, a very large monitor lizard who was wanted by the Mob, a bunch of people having to shelter overnight in a Victorian-themed cafe in the zoo, and every single character having to dress up as Matches Malone in the same bad wig at the same time. Also the Three Stooges guest-starred. I hope I get to watch more later, I don't think there's an official DVD release.
*did I only have this dream because I did that "name all the animals" game right before bed and was thinking about Golden Lion Tamarins??
The Starving Saints, by Caitlin Starling
Feb. 17th, 2026 10:53 amrachelmanija
Excellent dark fantasy about three women trapped in a medieval castle under siege. It reminded me a bit of Tanith Lee - it's very lush and decadent in parts - and a bit of The Everlasting. Fantastic female characters with really interesting relationships. The language is not strictly medieval-accurate but a lot of the characters' mindsets are, which is fun.
All I knew going in was that it was medieval, female-centric, and involved cannibalism. This gave me a completely wrong impression, which was that it was a sort of female-centric medieval Lord of the Flies in which everyone turns on each other under pressure and starts killing and eating each other. This is very nearly the opposite of what it's actually about, though there is some survival-oriented eating of the already-dead.
The three main characters are Phosyne, an ex-nun and mad alchemist with some very unusual pets that even she has no idea what they are; Ser Voyne, a female knight whose rigid loyalty gets tested to hell and back; and Treila, a noblewoman fallen on hard times and desperate to escape. The three of them have deliciously complicated relationships with each other, fully of shifting boundaries, loyalties, trust, sexuality, and love.
At the start, everyone is absolutely desperate. They've been trapped in the castle under siege for six months, the last food will run out in two weeks, and help does not seem to be on the way. Treila is catching rats and plotting her escape via a secret tunnel, but some mysterious connection to Ser Voyne is keeping her from making a break for it. Phosyne has previously enacted a "miracle" to purify the water, and the king is pressuring her to miraculously produce food; unfortunately, she has no idea how she did the first miracle, let alone how to conjure food out of nothing. Ser Voyne, who wants to charge out and fight, has been assigned to stand over Phosyne and make her do a miracle.
And then everything changes.
The setting is a somewhat alternate medieval Europe; it's hard to tell exactly how alternate because we're very tightly in the POV of the three main characters, and we only know what they're directly observing or thinking about. The religion we see focuses on the Constant Lady and her saints. She might be some version of the Virgin Mary, but though the language around her is Christian-derived, there doesn't seem to be a Jesus analogue. The nuns (no priests are ever mentioned) keep bees and give a kind of Communion with honey. Some of them are alchemists and engineers. There is a female knight who is treated differently than the male knights by the king and there's only one of her, but it's not clear whether this is specific to their relationship or whether women are usually not allowed to be knights or whether they are allowed but it's unusual.
This level of uncertainty about the background doesn't feel like the author didn't bother to think it out, but rather adds to the overall themes of the book, which heavily focus on how different people experience/perceive things differently. It also adds to the claustrophobic feeling: everyone is trapped in a very small space and additionally limited by what they can perceive. The magic in the book does have some level of rules, but is generally not well understood or beyond human comprehension. There's a pervasive sense of living in a world that isn't or cannot be understood, but which can only be survived by achieving some level of comprehension.
And that's all you should know before you start. The actual premise doesn't happen until about a fourth of the way into the book, and while it's spoiled in all descriptions I didn't know it and really enjoyed finding out.
Spoilers for the premise. ( Read more... )
Spoilers for later in the book: ( Read more... )
Probably the last third could have been trimmed a bit, but overall this book is fantastic. I was impressed enough that I bought all of Starling's other books for my shop. I previously only had The Luminous Dead, which I'm reading now.
Content notes: Cannibalism. Physical injury/mutilation. Mind control. A dubcon kiss. Extremely vivid descriptions of the physical sensations of hunger and starvation. Phosyne's pets do NOT die!
Feel free to put spoilers for the whole book in comments.
Unintended consequences
Feb. 17th, 2026 10:36 amsusandennisI'm about finishing 4 weeks and I've lost some of me steadily - not too much. I think she'll be pretty pleased when I check in with her in a couple of months. I haven't yet lost enough to notice anywhere but on the scales.
Except...
My wrists!
I wear a watchband on my left wrist and 3 DNR bangle bracelets on my right. My watchband kept sliding around so I couldn't tell the time without fiddling with it so yesterday I took out a link Much better.
Today, after maybe 5 months of wear at this size, my bangle bracelets fell off twice during volleyball. Just now I took them off and squeezed them smaller.
So, Susan, where would you like to lose weight? Ass? Hips? Boobs? Chins? Nah, let's go wrists.
I'd like a partial refund, please.
New Report Helps Journalists Dig Deeper Into Police Surveillance Technology
Feb. 17th, 2026 05:56 pmeff_feedSAN FRANCISCO — A new report released today offers journalists tips on cutting through the sales hype about police surveillance technology and report accurately on costs, benefits, privacy, and accountability as these invasive and often ineffective tools come to communities across the nation.
The “Selling Safety” report is a joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Just Journalism (CJJ), and IPVM.
Police technology is often sold as a silver bullet: a way to modernize departments, make communities safer, and eliminate human bias from policing with algorithmic objectivity. Behind the slick marketing is a sprawling, under-scrutinized industry that relies on manufacturing the appearance of effectiveness, not measuring it. The cost of blindly deferring to advertising can be high in tax dollars, privacy, and civil liberties.
“Selling Safety” helps journalists see through the spin. It breaks down how policing technology companies market their tools, and how those sales claims — which are often misleading — get recycled into media coverage. It offers tools for asking better questions, understanding incentives, and finding local accountability stories.
“The industry that provides technology to law enforcement is one of the most unregulated, unexamined, and consequential in the United States,” said EFF Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Guariglia. “Most Americans would rightfully be horrified to know how many decisions about policing are made: not by public employees, but by multi-billion-dollar surveillance tech companies who have an insatiable profit motive to market their technology as the silver bullet that will stop crime. Lawmakers often are too eager to seem ‘tough on crime’ and journalists too often see an easy story in publishing law enforcement press releases about new technology. This report offers a glimpse into how the police-tech sausage gets made so reporters and lawmakers can recognize the tactics of glossy marketing pitches, manufactured effectiveness numbers, and chumminess between companies and police.”
“Surveillance and other police technologies are spreading faster than public understanding or oversight, leaving journalists to do critical accountability work in real time. We hope this report helps make that work easier,” said Hannah Riley Fernandez, CJJ’s Director of Programming.
"The surveillance technology industry has a documented pattern of making unsubstantiated claims about technology,” said Conor Healy, IPVM's Director of Government Research. “Marketing is not a substitute for evidence. Journalists who go beyond press releases to critically examine vendor claims will often find solutions are not as magical as they may seem. In doing so, they perform essential accountability work that protects both taxpayer dollars and civil liberties."
EFF also maintains resources for understanding various police technologies and mapping those technologies in communities across the United States.
For the “Selling Safety” report: https://www.eff.org/document/selling-safety-journalists-guide-covering-police-technology
For EFF’s Street-Level Surveillance hub: https://sls.eff.org/
For EFF’s Atlas of Surveillance: https://www.atlasofsurveillance.org/
