What's a "reading page"?

Let's begin with The COVID-Safe Scouts' research repository, for all your deep dive desires or need to have research to hand when someone around you is trying to tell you that things are either over or not dangerous when it comes to interacting with the variations of SARS-CoV-2.

Also, A claimed nearly-100% effective drug against HIV infection, lenacapavir, is going to market, with deals for generics and no-profit manufacture in several countries around the world, instead of only as an expensive brand name. Twice-yearly injections appears to be the schedule for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and this could be a breakthrough that can finally put down the HIV/AIDS epidemic. What a day that will be, if we can get that virus to die off.

The 2025 version of the Gender Census is running, so if you are a person for whom the label of "man" or "woman" doesn't always apply at all times and in all cases, you are encouraged to take the survey.

The Archive of Our Own Ship Top 100 for 2025 is out, with secondary units involving top 100 F/F ships and the All Time Top 100 with this year's data added to it. Of note is an F/F ship breaking the top 5 for this year. (Also of note is a few comments complaining about how "Latino" is an ethnicity, not a race, and that it's overbroad, which are accurate things. It's also difficult to get any kind of ethnic or ethnic-allegorical data out of creators unless they want to volunteer it.)

Ozzy Osbourne, front singer for Black Sabbath and otherwise well-known heavy mtal man (and reality TV star), fully assumes the title of Prince of Darkness at 76 years of age.

No longer dancing the masochism tango or poisoning pigeons in the park, or letting us know about which of the various periodic elements have made it to Harvard University, Tom Lehrer, satirist, musician, and otherwise funny person, died at 97 years of age. And after music, mostly went on to teach mathematics, so faded a touch from the spotlight, just the way he wanted. If you're not familiar with his work, he released all of his songs, the sheet music, and the lyrics, to the public domain, so that we can all do whatever we'd like with them.

Chuck Mangione is now playing trumpet again with Dizzy Gillespie, having achieved 84 years of age.

Malcolm Jamal-Warner, most famously known for starring alongside Bill Cosby in a sitcom of Cosby's, has accidentally drowned at 54 years of age. Since then, he had gone on to be a Grammy-winning musician and an actor in several other shows, more than just the role he carried on the show, which, given what's happened with Bill Cosby, is probably the thing he will be better remembered for.

Terry Bollea, also known by his wrestling moniker "Hollywood Hogan," a heel who was instrumental to the storyline founding World Championship Wrestling's New World Order, has tapped out at 71 years of age. Hollywood Hogan would stay well associated with the professional wrestling circuit after his debut, as well as the McMahons that own most of the promotions at this point, and expressed himself routinely as a supporter of the current administration and their policies. Another character attributed to him, the face "Hulk Hogan," continues to live on in the memories of wrestling fans and those who enjoy movies where wrestlers take up acting careers, unsullied by any of the actions or attitudes taken on by similarly-named "Hollywood Hogan." The Hulkamaniacs are probably pretty happy that there's nothing more than can be done to corrupt their memories based on the actions of Hollywood Hogan.

( International decisions, domestic decisions, technology woes and wonders, and more, inside )

Last for tonight, five lego walker designs versus seven obstacles to navigate. It's interesting to see what designs do better against the various things put in their way.

The innate shallowness of decorating a space with books mostly by the look of the books, rather than because you are someone who has read many books and therefore your space is decorated with your own media selections.

And if you take a definition of humiliation as the forced recognition of domination and then apply it forward to both social and political situations and suddenly you have a really accurate blueprint for why certain things persist, even though it's clear that they are inefficient, they don't provide a lot of joy to the people who humiliate others, and they have lasting and terrible consequences for the people who are humiliated. And it also helps us think about how to build a society where humiliation is harder, less possible, and more strongly pushed back against by those who are more likely to be attacked.

(Materials via adrian_turtle, azurelunatic, boxofdelights, cmcmck, conuly, cosmolinguist, elf, finch, firecat, jadelennox, jenett, jjhunter, kaberett, lilysea, oursin, rydra_wong, snowynight, sonia, the_future_modernes, thewayne, umadoshi, vass, the meta_warehouse community, little_details, and anyone else I've neglected to mention or who I suspect would rather not be on the list. If you want to know where I get the neat stuff, my reading list has most of it.)

It's prompt Number 7 for the sunshine_revival, and the carnival/fair theme continues, this time with one of the rides that you can usually see from a distance. (And one of the ones that always makes me nervous when it stops and I'm not on the ground.)

When I see this prompt I can't help but think about how what was once old is new again with the rise of neocities websites and newsletters becoming more prominent in fandom. Like a blast from the past, I'm finding character shrines, fanfic archives, game blogs, and maybe it's inspired me to make my own site as well c:

Whether you started with secret mailing lists or only discovered online fandom this year, we all have a journey to call our own. It only feels appropriate our last prompt of the month is...

Challenge #7:

The Ferris Wheel
Journaling: Life in fandom goes through ups and downs. Reminisce about the "wild ride" of your time in fandom or in other online communities.

Creative: Create an image or a photo with the theme "let's go for a ride".

( That which is old is new again. Often because the new has been disappointing. )