I am avoiding anything that's Bourne Legacy related until after I've seen the film. I'm home for the weekend, then I need to wait for a cheap student day, so this may be some time. Collect the good stuff to throw at me then, 'kay :)

Decided to start trying to organise my favourites and bookmarks, because it really, really, really needs doing and managed to delete all of my Avengers links. ALL. They have been recovered, thank the every loving internet gods, and now I'm putting the laptop away for the night before I do any more damage!

So, SOPA/PIPA are off the table. For now at least. (Some info here and here.) It's a relief, but I can't help thinking it'll have a rethink and come back later.

What's going around now is Black March, which is essentially a proposed boycott of the media industry this March. In principal it seems like a good idea: showing the big corporations that without their customers they have nothing. But I just don't think it'll have much impact overall.

A boycott is essentially doing nothing and that's hard to measure. How will the industry know who is boycotting and who just can't afford anything in March, or who just didn't want to buy anything in March? And sure, they'll be a cut in profits, but it won't be the decision-makers at the top of the pile that will feel the impact of that, it'll be the everyday people in the customer facing roles, stacking shelves and suffering through the recession already.

People standing up and saying something, signing petitions and making noise, cluttering up the inboxes of officials, mithering, making a splash in the news - that I believe would make more of an impact in this case (and I like to think it's contributed to the tabling of SOPA/PIPA).

I've been chatting with people lately about what constitutes protesting and what's an effective form of protest. Any thoughts, in relation to Black March or otherwise?

World Aids Day today. Durham Student Union did a release of 1000 balloons to raise awareness. Awareness of issues is always good.



There are some facts on the World Aids Day website that people should be aware of and a few articles on ontd_political here and here with some chatter going on in the comments.

Also, Durham University now has a Center for Sex, Gender, and Sexualities which has evolved from the Gender and Sexuality Research Network. Yay us :)

I spotted this as I was taking a walk around Durham this afternoon (looking for autumn leaves to crunch!) and I had to double back and walk past again because I though my eyes were playing tricks on me at first. To Priory Orchard in Durham: you are brilliant!