Over at Tor.com Stubby the Rocket points out the lack of velociraptors in the new HBO series Girls. To be honest, I agree with Shoshana Kessock at Tor.com. As bad as A Game of Thrones gets with the nudity and sexism, I'd still pick the women of GoT over anyone on Girls. I can't even bring myself to watch the previews. Ewww.

Karestan C. Koenen talks about her experiences as a tenured professor in an Ivy League university. [sigh] I wish I was shocked.

This article on NPR about the clash between American Nuns and the Vatican I found particularly interesting. It seems American nuns are getting stomped for actually following Vatican II. (That is, taking an active role in their communities, helping the poor, staying modernized, and otherwise staying in touch with the needs of parishners. The current leadership feels that Vatican II is 'too liberal.' (You want to hear something wierd? I'd already planned to incorporate that struggle into the next installment of The Fey and the Fallen. I love it when reality dovetails so well with my fiction -- not that I'm happy about the situation for the nuns, mind you. It sucks.) Yet another reason why I do not like this Pope, Sam I Am.

The amazing Maureen Johnson talks about why magazines Photoshop people. Apparently a 16 year old asked Seventeen Magazine to stop Photoshopping their models. Seventeen declined. I guess we should be happy they thought about it for a bit first.

Writer Kate Elliott talks about female characters in historically based fantasy and the changes she hopes to see.

Lastly, here's an article about the stand off between Texas legislators and Planned Parenthood and the reality for women who depend upon Planned Parenthood for affordable care. I don't even want to get into how angry this makes me. The good news is, I recently heard that a Federal Judge in Texas ruled that Texas legislators CAN'T exclude Planned Parenthood from the Women's Health Program.