March for Babies — The link is to the fundraising page for the family of a friend, but I link to it because of a different friend, who has endured one of the most difficult pregnancies I’ve ever heard of, and will soon be giving birth to a pair of preemies. So supporting maternal and infant health is something I’m a bit keen on right now.

On a lighter note: Why the Library of Congress is Archiving Tweets — I find this deeply nifty, because they’re right: the value of an individual tweet is fairly low. But taken in the aggregate, they form a corpus of high historical value, for certain kinds of research. And Twitter and the LoC seem to be taking a reasonably sane approach to what they’re archiving and how, and how access to it will be managed.

On a note of high hilarity: Marella Sands on the language of sex in vampire fiction — specifically, comparing old-school Polidori and Stoker approaches to the Anita Blake series today.

Another Sirens update — Registration costs go up after April 30th, so if you’re on the fence about going, try to decide quickly!

That’s four links, and everybody says five things make a post, so my fifth thing shall be, uh, me apologizing for only having four. (I actually do have a fifth, but it deserves actual discussion, so I’m saving it for later.)

Little-known fact: March 8th is celebrated in some countries (like the country of my office) as The Feast of Cleaning Up Your Browser Bar.

Con or Bust auction — this closes on the 13th. Bidding for a signed set of Onyx Court books is up to $25 $30, and the money goes toward helping fans of color get to cons they might not otherwise make.

Sirens conference update — I failed to post this in time for the chat on Saturday, but more info on getting involved in programming. Remember, despite the word “conference,” you don’t have to be an academic to participate.

Reproductive Justice linkspam — I hadn’t heard of this organization before, but basically they’re a group that looks past the abortion debate (which has a tendency to dominate the conversation in the U.S.) to broader issues of pregnancy, sexual violence, disability, transsexualism, immigration, economics, and pretty much anything else that affects the ability of women to decide what to do with themselves and their bodies. There are some really heartbreaking stories in there (like the one about confiscating an immigrant woman’s child on the grounds that her lack of English made her unfit to be a mother in the U.S.), and lots of opportunities to take action.

Ignoring people you don’t trust — an interesting look at how the sources of statistical information and analysis can, or should, affect the way you receive that information. On the one hand, the studies claiming smoking reduces risk of Alzheimer’s were mostly written by people affiliated with the tobacco industry; on the other hand, the earliest work documenting a connection between smoking and lung cancer was published by Nazis. So it isn’t a simple question.

A flowchart of where the Google Books Settlement could go from here — a simplified flowchart. Boggle at its complexity.

Johari Window — more than a meme, less than a psych study; click through to choose how you would describe me.

1) If you’re interested in Sirens (where I’ll be a Guest of Honor this fall), they’ve put up a post about programming, to give you a sense of how it works. The approach is along the lines of an academic conference, but you don’t have to be an academic; they actively want a good mix of people — readers, writers, critics, librarians, etc.

2) Should have put this one up before, but better late than never: Help the Project. Charity auction for the Virginia Avenue Project, “a free afterschool arts and academics program” that mentors kids in a disadvantaged neighborhood. Like many such programs, they’re hurting for funding right now, and in danger of closing down. Auction ends March 1st; details here.