Farah Mendlesohn (@effjayem.bsky.social)

@aussiecon5.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 11:47 PMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

Please register your interest in helping to put on a great Aussiecon5 here:

forms.gle/BUK7H1Fe7UJG...

@aussiecon5.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 6:46 AMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

Some sad news for #WorldSpaceWeek. Margaret Hamilton, who led software development for the Apollo programme, has died.

@aussiecon5.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 3:27 AMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

It's #WorldSpaceWeek. The Island Lagoon Tracking station at Woomer was the first deep space station to be established outside the USA. With a 26 metre antenna it was active from 1960 until 22nd December 1972. You can find lots more details here. #Aussiecon5

@aussiecon5.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 8:09 AMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

Congratulations to Dr Sean Richards who graduated in September with a PhD in Physics from the University of Auckland. Richards described graduating in astrophysics as continuing a path set by "our ancestors" who used the stars to navigate the Pacific Ocean. #WorldSpaceWeek #Aussiecon5

@colleendoran.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 8:44 PMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival: a truly unique experience with dedicated creators from around the world in a lovely UK town with great warmth and character. I highly recommend you consider attending this lively event in future. licaf.co.uk

@corabuhlert.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 6:38 PMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

As for why I was travelling this weekend, I attended the Vintage Toys of the Universe retro con in Lommel in Belgium. And Tiny Koala tagged along. #TinyKoalaAdventures #Aussiecon5 #VintageToysOfTheUniverse #Lommel #Brisbane2028 #Meanjin2028

Tiny Koala at Vintage Toys of the Universe

@effjayem.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 2:57 AM

Waves from Right of Return to a country to which I have no other connection.

@effjayem.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 5:28 PM

Zionism is an ideology that defines the ownership of a state by ethnicity. Is that so hard to understand?

@aussiecon5.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 9:30 AMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

Melee (our Treasurer) having a moment with Dominar Rygel from Farscape, at the Jim Henson exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. Farscape was filmed in Australia, with a mostly Australian cast and crew. #Aussiecon5

White woman with model of Dominar Rygel.

@aussiecon5.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 11:55 AMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

It's World Space Week! So over this week I'll be posting Australian Space Exploration milestones. #Aussiecon5 www.worldspaceweek.org

@oddthisday.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 9:27 AMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

It’s 170 years since 10,000 people in South Carolina honoured their Congressman with a public dinner. That’s nice, isn’t it? People so rarely respect politicians these days. Unfortunately, they were showing their support for him beating an abolitionist almost to death with his cane

Bizarre monument (in the form of a blue plaque on a post at a street corner), with white text which reads: PRESTON BROOKS DINNER National attention was focused here on Oct. 3, 1856, when some 10,000 people honored Preston S. Brooks, Congressman from this district, with a public dinner in vindication of his assault on Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the Senate floor for a speech insulting to this state. The Preston Brooks home was five miles south on Highway 246. ERECTED BY NINETY SIX CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

@speculativeinsight.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 6:49 AMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

A Christmas Carol --> The Female Man

How does that work? That's the essay.

Read it now: www.speculativeinsight.com

(it's by @effjayem.bsky.social, who knows their stuff)

@effjayem.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 11:27 AM

New article from me. Joanna Russ's The Female Man, and a Christmas Carol. "There Were These Three Ghosts..."

@baltimorebeat.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 12:01 PMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

Black journalists speak out against alleged retaliation and discrimination at WJZ
baltimorebeat.com/black-journa...

@effjayem.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 11:52 AM

And a factor in that is the relatively higher number of women forced out of the workforce.

@wtpress.bsky.social Sep 28, 2026, 6:06 PMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

On pre-order, our very Welsh Kickstarter project. They Are Still Here features stories of resistance and resilience in Welsh community, with a little help from our supernatural friends. wizardstowerpress.co...

The cover of They Are Still Here (Mae Nhw Yma O Hyd).

The image is of the sorceror, Gwydion, surrounded by wild animals (wolf, boar, deer) in a Celtic knotwork frame. Gwydion's hat is crowned with antlers. He carries an axe in his right hand and an oak twig in his left.

Art by Josh Arklin.

@benmechen.bsky.social Sep 9, 2026, 2:17 PMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

Some fascinating Collaborative Doctoral Awards on offer here at the BL, including a great history of sexuality/book history/library history project relating to the Rund Collection of 19th/20thC erotic books and ephemera

www.bl.uk/services/res...

@seoyoungjchu.bsky.social Sep 29, 2026, 8:14 PMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

Solidarity with and empathy for the "Cornell Jane Doe." (I, too, am a Doe.) #MeToo #MeTooAcademia

Solidarity with former Cornell University student "Jane Doe.”

School campuses are sexually violent places. From frat houses to English departments, rape culture thrives in colleges and universities - just as it thrives in the world more generally. Too many victims suffer agony, hardship, and even death as a result.

We need rape studies. We need more memoirs by survivors. We need more academic books on rape. We need more classes devoted to the study of rape culture and sexual violence. We need more conferences where those of us who work in these fields can share ideas and build solidarity. We need # MeToo.

By “we” I mean all of us, because rape culture harms everyone - including you.

#MeTooAcademia

@mxthemfatale.bsky.social Sep 29, 2026, 8:38 PMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

BBC - Burnham accepted he may "pay a political price" by trying to make the reforms but argued "someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off". Speaks volumes as you persecute the most severely chronically ill and disabled that your idea of 'pain barrier' is a sticky plaster.

@goldwagnathan.bsky.social Sep 29, 2026, 4:30 AMReposted by @effjayem.bsky.social

South Africa spent a lot more time trying to pretend the bantustans were sovereign than Israel does; the Israeli position is *explicitly* that there is no sovereign Palestinian state, the Territories are under Israeli jurisdiction, but also Israel has no responsibility for the people who live there.