i feel stupid, and contagious

+ I've decided to offer up graphics for help_haiti as well as fic. My graphics thread is here -- it's for 25 icons or an LJ header with whatever matching FO/profile banner/icon you'd like to match. Any fandom or theme.

+ lamardeuse has compiled a list of every offer for fic, graphics, or otherwise that's been made for Merlin fandom.

Busy times in fandom! Couple of pimps:

+ camelot_fleet Finish-athon! If you've got any fics sitting on your hard drive that you need a little extra cheerleading to finish (or you know, fics you haven't even started but have been wanting to write), this is the fest for you. Sign ups go until Sunday 17 January.

+ Join kinkelot for monthly kink challenges for Merls fandom, any pairing/character.

I've never really been a kinky writer; in fact, I'm fine with just makeouts. I love reading it but when I try to write kink it looks ridiculous to me on the page and I have trouble taking myself seriously. It's a problem. BUT, I'd like to be better at it and fandom needs more of it in general. So yes, kinkelot. :D

+ I'm going to try and catch up on reading some Solstice fic before the reveals. The holidays were too busy and the only one I've read at this point is the one I beta'ed. Ack.

Twitter is blowing up with news of tear gas, water cannons, and shootings in Tehran, at today's demonstrations. This is what the protesters are dealing with now.

Watch the #iranelection, #iranelections, and #gr88 hashtags if you're on Twitter, and be careful, not everything is reliable.

Don't trust any news coming exclusively from Iranian government/state TV -- not even if you see those reports repeated on CNN. Until it's verified by an independent source, it's possible that the government is fabricating some stories to justify a harsher crackdown on the demonstrations and incite anger against the protesters.

Reliable Twitters at this time are:

@ProtesterHelp

@Change_for_Iran

@persiankiwi

@voairan

@AnnCurry of NBC is doing really good work. Her twitter's been useful and reliable.

CNN is... still disappointing but it'll do in a pinch (to be fair it's difficult for them to report live from this) -- if you can catch the BBC or Al Jazeera you're a little better off.

Huffington Post is liveblogging the uprising here.

New York Times is liveblogging it here.

Andrew Sullivan is still liveblogging it and doing some of the best work I've seen from an individual blogger.

ontd_political's latest live thread is here.

You can see video at most of these sources.

ETA: Google Translate has just added Persian (Farsi) to their service. You can use it to translate text that you may find at websites and on Twitter to English.

Please keep the protesters in your thoughts/prayers. I'm in awe. Many of them are so young, and they're so much braver than I could ever be.