Leaving the comics reviews til tomorrow, because Patreon has been having problems sending email notifications so people might not have seen the request for comics to review. If Patreon’s not working yet then I’ll leave it til Monday.
So for now, links:
An interesting fact — people have been saying that UKIP are going to do well in Leave-voting areas while the Lib Dems are going to do well in Remain ones. In fact, in post-referendum elections, the Lib Dems have done best in both types of area, and are doing better in leave areas than remain ones, while UKIP are doing badly in both but worst in leave ones…
Hormonal contraceptives are linked to depression
Wesley Osam on UBIK by Philip K Dick
Trump and the Batman Effect (NB Slate Star Codex so comments almost certainly crawling with fash)
Charles Stross’ three-part predictions for 2017. Personally I think he’s wildly overoptimistic.
On the erasure of Islam in popular English translations of Rumi
And for those of you who use Comixology, the first issue of Transrealities (a comic written by my friend Abigail Brady and lettered by my friend Aditya Bidakar, among other excellent creators) is out now (US) (UK) for $0.99. I picked up a physical copy at Thought Bubble, and it’s very good, and I would say so even if I didn’t know some of the creators. If you like clever pop superhero time travel stories (the things it reminded me of most stylistically were Bulleteer from Seven Soldiers and The Wicked And The Divine, with perhaps a little hint of Kevin Maguire in Steve Horry’s linework), or stories with trans protagonists, then you’ll like it.
Sci-Ence! Justice Leak! 
re: the article on Rumi, I think you could easily see Coleman Barks’s work as a sympathetic introduction rather than a cultural colonialism. For example, “The perfect satisfaction of all our sexual wanting” as an interpretation of the “houris” of paradise is the sort of thing that C.S.Lewis might have written. I am only going by the review (which I thought was more pleasantly nuanced than the headline suggested) of course. I once went to a celebration of Rumi at Konya in a football stadium. There was an enormous and enthusiastic crowd and after the Dervish dancing they projected a painting of Rumi onto a screen and everybody saluted with one hand raised.