strange_complex

Public

It's been rather lost among all the other things going on recently, but the UK government has been making it progressively harder for criminal misbehaviour to be covered up by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) over the last couple of years. As things stand, we have:

The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024. This is now in full operation and Section 17 expands the protection for victims who speak about being subjected to criminal mistreatment. Now, they can talk to not only the police but lawyers, support services, close relatives (child, parent or partner) and several other categories. Any clause in an NDA which prohibits these things is automatically void.
The Employment Rights Act 2025. This is being phased into force. On 6 April, sexual harassment becomes an explicit "protected disclosure" under the existing Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, instead of having to rely on vaguer "health and safety" protections. As the new law creates a statutory right, it cannot be overridden by NDA provisions.
The Employment Rights Act 2025. Yes, again. At a later date, currently predicted to be late this year, the existing Employment Rights Act 1996 will be updated to explicitly protects "relevant harassment or discrimination" under the Equalities Act 2020, so race, disability and age are in there too. As with the Victims and Prisoners Act provision, an NDA (or other contract) which tries to prevent this will be automatically void.
The Victims and Courts Bill is currently nearing the end of its passage through Parliament, and is expected to enter into force late this year. This will expand the protections in the Victims and Prisoners Act, and will allow any victim of crime to report it to anyone. Most obviously, this will mean an NDA that prevents a victim speaking to the media about the crime will be automatically void.

There will be a few exemptions, notably those connected with the Official Secrets Act, and more generally in cases where both parties genuinely wish, for example, that the financial terms of a settlement be kept confidential. NDAs that cover other details will remain in force. For example, if someone is assaulted by a person who holds a secret recipe, they can tell Victim Support about the crime and be protected but can't disclose the recipe with the same protections.

The laws are not retroactive, so they only apply to NDAs signed from the date the appropriate laws enter into force. However, the Solicitors Regulation Authority takes a very dim view of its members threatening someone if the disclosure is about a crime. The classic "public interest" defence also applies. In short, however much you may believe your 2022 NDA prevents a disclosure, you're going to have trouble finding a solicitor to send the cease and desist letter if there's a crime involved.

I expect there'll be issues to be ironed out and irritations people haven't thought of, since there always are. But overall, this set of laws will bring a big change. As far as I can see, a very good one.

Current Mood: thoughtful

highlander_ii posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Gardening
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: PG-13
Length: short-ish
Content notes: none
Summary: Mozzie - Neal - you know the drill

( Gardening )

nanila

The preceding two weeks of Friday Five questions didn't pique my interest, but this week's are great. Love a bit of meta-blogging. Thank you for the opportunity to navel-gaze.

What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth or LiveJournal account (or both)?

I started off on LJ in 2001 because everyone was doing it. I created an account and then let it sit for a couple of weeks while I figured out what it was for. I think it was victorine who prodded me into posting regularly and then I just…never stopped.
How many DW or LJ communities do you subscribe to?

A few dozen in total. Most of them are dead, the LJ communities in particular. The only one I participate in regularly is DW community awesomeers, because I'm one of the two people who puts up the daily “Just One Thing” posts. I find it easier to write a short comment about my day there than to write up a full post, especially during the work week.
Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?

See above. I also enjoy thefridayfive, and I like reading threeforthememories during its annual spate of activity.
How did you pick your user name?

My current username is a play on my actual name. My original LJ name was “lilith” as that's the pseudonym I first adopted when I started interacting with online communities back in the 90s. Eventually I felt I'd outgrown it, and I've been nanila ever since.
If you could change your user name, would you?

That would genuinely be a big decision after more than 15 years of using this one, in a lot more places than DW and LJ. I'd have to do substantive additional navel-gazing to work out what it would be.

calimac

Is Alysa Liu actually happy to be posing with this police officer?

She's giving the British version of "the finger."

rachelmanija

This spooky ghost story has a central pairing that I feel like I may have requested as an original work: Widow/Female Fake Psychic/Ghost of a Female Bog Body.

My Darling Dreadful Thing is set in the Netherlands in the 1950s, which is a selling point all by itself as I love unusual settings. Roos is a young woman whose abusive fake psychic mother forces her to participate in her fake seances. But though Roos does not communicate with the spirits sought by the desperate, grieving customers, she actually does have a spirit companion, a bog body whom Roos has bound to her and named Ruth.

Roos is delighted when Agnes, a biracial (Indonesian/Dutch) widow, takes her as a companion and spirits her away to her neglected Gothic mansion in the middle of nowhere. The mansion is otherwise occupied only by Agnes's sister-in-law, Willamine, who is dying of tuberculosis, and has a marvellously bizarre Gothic history. Roos falls hard in love with Agnes, with whom she has a surprising amount in common.

But this whole story is being told in retrospect, as a series of interviews Roos is having with a psychiatrist who is trying to determine whether she's mentally fit to stand trial for murder. Something very bad happened at the mansion...

( Read more... )

Very enjoyable, very gothic, very atmospheric. I'm excited to read van Veen's other two books. I looked her up to see if she's actually from the Netherlands (yes) and learned that she's one of a set of non-identical triplet sisters! I don't think I've ever read a book by a triplet before.

teaotter posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: cycle
Fandom: War of the Worlds 2005 (mods, you can use the generic movie tag)
Challenge: Plant

Summary: Life goes on.

( Read more... )

summersgate

Art a day today: Two Blue Chairs. Dave's garden shed in the background.

We didn't end up going to the basement. Dave wanted to go to an auction so I was spared another day of having to deal with that stuff.

wickedgame posting in

fandom_icons

Fandoms: 9-1-1, Bridgerton, Elite, Fallout, Heated Rivalry, Kuhnya, Made in Heaven, Mako Mermaids, Mr. Robot, Roswell New Mexico, The Last Kingdom, The Tudors, Vikings, Yellowstone, Young Royals

the rest HERE @

mundodefieras

beradan

"Good news, the borrowing library has disavowed the fishhooks!"

We got a book returned by mail and included with the book were four rather sharp-looking triple fishhooks neatly wrapped in a scrap of newspaper.

"But why," I hear you ask. We do not know. Neither does the borrowing library. They do not need them back. One of the student minions has claimed them.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3222/

It's ok, I still have some nice, cool gas clouds that aren't collapsing. As long as nothing ionizes them, I can continue to enjoy their ... HEY! NO!!!

https://xkcd.com/3222/

oursin

And the boidies around here in the past week have included the heron in the eco-pond being very up for a closeup, Mr de Mille, parakeets, and several magpie courting couples.

There have been a fair amount of flowers blooming in the spring, trala, for some weeks now, the daffs have been a particular feature, calling Mr Wordsworth, and today there was a massive show of narcissi along one edge of the playing field.

Among the less flamboyant flowers, the Wildflower Corner included grape hyacinths, and dandelions.

The trees along the street are busting out in leaves and blossom.

We also note that toxic nitrogen dioxide pollution in London has fallen to air quality standards in under ten years (rather than the projected nearly 200).

blogcutter

If you love reading about love, there's a new bookshop in Ottawa that will be celebrating its grand opening tomorrow:

https://evermorebooks.ca

I'm thrilled to see the resurgence of specialty bookshops in the area. We lost House of SF and Prime Crime long ago, but romantasy is so hot these days that with any luck, Amanda Holmes and her crew will be able to make a go of things. And back in the era when House of SF and Prime Crime were around, websites and online sales were not really a thing the way they are now. Evermore Books will promote and sell books both in-person and online and presumably events may be conducted both ways too.

In a recent post, I mentioned the Spaniel's Tale, which will soon be moving to more spacious digs, probably some time in May. Sadly, though, not all the independents are doing so well. Further along that Wellington-to-Richmond stretch of road, Westboro Books closed permanently earlier this month:

https://www.facebook.com/100094299872995/posts/dear-readers-we-have-some-sad-news-to-share-with-you-after-a-lot-of-consideratio/775280878958568/

The independents can't flourish if we buy all our books at Indigo and Amazon. So check out Evermore Books and the Spaniel's Tale for your beach reads, your travel reads, and all those quirky chance discoveries you didn't even know were out there!

Current Mood: literary
Current Location: the reading room
Current Music: Dear sir or madam, will you read my book ...

thesleepingbeauty posting in

fandom_icons

All icons are HERE at

little_mermaid. ♥️

Note: This post will only be open for a few weeks … after that it will be locked to members only, so please feel free to join/subscribe if you like my work. Thank you.

fabiadrake

As for Grant, he was — as he had known he would be — snowed under with information. By Tuesday noon Tisdall had been seen in almost every corner of England and Wales, and by tea-time was beginning to be seen in Scotland. He had been observed fishing from a bridge over a Yorkshire stream and had pulled his hat suspiciously over his face when the informant had approached. He had been seen walking out of a cinema in Aberystwyth. He had rented a room in Lincoln and had left without paying. (He had quite often left without paying, Grant noticed.) He had asked to be taken on a boat at Lowestoft. (He had also asked to be taken on a boat at half a dozen other places. The number of young men who could not pay their landladies and who wanted to leave the country was distressing.) He was found dead on a moor near Penrith. (That occupied Grant the best part of the afternoon.) He was found intoxicated in a London alley. He had bought a hat in Hythe, Grantham, Lewes, Tonbridge, Dorchester, Ashford, Luton, Aylesbury, Leicester, Chatham, East Grinstead, and in four London shops. He had also bought a packet of safety-pins in Swan and Edgars. He had eaten a crab sandwich at a quick lunch counter in Argyll Street, two rolls and coffee in a Hastings bun shop, and bread and cheese in a Haywards’ Heath inn. He had stolen every imaginable kind of article in every imaginable kind of place — including a decanter from a glass-and-china warehouse in Croydon. When asked what he supposed Tisdall wanted a decanter for, the informant said that it was a grand weapon.

—A Shilling for Candles

lydamorehouse

Once again, I have failed to post anything beyond once a week. Ugh, I suck. Sorry, everyone!

To be fair to me, Ramadan has only just ended (happy Eid to those of you celebrating today). Ramadan has meant several late nights for me, as I've been doing anti-ICE patrols--though one of my groups actually had people patroling in the wee hours of the morning--like, 3:00 am! I wish I were the sort of person who could have done that? I bet the Dispatch calls were fascinating. And, maybe it would have inspired a vampire story or two, who knows?

Part of me will miss this. In particular, I will miss the Night Owls.

The Night Owls (which actually start at the fully normal hour of 8 pm) are an interesting group. It's a group resistance Signal call for anyone up and about until dawn, no matter where they are located. So, I've had people on with me that were coming in from exo-suburbs and even nearby small towns.

The culture of a lot of the Signal calls is that commuters and stationary/foot/bicycle patrolers say pretty quiet and only turn their mics on to do a plate check. This varies from community to community, of course, with some dispatchers encouraging more back and forth or doing round-robin check-ins. It really depends on who your "Guy/Gal/Enby in a Chair" is. There's things specific to specific groups too? My hyper-local community always signs-off with "Have a great night, Fuck ICE" in the same sort of casual tone you might tell a partner "Love ya!" before hanging up. I joke that I can always tell people from my area when they show up on the larger calls because they still do this even when its not the culture of the call? Other dispatchers sound a little thrown to hear folks from my neck of the woods just casually signing off with a happy little swear. There are also cool acronyms that I'm not fully privvy to, like some folks from the other side of the river apparently say: SSFI for Stay Safe, Fuck ICE. I tried to say that today since there are lot of little ears around the mosque during Eid, but my dyslexia was like... UH GO SLOW... so totally outed myself as NOT one of the cool kids, after all. :-)

But the Night Owls are their own special crew. Their chat is actually vetted, but the call is open to anyone commuting, etc., late night. Once daylight savings time hit, my stationary patrols started at 8:30 pm so I joined the Night Owls. The Night Owl folks are just chattier? Largely, I think because it is often the same crew--people who do the late shift UberEats or whatever other driving gigs they might have.... people who are just up all night. They will talk about their favorite energy drinks or talk about the usefulness of jumper cables or sometimes even awkwardly attempt to flirt over Signal voice chat. Ocassionaly, someone will break in with a startled, "Y'all, I just saw the world's biggest rat run across west 7th! And I used to live in Mumbai!" There was a whole discussion that spanned several nights about the ICE agents on Grindr (a gay dating app).

I got invested, you know?

These people became some Real Life version of my own personal soap opera. I am going to admit that I have clearly formed some parasocial relationships with certain code names.

That being said, they were really there for me when I needed it. There was an incident that I haven't blogged about a couple of Wednesdays back where my plate check came back hot, or shall we say VERY COLD, possibly even icy if you get my drift. I was stationary (on foot), alone, and dispatch very kindly asked me if I wanted a drive-by from one of the other commuters in the area. This icy vehicle was also stationary? We had clocked each other? Like, they were parked and the three of us had made eye contact. So, my voice jumped an octave higer than I intended and I was like, "Uh, yeah, I would not hate that, dispatch. Thank you!"

Y'all, within MINUTES rescue arrived.

Rescue was a gender fluid person on bicycle patrol. This fully bearded, beautiful human being rolled up in 10 F/ -12 C degree weather in a skirt and Wicked Witch of the West striped tights. They had a high-powered telephoto lens camera with them and, I kid you not, the sight me--this tiny, fat lesbian on a phone--and this amazing person arriving on a bicycle caused my icy van to decide THE THREAT WAS TOO BIG (which, honestly, was the most ICE-like move they made). They fled. I reported that my sus van was on the move to dispatch and I could hear commuters everywhere leaping into action. I am sure my sus van had a tail before they turned on to the next biggest throughfare.

When I had to sign out, I heard the Night Owls making sure someone would continue to swing by to keep an eye on the mosque. I was so thrown by this experience that I didn't remember to text our contact inside the mosque until I got home, but I only live minutes away, so they got the word out for people to be extra careful that evening, too. I don't know, of course, for sure the folks we chased off were who we were afraid they might be, but I'm just as happy to have freaked out any other potential bad actors, you know? I swear that right now, in the Twin Cities, you do not want to be a "local, independent pharmaceutical entrepreneur" because some commuter has eyes on your business!

So, I think this is why I feel kind of connected. Like, these are my comrades in arms (or by phone, as in the case of the Minnesota Resistance).

Happy Eid, but good-bye my dear Night Owls! SSFI*!

====
I'll still be doing rapid-response work, but probably no longer at night.

shipperslist

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

cimorene

I don't have a lot of toys from my childhood with me here in Finland, just a few stuffed toys that were made by my mom. This doll is the first thing my mom made for me: a Cabbage Patch replacement. (I wanted a Cabbage Patch as a toddler, but my mom made me this doll instead, which was even better - she was so beautiful to me, and my mom hand painted her eyes!) This doll has been lying flopped over in a basket on top of a bookshelf for a few years, and she caught my eye as I was going to bed one day a few weeks ago and I started thinking that it's a pity that a work of art that my mom worked so hard to make isn't being played with.

It's possible there will be a toddler in the family I could give her to in the next few years. But in the meantime I felt sad about her, dusty and poorly dressed, so I examined her and knitted her a little outfit.

The doll needs washed as well, but I want to wait for summer. Her body is light pink cotton that has gotten rather grimy, but her face isn't machine washable. My mom says I can take off her head and wash the body in the washing machine; and I wouldn't want to do that until it's warm outside, and sunny, so it would dry as quickly as possible. The face definitely needs washed too, so I'm going to have to try to spot wash it.

All three of these wee garments took me only about 6 days to make, and they're made of leftover scraps (the striped shirt and the yellow cardigan) and a bit of cheap sock yarn (the jungle green pants). But I got that feeling of excited accomplishment with a finished project three times! They have the details of bigger garments, and they're so cute and tiny, even more so than making sweaters for small children.

tinny

The current round at

fandom10in30 is Hearts and Flowers. Since I already made 20 heart-themed icons for the ships20in20 round, I concentrated on flowers this time.

Enjoy!

( 8 Wu Lei-related, 2 other cdrama )

Comments are love - and concrit, too. <3 Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. Texture and brush makers: here in my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

pennyarcade_feed

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/03/20/it-takes-a-village

We warned of spoilers in the Project Hail Mary trailer, but having read the book now - and living in a world where The Martian exists as a book and a film - I understand why they needed to show everything in that trailer. You can't have a situation where people call the movie "The Martian On A Spaceship." Now that I know everything in the book - I'm literate!!! -I would say that they have not, in fact, spoiled the main thing. I can't wait to go see this shit - there's just so much interesting work that had to be done before they could even tell the story.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2026/03/20/it-takes-a-village

hafnia

The Friday Five for this week, since I suppose I feel like doing it for the first time in a very long time, and why not? Questions here.

1. What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth or LiveJournal account (or both)?
LiveJournal — because it was the Year of Our Lord 2003, and it was what everyone else in fandom was doing. I'd just turned sixteen and thought it was the bee's knees.

Dreamwidth — post-Strikethrough, saw the writing on the wall, made one under my (now defunct) lj username for writing-only (and God, what a long time ago that was!), then made this one after I realized that I didn't want to be known as a pun username for the rest of my life...

2. How many DW or LJ communities do you subscribe to?
A handful? Fewer than 10, definitely; I don't really use DW for that.

3. Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?
I'm fond of the book reviews that get posted in

booknook.

4. How did you pick your user name?
I wanted something that would be difficult to link directly to me, that was unlikely to be taken on most sites, and that was something that had meaning to me. "hafnia" is the common name for Hafnium (IV) oxide, a material used for high-k dielectrics (if this makes you go, "???", fear not, it's a semiconductor thing). It also happens to be one of the materials I worked with most during my PhD.

I'm hafnia or titania the web over. If I ever make another pseud on AO3 (...maybe? can't imagine what for), it'll be as zirconia, probably. Group IV all the way.

5. If you could change your user name, would you?
I'm fond of it, so, no, it stays!

Profile

strange_complex

January 2026

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Page Summary

loganberrybunny - The restriction of NDAs
highlander_ii in fan_flashworks - White Collar : fic : Gardening
nanila - The Friday Five
calimac - more than it seems?
rachelmanija - My Darling Dreadful Thing, by Johanna van Veen
teaotter in fan_flashworks - War of the Worlds (2005): haiku: cycle
summersgate - friday later
wickedgame in fandom_icons - multifandom icons.
beradan - ooc qotd
xkcd_feed - Star Formation
oursin - The spring is sprung, the grass is riz
blogcutter - Is romance in store for you?
thesleepingbeauty in fandom_icons - 40 Multi-fandom icons
fabiadrake - A packet of safety-pins in Swan and Edgars
lydamorehouse - What? It's Friday?
shipperslist - music is love, music is life
cimorene - Knitted wardrobe for the hand-painted doll my mom made me when I was 3
tinny - 10 multifandom flower pattern icons for fandom10in30
pennyarcade_feed - It Takes A Village
hafnia - the Friday Five...

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Page generated Saturday, 21 March 2026 19:05

The children of the night

Network

The restriction of NDAs

White Collar : fic : Gardening

The Friday Five

more than it seems?

My Darling Dreadful Thing, by Johanna van Veen

War of the Worlds (2005): haiku: cycle

friday later

multifandom icons.

ooc qotd

Star Formation

The spring is sprung, the grass is riz

Is romance in store for you?

40 Multi-fandom icons

A packet of safety-pins in Swan and Edgars

What? It's Friday?

music is love, music is life

Knitted wardrobe for the hand-painted doll my mom made me when I was 3

10 multifandom flower pattern icons for fandom10in30

It Takes A Village

the Friday Five...

Profile

January 2026

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