Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Mental Floss has a great post up about the origins of several of the most common pirate stereotypes. Spoiler: They can all, one way or another, be attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.

I love Halloween, and we’re about a month into Ugly Decorations I Nonetheless Desperately Want Season. Unfortunately, there’s not enough room on my balcony for these zombie flamingos. I might have room for this skeleton cat, though.

Speaking of cats:

In much more serious news, and in light of the Emmy awards being tomorrow, a 10-year study has found–to no one’s surprise–that women are terribly underrepresented at the Emmys.

In infuriating (but also somewhat hilarious) news, The Sarkeesian Effect has been released. You can pay $3.99 to watch it on Vimeo, but I suggest just reading about it over at We Hunted the Mammoth.

Nichelle Nichols went to space, and there were tribbles there.

At io9, Why Captain Kirk is Still One of the Greatest Space Heroes of All Time.

At Kirkus, a History of Serialized Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Suvudu takes on another era of genre history and publishes a nice piece on Lord Dunsany.

The AV Club explains feminist media criticism for those who still don’t get it.

The Mary Sue on The Importance of Race Bending in Fan Art.

Geek.com lists 11 Genres and Subgenres That Need to Make a Comeback. I would love to see a good new sword and planet story.

The Toast presents A High Fantasy Novel Without Incestuous Subtext.

Tor.com announced the 2015 Quantum Shorts flash fiction competition, in association with Nature and Scientific American. You can see the full rules of the competition and submit your work at the official website.

Margaret Atwood writes about freedom (or lack thereof) at The Guardian.

At Tor.com, How Evil SFF Empires Create Ideal Citizens.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I read an interview with Ursula K. LeGuin, but this week there were two: at Huffington Post and Salon.

I’m just going to give up now on ever having another Puppy-free weekend links post:

• John Scalzi – My Almost Certainly Ill-Advised Proposed Award Voting Process
• Jim C. Hines – Cool Kids