annalee newitz

Thomas Beattie is actually not the first man to get pregnant. Almost a decade ago, a San Francisco transgendered man named Matt Rice got pregnant and had a cute son.

Several years after that, I met another pregnant transman in San Francisco. He was telling his story, with his wife, at a feminist open mic.

So why is Beattie getting all the credit, and why now?

How exciting: Google Maps now gives you the option for Street View when you’re looking at Austin. That means you can browse the city by looking at panoramic photographs taken by a magical Google truck or something.

Go play! Keep an eye out for funny stuff — lots of people have things going on in Street View for other cities, like drug deals and giant pumpkins.

View Larger Map More on Street View: Read Annalee Newitz’s Techsploitation column, Google My Bedroom.

Techsploitation One of the social traditions that’s carried over quite nicely from communities in the real world to communities online is revolution.

You’ve got many kinds of revolt taking place online in places where people gather, from tiny forums devoted to sewing, to massive websites like Digg.com devoted to sharing news stories.