Disqus - Latest Comments for nookaNOW

Re: Ask A Native New Yorker: Is Queens Doomed To Be The Next Brooklyn?

nookaNOW — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 17:25:23 -0000

i am a queens native and i've lived in brooklyn and manhattan. brooklyn is not a fair comparison for queens the way these discussions have been going. queens WILL gentrify, but it will gentrify in a different way – the subway access is less extensive than brooklyn, so the commuting patterns and types of people will be different. also, architecture is a huge influence on neighborhood character, and again, brooklyn and queens differ greatly.

Re: Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman

nookaNOW — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 12:08:11 -0000

"Katie Couric famously asked him about whether he had undergone surgical alteration, and he rejected the question as invasive, though what counts as invasive when you are being interviewed by Katie Couric about features of your sexual identity is open to interpretation. Couric was roundly denounced for the question and for using “transgenders” as a noun, and God help her if she had misdeployed a pronoun, which is now considered practically a hate crime.

The phenomenon of the transgendered person is a thoroughly modern one, not in the sense that such conditions did not exist in the past — Cassius Dio relates a horrifying tale of an attempted sex-change operation — but because we in the 21st century have regressed to a very primitive understanding of reality, namely the sympathetic magic described by James George Frazer in The Golden Bough. The obsession with policing language on the theory that language mystically shapes reality is itself ancient — see the Old Testament — and sympathetic magic proceeds along similar lines, using imitation and related techniques as a means of controlling reality. The most famous example of this is the voodoo doll. If an effigy can be made sufficiently like the reality it is intended to represent, then it becomes, for the mystical purposes at hand, a reality in its own right. The infinite malleability of the postmodern idea of “gender,” as opposed to the stubborn concreteness of sex, is precisely the reason the concept was invented. For all of the high-academic theory attached to the question, it is simply a mystical exercise in rearranging words to rearrange reality. Facebook now has a few score options for describing one’s gender or sex, and no doubt they will soon match the number of names for the Almighty in one of the old mystery cults.

Regardless of the question of whether he has had his genitals amputated, Cox is not a woman, but an effigy of a woman. Sex is a biological reality, and it is not subordinate to subjective impressions, no matter how intense those impressions are, how sincerely they are held, or how painful they make facing the biological facts of life. No hormone injection or surgical mutilation is sufficient to change that.

Genital amputation and mutilation is the extreme expression of the phenomenon, but it is hardly outside the mainstream of contemporary medical practice. The trans self-conception, if the autobiographical literature is any guide, is partly a feeling that one should be living one’s life as a member of the opposite sex and partly a delusion that one is in fact a member of the opposite sex at some level of reality that transcends the biological facts in question. There are many possible therapeutic responses to that condition, but the offer to amputate healthy organs in the service of a delusional tendency is the moral equivalent of meeting a man who believes he is Jesus and inquiring as to whether his insurance plan covers crucifixion."

you are free to explain why this writer is spending so much time on the subject of the genitals of a transgender person. are you comfortable with strangers discussing your genitals. i stand by my original comment, it is a rude and very odd way to approach the subject.

Re: Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman

nookaNOW — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 12:01:53 -0000

did you even read the editorial? do i need to copy and paste it here in the comments. enjoy the rest of your day.

Re: Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman

nookaNOW — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 11:58:06 -0000

a stranger demanding personal information about your genitals would be considered disrespectful and rude in any circumstance.

Re: Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman

nookaNOW — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 11:54:24 -0000

apparently mr. williamson does with this piece.

Re: Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman

nookaNOW — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 11:42:32 -0000

this piece is interesting not because of what williamson wrote, but as to 'why?'. even if one were to accept his position, why would he not want to treat every human being with respect, dignity, and equal protection whether their gender identity is defined as scientific fact, "delusion", or choice? this is the question the writer should respond to as i can't fathom anything other than a mean spirit in this. williamson's obsession with genitals is very very odd indeed.

Re: Why Renters Waste More Energy Than Homeowners - Housing - The Atlantic Cities

nookaNOW — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:03:33 -0000

this article misses the main point: most renters live in multi-unit buildings which convey the GREATEST reduction of carbon footprint above and beyond the inefficiencies of the appliances mentioned here. here is a better article to read: http://www.theatlanticcitie...

this doesn't mean that home owners who rent-out shouldn't have the most energy efficient appliances as possible.

Re: The loading feature was cooler than the end result

nookaNOW — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:18:09 -0000

from the designer of the tool after i posted a comment about filtering:
"If you read the text on the main page, you'll see this is an art piece critiquing data mining. Part of data mining is imperfection, such as the inability to separate out people. Feeling that frustration is part of the piece."

very funny as i obviously did not read the text on the opening page!

Re: The loading feature was cooler than the end result

nookaNOW — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:40:28 -0000

the loading is so cool they should have an options to save the search as a video. i too got a big sports sections, but there is another matthew waldman who does professional mountain biking, so they should add some filter options. was fun to use though.

Re: Designing products that can still work if they’re broken

nookaNOW — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:59:26 -0000

i dunno michael...this seems like apple-bashing to me. there are tons of products you use everyday that if they break, they're broken. break a chair leg, your chair is useless. the compressor in your fridge dies – sure you can use it as a temporary coffin, but not as a refrigerator. the apple tablet will be designed to do what it will do the way it is designed. if screen death means it needs to go back to the shop to regain it's full use, then it is still functioning as designed. i'm sure they'll be one or 2 ways to get your data off in those situations.

Re: Why Isn't Paypal More Successful?

nookaNOW — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:42:35 -0000

as a online shopper and an entrepreneur with an online business i must agree with the negative comments with a special focus on conflict resolution – which really boils down to customer service. when you have a problem with traditional credit card charge, you call an 800 number, and that's it. if they need additional documentation, they let you know, but for the most part, they are good at researching and resolving a problem. whether or not paypal is good at this now, i too had a bad experience in the past and have not used them since. the big question is: why haven't the traditional credit card companies set up a system where one can make a charge with an easy to remember email address or name+password process similar to paypal?