Disqus - Latest Comments for Cos

Re: Harry Potter and the Half-Asleep Moviegoer

Cos — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:41:04 -0000

I just saw it tonight, and also learned of the existence of the Where The Wild Things Are movie from the previews.

I think the Harry Potter movies are getting progressively better than the books as the get into later volumes. The first couple of them I seem to remember just felt like pretty good translations of the books into film; this movie was clearly a movie in its own right. I mentioned this to a friend I saw it with, and she said it may be because the books got longer and longer, to the point where the movies could no longer just be fanfic because they couldn't fit the whole book and they'd displease people if that's all they tried to do, so now they have to be something more.

I particularly liked the way they were able to *show* us things the books couldn't quite, like nonverbal communication & the development of relationships in physical space, and things like quidditch games. Lots of good facial expressions and funny things dropped in.

Re: Dangerous cycling: the controversy continues

Cos — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:45:34 -0000

Glad I'm reading this when I'm not somewhere I can easily fall off :)

Re: Swine Flu: coming soon to a kid near you?

Cos — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:55:59 -0000

On a public policy level, there's reason for concern and action any time a brand new infectious disease appears, because if left to its own, it could spread very quickly. Preventing that requires taking steps in the early stages, when not many people are infected, and when we don't know a lot about the disease yet. It needs to be tracked, and places where several cases appear need to quickly takes steps to slow its spread (closing schools is one of the main steps, because getting lots of children together is one of the most effective ways of spreading an infection).

On a personal level, there's no reason to worry at all. We already know this particular flu is no more serious, so far, then typical seasonal flu. Whatever level of concern you have about the flu at other times is the appropriate level to have now. If you or your kids get it, it'd be about the same as a flu they might've gotten last year.

If the government does its job properly, it may never spread to much larger numbers of people, and will eventually get lost in the noise of other flus. Their job is to act early to slow infection rates and try to make it stay that way. And if it turns out that it was never super-infectious to begin with and we could've gotten away without taking special steps, oh well. We can't gamble on that when a new virus appears.

Newsworthy things, that merit public debate, are issues such as how prepared the CDC is, how effective our national system of developing and stockpiling vaccines are, whether we've funded hospitals adequately to do well under increased load if there's a larger than usual flu season, etc.

Things not worth worrying extra about (beyond any other year) are whether you're personally in danger. As far as that goes, it's just the flu.

Re: Outlook on economy brightening..

Cos — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:04:27 -0000

On April 1st I was contacted by three places I had sent resumes to, to schedule interviews. One I originally applied to in January, one in February, and one in early March. Could just be coincidence.

Re: News from the Front

Cos — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:16:05 -0000

You're conflating "don't judge people based on knowing where they went to college" (good advice) with "it doesn't matter where you go to college" - a very different and much broader statement. People pick colleges for many different reasons, and get a lot of different things out of them, and the statement you're making covers much more ground than your essay here addresses. I could easily say "it matters very much where you go to college" and not contradict any of your other points here.

Re: What Every American Should Know About the Middle East

Cos — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:46:40 -0000

You're absolutely wrong about the term "anti-semitism". You are correct in stating that Jews and Arabs are both semitic ethnic groups. However, "anti-semitism" does not refer to prejudice against or hostility towards all people of semitic background. "Anti-semitism" is anti-Jewish prejudice/hostility. Language is funny sometimes, and words can mean different things than what they etymological background suggests they ought to mean. This term is by no means alone in being like that. However, it is what it is.

Furthermore, since there's no major phenomenon of prejudice against people of semitic background in general and specifically (that is, prejudice that is against all semites but not against any other groups), there's not really a role for a term that would have that meaning. So there just isn't a word for it.

Re: What Every American Should Know About the Middle East

Cos — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:49:57 -0000

Another correction: Bahrain is majority Shia, and Kuwait is about 1/3 Shia, so it is incorrect to lump all the gulf emirates together as predominantly Sunni. Also, Yemen is probably close to half Shia, though I don't know if there are accurate current numbers.

Also, Syria, though predominantly Sunni, is dominated and ruled by a Shia splinter sect, the Alawites. Druze, numerous in both Syria and Lebanon, are also probably a Shia splinter sect. Neither of these are the same as the mainstream ("Imami") Shia, but they're certainly not Sunni either.

Re: Breaking: Facebook Updates Beacon

Cos — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:15:47 -0000

My response to this, on the Facebook thread ( http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=593026268... ):

Facebook seems to be changing Beacon to opt-in, but in a screwy way:
http://www.allfacebook.com/2007/11/breaking-fac...

"Users must click on “OK” in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.

If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click “OK” to publish or click “remove” to not publish."

If they actually do it that way, it's good as far as privacy goes, but I think it still shows they don't get it.

They will definitely satisfy the requirement that nothing gets shared until a user has taken a specific action to choose to share it, and that's great. However, I suspect that when people first encounter this, their initial reaction will likely be paranoia. Huh, wha?? Where did that come from? How did Facebook get this information? etc. As a result, a lot more people will think it's creepy and say no.

Facebook should be building a system based on enticing people to choose to participate, and see it as a positive feature to adopt, rather than a negative feature to stomp on. This change would be a partial step in that direction, but I wonder why they wouldn't go all the way. All I can think of is that they really don't get it, and don't understand why people have reacted the way they have.

Re: FOX Attacks Decency… with Bill O’Reilly Leading the Way

Cos — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:50:55 -0000

While I agree that Fox is hypocritical and ironic, I still don't want to have anything to do with attacking a broadcaster for showing sex. I wish more would do it. I wish Fox would stop being hypocritical about it, too, but this particular campaign seems to be aimed at getting advertisers to pull because of the sexy content, not because of the politics. I think that's wrong, so I oppose this campaign.

I fully support embarassing Fox by spreading that video, though. At least then the goal can be to get them to stop condemning "liberals" for supposed "depravity".

Re: Social Media Hub: Boston

Cos — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:29:31 -0000

Some odd omissions:

Boston-based Going.com, social networking / events startup.

Somerville-based LocaModa, creators of Wiffiti, innovative new social media.

(I've worked for both of them, though I don't work for either currently)

Re: The REAL Rudy: Mistakes in 30 seconds

Cos — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:21:22 -0000

I don't like this one at all. The other videos focus on real flaws, this one is a mix. We should not be making fun of politicians for doing anything gay-friendly, for getting divorces, etc. Sure, Republicans hate that stuff - so let *them* attack it! We can point out hypocrisy, but that's not what this video does.

I hope you pull this video off the site, and replace it with something better.

Re: Daily Show: Bush is slowly going from Nixon to Mr. Burns

Cos — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:54:52 -0000

anonymous: ... and anytime the tax on cigarettes goes up even a little bit, many people quit, and fewer people start. So it actually also improves childrens' health :) But to the extent that it takes money disproportionately from poorer people, at least that's where almost all the money is going. Unlike all the other regressive taxes and fees we have, that go to the general fund, which primarily benefits people with a lot more money.

Re: FOX Attacks Decency… with Bill O’Reilly Leading the Way

Cos — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:50:55 -0000

Re: What Every American Should Know About the Middle East

Cos — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:46:40 -0000

Re: What Every American Should Know About the Middle East

Cos — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:49:57 -0000