Disqus - Latest Comments for shava

Re: http://bigthink.com/ideas/41921

Shava Nerad — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:13:40 -0000

Thanks, you saved me from sounding quite so nerdy correcting the person who identified Einstein as pantheist, in saying he was panentheist.

It would have mad a great deal of difference to the grat man.

Pantheist: The universe doesn't play dice.
Panentheist: God does not play dice with the universe.

A pantheist believes that all things are god, and participate in the divine, this rock, this star, this animal. A panentheist believes there is a divine intelligence greater than the sum of the parts, perhaps emergent, if you will, perhaps mysterious in nature, but not removed from nature as many tradition would have it (deus otiosus - the god who creates and leaves).

Re: http://bigthink.com/ideas/41561

Shava Nerad — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:47:53 -0000

That would be "a part of the 1%" if you were part of the people symbolically set apart from #ows. But you seem not to have interacted with many real Occupy folks. Here in Boston, I'm not atypical: a union member, 52, well-published and respected in several fields, as likely to be a byline as a reader in some publications I frequent.

Perhaps people need to comb the press archives to see how scrofulous and horrible the negroes of the civil rights movement were, and what a dirty crew they were on their marches - a threat to decency and society. My father was on many of those marches, a well-mannered northern white Unitarian Universalist minister working with the SCLC night security crew. The only mentions of white allies in the SCLC tended to be when John Reeb was shot dead. You are unlikely to see mannerly, deliberate discussion of Occupy on the news. It would take more than three minutes, would outstrip your vocabulary, and would not sell ads.

Re: COMMENTARY: Got a Problem with the White House? Petition It! - Alexander Howard - NationalJournal.com

Shava Nerad — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:29:56 -0000

In 1997, a NYTimes article found that many Congressional constituency services staff were instructed to count an email as either 1/10 or 1/100 of a fax, phone, or letter contact on an issue. It was too easy to make an email contact. Times have changed -- maybe.

Not only do we need to see how much attention e-petitions get from the White House, but we need some way to gauge petition influence against other channels -- and that's a more slippery and loaded question today, and in the executive branch, than it might have been in '97 for a bunch of Congressional aides.

Re: As an American Muslim, I am disgusted by the 9/11 coloring book - CSMonitor.com

Shava Nerad — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:51:20 -0000

Mark, this is a coloring book for children. Children see these descriptions and they will have about the same discretion as though they saw "freedom-hating radical Nazi extremists" They would not think, "Gosh, I bet there are lots of *nice gentle Nazis* too. Please, just for a moment, suspend Godwin's law -- I am serious.

In fact, most of the world has used the term Nazi to avoid using "German" to condemn the acts of atrocity in WWII, even though many of the people who committed atrocious acts in WWII on the German side were not members of the Nazi party in any significant role, nor were all Nazis aware of the atrocious acts being perpetrated in their party's name.

In order to allow for reconciliation after WWII, we have assigned all guilt to "the Nazis," installed Godwin's Law as a strong taboo, and locked down discussion. Soon, all the older generation of Germans will be dead, and no one will have to ask their (great-)grandfather what they did in the great war, and wonder if he lied.

Now, we are in a hot war or two, and that means, we as humans dehumanize by reflex -- but as a nation of immigrants, this has always been hazardous, particularly when the dehumanized group looks different (Japanese internment comes to mind).

In the case of Muslims, it's particularly poignant to me because on 9/11/2001, my back fence neighbors were a young couple and their daughter, refuges from Sarajevo. We had sent our children to die to save these people from, essentially, a war of religious persecution, Serbian Christian vs. Bosnian Muslim. On the afternoon of that first 9/11, I spoke to her across the fence, with her and her daughter in their modest scarfs, and she asked, nervously, "Is it safe, do you think, to send her to school tomorrow?"

These were guests in our country. We had saved them, and given them freedom here. Her daughter was a year younger than my son. I wanted to say yes; I wanted to live in that country in my heart where I could say yes. I had to say, "No, I wouldn't." It broke my heart.

Muslims are as diverse as Christians. But, when a child who doesn't know that is exposed to this kind of propaganda (from same roots as to propagate, to spread information for a particular stance or viewpoint) they will associate the words

Muslim
Islamic

with people who want to kill Americans. Never mind, either, that many of the people who died in the towers were foreign nationals (they were the World Trade Towers, after all).

So, let's turn it around a bit, let's say, that this coloring book image, without this being about Bin Laden at all, was given to boys in an Afghani madrassa captioned thus:

"An American Protestant Christian soldier guns down an unarmed modest veiled woman and an unarmed elderly man."

Now, that wouldn't be anti-Christian would it? That wouldn't be meant to incite violence would it?

Re: Looking For A Few Good Chells: Why Player Character Gender Matters

Shava Nerad — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:32:26 -0000

Nearly all my friends are male actually. Very few of them are asshats much of the time though. It does hurt me when I run because of my big bust though. It was bad before my son was born; now, forget it. Big pecs on guys imply strength. Big tits, biologically, doesn't even add "dairy quality." Just fappability. IRL, it just hurts if you move and makes your clthes cost more, and studies show it lowers your perceived IQ and ups you perceived disagreeableness with both genders.

Re: Looking For A Few Good Chells: Why Player Character Gender Matters

Shava Nerad — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:24:09 -0000

actually I am a FF - just assumed they appended Fs from there. I know just what it feels like to run like that, and for those interested, I can leg press a decent multiplier of my weight, so I'm chunky but strong (an ex used to call me Pony for my short strong thick build)

But yeah, no sports bra in creation is up to the fluid dynamics issues.

Re: Looking For A Few Good Chells: Why Player Character Gender Matters

Shava Nerad — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:49:23 -0000

I'm ok with female heroines with FFFF cup boobs bouncing around the moment they show male heroes trying to sprint at 5-8 MPH across the landscape with cantaloupe sized testicles. It's a game, why be realistic?

Re: Why We Love Hackers

Shava Nerad — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:27:27 -0000

Saying Anonymous are hackers, as a whole, is a bit like saying crank callers are iPhone design engineers. geez

Re: Why We Love Hackers

Shava Nerad — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:27:27 -0000

Saying Anonymous are hackers, as a whole, is a bit like saying crank callers are iPhone design engineers. geez

Re: Caption This Pic for a Chance to Win Infinity Blade Swag!

Shava Nerad — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:59:22 -0000

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. And his father. And his father. And... Whatever, prepare to die!

Re: 5 Tips for Recovering From a Major CEO Blunder

Shava Nerad — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:31:30 -0000

Wait. This is the man who sells web hosting and domain names with sex every superbowl. And they are smacking him around for killing an elephant? You mean no one ever watch his vlog or watch the commercials? His an ex-marine and a good ol' boy.

I'm sure his self-image is of a goof with a good heart. But I'm sure the bi-coastal media wouldn't have wanted to see me at 16, having killed my first dear, with my friends chasing after me to paint my face with strips of liver (some invented tradition, or ancient, who knows?). Yes, folks, I killed bambi. Ate him (well, her actually) too.

Apparently, in today's society, sex is paraded out of doors, but killing animals has to happen behind doors, and not mentioned.

This isn't to say the strategies above aren't good. I just think the reaction says more about many things wrong with American culture beyond the elephant in the room.

Re: Massive Email Breach Exposes Data From 50+ Major Retailers, Including Target

Shava Nerad — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:29:52 -0000

Oh yes, and I think I got an email from The College Board about this this morning, and I just deleted it at the time and thought, "whatever." And then I thought about it harder...

Re: Massive Email Breach Exposes Data From 50+ Major Retailers, Including Target

Shava Nerad — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:26:11 -0000

The most obvious security risk here is that now phishing emails can call you by name, use the art of, say, a Target or Best Buy weekly sales mailing, and make you totally think it's the real thing. This is going to get a LOT of casual people phished. Saying it is "only" the full name and email addresses is not going to portray the risk to most people.

Re: Quora: The Stats Behind the Buzz [INFOGRAPHIC]

Shava Nerad — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:22:26 -0000

I like Quora because it's more of a community and has more features than LinkedIn's questions stuff, which I used to kinda like spending time with upon occasion. But now I just keep a tab up with Quora. I <3 like minds!

Re: Lessons from the Gmail Privacy Scare of 2004

Shava Nerad — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:50:10 -0000

Yesterday, I tweeted that Color was just Instagram + Chatroulette. It's not private, but as a privacy wonk myself, I want people to understand and intelligently choose the privacy they want. You can't teach them without giving them options! Nice article!

No privacy is still a choice.

Shava Nerad
Calyx Institute

Re: Arduino Kit Giveaway

Shava Nerad — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:33:42 -0000

I'm a "beautiful assistant" to a working magician. This means that I'm often the co-conspirator on magic effects. Some time ago, we spoke to our local dorkbot folks about doing "Magic for Makers" -- demonstrating the internals of some magic effects, not to debunk them, but to open the possibility of applying maker sensibilities to the art of creating magic effects -- open sourcing them, as it were.

I believe magic is a dying art due to the secretive nature of it. No one thinks, "Oh, this movie is crap, look -- it's all CGI!" But people do say "Look, this magic is all rubbish, it's all tricks."

Magicians as a profession create this trap for themselves. In an age when magic books are in every library, not to mention revealed on the web including detailed reveals on YouTube -- almost always framed as debunking, not technical wizardry -- magic must open up and fix their attitude, or become obsolete.

So give me a kit, and I'll do a couple demo projects, throw it at dorkbot and Berkman and MIT geeks, and get the juices flowing!

Re: In Defence of the Tolkien Estate

Shava Nerad — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:21:19 -0000

Sorry for the typos above! I sent it from my phone and it doesn't seem to want to let me properly edit... The edit field comes up blank?

Re: In Defence of the Tolkien Estate

Shava Nerad — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:19:26 -0000

The UK doesn't extend right of publicity past the person's death. The law in TX specifically exempts books and movies. JRRT himself lifted directly from authirs who inspired him, like, for example, the forest of Mirkwood, which he lifted from William Morris' House of the Wolflings - which also features the Riders of the Mark.

For the classic images of the World Tree, often lit or wound with vines, garlands, snakes, crowned or carved with runes, perhaps Mircea Eliade's survey in The Sacred and the Profane (or, if you don't have the time, google "axis mundi."

We many of us took an imprint from JRRT, but he was as much a craftsman (building on known trade and design) as a creator in many dimensions. Old wine in new skins.

Let the further generations have their go.

Re: Scripting News: Who will play Assange in Spielberg's movie?

Shava Nerad — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:00:38 -0000

Too bad Kevin Spacey's probably too old...

Re: “Add Me” Now, Benefit Forever!

Shava Nerad — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:07:13 -0000

shava24 because I play a few times every day, so your enchantments will never go stale!

Re: Why Groupon's Super Bowl Ad Was So Offensive

Shava Nerad — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:51:58 -0000

With great respect, it is activists like you reinforcing an all-or-nothing stance that *discourage* people from becoming engaged at all. Even, and *especially* the people who are out there saving the world need chill time or they burn out. They'd burn out less if more people spent a few hours a week rather than none, in lightening the load of the folks doing the heavy lifting.

It's better to spend some time regularly advocating for things you care about. It's also good to take downtime, which helps you to be more effective when you're active. Both are documented to help you live a longer, happier life.

Because of this, wise and limited slack can contribute to saving the world! ;)

Re: Why Groupon's Super Bowl Ad Was So Offensive

Shava Nerad — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:51:58 -0000

Because of this, wise and limited slack can contribute to saving the world! ;)

Re: Smart: Huffington Post Gets Bought by AOL for $300 Million

Shava Nerad — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 02:11:28 -0000

Yay! Now AOL can pay the HuffPo writers in old CDs, and everyone will have enough coasters to go around.

Seriously, wonder if the change will involve paying contributors?

http://www.huffingtonpost.c...

Probably no one's talked to the state Dept of Labor about this, even with all the current attention DoL has on people not being exploited by for-profits even when they want to work for exposure/portfolio (e.g. interns). But I really feel like the HuffPo folks have set back the model for new journalism a few years. It will be interesting to see where AOL takes it, and how many of the current stable of contributors will stay for how long.

I've always figured a lot of folks write there for the cache'. That might not stick through the transition. Or it's just as likely the readers won't notice unless they pile AOL logos all over it.
.

Re: Why Groupon's Super Bowl Ad Was So Offensive

Shava Nerad — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 23:56:47 -0000

The CBS superbowl policy wouldn't have allowed the card at the end.

http://mediamatters.org/blo...

Re: Why Groupon's Super Bowl Ad Was So Offensive

Shava Nerad — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 23:53:12 -0000

Perhaps even more offensive is the underlying assumptions that:
(a) superbowl watchers care more about good eats than good causes
(b) if this were a real cause-related ad, it would never have gotten on the superbowl (check your ad history)

Because of (b) you can tell this was created by an ad agency. As a former (and who knows, maybe future, I'm job hunting) VP/Marketing & BizDev, I'd predict they thought it was hilarious because (a) means they have no respect for the diversity of their market and (b) they thought the most important funny bit to them, as ad professionals, made the humor cool.