Activity from brainwane
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protecting outliers
It's important for the US Census to collect and publish a lot of information. It's also important for individual respondents to retain their privacy. Re-identification techniques pose a problem, so The Markup's Julia Angwin interviews Cynthia Dwork, one of the creators of the "differential privacy" approach, about how differential privacy could help ensure the US can meet both goals.
Russian data access laws and Fastmail
Email provider Fastmail has announced that, due to losing their court case against the Russian government, "Fastmail subscriptions will no longer be available for purchase in Russia." Fastmail "concluded that it would not be possible for us to comply from a technical, business, or financial perspective" to comply with the Russian data laws, partly "because subjecting any of our customers to their data access laws could create unacceptable privacy risks". Russia's government has increased its control over local internet access and usage in recent years; Fastmail noted, "Many email and digital companies worldwide have had to deal with this situation over the past few years, with similar impacts and outcomes, such as NordVPN, ProtonMail, Tutanota, Mailfence, and StartMail."
patron records and circulation privacy in libraries
Librarian and researcher Dorothea Salo teaches an information security and privacy class that "asks students to investigate various aspects of the privacy/security situation surrounding their choice of campus-related data." Based on what they dug up, Salo requested records of her own library usage data at the University of Wisconsin, and published the dataset. It's big and detailed, goes back to 2002, and violates traditional library-patron privacy expectations. Librarian Kendra K. Levine: "The circulation data should not exist. I know it’s valuable for collection assessment but to the level of granularity tied to an individual?" Salo wrote a follow-up to "give you some idea where to go looking if you’re curious about a library’s stated practice".
"For a day or two, nothing happened. I mean, nothing."
"Milo’s habits are simple and revolting." Maria Farrell writes about her "hugely fluffy and dolphin-smiling Samoyed dog, Milo" and of the inconvenience of his bowel movements ("He has absolutely no concept of gastrointestinal cause and effect....For a while, there, Milo’s daily rhythm was primed perfectly to require a straining squat precisely as we passed the entrance to the local Tube station at the height of rush hour."). And then there's what he ate at her brother in law’s fortieth birthday party... Warning for lots of dog poop description.
Exercise together via videocall
Inspired by the conversation in a fitness-related front page post: come do a 23-minute novice-friendly workout session with me via free videocall. 9am Eastern Daylight Time.
Skepticism of news journalism, moral values, and framing effects
"there is a link to differences in moral instincts, which cut across demographics and ideology." "A new way of looking at trust in media: Do Americans share journalism’s core values?" by the Media Insight Project. (Answer: many do not.) "The trust crisis may be better understood through people’s moral values than their politics." Using moral foundations theory, researchers found four clusters of people linked by their journalism & moral values. Researchers were able to revise stories to -- while keeping them factually accurate -- emphasizing aspects that made them more appealing to, for instance, people who care a lot about loyalty and authority. "Might people trust these stories more, attend to them more closely, see them as accurate, and so on?"
Teacher, beautician, mom, wealth manager, student, & taxi driver
"For Indian women, rideshare apps are a lifeline: Six Indian women describe how rideshare apps have transformed their lives", in Rest of World, by Chandni Doulatramani. "The ubiquity of rideshare cabs has had a lasting impact on the urban-dwelling women of India, with ripple effects reaching stay-at-home moms, workers, and college students." (For folks who are wondering: Uber Moto gives the passenger a motorcycle ride.)
Book: Black Water Sister
Zen Cho's latest fantasy novel: "A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy." A closeted gay woman moves, with her mom and dad, back from the US to Malaysia, and discovers even more secrets to untangle. Suspenseful, funny, observant.
"I asked myself what I most valued about teaching mathematics"
Mathematician Ursula Whitcher is an editor for a database of mathematical research. "Branch cuts: writing, editing, and ramified complexities" (9-page PDF) discusses reevaluating career priorities (especially after the University of Wisconsin redefined tenure), reflecting on gender and sexuality, and "bridging queer and mathematical communities". Whitcher has also written for the American Mathematical Society on predictive policing, research projects that a protagonist of a Courtney Milan romance novel might be interested in, and more.
"Fitness is a journey and we all start somewhere"
If you can't do full push-ups, "just like with everything else in the world, you can build up!" Hampton from Hybrid Calisthenics shows you why and how you can progress from wall pushups to inclined push-ups to kneeling push-ups and then to full push-ups in an encouraging one-minute video. (Three-minute video with more detail, still photos.) "When we're doing these exercises, we're actually building strength. When we move on to a harder exercise, all we're doing is demonstrating and using our new strength." (found via Twitter)
"the first and only bit of stability since I became homeless"
A few stories of houseless New York City residents who have lived in hotels for the past year thanks to the #HomelessCantStayHome campaign.
Migrant workers, changes in US cannabis regulation, and conflict
"You can try," he says softly in Mandarin, "but I don't think they'd talk to you about New Mexico." The confluence of changes in local regulations around hemp and cannabis cultivation and sale in the US, disagreements among neighbors in the Navajo Nation, the pandemic, investment by foreign investors (including people from China), exploitation of migrant workers (including people from China), and anti-Asian racism has led to tense confrontations, arrests, and tensions within families.
Daycare worker, waitress, mountain guide, paramedic
A few short fantasy stories about serving other people during times of death and peril. A daycare worker at the end of the world, and a restaurant server at a different end. A mountain guide who always finds what is lost. And the funniest one: a necromancer who doesn't realize they're a necromancer, and thinks they're just a really good paramedic.
a few short happy-ending sf/f stories
Short, optimistic scifi/fantasy fiction stories: "It’s not a bad boarding house, as these things go." "If your suit watch is correct, you should have ran out of air… three weeks ago?" "The first time the humans told us they sang their way through subspace, we thought it a translation error." "A human. On Captain Diii’s ship." "'May you have a life of safety and peace', said the witch, cursing the bloodthirsty warrior." "What is the harm in one more lie?" All self-published by the authors on Tumblr.
Keith Burgun's 4 Interactive Forms
"Within 'interactive entertainment', there actually exist a number of forms – patterns of design that work in a certain way. Only by understanding these forms can we proceed with guidelines for better interactive system design." MeFi's own Keith Burgun, a game designer and game design instructor, discusses mapping, solving, evaluation, and understanding in four categories of interactive entertainment.
Nicola Griffith on her writing, genre, kittens, ableism, and more
"To me, honestly, genre is just a vehicle I use to cross the story terrain. So depending on what story I want to tell, I use the appropriate genre." Author Nicola Griffith, author of scifi, historical fiction, detective fiction, nonfiction, and more, discusses her books and writing journey in an interview from late 2020. She learned more about how her own fiction works while writing a PhD thesis a few years ago. Griffith's blog has tons of interesting musings, on topics including the phenomenon of marginalized readers feeling "momentarily flummoxed by fiction that doesn't push us down" and identity and science fiction. "Reading SF, the over-riding value of which is the new, keeps our reticular activating systems primed: we expect everything and anything."
"New alphabet dropped!"
One person reminisced about, as a child, writing capital letter Es with several redundant horizontal lines so that it looked like a ladder. Other Tumblr users yes-anded with sentiments like "All capital letters should have a leveled-up form" and "Please add your own unsettling godtier capitals!" as well as calligraphy and a font (.otf) file for an "Anxiety" font.
Two debugging puzzles (and more to come?)
Julia Evans (previously) is making interactive in-browser text puzzles to help people learn how to debug computer networking issues, and asking for feedback as she tries stuff out. "The Case of the Slow Websites" and "The Case of the Connection Timeout" are already up (source code using Twine), and she's thinking of making several more. "I'd love to know what folks think of this approach to learning debugging! One of my favourite ways to learn is by debugging weird problems, so my idea with this style of game is to sort of share the experience of past bugs I've run into so that other people can learn from them too."
teams that feel like bands
Hisham H. Muhammad writes "A love letter to bands, in music and code", reminiscing on the feeling of being in a team that is, or feels like, a band: "work done in a collective yields results of a different nature....When I’m in a collective environment — and by that I mean any setting where my work is presented to and discussed by others as it is developed — even when I’m doing work completely on my own, even before I’ve had my first piece of feedback, I feel a sort of mind game playing in my head where I 'play the part' of my peers and imagine what their feedback would be, be it consciously or subconsciously. I’m doing the work not only for myself, but for others too, whose opinions I care about."
"I haven't felt like myself for years now."
"Good ol' Charlie B" is a sad-and-sweet, talky comic by Marina Kittaka taking place years after the events of Peanuts: "half essay, half tribute to visiting old friends". A text-only version is available. "Yeah. I've been having a hard time, just. Figuring out where to go from here. Trying to piece something together that actually... feels like a life." Kittaka has also written about art and community and co-option, noting, "to practice my philosophy I must learn to be okay with people not getting it, to stop fighting to stay legible and correct-feeling in everybody's mind."
Remote accountability, body doubling, cafe/church sounds, & camaraderie
MeFi's own The Wrong Kind of Cheese covers five methods for getting accountability, including partners, groups, professionals, apps/gadgets, and events, then discusses flow and distractibility and and links to several ambient noise and faux sounds-of-colleagues websites. Also, the BBC covers Focusmate, Caveday, RemoteWorkmates, and the general phenomenon of sites to facilitate remote videocalls with strangers. Author Courtney Milan has been finding Focusmate extremely useful -- and it reconnected her with an old friend!
"'Is this everything you will be trading in?' I ask. "
"Retriever" by Stephen Kearse is a short science fiction story about an employee of the United States Federal Gun Retrieval Agency: "I’m an agent of the 28th Amendment, the abolition of the 2nd." Published October 2020.
US tech company hiring and decarceration
"What I learned going from prison to Python" by Shadeed "Sha" Wallace-Stepter: "Total strangers with a very different background and life from my own had connected the dots in a way that led to me learning to code." One of those strangers was engineering leader Jessica McKellar, who speaks at tech conferences to ask: "Mass Decarceration: If We Don’t Hire People With Felony Convictions, Who Will?"
Grieving, loss, futility, diaspora, and broken connections
Two melancholy short scifi and fantasy stories, new this year, about grieving the loss of parents. "Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application for an Eternal Spirit Core" is by Wole Talabi: "So you’ve been using the money they left us to develop this thing?" "All Worlds Left Behind" is by Iona Datt Sharma: "I, uh, used to come here with my dad? I don't speak the language as well as he did."
"Fill World With Gentleness"
Hitoshi Yasui makes music as "chair house", and is currently working on the "Piano Ten Thousand Leaves Project" (Soundcloud). Each day, chair house improvises, records, and uploads an original piano composition. They're generally quiet and gentle pieces. He started the project in 2014, and aims to create 4,536 songs in total to match an 8th century anthology of Japanese poetry. If he stays on track, he will finish in mid-2026.
"The heuristics I can substitute are incomplete"
Beth Andres-Beck writes about hir experiences as a dyslexic programmer. (This post is from 2014.) Zie says: "I believe that in some ways dyslexia makes me a better programmer." and "It is hard to explain my intuitive, aesthetic sense of good code, such as when polymorphism would simplify a method. The heuristics I can substitute are incomplete, flawed reflections of the generative principles that motivate them and people who like rules tend to reject them when they can think of counter-examples. I rely on metaphor and examples a lot, because they have proven more effective at translating my thoughts into something other people can understand."
"to reshape our sense of ourselves and our societies across generations"
"The culture has given up on the novel as a central art in part because we’ve given up on metaphysical stakes: It has to matter to the universe, or it won’t long matter to us." says Joseph Bottum in a conversation with Phil Klay about whether the novel is in decline, on Pairagraph (a set of structured conversations). Klay replies: "as long as humans need not only a metaphysics but also a sense of belonging in structures larger than ourselves, whether those be communities or churches or nations, humans will seek out those art forms that help us to knit together our disparate, broken solitudes." Even if the topic doesn't particularly interest you, you may find Bottum's introduction funny; I laughed out loud.
Ways to research the modern and ancient worlds
Historian Bret Devereaux (previously) discusses "the nature of our evidence for the ancient world and its limitations". Programmer Hillel Wayne asks: "why do interviewers like to ask linked list questions?" and uses that question as an example of some ways to research the history of the software industry.
"A more accurate retelling of my own story could include..."
"When somebody asks me how I got to where I am, there are a few words I use generously: luck, serendipity and kind people. .... But that mythology I find myself trying to build up is probably harmful to others as well as myself." Zara Rahman (previously) thinks about the work she's done to make career success more likely, and how eliding those efforts in her narratives of "how I got to where I am" is "charming, but not threatening. It’s also an incredibly gendered approach to talking about myself." and says, "I want to be more fair to myself, and to others, about the stories I tell myself."
better machine readability for knowledge
Wikidata is "Wikipedia's not so little sister": "a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines." Wikidata aims to be "accessible to everyone in their language without privileging any particular language by design". Also: "A lot of technology today is trying to simplify the world by hiding necessary complexity and nuance. Conflicting worldviews need to be surfaced. Otherwise we take away people’s ability to talk about, understand, and ultimately resolve their differences. Wikidata is striving to change that by not trying to force one truth but by collecting different points of view with their sources and context intact. This additional context can, for example, include which official body disputes or supports which view on a territorial dispute."
"This is going to make a big mess!"
Liz Henry made a coronavirus piñata and cheerfully details how you can too. "All the diagrams of the shape of the virus that I’ve seen have a round shape with at least 3 different sizes of 'protein spikes' coming out from the middle, with each kind being a different height. Each spike has an extra bit on top like a flat top or a sort of flower shape. This is not too hard to make, but doing the 'protein spikes' was a little bit of a challenge."
"Love those who love you"
"Blessed are the proactive, for they shall achieve success. Blessed are the cheerful, for when you laugh, the whole world laughs with you. Blessed are the assertive, for they shall win friends and influence people." is the start of one "reading from the Gospel according to the GOP." For Lent, artist and writer Tealin (who is a Christian) is posting each day to "tell the Bible stories as if they had been written about the version of Jesus that Republicans seem to believe in". Her satirical series inverts the wedding at Cana, the Prodigal Son, turning the other cheek, the birth of Jesus, the lilies of the field, the woman caught in adultery, and more.
"an empty crib and a raven with a scroll in its beak"
"I am concerned that you did not receive my previous missive, although my raven reports that you took the letter and appeared to read it." "The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly" by Alix E. Harrow, an epistolary short story published last year in Fireside. Content note [spoiler, so, in extended description].
Making it easier for published scientists to change their names
Science said last month: "Today we are pleased to announce a seamless, discreet procedure that authors can follow to change their names in previously published papers across the Science family of journals. We join multiple other publishers that have adopted similar initiatives, including the American Chemical Society, Public Library of Science, Royal Society of Chemistry, and Wiley. Authors may have occasion to change their names for various reasons, but recent outreach by, and on behalf of, transgender scientists has impressed upon us the importance of respecting authors’ privacy and autonomy in correcting the scientific record."
"You hear whatever’s scheduled for that moment."
Mike Pennisi built a "magic radio": "Years ago, I had this idea for a gimmicky MP3 player. It wouldn’t have a screen or any buttons; instead, it would play music and podcasts on a pre-defined schedule. I’d build it into an antique radio so that using it might feel a little like listening to an authentic radio station." The project has given Pennisi "a better appreciation of how friction can enhance an interaction". Source code and tips for getting started are available.
"No Ocean for Young Women" by Anat Deracine
An essay on learning to surf, on a career as a woman in technology, and on people helping each other: "when someone spreads a myth (such as, perhaps, a half-baked theory about biological predisposition towards shark attacks or software engineering), it acts like an oil spill. It can only be cleaned up to a certain extent. The damage has already been done." Deracine previously on MetaFilter.
"I lived here, I loved here, I thought it was true"
"I studied code because I wanted to do something great like you / And the real tragedy is half of it was true.... If only you could be what you pretend you are." Via Casey Fiesler (who used it as background music for a TikTok video recommending books about tech ethics): "Rät", a song by Penelope Scott "on the promise, failure, and disappointment of technology" and about complicity and vulnerability, available on the album "Public Void". Analysis by Fiesler. "When I said take me to the moon, I never meant take me alone / I thought if mankind toured the sky, it meant that all of us could go / But I don't want to see the stars if they're just one more piece of land / For us to colonize, for us to turn to sand." Lyrics on Genius.
"what I was really doing, was *hiding*."
"This is a process for me, and I don’t have it totally figured out." Crystal Martin writes about withdrawing and "dimming her light", professional skills and personality, and things we tell ourselves we're doing. "I’m not one to cry in front of people, and most of the mean things people say to me don’t really matter, but what I’ve found…especially in my first year as a developer, is that I fall apart…I mean I…CRACK when someone questions my intellect." (Essay is from 2019 and is on Medium. Please also note the postscript which contextualizes the anecdote at the start of the piece.)
The Story I Like To Tell About My Father
Charlie Jane Anders writes movingly about the end of her father's life, his dementia, and how he came to accept her transition.
"But why limit yourself to modern swear words."
Vu Le writes "21 tips to make getting back to work this week more bearable". "5. List out stuff you’re grateful for. It’s important to remind ourselves regularly of our blessings. Make a list of five things you’re grateful for. That feels great, right? That’s a lot of emotional progress. Go ahead and take the rest of the day off from work." His blog, Nonprofit AF (previously), frequently features satirical takes on life working in the nonprofit/NGO sector (previously), such as "Honest email auto-replies you can use during these challenging times".
"baking stories are another of my go to story types"
Two Ladybusiness contributors "explore their feels about 'soft' or low-stakes SFF short fiction, and rec a whole bunch of stories for you to enjoy." Links to twenty-two science fiction and fantasy stories that make the recommenders feel soft or hopeful, especially "domestic stories and stories that are good people doing their best".
whether visuospatial, phonological, conceptual or emotional
"Flight from one, toward differing focus. Then, the suspended-semi-mixture of the two; absence and prospect." The content management/site-building platform Cargo has a weird blog.
"it hit a nerve—especially with the scrubs"
"TLC always held the position that non-scrubs shouldn’t be bothered by 'No Scrubs.'" In response to TLC's 1999 song "No Scrubs" (video), as Julian Kimble wrote for The Ringer, Sporty Thievz released the "contemptuous" track “No Pigeons.” "Now Sporty Thievz had the opportunity to build an entire song around the word, all while inserting themselves into a conversation initiated by one of the biggest groups in music on a chart-topping song."
Good replacement for Muji recycled yarn socks?
My spouse and I are seeking a replacement for Muji recycled yarn socks. These socks "are discontinued and will not be back in stock". My spouse writes: "I’ve worn these socks for about 15 years without finding anything similar, and my last sets (purchased around 2018) are wearing out." He really loves these - help us find a suitable replacement?
"choose who joins your conversation"
"BBC Dad" Robert E. Kelly (previously, previously) "knows something about interruptions" so he made an ad for Twitter (1-minute subtitled video) to help advertise Twitter’s new conversation settings. (People can mark individual tweets so that "Everyone", "People you follow", or "only people you mention" can reply (which means that, if desired, a user can make a tweet un-reply-able). Twitter started testing this feature early this year and now it's apparently available for all users.) Yes, his kids are in the ad.
"In the year of my greatest harvest, I had many hopes"
"In 2012, back when I was young and the world was a different place, I planted a plum tree in my back yard." A funny, loving, bittersweet story of one woman's fruit tree, with reflections on mortality and gardening. "There was one memorable year when the lectionary had the story of Jesus and the fig tree and no fewer than three pastors of my acquaintance asked my permission to use my bitter, hopeless plum journey as a sermon inspiration. Oh pastors, consider this permission to use anything I put on my blog in your sermons."
"Asking for help is a sign of strength"
In Illinois, USA, Crisis Nursery creates an "Island of Safety" dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and neglect by providing 24-hour emergency care for children and support to strengthen families in crisis. Crisis Nursery is the only emergency-based child care facility in Champaign County that is open 24 hours, 365 days a year for the entire community to access with no fees or income eligibility.
Kindness at work
Ask A Manager says: let's talk about kindness at work. "Now let’s talk about times at work when people have gone out of their way to do good or be kind. Please share stories of kindness at work in the comments." Lots of appreciation, generosity, and people stepping up in hard moments -- and "a coworker who, if I was detained by crap commute on our monthly free bagel Friday, would save me a fresh, still warm chocolate chip bagel that would otherwise have been snatched up".
A FIYAHCON Retrospective
L. D. Lewis writes "A FIYAHCON Retrospective": a detailed narrative of why and how organizers put together an online convention for BIPOC+ in speculative fiction. Included: "Below, you’ll find a fairly extensive overview of the costs associated with set-up of our virtual convention, as well as some notes on what worked and what didn’t." Including how much it cost to set up two "Calm Room" live cams with Monterey Bay Aquarium.
US Election 2020: Some politics is local
This week's US election included thousands of local decisions: city councils, district attorneys (as in Los Angeles), state legislatures, county recorders, school boards, judges, ballot measures (such as universal preschool in Multnomah County, Oregon), Congressmembers, and more. Queer and first-time candidates saw several victories. [If you'd like to talk about the Presidential and Senate races, please do that in the general US election thread.]
"I needed a better excuse than glory."
"A Non-Hero’s Guide to The Road of Monsters" by A.T. Greenblatt (previously mentioned in a list of recommended sf/f from 2017) is a light adventure tale of a sidekick-turned-blogger/entrepreneur. "So why do I bother running a business like this? Because monsters are remarkable, unexpected, and totally worth the wait."