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vousmontournesol · 3 years

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Re Nolan Patrick: Robin Lehner didn't address him by name though there was a tweet which stated sources revealed that he was medicated on highly addictive sedative drugs by nonmedical staff. I wonder also if Robin was also addressing Carter Hart (he said he didn't really know Nolan that well), who floundered last season and was very anxious about his performance. Robin was very vocal about AV throwing the young goalie under the bus. Regardless, this seems to be a systemic issue according to Robin and interestingly enough, Dale Weise, a former teammate of Nolan's voiced his support for Robin. Chuck Fletcher's statement was essentially a non-answer, basically summarized as "Yeah, I don't think we do that around here". I think for Nolan, if he truly was treated inappropriately for his migraines or TBI, he may feel that he cannot blow the whistle at this time. If he confirms or denies this claim, the flames may be stoked even more, so he may choose to wait it out. The vitriol towards him on twitter is brutal - he's not only a bust, but he's "ungrateful" and a "crybaby" and worse insults that are misogynistic and homophobic. The discourse around him has always been exceedingly negative, albeit if not more now. He may just want his fresh start in Vegas and to put it all behind him. Perhaps, he worries he will be blackballed for speaking out, and there goes his dream of playing in the NHL which he worked so hard for. This is a young man who was once almost the #1 pick for his year. I think the NHL will try to suppress this - ie the opiate dependency among players, rampant harrassment as in the recent Blackhawks case. It's in their best interest to let this die - everyone has to move on at some point, right? As you can see, there are already people on twitter dismissing Robin as a raving lunatic. But Robin is right and this is not an outlandish scenario. Scheduled drugs are diverted all the time despite good checks in place. They could have been prescribed for someone else and given to players. What really terrifies me about Nolan's case allegedly is 1) he didn't know what he was taking which took away his free will and 2) if he was being dosed inappropriately for a long period of time since this was allegedly done with out doctor supervision. They could have OD'd him! I really worry about these players and how they break their bodies and minds for this sport that they love, but in a league that considers them chattel and where money always rules the day. Sorry for the essay.

Don’t apologize dude, this is a good take, and exactly what I was thinking too. Thank you for this.

The bullying that Nolan’s received since he arrived in Philly has always put me off. Of course I think he’s adorable and I do love his chipped tooth, but at the end of the day, I value him as a player and a as a human and as a contributor to a sport I love to watch. So reading all of this shut over the last 24 hours is nauseating.

I think RL’s tweets were a little hard to read through just because I know English is not his first language, but I think you’re right. He may have been alluding to another player he knew about, possibly carter (although I don’t know if they know each other either). Regardless, now RL is being cast as some idiot who has lost his mind because of his mental illness, which is just wrong. To see people tweet at him using his mental illness like that against him makes me sick. These toxic fans are fine with things like this happening.

Tbh, I don’t think Nolan owes anyone anything. It’s allegations at this point, and the sources are a little sketch, but I swear to god if I ever find out to be true, I will come unhinged. Something awful could have happened to him if he was on these drugs. You’re right: he could have OD’d, he could have long term problems, etc. It’s hard to think about that. Especially when the league is already so content to not deal with shit that’s already happening (Eichel and the Blackhawks bullshit).

It’s sad. Really is. Whatever happens, I hope Nolan is okay, and I hope he does what’s best for him. And I’ll be interested to see how this shakes out and whether or not we hear anymore from anyone.

Thanks for writing in!

#nolan patrick #philadelphia flyers #vegas golden knights #robin lehner #anon #answered

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what-do-1000-swords-look-like · 3 years

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I'm curious, what is your take on Sansa and Sansa's ending? What is the message of her arc in the show? I love that she is QitN and I believe she will be a good queen. She is a competent administrator, just, politically skilled, and will work to restore the North. It will take years to rebuild. I however, HATE that she had no one left in Winterfell. (My head canon is that Jon gets a rest, then a pardon, and comes home to help Sansa rebuild in peace.)

Hey, Nonnie! =)

Oh wow, you know, I have to absolutely agree with you. I was very sad that Sansa had no one there with her in the end. I mean, I get that Arya needed to go off and do her own thing, to be free, but out of every pack member, I expected her to be there and have Sansa's back like she did the whole time she had been in Winterfell once they reconciled. I certainly didn't expect Jon's ending but at the same time, I wasn't sure if they would allow Jon to stay with Sansa or in Winterfell at all. So I was counting on my girl, Arya, to be the one that stayed. (though I will admit I did not see Bran's ending coming because who the hell could have? that whole arc progression made no narrative sense to me tbh)

I think that's one of the things that bothers me most when people say about Sansa 'well, at least your fave character survived. not only that, but she got to be Queen, you should be happy with that' and it's like, yeah...but at what cost? That coronation scene always makes me sad because even though she's looking out into the room at all of her people gathered, there's no one there that loves her like her family loves her, looking back. And many of the GA vastly misunderstood her character and her motivations, and why this would be a very bittersweet ending for her. All she ever wanted was to be safe within the walls of her home, and to have the pack safe and back home with her. So while, yes, she is safe, and in power so they are never at anyone's mercy again, the pack has scattered to the four winds. And that just breaks my heart when I think how hard she worked to ensure not only their independence but also her family's safety. A lot of people say 'oh, Sansa was power hungry and wanted to be Queen' but completely dismiss how tirelessly she worked to keep Jon's crown for him, until he definitely wasn't able to ever take it back. It's interesting, people are more likely to examine Dany and Cersei's motivations and characters (which, they should, no character in this universe is single-faceted) but when it comes to the third part of that equation, who has been paralleled to both women throughout the series, the examination and desire to look beneath the surface stops and instead she's relegated to 'Sansafinger' and 'jealous and power hungry' and 'Dany's death is all her fault' instead. It's quite disturbing actually. She wasn't any of these things. She only did the best she could with what she had, and her desire had always been for safety and for the safety of her family. She wanted to be taken seriously, to be able to help and become a valued contributor (when Jon was King), but ultimately safety was her main goal. And what better way to attain that than by the North becoming independent (so they and the North are never at the South's mercy ever again or anyone else's), the Starks remaining in power and within Winterfell (the seat of power of the North), and keeping the pack together (so they and Sansa can remain safe and they never experience the tragedy and loss that they did throughout the series)? I just want to shake these people by the shoulders sometimes lol. The ones that say these things about Sansa's character without truly understanding what makes her tick and who she really is.

I agree with you, she is a very competent ruler, and she is definitely just and fair. I think all along, in the show, they had been hinting at Sansa being a queen that people would love rather than fear or feel indifferent towards. Just the bells ringing from sunrise to sunset on the day she was born was a big flashing neon sign, I think. Especially when compared to the story of Dany's birth. And I am super grateful they actually showed us Sansa in action in season 7 and then season 8, all of the steps she was taking to ensure that the North kept working together to prepare for the upcoming battle with the NK, that she kept Jon's men still there while also offering shelter and sanctuary to those who would flee to Winterfell, and rationing out food and supplies to make sure every last person was taken care of. Even right down to the very valid point she makes to Dany about the men in 8x04 that all Dany stans immediately disregard and accuse her of hating on their fave. (its like no, actually, that's a pretty solid point, let the men rest up so they can be at full strength and then take KL, they literally just fought an undead army, I think they deserved a weekend's leave for crying out loud) I'm just really glad we got to see all of it. In my mind, I was like, 'yass Queen, you rule' when watching it LOL. But I also felt vindicated in a way, like 'yes, this is exactly who Sansa is, people', especially when she saw Arya and Bran again for the first time, saying how much she missed Jon, and even when she and Arya argued before reconciling. But of course, somehow some people still missed all of these things. 🙄

Her ending was actually very interesting to me. As soon as I saw her walk, I was like, 'oh they're going for an Elizabethian ending, right.' From the calculated walk, to the people falling on their knees as she passed, right down to the hair. But to me, I also saw that they kept her hair unbound and flowing freely as a sign to the audience that she is no longer echoing or channeling anyone she has learned from, and that in this moment she is just Sansa, and this is a new beginning for her. The only influence she had right then was her family, being channeled through her crown and dress. But ultimately, she is Sansa Stark and a new era is beginning. Just like it did when Elizabeth was crowned. A golden age, if you will. I think the show gave her this ending (I have no idea where GRRM is going in the books, tbh) because not only was it important for her story that they had told thus far, but to also show that she was a survivor and the best candidate to lead the North. Just for a second, I'm going to use Tudor history to explain why I think this is why they chose this particular imagery for Sansa's ending scene (outside of the obvious reasons and the ones I just mentioned). Sansa was Regent when Jon left Winterfell to go to Dragonstone. She literally performed the same duties that Katherine of Aragon did when Henry VIII went off to war. Just as almost nearly every Queen has done in history (when they were Queen Consort). When Elizabeth becomes Queen, we all know she infamously became the Virgin Queen, refusing to take a King Consort, and her rule lasted for years without her ever taking one. Imho, they purposely chose this imagery to show us that not only had Sansa transcended her original Lady Of Winterfell and "key to the North" title, but also that this was a transcendent moment for her where she could stand alone on her own two feet. She is no longer a key for someone to try to grasp or acquire to gain the North, she is the North. Just as Elizabeth became England and the royal "We." That's what I personally think they were trying to show when it came to her ending.

As for them leaving Sansa all alone there (which I just absolutely hate, I'll keep saying it LOL), I think they did that because they were aiming for "bittersweet" and also to subvert people's expectations. (if there was ever a word I hated with a passion for the past 3 years, it's 'subvert', thanks D&D) I think they purposely played up the Ned and Cat come-again framing, the unresolved romantic tension between Jon and Sansa, the return of Arya and Bran, in order to get everyone thinking 'well, if the Starks survive, obviously it will be the wolves come again, the pack stays together' and then to completely turn it all on its head. So there would be shock and awe and unpredictability, that no audience member would have ever seen that coming. (they sort of succeeded, I never saw Bran's ending or even Arya's coming) I think that's why they did it, while also showing that Sansa had become Queen in the end, but at a cost. She was strong, could stand on her own, but hey, she doesn't get to have everything. Which is what I feel they did with everyone else. Dany got to have the IT but at a terrible cost. Jon got to protect Sansa (and by extension, keep his family and the North safe) but at a terrible cost. Tyrion got to live and even become Hand again but at a terrible cost (though they try to make it about his not being mentioned in the story, I think the cost was actually losing Jaime and Cersei, as well as what happened with Dany). Brienne got to live and serve Bran, remain a knight, and finish Jaime's story, but at a terrible cost. So, that's why I think they did it that way. Very multi-layered, but ultimately, Sansa got to live and become Queen, she was able to achieve independence for the North and guarantee all of their safety, but at a terrible cost. Not only the family they lost over the series, but also losing Jon, Arya, and Bran. Again. Even though Sansa paid enough throughout the show (and in my opinion, she deserved way better), to get that crown, to get that independence, to get that safety, she had to pay something else. Bittersweet, indeed.

So, as far as her message goes, I'm not sure what the exact message is that they were aiming for. Like I think Dany's is pretty clear, Cersei's, Jon's, etc. But Sansa, I'm not sure. To me, I think the lesson she learned over the show (besides the many obvious political ones) is to be careful what you wish for, that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. And I think that's summed up by that line she has from 6x10: "Back then I only thought about what I wanted, never about what I had." But after everything she's been through, especially in season 5, I don't quite feel comfortable sticking to that message? If that makes sense. So I'm not really sure what her definitive message really is tbh. I'm sure it will be a little clearer to me once I read the other books.

I love your headcanon, Nonnie, and I whole-heartedly agree with it. That's what I think, too. Jon gets to take a nap (let the man have a nap 2021), a rest, and eventually he goes back home. I think there's very good evidence for that sequence of events to be a little more than just a headcanon. There's certainly an air of unfinished that surrounds Jon's and Sansa's stories separately and together. I would even venture to say Arya's, but her story was closed up just a fraction more than Jon's and Sansa's were. Everything was left open-ended and I do believe that had the show continued past this point, we would have seen Jon and Sansa reunite at some point, and that she absolutely would not be alone for the rest of her life. I think she definitely would have welcomed a visit and even Jon's help to rebuild, like you said. And I can see them working together, utilizing their strengths and complementing each other in only a way that they can. Jon's style of ruling was very similar to Sansa's, despite their disagreements. We saw that in season 5 when Jon was Lord Commander. He absolutely knew how vital the food supply was and he had similar experiences of ruling to Sansa. From the armor to the food to the dealing with someone who needs to be executed to listening to their people's complaints. Very similar. So it would only make sense if Jon came back and helped her to take up that burden and they did it together. I know Michele Clapton said the second wolf in Sansa's crown is Robb but I like to think that eventually it will be Jon, and he will be the wolf holding the other wolf's head up (Sansa's) and they will rule together.

I hope I answered your question, Nonnie. I rambled on a bit like I always do, sorry about that LOL. I hope some of it kind of made some semblance of sense lol. I just love talking about GoT and especially Sansa. I love her character dearly and I have so many thoughts when it comes to her and Jon, separately and together. Thank you for the ask! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend. <3

#ask #got #game of thrones #sansa stark #sansa stark my beloved #ask answered

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richincolor · 3 years

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SomeThoughts about Netflix's Shadow & Bone

This past Friday, the highly anticipated Shadow and Bone series premiered on Netflix and fans of the Grishaverse all over the world logged in to watch their favs come to life. There was much discussion of the inclusion of numerous characters from throughout the Grishaverse and that diversity was a focus in the casting of the show, especially Jessie Mei Li who is biracial, therefore changing the main character’s ethnicity to biracial Shu Han. Unfortunately, that decision didn’t pay off to well due to the showrunner’s handling of Alina’s ethnicity. Twitter blew up as people shared their hurt and warned others about what to expect.

I had planned to watch the show and happened to see one such warning before I watched the series so I was prepared. I watched a couple of episodes, then called it a night. The next morning I was unsettled and reached out to my fellow contributors here on Rich in Color. No one had seen it yet, but Jessica said she was planning to as well. As we chatted, I felt that our conversation should be shared with our readers, so Jessica and I decided to write our thoughts down and have a conversation after she watched a few episodes herself.

Oh, and spoilers abound!

First off, before we dive into this conversation: Have you read the Grishaverse series? How much did you know about the story going in?

K. Imani: As everyone knows I love fantasy so I’m open to reading all sorts of fantasy books. I read the Shadow & Bone series a few years ago and enjoyed it. When the Six of Crows duology came out I read those too and actually enjoyed those better than the original series. Why - more diversity? It also expanded the world and the different perspectives of “Grisha” like folk from other cultures. It was very clear from the writing that Bardugo realized her first series was very lacking in diversity and worked hard to change it. I actually re-read both series during quarantine, so I had a fair idea of what the Netflix series would be about.

Jessica: I’ve actually never read a single Grishaverse book! I know, shocking. I only knew two things about the series going into the show: 1) Six of Crows is a heist book? 2) Ben Barnes is a person who exists.

The cast announcement for any show is always so exciting, and Shadow and Bone was no different. How did you feel about the casting -- before and after you watched the show? What did you think was done well, and what did you think could be improved?

K. Imani: Before watching the show I was actually a bit confused about some of the casting choices. I didn’t understand why 3 of the main Six of Crows characters were in the show and I honestly did not make the connection to Alina and Mal being biracial. Knowing that the Grishaverse is “Russian-based” and knowing that some ethnic Mongolians are considered Russian I just found it cool that the show cast a person who didn’t fit a Russian stereotype. Oh boy was I way off! Overall I was pleased with the casting and think all the actors did a great job. I liked the few changes they did make with casting actors of colors for other roles to round out the diversity of the world.

Bringing it back to Mal, I was confused as to if he was supposed to be coded as biracial. I missed the reference in the show, but I did read somewhere that he was supposed to be as well and that is what bonded him to Alina. If that’s the case, then how come Alina was the only person to experience racism? That thought continues to sit on my heart because it shows that the writers did not really think through how they wanted to express racism and included it for the wrong reasons.

Jessica: My reaction was basically, “I’m happy that other people seem happy!” since again, I had no context for the show. Casting on Netflix shows often seems to be a case of “cool, this is some exciting casting… but definitely could be better and even more intentional.”

K. Imani: “More intentional” That is the word right there! Making a story more diverse is wonderful and fully reflects the world we live in, however if you just randomly do it without thinking it through it comes off as insensitive. I know Leigh Bardugo used this show as an opportunity to make her story better (and I do not begrudge her of that fact) but when one doesn’t think it through, the criticism that is being expressed is a direct result.

Jessica: Sidenote -- I ended up watching a booktube video titled “Darker Jesper, Fat Nina, Shadow and Bone Casting Thoughts” on booktube channel Chronicles of Noria about the casting. Highly recommend checking it out. I also recommend this profile on Jessie Mei Li, who talks about being gender nonconforming.

Did any changes in the Netflix adaptation stick out to you? Were there changes you liked or disliked?

K. Imani: My favorite part of the adaptation is how well the show runners included the Six of Crows characters into the narrative. The storyline completely worked for me and connected the two stories together. I really enjoyed the Arken storyline (and the character tbh) as it was used to flesh out the world of the Grishaverse, which made the series much more interesting. I also liked the change of making Ivan and Fedyor a couple instead of just Darkling’s henchmen as it humanized them and actually made me like Ivan because they were so cute together. Though how that will come into play after the events of Episode 8 will be interesting. I’m a sucker for the Enemies to Lover trope so I loved that Nina’s & Matthia’s story of how they came together was included here. In either Six of Crows or Crooked Kingdom (I don’t remember), it was told as a flashback, but I loved that it was moved here as their “origin story”, so to speak, and how it connects to the events of the Alina timeline.

What I didn’t like...the casual racism. It really bothered me and left me sad the next morning. For example, a certain poster shown in the first episode had me physically cringe and I was upset that 1) the production designers even created it and 2) no one, at no point, said that was a bad idea? Come on! It was horrible to see and I can imagine the hurt an AAPI would experience seeing that. And then, it got worse. Racial slurs thrown around a couple of times in the first couple of episodes to show that Alina is an outsider. They were jarring and took me out of the narrative. Having read the books I knew there was tension between the Ravkans and Shu Han, so I could understand what the show runners were trying to do, but it was actually never explained in show, hence making the racism feel random and just there for shock value.

Jessica: I saw tweets going around alluding to the racism Alina (and other characters to a less frequent extent) faced, so I braced myself for it. I’m only a few episodes in, and the instances so far were brief… but it just didn’t feel right. The foundation for this portrayal of racism wasn’t laid properly. And if the work of laying the foundation and really digging into what it means for the overall worldbuilding doesn’t happen… then why include it at all? Especially if it might be painful for certain viewers? I’m sure harm wasn’t the intent, but that’s the impact. Why not leave it out and let the show be escapism?

K. Imani: Jessica, the eyes comment took me out, not gonna lie. I audibly screamed. Anyone who has experienced a racist comment based on their looks felt that in their gut which is horrible when watching a show for escapism.

Jessica: Yeah, the eyes and rice-eater comments were especially frustrating. On top of it being a reminder of the racism Asians experience daily… it doesn’t make much sense. Like, canonically, do people in Ravka not eat rice? An American’s conception of racism isn’t necessarily going to make sense in a (Imperial Russia-inspired) fantasy world. But maybe I’m missing something since I didn’t read the original books.

And the eyes comment… whoof. When I was a kid, other kids would make fun of my eyes and ask me to, like, count seagulls because surely, I couldn’t see out of my eyes… And the other kids were also Asian! Internalized racism is so real. It’s disappointing that Shadow and Bone would include this experience as, I don’t know, discrimination flavor text. Surely there were better ways to portray discrimination that made sense within the Grishaverse…

Ellen Oh really said it so well: “If a writer is going to show racism against Asians, it's important to balance it with the beauty of all that makes us Asian also.” Where is the balance? Where is the nuance? Even if Alina’s Shu Han mother isn’t alive, couldn’t Alina have had a treasured Shu Han pendant? Just spitballing here. There were so many possibilities.

K. Imani: Exactly. I agree with Ellen and unfortunately there is no balance. That’s what makes it so hurtful. The focus is on how bad it is that she’s biracial and how bad the Shu Hans are for no specific reason. Because Alina is an orphan and grew up in Ravka, she unfortunately has no connection to Shu Han culture (or at least what is shown on screen) so all that she identifies as is Ravkan who just happens to look like a Shu Han person, but she doesn’t exhibit any pride in being Shu Han. Her ethnicity is just another obstacle to overcome which is all the more cringeworthy and why having Alina be biracial just to be biracial without thinking it through ended up being so problematic. Having her be biracial and using casual racism as an “obstacle” that she has to overcome is such a shallow interpretation of racism and shows the writers didn’t do the work to really think about the why the racism exists.

In addition to talking about what was done well and what went wrong or felt off about certain representation, it’s important to look at the “how.” How did this happen?

Jessica: I read on Twitter that one of the show writers is Korean and biracial -- which is awesome! I was really heartened to hear that. But at the same time, this highlights how important it is to have multiple marginalized voices in the room who can speak with some level of expertise. I don’t know the decision-making process that went into including this sort of surface-level, simplistic version of real world racism, but I wonder if anyone, at any point, said “is there a more nuanced and original way to portray this?” or “how will this affect Asian viewers?” Did someone bring it up, and they were overruled? What happened?

This absolutely isn’t a judgment on the Asian writers or staff on the show. When I’ve done collaborative writing, there were times I caught an issue and said “we need to be more sensitive about this” -- and there were other times when my teammates pointed out something I didn’t notice. It happens! That’s why it’s so important to have multiple marginalized perspectives when creating something -- especially when it’s a work as impactful and far-reaching as a Netflix show. Placing the burden of complex, nuanced representation on one, or a scant handful, of marginalized creators is just not going to work… and it’s not fair to the creators, either.

Frankly, this is a problem in so many industries -- film, publishing, games... there are so many “diverse” shows, games, etc with all-white or majority white teams. Good, nuanced representation can only happen when BIPOC / marginalized creators are the majority and have power behind-the-scenes. (This is why I’m really excited to watch the show Rutherford Falls -- half the writers room are Indigenous writers, as is the co-creator!)

K. Imani: Exactly! It’s great that one of the writers is biracial and Korean, but if she’s the only one how much input did she really have? I’m by no means knocking her experience but, say for example, that particular poster in the first episode. No one else behind the scenes found it problematic? There are many steps to a production process and that poster, if there had been more diverse voices present on the production staff instead of just 1 writer, would have been flagged as a huge problem and redone. The poster was supposed to be a “short cut” to show Ravkan/Shu Han tension but instead it came off as so profoundly racist and unnecessary. There are many other non-racist ways to explore the tensions between the two countries that could have been explored instead of just jumping to racism. And...as someone on Twitter pointed out, we never see the tension between the Ravkans and the Shu Han, but we openly see fighting between the Ravkans and the Fjierdans, so why were they not vilified to the same extent?

Jessica: Right. I’m definitely not saying racism can’t be portrayed in fantasy ever. But if you’re going to do it, make it make sense within the world. Don’t just use it as shorthand for “this character is Other.” I mean, experiencing racism isn’t what makes me Asian…

K. Imani: Boom! I’m going to repeat that for the people in the back...experiencing racism is not what makes a person Asian or Black, and if you are going to have racism in a work of art, be sure to provide balance to show all the other aspects of a person of color’s life.

Since we’re talking creators behind-the-scenes… which YA fantasy books by Asian authors do you think would make great Netflix shows or movies?

Jessica: I’ve got a list about a mile long, but I’ve cut it down to my top four:

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

You’re welcome, Netflix execs who are totally reading this blog. Hop to it!

K. Imani: I second the Tiger at Midnight series! I loved the first two books and can’t wait for the conclusion in June. While not YA, the City of Brass series would make an excellent Netflix series. Anything Maurene Goo writes would be fun rom-coms (because we need those too!).

Jessica: I mean, with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before complete… Netflix clearly needs to start adapting Maurene Goo’s books.

K. Imani: Yes, the people demand it! I don’t care which book, just grab one of them and get the production started.

On a final note, I do want to say that despite the criticism the show rightly deserves, there was much about the show that was enjoyable. The storytelling was strong and moved at a good pace, the costuming was on point, special effects worked seamlessly into the narrative, and even small touches such as how the Grishas used their small science was visually interesting. Book adaptations are always hard to pull off well and the Shadow and Bone production team did a good job overall. Their intention towards adding more diversity is a step in the right direction, but just didn’t do enough. Let’s hope they learn from their mistakes and improve for season 2.

#shadow and bone

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fierceawakening · 4 years

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Not *automatically* valuing human lives /= not valuing human lIves, though? Lots of values are not automatic - free speech is a learned value, for example. Lots of automatic values lead to bad actions. Xenophobia is an automatic value for many people- fear of strangers was probably evolutionarily helpful at some point but it's generally harmful now. Disgust at bugs is instinctual but is a contributor to a massive worldwide extinction. Instinct /= good and lack of instinct /= bad.

I think maybe what we mean by automatic is different? Like to me if something’s not automatic it’s something I need to talk myself into doing. Are you meaning something else?

(And I’m really torn on xenophobia tbh. On the one hand, it does seem to me that humans tend to other each other. But on the other hand... it seems like human kids who aren’t taught prejudice don’t seem to do much discriminating. I’ve seen enough “white and black kids make friends, parents are OMG SHOCKT!” or “person tells kid they’re gay or trans, kid is like huh okay cool” to think some sizeable chunk of it’s learned.)

#Anonymous #the empathy discussion

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edwad · 4 years

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is there some kind of glossary of value theory terms out there? even after reading heinrich's intro i still don't quite understand how to explain what exactly a "mode of production" is to someone for instance

i have the new palgrave dictionary of marxian economics on my shelf which sorta does this and i’m sure there are other books out there like this, but they’re not necessarily Good tbh. in fact almost all of the contributors to this one peddle an interpretation of marx that i think is pretty bullshit, which would also apply to any attempt at explaining heinrich to people unfamiliar with this stuff, since he’s outside of the traditional reading. otherwise there’s always wikipedia etc.

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realtalk-princeton · 3 years

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Can any contributors speak to transitioning from a humanities major to a STEM major? I'm beginning to have doubts about pursuing a humanities degree and I'm thinking of switching into a STEM concentration (unsure of which one), but I worry I'm going to be behind since I'll have to take departmentals late. Also concerned because so much of my resume is humanities-oriented, and transitioning into STEM extracurriculars (e.g., research, coding projects) seems like it will be a pain. Any advice?

Response from TNTina:

i’m going to put this out there for readers to pitch in as well because i’m not sure whether anyone here has exactly had that experience but - i’d like to encourage you to make this switch if you feel it’s the right decision for you. obviously the later you are in your degree progress (ie if you’ve already declared your humanities major) the harder it will be for you to switch but regardless, you are still just at the beginning of your work in any field. it doesn’t really matter if you are going to take departmentals late or if it will take a bit of time for you to build up a stem heavy resume because you have so much more time ahead of you to spend in that field if you’d like; and it will all come eventually if that’s what you want to do. you should get a degree that you really value, instead of half-heartedly sticking it out with some subject because of the resume you’ve built up by sophomore year or something (which tbh often doesn’t really hold too much weight). and even if your resume isn’t stem-related, it will still show that you have had meaningful experiences that you learned and grew from. if you really want to switch, i think in the end you’d regret not switching much more than if you did switch. i know people who have switched around quite late in the game and still came out perfectly fine - but obviously every academic experience is different.

that being said though, i think you should give some more thought towards which major you’d want to choose. stem is a vast umbrella category covering a lot of very different subjects - if you don’t know which major you’d like to pursue, i’d like to ask then what is driving you towards stem? you mention coding projects, could it be that you might be thinking a bit about something cos-related? (in which case you could build up a resume even with personal projects you pursue on your own) again, find out what it is that attracts you to stem and consider choosing a major before more seriously contemplating switching. best of luck, i am sure you will be perfectly fine no matter what you choose to do <3

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coopdigitalnewsletter · 3 years

Text

26 Mar 2021: Amazon: cooler but not fresher. Facebook’s habit. NFTs.

Hello, this is the Co-op Digital newsletter. Thank you for reading - send ideas and feedback to @rod on Twitter. Please tell a friend about it!

[Image: part - about 3.5m worth - of Beeple’s Everydays: the first 5000 days]

Amazon: cooler but not fresher

“I asked [two young employees] if they liked working at Amazon Fresh and they both said, “Yes.” I followed up with, “Beats working at a supermarket?” and they both said, “Yes.” It’s a problem that it’s not cool to work in a supermarket.”

That’s a US supermarket executive visiting an Amazon Fresh store in Chicago. Also:

“I was amazed that the cart weighs the produce and snaps a picture of each item. [...]

“I couldn’t find a ripe avocado and the bananas looked chilled. [...] The stores don’t seem to have a personal touch, especially if you need something special. I don’t think it will be a weekly destination for me, but I’m sure it will be for some people.”

Elsewhere in grocery and retail:

Asda equal pay: when seeking equal pay, lower-paid shop staff, who are mostly women, have won the right to compare themselves with higher paid warehouse workers, who are mostly men.

John Lewis will permanently close eight more shops - most were already struggling before the pandemic.

Big investors shun Deliveroo[’s IPO] over workers' rights.

43% of weekly shoppers experience spoilage, damage or theft of delivered grocery - HomeValet has a “smart box” take on grocery delivery packaging that fixes those problems.

Facebook’s habit

Facebook’s AI algorithms gave it an insatiable habit for lies and hate speech. Now the man who built them can't fix the problem. Good long read on Facebook’s efforts to understand the system it had created.

“A former Facebook AI researcher who joined in 2018 says he and his team conducted “study after study” confirming the same basic idea: models that maximize engagement increase polarization”

Needless to say, there are competing views within FB about what “fairness” should mean, particularly in relation to politics. And unfortunately *testing* for fairness remains a nice-to-have:

“But testing algorithms for fairness is still largely optional at Facebook. None of the teams that work directly on Facebook’s news feed, ad service, or other products are required to do it. Pay incentives are still tied to engagement and growth metrics. And while there are guidelines about which fairness definition to use in any given situation, they aren’t enforced.”

It ends on this despondent note:

“Certainly he couldn’t believe that algorithms had done absolutely nothing to change the nature of these issues, I said.

“I don’t know,” he said with a halting stutter. Then he repeated, with more conviction: “That’s my honest answer. Honest to God. I don’t know.””

Political platforms

Bad news at the newsletter platforms. Mailchimp employees on unequal working conditions that led to women and people of colour quitting jobs. And Substack writers are mad at Substack over advances given against future revenue shares to writers who may have controversial or discriminatory opinions (although tbh, this is what all publishing companies do: offer authors with varying views advances on future royalty revenues).

It is getting harder for all platforms to remain neutral. Partly this is because neutrality is impossible: as platforms (and tech companies generally) get bigger, they wield more power. And partly it is because people actually want the platforms they use to take political, ethical and value positions.

Related: Very interesting read on moderation: whether each layer in the infrastructure stack should moderate its own layer or moderate the layers above it. It has interviews with leaders at Stripe, Microsoft, Google Cloud and Cloudflare.

NFTs, “non-fungible tokens” and art

Last week, a digital image by artist Beeple sold for 69 million US dollars. It’s a jpeg image by an artist called Beeple, and the auction house Christie’s handled the sale. To be more accurate, it wasn’t the image that sold for $69m, but a digital file on the blockchain that references the original image, although of course the very idea of “original” is complicated by digital files anyway (look, is this the original, on the Christie’s website?!). OK, let’s do NFT questions:

What is an NFT? A “non-fungible token” is a digital file that is put on some kind of blockchain so that it behaves less like a digital thing (infinitely and easily copyable and shareable) and more like a physical thing (not easily copyable and shareable).

Hold on, what, “non-fungible”? Money is fungible: it doesn’t matter whether you have this £10 note or that one, they’re both worth £10. “Non-fungible” is the opposite: only you have this unique thing, like a painting.

Is an NFT art? Everything can be art. The question is always whether it is good art, and the easiest way to know is to look at a lot of art.

Are NFTs good? Sometimes. They let true fans express their fandom by buying and collecting things. They make some money for artists, although most aren’t going to make 69m. They let artists benefit from the secondary market - that’s a good but occasionally sweary piece.

Are NFTs bad? Often. They’re hard to understand. When they use proof-of-work blockchains - eg Ethereum as of mid March 2021 - they are profoundly wasteful of energy. They are prone to scams because while the blockchain guarantees the chain of ownership of a digital file, it doesn’t do the same for the artwork the digital file points at, so there are some instances of artists being NFTised without permission. Though this may be more a characteristic of scammers than of NFTs. Some people speculate that NFTs are being used as marketing for cryptocurrencies.

How can NFTs be both good and bad? NFTs - and cryptocurrencies more generally - are a mirror: you see what you want to see. The excitement of being part of something new. The wish to make the world afresh. Taking apart industries that are inefficient. The white heat of investing in things that go to the moon. A way to socially signal others. The virus amplifying wealth inequalities. The underlying trend to monetise everything. Pointless showing off. Buying a file that merely points at some art. A scam.

Can you get off the fence, newsletter? OK, NFTs are on balance, bad. NFTs are everything you don’t understand about art multiplied by everything you don’t understand about technology multiplied by everything you don’t understand about money. And, right now, most of them are bad for the environment.

Who’s Beeple again? Beeple is an artist. The newsletter featured a Beeple image in August 2020. Co-op Members will be pleased to hear that the newsletter didn’t pay him $69m for it.

In other countries

A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world - “this strategy sets out the measures which will ensure that Scotland will fulfil its potential in a constantly evolving digital world”.

Data, surveillance and how India is creating platforms to give people more control over how information about them is used (Related?: Two UK broadband ISPs trial new internet snooping system with UK Home Office.)

Spain to launch trial of four-day working week - “government agrees to proposal from leftwing party Más País allowing companies to test reduced hours”.

Various things

Self-driving startup Voyage bought by Cruise, which is owned by GM and Honda. Voyage was interesting because it focussed on a taxi service in retirement communities, and has designed an interior for Covid safety.

Is test and trace really the most wasteful public spending programme ever? Or have there, in fact, been larger squanderings of taxpayers’ money in the past?

'Right to repair' law to come in this summer. Manufacturers will need to make spare parts for appliances available to consumers - will this apply to mobile phones and other devices which have become decreasingly repairable as they became smaller and more complex?

A petition to Amazon: lower the number of parcels we have to deliver.

Black tech employees rebel against diversity theater.

I have one of the most advanced prosthetic arms in the world - and I hate it.

Co-op Digital news

Reflecting on one year of remote working at Co-op Digital - Co-op Digital colleagues in their own words.

Thank you for reading

Thank you friends, readers and contributors. Please continue to send ideas, questions, corrections, improvements, etc to @rod on Twitter. If you have enjoyed reading, please tell a friend! If you want to find out more about Co-op Digital, follow us @CoopDigital on Twitter and read the Co-op Digital Blog. Previous newsletters.

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truesportsfan · 4 years

Text

How The Chiefs And Niners Became The Last NFL Teams Standing

sara.ziegler (Sara Ziegler, sports editor): And just like that, we’ve got ourselves a Super Bowl.

It would have been hard for the conference championship games to match the chaos of the first two rounds of playoff action — though about 10 minutes into the Kansas City-Tennessee game, I thought the Titans might actually take out the No. 2 seed (along with the Nos. 1 and 3 they had already dispatched). But Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs rallied again. What stood out to you guys about that game?

Salfino (Michael Salfino, FiveThirtyEight contributor): That the Titans, stealing a line from “The Untouchables,” brought a knife to a gun fight.

joshua.hermsmeyer (Josh Hermsmeyer, NFL analyst): That Derrick Henry is basically just a guy, and that Mahomes is not just a guy.

neil (Neil Paine, senior sportswriter): Too much K.C. offense, too much Mahomes.

Salfino: Mahomes now has 11 TDs and 0 picks in the postseason. He has the highest QB rating in postseason history since the merger.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Two moments stood out to me in particular:

One was the Titans’ last drive right before the half. They needed to run clock, and it was Henry time. They got predictable and had to give the ball back to Mahomes before the half (he scored), and then K.C. got the ball again after halftime.

The other was the third-and-1 where holding was called, and Henry still got stuffed.

neil: In general, the Chiefs were able to slow down the Titan running game like no team really has recently. Tennessee’s rushing expected points added in the game was -0.1 compared with average. That stopped a streak of nine straight games where they had been positive, and often significantly so.

Salfino: When it came to stopping Henry, the Chiefs, who allowed 4.9 yards per rush during the regular season, just threw numbers at the problem. Remember, a team with a top QB like the Chiefs should be built to stop the pass, not the run. They don’t care about stopping the run because they are generally playing ahead. But Sunday, the Chiefs did. They committed to it.

You can do that against the run and it works. You can’t really throw numbers at the problem of stopping the QB.

neil: Of course, K.C. did do some Andy Reid-ish things late in the game to try to let the Titans back into it…

sara.ziegler: Clock management just shouldn’t be so hard.

neil: Mahomes is so good that bad clock management can’t thwart his Super Bowl aspirations.

Salfino: Mahomes bailed Reid out of horrible clock management with 20 seconds to go in the half by running in that TD.

That was classic Reid.

neil: And then late in the game they just refused to either: a) force Tennessee to stay in bounds to run clock, or b) not stop the clock when they had the ball.

sara.ziegler: I get that teams built to pass sometimes keep passing in end-of-game situations just because it’s what they do best. But man, they really kept stopping the clock!

neil: Luckily they got that defensive pass interference call!

Salfino: I thought the game was over as soon as the Chiefs went up double digits. Everything after that was garbage time.

neil: Certainly that took the Titans away from their run-heavy focus and made Ryan Tannehill more than a caretaker.

sara.ziegler: What did you guys think of how Tannehill played?

joshua.hermsmeyer: I thought he played well. They went back to their strength, the play-action (0.41 EPA per play-action pass play), and he kept them in the game at the very least.

Salfino: Tannehill was OK. Not as good as his rating. He could not make a play to stop the Chiefs momentum.

neil: He did his best — and man did he take some licks at times.

sara.ziegler:

neil:

sara.ziegler: That was maybe my favorite moment of the game, tbh.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Momentum is a hard thing to stop, considering it’s impossible to measure or define.

I thought Tannehill’s QBR of 74 accurately reflected his play. And his QBR of 86 on play-action passes was very good.

Salfino: It’s interesting with Tannehill and the Titans. We reflexively say after a run like the Titans had, “They’ll be back.” No, they won’t.

Tannehill is a free agent — I’m fairly certain he’ll be back, but do you give him a long-term deal at franchise money or just franchise him for $30 million (or whatever) in 2020? I opt for the latter. That’s almost a guarantee you don’t have Tannehill in 2021 though.

sara.ziegler: So was this just lightning in a bottle for them, Mike?

Salfino: The Titans have two football freaks on offense in Henry and A.J. Brown who have really no other physical comparables. But the defense is bad. They don’t have a high draft pick. They have no long-term plan that I can see at QB unless you believe Tannehill is good. (I do not.) And their approach to football is antediluvian.

neil: “Antediluvian”!

LOL

joshua.hermsmeyer: The pre-flood games were lit.

neil: Noah was BIG on smash-mouth football.

Salfino: I learned that word from Josh.

When he’s flaming the “run to win” Twitter trolls.

neil: To be fair, there was one team that Ran to Win on Sunday … but I am sure we will get to the Niners soon enough.

Salfino: Do you guys think that Mahomes would have been great no matter where he landed, or that he landed in the perfect place (or both)?

joshua.hermsmeyer: I think he landed in a good spot, but there’s no denying that he’s a special talent.

But my take is that every QB, if he’s any good, is a system QB.

Salfino: I just have a hard time assessing true skill level in football as opposed to baseball, which is so pure in this regard. It’s more tools in football, I guess. Mahomes sure has them.

sara.ziegler: A little website I like to follow told me that Mahomes had a pretty ideal situation to start out in.

joshua.hermsmeyer: That guy Neil seems to know his stuff. Sharp fellow.

neil: LOL

I think it’s fair to say he has exceeded expectations, though, even given his coaching and supporting cast.

sara.ziegler: I’m pretty sure Mahomes’s path to greatness all started with his early experience around the Minnesota Twins clubhouse:

neil: Yesssss

Or his Little League World Series experience (hat-tip to designer Emily Scherer for this find):

Salfino: Um…

neil: This is how good Mahomes is. Not even the Mets’ curse can stop him.

sara.ziegler: LOL

So let’s move on to the NFC game … which was decidedly less exciting.

neil: Pretty exciting for San Francisco fans, at least.

sara.ziegler: Well, sure.

neil: And Aaron Rodgers haters.

sara.ziegler: And Packer haters.

neil: LOL, jinx.

Salfino: The 1972 Dolphins are always so touchy about their place in history and about people remembering them. But this is really the postseason of the 1972 Dolphins. Or that era’s Dolphins teams. The Titans started it, and then the people who want that style of football just latched on to the Niners. San Francisco had the third-fewest passing attempts (eight) in a postseason game since the merger. Miami had the others. Note that all but one team with fewer than 15 attempts won their games. (Just don’t throw the ball, and you’ll win!)

sara.ziegler: Jimmy Garoppolo with just six completions was definitely my favorite stat of the day.

neil: And Raheem Mostert had the second-most rushing yards by anybody in a playoff game ever!

So much history (that Green Bay was on the receiving end of).

Salfino: You need to find a back who can run to the Super Bowl either at the top of the draft or on the punt coverage team after he’s been cut a half-dozen times. Take your pick.

neil:

joshua.hermsmeyer: I had no dog in the fight, but the game was an object lesson in the old football saw that you have to stop the run to win. Mostert averaged 10 yards per carry on his first 19 attempts. That’s far too many long run plays. It looked like high school ball out there.

neil: The Packer run defense had zero answers for it.

Salfino: I don’t remember a team running that often and that easily ever. There was almost no resistance. I guess we have to credit the Niners’ scheme and blocking.

sara.ziegler: I’m a little confused about how that happened, though. The Packers were bad against the run during the regular season, but not the worst in the league, by any means. Football Outsiders had their run defense at 23rd in Defense-adjusted Value Over Average.

Salfino: Kyle Shanahan is a chip off the old block — Mike Shanahan was finding running backs in the recycling bin with the Broncos and turning them into All-Pros, even after Terrell Davis (a sixth-round pick who also made his bones on special teams).

Someone told me once that defense doesn’t matter. Offense controls outcomes.

joshua.hermsmeyer: The why is always hard without a lot of tape study. But it sure seemed like Shanahan saw a structural flaw in the Green Bay defense and exploited it again and again.

Salfino: How many times have the Packers faced a fullback and a tight end who can block like George Kittle? This is what is tricky about defensive stats, seriously.

neil: And it bears mentioning that the Packers are sort of built this way deliberately. No team spent a higher share of the cap on offense this year, and it’s not even close.

A lot of that is tied up in Rodgers’s massive contract as well. But Rodgers and the offense couldn’t really get rolling at all when the game was still in reach.

(The many turnovers didn’t help.)

sara.ziegler: That has to worry Packer fans long-term. We’ve talked about Rodgers’s “eliteness,” but is he kind of done?

Salfino: Rodgers gave hope to the people who still believe in the greatness — which has objectively faded since 2014 — with a bunch of garbage-time numbers.

neil: Well, he did statistically outplay Jimmy G in the raw numbers, LOL.

(Obviously those numbers are very misleading for the reason you said, Mike.)

joshua.hermsmeyer: Rodgers was average all season long. I think he’s a player you can win with, and might still have sparks of greatness left. Think late-career John Elway as the very top range of outcomes, if the entire team is reshaped around a different philosophy.

Like, imagine Rodgers in a system that asked him to make the throws Tannehill was asked to make this season.

Salfino: I will say it again: Rodgers has ironically turned into Alex Smith, his lifetime nemesis from back in the 2005 draft.

sara.ziegler: Can I just rant for a second about that dumb narrative about Rodgers seeking revenge on the Niners for not taking him No. 1? It’s not like every other team was lining up to take him as their first pick either. He fell to No. 24, for Pete’s sake!

neil: Also, it was 15 years ago. Get over it already.

sara.ziegler: ^^^ THIS

Salfino: The Niners always kick Rodgers’s ass in the postseason, too.

neil: By running the ball down the Packers’ throats, usually.

ESPN’s Stats & Information Group had a stat where San Francisco has averaged 258.3 rushing yards and three rushing TDs per game in three playoff wins vs. Rodgers.

Salfino: Well, there was that Colin Kaepernick game where he ran for about 1,000 and threw for 1,000.

neil: Right.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Coming back to more recent history, I have another thought on the Niners game: It was smart of the 49ers to hide Jimmy G. I think they should continue to do so in the Super Bowl, if they can.

Salfino: But they won’t be able to, Josh. I’m sure you agree.

Mahomes doesn’t let you run to win.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Yes, they won’t. And I think it’s why K.C. will win, and probably pretty easily.

neil: This is low-key one of the biggest QB mismatches in Super Bowl history.

Salfino: I think the spread should be 5. It was 2.5. Now it’s 1.5. All the retired head coach money coming in on the Niners.

neil: (We say K.C. -3.5, for what it’s worth.)

joshua.hermsmeyer: Richard Sherman is not going to be able to run with Tyreek Hill.

Salfino: Darrelle Revis doesn’t think so. Tyreek is going to have a huge game — 200 yards, I predict. He’s going to break the way the Niners prefer to play defense. Or Travis Kelce will have about 150. Pick your poison.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Right, if you go to a zone scheme with safety help for Sherman, then Kelce could be a big problem underneath.

sara.ziegler: Will the Niner pass rush affect Mahomes? He had all day long to throw on Sunday — I can’t imagine that will continue against Nick Bosa and Co.

Salfino: Mahomes’s sack rate is the most underrated thing about his game. It was 3.4 percent this year and down from 2018. It’s 2.8 percent for this postseason. Yes, the Niners have the best rush the Chiefs will have faced, but Mahomes won’t be getting sacked 10 percent of the time or so, which would swing this game to the Niners, IMO. I’d expect 5 percent — so two or three sacks.

joshua.hermsmeyer: The Niners get above-average pressure with just their front four, so I think Mahomes will not be too comfortable. But we saw at the end of the half vs. the Titans what he’s capable of if you let him loose running as well.

Salfino: Mahomes is such a decisive runner for someone who does not run a lot. He had 53 rushing yards in each of the past two games, and he has only exceeded that number twice in his career in the regular season.

sara.ziegler: What other matchups in the Super Bowl are you guys excited to see?

neil: I will say that K.C.’s run defense is suspect, even after they performed a lot better against Tennessee. That might play into San Francisco’s strengths some.

The Chiefs ranked 29th in rushing defense DVOA this season.

Salfino: The 49ers could hurt the Chiefs in the passing game if they cross them up by being more aggressive and designing their game plan to score 30 points, which I think is essential for them to win. If they think they are going to ride their defense and running game to victory, they are sadly mistaken. I’m assuming Shanahan is too smart to think that, though.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Early on, the Niners offensive line vs. the Chiefs run defense should be telling. San Francisco will need that to be another home run, much like the Green Bay game.

Salfino: But Neil, don’t you discount their season ranking given how they just shut down Henry, who was supposedly unstoppable? I just believe that if you want to stop the run badly enough, you can.

neil: So will the key to the Super Bowl be whether Garoppolo is better than Tannehill???

joshua.hermsmeyer: I think that’s the question!

neil: (Um … is he?)

(LOL)

Salfino: I think Garoppolo is better than Tannehill, but I have very low confidence in the accuracy of that opinion.

Deebo Samuel and George Kittle are very serious weapons, though. I think the Niners forgot Manny Sanders was on the team yesterday. But he’s fine.

sara.ziegler: When Kittle was on the stage at the end, holding the trophy, I was like, “Oh, yeah — him!”

LOL

Salfino: Kittle did have 17 targets in the loss to Atlanta. That seems impossible now. Both the targets and the losing to Atlanta.

sara.ziegler:

joshua.hermsmeyer:

sara.ziegler: Oh, no.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Kittle is all that’s good and wonderful about football.

sara.ziegler: So let’s wrap up our final Slack chat of the season (not including our live blog the night of the Super Bowl) with our predictions.

Are you three all taking the Chiefs???

joshua.hermsmeyer: Yes!

Salfino: Chiefs 34, Niners 17.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Wow, even a score.

sara.ziegler: You think the Niners are going to give up roughly the same number of points as the Titans, but score less?

Salfino: I’m 5-5 in the playoffs now! Feeling it!

neil: I’m gonna be a little more conservative than Mike. Chiefs 24, Niners 21.

joshua.hermsmeyer: 28-13

sara.ziegler: Neil stays true to the model, to the very end.

Salfino: Hahaha

neil: Ehhhh, my O/U of 45 now feels a bit low. Can I make it 27-24? LOL

sara.ziegler: Nope

neil: Awww

sara.ziegler: OK, fine.

Salfino: 27.5-24.

neil: Ooooh

I like how somebody on the FOX pregame picked a half-point margin. I think it was Howie.

They were like, YOU CAN’T DO THAT!

Salfino: I think this game is going to be very tribal. There is a football philosophy on the line for the old-school types. So I bet that, as was the case with the Titans, ex-players and coaches will pick the Niners in the game.

sara.ziegler: All right, I can’t let us all have the same picks.

So I have to take the Niners.

neil: It helps that you also took them in our Hot Takedown Super Bowl Draft episode! (Many, many weeks ago!)

sara.ziegler: Very true — gotta stick with my teams to the bitter end.

joshua.hermsmeyer: Nice work!

sara.ziegler: 49ers 29, Chiefs 28.

Salfino: Niners win on a 2-point conversion in the final seconds.

neil: Running it in, naturally.

sara.ziegler: But really, I just want a good game. We deserve a good game for the Super Bowl.

I’m like Rob Lowe out here, just rooting for everyone:

neil: “Go League! Protect the Shield! Wooo!”

Check out our latest NFL predictions.

source https://truesportsfan.com/football/how-the-chiefs-and-niners-became-the-last-nfl-teams-standing/

0 notes

alexstorm · 4 years

Note

There are 44 countries in Europe and only (now) 27 in the EU. Ireland voted to leave a few years ago & the government made them vote again to stay in. Greenland withdrew, Norway, Iceland Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland aren't in. The issue is money - the UK is the 3rd largest contributor. Poland & Hungary are breaching the contract & the Supreme Court has warned Poland may have to leave. Brexit isn't good at all, but it's not the only problem, just the biggest financial one.

There are different reasons for why certain countries aren’t in the EU. The EU is about shared morals, values and laws. That’s something we can’t agree on with Russia or Ukraine so that’s the reason why they are not in the EU and that is the reason why Poland might have to go because they breach those values as well. Hungary is not only breaching the contract they’re breaching international law if you look at how they’re dealing with the refugees.Switzerland wants to stay neutral and therefore doesn’t join any unions, Norway’s economy is strong enough to stand on its own plus their living standards are generally higher than within the EU. Iceland and Greenland don’t really earn anything from joining.

Tbh, I was always suspicious of eastern European countries joining because of the aforementioned values and laws. They’re in one form or another directly or indirectly still dependent on Russia’s good will. I mean look at Ukraine. Putin acts like that country belongs to him (see Crimea).I think the EU was always meant as a western European union but because of equal treatment they now have to make it possible for all countries considered European to be able to join. This union was meant to be a peacemaking one.

#asks

0 notes

felassan · 7 years

Note

What's wrong with Jill?

oh dear.. so this is like this whole thing.. not really sure where to start. under a cut for length and because the content is negative I guess. this kind of turned into a ramble sorry, might come back and add to it.

[msg either refs this post or this post]

so first of all Gil is a total sweetie, funny, a fast learner, intuitive, supportive, quick-witted, smart, thoughtful, hard-working, adaptable, an amazingly talented engineer - he was taking apart shuttle engines and putting them back together at age 10, without any schooling! he had a tough start to life as, in his words, an undocumented street kid (whose dad died before he was born), and by his own admission he has very few close ties and no real sense of purpose. he makes an irreversible decision (travelling to a whole new galaxy) thinking maybe he’ll find his true calling and purpose in life there. at the start of the game he considers Jill his one (and only) true friend. he’s never had absolute trust and safety in a romantic relationship.

Gil is already lacking in content compared to other Tempest crew-members and especially to other LIs, both as an LI and as a non-romanced character. at least Suvi is at the front of the ship by the galaxy map, and has additional lines as you do stuff like scanning planets. in that regard she’s prominent for a non-squad LI, whereas Gil is tucked away at the back end of the ship, outta sight outta mind. and, sadly for Gil, much of his already-limited screen-time and word-budget is spent on.. Jill.

that wouldn’t exactly be a problem in and of itself, but.. like, in early conversations Gil and I had about Jill as we were getting to know each other, I genuinely wondered whether she was a real person or some kind of personification or alter-ego he made to deal with insecurities and things that trouble him. legit, she sounded to me like an insidious mean voice in his head. I mean really, ‘Gil’ and ‘Jill’?

she teases Gil that he makes her job harder, says that if he’s not making babies, he’s part of “the problem”, determinedly pressures him about his “civic duty as a man”. Ryder can straight-up say to Gil, that sounds disrespectful and hurtful. you know, the issue isn’t with that kind of friendship which are heavy on the teasing bants, lord knows I have close friendships with other LGBTQ-spectrum people where we express our affection for one another by giving each other shit and trading insults. Jill’s dynamic with Gil though.. I dunno, I just find it kind of gross and it made me feel uncomfortable. it feels low-key homophobic and emotionally abusive? almost like reproductive coercion. Gil says it’s alright because she’s like family and supports him unconditionally. I can’t presume to know the circumstances of Gil and Jill’s friendship in the Milky Way, what they’ve been through and supported each other through together, but I do know that being family or close friends isn’t an excuse for being a dick that piles on guilt and reduces your worth as a person and contributor to society to whether or not you breed, and that sometimes the worst kind of abuse and shitty behavior is done to people by their family.. Gil thinks Jill is amazing - he clearly holds her in high regard. meeting Jill, especially as a Gil-romancing Scott, is more than just a “meeting the best friend” scene. it’s Gil’s equivalent of a “meeting the parents/family” moment. he’s hoping that Scott and Jill will like each other, and that Jill will approve. what Jill says to him he clearly takes on board. it weighs on and sticks with him. I just felt like, this is your one true friend in all the world Gil? someone who says this stuff to you? my heart broke. he respects her and she has influence over him, and that’s the kind of shit she says to him.

Jill heads the Colonial Repopulation Committee. in the future. girl can’t offer same-sex and mixed-species couples which don’t involve an asari, advice and information on their child-having (and child-rearing, if they are so inclined) options? we do that already for same-sex couples in 2017. girl can’t do her job without being creepy and pressurey? the AI isn’t going to putter into extinction because a few people choose not to procreate. is she going to come harass my Roo Ryder about “the biological imperative” for not wanting children ever and for dating (universe depending) a turian female or a male angara? is she gonna come at Suvi the lesbian and try the same shtick? does she go around pressuring all colonists this way about reproduction, or just Gil (actually, either scenario is gross)? does she care about how the way she phrases things might make infertile or trans colonists feel - and we know there are trans people among the colonists? she would have been better written as part of an AI Family Planning Committee and not taking up so much of Gil’s already limited arc. the “boosting the batter” (gross) [human baby] issue is an ‘obstacle’ for Scotts who romance Reyes or Vetra, or Saras who romance Suvi or Vetra or Jaal, hell even for Scotts/Saras who don’t romance anyone or who romance Peebs (an asari child isn’t going to boost human baby numbers). yes, all Ryders can meet Jill, but the issue really arises exclusively as part of the only Tempest m/m LI’s arc. someone elsewhere phrased it, “making the main m/m romance in the game, strangely, about the dreams and aspirations of a woman.” I don’t believe that the AI only allowed sign-ups with the mandate that upon securing a home in Andromeda, you must all have at least one biological child.

the issue isn’t the plotline of a same-sex couple (Scott and Gil) or a gay man (Gil) becoming dads/a dad, or with a child having a multi-parental set-up like Gil-Scott-Jill, or with gay people and their opposite-sex friends (straight or gay. I don’t think we know what Jill’s sexuality is) agreeing to have a biological child together. nothing wrong with any of those scenarios. it’s how it was handled in the game and Jill’s weird, invasive, reductionist, homophobic, mean treatment of Gil. the plotline should have been handled better. maybe Jill turkeybastes herself using donor sperm from the AI sperm and egg bank (no way they don’t have a sperm and egg bank, tbh) and Gil’s psyched to be an uncle and it gets him thinking about what he wants in life and where he’s going. maybe Jill is explicitly a lesbian and some of her comments are self-referential and the story is about a gay man and his lesbian friend becoming parents. maybe Gil decides he wants to have a child at some point in the future, and Jill as the head of that Committee talks him (or him and Scott) through what options they have. maybe Gil finds his purpose and calling in life as part of Ryder’s team in some way - yknow, he has value to Ryder and the AI for his worth as an awesome engineer, as an example. maybe Gil has scenes where he talks about how the things Jill says make him feel and then goes on to question her treatment.

I just.. I wanted to tell Jill, um, excuse you, you’re a bit of a jerk, back off, and tell Gil, Gil, have children if you want to and if you’re ready and in the way that you want to, you don’t have to if you don’t want to but if you do want to that’s totally fine, and never forget that you have other supportive friends in Ryder and the Tempest crew (like Vetra and Suvi), and that your worth to Ryder and the AI and to yourself as a person is not defined by or dependent on whether or not you have biological children but by so much else.

someone on bsn phrased it like,

But the arc kind a fizzles into: Jill wants me to feel bad about being gay and thus not able to have babies, Jill is a female, jill wants my sperm, Jill is going to have my baby to make my being here not detrimental to the Initiative, I have value to this initiative because you’re dating me Scott, and Jill is going to be pregnant with my baby! Which… was kind of not enjoyable to experience.

I didn’t even romance Gil and felt uncomfortable with Jill and the whole plotline. Imagine if Jill was your lesbian engineer and gil was the committee head friend, or if suvi had a male friend called Buvi, and this Gil or Buvi pressured these gay women about their civic duties as incubators or to submit to invasive egg donation procedures.. Gross. Still gross when its a woman doing it to a gay man.

will say that their dynamic changes some based on whether Jill is LGBTQ or not, but we don’t know whether she is. and this isn’t a “Gil doesn’t want to be a father”, post, it’s me taking issue with Jill’s weirdness and way she treats him and things that stem from that.

check out this post by @homoryder.

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neopiacentral · 7 years

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here’s a post about how terrible 2011-2013 tumblr was for those of u who weren’t there/want to Reminisce with me because i’ve seen so many people post about how they miss the Old Tumblr and this morning i was thinking about how much i can just. not relate

i think i’ve been on this website for like almost 8 years now (8 in october) so i joined when i was like.. 12? and really started making Friends and being in a “blogging clique” with all the “humor blogs” when i was like 13 or 14. and this website was possibly the most toxic thing i’ve ever come across still in my 20 years of being alive. the entire humor blogging clique had its own little subcliques, everyone usually just talked via skype or something because we didn’t have these little. pop up. DM things that we do now i guess. anyways i think a majority of the bloggers around this time were in the age range of 14-17 and there were a few who were 18+ that mostly like, kept within themselves but there were some who were very predatory (and my 13 year old Dumb Ass dated one of these people for four years and actually met up with him irl) and off the top of my head i can name probably.. 5 or 6 and i think there’s still a list floating around somewhere from two years ago when a few people called these people out which caused most if not all of them to deactivate. anyways these people were actively sending unsolicited nudes to multiple people/begging underage people for nudes/manipulating underage people to do skype video calls they didn’t want to do/etc.. it was a terrible time tbh

i only really came into contact with two of the people 5/6 people i can think of and one (the obvious one) caused me lots of anxiety and emotional trauma that i still deal with a lot. i’m just gonna talk about my personal experiences because i don’t wanna bring up anyone else’s because it was such a shitty awful time. but the really Big experience that came to mind this morning when i was thinking about it was when f*****t and i were dating on and off (i still follow a lot of people who i was friends with around this time. sorry u guys had to endure this with me) and we would get into very public arguments on tumblr and make very passive aggressive posts toward each other. mind u i was probably 14 or 15 at this time maybe and F is five years older than me so he was 19 or 20. and a little backstory is that i have never..... been a sexual person. not now that i’m an adult and especially not back 5 years ago when i was a child. i’m still not sure exactly what i am but most of the time i’ll identify as asexual and i think a lot of what happened with F is a contributor to that. but he would basically guilt me into sending him explicit pictures/nudes (at.........14/15.......when he was.....19/20.....) because if i didn’t then he would cheat on me and blame it on me because “i know how he is and if he doesn’t get it from me then he has to get it from someone else” and this was also the same with sexting/phone sex/etc. but this relates to what i was talking about earlier because when we would get into these arguments, he would threaten to post them. all the time. and F had a very large following because he had a “rare URL” and was a skinny white dude so obviously people were all over him in 2012. and the grossest part about him threatening to post this stuff is that he actually... had people backing him on it and encouraging him. like encouraging him to post child pornography of his underage girlfriend. and that’s mostly what i’m getting at with this like 2011-2013 was all about the Shock value and everyone would literally work together to try and actively ruin someone in a very serious and harmful way just because it was funny and dramatic.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO like the biggest poster child of this blogging era which were burn blogs aka blogs “anonymous” people made and it was used to collect anonymous asks insulting people and submissions of more mostly underage bloggers nudes. like these blogs were literally created to belittle and degrade and “expose” people and people fucking loved it for some twisted reason. and these blogs popped up every week or so and lasted anywhere from a few minutes to a few days before the person who made it deleted it because tumblr mods didn’t and still don’t give a shit about their users. anyways

along with these ^ there were the racist jokes and liberal use of the N word and the antisemitic holocaust jokes and sexist jokes etc.

i don’t know how some of u miss that blogging era because this one is..... so much better. reblog a dog and a discourse meme and ur good

#i was just thinking about this while getting ready for work this morning and realized how fuckin #awful this shit website is #if anyone remembers anything else feel free to add it #this is a Bad Blogging Era Shitpost BBES

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nchyinotes · 6 years

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the future of wikipedia (katherine maher & lucy crompton-reid)

February 3 2018

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future-of-wikipedia-tickets-42271530285#

Thoughts: So this was kind of my first foray into open knowledge/culture, and there were two parts to this day - the first was learning about wikidata and how to query it and contribute to it. This was pretty cool and actually what I had initially signed up for because I want to get out of my comfort zone/learn a new skill for research, but I did feel a little over my head haha. The second part I actually just found out about on the day, and stayed for. This was a talk about the future of Wikipedia, and it sounds pretty awesome tbh. I came in knowing nothing about Wikipedia, how it works as an organisation (it’s a non profit!), or how the site is maintained or who contributes, or what its missions are. Katherine is a great speaker. And while the talk was obviously very specific to Wikipedia, I think I was able to learn about all sorts of topics I’m interested in - how NGOs operate and are funded, how huge collaborative projects work, acknowledgment of and potential solutions to structural barriers that promote limited diversity in contributors of the collaborative projects, the bias that results from this, the impact of new technology, and their vision and belief in the public good of open knowledge. Was a very well spent day for me.

lucy

global movement for open knowledge

non profit

free and open access to info/knowledge = driver of social/cultural/economic development, fundamental right

work with cultural + educational organisations to enable them to contribute to a democratic understanding of the world

3 programs:

1) diversify editing community + content

not reaching + representing every community, voice, sum of human knowledge

gender gap, minorities

2) promoting open knowledge

3) education and learning

reach and impact?

metrics: people we reach, editors we have, ??

social bias + impact? how open knowledge genuinely improves society

katherine

wikimedia is based in san fran

300 people at the foundation, all over the world

“a world in which every single human can share in the sum of all knowledge” - aspirational statement, room for everyone to participate (+ create knowledge), not just consume

asymptotic, active

the more info on wikipedia, the better resource it’ll be

people who contribute to wikipedia, if they come with a partisan view over time become more neutral

wikidata (structured and linked data), wikimedia commons, DBpedia

populations are shrinking - japan, russia, europe - where wikimedia is well known + prominent

sub saharan africa

means of knowledge production hase been changing over time

the way we consume, faith / trust / research in institutions is on decline and shifting into influencers/personal trust networks, interfaces are changing (go beyond browser)

internet: info —> communication medium

native > additive experience in their lives

how do we want to evolve in response to the way world is changing?

hopes + fears for free knowledge

wikimedians

talked to experts (futurists, technologists, policy, arts, etc) - how they anticipate the change to be

what did we learn?

knowledge gaps + biases = highest concern

wikimedia doesn’t serve the entire world (language coverage, breadth of coverage, representative)

structural inequality prevents us from achieving ^ mission

who is creating the reliable sources that wikimedia relies on?

adapt to world’s changing knowledge needs

leverage new technology (video? open ML?)

more people in institutions (science, cultural, edu) want to join but dk how

direction:

becoming an essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge

anyone who shares our vision will be able to join us (barriers)

knowledge as service - how to serve more people, ??

knowledge equity - ensure that info that exists doesn’t just have large numbers but a breadth and depth that is truly reflective of the world and serves it in a meaningful way

Panel

at a personal level, what do you want to see for open knowledge by 2030?

more people to know what open knowledge means

successful in communicating value of what this means to a broader audience

more entities participating, the more healthy the ecosystem is

—> advancing the concept of it

structural barriers that exist?

leisure time, literacy, gender inequity, marginalised communities are not usually secondary sources because historically haven’t been able to challenge dominant narrative — still replicating canon (way they evaluate sources, relies on means of knowledge production which is very traditional)

awareness, access (affordability)

where in that hierarchy do we sit?

balloons for the internet (some big tech companies ??)

incentivising local language production?

how to identify these gaps / barriers and breaking them down so more people can participate

notability? deletionism? guidelines as a community, when they’re appropriate? where to strike that balance to make sure it’s accurate + reliable, but also easy to contribute.

community conversation

oral citation? how to rely on this, which is far more prevalent than we give it affordance for

what does notability look like in a community, language, culture? their own validation methods within different areas?

NYT - considered newspaper of record? lawsuit in california by gay softball league of san Francisco. NYT wrote about the case, but never mentioned their ethnicity. everyone that wasn’t decided gay was POC. — active exclusion happening in sources we think are reliable. what are our paradigms for liability anyway? even though that was the crux of the issue of the case.

hidden, implicit bias

fake news

how we enable people to be more aware of bias (not our own, but in interpreting/analysing the media and recognising it)? how important that foundation has a educational ???

should wikipedia position itself as alternative to mainstream media?

wikipedia ranked more trustworthy than BBC, 1 survey, by 2 points —> horrifying

wikipedia relies on secondary sources. if trustworthiness in BBC declines, that’s bad for wikipedia!

i want you to use wikipedia, but you need to ask those questions and CHECK CITATIONS to become a participant and not a consumer - be a critical reader

what can we do to advocate on the need for media literacy, more funding for research??

engage with educators, learners (and not just uni) - how to google stuff, read + edit wikipedia

wales community!

investment in science community - impact of brexit?

wikimedia engaging in the culture community - partnership with cultural + educational institutions

how is scientific information actually diffused in society?

natural partner for us

how do we bring that community into the wikidata community?

corresponding investment in open science

working with researchers / research community

lots of communities struggle with open data structure, how to maintain catalogues, etc - we are building the tools that do that, but not thinking of it as tools beyond wikimedia. wiki base can be used as an asset by so many other institutions - more info to be available to the world, helping other orgs, etc. —> makes everything better for everyone

automation of content creation?

vietnamese - automated almost all stubs?

stub articles = incentives to create (what is this - short wikimedia article)

wikimedia is fundamentally a human pursuit

machines can augment human work in ways that can be quite helpful - washing machine

multilingual people!

entirety of the ecosystem and identify gaps across all language communities we have

who decides what those gaps are?

opp of wikidata to reveal that

resources - implicit in convo - the fact that there are so many resources invested in western world + global north, what do we need to do to create equity ?

tremendous asymmetry - agency, power in decision making

when they see problems, wikimedians are highly incentivised to make a change

all the more reason to have more voices in the room

1) "human project" - neural machine translation, challenges of ML and machine content creation. challenges of people knowing about machines involvement (turing test?)

ML already exists on wikipedia

how do we use it in a way that’s consistent with our values

3 things

it has to be open - difficult in AI, because transparency doesn’t mean much bc we can’t think the way machines do. intention, legibility, explainability - why was this software made, what should it achieve

inclusivity - biases in datasets we’re training. open, transparent around datasets using

can receive feedback from public

consent - making sure people working on projects consent to the way ML is being used in projects, know how/why it’s happening [ no one wants something being done to them]

2) future financial sustainability of the movement

71.6M USD to keep foundation running this year

very little money for world’s 5th most popular website

created an endowment in last two years - trying to raise significant one to protect it into the future

even if cannot build on it, want to keep it at least open

what resources we require to keep this running into future? gap between where we are and want to be? sustainability in long run?

model is amazing, no one owns it bc of open licensing, building a life long relationship with people for what wikimedia stands for

3) china

blocked in china

people don’t write in chinese only in china - from variety of places in the world

we want to be there for when we’re unblocked, ready + present for chinese public to have access in meaningful way

deliberately trying to effect policy in org to support the description of these things in public? significant portions of UK not represented in publicly meaningful sense. difficult for wikimedia to address that issue.

rural-urban gap in wikipedia bc of nature of secondary sources, media

concentrates around population density, where communities not urban are not represented

even within communities in city - marginalised communities are not recorded in

who creates culture? it just is, what we live.

stuart hall - nature of who creates culture and where it comes from, production of culture (high brow > the one we all live, which isn’t documented)

oral citation project in india - traditional game kids play, no ones ever written it down

daily lived culture is not good at documenting, haven’t found way to address this

reflection of the world

what does knowledge equity really mean? and how do we program for it?

when thinking about core articles, how to raise quality of those and to keep them relevant?

tool - ores?? to evaluate article quality

opp to see what those gaps are, assess in more automated way, based on verifiability (not just density of info)

build tools to help editors maintenance function, or where quality gaps are, so there’s a continuous effort to update + maintain them

can do this not just for one language, but for all

project tiger - with google. how to identify main drivers of traffic (specific pages etc), and make sure the quality is good, and point people to work on that.

worried about losing relevance in the future? things to do to stay relevant?

we don’t know why people leave / fall out of contributor pipe line

give ourselves metrics to be able to evaluate that, so we can focus on retention as priority

rateability -

no one knows that simple english wikipedia exists!

how it’s being utilised by third party reusers

the way we’re composing info so that it becomes reusable! that it offers a service - answers the question, solves the problem

broken connection - maintaining consistency between wikimedian + re users. complying with licensing terms?

Seeing the work you’ve done being credited - for retention.

why based in US?

affordances from a policy POV that do not exist in other places in the world (USA) - hosting controversial or illegal content

intermediary liability protections (nuisance lawsuit)

rotating figureheads of leadership?

awareness + participation

knowledge equity as a priority, yet to determine how that looks like and what changes we need to implement to get there

global secretariat that could be stationed around ??

recently identified 6 countries where there is gap between awareness and ??potential - india, nigeria, iraq

marketing - in language of the community, “awareness raising videos”, ads written by communities themselves

changing what we think contribution + dedication looks like?

data typology on wikipedia that presents different types of data ?? presenting as much info in symbolic / visual forms?

multimedia integration

blockchain?

generally don’t think it’s good for wikipedia (from engineers)

persistence of information - revision history, revisions

feels like a diversion from existing stack

lots of arab wikimedians to be are refugees, with videos, names, locations, sitting on so much data that they want to put on open source etc. lack workshops in camps, any way to get into camps?

how to seek external funding on migrant communities?

big funder didn’t recognise that digitisation of stuff and getting it onto wikipedia was cultural preservation

institutional POV: do they actually want us to come in?

cultural heritage component

wiki loves africa + wiki med + wiki deutschland - building offline editing environments?

when there’s momentum as a community —> generally leads to structure

#wikipedia #open knowledge #tech #digital society #2018 #london #event