Review

Feb 7, 2018 ∞

Seeing Igorrr live tonight. #bucketlist 🎶

Jan 23, 2018 ∞

Food for Thought: 2018-01-23

This essay from LeGuin helps explain why her writing is so great: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction

Waging Nonviolence interviews the executive director of Life After Hate and and they discuss how we help people leave violent organizations.

“I’m simply tired and bored by a progressive Christianity that doesn’t believe in anything, at least anything beyond Jesus being a model exemplar of liberal humanism.” From Experimental Theology

A good breakdown of USA immigration issues.

Experimental Theology looks at idolatry in the workplace.

Quality essay on Toxic Tech Culture.

Cory Doctorow says there’s more to the long game in the attention wars.

Related: Here’s how to turn your phone greyscale, with a quick shortcut to restore color when you need it.

“The #Resistance Just Gave Darth Vader’s NSA Broad Spy Powers” Less sarcastic article here.

Solid Last Jedi thinkpiece roundup:

Not the Droid You’re Looking For: Subtler Political Points from The Last Jedi from C4SS

Why so many men hate The Last Jedi but can’t agree on why from Bitter Gertrude

Lure of Myth from Slate

From the makers of Juicero, we now have “raw water”. Yes, people are charging exorbitant amounts for dangerous water.

Shellfish, which generally stay in the same area, are good subjects for observing the effects of our waste entering the ocean.

Jan 10, 2018 ∞

This essay from LeGuin helps explain why her 📚 are so great: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction

Jan 8, 2018 ∞

Food for Thought: 2018-01-08

Here are some things I’ve found thought provoking, recently. Recommend your own in the comments.

“The search for a more human understanding of power and consent is not simply stage-dressing for a bigger fight. It is the big fight.” Consent of the Ungoverned is a great read about sex and politics. Immensely quotable.

Security Planner is an excellent resource from Citizen Lab. Answer a handful of super-simple questions and they will make quality, achievable recommendations on how to digitally protect yourself.

There were at least 1129 killings by police in the USA last year, and most of the known ones started with responding to a suspected non-violent offense. Again, it’s not even clear that guns even need to be brought to those situations, as they endanger to the officer, the suspect, and bystanders. Rather, we need prioritization of de-escalation techniques and the ability to follow-up after the event.

Some New Jersey prisons have banned New Jim Crow, which sorta proves the point.

Are Technica reports on research detailing common causes for poor patents being approved. These are fundamental structural problems with the process, though fixable. As you know, I’d prefer to #AbolishIP.

ProPublica reports on scams and malware in political ads on Facebook. But really, this isn’t just about Facebook, but any large-scale ad-driven site. (Here’s they are getting the data. Here are the ads.)

In addition, a reminder that social media sites are becoming “news” for many people, and oppressive governments are able to delete opposition viewpoints.

(Spoilers) This article makes the case that The Last Jedi starts to redeem the prequels.

I’m not fully convinced, but daniel siegel makes the case that to pursue goals in computing, we often bring humans down to machine level, instead of raising machines to human level.

New sushi place in Nora (yay!) but also new Martha Hoover restaurant (boo!)

zing! also zing!

Jan 7, 2018 ∞

Here’s my pick for the Books & Brews mug club

Dec 20, 2017 ∞

📚 2017 Book Recommendations

Goodreads made this list from my reading, but here are my direct recommendations:

Non-fiction:

Changing Lenses: a life-altering introduction to Restorative Justice.
Weapons of Math Destruction: this book about big data misuse was a great resource for my talk on big data security (Security Thinking for Big Data).
Conflict is not Abuse: A nuanced, challenging, imperfect, and incredibly important book about how we respond to conflict, and how trauma- and supremacy-based anxieties affect those responses.
How to Win Friends and Influence People: classic advice, though some of the examples haven’t aged well.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: introduces them well with a story, ends with a good reference to the ideas.
Reviving Old Scratch: Richard Beck of Experimental Theology addresses the tendency towards secular humanism within progressive theology.
The No Asshole Rule: good advice for how to prevent (or deal with) bad workplaces.
Getting to “Yes”: classic negotiation advice.
Utopia of Rules: a philosophical exploration of our relationship with bureaucracy.
Irresistible Revolution: an autohagiography of radical christian experiments. For a heroic everyday method for Christian living, see: Stranger God.

Fiction:

The Dispossessed: This is a wonderful take on sci-fi that explores work, societies, and beliefs. Our means are our ends.
The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear: beautiful bardic fantasy. (These were re-reads)
The Seventh Princess: I’m amazed this fantasy book for children isn’t still in publication.
Fight Club: strange writing style, but better than the movie. Really good, assuming you read both the problems and “solutions" as satire.
Warbreaker: this is my favorite Cosmere/Sanderson book. (This was a re-read)
Slaughterhouse Five: so it goes, but it doesn’t have to.
The Handmaid’s Tale: maybe this time a dystopian work will warn us off?
The Rise and Fall of DODO: almost as good as Anathem.
The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance: The Stormlight Archive take a long time to get going, but end up being worth it. If you’re reading Stormlight Archive and missed the novella, get lifted up by this bit of awesome: Edgedancer.
The Butcher of Anderson Station: read this novella after the first Expanse book.
Dragonsong: this was my first Pern experience, and it was really good.

What are your recommendations?

Apr 1, 2017 ∞

Courtesy of my sister-in-law: How Many Times Does Braid-Tugging and Skirt-Smoothing Happen in The Wheel of Time?