Month: September 2010

“Delete my comment”

Back in July I received an email from someone I didn’t know asking to delete a comment on this blog. The comment dated back several years, to a post where I’d attacked a business, and the owner of the business turned up to argue his perspective (which, I thought, he did with integrity and aplomb, although he didn’t change my mind).

It was a weird email and a weird request and my assumption was that it was a scam. I wrote about it on my livejournal here – pointing out the weirdness. I later tracked down the owner and contacted them to ask if they had authorised this email; they didn’t know about it. So the conclusion was it was some incompetent email-harvesting scam/spam.

Turns out it was for real. I received a followup email today, asking if I’d got their earlier message and asking again to remove the message. I went back to the owner with more info, and this time they confirmed that it was legit, and they’d asked another group to “tidy up a series of internet postings”.

So, leaving aside the weirdness and the unprofessional approach taken by this emailer, I want to consider the request on its face. (It’s why I’m not linking back to the original discussion – who is requesting shouldn’t matter, right?) They asked to remove a comment from an old post. I refused.

My reply was:

Hello,

First up, I ignored your first message because it looked like spam – you’re using an anonymous gmail address, and gave no sign of any connection to [business owner]. [And more in this vein about how how it was poor communication.]

On to the main point: I’m sorry but I’m not going to remove the comment. I believe in maintaining a complete public record, and indeed I feel a responsibility to do so. The comment is in no way libellous or otherwise legally concerning; indeed, I think [business owner] comes off very well in the exchange.

I would be happy to open up the comments function for the addition of another comment to this post, if that would be of use to you. Adding context or explanation etc. would be welcome. But I will not remove the original comments.

Best regards,
Morgan Davie / From The Morgue

I feel strongly that this is the right approach. I stress that this particular comment conversation was quite innocuous; but the principle of the thing seems dangerous to me.

Am I right, though?

First – who owns the comment that was posted? I don’t exactly have a stated comments policy. It’s on a blog I maintain, was submitted through a process I manage, but it was written by someone else – do they give up rights over their comment as soon as it gets submitted?

Second – should removing past activity on the web ever be okay? What about someone who makes an anti-feminist joke in a comment while young, drunk, and stupid – given the power of google, should that hang over their head the rest of their lives? What if the joke was anti-semitic? What if it was anti-semitic but the commenter convincingly argues that they didn’t understand the racist elements of the joke, they were just repeating it?

In this age of google, where everything we do on the web leaves a trace – must those traces be permanent? Are there no costs to be accounted for, or even mitigated? Obviously my personal view is that the record should be permanent, regardless of the other costs. Am I out of step?

Keen to hear what people have to say. Willpost again if I get further correspondence about this.

Are you ready yet?

Me, three weeks ago:

I’ll expect that disaster survival kits were hauled out and checked across the country this past weekend. We certainly checked out ours, and yes there are a few bits and pieces we could add to it.

But human nature being what it is, as the earthquake recedes from memory, our impetus to add those things will fade away.

Did it fade away for you? A bunch of people noted here or on Facebook their intent to get on top of the disaster survival kit sitch. More would have read it and nodded agreement. Well, time’s up. Have you followed through? Cal and I are almost there – we still need a new torch, because our current one is pretty weedy. Oh, and a transistor radio. Everything else we needed to do got done. And here’s a secret: we did it all either on the first day, or right now on the last day, of that three week period.

Because, fundamentally, we suck at following through. The go-to psyc theory for intended action is the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which says that what we intend to do comes from our attitudes, the social norms around us, and the amount of control we have; and what we actually do mostly follows what we intend to do. That mostly is the tricky bit, unsurprisingly. The gap between intent and behaviour gets pretty big.

In my own thesis work (zing!) I found two other important parts of the puzzle that fill in that intent-behaviour gap: effort, and frame of mind. Effort is the get-up-off-the-couch factor, and we tend to underestimate it. Frame-of-mind is bigger – it’s about how we’re doing when we get the opportunity to act. Good mood, bad mood, etc, but also – and crucially – just plain remembering.

So, a bunch of people stated their intent. Did effort and frame of mind get in your way, or did you follow through? Tell me, I’m curious. If the latter, this is a reminder right here. Christchurch is still getting aftershocks. Wellington is still vulnerable. Lots of places have their dangers and they could hit any time.

Get it done.

Edited to add: Jenni has taken up this idea and is pushing it forward, nudging her friends to get their own kits sorted and promising to chase them up in three weeks. Great work Jenni!

Spangle by Gary Jennings (1988)

In 1989, aged 13, I came first in my class in school and was asked to choose a book to receive at prizegiving. The pickings, as I recall, were not rich. I selected a hardback edition of Spangle by Gary Jennngs, primarily because it appeared to have lots and lots of pages and so was the best value for money available. (Plus, I remember thinking, if I didn’t like the actual book it would be thick enough to cut a space inside as a super-sekret book safe.)

Twenty-one years later I finally read it. It’s about a travelling carnival that moves from the post-Civil War U.S. to roam all over Europe. Some ex-soldiers join up, and then as it travels about other people join up, or leave, or die, or get married. That’s the whole book summed up for you. Lots happens, but not much goes on.

This is not a well-written book. The prose is leaden, the plotting is forced and telegraphed, the characterisation is close to nonexistent. The author’s copious research is painfully evident, with all his characters happily citing facts to each other. (“Did you know, John, that…”)

Nevertheless it was a happy-enough diversion. I made my way through the 800+ pages almost entirely by reading a few pages to wake my brain up before getting out of bed each morning. The author had clearly researched the dickens out of this thing, and it was a pleasant way to encounter lots of trivia about the lives of travelling carnivals and everyday life in the late 1800s.

Also notable: the fact that if my 13-year-old self had actually read this book, he would have been able to write his own cheque at school, for this gigantic tome is extensively salted with sex scenes involving a wide variety of participants. (In those pre-internet days, you worked with what you had.)

Indeed, Gary Jennings was known for his mix of research and sex scenes – trying to find out about him after finishing the book I stumbled on an account by some archaeologists who both queried some of his research and appreciated his enthusiastically pulpy titillation. Certainly the most sexually explicit book given out as a school prize that year. So in that sense, and that sense alone, I call this a belated win.

Flirty Linking

Seen this in a couple spots, I think Karen Healey was first to give it linky: perfume that makes you smell like a library.

via Nonwrestler: the Art of Penguin Science Fiction. Very nice. Love those late-60s Alan Aldridge covers.

via the Other Mr Ritchie, the one who didn’t just become a Dad, some incredible photos of atomic blasts in action.

A gay 15-year-old chose suicide to escape bullying recently, and Dan Savage of the Savage Love column/podcast responded.

Why are we waiting for permission to talk to these kids? We have the ability to talk directly to them right now. We don’t have to wait for permission to let them know that it gets better.

So they’ve started a YouTube channel to deliver this message to LGBT teens who need to hear it. Spread the word.

This week’s Star Wars: the secret origin of Chewbacca. Which is to say, pretty conclusive proof that the Chewie design was swiped. Really about the messiness of the creative process, and a good read.

I dunno if permissions will let people see these, but it’s facebook so presumably they will (ba-DUM-dum). It’s Dermot’s take on Star Wars In Cork (that’s the place in Ireland, not the thing that goes in bottlenecks)

via Hroethgar, tilt-shift techniques applied to Van Gogh paintings. Looks awful on some, but breathtaking on others.

Further sign of mainstreaming of geek concerns: geek fashionista collection based around sci-fi imagery. TARDIS dress anyone? (Back when I was a lad, this sort of thing could only exist in a MAD magazine parody. Now it seems odd that it hasn’t happened before. Which brings me to…)

“Team Unicorn”, a quartet of lady gamer geeks, produced this parody of the most-parodied-song-ever California Gurls. Its a “we are geek girls hear me roar” song. It has Seth Green rapping.

Geek and Gamer Girls Song – Watch more Funny Videos

In its wake this vid produced a small flurry of discussion. Anarchangel smartly discusses some of this reaction in terms of contested subcultural boundaries, and gives some awesome linky. Alternative/geek royalty Theremina expressed unease about the vid on Twitter, and was appreciative when someone pointed out this vid along similar lines:

There’s potential for a lengthy post on this and related issues. Anyone have time to write it?

Wil Wheaton considers the hairdo of the character he played on Star Trek, Wesley Crusher, in the face of an enthusiastically bad-language using celebration of same.

Tube map of modern science. Smart.

And finally, Wikipedia’s introduction to the world of Flirty Fishing – 70s-era evangelism-by-prostitution. Times have changed.

Letters to the Irresponsible

I know reading letters to the editor is not good for my health. I know that letter-writers are not representative of the population at large. I know that letters are included because they are likely to be controversial and dramatic. But still, I can’t stop.

It’s because I think letters to the editor are *important*. They matter for the simple reason that they’re right there on the editorial page of the newspaper, and they’re presented in small bite-sized digestible chunks, and they’re delivered in a tone that speaks of personal character rather than impersonal journalistic machine. They are the easiest reading in the newspaper.

And so it bugs me when the same negative things turn up over and over again. Particularly, speaking of the DomPost, there’s racism against Maori. Hardly a week goes by without Maori described as selfish, devious, dishonest, stupid, or worse. (And, almost without exception, these charges are levelled at “Maori”, as if to describe the fundamental nature of everyone with Maori identity.) Sometimes this is delivered hand-in-hand with a claim that there are no true Maori left anyhow. It’s ugly, and it’s been prevalent as long as I can remember. Would it be a surprise to find that Maori feel they are misrepresented and unwelcome in mainstream media?

Almost as frequent these days is the culture war against Islam. You know the ins and outs of this one, it appears all over the world, and the NYC mosque controversy has stirred it right up. The claim that got me agitated this week was the old claim that “if Islam isn’t a religion of violence, then why haven’t Muslims denounced terrorism?” Of course, they have, Islamic voices have been plentiful in condemnation of terror attacks. Here’s one big list countering this myth; there are many others.

The reason this last one gets to me is that this wrong-headed belief exists in the first place because of the failings of our newspapers and other media outlets. The denunciation of violence has never drawn much presence in our news narrative, and so many people think it never happened. And now those same people use newspapers (and talk radio etc) to pronounce their misconception, to damaging effect.

Look at that again. The number of times newspapers, within their pages, print “why do Muslims not denounce violence?” must massively exceed the number of times newspapers have ever reported on Muslim denunciations of violence.

The media is responsible for the misconception. By then publishing these letters without answer, I think it is also responsible for its propagation.

What are the editorial responsibilities of newspapers? I know the DomPost editor takes the reader letters very seriously and personally checks each day’s selection. It seems to me this is a massive failure on her part. The responsibility to fairly present reader’s views does not remove the responsibility to correct an obvious factual misconception. “But our readers really think this” is an inadequate defence against the charge of spreading a damaging prejudiced myth, especially when the reason they really think this is your own failure to adequately describe the world.

Our TV gives horoscopes

Our TV, a cheery pre-digital TEA CT-M6812, gives horoscopes on demand. This isn’t an interpretation or a gag. It really does this.

Y’see, the other day one of the lights was flashing for no apparent reason, so I dug out the manual and looked over it to see if I could find out why. No luck for the light, but I did discover this whole section of the manual: SUPER FUNCTIONS.

Our TV has a CALENDAR (“lookup days and years very conveniently”) and a NOTEBOOK (“store information such as phone numbers”) and even a GAME FUNCTION (“this TV has a built in game for your enjoyment during leisure time”). Best of all though is the BIOLOGICAL CLOCK.

This function can make you know about the low tide, high tide and critical stage of your intellect, emotion and force at a certain day so as to live harmony with the rhythms of environment.

So I tried it of course. You put in your birthday, and then your target day (e.g. today), and it shows bar graphs for Intellect, Emotion and Force. If it’s a good day, these are riding high! If it’s a bad day, they’re down low. Sometimes one is much higher or lower than the others. You can page through the days, and watch the ups and downs of the week ahead.

I just wanted to share that. How unusual, a TV that tells you how to live your life!*

* LOOK I MADE AN IRONY

Getting Ready: Checking

But human nature being what it is, as the earthquake recedes from memory, our impetus to add those things will fade away. I’m going to use this blog and its small but attentive readership as a motivation tool, by declaring: in three weeks, our disaster survival kit will be fully stocked up. (6 Sept)

A bunch of people put their names down, and no doubt others thought “yeah, I’ll do that”.
Now, two weeks have gone by, and in NZ the earthquake remains on the front page. Have you done what you intended to do? One week to go in that original plan…

(Encouragement by example: lostperdita has)

As before, comments are encouraged – tell everyone how you’re going. Collective action beats solo action. All the info you need is here: NZ getting ready website

Keeling Linky

Keeling over, that is. Still busy. BUT NOT TOO BUSY FOR LINKY

Video about goin’ climbing in Wgtn. Haven’t watched it, too busy, but its W-town so if you’re local you probably know some of the people in it. Maybe even the guy in the screencap right here.

Tough Love from Chunky Farmer on Vimeo.

Fun with Google 1: Google Scribe completes famous quotes

Fun with Google 2: Google Patent reveals patents by famous people. Check out Eddie Van Halen’s rocking self-portrait.

Classically-trained voice teacher evaluates the style and technique of five heavy metal vocalists. (This is an example of that rare subspecies of linky that will be catnip to both Sokky and Jet Simian.)

Via the Knifeman, Joyce Carol Oates short story right there for the reading (I haven’t yet but Joyce Carol Oates that’s why)

Have I ever linked to You Are Not So Smart before? Great blog that points out all the ways we get stuff wrong. Fun, insightful, and important, because man, so many problems caused by not realizing you might be wrong about something.

From Jack, more Star Wars culture – Darth Vader the cathedral gargoyle

The New York magazine article that was the basis for Saturday Night Fever: Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night. Written in the new journalism style, this appears impossibly mannered now, and I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear the writer made it all up.

And finally… this totally made my working day yesterday. A relaxation-tape version of Snoop’s (decidedly not safe for work) Gin & Juice. Love it.

This is Kaibosh

My friends George and Robyn have been hard at work the last few years on starting a charity. I think it’s pretty amazing. They are behind Kaibosh, and what they do is collect surplus food from retailers (so it doesn’t get chucked into landfill) and deliver it to charities working with people who could do with a bonus meal.

That’s pretty much the whole deal – there is leftover food at place A, and hungry peeps at place B, so they make the connection. Simple premise, but (as always) a complex mission in the real world.

George sez:

We wrangled a few friends to become members of our board of trustees and have spent the last 18-months trying to raise funding to increase the scale of our efforts. Our main support has come from Wellington City Council and the Lotteries Commission. With their help we’ve leased an office on Holland Street and hired a part-time Operations Manager. We’re now able to step up our operations (to date we only pick up food from Simply Paris and Wishbone) and hopefully expand our volunteer base (currently sits at six non-trustees).

That is how you walk the walk in this world. I give this whole enterprise one mighty double-rainbow-all-the-way thumbs up. Kaibosh is having a launch party at their HQ tonight at 6pm – come along if you’re in W-town, and eat some of the food, which is of course donated from local businesses.

Kaibosh website
Kaibosh on Facebook

State of Play

Man, I’m looking forward to when that baby gets born so I can finally catch up on some sleep!

No, wait.

Still in the depths of a sustained busy like there has not been since I cleverly arranged to finish my Masters thesis in the weeks leading up to my wedding. Achieved the rare trifecta of working Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Unsurprise: this has severely hindered progress on Day One in the novel vs. baby race. But I am not downhearted. When I get through these weeks I might be able to put some proper time in and make up the deficit. It’s about how much I want it done, innit?

Timely link: Chuck Wendig on how to be a writer. (Thanks to the people who took a look at the opening pages of D1, by the way. Comments v. helpful.)

Right. Back to work.