Interesting Links for 14-02-2016

[andrewducker]

• Clark Kent is a master of improv
  • superman comics
• Before You Get Too Excited About That GitHub Study On Sexism In Technology
  • technology sexism research
• What if we changed "pandering to [group]" to "being enjoyable for people who are not me."
  • funny society games
• Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend
  • programming advice
• Supporting a

Comments

[kalimac]

1) I like the idea of setting your boundaries fully. When I propose a joint activity, e.g., suggesting a restaurant to eat at, I count on the other person to tell me clearly whether it's a subject of enthusiasm, acceptable, tolerable, or none of the above, because that tells me whether and how hard I should look for alternatives (e.g. restrictions on timing, place, or the needs of other persons in the party).

2) I'm less impressed with the "tactics to win an argument" article, especially the one about "asking how". I've been on both sides of that one, and it doesn't work very well.

3) You are absolutely right that the US courts are being stacked, but that's only been true for less than 30 years. In earlier years, justices were chosen with known leanings, but they were expected to be of independent judgment and would surprise you. Earl Warren, for instance, had had a reputation as a fierce criminal prosecutor (and, as Governor, he'd signed on enthusiastically to locking up the Japanese-Americans during WW2), but he disappointed his Court nominators by being quite liberal. But Rehnquist, for instance, turned out just as conservative as Nixon had hoped. It was Reagan who broke the mold by nominating the doctrinaire Bork in 1987. He was rejected for that reason, and his substitute, Kennedy, looked right-wing but turned out somewhat moderate. Poppy Bush reacted to Bork's rejection by nominating Souter, who had no paper trail. When he turned out totally moderate once on the bench, he went back to the ideologues and nominated the absurd Clarence Thomas for the next vacancy, and the stacking was on. But it's not one of rightists v. leftists, but right-wing ideologues vs. anyone who's not a right-wing ideologue. None of the current "liberals" on the US Supreme Court are anywhere near as liberal as Douglas, Brennan, Marshall, the great liberals of the past. Whereas Scalia, Thomas, Alito, even Roberts, are more extreme than anyone else who's been on the Court since the 1930s.

4) I've looked in vain for news stories with anything further about the Mozart/Salieri composition. The article says it was long thought to be lost, which implies that it was known about. But I've checked the New Grove listing of Mozart's works, which includes lost works, and a detailed scholarly book called The Mozart Compendium, which has a whole section on lost works, and could find no trace.