Interesting Links for 06-01-2016

[andrewducker]

• Renaissance painting ‘like night out in Manchester’
  • art satire funny manchester
• How Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s words were freed from old floppy disks
  • StarTrek technology storage
• What A Sex Worker Can Teach You About Working For Yourself
  • advantage
  • sexwork business advice work
• 25 Graphic Novels Written By Women, A Guide For Beginners

Comments

[atreic]

Wow, that 'google fired me' link is a hugely good example of how people can be very clever and very articulate and have Giant Blind Spots. 'I was asked by HR not to bother my coworker, and to stop inviting them to non-work things. So I went up to the coworker when they were walking home alone, and said 'hey, why did you tell HR stuff about me, it's not true, you have to tell them it's not true'. Then three months later I went back to HR saying 'it's not fair I can't invite my co-worker to things, you have to lift this ban, specifically so I can have a long chat to them about how unfair and annoying this has all been and Sort Things Out'. After that, I turned up at lots of things outside work that involved the coworker, but it was because of mutual friends and I wasn't inviting them, honest, but google investigated it and sacked me.

[steer]

Yes... I was absolutely boggling at it. It's so "perfect" in its awfulness I half-suspect it must be constructed rather than real.

"Today, again, they cruelly refused to explain why they took out a restraining order but walked away very fast. I cannot explain this."

I was trying to say (badly) on twitter that it reminds me of the film/book Remains of the Day where the emotionally stunted narrator reveals to the viewer/reader that they are deeply in love with another character without seemingly realising this fact for themselves.

[slemslempike]

And one of the commenters has linked him to the Reddit redpill stuff. Good! Helpful! Not at all exacerbating the problem!

[steer]

Oh god. A mutual support group for inadequates to reinforce a shared delusion.

[alitheapipkin]

Eep yes, I couldn't finish that 'Google fired me' post because I was far too busy wondering what the co-worker's version of events would be like and boggling at the obliviousness.

I certainly find working in an office reasonably set hours is much better for my mental health than working from home completely flexibly. It's certainly a benefit to have some flexibility available when needed (I'm working from home just now because I overslept this morning and am waiting on a parcel delivery) but defaulting to 9.30-5ish in the office and actually leaving work behind when I come home is great.

[fanf]

The North Korean bomb could be a boosted fission bomb rather than a fusion bomb: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/2016/01/sort/time_rev/page/1/entry/0:15/20160106015443:5BEC78E8-B442-11E5-83C6-945BF010038B/

[ext_208701]

It's almost certainly not a fusion bomb unless they've managed to make a very small one. Cannikin was a 5MT thermonuclear weapon at 7 on the richter scale, If the've managed 5, it suggests that they've a 50kt explosion, which is a largeish fission bomb.

[kalimac]

I don't have much to say about the "Google fired me" rant because I saw no point in reading its epic length, or trying to grasp what it had to say, was more than my time is worth. If you're not going to be more forthcoming in introducing what originally generated your troubles with HR than "my whereabouts that involved this co-worker, all of which happened outside the workplace" or the epically vague "an issue has been brought to their attention in such a way that is has entered the workplace," then I have no context, even from your POV. (It would also help if you gave everybody nonce names, so at least I could follow who is who.) If any of this is revealed later, I didn't get that far.

Mind, no one is required to reveal personal matters online, but if you don't do so when choosing to tell a story in which those personal matters are a vital element, at the least you're not going to get me to read it voluntarily.

[momentsmusicaux]

Yeah, it was tedious to even skim-read, and so vague you can't tell what's actually gone on. I think everyone above who's saying this guy's a stalker is jumping to conclusions and reading far more than what's there. He could be, but there's not enough to go on.

[andrewducker]

If someone talks to HR and as a result you're asked to not to go near them, and then you go and ask them about it, and push them to tell HR to let you hang out with them again then you are, at the least, getting into harassment territory, if not actual stalking.

[momentsmusicaux]

You're still reading between the lines.

All we have to go on is the evidence here.

[kalimac]

On the other hand, the essay on Star Wars and its fans was not only well-written but insightful. My one critique is that the author uses "nerd" where - insofar as there's a difference between them in current usage and insofar as I've grasped what that difference is - the term "geek" would be more accurate

[snarlish]

ugh, I found that essay quite unbearable, especially the beginning in which they establish their street-nerd creds with 'I watched this film alone on NYE and then didn't allow myself the opportunity to hang out with sparkly tights girls in order to share with you my words of insight.'

(while writing below i suddenly noticed you hadn't seen the film, Kalimac, so what follows may be slightly spoilerish)

I do agree with them that Kylo Ren's situation is addressing fanboy attachment and ownership in a 'Be careful what you wish for' way. However, they miss out the obvious: it's also about Star Wars character personality: Cocky or self-serving, whiny, stubborn, insufferable and in the older versions, detached. All characteristics of Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Solo. Filtered into hero worship (of grandfather) and cult-rearing (in the sith) you get Kylo.

[kalimac]

Don't worry about spoilers for me. I deliberately sought them out so that I could understand what was being written about this movie without having to subject myself to seeing it.

I didn't like Anakin any more than I suspect I would like Kylo. But then, I didn't like Wesley Crusher either.