AnOscelot

The modern GOP has embraced some very misogynistic politicans and policies. And they pushed Trump into the White House. If you don't want to be labeled a misogynist, don't support a misogynistic party.

It's really that easy. Or have the courage of your convictions and try not to freak out when you live in a place where the majority do not share your views. I say this as a very lefty person in a very red state. I don't hide my views even though I know my neighbors and coworkers may be disapproving.

If he intended to treat people as individuals, then he wouldn't have resorted to gender stereotypes in the first place. The essay was clearly designed to tell women they don't belong at Google. Would you feel comfortable working with someone who wrote an essay at your workplace which detailed incorrect gender stereotypes about men ("Violent", "Incommunicative", "Ego/Status driven") as a way of gently saying maybe we shouldn't hire so many men anymore?

I can already visualize the intense white hot responses over at /r/mensrights and other such places. Where they already freak out, and "virtue signal" as you put it, over much much much milder stuff from feminists. Many people would call for the author's head, and I suspect we wouldn't hear so much about "free speech" from the MRA and other conservative outlets.

Edit: If any of the downvoters doubt my hypothetical, just think about what happened to Anita Sarkeesian. There were no statements about her bravery or defenses of her free speech rights from the conservatives. Just a wall of criticism and boycotts (and worse) in an attempt to get her to shut up. Whole lot of virtue signalling from men on the right, many of whom self-admitted to never watching her videos.

Sure, there are differences. For men, no one ever expects those differences to limit what they can do. Men can be firefighters, loggers, hairdressers, florists, politicians, engineers, interior designers, party planners, chefs, teachers. There aren't many professions where people would question why a man was doing the job instead of a woman.

What the left and feminism wants is for the same consideration to be given to women. That despite gender differences, if a woman can do the job, then there are no second guesses or carping about gender. That she's allowed to just be, just like men are. That there's a recognition that while gender differences exist, men can do jobs once considered traditionally feminine, and can do them well. And that we can recognize women can do jobs once considered tradtionally masculine, and can do them well.

Sorry for the late reply. Didn't see it until today.

I think you and your family would be fine in a midwestern city like Kansas City. But I also know there are risks. The Indian men who were shot by a racist, were shot in a suburb of Kansas City. However, the city as a whole was horrified by the event. And it's a very diverse city. Not as cosmopolitan as cities on the coast, of course, but every time I go to the city center, I see people of all types and frequently hear languages other than English & Spanish spoken.

I currently live in a rural Kansas town. Living in a place like this as an Asian would present some challenges, but the overall attitude from most of the people is generally "If you don't scare the horses, we don't care who you are or what you do." It's a different place than the American South (or rural Pennsylvania). Here people just want to mind their own business. I couldn't guarantee it would be a great place for you, but if you want to try being rural again, it wouldn't be a terrible place to look.

NPR consistently plays the middle ground. They're threading a needle. Their audience is largely left-of-center college-educated middle class & upper middle. Their public funding is at the mercy of Republicans. As a result, they're very centrist and will frequently pull their punches in controversial situations.

Despite NPR's reputation, many on the left are increasingly distrustful and critical of them, while many listeners on the right seem to prefer their talk shows to be full of yelling. I'm not sure the relentlessly centrist strategy is working for them.

And in some ways, it's unnecessary. Thanks to endowments and listener contributions, NPR could drop government money without major impact. Public funding is a small part of their budget.

My knowledge of what neighborhoods are currently great is a little rusty. I moved away from the area for a while, and now I'm one of those people with acreage outside of the city.

But when I was in the city full time, my favorite area was around 39th street just over the state line on the Missouri side. Walking distance to quite a few restaurants, coffeeshops, bookstores, and other funky shops.

Another fun place was the area around the Plaza. Some nice old apartments and houses. Walking distance from the Nelson art museum, the Plaza stores and restaurants, and fairly close to the bars in Westport. Westport is a fun place to hang out, but it's a little dodgy in terms of living there. Lots of petty crime, and a sad uptick in shootings of late. But when you're in your twenties, it's one of the most fun places in the city. At least it was for me.

One thing which changed after I left was the revitalization of downtown. Used to be dead, and now you can have a semblance of urban living there. Lots of lofts and townhouses available, and in walking distance of the new bar / restaurant district, plus the convention center and the new performing arts hall. Related is the River Market area. It's on the edge of downtown with lots of rennovated apartments & lofts. Has the main farmers market, and the usual bars, restaurants, and odd stores. And is very walkable. The new streetcars have a very limited route, but River Market and Downtown are covered (or will be).

The place I used to live now has a name: Crossroads Arts District. Stretches between downtown and the area around Crown Center. Has lots of art galleries, predictably enough, and all the other usual stuff. Holds a street art & food festival (First Fridays) once a month. Streetcar service will be coming soon-ish, but not quite there yet.

There's also the West Bottoms. Used to be a swamp, then was a warehouse / industrial district, then was abandoned (when I was there), and now is an up & coming area with the usual lofts and stuff. Used to be one of my favorite areas of the city due to the interesting abandoned factories and how quiet it was despite being in the middle of the city. Probably a lot of fun now.

I don't know much about the burbs. Johnson County (suburbia on the Kansas side) was great for big box stores but was otherwise a black hole for me. However, one great thing about Johnson County is that it has a Microcenter and it's glorious. Need a Raspberry Pi Zero + a handful of sensors for a project and need it now? Done.

Though speaking of the burbs, if you have a little extra money for buying, check out some of the inner ring suburbs. Places like Leawood. Some beautiful houses with old huge trees. Some of the more expensive neighborhoods in the city, but cheap compared to the Valley.

If you want to get off the beaten path, and are interested in fixer uppers, I always kinda liked Kansas City, Kansas. There are some neat old homes there on bluffs overlooking the Kansas River. And, last time I looked, many of those neighborhoods haven't gentrified, so there are bargains to be had. The neighborhoods are rough in spots, but there's something about the old blue collar neighborhoods that I always liked.

KCK and the area around Bonner Springs can also give you some country living on the edge of the city. There's still some farms left and still some acreage while being 10-15 minutes away from the city center. The only risk is that you buy your perfect quiet piece of land and then get swamped with development a few years later, but I suppose that's a risk for any city's edge.

Another good place for quiet small town-ish living while being very close to the city center is Parkville, MO. It's adjacent to the city. Probably one of the first KC suburbs. The town's center is Victorian and has a vibrant downtown with the typical Main Street USA feel. Also has a huge riverfront park on the Missouri River. The latter is quite nice because in much of KC, they've turned their back on the river and there's not much in terms of waterfront parks. This will be changing in the upcoming years with parks planned. But for now, there's not many.

One last place to mention is Lawrence, Kansas. It's about 30-40 minutes away from the city, and is the home for Kansas University. It's an absolutely wonderful place to live. Reminds me of Austin but without the crowds and high prices. Very vibrant downtown and music scene. Low crime. Very walkable for both the neighborhoods and in terms of hiking trails that start in the city. Tons of interesting old houses. Extremely laid back. Surprisingly hilly. One of my favorite places on earth.

Didn't mean to write a novel but that should give you some places to start looking. I spent much of my twenties in KC before heading out west in the dot-com boom, and then came back ten years later when I wanted some quiet times. I would sometimes be jealous of other larger cities, but KC was in many respects perfect for me. Unpretentious, unjudgemental (outside of the burbs, of course), and was a live and let live place from every angle. The biggest downside of KC is that a car is essential. I've tried to point out walkable neighborhoods, but public transportation is mostly limited to bus. No metro, no light rail (beyond a couple of miles of the streetcars). And a level of sprawl which is enormous. I suppose with Uber / Lyft these days, a personally owned car isn't quite so required now. But it was mandatory in my day.

On the plus side for cars, traffic is usually not too terrible outside of rush hour. And if you end up living in the city center and working in the suburbs, there's a good chance you'll be going opposite to the huge traffic flow, and even rush hour will be easier. That's what happened to me.

If you end up coming here, I think you'll like it. If I can help any further with your search, just let me know.

Kansas City, and it's nearly infinite suburbs, would be incredibly comfortable at 75k. Could easily afford a nice home in one of the bustling urban neighborhoods, or a 2,000+ sq ft. in the burbs, or something with a few acres out in the country but near an interstate for commuting.

Twitter's one of my favorite mediums. Basically everything in my second paragraph shows up in my timeline. Feels like mainlining all the good parts of the internet in a concentrated form. I'm also old enough to remember web rings and all those different funky aggregators like Memepool. Twitter at its best is like that.

I don't mean to push you into something you don't like, but if you want to give it a go again, search for weird twitter and follow anyone who looks interesting. Or follow your favorite authors or reporters. Over time, they'll retweet other interesting posts and you can follow those new people. Eventually, you'll organically build up something which follows your interests very closely.

That's how I did it. I started because I wanted to follow the Arab Spring and Tahrir Square events closely, and many Egyptians were posting their accounts on Twitter in English.

No offense, but you're showing off your lack of understanding. Some people do use Twitter to tweet at their fave celebrities, but that seems to be more of a minority use case. It is useful to tweet directly at brands, especially when you need product support, but again, it's a minority of uses.

In my circles, there's Weird Twitter for creativity. Political Twitter, which is now a dominant form of medium-length blogging where the punditry is broken up into 140 character paragraphs. Art Twitter sending out all sorts of photos and paintings. Cute Twitter for DogRates and other forms of reporting on fuzzy things. Twitter is still good for breaking news, and for on-the-spot reporting. Even great for weather. I live in a stormy part of the country, and hitting #kswx can be good on bad nights for getting reports from the people around me.

And, of course, it's the premier way for the leader of the free world to spit his thoughts directly at the public.

They may not have found any way to make money, but Twitter is a core part of internet culture. It's like Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, etc., that it's so big, it can't be pinned down to just one aspect or another.

I kinda like your unicorn.

My preferred size would be 8 to 10 inches. I think 10 inches would be a sweet spot, for me personally. Especially since I would want to use the eink screen as a reader as well as a screen for editing. You'd lose pocketability, but gain some additional flexibility and greater readability.

My wish list:

Eink screen, 360 hinge so the thing could be used as a book, backlit keyboard as a stretch goal.

Super user friendly & distraction free writing interface, but with Linux underneath and maybe a checkbox in advanced options to open the shell / vi / emacs for use. One very nice feature would be allowing split screen between two editors, or the editor + pdf / epub. Removes the potential distraction of looking away from the editor when you need to reference something. But no web browser, since that would encourage procrastination, even on a slower eink screen.

Wifi with automatic backups to the major cloud providers or user specified private servers. Plugged into USB and it shows up as simple storage.

Anyways, thanks for the fun idea which led to some fun thoughts. I hope we see something like this one day.

Deportations are happening at a rapid pace. No, the cameras may not be part of the current deportation / ICE frenzy, but working on them would put the engineer on the side of the Immigration establishment. From that point of view, it's a moral choice even if the specific object in question, a camera, is not immoral on its own.

I can deeply respect anyone who would refuse to aid the current government's immigration policies in any way, and I would refuse to do so myself.

If it's a scam, he's not scamming very well. A scammer would have taken the big payday and done little else. Whereas Hello Games has released a couple of large updates, and quite a few smaller updates / bugfixes, with more planned.

The evidence largely points to a developer who is good at his core job, but inexperienced at managing hype. And who was overly optimistic about what he and his team can accomplish in X amount of time. Based on how Hello Games is acting & communicating now, I think they've learned their lesson.

And I sympathise a little with them because I was once the overly optimistic team lead in my younger days, and had to get burnt a few times before I learned my lesson.

Maybe the best strategy is to show the generic description when it's a book you haven't personally written the description for. That way you can concentrate on the books you love or find most interesting, while still providing a huge variety to your users.

If you're running a Chromebook with Android support, you have the option of Termux for a local Linux shell without needing Crouton or developer mode.

You're correct. That's the fun part. What's especially fun is that the blind spot is often something which has already been developed, and didn't sell well in its first iteration, or is common in prototypes and SF / futurist stuff but no one thought it would ever be widely available.

I'm especially interested in how deeply embedded phone booths were to people who should have thought past them. A lot of SF / futurist stuff from the 60s to early 90s thought people would still be tied to fixed locations for telephone and network access.

I've always wondered why that was, especially when some form of mobile phones have been around since the 80's, or even earlier with very expensive car radios which could tap into the phone network. I guess the phone booth was such a fixture of the landscape that no one could imagine a world without them.

I think MacOS gives you an off switch for the telemetry. I know iOS does. Not only does iOS give you an easy way to turn it off, it will also show you the raw data being sent to Apple.

Microsoft does neither. You can't turn it off easily if you're not on Enterprise / Education, and the data being sent is encrypted.

Here's an extensive article on the subject of the Louisiana coast, and how the usually seen map silhouette of the state needs to be fixed.

https://medium.com/matter/louisiana-loses-its-boot-b55b3bd52...

My prized possession as a kid was the flexi from the National Geographic issue covering the first moon landing. I wish I knew where it was now. Was entirely recordings of the chatter between Houston and the Lander, including the "Eagle has landed" and the "one small step for man" moments.

If your government censors you, and you break the censorship in some way, you put your own personal freedom and economic status at risk. In many countries, you put your own life at risk as well.

If Google takes down my video, and I publish it elsewhere, there's no real risk of anything. Maybe I'll lose my Google account if the video was particularly heinous, but that's about as far as it goes.

The imprisonment qualification is a very real difference.

I can tell you from experience Termux works mostly very well on Chromebooks which come with the Play Store. Gives a nice option to putting the device in developer mode and installing Crouton.

The one main problem involves shortcut keys. Chrome OS intercepts certain key presses, such as "CTRL N" or "CTRL T", and routes them to the browser. Makes emacs / vim a little annoying, but a Chrome OS dev assured me this was on the "to fix" list.

You're correct. The worldwide network was already assumed by 1990. The only question was whether or not it would become mainstream to muggles.

I gained internet access via my midwestern college in 1991. Within a few weeks, I was a regular on a MUD hosted somewhere in Bavaria, chatting (and arguing) with Israelis about middle eastern politics on newsgroups, and had (very slow) shell access on a system in Taipei thanks to a woman there I was flirting with. There was no question this was the future. The only question was: would this be limited to corporations, academia, and interested geeks? Or would this ever hit the general public? Considering the state of the interfaces in 1991, I vaugely remember I assumed it would be geek-only for a while, though I did my part in getting my non-technical friends online. Largely for the selfish reason of wanting them to have email so I didn't have to use the telephone as much.

I wish the sites with the annoying "give us your email now!" popups would be honest. Just say, in plain language:

"You can support this site by giving us an email, which we will then add to a list we can sell to various entities. You don't have to give us your main email address. Just please use something other than mailinator (and their ilk) so it's an saleable address. This will help us stay open despite most of our visitors blocking our ads. We will send you a newsletter occasionally so we can pretend this exchange is not purely about money. Thank you."

Great idea! I remember doing this 10 years ago following a tutorial which had a form to fill out, and then downloading a shareware font editor. I'll bookmark this site for my next personal font project.

This might be a little morbid, but I had an idea which would fit this site well. Promoting your site to those who would like to preserve a very personal aspect of their lost loved one. Was thinking about this because my next font project involves me going through my mother's letters and scrapbooks for lettering samples. I lost her two years ago and think a font of her writing would be one of the best ways of remembering. I think a lot of other people would feel the same.

If anyone has people like this in your life, the Bible gives you a little ammo for changing their mind. First of all, mankind was given stewardship over the Earth. God expects people to not trash the place.

Secondly, Jesus was quite emphatic that no one would know the day & time of his return. He did say there would be warning signs, but also said it would still be a surprise. If someone wants to destroy the world in order to push for the Second Coming, then they're on the verge of being a false prophet as described by Christ. Not to mention: why take the risk when this might not be the time of his return?

I'm personally not a believer now, but I was raised in a very conservative Christian family. These arguments sometimes have an effect on my friends and family still in the church.

Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes (1879) describes a long distance romance conducted "online", from the point of view of a female telegraph operator, where neither party knew what the other looked like or even the sound of their voice. Describes the virtual communities of telegraph operators and the culture surrounding them. It's a wonderful book.

http://www.kristinholt.com/archives/5686 -- a review of the book

Copies can be found at archive.org, Gutenberg, and Amazon.

What's also interesting to me are the telegraph hacks during the American Civil War. Tapping into enemy wires and sending misleading orders, or just listening in. Here's some discussion on it:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/hacking-into-the-telegraph-s...

I've had something stolen from TSA-inspected checked luggage. If you pack your phone, keep that possibility in mind.

John C. Calhoun is a person without mention of whom any history of early 19th century America would be incomplete.

No one's stripping him out of the history books. Why does he deserve the honor of having a college named for him?

Or for that matter, much insight into or sympathy for, the differing views of others, let alone others from different times or places.

I guess I can't pass up the irony of this statement. I grew up in the South. I'm old enough to remember a time when Confederates were seen as noble. Old enough to have people tell me quite sincerely that "those people had it good as slaves."

Attitudes have changed since then and in part because enough white people attempted to learn about and gained sympathy for a group of people very different than themselves: the enslaved black Americans of the 19th Century. Without the understanding and empathy which crossed cultural and racial boundaries, there would never have come a time when Calhoun's name was considered a negative by the majority.

Three of my favorites. Found in this great Straight Dope thread on Russian / Soviet jokes:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-3611...

------

Stalin was having a cabinet meeting and he was going over the minutes when someone gave a loud sneeze.

Instantly, he looked, up, frowning, and said, very deeply, "WHO SNEEZED?"

No one would raise their hand. So Stalin motioned to the KGB officers and had all of the first row taken out and shot.

Again, Stalin looked up and said, "WHO SNEEZED?"

Again, no one answers, so, Stalin has the KGB take the second row out to be shot.

And then, Stalin looks up and says, "WHO SNEEZED?"

And again, no one answers, so the KGB takes the third row out and has them shot.

Now, Stalin's pissed. "WHO SNEEZED!"

By now, the sneezer is all sweating and nervous and leaps out of his seat yelling, "I sneezed, Comrade Stalin! I sneezed!"

And Stalin nods, and says, "God Bless You, now continue with meeting."

------

An Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Russian were once discussing the meaning of true happiness.

The Englishman said, "True happiness, my friends, is rising early on a frosty fall morning, getting on top of a good horse, and galloping off behind the hounds in pursuit of the fox. A hard ride over fields and fences and rivulets until the fox is brought down. A ride back with the ears and the tail and then sitting before a roaring fire with a glass of good port. Ah, that is true happiness."

The Frenchman said, "That is not true happiness. That is merely animal pleasure. True happiness is meeting with the love of your life, having an excellent meal in a topnotch restaurant with champagne, and then retiring to a wonderful hotel room, where you can make frantic and impassioned love all night long. Ah, that is true happiness.

The Russian said, "That is not true happiness. That is merely a good time. True happiness comes when you are sitting in your apartment after a hard day at the factory, your little Ivan on your knee, and reading your copy of Pravda. There comes a knock at the door. Three men in ill-fitting brown suits come storming in and say 'Stepan Stepanovich,' and you say, 'He lives in the rooms upstairs.' Ah, that is true happiness!"

------

There was a long queue of people waiting for the butcher shop to open. A Russian official comes by and says, "Are there any Jews in this queue?" Some people reluctantly nodded their heads. The official says, "There is not enough meat. All Jews have to leave. There will be no meat for them today!" And all the Jews leave the queue. The official leaves.

Two hours pass, and the shop isn't open yet. The official returns and says, "Are there any who are not members of the Communist Party in this queue?" Some people nodded their heads. The official says, "There is not enough meat. All those who are not members of the Communist Party have to leave. There will be no meat for them today!" And all the non-Party members leave the queue. The official leaves.

Two more hours pass, and the shop still isn't open. The official returns and says, "Comrades, I'm sorry, but there will be no meat today." One of the people says, "I should have known. The Jews ALWAYS get the best deal!"

The ADL disagrees with you regarding Bannon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/11...

As for who wrote the executive orders:

" Inside the West Wing, it is almost impossible for some aides to know what is in the executive orders, staffers say. They have been written by Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior White House adviser for policy, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, according to people familiar with the matter. Ideas for some of the Trump executive orders came from transition officials and so-called “landing teams,” " --http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trumps-flashy-executiv...

How can someone be pro-Israel and antisemitic?

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/steve-bannon-made-breitb...

http://forward.com/news/israel/354402/how-steve-bannon-and-b...

And of course he would put up working with Jews if it meant he had a seat at the table and a chance to enact his wildest dreams. In a choice between power and principles, most people chose power. Your proposed Occam's Razor doesn't work because you're ignoring the most obvious thing: the desire of people for power. If being Trump's right hand man means putting up with Kushner, then so be it. I'm sure Kushner, as the other key figure standing beside the throne, feels the same way. He can put up with an antisemite in order to be in the White House.

Think about it. Occam's Razor is for the simplest choice. Assuming Bannon's racism, Bannon's choice here is: work with Jews and have a lot of power, or avoid Jews and go back to the mundane life as a publisher with no seat at the table. There's really no question of what he would choose.