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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "nancylebov" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:15 pm
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You have such an interesting name.....
http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-having-black-name.html
The link goes to an account of what it's like to have a stereotypically black name and work at a call center.
She gets a lot of bigoted core dumps. If I could figure out how to leave a comment, I'd ask her what proportion of her callers behave like that. Even a few indicates a serious problem, but I'd like to know how widespread it is and whether it tends to be her older callers.
Anyway, aside from that post (and do read the comments--there's a lot of interesting stuff there, including the guy who's assumed to know more about computers if he uses a Japanese name), I'm curious-- how does your name affect your life?
I don't think mine has a huge effect. People generally have trouble remembering, pronouncing, or spelling my last name. I feel that this is a clue: if people miss something so simple and objective, how much more of what's going on are we failing to notice.
Mid-westerners seem to be more likely to get my name right. I have two theories and no idea whether either of them is right, or if it's something else-- or even that there's really no pattern there at all. Anyway, it's possible that, since mid-westerners generally know fewer Jews, they don't know the more common name which is similar to mine, so that slot in their minds isn't already filled in. Alternatively, they seem more polite, so it's possible they take more trouble with names.
As for my first name, it's ordinary enough to not have much effect that I can see. It's (probably because it's stereotypically female) occasionally used to indicate "person who's there to be raped" as in "a cellmate who'll call you Nancy". I'm not fond of that usage.
I don't seem to get the bigoted core dumps that are common features in a lot of people's lives. (I do have one friend who I argue with a lot on the subject, but this isn't at the level of pervasiveness I see reported.) How much open bigotry crosses your path?
For this discussion, I'd appreciate it if everyone assumes that people are telling the truth about their own experience.
Link thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) boxofdelights.
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06:20 pm
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Excuse me if this is too obvious
But I'm wondering if Edwards is keeping quiet about who he supports because he's angling to run for Vice President.
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01:31 pm
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Something I've been trying to put a finger on....
In one's imagination, anything can lead to anything else: Allowing people to skip church can lead to indolence; letting women drive can lead to sexual licentiousness. In a free society, one cannot empower the government to outlaw any behavior that offends someone just because the offendee can pull a hypothetical future injury out of the air.
Link thanks to james_nicoll.
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01:03 pm
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It's so hard to see what's disappeared
From a comment to rm, here:
For awhile, I was helping to maintain a veterans community.
Sometime around when LJ cracked down on fandom, they also quietly wiped out most military schools, as well as some journals of members currently involved in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I've been a little baffled why even in the midst of the the fandom issues, LJ would leave "Starfleet Academy" and "Hogwarts", and "Miskatonic University" (which are great for fan communities to embrace), yet actual training like "Infantry School" and "Airborne School" (both of which actually exist) are now gone and unable to be re-added. Personally, I met close friends at both of those places, learned more than a few valuable lessons, and probably still carry a little scar tissue from my times there.
Additionally, when some of the soldier's journals disappeared, it's impossible to tell the reason. Did the government demand they be pulled for security/censorship issues? Did someone flag them because they disagreed with the political issues? Or were these journals actually deleted by the members for their own privacy? (In at least one case, I'd really like to know if that person is alive or dead.) If LJ is going to wipe out a journal, it would be nice to at least have a vague inclination as to why.
Since then, many members of that community have simply taken to blogging elsewhere.
Thanks,
-Christopher-Ian
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10:34 am
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On the brothel at Auschwitz and the fragility of history
http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/328621.html
An account of how the recent ill-named rpg mess led to researching the brothel at Auschwitz and establishing that most of what people thought they knew about it was porn fiction myth wrong.
It doesn't surprise me that there are wrong bits and missing pieces in the historical record-- it's hard to find out what's going on, and wishful thinking and preconceptions make it harder.
Link thanks to rm.
Addendum:: twistedchick told me that the male brothel was mentioned in Uris' Exodus (pub. 1983), a very popular novel about the founding of Israel.
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02:36 pm
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Odd bee behavior
Yesterday, I saw two huge bumblebees (maybe they were normal-sized, but I was nervous about them) chasing around a parking lot. I don't know if one was chasing the other or they took turns or they were doing the bumblebee version of hanging out. They stayed within a few inches of each other most of the time, and they were moving pretty fast.
Territorial behavior? Mating? Bees are weirder than I know?
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08:24 pm
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Imposition of order equals escalation of chaos
Crime emergency declared along the US-Mexican border
Was the idea to "control our borders" to keep terrorists out? Instead, the crime problem just gets worse.
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11:50 am
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Tolkien Survey
By way of sartorias, here's the survey. It's collecting a social history of what people like about Tolkien's writing, their experiences with it, and why they think his work is so popular.
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06:44 am
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Science fiction, Asperger's, and the future
http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Features/Westfahl_HomoAspergerus.html
Indeed, while one typically believes that people turn to science fiction in search of colorfully unusual vicarious experiences, an entirely different set of motives often may be in play: to a teenager in the 1930s with Asperger's Syndrome, a story about an astronaut encountering aliens on Mars might have had an air of comforting familiarity, in contrast to stories set in the bizarre, inexplicable, and thoroughly socialized worlds of Andy Hardy and the Bobbsey Twins.
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05:44 am
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Non-funny wiseass would be more expensive
A $300,000 watch? Luxury. A $300,000 watch that doesn’t tell time — and that sells out? Pure genius.
The watch has two tourbillons, includes metal from the Titanic, and only indicates day and night.
Best comment: I disagree with some of the sceptical comments here. I think this is a very useful watch. If I was a multi-millionaire with my head up my butt, I wouldn’t know day from night.
The website for the watch is probably the most pretentious website I've ever seen.
A failed effort to find out whether it's a hoax turned this up.
Link thanks to Marginal Revolution.
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06:07 am
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Meteors before dawn this Monday.....no moon!
Bits of Halley's Comet will streak into the Earth's atmosphere before dawn on Monday during the peak of the eta Aquarid meteor shower. Moonlight will not interfere with the show, making this likely the best meteor display for northern hemisphere observers until the Perseids in August, and the best all year for southern hemisphere viewers.
The weather prediction for Philly is partly cloudy. Not what I was hoping for, but it could be worse.
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11:02 am
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Gender and the structure of the universe
I don't believe male and female are extremely important categories. I don't see huge generalized differences between men and women. I don't think male and female mean the same thing across all species.
It seems as though a lot of people do see male and female a deep mythic structure, rather than a somewhat blurry aspect of biology.
I was reminded of this because of a difficulty in therapy last week. My therapist (who generally does a good job with me) was telling me that expansion and creativity is male, and choosing what to do and what not to do out of all those possibilities is female. This kind of thing drives me crazy because it seems like nonsense. The "that's nonsense!" reflex kicks at least as fast as a feeling I'm being told that creativity is somewhat out of character for me. My therapist said this isn't about individuals, but I just don't have the mental flexibility to believe that.
I don't believe I'd be saner, happier, or more capable if I could see gender as metaphysically important.
I'm hoping he has the mental flexibility to switch to just talking about complementary traits (like seeing possibilities and selecting among them) without bringing in gender.
So, what's your take on male, female, and the universe? Have you ever changed your mind about the metaphysics (if any) of male and female? Do you see any difference between people who believe that male and female go beyond immediate biology and those who don't?
And as a bonus, where do you think male and female fit into Taoism? I think they're epiphenomena of yin and yang, but I got into a head-banging argument with dcseain about it.
Addendum:: My therapist called back and asked if yin and yang would be ok. I said yes, or complementary qualities. After some other stuff, he said he might have had an off day. I agreed with him. I'm not posting the rest of the conversation, but things will probably be ok.
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02:12 pm
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Two possible button slogans
Crazed coincidence theorist
Why does George Bush hate the Republican party?
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04:42 am
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Obama, Wright, and distributed truth
Here's a transcript of Obama repudiating Wright, thanks to redneckgaijin.
The folks who were saying that Wright's soundbites were outrageous were clearly on to something.
However, so were the folks who said that Obama shouldn't be judged by his clergy.
I don't think very many people were saying both of the above.
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03:29 am
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Black hole escaping from home galaxy?
An article about what looks like a black hole on the run.
But shouldn't anything which affects the black hole also send the stars around it in the same direction? I would expect the galaxy to be distorted, but at least partially following the black hole.
Also, though I'm less sure of this, shouldn't the black hole be dragging stars along with it?
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10:36 am
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Odd Fish
This comic just hits the spot for me--it's the combination of doofy but funny jokes and graceful drawing.
Sinfest and xckd are the only other comics I read regularly.
Link thanks to caprine.
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09:17 pm
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Exactly
yhlee says (emphasis mine):
This may also be why students objected so vehemently when I would insist on doing "sideways" examples to the questions they had. For example, if they wanted to learn how to solve x/2 - 7 = 18, I'd present them with 3x + 5 = 10 (difficulty scaled depending on the particular student and my best judgement). They hated that, because I wasn't "answering the question." And no, I wasn't answering their specific "how do I solve this exact problem" question, but I was trying to get them to develop slightly more generalized tools. (By year's end I was able to get away with, "What would you try first?" and get responses most of the time. But early on, you have to guide them into a culture of problem-solving rather than a "received knowledge" model where the teacher is agent and problem-solver and the student is the passive receiver of tricks & tools.)
That's such a nice way of expressing the opposite of guessing the teacher's password.
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08:46 pm
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Fear of being falsely accused of rape
http://ursulav.livejournal.com/766899.html
ursulav has asked this:
A) If male, are you afraid of being falsely accused of rape? Is this a Major Fear--i.e. something you worry about every time you're trying to get to know a woman? (Hell, is this something you worry about if you're, say, alone in a parking garage with a female in the next aisle getting into her car?)
B) If either gender, do you personally know anybody who has been falsely accused of rape? (Not friend-of-a-friend stories, but you, yourself, are at least the level of on-line acquaintanceship with them.)
The outcome seems to be that some fear is fairly but not extremely common, false accusations aren't rare but aren't extremely common and are much less common than rape.
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12:27 pm
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More on human ignorance
NPR's Radio Times just had an hour about aircraft carriers. It was an overview about their size, usefulness, cost, future, and a little about what it's like to land jets on them and to live on them.
There's also a pledge drive going on, and one of the themes that hour was about not expecting to have any interest in aircraft carriers, but discovering through the wonderfulness of NPR that they actually are interesting. They say the same theme about their business show.
Now, I'll grant that I started out with an extreme case of blind spot about the military, but through the wonders of sf fandom, I eventually picked up some sketchy knowledge and an understanding that any complex human institution has quite a bit interesting about it if it's explained at the right level of abstraction.
I don't know if the commentators were underestimating their audience, but I do wonder if that degree of blind spot is common even among the information junkies that NPR seems to be playing to.
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12:14 pm
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Noticing unwanted touching, especially of hair
These threads are about unwanted touching. Before you read them, please try to guess which people are more likely to be touched because just because some stranger feels like touching them. I expect there will be some surprises in the second thread.
http://plasticsturgeon.livejournal.com/107334.html
http://delux-vivens.livejournal.com/801997.html?nc=169
Here's the question for you folks: Have you ever noticed someone getting touched that way? Someone getting touched for a reason that doesn't apply to you?
I never have, and I suspect my lack of adequate people-watching isn't all that unusual.
Note to self: Be more careful about babies. I've been in the habit of making sure the baby wants my company, but I've been much less careful about the adult with the baby.
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