So today, right on my sisters birthday, I became an uncle again as my eldest brother became the father of a second son. That brings the total of nieces and nephews on five, three nieces, two nephews. My brother has all the boys in the family so far, with the nieces divided between my step brother (the two oldest) and my sister, whose daughter was born in January. I like being an uncle; all the pleasures of having kids and at the end you can give them back to mommy or daddy, but it is nice to see how the various parents all deal with their kids, each in their own ways.
Archives for 2012
Your happening world (24)
Cartoonist Tracey Butler provides a huge, insanely over-detailed quick reference guide on drawing facial expressions
Arthur B thinks we need to talk about Conan and whether or not Robert E. Howard’s works are worth reading:
But when it comes to more or less any other motivation for reading fantasy fiction – whether you’re angling for improving literature or trashy fun (or trashy literature or improving fun, for that matter), and assuming you are not someone who deliberately reads badly written and offensive fiction for the lulz, there is really no reason to expend time on Howard when there’s a whole world of authors out there who don’t have his grotesque issues and are simply better writers than he is.
In a discussion about Eastercon, a side remark about the offensiveness of complimenting non-native speakers on their English:
English isn’t an optional extra for a lot of people around the world. They are required to learn English to get by in the international world, because English is the lingua franca. Congratulating them like they’re great students, the way we are when we deign to learn other languages, is ignoring the part where we force them to be good at English by dominating the world with our language and treating people like lesser humans when they don’t speak it (or don’t speak it well, or don’t speak it with the “right” accents).
Net Neutrality enacted in Holland
Some good news from the Netherlands for a change:
On 8 May 2012 The Netherlands adopted crucial legislation to safeguard an open and secure internet in The Netherlands. It is the first country in Europe to implement net neutrality in the law. In addition, it adopted provisions protecting users against disconnection and wiretapping by providers. Digital rights movement Bits of Freedom calls upon other countries to follow the Dutch example.
[…]
In addition, the law includes an anti-wiretapping provision, restricting internetproviders from using invasive wiretapping technologies, such as deep packet inspection (DPI). They may only do so under limited circumstances, or with explicit consent of the user, which the user may withdraw at any time. The use of DPI gained much attention when KPN admitted that it analysed the traffic of its users to gather information on the use of certain apps. The law allows for wiretapping with a warrant.
Moreover, the law includes a provision ensuring that internet providers can only disconnect their users in a very limited set of circumstances. Internet access is very important for functioning in an information society, and providers currently could on the basis of their terms and conditions disconnect their users for numerous reasons. The provision allows for the disconnection in the case of fraud or when a user doesn’t pay his bills.
There are some specific Dutch clauses to the bill. The bill prohibits filtering of internet all together, providers cannot block any website or service whatsoever, no more blocking of Skype or Youtube on mobile phones just because it costs the providers money. But what it does allow is belief based filtering: there are a few providers who provide internet connections for e.g. Christians who’d rather not be confronted with the wicked outside and those are still legal. Which is as it should be.
The important thing is that no provider is now able to block services or websites they don’t like.
Rich people may be old, but old people are not rich
The Mighty Mighty Godking imagines a commencement address for coffin dodgers, giving old people some of their own medicine in the form of unwanted advice. The key paragraph is the following
Rich people are generally old people; even well-off people are generally old people. And old people look out for old people, and unfortunately over the past twenty or so years the number of old people has been increasing steadily, which means that the interests of old people dominate over the interests of young people, who just have to eventually take care of the old people. I mean – global warming! We all agreed that that was important, right? And then suddenly rich people – who were also old people – all decided it really wasn’t that important any more, and lectured us all about how the economy demanded that we pretend climate change wasn’t happening. (The economy demands a lot of things. Like tax cuts for rich people – who are, once again, mostly old people.) And when the economy gets better, it doesn’t get better for young people. The story of unemployment in every first world country right now is the same: young people are unemployed at vastly greater rates than old people, with rates double or triple the general unemployment rate.
Most rich people might be old, but most old people aren’t rich. While it is true that younger people are affected more by the current economic crisis, for a lot of elder baby boomers it’s not been a happy time either. MGK’s hypothetical sixty year old, who in his version has had everything going for him would’ve also been eligble for the draft when the war in Vietnam was still ongoing, left university just as the mid-seventies economic depressions (stagflation!) hit, had to suffer years of low to non-existing wage raises in the early eighties in order to safeguard his pension later, be suckered into all kinds of 401(k) schemes that paid out more to the fund managers than to his retirement fund, had hoped to have his house as a nest egg but saw the bottom drop out of the housing market just as he lost his job as well, while the only new job he can find is as greeter at Wal-Mart. And to add insult to injury, he now keeps hearing that social security is broken and needs to be privatised to be saved, when he spent most of the eighties moderating his wage demands to save it…
We shouldn’t really be talking about a generational conflict, of a struggle between old and young people, but rather realise that both generations have been suckered by a small elite of rich people. After the Second World War we had roughly thirty years in which all western countries build up an as fair and equal welfare state as was possible in each country, which in the last thiry years has been steadily attacked by those who saw profit in dismantling it. Talking too much about “old” versus “young” just plays in their hands.
F-f-f-frustration
The battlecry of millions of late 20th century/early 21st century suburbanites, Soft Cell’s “Frustration” is one example of how underrated the band is, largely known for its cover of that Northern Soul classic “Tainted Love”. Their other claim of fame of course being one of a whole wave of “gay” (electro)pop bands that broke in eighties Britain: Bronski Beat, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Communards, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Culture Club undsoweiter. It’s strange how that suddenly happened; you can’t really say England was gay friendly at the time, can you?
This song just popped up on my playlist and I thought I’d share it, as it so perfectly sums up some of my feelings at the moment.