Delicious LiveJournal Links for 1-12-2010

[andrewducker]

• Avatar, Star Trek nominated for best ... writing!
  (tags: movies JamesCameron startrek)
• Spidey 4's dead, Raimi & Maguire out, reboot coming
  I wasn't expecting _that_.
  (tags: spiderman movies SamRaimi)
• BBC News - Having a big bum, hips and thighs 'is healthy'
  Carrying extra weight on your hips, bum and thighs is good for your health, protecting against heart and metabolic problems, UK experts have said.
  (tags: health weight)
• Anonymous Facebook Employee Interview - fascinating stuff
  In case you've been wondering what they get up to...
  (tags: facebook privacy interview security socialmedia)
• LJ: Polls for Basic Users
  Requires greasemonkey, and is dependent on a third party. But still - pretty nifty.
  (tags: livejournal polls)
• Bayonetta: empowering or exploitative?
  Nicely nuanced discussion
  (tags: feminism games videogames art)
• Pros and cons of using a four-year-old as your language instructor
  (tags: language children chinese)
• Remembering Reagan
  (tags: USA history comic RonaldReagan)
• The crisis of the mediocre marriage
  (tags: marriage uk society)
• Afghans more optimistic for future, survey shows
  (tags: afghanistan)
• Energy 2.0: What Comes From After Oil
  (tags: energy electricity)
• When people would just rather than transpeople didn't exist, they pretend they don't.
  This made me very angry indeed.
  (tags: transgender healthcare society)

Comments

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

The Facebook thing:

> Employee: See, the thing is — and I don’t know how much you know about it — it’s all stored in a database on the backend. Literally everything. Your messages are stored in a database, whether deleted or not. So we can just query the database, and easily look at it without every logging into your account. That’s what most people don’t understand.

I know most people don't think about to or need to know how websites are made, same as laws and sausages, but where to they think they're stored? In the bellies of magical secret keeper elves?

[andrewducker]

I hear that they mostly use leprechauns.

And no, most people have no idea. They think that "the internet" is a thing, not a collection of loosely joined independent machines.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

I gather that they expect the data to be more carefully protected than to be laid bare by nothing more than a query. Although honestly, I have no idea how you could go about protecting that sort of data, whether or not you could tie it to domain level permissions and the like, and protect it with company logins and the like.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

what's a backend database?

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

That's it I'm deleting the internet!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Although this may sound undesirable, it is actually beneficial because when fat is broken down quickly it releases a lot of cytokines which trigger inflammation in the body, say experts.

I wonder whether this is true, and if so, why this is the first time I've heard it. Probably because people don't want to hear that dieting might be dangerous. I keep wondering how much of the health risks of being very fat are the result of dangerous weight loss methods and of stigma.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

I'm struggling between anger and tearful for the trans people story.

Re:Bayonetta

[tanyad.livejournal.com]

I don't think its empowering or exploitative to be honest. I think its just stupidly over the top and meant for an adult audience. If you're looking for empowerment from a videogame character, you're doing it wrong.

Re: Bayonetta

[andrewducker]

Do you believe this about all media? Or are videogames special?

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Avatar, Star Trek nominated for best ... writing!
Jesus H. There are well-written sci-fi films but those aren't it - even Star Trek, which really wasn't bad, wasn't that good.

BBC News - Having a big bum, hips and thighs 'is healthy'
Takes them a while to catch up, doesn't it?

Bayonetta: empowering or exploitative?
Oh, the tried and tested 'taking sexy back' arugment. Feminism: You're doing it wrong.

When people would just rather than transpeople didn't exist, they pretend they don't.
This made me very angry indeed.
Me too.

Re: Bayonetta

[tanyad.livejournal.com]

Do I believe what about all media? That looking to them for empowerment is dumb?

Re: Bayonetta

[andrewducker]

Yup.

[andrewducker]

Why is it impossible to have sexiness and feminism at the same time?

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Er, I don't believe I said that.

[andrewducker]

You just said that if you were trying to reclaim sexiness then you were doing feminism wrong.

Or am I misunderstanding?

Re: Bayonetta

[tanyad.livejournal.com]

Hmm if I can define media as movies, video games and tv then yes. Those characters aren't real people and I think looking to those things for empowerment is just... silly for lack of a better word.

I don't look at video game characters, movie or tv depictions for inspiration or empowerment as a woman. I find that in my daily interaction with real people.

It ties in with my long standing argument against the rampant celebrity worship in this country and how some people get so into celebrities or allow their opinions to sway their decisions.

Either way, I think calling Bayonetta an empowering force is just dumb.

Re: Bayonetta

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I don't look at video game characters, movie or tv depictions for inspiration or empowerment as a woman.

Then you're in a tiny minority. Well done you, but we don't live in a bubble.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I don't think trying to reclaim sexiness is unfeminist. I do think that using that argument to excuse that game is unfeminist.

[andrewducker]

Why?

Re: Bayonetta

[tanyad.livejournal.com]

What can I say? I grew up in a single parent home, and learned early that real life heroes trump pixels and fictional folks for lessons on what to do.

Some days, I'd rather take the bubble if it was an option.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Good point.

In plain lingo: everything you type into FB or any site has to be stored in some way on some hard drive somewhere.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

You'd protect the database itself, but ultimately the DB server has to be completely accessible to the web server, and for debugging and stuff you need to be able to run raw queries on it.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Rather than answer this at length, let me answer your question with another question: Can you off-hand think of any games where unfeasibly endowed male characters use their sexuality as a weapon?

I can. It's called Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend, and you posted a link to the YouTube clip from it a while back as an example of one of the weirdest things you'd ever seen. It also doesn't actually exist, because no one would make that game. As far as I can tell all such games are incredibly niche products aimed at gay men. Compare and contrast.

Then, bearing this direct comparison in mind, go back to the article and read again the bit where the writer compares video game men being inhumanly strong and voilent with women being ridiculously sexualised. Think about what that comparison implies.

Do you see anything wrong with that picture?

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

> Oh, the tried and tested 'taking sexy back' arugment. Feminism: You're doing it wrong.

Yup.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

It's like the Ambiguously Gay Duo!