Interesting Links for 30-07-2021

[andrewducker]

'A nightmare scenario': how an anti-trans Instagram post led to violence in the streets

(tags:transgender LGBT riots USA OhForFucksSake )

The Lord of the Rings Almost Killed Off One of the Hobbits

(tags:lotr )

I absolutely definitely 100% do not want this job. Or to ever meet these people

(tags:Jobs interview wtf )

Virgin Media O2 to Upgrade Existing UK Network with Full Fibre

(tags:Virgin broadband uk )

Inside The Cosby Suite From The Activision Blizzard Lawsuit

(tags:abuse women games OhForFucksSake viaSwampers )

'Wayward Children' Movie Franchise In Works After Paramount Lands Rights

(tags:fantasy movies )

Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney over 'Black Widow' Streaming Release

(tags:Disney marvel movies law )

Neil Gaiman on impostor syndrome

(tags:self-esteem neilgaiman NeilArmstrong )

Good Omens' Neil Gaiman reveals big hurdle for season 2

(tags:neilgaiman TV books terrypratchett )

The fungus and bacteria tackling plastic waste

(tags:plastic fungus waste )

Comments

[mountainkiss]

The penultimate title / article is the nearest I've ever seen to clickbait from you.

[andrewducker]

Yes. Sorry about that, I was saving it while packing to leave, and should have left it until I had time to write a better headline rather than using the existing one.

[mountainkiss]

It just seemed really out of character!

[haggis]

And it's a story from 2020 so it seems that they resolved the scheduling issue 😁

[andrewducker]

This is why I should have changed the headline. The important bit was about the proposed three seasons.

[danieldwilliam]

Season two will surprise you!

[mountainkiss]

It might, if I were to watch it.

[danieldwilliam]

That itself would be the surprise.

Imposter Syndrome

[haggis]

I don't know why but the line "I just went where I was sent" aways makes me tearful.

Re: Imposter Syndrome

[calimac]

Yes, in a way it was true.

Another good response, alternate to the one Gaiman gave, might be, "Yes, but they sent you."

Re: Imposter Syndrome

[haggis]

Ooh, I like that!

[danieldwilliam]

I have a hypothesis that the buoyant job market for software engineers is behind things like the recent activism at eg Activision. It's easier to organise when you can easily leave for more money.

[andrewducker]

That certainly helps. So does critical mass and communication. Once one person comes forward, a bunch of others get the courage to do likewise because they aren't alone.

[danieldwilliam]

And there has been a recent trend in individual complaints leading to some collective action l not ending up in mass firings every time. So people will be emboldened.

[dewline]

And now there's the danger (?) that people who get fired might have big enough nest eggs in some cases to start up new studios.

[danieldwilliam]

That can only help.

I think part of what's going on is that some classes of employee feel powerful enough to say "Treat us better or we're outta here" and part of the "outta here" might well include setting up a rival to the current operation.

Johansson v. Disney

[dewline]

I'm still planning on going to a cinema to see Black Widow. And now that I know that the situation re: Disney+ isn't as "clean (corporate) hands" as I'd hoped it might be...well, I'm not happy about this. Whatever issues we have re: Ms. Johansson's other career choices and conduct in recent years, I hope she wins this one.

[mountainkiss]

(3) has got lost?

[andrewducker]

https://www.dryfarmwines.com/blogs/family-updates/compliance-manager

The account went private, but someone tracked down the original job advert.

[mountainkiss]

I think they sound nice.

[danieldwilliam]

I'm not sure I'd want to be Compliance Manager in that culture.

[mountainkiss]

I did wonder about the size of the intersection of the Venn diagram of "people who will be happy in that culture" and "people with compliance management training". But it won't be a null set, and someone's going to be very happy there who'd have been less so elsewhere.

(My basic problem with this is that they seem to have forgotten that they make wine, and wine is not the spirituality and well-being common good that they appear to think. But I still think they seem rather nice.)

[danieldwilliam]

I think there are fundamental parts of the mindset you need to be a compliance manager that will struggle with the culture of that organisation but you are probably right that at least someone will be happier there than elsewhere.

I think wine-makers would generally be considered to be a socially beneficial trade, more so than brewers or distillers or arms-dealers, so I'm not surprised they think positively about their own business. How would you expect to see some scepticism about their own organisation come across in their culture?

[mountainkiss]

I recognise that I am not a wholly unbiased witness but if I were a wellbeing-obsessed winemaker then I’d be constantly trumpeting about responsible drinking, which they’re notably not. I think there’s some naïveté here.

[danieldwilliam]

Please enjoy our hippie love fest wine responsibly style of thing.

It does seem a very internally focused culture. There's a bit of mention of upstream but nothing on downstream.

[andrewducker]

They sound like an absolutely lovely cult, full of delightful people who want to be intertwined in your life and radiate love onto you and your family, to enable you to be the best you you can be!

I would not want to work there, or be around them.

[mountainkiss]

This seems eminently reasonable. If this were everyone’s bag, the world would be a pretty different place.

Plastic Eating Mushrooms

[agoodwinsmith]

This sounds theoretically interesting. My panic-modulated brain immediately thinks of all the medical paraphernalia that is made of plastic (needle parts and vial lids for the vaccine eg), and wondering what happens when new young rebellious fungi seek adventure and self-fulfillment.

Pacemaker parts. The nose pads on my glasses. A lot of my CPAP machine (which I'm not currently using, but hey, it's mine). Pill bottles. Containers for receiving human effluvia for testing. Coating on electrical wires for various monitors.

And then there's car parts. Bus parts. Plane parts.

I don't know why "letting the genie out of the bottle" is a metaphor for continuing bad events, but it's probably because we lead with hopefulness instead of thoughtfulness.

Re: Plastic Eating Mushrooms

[anna_wing]

That was my first thought too. A better quality of synthesised enzyme would seem to be the way to go with this...