king_jester (u/king_jester)

king_jester commented on What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me itinthed.com/16328/what-t... · Posted by u/chaghalibaghali

kbart · 11 years ago

Why comics? There are plenty of good books (even with pictures) for the girls of that age. Comics were never supposed to be educational or have any non-entertainment value and primary tarted at hormones soaked male teens. Take her to the books store instead. You don't complain that nobody does piano recital during pop concerts -- either go there or not. Actually, I find annoying the trend of complaining about anything that does not suite somebody's needs or attitudes.

king_jester · 11 years ago

> Comics were never supposed to be educational or have any non-entertainment value and primary tarted at hormones soaked male teens.

This hasn't been true of comic books for several decades now. The medium has many examples of high quality, well written, and unique books. Also, the demographics of comics has changed many times over the last 100 years, the focus on men over the last couple of decades is recent phenomenon in the grand scheme of things.

king_jester commented on What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me itinthed.com/16328/what-t... · Posted by u/chaghalibaghali

Spooky23 · 11 years ago

Your talking about the tail wagging the dog. Comics are how they are because the market imploded and they have to appeal to the niche of of niche that is their customer base.

When I was a kid in NYC, I remember going to the newsstand with my dad and they had a few racks of the mass market comics. I'd get spider man and superman, my younger sister would get Donald Duck and similar things. Today there's no newsstand and paper media is imploding, so it's a completely different market.

I don't get manga at all, but it's a different phenomenon that doesn't have mass appeal, and girls aren't in the niche.

king_jester · 11 years ago

> Comics are how they are because the market imploded and they have to appeal to the niche of of niche that is their customer base.

It's been a long time since that implosion, that isn't an excuse any longer for why comics continue to alienate new readers and reinforce stereotypes.

king_jester commented on By Making a Game Out of Rejection, a Man Conquers Fear npr.org/blogs/health/2015... · Posted by u/megaultra

SeanDav · 11 years ago

As a teenager I went to an all boys school, so was very shy with women. One day I just decided to get over my fear and resolved to ask for the telephone number of every pretty girl that caught my attention in public, even if they were with other girls. Importantly to the process was that it was never my intention to actually call the girl - just to see what percentage gave me their number. Since the outcome was not important, it did not matter if I was successful or not.

It worked surprisngly well. I got over my fear and was quite amazed at my success rate. IIRC it was around 25%, maybe even higher.

It was important to not be creepy, just friendly and withdraw if the situation became at all uncomfortable.

king_jester · 11 years ago

Using women as a prop for self confidence is pretty douchey.

king_jester commented on I Owe It All to Community College nytimes.com/2015/01/14/op... · Posted by u/MaxQuentero

morgante · 11 years ago

I love your comment for how misguided it is.

> Acting like regular college students don't have classes that are super simple to game and pass

Oh, I know they exist. I just wouldn't write about them in the admissions brochure or an op-ed touting their supposed value.

> Saying life moments like dating/flirting aren't important (what exactly are students supposed to do between classes anyway!?!)

I suppose some people consider them important (I don't), but that doesn't mean the taxpayer should be footing the bill.

> Saying being an actor does not require intellectual or academic ability (hint: it does)

Maybe for better actors it requires some intellectual ability, but I'm unconvinced that most of Hanks's community college classes had any impact on his career.

> Has no idea what FAFSA is like or what it's like to navigate that mess

I'm in college right now, on financial aid. I'm well aware of the complexities of the FAFSA and probably filed one much more recently than you. But it's nowhere near challenging enough that a bright, motivated student would find it a hindrance.

> Pretending that they aren't already indirectly paying for people to "get easy As, ogle girls, and pursue unintellectual careers"

Oh, I know we are. I'd just prefer to not pay for more of it.

king_jester · 11 years ago

The point I'm making is that we expect people to continue living their lives while going to school, that doesn't change. Getting financial aid isn't a contract to live a strict monastic life nor should it be. Also, the fact that not every single person who gets aid goes on to use it for some optimal standard doesn't mean that it is a waste or that we as a society shouldn't do it.

> I'm in college right now, on financial aid. I'm well aware of the complexities of the FAFSA and probably filed one much more recently than you. But it's nowhere near challenging enough that a bright, motivated student would find it a hindrance.

It wasn't very long ago when I did FAFSA and I knew quite a few bright people who struggled with the process. FAFSA is not a perfect process and leaves a lot to be desired as I'm sure you are aware of.

> Maybe for better actors it requires some intellectual ability, but I'm unconvinced that most of Hanks's community college classes had any impact on his career.

This is an arbitrary thing to say, as clearly to Hanks some of the things he's recalling were significant to his life and his career. We don't get to make decisions for what is important to someone's development, that is up to individual people. There were many experiences that I've had that make me how am I today as a person and professional and I'm sure some folks may want to write that off.

king_jester commented on But Where Do People Work in This Office? mattblodgett.com/2015/01/... · Posted by u/strangetimes

mgkimsal · 11 years ago

My first reaction was that this was a bit over the top, but... on reflection, not really. Fog Creek's setup looks nice, but outside of that, I've rarely seen any company treat their developers like they treat their marketing folks, legal, financial and other areas. Financial/accountants aren't generally expected to sit in an open room with 15 other people with foosball games going on in their line of site.

Should we encourage "pair accounting" and have accountants share a laptop screen to get their work done?

There's an element of mentoring and support that can go on in those open environments - adhoc help, etc - but that seems to be partially a cover for the fact that many people aren't all that good at what they do, and the better people need to help train (sorry, "lead") the less experienced folk.

My own experience in open plans, beyond the general noise, is that it's harder for people to admit they have a question, because it's visible to an entire group. Likewise, it's harder to call someone out for not pulling their weight in an open plan setting, without calling more attention to the interaction.

"private by default" seems to work well for OO developers, just not when it comes to their office space.

king_jester · 11 years ago

> Should we encourage "pair accounting" and have accountants share a laptop screen to get their work done?

Have you ever seen finance people work? That happens all of the time.

king_jester commented on Inactivity 'kills more than obesity' bbc.co.uk/news/health-308... · Posted by u/sjcsjc

Shivetya · 11 years ago

Obesity is an epidemic we are accelerating. Then to top that, far too many do not understand the difference between obesity and morbid obesity. The latest fads of Fat Acceptance and Healthy At Every Size show the trend quite well.

Then to make matters worse, in the US hospitals and doctors can be punished for trying to help obese, especially very obese patients. The ACA brought along patient satisfaction scores. So if you don't like what your being told you can score the hospital/doctor lower. While the economic impact might be measured in small percentages the tightness is costs makes this a big factor. You can guarantee this affects how the obese and very obese are treated, in many cases they will be coddled and never once will their weight be mentioned.

Finally we have far too many people inactive in this country and many others because government benefits programs are sufficient to allow them this lifestyle. Simply put, if you keep paying and feeding people not to work just what do you expect them to do? Idleness is not a good state, its worse when we institutionalize it.

Anecdotal but I am sure many have the same experience, there are two groups of co workers who are out the most, very obese people and smokers. Why should either be acceptable? If we can stamp out smoking we can stamp out obesity.

king_jester · 11 years ago

> The latest fads of Fat Acceptance and Healthy At Every Size show the trend quite well.

Fat acceptance is not a fad as you put. It is about people being able to accept and love themselves as they are. Fat people are bombarded with messages that they are not acceptable and they should not be exist. Fatness is described as a thing to be exterminated, which implies that fat people should be exterminated. This is not hyperbole, you can see this message reflected in advertising, media portrayals, and what people say (your own post has elements of this).

> Finally we have far too many people inactive in this country and many others because government benefits programs are sufficient to allow them this lifestyle. Simply put, if you keep paying and feeding people not to work just what do you expect them to do? Idleness is not a good state, its worse when we institutionalize it.

Have you even ever lived on an assistance program like food stamps? The amount of money given is never enough to completely cover's one's needs, folks are constantly looking for and finding ways to raise money by working, whether its official employment or grey market.

> Anecdotal but I am sure many have the same experience, there are two groups of co workers who are out the most, very obese people and smokers. Why should either be acceptable?

Nobody is obligated to live their life if a way you find acceptable. Nobody is obligated to be healthy or to drop unhealthy habits like smoking. Health systems that seek to punish people will not produce good health outcomes, it will simply drive those people away from seeking out medical care when they need it. Accusatory and attacking beliefs about health are what cause doctors and medical professionals to blame health outcomes on that status even when it is unrelated.

king_jester commented on Inactivity 'kills more than obesity' bbc.co.uk/news/health-308... · Posted by u/sjcsjc

thret · 11 years ago

Daily hard exercise - the panting, heart-pounding, drenched in sweat kind of exercise - increases your metabolism. You can eat whatever you want, as much as you want, and you won't gain fat.

The 2nd law of thermodynamics has little if anything to do with calorie counting.

king_jester · 11 years ago

> Daily hard exercise - the panting, heart-pounding, drenched in sweat kind of exercise - increases your metabolism.

This is not true for all people and can be highly variable between different people, let alone not necessarily possible for folks with metabolic disorders.

king_jester commented on Inactivity 'kills more than obesity' bbc.co.uk/news/health-308... · Posted by u/sjcsjc

victorhooi · 11 years ago

I do not agree with your statement.

What do you even mean by "normal exercise"?

I believe that most "normal" people are capable of doing enough exercise (combined with good eating choices) that they can lose weight.

For example, say you have a 1-hour lunch break each day. During that lunch break, you could easily go for a 6km run (30-40 minutes), as well as have time for a shower, and grab food. If you're prepared to have a faster shower, and eat a quick snack, heck, you could even make it a 10km run (50 minutes).

And depending on where you live, you might also be able to jog, or cycle to work - that's probably another 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity, depending on how far. (I have a 15-minute cycle each way).

And maybe some mornings, you could get up early, and go for a swim, or go boxing or something.

Either way, I personally know many ordinary people who manage to get a healthy amount of exercise, and achieve their weight goals.

I also have a friend who quite honestly, eats what seems to be an incredibly unhealthy mix - think large amounts of junk food and deep-fried fast food. However, they manage to stay reasonably slim (think BMI 18) by doing insane amounts of exercise (several hours a day). So it's definitely achievable, assuming you have that sort of willpower.

What studies are you referring to, that show that "normal" exercise will not cause weight loss? I'd be very curious to see them.

king_jester · 11 years ago

> I believe that most "normal" people are capable of doing enough exercise (combined with good eating choices) that they can lose weight.

The point is there is there no set point of "enough" exercise to induce weight loss. It is highly variable between people and it is very unlikely that any individual can keep weight off in this fashion over a period of time. Linking exercise and weight is a time waster and, more importantly, can dissuade people from exercising when they don't achieve an impossible standard for weight loss.

> For example, say you have a 1-hour lunch break each day. During that lunch break, you could easily go for a 6km run (30-40 minutes), as well as have time for a shower, and grab food. If you're prepared to have a faster shower, and eat a quick snack, heck, you could even make it a 10km run (50 minutes).

First of all, the majority of workers do not have hour long lunch breaks. Second, that exercise during the middle of the work day sounds like a great way to ratchet up stress rather than be relaxing since now you are stuck in a time management game. This isn't an appropriate approach for everyone.

> Either way, I personally know many ordinary people who manage to get a healthy amount of exercise, and achieve their weight goals.

Again, this notion of a "healthy amount" of exercise is a fiction w.r.t. weight loss.

> I also have a friend who quite honestly, eats what seems to be an incredibly unhealthy mix - think large amounts of junk food and deep-fried fast food. However, they manage to stay reasonably slim (think BMI 18) by doing insane amounts of exercise (several hours a day). So it's definitely achievable, assuming you have that sort of willpower.

This person would likely still be a low BMI even without exercise.

> What studies are you referring to, that show that "normal" exercise will not cause weight loss? I'd be very curious to see them.

For a compilation of study data about weight loss, see the first half of Health at Every Size [1] (this is not an endorsement of a HAES lifestyle, but this book does collect the evidence).

[1] www.amazon.com/Health-At-Every-Size-Surprising/dp/1935618253/

king_jester commented on I Owe It All to Community College nytimes.com/2015/01/14/op... · Posted by u/MaxQuentero

morgante · 11 years ago

This is pretty far from being a ringing endorsement of community colleges. If anything, it just reaffirms the complete lack of academic rigor they provide.

- He aced an English class by doing "nothing more than embellish the definition I had looked up in the dictionary."

- His recollection of public speaking class was a gorgeous flight attendant.

- He never ended up graduating with a bachelor's degree and pursued a career which depends more on good looks than academic or intellectual ability.

I just don't understand why I should be footing the bill for more substandard students to get easy As, ogle girls, and pursue unintellectual careers. There's already plenty of aid available for intellectually deserving students (read: capable of filling out the FAFSA form). Adding more will just drive up the cost to taxpayers and continue to lower the quality of a CC education.

king_jester · 11 years ago

I love this post for how wrong it is:

* Acting like regular college students don't have classes that are super simple to game and pass

* Saying life moments like dating/flirting aren't important (what exactly are students supposed to do between classes anyway!?!)

* Saying being an actor does not require intellectual or academic ability (hint: it does)

* Has no idea what FAFSA is like or what it's like to navigate that mess

* Pretending that they aren't already indirectly paying for people to "get easy As, ogle girls, and pursue unintellectual careers"

king_jester commented on Facebook Unveils Facebook at Work techcrunch.com/2015/01/14... · Posted by u/darklrd

berberous · 11 years ago

Well, what's your threat model that you are worried about? I would imagine all of these companies have much better security and reliability than most internal IT departments. And I don't see them snooping for their own purposes. The NSA can get what they want anyways.

The one big issue is subpoena's / third party doctrine issues, but I imagine for many companies that's a decent tradeoff for the reduced IT overhead / security / reliability issues. Other industries, like law, should obviously avoid such services.

king_jester · 11 years ago

> And I don't see them snooping for their own purposes.

That is contrary to the history of how companies take advantage of data provided to them, even when that data is supposed to be confidential.