
Month: September 2017
How to Distinguish Between Antifa, White Supremacists, and Black Lives Matter
I liked that he uses the methodical approach for finding clarity in complicated issues.
One way forward is to distinguish between a group’s ends and its means. Diligently doing so can help anyone to formulate a defensible position, to better understand those who disagree, and to emphasize common ground that too often goes unrecognized.
This helps when talking to your friends and relations who put you in a position where you have to “choose sides”, and it helps diffuse tensions.
different groups can choose equally objectionable means without becoming equivalent, because assessing any group requires analyzing their ends, not just their means.
this all brings it to
If you disagree with any of my characterizations about the means and ends of those groups, we are at odds over facts, not values, and I am open to seeing evidence that challenges my assessment of a complicated matter. Bearing that in mind can make hashing out the truth less fraught and more likely to proceed constructively and profitably.
he then goes on to analyzing and comparing BLM, Antifa and neo-Nazis (with conclusions that are unsurprising, but satisfying to read nonetheless), but the main conclusion to take away is the most laudable:
So come to whatever conclusions accord with your reason and conscience. But when expressing them, consider drawing as many distinctions as possible.
How to Distinguish Between Antifa, White Supremacists, and Black Lives Matter
It’s another beautiful early fall day, but I’m sad the summer is over.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion – the fall is arguably as pretty as the spring, has more pleasant days, and he bounty of food that’s in season is like nothing else. Also, Halloween!
But to me it looks like the nature is dying, even if temporarily, the days are noticeably shorter, and its getting clear that the all the summer plans made in the giddy excitement of spring when possibilities seemed boundless will now never materialize.
Satellite photos reveal how Mumbai killed its rivers and mangrove forests to risk epic floods — Quartz
Houston’s rampant development and lack of any government regulation whatsoever (all in the name of affordable housing, compared to regulated places like cities in Democratic states) and destruction of natural environment to build housing contributed to the scale of their disaster.
Hope they will consider better design and more government oversight when they rebuild.
Places like Mumbai though, with corruption and lack of regulation is on another scale altogether, and it’s scary to even contemplate what will happen there.
After TRAPPIST-1, our very own Saturn and its moons get to make music! Since it’s the area with the most resonances in our solar system, thanks to its rings and moons, there is much to “extract” music and sounds from:
“In part 1 we use a numerical simulation of the moon system to play a note for each orbit and assign pitches by increasing their actual orbital frequencies by 27 octaves so that they can be heard by human ears. We apply the same pitch scaling to the entire ring system and modulate the volume of the resulting tone using the observed brightness of the rings. The final sound was created by combining the oscillation frequencies of Saturn itself.”
The team behind the project is the same that “auditified” TRAPPIST-1: Andrew Santaguida, Matt Russo and Dan Tamayo.
Find out more here:
http://www.system-sounds.com/saturn-sounds-part1/
Men who want to fight sexism at work: Read Sheryl Sandberg’s blunt advice
A lot of tips in this article were widely taught and pretty much expected of me and my coworkers in the Old Company, it’s sort of common sense that I always (mistakenly) thought was standard outside my old company’s bubble.
But following these at this job, simply because it is the only way that I know, is the reason I have no friends here, and will always stay an outsider.
I’ve pretty much come to accept it, but it still sucks.
Men who want to fight sexism at work: Read Sheryl Sandberg’s blunt advice

