Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Was playing tug with my dog today and after a while I stopped because my arms were literally aching from it.

"And I started thinking - maybe that's partly why I've felt so exhausted the last few years....

"On top of Covid and it's impact on all of us, I feel like I'm in a constant tug of war.

"I'm struggling to hold on to my faith and my church, so they aren't pulled away by bigots and homophobes.

"I'm struggling to hold on to my country, it's democratic freedoms and public institutions so they aren't pulled away by right wing populists.

"It's exhausting being in a continual tug of war. But I cannot...will not...let go."

-- RevDaniel (RevDaniel), 2022-11-03

In replies:

"Thanks for reframing the way I feel ! I am going to hang on too!" -- veronica hutchinson (Ronigirl29)

"Of course, the more who hold on, the less pressure on any one pair of arms." -- RevDaniel (RevDaniel),

"Well I took that mare to the cattle drive
 And when the trail boss said that a girl can't ride
 I roped sixteen steer, stayed in the saddle
 Left the good old boys chewin' on gravel
 
 I don't wanna ride side saddle
 Side saddle, side saddle
 I just wanna ride bowlegged
 Bowlegged like the boys"
 
   -- Melody Walker & Molly Tuttle, "Side Saddle"
( video with lyrics, concert video (skip to 18:18 if you just want this song))

"Better understanding the clitoris can help everyone, regardless of their gender identity, but it's important to acknowledge this research is only possible because of gender-affirming surgeries and transgender patients. There's something profound about the fact that gender-affirming care becoming more commonplace also benefits other areas of health care. A rising tide lifts all boats. Oppressing or limiting transgender health care will harm everyone." -- Dr. Blair Peters, quoted in "Science Helps Reveal Secrets of the Clitoris" by Cara Murez, HealthDay, 2022-11-01

[A blessed All Souls Day to everyone celebrating it!]

"Just as a general guide, if it's science fiction, it contains social commentary of some kind." -- Beau of the Fifth Column (BeauTFC), 2022-10-30 or 2022-10-31 (YouTube is approximating it as "a day ago" and I'm not sure exactly how it rounds that), "Let's talk about Futurama's reboot and social commentary...."

[Note that this also goes for all the folks acting like Star Trek "suddenly" becoming "woke" or something. It always was. Some political or social idea will usually be in a science fiction story whether the creator meant to put it there, or just failed to notice what economic/social/political assumptions they incorporated.]

Blessed Samhain, good Día de los Muertos, and good All Hallows Day (All Saints Day) to everyone celebrating at least one of those!

"Not to over-romanticize this, but gay people loving Halloween isn't some accident. Up until the 1970s, most US cities banned same-sex dancing (& serving booze to gays, and even simple touching.) But in the 50s & 60s, some police depts made exceptions for Halloween & New Years

[...]

"On Halloween, though, it was possible to get around some of these laws. For example, in cities that banned drag (and enforced it by demanding men not wear clothing deemed "feminine,") it was easy to defend's one drag as a simple Halloween costume on Oct 31.

[...]

"Political organizing into the 1960s and a growing confidence that they weren't sick lead gays to more brazenly challenge homophobic laws. As one activist in SF put it in 1973,"We were allocated Halloween and nothing else. Finally, the gay community said 'Fuck you.'

"'We're going to put on a dress anytime we want to.'

"So yes we homosexuals love Halloween because it's campy, silly, outrageous, blah blah. But that's the point. All this wasn't legal just a few generations ago.

"Go party. Happy Halloween"

-- Eric Gonzaba (EGonzaba), 2022-10-27 [If you do a web search for "Gay Christmas" you can find other articles and essays about this particular aspect of Hallowe'en for adults.]

(Of course, Hallowe'en is also confused-programers' Christmas, because 31_Oct = 25_Dec.)

Happy Hallowe'en and blessed Samhain to everyone celebrating either or both of those!

"White supremacy erased the gender spectrum wherever it colonised and the liberation of trans people comes part and parcel with the end of white supremacy." -- Sam (FridoKala), 2022-10-29

Context: "We know all the steps to the monster mash, but do you know the steps to forming a union? Learn the moves!" [followed by graphics outlining steps to unionizing by way of an NLRB election or through voluntary recognition] -- NLRB General Counsel (NLRBGC), 2022-10-27

Today's quote:
"I was working in the lab late one night
 Making time-and-a-half 'cause my union's tight
 When my monster from his slab began to rise
 I said, 'And how would you like to unionize?'
 
 ...and when you get to the vote, tell 'em Boris sent you!"
  -- Retired 747 (747Retired), 2022-10-27

"It's very difficult to feel you're being measured against an invisible ruler whose markings keep moving all the time." -- twistedchick, 2022-09-25

"Kanye is a producer and sampler of music. Last week he sampled and remixed a classic tune that has charted for over 3000 years - the lie that Jews are evil and conspire to control the world for their own gain. This song was performed acapella in the time of the Pharaohs, Babylon and Rome, went acoustic with The Spanish Inquisition and Russia's Pale of Settlement, and Hitler took the song electric. Kanye has now helped mainstream it in the modern era.

"Lies are an important part of all discrimination, and this one is no different. When well crafted, they create the illusion that the action is just, that the bigot is 'punching up' at the victim. It's critical to antisemites, who must explain why they are attacking a people that comprise less than half of one percent of the world's population. Not a fair fight, numbers wise. But if the Jews are ultra-powerful because of secret evil plots, well, the argument is, it must be fair and ok.

"The silence from leaders and corporations^[1] when it comes to Kanye or antisemitism in general is dismaying but not surprising. What is new and sad, is the fear Jews have about speaking out in their own defense.

"Why is a group that has historically been brave and unreserved in its fight against antisemitism so quiet on Kanye?

"Because of the emergence of a second lie - one that is at the center of what we call Antisemitism 2.0. It is brilliantly crafted, fast becoming part of mainstream thinking, and puts Jews is a terrible philosophical corner. That lie goes as follows:

"If you support Israel's right to exist, you are a racist.
 If you are a Jew, you support Israel's right to exist.
 Therefore, if you are Jewish, you are a racist.

"As leaders of this company (a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian), we feel duty bound to say to all of you this is a pernicious, terrible use of false logic. It marries very well with the first 'punching up' lie that all Jews are connected by conspiracy. And it is working, because many Jews are scared to speak up in defense of their religion, or Israel, for fear of being labelled racists. It is no more true than saying that if you support Palestine's right to exist, you must be an antisemite.

-- from "Shelving of Our Kanye West Documentary and Two Important Lies", by Asif Satchu (CEO & Co-Founder), Modi Wiczyk (CEO & Co-Founder), Scott Tenley (CBO) of MRC Entertainment, on why their documentary about Kanye West will not be distributed

[There's more; it's not long. Also, if there's any question of whether Mr. West's words were dangerous: he has twice as many followers on Twitter as there are Jews in the whole world. (Surveys have shown that most non-Jews greatly overestimate the Jewish population, globally and locally.)]

^[1]In the last couple days, a bunch of corporations have severed ties with Mr. West. I think most of them did so after this letter was published, but have not gone through the timeline in detail.

"For decades, intersex children grew up under medical surveillance that monitored their behaviors and personalities. For example, children who grew up to be gay or trans were understood as 'diagnostic failures' by their doctors because their goal in 'treating' intersex children was to render straight cisgender adults through hormonal and surgical interventions. Homosexuality, after all, was considered a mental disorder for almost a century before being depathologized in 1973. Meanwhile, being transgender is still understood as a psychological issue that is addressed through medical intervention.

"Sugeons continue to operate on intersex children to this day, and very few longitudinal studies have examined long-term satisfaction and psychosexual well-being of individuals who have undergone these procedures. We do know, however, that surgery creates scar tissue, and repeated surgery only generates more scarring, which can ultimately affect appearance, sexual function, fertility, urinary function, and sensation.

[...]

"These practices went largely unquestioned for decades, resulting in generations of intersex people born into a world that was hostile toward their very existence. But dissent would inevitably coalesce in the early '90s.

[...]

"In recent years, various medical professional associations have released public statements affirming health care practices that center the needs of intersex youth. In 2017, three former surgeons general of the U.S. published an article advocating for the cessation of cosmetic genital surgery. Then, in 2018, the American Academy of Family Physicians released a statement declaring formal opposition to the practice of medically unnecessary genital surgery on intersex infants. Policy statements, however, are only half the battle against institutionalized harm.

[...]

"This work has not been without backlash; [...]

"In August, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill that seeks to criminalize providers who perform gender-affirming care. The bill goes on to list a series of surgeries that are common aspects of gender-affirming care, many of which are generally not even options available to transgender youth. Unsurprisingly, the bill makes specific exemptions for individuals born with 'verifiable disorder[s] of sex development' -- an unabashed use of stigmatizing and regressive language."

-- Amanda Saenz, "'I' told you so: When health care policy started catching up to intersex justice", Prism, 2022-10-25 [bold emphasis added -- the same exception has been in every state-level anti-trans-kids'-health-care bill as well]

Today is Intersex Awareness Day.

"The whole point of being 'woke' is so they don't catch you while you're sleeping." -- Beau of the Fifth Column (BeauTFC), 2022-10-17

"A surprising number of people asked why I was writing in English, which never happens when I write in Spanish or French. Indeed, I feel the need to personally apologise to the man who said that my columns for The Herald would cause the entire newspaper to collapse. I'm still getting used to my god-like powers of destruction and will try my absolute best not to ruin things while I'm here." -- Lennie Pennie (Lenniesaurus), "Sorry if it bothers you, but the Scots language is thriving", HeraldScotland, 2022-10-01

[Happy birthday to fidhle, happy birthday to my brother who is not on Dreamwidth or Twitter, and happy United Nations Day to folks celebrating that!]

"There is plentiful evidence that we are, as a species, prone to empathy and kindness. That isn't to say that we're always mindful of the ways our actions harm others, but for most of us, acts of overt cruelty require a special effort, at least at first. Greed and hatred have to be nurtured and trained.

"Even in war, violence doesn't come naturally. The majority of US riflemen in WWII did not fire their weapons, refusing to shoot at the enemy. Many fired over the enemy's head, unwilling to become a killer. [...]

"Likewise for greed. Stockbrokers are meant to be true believers in the idea that 'greed is good,' adherents to a mystical belief that the net outcome of universal selfishness is universal prosperity. But as Yochai Benkler points out, if you go to a Wall Street playground, you'll find greed-is-good stockbrokers chastising their toddlers: 'Timmy! Share!'"

-- Cory Doctorow (doctorow), "How lawyers became sadists", 2022-10-15

Lady Red is investigating bliss (@ladymcscope), 2022-10-21:

On days where I don't meditate, I feel kind of unaccomplished.
  "Fuck, I didn't do nothing today"

Troubleshooting

Lady Red is investigating bliss (ladymcscope), 2022-10-21:

On days where I don't meditate, I feel kind of unaccomplished.
  "Fuck, I didn't do nothing today"

"Registered Nurse? After 30 days and you send in a payment, maybe. Right now I'm just a shareware nurse." -- foone (Foone), 2022-10-20

"New York City resident Martin Boyce recalls that on Halloween, 1968, a cop collared him in Queens because his Oscar Wilde costume was too feminine. Boyce argued back, brandishing the receipts from the unisex store where he'd bought his clothes. Their argument attracted the attention of a nearby gang. The police officer, frustrated by Boyce's resistance, acquiesced to Boyce's arguments -- and then turned to the gang, saying. 'He's all yours.' The gang was so amused by Boyce’s defiant attitude, they let him pass unharmed." -- from "How Dressing in Drag Was Labeled a Crime in the 20th Century" by Hugh Ryan (History.com, 2019-06-25

"There's this idea I've seen presented by mcclure111 of 'grey data', in the model of 'grey water' - that is, water that we can be 100% certain is not healthy for human consumption but is still nonetheless water and can be put to some uses like sewage and irrigation.

"There is stuff that has absolutely useful application to understanding systems and how they train things, or as useful low-end stand-in tools, like AI generative art, but which absolutely are not ethically acceptable for the majority of human-interfacing uses"

-- Talen Lee (Talen_Lee), 2022-08-14

Searching for the phrase on Twitter, I found:

"what animals (including humans) have access to that machines lack is access to many sources of truth - humans can do arithmetic on our fingers, by counting out beans, purely in our heads, etc. AI esp ML etc don't 'know' when one of its axioms is faulty, its truth is too fragile.

"and i think despite the common defense that even when an AI is wrong about something, it's kinda right about some larger idea is largely irrelevant given how often it's being pressed into service where concrete truth is critical, eg if a car is about to run over an old lady."

-- JP (vectorpoem), 2022-04-08

"I've been thinking lately about trying to formally develop the idea of 'gray data', named in the sense of graywater. Data that's ok for limited/frivolous uses, like aesthetics, but 'not fit for human consumption'. Anything that comes out of machine learning ('AI') is gray-data.

"The thing about machine learning is ML only works when there are no consequences for the ML model being wrong. Decisions should never be made based on ML output, and ML output should be quarantined, like graywater, to make sure it isn't fed into a decisionmaking process.

"Actually I'm not sure even THIS approach works since even tech applied for pure aesthetics can do harm (imagine an app that makes cute cartoon selfies, but because of a limited training set breaks on people of color). But if you're gonna use ML at all u have to outline its limits"

-- mcc (mcclure111), 2022-04-09

Searching on Google, I found other references to the phrase, using it in at least two different ways, distinct from this but kinda overlapping if you look at them right, at least as far back as 2010:

• vast piles of unstructured data archived by an organization but not structured in any especially useable way -- piles of email, automaticaly generated logs, etc.
• un-peer-reviewed / unverified data that may include spam, disinformation, and garbage -- in contrast to verified and trustworthy "white literature", and mostly hidden internal analytics that are seldom examined directly but are used indirectly ("black data").

Of all these, I like the analogy-to-grey-water version best.

"Simchat Torah was born when Jews had lost everything else, but they never lost their capacity to rejoice. Nechemiah was right when he said to the people weeping as they listened to the Torah, realising how far they had drifted from it: 'Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength' (Nechemiah 8:10). A people whose capacity for joy cannot be destroyed is itself indestructible." -- Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (b. 1948-03-08, d. 2020-11-07), Ceremony & Celebration (2017)

[A good holy day to everyone celebrating Simchat Torah or the Feast of St. Luke today! (And for music fans not already celebrating either, it's Chuck Berry's birthday. (b. 1926-10-18, d. 2017-03-18))]