This page shows recent posts from all categories. It will probably be fancier later.
Failing to understand the word "disability" (2014/07/08)
I know a number of people who have disabilities, ranging from fairly mild to fairly severe. Most of them have some amount of interaction with social services of one sort or another, whether in the US or elsewhere. And everywhere, there is a single constant theme: [read more...]
Why terminology is hard... (2014/06/08)
One of the joys of the Internet era is having teenagers explain things to me. Teenagers explain to me what gender is, and what sexual orientation is, and why it matters whether or not gay people are discriminated against. And this is, by and large, mostly just sort of charming. [read more...]
Pathfinder's polymorph rules, presented in a usable format (2014/05/17)
Well, maybe not totally usable, but. Pathfinder’s various polymorph-type spells are all presented in a format where each spell past the first in a series gives additional powers, but then refers you to the previous spell. So they never give you the complete list of things you can get from them. In general, qualities are given only if the creature you assume the form of has those qualities. So, if you want scent, you have to assume a form that has scent and use a spell which lists scent as a quality it can grant. [read more...]
Some thoughts about living with depression (2014/05/07)
A fair number of people I know have long-term depression, and it can be hard to deal with. For them, obviously, but also for me. And of course, then they feel bad because it’s hard for me and that makes them feel horrible and worthless (see also: depression). And I want to try to help. [read more...]
ImageMagick/RMagick: Why your text is coming out blocky and unreadable (2014/05/03)
I found a ton of threads various places asking about this, full of really nice advice that was totally irrelevant and didn’t change anything. [read more...]
The simplest autism diagnostic test. (2014/03/26)
So, I have stumbled across a lovely test for autism, which … well, I’ve now lost count. But so far, I have never once gotten a confirmed-false-positive from it, and I’ve confirmed well over half a dozen positives. [read more...]
How to make poor people more responsible (2014/02/26)
I see a lot of complaints about how poor people are irresponsible. There’s plenty of existing work being done on the question of why this might be the case, and the obvious answer (“being irresponsible makes you poor”) appears to be only a very small part of the story. Most noticably, being poor deprives you of cognitive resources, while vastly increasing the cognitive cost of many things. [read more...]
Kaiju (2013/12/31)
One of the things I like about Pacific Rim is its introduction of the term Kaiju to English. I remember loving Godzilla movies as a kid. And there’s a thing to them I always thought was fascinating, which is that Godzilla sort of started out as the monster which destroys Japan, but ends up being the monster which defends Japan. And this, I sort of empathize with, if that’s the right word. [read more...]
Human nature (2013/11/23)
People talk a lot about human nature, often fairly cynically. I do it too. People say things like “in theory, only people who actually need the aid are supposed to apply for it, but human nature being what it is, lots of people apply fraudulently”. And, barring some dispute over what constitutes “lots” of people, that kind of thing is true. It really is the case that people steal, that people commit violent crimes. It is true that people try to get ahead without regard for others, and even at other people’s expense. It is the truth, and nothing but the truth… But it is not the whole truth. [read more...]
Stay classy, Google! (2013/11/18)
Well, too late for that. [read more...]