Indignant Desert Birds

I was working for the sales arm of a mid-sized consulting firm. The number 2 guy in the company decided to have a Question and Answer session with a small group of us. I got a bit nervous when the question came around to me. I said something like… “We’re a growing, ambitious company. When I look around our offices here, and in DC. Where are all the black people at?”

He sputtered a bit. As well, I think, he should have. I was one of the most junior guys in the company, and I had a reputation for niceness. This question was rude but (I think) utterly necessary. His answer was that they “didn’t know where to go” to recruit African American workers. I arched my eyebrow at that. “We’re one of the best consulting firms in the world, and specialize in Human Resources. Why on Earth can we not answer questions about workforce diversity?” He explained about the workforce pipeline, and how they went looking for certain kinds of well-educated workers. Since the American Educational system fails African American students so badly, there were less of them available for our company.

He wasn’t wrong.

He wasn’t right, either. I’m telling this story to illustrate an oft-mentioned, under discussed problem of institutionalized racism. Or sexism. Or any kind of institutionalized set of programs that reinforces the white male heretonormative etc power structure. It starts in the schools. Well, it starts as a legacy of segregation (both racial and gender) that sets up separate roles for different kinds of parents. Rich parents do different things than poor parents, and their children tend to have better results in schools.

“Naturally” from there richer (usually white, often male) students will gravitate towards special programs for “gifted” students. And that leads to better colleges. Better colleges lead to better job opportunities, more money, and the cycle repeats with their own children.

The tricky part is at each stage of reinforcing the pattern, any given actor can claim (and believe!) with perfect plausibility that they are acting without racial or gender animus. It’s not me. It’s that previous institution that failed. We are, however, each responsible for making the world a better place. If you’re a high executive at a huge corporation yes, it is your job (as a human, if not as an executive) to go seeking out the best damned racially diverse group you can find. Here’s a secret: our standards weren’t so high that kids fresh out of Howard wouldn’t have done well by the company. No one went looking for them. No one went looking for them because no one thought to. Because lurking under all the institutional racism is a whole lot of privileged looking around and seeing people just like me…

Tags: Uncategorized by Punning Pundit
No Comments »

Turns out that the UN Is Not really appointing an alien contact person. Which is a shame. I guess I’ll have to go back to planning it myself.

The first thing we’ll have to do is teach them how to talk to us. I’m parochial enough to want them to learn English (first move advantage, suckers!). We should start off by sending them a binary version of as many digits of Pi (or the square root of 2) as it would take for for the number to contain at least one of each digit (3.14159265358979323846264338327950). And then we say it again in English. And we keep repeating this until they send us some sign that they recognize what we’re doing.

Next, we need to send them some great work of human literature. Constraints: it cannot be a holy book. This experience should unite humanity, and nothing would divide us faster than sending a text that a minimum of 2/3 of our species finds heretical. Also: anything we send them they will probably understand as a fairly literal take on the human experience. Therefore Science Fiction is out. Paradoxically, we need to send them something good enough to stand the test of time, but not something so old that the English language has undergone much transition. So: no Dan Brown, but no Shakespeare either. It should probably be prose, rather than poetry.

My initial thought was Fagles’ translation of the Iliad. And then I recalled the first line: “Rage- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles [...]” Or, you know, we could just play this clip

(The first impression we don’t want)

So we need to send a story that isn’t so terribly violent. My initial thought is Pride and Prejudice. What say you?

Tags: Uncategorized by Punning Pundit
3 Comments »

It’s Sunday morning. Sundays are for getting up early, doing household chores, and watching the Blue Angels do awesome stuff over the Bay. Or possibly flying to Atlanta to watch the Giants beat the Braves. Or staying home to recover. Or planning a photo shoot because you’re a pro.

This week North Korean the dictator pointed at one of his kids and announced that Kim Jong Eun had drawn the short straw. The Russians are still sending people into space. Also: a California billionaire doesn’t like to pay taxes for the many members of her household staff. Also also: Bangladesh flooded.

If your a 49 fan, Sundays are not for getting laid. In fact, these days, Sundays are for mourning a once-great franchise.

Which begs the question: if women don’t want that, what do they want? Actually: that’s the wrong question. tl;dr? Women are half the human species and are therefore are too diverse to want any one thing.

Same gendered relationships are also an important part of the human condition. Homophobia robs men of the chance to be emotionally connected to other men. So let’s try to fix that, eh?

Fix it like it’s an adorable sea lion face!

Just how awful was the Dread Pirate Westley ?

Westley was probably less awful than Facebook.

This is fake science

This and this are real science. Put them together, and you’ve got a car that drives itself and shoots people. By itself.

Which is almost better than the Greek Economy, which crashes itself.

Here are some maps of how Europeans see one another. This is hilarious even if you’re not a map nerd.

I’m sure most of you have seen this by now, but private fire departments are bad.

Perhaps those firefighters should have had video footage of other departments getting it right. That’s how memes spread, it seems.

Memes that start at Disney, head to Japan, and come back again.

Some memes go to Japan and don’t really spread. That’s too bad..

Some memes, much like these links, we have no idea what to do with.

Remember that class warfare stuff from a couple weeks ago? here’s more. Yes, the rich are destroying the rest of us.

Wanton Frolicking would love this link. Ladies and Gentleman: the Oxford Semicolon! (it’s possible I love this link.)

How can game mechanics force our behavior to change? Rob Zachny tells us

A walk home in Bangladesh.

And that provides the perfect bumper into this video:

Question: do you guys actually watch the videos I post? I’m going to keep posting them kind of regardless…

Tags: Sunday by Punning Pundit
1 Comment »

SCV Ready

One of the more frustrating parts about being in government is having to tell the shelter for homeless teens that you cut their budget in order to give it to a program that helps pregnant women kick their drug addictions. There really isn’t a “good” answer to the terrified teens who will be in your office begging for help that won’t be forthcoming.

So: resource starvation. Why is it that when done in a video game it can be a fun? Indeed, every strategy game I can think of involves pitting my inadequate resources against an opponent or problem that looks overwhelming.

The answer could be as simple as the real-consequence-free nature of video games. If someone dies in the game, they’re not really dead– The sprites and pixels I’m ordering around had no real existence or volition. This is plausible, save that the frustration of losing is very real. And yes, I’ve seen players cry when video game characters die.

I do think the lack of major consequences is a large part of it. I think game design is another major piece of it. The old joke about economists can be literally true. Video game designers can assume whatever physical or fiscal conditions they want, and players can drown in can openers. The frustrating thing about the situation I describe in the opening paragraph is the shear, inescapable mess of it. I didn’t create the problem, I inherited it (from the opposition party). If my Civ5 citizens are starving, it’s because I- the god king national spirit- messed up. If my Sim dies in a swimming pool, it’s because I pulled the the ladder out after my Sim went skinny dipping.

Games that stand the test of time are carefully tested so that players are brought right to the edge of their abilities and don’t drop them over. In other words: they cheat.

Government would be a lot more fun with money hacks.

(This post provoked by Rob Zachny’s latest)

Tags: Uncategorized by Punning Pundit
No Comments »

Sunday mornings are for cleaning a long-neglected house, and enjoying a day of having no obligations. Sunday afternoons are for wondering if the Giants will win.

This week: Jim DeMint held the US Senate hostage. The Senate also moved to block the President’s ability to do Recess Appointments- without making such appointments unnecessary. The Commonwealth games began in New Delhi, making the Queen smile.

Fun fact: the Queen of England and the Queen of Canada have different flags- even though both titles are held by the same individual.

Also this week: I started a new job.

Coincidentally to that: The First World War ended. Granted, the US had a separate peace with Germany, and our war ended in 1921.

Rock Paper Shotgun is doing a weekly board gaming series. here’s one part here’s another.

Jumpman Jumps. Gamespy does a monstrously good job of talking about jumping in video games.

How about some music? A Female Geek Anthem

I say interestingly or, some variant, too. And for the same “fuck you and stereotyping behavior” reasons.

Get into a relationship? Lose two friends.

A friend of mine is going after these guys. Good luck sir!

How badly does the media suck? They’ll routinely talk about money in non-inflation adjusted terms

Speaking of Economics: what does the movie Machete tell us about society?

There are people rooting for the end of the world who consider themselves the good guys.

San Francisco is a very rich city. There are some very, very poor people living here.

We’re changing the boundaries of our schools

McDonalds is smart enough to bus Chinese-Americans into SF to fight against a proposal they don’t like. They’re not smart enough to realize that there are more than one dialect of Chinese.

I love Indian food. This handy link will tell you how to get the best value for your money.

Guess how many calories a medieval peasant burned in a day?

Tags: Uncategorized by Punning Pundit
No Comments »