Too much, always, to fit in one post - 07 March-23 March 02015

A big politics mess-up to start - a former Mayor of New York City who still has inexplicable power over conservatives said the closest thing to the "Secretly Foreign" attack that he could about Barack Obama - he "doesn't love" the country. That is not newsworthy. What is, however is that The governor of Wisconsin, Mr. Walker, chose not to distance himself from the remarks or condemn them, and the governor of Louisiana chose to put a meaning in the Mayor's mouth that isn't there to agree with the remarks without agreeing with them.
We note that there are still some organizations that choose to go with the Secret Muslim idea - and get called out on it.

An Idaho state legislator asked whether or not the cameras that can be swallowed for colonoscopies can also be used to perform ultrasounds. He was told no, and when pressed, claimed that he knew it was ridiculous and just wanted the answer on the record.

A study out of Northeastern University in Boston days classical chivalric motivations are sexist. I'm inclined to agree with the Shakesville headline - any feminist could tell you this, because classical chivalry is about redirecting violence in such a way so that it becomes socially approved, using both Church and women as the convenient excuse for it.

A heavily redacted memoir of a detained Guantanamo Bay inmate reminds us all again that torture happens in the name of the United States, yet nobody seems interested in stopping or prosecuting those involved. One of the persons involved in the torture of the writer has a history of using coercive tactics to extract confessions in Chicago. At some point, you hope for a monster to come in and clean house.

More cameras to capture faces, says the chief of the London police. For crime-solving, of course. Airstrip One begins to resemble itself, does it not?

I am a collector of things. So I think, perhaps, the best way to mark the collection of the creator of the Disc by his iconic smallcaps-speaking character is through all the tributes that I've seen on my lists - Neil Gaiman, a big fan, a fan since a very early age (and another), a fan of his fans, (and another), a fan of the works on the Disc, a fan of the ideas present on the disc, a fan of the presence of the monsters (and that the Disc is the place where familiar stories become different and twisted), a teller of stories in their own right, a fan of the funny, someone for whom the Disc is a bedtime companion, the fan who hasn't yet gotten completely immersed, and all the fans that return when the tragedy has struck.

Here is a guide to the Disc and its books.

Unsurprisingly, there's a large market for porn that isn't about catering to straight white dudes with certain formulas. And with tools like crowdfunding, it's a lot easier to make those movies without having to be exploitative.

Fans of merpeople are hard at work expanding their mythos and the body types that one can say are definitely merpeople, with a lot of work going into diversifying the look of the mermaid to match their environment.

Collegiate policies on readmission to the school may be deterring students with mental health issues from taking beneficial absences from their classes.

A thing for our days, we are told, although really it had been going on for a lot longer than this: We do work when not at the office, and not work when we are - but now we're starting to actively ask for that flexibility, rather than sneaking what we can in the era of increased productivity. If a woman, what leisure time is afforded is generally spent on other people's needs - leaving women with no leisure time at all for themselves.

The creator of Zombies, Run! talks about creating an app that's about exercising and enjoying the body, and not competing or having to already be in peak physical condition to achieve.

The federal civil rights investigation into the Ferguson, MO police found a pattern of bias in the police department, as well as racism on display by the police. So, in the small way that they can, the federal government agrees that black lives matter. They're going to need it - a Wisconsin police officer shot and killed a black man on the same day as the finding, sparkling protest.

The state auditor in Missouri suffered an attack ad in his run for governor that insinuated he was Jewish and that this was a problem for his campaign. Except the auditor wasn't Jewish...and things get worse from there. The auditor killed himself a few days later, but it appears to have been over something other than the antisemitism.

A South Carolina state legislator made several sexist and misogynist comments at an event where the only female state senator for South Carolina was in attendance. The senator so slandered was ready to exact revenge and defend herself. If you want statistics, as it turns out, women are better at all aspects of legislation, in introducing bills, getting them passed, and getting them multi-partisan. not, as was commented, a "lesser cut of meat". This sort of thinking stems from an inability to see women as people and insisting that they are objects that men are entitled to if they do the right things. Which, when taken to correct conclusion, means there should be a lot more of angry cat hissing at men who behave that way.

Effective methods for avoiding pointless arguments with fans/critics of a work.

The mistakes of the United States, with regard to the protection of trans people, should not be replicated elsewhere, and especially not using the same reality-free bullshit that passes for argument here. Solutions must also make sure queer people aren't marginalized or assumed to be binary, aces are protected and not seen as anything other than normal, and one does not make secondary those children conceived outside of PIV sex.

Have your politicians tasked about love and loving relationships? Not in the way where love is a substitute for sex, but in terms of long, lasting, fulfilling relationships between people.

Private home use and growth of marijuana is legal in the District of Columbia. The initiative passed would also have set up a framework for the sale and regulation of marijuana, but Congresscritters from well outside the District are blocking those parts.

In the state of Florida, the governor and others insist that terms such as "climate change" not be used. Because, as we are all familiar with, refusing to name a Thing prevents it from becoming real.

Financial literacy regarding simple elements such as compound interest, inflation, and a diversified investment portfolio is rather weak in the United States, which is unsurprising, considering how few people have sufficient income to save, invest, or consider long-term goals.

Advice on making your presentation slides excellent and advice on making your presentations even better.

Trying to piece together Sappho the poetess is like trying to piece together Sapphic poetry - lots of fragments, and not everything agrees.

All Hail Androgyny, and women modeling menswear (and all hail the Almighty Glow Cloud, too).

An anti-equality group chose the Mardi Gras broadcast in Sydney, Australia, to debut an advertisement imploring everyone to THINK OF THE CHILDRENS and reject marriage equality. Backlash was swift.

A better idea would be to do as Venice did and train orphans, the disabled, and the poor in musical performance, so that the city is blessed with the presence of lots of wonderful music. Or maybe not the training, but providing for all children would be better than trying to deny marriage to those who would raise them well.

Medical students who are not on the gender binary or who aren't straight often stay closeted, and a major reason why is fear of discrimination. If we are to have medical professionals who will fairly and properly treat all people, we need to have medical students that feel they can be open and contribute their experience.

Biologically speaking, there's no wrong way to do sex so long as there's a shot at genetic transfer. Questions of "right" and "wrong" are things of culture. Which doesn't mean things like consent aren't important. What it does mean is that all the possible consensual combinations you can think of are all equally valid.

Tips on how to make a pleasant hotel experience - being nice to everyone and being free with the tips certainly helps.

In technology, the value of Apple is larger than all but a few countries' gross domestic product.

Maxis, the developer of the Sim series, starting with SimCity, is having its doors shuttered by EA, the parent company. And another studio that made things that were unique and different is closed down.

A marvel of engineering that is a bridge in the shape of a dragon, that breathes fire and water.

A similar marvel, this time in the form of the illustrations to The Velveteen Rabbit.

To survive, animals will change their diets, meaning normally-herbivorous creatures will start consuming meat and other animals. And it's not just those in Kellis-Amberlee amplification, either.

The FCC approved net neutrality. One of the greatest beneficiaries of that decision decries it as the vanguard of government regulation of speech and content, demonstrating the fundamental misunderstanding of reality that moved this person to an Internet show off of the network they used to have.

The English language can be used to communicate in gender-neutral ways, just by tweaking things a bit from the default patterns.

Credit card breaches with point-of-sale vendors, which means that smaller organizations are just as likely, if not more so, to suffer thieves attacking them. There are steps that can be taken to make compromising your computer and devices more difficult, and free courses you can take on computer security, but there's still the possibility that you may be compromised because someone else's security failed.

An insistent light bulb demanding to be changed flooded a smart house network, causing a denial of service issue. Because, of course, devices do not know to ignore themselves unless told.

The Organization For Transformative Works helps clear up common misconceptions about Fair Use in the United States.

Time-lapse photography of the skies of New Zealand, which are quite lovely to look at.

For those in a climate where there is rain but not strong wind, an umbrella that makes kittens and paw prints appear in the presence of precipitation, with the strength of the presence correlating to the strength of the rain.

Searching for things in our age is about either anticipating the search before it arrives or being sure that the answer to a question is clear and visible from the first page of results. Which suggests that my library may need to integrate Worldcat straight into the regular search interface. I suspect, somehow, that we'd probably end up abusing the API or something.

The Internet Movie Database makes it much easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with a tool that lets you find what projects two people have worked on together.

The cuisine of India achieves is unique flavor by using ingredients that do not generally share flavor profiles, meaning that most dishes have multiple unique flavors in each bite - a general shock to most Western palates. Additionally, correcting misconceptions expressed in fitness advertisements intending to shame people into doing workouts of a certain type and to eat a certain way and women taking about the ways they learn to make their bodies friends rather than enemies.

Kitchen gadgets that make geeks and geeky kids happy, paired with the reality of being English, working in a French patisserie, to Japanese coworkers and boss. Surprisingly, for me anyway, there's a lot of sound involved in making sure everything is right, in addition to the touch, smell, and occasional taste. Also, I linked, some time ago, to an article pointing out that the Japanese are quite good at replicating culture, to the point of being as good as or better than the original, and I think this is still true in this article.

Continuing in culinary things, the origin of the Boston Peking Ravioli.

Interpreting low-resolution photos of Ceres says a few things about its geology, which are exciting, but we'll need higher-res to examine those interesting features more.

Last for tonight, Spock chooses his identity, and we must respect his choice, even though many of the things that drive the movies are all about not respecting that choice, the need for more choices so that more people can find themselves, the real secret of the Lego Movie, which is not about the Big Twist, and control mechanisms and implementations for the profusion of fairy portals.

And a video of a Stark Industries representative delivering a bionic arm to a seven year-old customer.

The tools we have available to us today make it possible for us to never stop learning all of the things that are interesting to us. And they make it easier for us to give back our own knowledge to others, at whatever price we feel is fair.

Hufflepuff.

I've airways been resistant to the idea that I'm part of House Hufflepuff in the numerous Sorting Hat questionnaires that proliferated on the Internet while the Hermione Granger series was popular with the books and the movies and now the online experience. Hufflepuff is the house of "everyone else", after all, the people who don't get in to any other house. The Sorting Hat says so, although it's in Order of the Phoenix that he does.

Said Slytherin, “We’ll teach just those
Whose ancestry is purest.”
Said Ravenclaw, “We’ll teach those whose
Intelligence is surest.”
Said Gryffindor, “We’ll teach all those
With brave deeds to their name,”
Said Hufflepuff, “I’ll teach the lot,
And treat them just the same.”

Which doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement for the Hufflepuffs. Even though, by this system, they are probably the most numerous house by far.

There aren't many, if any, Hufflepuffs in the books, (Cedric and Tonks, apparently), so there's no real way of getting a representative sample of what a Hufflepuff is. All we get off what Hufflepuff House is supposed to be about comes from other Hat Songs.

You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you’ve a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You’ll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.

By Gryffindor, the bravest were
Prized far beyond the rest;
For Ravenclaw, the cleverest
Would always be the best;
For Hufflepuff, hard workers were
Most worthy of admission;
And power-hungry Slytherin
Loved those of great ambition.

So the virtues of the House of Hufflepuff are Hard Work and Loyalty, which are definitely the virtues of the Everybody Else. They're not the foolhardy Gryffindors that rush in before considering the consequences, or the ambitious and manipulative Slytherins who consider every interaction and try to come out ahead with personal gain.

[Aside Number One: Draco Malfoy is a Gryffindor. The way he acts, and the henchmen he uses, are supposed to be Harry's mirror images in a different house, but Draco rarely stops to consider consequences and advantages. He's part of Slytherin for the same reasons Harry is part of Gryffindor - because it's where he wanted to go, for whatever value of "want" is possible in a first-year. Also, if experiences like Harry's are typical, I'm surprised more people don't talk about them. If you want the exemplars of Slytherin, you want Horace Slughorn and, to some degree, Tom Riddle, who use their connections, charm and knowledge to advance their goals and acquire more resources to use.]

Hufflepuffs aren't after knowledge for knowledge's sake like the Ravenclaws, either.

[Aside two: Hermione Granger is most definitely a Gryffindor. While she's certainly brilliant enough to be in Ravenclaw, her knowledge is geared toward practical application. She knows the answer to school questions, and does her research to solve the problems she faces. New facts and ideas are fascinating to her based on their applicability. Hermione at her most Gryffindor, though, is when she's campaigning and working toward solving the problem of house elf slavery.]

The way things were designed, it seems like Hufflepuffs are House We Do All The Work And Everyone Else Gets The Credit. Which, as someone on the tail (lead?) end of the Millennials, there was a steady diet of "You're going to change the world, one you get control of it from the cynics of the previous generation and the hangers-on from the last" in the formative years. Hufflepuffs aren't world-changers, they're just hard workers and loyal to those they work with / under. (Which, some may point out, is one of the ways that change is not only achieved, but sustained.)

And then I went into the public library profession. Which is increasingly a profession that finds itself with one foot in the past, one in the future, and two in the grave, acting as the bridge that allows the past to walk its way into the future, either by choice, disaster, or layoff. There are very few entities engaged in the practice of making sure there is training for older people on technology and the new ways of working, and training for young people outside of school for their interests (and technologies, too), as well as maintaining collections and resources from the past so that we don't forget things too quickly. It is a corner of the world that is not always paid attention to, past adulthood and/or college, unless there is a disaster. House No Credit finds one of its many homes in public library service.

For extra sting, I work in children's services, where miracles of literacy, storytelling, rekindling interest in books, and programming happen on a regular basis. But, since the profession is very much women-heavy, it turns out that it's possible for No Credit House to have a No Credit House nested inside it. Molding the future and all that, but how many people remember their children's librarian past story time? It's a triumph for us that we were able to plant in your head the idea that reading is a good thing to be enjoyed frequently, before school dug it up and replaced it with the idea that reading is a chore and must be suffered through.

This is not to say I regret my career choice. I am well-suited to public library children's and teen services, and I like what I do. It's just that I was fed a large diet of "you are going to be important to the world" as a youngster, and it takes adjustment to realize that it did not mean that you were going to become world-famous or fantastically wealthy or any other thing that would guarantee your presence in the history books. At least not immediately.

After some resetting of the sights, and the very real possibility that someone's thought that I wasn't competent enough to do the job would halt my career, I started keeping track of the things I have done - not just because it makes it easier to put down on my evaluation worksheets what kind of awesome person I am, but because chasing the idea that success is measured by magazine covers makes it very easy to miss out on all the success that is happening on lower levels than that.

Like the fact that children want to do one of your storytime rhymes outside of the program, because they love to bounce up and down so much.

Or planting the seed of an idea in a child's head that this, too, is something that you can do, regardless of what anyone says about you and that thing.

Or the unvarnished joy in the face of an octogenarian who is learning for the first time how to select and download books from a library collection to their tablet.

And the high praise delivered at the end of a session covering those basics: "Thanks. That's the most fun I've had in a computer class at the library." Because making learning fun is making it memorable.

And there's the skills. I left an easel pad out to occasionally talk to my teens about things I wanted their opinions on. While I didn't always get a response to the questions, the easel pad started to sprout art. (And games of hangman that use inappropriate words in their blanks, but that's to be expected from teenagers.) I wanted to showcase and preserve the art, and so, in addition to getting some material that I can use to decorate the windows with the art, I decided to try and preserve them by digitizing them. That way, they could join the slideshow of images advertising various library services that was already at work there, thanks to a generous donation of code for use with repurposed netbooks running Linux off a flash drive. (Which was an interesting thing to get to play with, as well. I've gone through a couple different iterations of portable Linux, learning all the way about what they can do and what their quirks are. In all things, there is training.) I've picked up some rudimentary image-manipulation technique in digitizing the artwork - digital inking, basically. Not enough to make a profession at it, but enough to be able to help Significant Other clean up a possible logo idea for them into something they quite liked.

And while nobody in the teen section has explicitly said thanks over the easel or the sideshow or anything else, for that matter, the artwork keeps appearing. It has to be enough to have filled the need, or to have provided a serendipitous moment in someone's life. House No Credit still abides.

Not that I don't occasionally try to raise my own profile - I've submitted an idea to three conferences so far. One said no, and I'm waiting on the other two still. And I've been writing some articles and posts about things I think are important or that are working on a theme. Some even have been published. But it's less about the pursuit of rockstar status and more about trying to find a platform where those ideas can be voiced.

So, because I like helping, and because I'm trying to put in the work, and because I still get joy of of the thanks that do happen, that pretty well puts me in house Hufflepuff. Now all I need is my zodiacal House badge and quote. jenett has "Virgo Hufflepuff - details managed.", which I think it's great and would happily embrace, if it were anywhere near the truth on sign or aspect. Heh. I'm not sure what to do for my own sign. "Foodstuffs Managed", perhaps? Maybe if there were just a set with all of them somewhere?

Anyway, it takes time to reach the point where you can be accepting of being important without being known. I suspect there should be a pithy tag on the end of this, like "This is the beginning of wisdom" or something, but I suspect that of my words were going to be used as aphorisms or wisdom quotes, I'd end up more like G'kar trying to illuminate his disciples than Laozi.

Luminous Emporium used a quote by Daniell Koehler, and I think it's a good closing line.

“You are not too sensitive or too needy. You are thoughtful and empathetic. You are compassionate and kind. And – with or without anyone’s acknowledgment or affection – you are enough.”

That's House Hufflepuff.