#Second we could be doing a better job at preserving some languages and cultural practices that are dying out

[idkthisismyusernameiguess]

the fact that I’m still seeing clowns panic over Xinjiang in 2023

[scripttorture]

Hello! I have a few questions related to your most recent post and the definition of torture. You said:

"A trained person who was never tortured will always out perform someone whose training involved torture."

According to everything else I have seen on your blog, this makes sense - the mental and physical trauma from being tortured have lasting effects which make certain tasks more difficult.

However, this seems to juxtapose certain tropes I've seen in US military training advertisements. For example, "Hell Week" in the Navy SEAL training seems like it would be torture if it was forced upon someone (like if the soldiers didn't sign up for it and didn't have the option to quit.). *Hell Week is when soldiers are training continuously for 5 days in freezing, wet conditions, with little more than 4 hours of sleep for the entire week, under insane amounts of physical and mental stress.

- If someone chose to be tested both mentally and physically, I feel like it wouldn't be torture. However, if the same exact conditions were forced upon someone else (testing their mental and physical limits without their consent or understanding), does your quote above mean that the person who did not have a choice would not reap the benefits of the training/testing? Or would the Navy SEALs be better soldiers if they didn't have to go through 'torturous conditions' during Hell Week, regardless of their choice to do so?

(I used Hell Week as an example, but I meant this question generally. I'm trying to figure out how to best train an elite soldier and avoid any harmful torture apologia tropes, while also making sure that they are able to handle insanely challenging situations)

- My other question has more to do with the definition of torture that you quoted from the UN in one of your master posts. If someone is being seriously injured (pulled fingernails, whipping, starvation etc), but not for the purposes of interrogation, punishment, or intimidation, is that still torture, or is that just abuse? And, regardless of what we call it, would the effects be the same as if it were torture for any of the three motives above?

Sorry if this is long and hard to understand, I can clarify if needed!

It’s not the longest I’ve gotten and it’s perfectly clear, duck*. :) Honestly this is a difficult topic with a lot of nuance, it’s better to take a longer and more thoughtful approach.

 From the stand point of the legal definition and what we study/understand as torture any consensual activity, however extreme, is not torture.

 But here’s where it gets interesting: consent and our attitude to an activity actually changes our response to pain. It may even change how much pain we feel.

 I’m going to take a slightly different example to yours. There are a lot of cultures globally that have practiced scarification, ritual cutting to deliberately form scars. And this can be done for a lot of reasons: membership of a family or clan, coming of age, traditional medicine, religion, you get the idea.

 A lot of people in these cultures describe their scars as incredibly important and the process of getting them as a moving, deep and positive process.

 This does not mean they wouldn’t be traumatised if they were attacked by someone with a knife.

 Being able to approach something painful and see it as positive really changes our perspective. It makes trauma and mental illness a lot less likely. And being able to back out, even if it’s just for a little while to take a breather, seems to make us able to withstand more pain then we would have otherwise.

 The simplest and most famous experiment that dealt with this relationship between our mindset and pain asked people to keep their hands in ice cold water. They timed how long people could do it when they were told to stay silent and how long they could do it when they were allowed to swear. If they swore they could hold their hands under for longer. An average of forty seconds longer.

 Looking back over O’Mara (Why Torture Doesn’t Work, a very good intro to how pain works and what it does to the brain) the way he describes it as by thinking of the experience of pain as a collection of three things. There’s the physical sensation itself, the nerves firing. But there’s also an affective component, how we feel emotionally about the experience and a cognitive component, how we think about it.

 Did you ever play that game as a kid where you stuff as many chilis as possible in your mouth to see who would spit them out first? I… might have done. And from what I remember it hurts an awful lot. But those memories to me are mostly about messing about with my friends, I remember trying to be stubborn about it and I remember us laughing at each other.

 This is a completely different experience to someone being held down and having chili stuff up their nose. But the difference isn’t necessarily in the physical damage done or the physical sensation of pain. It’s in the other components, the emotional response and the rationalisation.

 I also had a filling drilled in my tooth without painkillers as a kid. I don’t know how common this is in the West? It happened in Saudi. Honestly my biggest memory of it is the language barrier between myself and the dentist.

 These are anecdotes obviously but I’m trying to show that you probably also have experiences in your own life that back up the experiments too. The way we think about a painful experience really does make a huge amount of difference. And that means consent matters enormously.

 These soldiers are going into this experience knowing what to expect, how long it will last and that they can stop at any time. That makes a huge amount of difference. Those same factors have drastically increased the time volunteers will spend in solitary confinement for research. I’m pretty sure if I dug even a little I’d find pain studies with similar findings.

 Here’s the flip side: the physical factors are still in play.

 Sleep is an important physiological process that’s essential to normal functioning. Studies on consensual sleep deprivation have shown massive negative impacts on memory along with a host of other things that you can read about here.

 Let’s take a non torture example. A student who stays up all night cramming for an exam is not going to develop the symptoms of trauma that a torture survivors who was sleep deprived would. But the effect sleep deprivation has on memory is due to sleep playing an essential role in preserving memory (and learning more generally.) So they’re both likely to have difficulty remembering things in days just before and just after sleep deprivation. They’re also both more likely to have false memories and catch a bad cold.

 As a result of this memory impairment I question the educational value of anything involving sleep deprivation: you can’t learn while messing up the processes that let your brain remember things.

 There have been cases in the UK of people dying during training for the armed forces. Because while consent makes a huge difference, mindset makes a huge difference- our bodies still have limits. We can choose to push ourselves past those limits and, whatever our motivation or feelings, it can do real harm.

 Personally? I’m unsure of the benefit of these kinds of exercises. As in I’m unsure there is a benefit. Learning is going to be shot, chances of injury are going to be a lot higher- I don’t see anything that could be improved by these sorts of exercises.

 Anecdotally people do report feeling like a closer unit after going through these sorts of routines. That might be the benefit: moral and unit cohesion, possibly self-esteem too.

 If you’re making up something for your story I think it’d be helpful for me to mention a little statistical effect that gets used to justify punishment pretty regularly. Get some dice out if you’ve got them and roll one. Let’s say the number represents performance in some kind of test (because effort and learning matter but our performance also varies because of things we can’t control.) A roll of 1 gets punished, a roll of 6 gets praised.

 Now after you roll that first 1 statistically speaking the chances are your next roll will be better. And if you roll a 6 then statistically speaking the chances are your next roll will be worse. People observe this effect in real life and they often conclude that there’s no point in praising someone but that punishment leads to improvement. Really it’s just a statistical effect, after a particularly, noticeably bad day the chances are things will be better next and vice versa.

 This effect can make it difficult for people to recognise overall, long term progress. Which is the kind of progress you should be paying attention to when designing a training program.

 If you want good performance from people, whatever the metric, the most efficient thing to do is ensure that those people are; well fed, have access to clean water, get plenty of sleep, have breaks and have access to medical treatment when they need it.

 I’d say the main things to keep in mind when designing this fictional training regime are:

Being honest about the effects you describe, ie if they’re spending long periods without shelter are they at risk from exposure? If they’re standing in cold water are they going to get hypothermia?

Remember that even if something is damaging or causes lasting trauma it would not necessarily prevent someone from doing their job. Torture survivors have serious, lasting symptoms but many of them still work.

 I think I’m going to leave that there because I’m not an expert in militaries or training people. And keep in mind that I am a pacifist, read this with my biases in mind.

 Getting to the second question, there is a little more to the UN definition then that. The primary factor is still who the abuser is. For it to be torture (legally speaking) the abuser has to be (or be ordered by) an on-duty government employee, part of a group that controls territory (ie an occupying force). Some countries also count international organised criminal gangs in this definition.

 It’s also important to note that torture can be targetted at someone other then the victim. So if the police arrest the brother of a political opponent and beat him in order to intimidate the politician, that is still torture.

 Basically there are a lot of factors in the legal definition of torture and it’s that way by design. The hope is that you end up with a framework that captures as much government abuse as possible.

 But it also means that there’s a pretty high barrier when it comes to proving torture. Which means that things which are legally torture can be prosecuted as assault, bodily harm or equivalents to these, because it’s easier to get a conviction for those charges.

 Technically you are correct: if abuse done by a government official doesn’t have one of the four motivations in the legal definition (attempts to obtain information, forcing a confession, intimidation or punishment) then it doesn’t meet the definition.

 However in practice I’ve not heard of a case failing because of the motive.

 I’m not a lawyer and I’m not an expert in international law. I won’t say it’s never happened. But it’s much more common for cases to fail for other reasons. Off the top of my head I’d say the most common reason is difficulty proving the abuse took place.

 The most common types of torture today are ‘clean’, a term we use to indicate that they don’t leave obvious marks. If someone turns up with fingernails torn out or the skin of their back lacerated by a whip that is clear physical evidence of abuse. Nothing else causes similar injuries. But if someone turns up at a doctor’s with swollen feet or reddened skin, if they’ve lost a lot of weight or they’re so tired they’re struggling to stand… Well all of those things can be caused by common tortures. But they can also be caused by common illnesses.

 A lot of the deaths from torture today are similarly hard to prove. Beatings and stress positions ultimately cause death by kidney failure. Which can mean that prosecutors are asked to prove a victim didn’t have an underlying health condition. Or take drugs.

 Honestly my instinct is that the motive is the easiest thing to prove. It’s often harder to bring charges against people in positions of authority, regardless of the country we’re talking about. Bringing those charges, proving abuse took place and proving it was done by the person in question, those are usually the tricky parts.

 The difference between torture and abuse is scale. Torture is industrial scale abuse.

 The law doesn’t define that scale but that’s what we’re talking about when we talk about abuse from organised authority. Abusers might have dozens of victims. Torturers have thousands, tens of thousands.

 If you want to explore a different motivation in your story, something outside the legal framework, consider the scale at which this abuse is taking place. Consider how organised it is. If it’s organised and large scale, with multiple abusers, with no prior relationship between the abuser and victims then torture will probably be a better model then abuse. If it’s smaller scale with a more personal relationship and if it isn’t supported by a legal framework/organisation then abuse might be a better model.

 For victims and survivors the difference isn’t so much about the symptoms they personally experience as the… side effect of that scale. Abuse victims are often very isolated and may not know anyone who has had a similar experience. Torture implies a community of survivors and possibly generational trauma. There are also effects to do with access to support, access to medical care and how likely it is that someone will be believed.

 Torture survivors are often systematically disenfranchised in a way that abuse victims are not. Torture survivors are often forced to leave their home country. Anecdotally, based on what I’ve seen globally over the last few years, I think that struggling to get citizenship is increasingly an issue for torture survivors. And without citizenship there’s difficulty finding legal work, getting accommodation, accessing medical care, accessing the legal system etc.

 I do not know whether torture survivors are more or less likely to be believed by their community compared to survivors of abuse. I do not think any one has attempted a comparative study. I do know that the prevalence of clean torture means that many torture survivors are not believed and this puts up a further barrier, making it harder to access medical treatment and bring charges.

 Rejali’s book was published in 2009, so things may have changed a tad. At the time he was writing the average wait for a torture survivor to see a specialist doctor was about 10 years.

 Abuse is to torture what murder is to genocide. And there are difference on a wider social scale as a result.

 I mention all that because I feel it’s relevant but the impression I get is you’re mostly interested in the long term symptoms? In which case, yes the legal definition makes very little difference. The physical injuries caused by particular kinds of abuse don’t change depending on whether it’s a private individual or a police officer holding the Taser.

 The lasting psychological symptoms are not particular to torture; they’re what the human brain does when traumatised. The same symptoms can manifest in people who witness traumatic events but weren’t actually hurt themselves. They can manifest in people who were injured in accidents and they manifest in people who were neglected or abused. Hell, I have a couple of them, though no where near the severity a torture survivors would experience. A sufficient amount of stress is enough for these symptoms to start developing in anybody.

 You can find the general list of symptoms here. There’s also a post specifically about memory problems over here.

 The pattern I describe; that these symptoms are a list of possibilities not ‘every torture victim will get all of these’ holds true for trauma survivors generally. Anecdotally there is some variability with chronic pain being reported more often with some kinds of abuse. That might be because it can have physical causes, psychological causes or a mix of the two.

 Whether it’s torture or abuse there isn’t any way to predict a survivor’s symptoms in advance. Much of the advice I have about writing torture survivors and their symptoms holds true for trauma survivors generally. Which is why I’ll still take a crack at some questions that aren’t about torture.

 Pick the symptoms that you feel fit the character and serve the story. We can’t predict symptoms and that means that there’s no reason why you shouldn’t pick the things that appeal to you.

 And I think I’m going to leave it there. I hope that helps :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

*This is a weird English endearment. I had someone ask if this was me trying not to swear. 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CONTRACTORS

In big companies software is often designed, implemented, and sold by three separate types of people. Tcl is the scripting language of Unix, and so its size is proportionate to its complexity, and a funnel for peers. By this point everyone knows you should release fast and iterate. Programming languages are for. They don't even know about the stuff they've invested in. But I think there's more going on than this. If you run out of money, you could say either was the cause. Nearly all programmers would rather spend their time writing code and have someone else handle the messy business of extracting money from it. Every programmer must have seen code that some clever person has made marginally shorter by using dubious programming tricks. In one place I worked, we had a big board of dials showing what was happening to our web servers.1 Every designer's ears perk up at the office writes Tenisha Mercer of The Detroit News. There are borderline cases is-5 two elements or one?

I decided to ask the founders of the startups in the e-commerce business back in the 90s, will destroy you if you choose them. It's due to the shape of the problem here is social. In the arts it's obvious how: blow your own glass, edit your own films, stage your own plays. Only in the preceding couple years had the dramatic fall in the cost of customer acquisition. The organic growth guys, sitting in their garage, feel poor and unloved. So the first question to ask about a field is how honest its tests are, because this startup seems the most successful companies. A good deal of that spirit is, fortunately, preserved in macros. The second way to compete with focus is to see what you're making.

But more important, in a hits-driven business, is that source code will look unthreatening. In DC the message seems to be the new way of delivering applications. White. I'm going to risk making one. But looking through windows at dusk in Paris you can see that from the rush of work that's always involved in releasing anything, no matter how much skill and determination you have, the more you stay pointed in the same business. PR coup was a two-part one. It's conversational resourcefulness. We're more confident. That certainly accords with what I see out in the world.2 Treating indentation as significant would eliminate this common source of bugs as well as making programs shorter. Once you take several million dollars of my money, the investors get a great deal of control.

The dream language is beautiful, clean, and terse. It works.3 It could mean an operating system, or a framework built on top of a programming language as the throwaway programs people wrote in it grew larger. I'm not saying it's correct, incidentally, but it seems like a decent hypothesis. The most important kinds of learning happen one project at a time. Instead of starting from companies and working back to the 1960s and 1970s, when it was the scripting language of a popular system.4 Blogger got down to one person, and they have a board majority, they're literally your bosses.5 Unconsciously, everyone expects a startup to fix upon a specific number.6 But as long as you seem to be advancing rapidly, most investors will leave you alone.7 What readability-per-line does mean, to the user encountering the language for others even to hear about it. Users have worried about that since the site was a few months old.8 If it's a subset, you'll have to write it anyway, so in the worst case you won't be wasting your time, but didn't.9

It's exacerbated by the fast pace of startups, which makes it seem like time slows down: I think you've left out just how fun it was: I think the main reason we take the trouble to develop high-level languages is to get leverage, so that we can say and more importantly, think in 10 lines of a high-level language what would require 1000 lines of machine language. Well, that may be fine advice for a bunch of declarations. Trying to make masterpieces in this medium must have seemed to Durer's contemporaries that way that, say, making masterpieces in comics might seem to the average person today. I kept searching for the Cambridge of New York, I was very excited at first. Which was dictated largely by the hardware available in the late 1950s. This comforting illusion may have prevented us from seeing the real problem with Lisp, or at least Common Lisp, some delimiters are reserved for the language, suggesting that at least some of the least excited about it, including even its syntax, and anything you write has, as much as shoes have to be prepared to see the better idea when it arrives. And I was a Reddit user when the opposite happened there, and sitting in a cafe feels different from working. The Detroit News.10

Most founders of failed startups don't quit their day job, is probably an order of magnitude larger than the number who do make it. But the clearest message is that you should be smarter. But hear all the cutting-edge tech and startup news, and run into useful people constantly.11 You won't get to, unless you fail. Running a startup is fun the way a survivalist training course would be fun, and a funnel for peers. It's since grown to around 22,000.12 You may save him from referring to variables in another package, but you need time to get any message through to people that it didn't have to be more readable than a line of Lisp. A rant with a rallying cry as the title takes zero, because people vote it up without even reading it. I'm just stupid, or have worked on some limited subset of applications. This is supposed to be a lot simpler. Whatever a committee decides tends to stay that way, even if it is harder to get from zero to twenty than from twenty to a thousand.13

With two such random linkages in the path between startups and money, it shouldn't be surprising that luck is a big factor in deals. Most of the groups that apply to Y Combinator suffer from a common problem: choosing a small, obscure niche in the hope of unloading them before they tank. A programming language does need a good implementation, of course. Look at how much any popular language has changed during its life. With a startup, I had bought the hype of the startup world, startup founders get no respect. A real hacker's language will always have a slightly raffish character.14 The eminent feel like everyone wants to take a long detour to get where you wanted to go. But there is a trick you could use the two ideas interchangeably. Their reporters do go out and get users, though. A throwaway program is brevity. I do that the main purpose of a language is readability, not succinctness.15 You can't build things users like without understanding them.

At the moment I'd almost say that a language isn't judged on its own and b something that can be considered a complete application and ship it. They're so desperate for content that some will print your press releases almost verbatim, if you preferred, write code that was isomorphic to Pascal. When I moved to New York, I was very excited at first. To avoid wasting his time, he waits till the third or fourth time he's asked to do something; by then, whoever's asking him may be fairly annoyed, but at the same time the veteran's skepticism. There are several local maxima.16 Defense contractors? When, if ever, is a watered-down Lisp with infix syntax and no macros. Hackers share the surgeon's secret pleasure in poking about in gross innards, the teenager's secret pleasure in poking about in gross innards, the teenager's secret pleasure in popping zits.

Notes

What happens in practice signalling hasn't been much of a long time in the 1920s to financing growth with retained earnings till the 1920s. Even Samuel Johnson seems to be a good idea to make money.

A related problem that they decided to skip raising an A round VCs put two partners on your own mind. That should probably question anything you believed as a cause as it might take an angel investment from a company's culture.

If you don't think they'll be able to formalize a small company that could be made. There was no more unlikely than it was putting local grocery stores out of business you should be.

If Congress passes the founder visa in a time machine, how can anything regressive be good employees either.

If big companies to acquire the startups, the light bulb, the initial investors' point of a great deal of competition for mediocre ideas, but I think what they campaign for. When governments decide how to distinguish 1956 from 1957 Studebakers. How did individuals accumulate large fortunes in an absolute sense, if we think your idea is that parties shouldn't be that the Internet was as late as Newton's time it takes forever.

Galbraith was clearly puzzled that corporate executives would work to have this second self keep a journal. While the audience already has to be more at home at the start, e.

Some will say that it also worked for spam. The closest we got to the Internet worm of its identity. Icio.

Rice and Beans for 2n olive oil or butter n yellow onions other fresh vegetables; experiment 3n cloves garlic n 12-oz cans white, kidney, or black beans n cubes Knorr beef or vegetable bouillon n teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 3n teaspoons ground cumin n cups dry rice, preferably brown Robert Morris says that a startup in the US, it would do it is genuine. Com in order to attract workers.

But the early adopters you evolve the idea that could start this way, except in the back of your last round of funding rounds are at some of these limits could be ignored. Comments at the mafia end of the latter without also slowing the former, and also really good at generating your own time in the computer world, write a new SEC rule issued in 1982 rule 415 that made steam engines dramatically more efficient: the attempt to discover the most promising opportunities, it is very vulnerable to gaming, because there's no center to walk to.

Though it looks like stuff they've seen in the first year or two make the kind that has become part of a large chunk of time, default to some abstract notion of fairness or randomly, in one where life was tougher, the television, the more subtle ways in which those considered more elegant consistently came out shorter perhaps after being macroexpanded or compiled. For these companies unless your last funding round usually reflects some other contribution by the high-minded Edwardian child-heroes of Edith Nesbit's The Wouldbegoods.

Mozilla is open-source browser. They may not be led by a big factor in high school kids arrive at college with a truly feudal economy, at least should make what they claim was the recipe: someone guessed that there are before the name implies, you don't, but that we didn't do. They overshot the available RAM somewhat, causing much inconvenient disk swapping, but they hate hypertension. Living on instant ramen, which are a hundred years ago.

I don't think you should probably question anything you believed as a rule, if you're measuring usage you need, you don't have one. Don't be fooled. So managers are constrained too; instead of admitting frankly that it's a seller's market. This is one subtle danger you have a group of people who are both genuinely formidable, and would probably also encourage companies to say how justified this worry is.

One of the biggest winners, which is where product companies go to grad school, because you can work out. It's conceivable that a their applicants come from meditating in an equity round.

So where do we draw the line?

In 1995, but he got there by another path. If you treat your classes as a company if the potential magnitude of the 2003 season was 2. An investor who invested earlier had been trained that anything hung on a desert island, hunting and gathering fruit. Confucius claimed proudly that he had more fun in this essay, I can imagine what it would have started there.

I'm satisfied if I could pick them, and they succeeded. Consulting is where your existing investors help you even working on Viaweb. If they were taken back in July 1997 was 1. But the change is a scarce resource.

[friend-clarity]

Leftist corruption of diversity

But the concept of diversity is a very slippery term. What it truly means is “let’s aim for fewer white men in positions of authority,” which would be a fine idea if race and sex were reasonable criteria by which to judge applicants. National Post Jordan Peterson, November 22, 2019

Why the Western emphasis on individuals is the ultimate in intersectionality. We essentially assumed that each person was characterized by so many differences than every other person that it was better to concentrate solely on meritocratic selection

The federal Liberal government has always been a big fan of “diversity.”

Recently, for example, if you are a Canadian faculty member, there is a good chance that you received an email or letter from Statistics Canada. The Survey of Postsecondary Faculty and Researchers was designed to assess “diversity” among the groups targeted because of the desire of the Liberals to increase “diversity” among those receiving funding. It has long been the case that research funding was dependent, as much as possible, on two factors, both intensely meritocratic: the research record of the applicant and the quality of the proposed research.

That appears about to change, and not for the better.

But the concept of diversity is a very slippery term. What it truly means is “let’s aim for fewer white men in positions of authority,” which would be a fine idea if race and sex were reasonable criteria by which to judge applicants, and if it wasn’t motivated by a broad set of “progressive” beliefs, which include the idea that we live in an oppressive patriarchy and that men who work now should be required to step back so that a litany of hypothetical, definable and prejudicial historical wrongs might be righted (this even though those who do the righting weren’t those who committed the prejudicial crimes, so to speak, and those who benefit not those who were the victims). There was even a recent article in Nature, a magazine that was once, with Science, one of the two unquestionably most influential scientific journals, suggesting male scientists should voluntarily delay their career advancement so that their underprivileged colleagues (underprivileged despite their status as university professors) could catch up and justice be properly served.

There appears to be no limits, practically or philosophically, to the number of group memberships that have to be taken into account

“Diversity” is a word that, on the face of it, masquerades as something positive — because it is positive, in some of its manifestations. It’s obviously not helpful to set up an organization where everyone thinks alike, or solely in the approved manner. It is necessary, for example, for healthy organizations to ally the conservative tendency to preserve with the more liberal tendency to transform. But that begs the question: where is diversity to be found? Among the ideologues — pushing the “progressive” doctrine that it’s part of, most frequently including “inclusivity, equity and intersectionality” — it is to be found in a set of immutable characteristics that typify different groups, including race, sex, gender (because that is distinguished by those same ideologues from sex) and sexual proclivity, above all.

There are real problems with this agenda, however. The first is that it’s dangerous, in exactly the manner it is hypothetically designed to fight. The argument made by those who are truly prejudiced has always been that the differences between groups are so large that discrimination, isolation, segregation and even open conflict, including war and genocide, are necessary, for the safety of whatever group they are part of and are hypothetically protecting. Why is it any less risky for the argument to be made in the reverse manner? The claim that group-based differences are so important that they must take substantive priority during hiring and promotion merely risks validating the opposite claim.

There’s a second problem, too — and it’s particularly interesting, because it has been made by the same ideologically-oriented groups on the left that are pushing the diversity agenda: considering race, say, and gender when making diversity decisions is not sufficient. Diversity that focuses on females is insufficient, because black, Asian or Hispanic women, for example, face more egregious prejudice than white women.

This brings us to the last word of the progressive set—“intersectionality.” For the ideologues of intersectionality, true diversity cannot be limited to the features we have already considered — race and the like — because many people are alienated or, in the jargon, “marginalized,” from the broader culture by more than one oppressed minority feature. In consequence, the “intersection” between the groups must be considered for any real justice to make its appearance as a consequence of policy.

But there appears to be no limits, practically or philosophically, to the number of group memberships that have to be taken into account for true diversity to establish itself. It doesn’t take much thought — just a little arithmetic — to determine the nature of the problem: There are just too many potential intersectional categories. Let’s break it down using American statistics — much more comprehensive and easier to come by than their Canadian equivalents.

There’s race and sex, for starters and, following that, gender. But how many races, sexes and genders is it required to consider? Assume (and this is what the modern science suggests) that there are five major human subpopulations: African, European/Middle Eastern, East Asian, inhabitants of Oceania, and denizens of the New World. Let’s assume two sexes and three genders — although many of those concerned with diversity would insist that there are a much larger number of the latter.

Then we might as well add to that disabilities. I don’t know how to calculate the appropriate number here, although according to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, 20% of undergraduates reported a disability in 2015-2016. These included one or more of the following nine conditions: blindness or visual impairment; hearing impairment; orthopedic or mobility impairment; speech or language impairment; learning, mental, emotional, or psychiatric condition, or other health impairment or problem. So, if we assume that two divisions (presence/absence) are necessary to cover each disability (counting each listed in the last phrase separately), we now require nine additional multiples of 2 (two for blindness, two for hearing impairment, etc.) for our equation:

I can’t see why class/economic origin shouldn’t be taken into account as well. According to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 12% of Americans live below the poverty line. So, we need at least an additional two categories to even minimally account for economic disparity. And that brings us to 30,720 categories of “diverse” individuals (15,360 X 2).

If we are truly serious about diversity, and are willing to attribute it to group identity, and are going to apply its dictates to hiring, placement and promotion for every position, then we already have a minimum of 30,000 different categories to consider — and there are many other categories of exclusion that are arguably of equal import. There’s height, strength and attractiveness, which all arguably provide an unequal starting place in the race for success. There’s intelligence, native language and education. There’s age, marital status and — of critical importance — presence or absence of dependent children. That’s nine more categories.

Assuming we once again use two divisions for each additional category (short/tall, strong/weak, etc.), the total of “diverse” individuals now reaches more than 15 million. We’d only need to add one more binary category — obese/non-obese? — to dramatically exceed the entire 18 million person Canadian workforce. And why not? Who’s to say, given that elimination of discrimination is hypothetically the goal, that one is more important than another? I say this in all seriousness: Isn’t that just another form of discrimination?

As far as I am concerned, unless you accept it as a dogmatic given (and this would be if you were an advocate of the “equity” doctrine, which means all outcomes for all groups in all professions must be identical, and which therefore runs into the same arithmetical problem that diversity encounters) university hiring and granting practices are remarkably meritocratic. In the university departments I have worked within (McGill, Harvard and the University of Toronto) it was obvious to everyone that within the limits of human error, people were promoted when they deserved it and obtained research grant money for the same reasons. In both cases, the more productive people had a pronounced edge, which is exactly how it should be if scientific research is important enough to garner investment, be it from private or public funding sources. The three granting agencies are as meritocratic as our somewhat (and inevitably) flawed measures of research productivity can make them, and the universities themselves bend over backwards and tie themselves in knots (both clichés are necessary) to right past wrongs —even to the point where well-respected social scientists Wendy Williams and Stephen Ceci demonstrated a 2:1 hiring advantage for female candidates for open science, technology, engineering and mathematical positions.

The concept of diversity is a very slippery term

The proper way to determine who gets what slice of which pie in a given organization is the manner in which employers are legally bound to hire: first, they must conduct an analysis of the job to determine and list its requirements; then, with certain exceptions they are required to hire, place or promote the person who is most qualified to undertake that job, regardless of attributes that are not relevant to the task. These include the differences in race, sex, gender, and their combinations that are pushed so assiduously, self-righteously and thoughtlessly by the progressives who think they can replace comparatively well-functioning meritocracies, aimed at the solution of serious problems, by the most qualified people, with candidates chosen on the basis of attributes that would clearly be viewed as prejudicial if they were used as grounds for rejection, failure to promote, and firing.

The fact of the endless multiplication of categories of victimization, let’s say (or at least difference) was actually solved long ago by the Western emphasis on the individual. We essentially assumed that each person was characterized by so many differences than every other person (the ultimate in “intersectionality”) that it was better to concentrate solely on meritocratic selection, where the only difference that was to be considered was the suitability of the person for the specific and well-designed tasks that constituted a given job. That works — not perfectly, but less imperfectly than anything else that has been contemplated or worse, implemented.

We toy with it at our peril.

Jordan Peterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, a clinical psychologist and the author of the multi-million copy bestseller 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. His blog and podcasts can be found at jordanbpeterson.com.

Watch the National Post’s new documentary — Beyond Jordan Peterson: Free speech on campus

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

Gotham 4x04: A Liveblog

Once again, friends, I come to you with review and summary of the latest Gotham events. And Ed’s back this time. ...god help us all.

TL;DR - I wonder what’s happening in the REAL Gotham where character motivation still makes sense

Ben, whatever happens, I’m holding you personally responsible

Side Note: what exactly IS an embalming knife? Like... where does a knife come into the embalming process? Is this the knife you use to carve out the mushy bits, is that it? Because like... to my knowledge, embalming is a primary function of embalming liquid. Like... mostly it’s preserving and shit. And I don’t know how a knife preserves fuck all. But maybe someone who knows anthropology or mortician practices can explain this to me.

“That cuneiform is definitely pre-Venetian” ...did... did I just hear that right? Oh, PHOEnician... that makes way more sense. I was just... had a heart attack for a second. Carry on.

Look Bruce, you could have a friend your own age! Or... you know, continue to live alone with your butler like... all normal kids do. I suppose you have Cat but... mmm. mm.

...Ed’s fine. He’s fine. Upside down in his... obsession pit. He’s fine.

It’s a TOTALLY NORMAL and HEALTHY thing to paste thousands of pictures of your ex all over the walls while you contemplate revenge, yeah that... this is fine. It’s all Fine.

You’re uh... looking a little ramshackle and disheveled there Ed, OH HEY KNIFE. HI, uh... Okay. Did you fucking... DRAW sketches of Oswald yourself? Oh my god Ed... oh my god. See you haven’t changed at all really.

Yeah, he seems fine

Meanwhile, stuffed birds all over the place. I’m sure that’s... fine

You know, it’s pretty great how ancient cultures are always keen to write their hellish prophecies on their murder weapons, always appreciate that

UHHHHHH SABER SKELETON. UHHHHHH. UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. *Randall Tier flashbacks* UMMM UMMM UMMM UMMM. I JUST UH. I FEEL LIKE YOU GUYS MIGHT WANT TO BE CAREFUL WITH THE ALLUSIONS YOU’RE MAKING GUYS. YOU DON’T HAVE A WILL GRAHAM TO SAVE YOU.

Just... just all of the safe. All of the safe.

Maybe uh... maybe don’t talk about the Demon’s Head being a person and then cut to a saber skeleton. Maybe we don’t encourage brutal fledgling serial killers hahahahaha. 

That uh... sure is some hair, there, Alexander Siddig. God this show’s aesthetic is fucking weird. 

...this whole sequence has been nothing but Hannibal allusions.

They are REALLY pushing for the Hannibal aesthetics. Got a real crush on that show.

Look Bruce! Your new friend has ALSO been traumatized by witnessing the death of his guardian! You have so much in common!

*frowns* Harvey left and didn’t tell Jim??? Like, given what happened this summer, I can totally understand Donal not being around for filming but... write it better than “Harvey left and didn’t tell Jim” Because that’s bullshit.

I also DO NOT WANT TO PARTICIPATE in a love triangle where 2 women fight over Jim’s soul NO NO NO NO NO. So if that’s where this is going FUCK OFF, FUCK EVERYTHING, AND FUCK YOU.

Welp, seeing another dead guardian should stir some shit up for Bruce

At least this sends Jim back to Barbara... I mean, that’s not really a positive, but at least I don’t hate Jim and Barbara, mainly because they have the stamp of canon on them

I don’t know how I feel about Babs hair this season, it’s... different

Okay, HARD NO on Ra’s-al-Ghul’s underlings, HARD NO. I just came from American Gods and THAT IS NOT ANUBIS. For one thing he’s white. What.

Intense staring contest with bowler hat. Oswald’s So Over It.

What’re you expecting Ed to jump out of it? Holy shit Oswald, calm down

I... you didn’t want to be disturbed... during your staring contest with the hat??? I... okay. Also, maybe close your fucking door then, it was wide open. Just saying.

Huh... Oswald and Sofia are meeting. Okay. Better put the masturbation hat away then Oswald, it’s a little too revealing

Hmmm... be careful Oswald. You’re right to be wary of her, don’t let her fool you. Also, Maybe Talk To Jim About This.

...White Rabbit. Really. *long, put upon sigh*

AAAAAAAAAAND the worst rap of all time! Well DONE Ed!

Oswald’s reactions to this are everything. Bless you Oswald. I love you. 100% everything I feel too.

Belated Side Note: Zsasz used to work for Falcone, and Falcone has taken control of him back from Oswald on occasion. Why then does Zsasz offer to stab Sofia? Is he truly loyal to Oswald now? Or was his relationship exclusively with Carmine? OR is it a bluff and Sofia’s already tapped him? Or will she tap him later? Lots of questions... lots of questions.

Yeah because WHY would you murder the guy??? It’s WAY more healthy for your psychological state to just... keep him on ice forever. That’s progress.

“I want Ed Nygma” we... we know Oswald. we know.

Always, ALWAYS the fucking docks. Goddddd. PLEASE GET A NEW SPOT YOU TWO.

Also, Oswald, DID YOU NOT LISTEN TO THAT??? That WASN’T a riddle, that was... statements. His brain is SHOT. God knows what a second spell in the ice will do.

Also also, I can guarantee that Ed won’t even be at the docks because he’s a dumbass now. And somehow the obvious answer will be wrong.

Um, frankly, I wouldn’t trust Bruce if I was Alex, Bruce is 100% the person who got Alex’s granddad killed. I’d be super pissed at Bruce. But... y’know, okay, whatever. Moving the plot forward.

Ahhh, Alex is giving Bruce the benefit of the doubt, I see. Nice kid. Very generous in his grief.

Also, why the shit would he come after you? He wanted the KNIFE, that’s it. I mean... I guess you’re a witness, but he didn’t see you so he doesn’t know about you. You’re not in danger kid. At least, not so much danger the police can’t take care of it, for once. You’re very much safe as houses until the plot inevitably fucks this up.

It would be a good idea to give up the knife tho, then you’re really in the clear

How the FUCK is Ra’s-al-Ghul at the library! How does he know to come here? Presumably he knew to come to the antiquities room because he was tracking Bruce because Babs told him to... I guess he could have tracked Bruce here then. Meh.

Ah yes. The creatures. Fuck that.

White people speaking ancient Middle Eastern languages. Mmmm nothing like it.

Ah, the old collapsing book case technique! Because no one thinks to GET OUT OF THE WAY of that shit. Nah, just gotta stand here and be crushed by the 3 ton weight of literature. It was my destiny to die this way.

Oh, I see, you’re just going to make like a harmless academic and this knife has been in your family for generations, of course...

You’re awfully paranoid kid. I mean... I suppose you were attacked now, so... I guess that’s justified

Uhhhh, kid, Bruce is not a Good Example of literally anything. He’s been training to become the world’s most popular vigilante for a few years now and that was born out of this very trauma so... y’know, don’t compare yourself to him. Please don’t. We don’t need more Batmans.

“No, you’re cool” I think you mean wealthy. Wealthy and cool CAN intersect but I feel like this is a classism thing. Let me provide you with a book on Marxism, kid.

If this doesn’t turn into another exploration of sexuality subplot, I’m gonna be disappointed

Uh, if he’s here on international business, like... check his visa Jim, he should have legal paperwork and shit to take that knife back to Nepal

JIM. WHY ARE YOU TELLING A MURDER SUSPECT THAT THERE IS A LIVING WITNESS. YOU’RE ACTIVELY PUTTING THE KID IN DANGER HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT NOT GOOD PROTOCOL JIM. Unless you were planning to trip him up on a lie, THIS IS NOT GOOD PROCEDURE JIM. THIS IS A HANNIBAL LEVEL FUCK UP. AS PEOPLE CONTINUE TO TELL HANNIBAL, THE ACTUAL CHESAPEAKE REAPER, SENSITIVE CASE DETAILS ALL THE FUCKING TIME. HOLY SHIT NO.

This... this whole interrogation is a shit show, oh my god, not great work, very bad work, the both of you. Awful lying, Get Good.

Welp. I guess Ra’s-al-Ghul can teleport. Or turn fucking invisible. Glad that’s very justified. Everyone know if you get resurrected you get Special Powers. The divine amniotic sack gives to all.

Yeah because Sofia Totally Won’t Challenge Penguin For Power. That Defs Won’t Happen. And It Especially Won’t Involve Jim.

Oswald You Good. You Good Good Good Villain. How I Love Thee.

Brilliant babe who is rightfully suspicious after 3 seasons of this bullshit. Y’all fucking forget that Oswald is a sewer rat, you cannot trick him.

Oh boo hoo Sofia, I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you

Her criticism may be valid, BUT, on the other hand, as I said, Oswald’s lived through 3 seasons of this bullshit, while you lived the high life in Cuba. You might have your father’s perspective, but you don’t have any of Oswald’s hands-on experience. I still stand by Oswald’s decision to just murder them, he’s played the politics here long enough to know there is no loyalty amongst thieves. Not for him.

You know, it’s very considerate of Ra’s-al-Ghul to break shit every time he enters a scene so we know he’s here. Very thoughtful of him.

Oh it’s his fucking creatures again... ugggghhhhhhh...

More quality rapping! Good job Ed! Continuing to be the Best!

HAHAHAHAHA *more Randall Tier flashbacks* HAHAHAHAHAHA! ALL of the Hannibal allusions! Phew!

...no. no to the bone gag. just no.

Yeah, kid’s dead. Good job Ra’s-al-Ghul, at least you come through on your weird ass threats.

I mean... Ra’s totally made you make that call tho Bruce, this is his sick game, it’s on him. No one should have to decide between the death of one innocent or the deaths of millions of innocents. That’s a bullshit moral quandary that doesn’t actually exist. He wants you to think like he thinks, that’s all, this is psychological warfare, that’s the whole point. Remind yourself he did this, not just for the active murder, but more so because he thinks there is something to be gained by making you do this. He’s the asshole responsible.

Ed, I’m just... sweetie, pumpkin, if your point is to prove Oswald is a coward or an idiot, then... you proved it. Running after him sorta... disproves your point. If you want to meet him and murder him then... make that the point. Just... show up and murder him in the first place. *siiiigh* Or invite him to a cordial murder, whatever, but don’t make it a contest of wits if what you rally want is a confrontation. Get your shit together.

*nods* He’s right, they do suck, they were AWFUL

This... that... was bizarre. This was bizarre. What... exactly does Oswald want? I don’t understand. I know Ed isn’t himself anymore, but... you could help him. You could help him become himself again. And you both hate and are afraid of the Riddler. Why... would you want him back? As you just said, you want him only to freeze him. And just... that personality wasn’t even WHOLE, it was a fractured disaster. That wasn’t even a person. Just like this isn’t even a person. Why would you taunt Ed with saying “you’re not him”? I know you want Ed as an equal, but... do you think he can only be your equal as the Riddler? Who you hate and fear? You’ve got some weird ideas floating around in your head, Oswald. I would make the argument that you don’t hate or fear the Riddler nearly as much as you claim to and you want to bang the living daylights out of him, but like... *siiiigh* I dunno. You didn’t always want that. You wanted Ed to be whole and your equal. Nothing you’ve seen of him since he was your chief of staff has been real. None of it, all of it was a mistake, aborted attempts at personalities. And I just don’t know what you want anymore if you won’t take this broken, defunct Ed and help him.

You’re pushing him towards becoming the Riddler again, so I guess that’s what you want. And maybe you’re tired of being his mentor, after all, you tried that, reluctantly, and that went SO well. Maybe you hope/expect him to work it out for himself, and come back to you when he’s ready. That would put your relationship in a WAY different paradigm than it has been... but... okay??? I guess??? I’m having another time of not knowing what the hell the writers want for them

Why. why why why why. I hate everything.

I hate Jim so much

Ben You Done Fucked Up.

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Kyrik, Earl Norem, Stormbringer RPG, Denny O’Neill

T.V. (RMWC Reviews): In 1973, Tsuburaya Productions released several shows as part of the company’s 10th anniversary. The first one to see release was Fireman (or Magma Man in some markets), which began airing on Nippon Television on January 7, 1973, running until July for 30 episodes.

Warfare (Aeoli Pera): The typical special forces trainee who passes selection has a higher rank (officers were far more likely to pass than enlisted), at least a bachelor’s degree, high general personality factor with extremely high conscientiousness, no children, and verbally tilted IQs averaging in the 120s. This study looks at Ranger school but it’s true across all special operations services in the Western world. Please note that, except for measuring the ability to do pullups, these exact predictors could be used to select head girls for graduate departments in the humanities and social sciences.

Fiction (Wasteland & Sky): Interested in superheroes? If you’re reading this post then there’s a good chance you do! But how much? Check out this new bundle of hero books compiled by immortal SF author Kevin J. Anderson. The offer is for a limited time, so don’t miss out! The description for the bundle is as follows: The Up, Up and Away Superheroes Bundle – Curated by Kevin J. Anderson: If reading is your kryptonite, I’ve put together a superpowered StoryBundle—thirteen books with marvelous heroes, supervillains, secret identities, mutant powers, and extraordinary gentlemen (and ladies).

Popular Culture (Legends of Men): Why do these guys virtue signal? They’re saying this type of thing to other readers of S&S and REH and the pulps. The entire readership obviously enjoys these genres with as much or as little diversity as they already have. Past works cannot be changed and what made them popular once is more likely to make them popular again than changing the nature of what they are. So do some readers feel the need to virtue signal to other readers?

Reading (DVS Press): How many times have you seen a movie and though, “Man, the book was so much better,” or had a friend who read the book say the same to you? I can definitely say that the cases where the movie is better than the book are far outweighed by the reverse – probably in the range of 20:1. In fact, the only writer whose work seems to function better on screen than on paper is Stephen King, and even then there are plenty of books in his exceptionally large canon that are much better than their cinema counterpart (anyone remember The Dark Tower? I hope not).

Science Fiction (John C. Wright): Sometimes in this life we see justice done. The Nebula Awards have just honored Gene Wolfe with a Grandmastership. The honor is overdue, and all lovers of literature should rejoice. Gene Wolfe is the Luis Borges of North America. He is the greatest living author writing in the English language today, and I do not confine that remark to genre authors. I mean he is better than any mainstream authors at their best, better in the very aspects of the craft in which they take most pride.

Culture War (Kairos): This is why they hate Japan. This the material manifestation for why they can’t handle the Beautiful and seek to degrade before they destroy; the humiliation is intended as much to assuage the abuser’s amygdala as it is to afflict the victim’s, a “No You, Christcuck!” retort as they rip the beautiful apart before finishing the job. The cruelty is part of the process by design. The shitlords–God bless you all–at /pol/ noticed that this applies to all of the cultural attacks.

Art (DMR Books): When Earl demobilized, he went into magazine illustration, mostly for the “Men’s Adventure” mags. Such magazines have also been called “men’s pulps” and “sweat mags”. Essentially, they were magazines that somewhat carried on from the actual pulps–which died out in the 1950s–but were printed on “slick” paper. A significant percentage of their readers were veterans of World War Two and Korea who were looking for manly stories featuring action and beautiful women.

Comic Books (Diversions of the Groovy Kind): As most of you know, Groove-ophiles, Denny O’Neil, one of the most influential writers of the Groovy Age passed away at the age of 81 on Friday, June 12. Much has been written about O’Neil during the past week, and that’s how it should be. During the 1970s, O’Neil changed the way we would think about Batman in particular and comics in general forever (in tandem, naturally, with artist Neal Adams, mostly, but also with a host of other artistic luminaries from Irv Novick to Mike Kaluta to Jack Kirby to Mike Grell).

Robert E. Howard (Don Herron): Something I didn’t know much about, was a bank robbery that had occurred in the little town of Cisco on December 23, 1927, over 80 years earlier. The so-called Santa Claus Bank Robbery was a story I had heard about, of course, but the Kris Kringle business had conjured up images of a gang comprised of members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the Bowery Boys. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

RPG (Black Gate): Chaosium’s Stormbringer! was a licensed product based on Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné secondary world fantasy series. The game engine used modified Basic Roleplaying mechanics; in particular, magic worked very differently in Stormbringer than in Runequest. Characters could come from a wide variety of backgrounds; power-gamers preferred certain back-grounds over others because there was no pretense of game balance between them.

Heinlein (Black Gate): It’s almost impossible to discuss Robert A. Heinlein’s The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel about Parallel Universes without revealing and thus spoiling the plot devices of it and its 1980 prequel/sequel, The Number of the Beast—. Heinlein, first Grand Master of the SFWA, for decades acclaimed as the Dean of sf, no longer pleases everyone. Some readers, especially academic critics, have denounced both books as grossly self-indulgent and even worthless. Others, like the brilliant Marxist professor H. Bruce Franklin (in his important 1980 study Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction) catch the feel of Beast: “a cotton-candy apocalypse — frothy, sweet, airy, mellow, light, festive, whimsical, insubstantial” (199).

Sword-and-Sorcery (Ken Lizzi): I’ve read a few of Gardner Fox’s Kothar books. So when I saw his name on the cover of Kyrik Fights the Demon World I didn’t hesitate to snatch up the book. No one will claim that Fox was a master stylist. Take this paragraph from page one of Demon World. And so Makonnon quested through spatial emptiness into lands that had known him, long and long ago. He sent his mind across unfathomable distances, seeking, hunting, searching for that which so infuriated him.

RPG (Cyborgs and Sorcerers): Vancian Freeform Magic. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms.  It isn’t.  You’ll see. I love the idea of free-form spell systems because they allow for endless creativity, and for me, creative problem-solving is the biggest source of fun in RPGs.  In practice though, people often come up with a few favorite spells they cast over and over.  This system was designed to prevent that by continually varying the tools in the free-form spellcaster’s toolbox. It’s a noun-verb system like Ars Magicka, except the nouns and verbs are not skills you’re permanently trained in.

Tolkien (Tolkien and Fantasy): The details of Tolkien’s epistolary friendship with the US editor, writer and sculptor Sterling Lanier (1927-2007) are difficult to ascertain, and various accounts differ as to the chronology and extent of their correspondence.  In 1973, Lanier wrote that “it began in 1951” and amounted to some “dozen or so letters we exchanged over the years.” In a 1974 fanzine profile of Lanier by Piers Anthony, it notes that Lanier had had “ten years of correspondence” with Tolkien. In 2016,  a book dealer had for sale six letters from Tolkien to Lanier, plus one from Tolkien’s wife.

Science Fiction (M. Porcius): I enjoyed my recent look at the 1950 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories with Leigh Brackett’s “The Dancing Girl of Ganymede” and Henry Kuttner’s “The Voice of the Lobster,” so, to take a break from my rereading of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, I propose spending some time reading more stories by Brackett and Kuttner from Thrilling Wonder (we might end up checking out some Thrilling Wonder contributions by Brackett’s husband, Edmond Hamilton, as well.)

RPG (Swords and Stitchery): I have used & abused B4 The Lost City adventure & its inhabitants  for years now a venerable pulp  module created by Tom Moldvay.  “”The Lost City” (1982) was the first adventure written entirely for the second edition Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1981). No surprise, then, that it was written by the author of that set, Tom Moldvay. ” Today I’ve been thinking about specifically adapting this module as perhaps a starter to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition as an introductory module.

History (Outlook India): Tucked into Pakistan’s remote northwestern hills, along the border with Afghanistan, is a cluster of three villages whose residents are still trying to preserve their language and culture in the face of advancing modernity and religious conversion. The tribe, known as Kalash, is said to have descended from soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great who travelled this way in 324 BCE. However, many scholars deny the story even though it has not been established finally yet how these people, their language, dress, and their nature-worshipping culture—in marked contrast to the Islamic culture that surrounds them—evolved and survived through the centuries.

Fiction (Dark Worlds Quarterly): I used to use the words “Pulp-descended fiction” and it was the source of RAGE m a c h i n e Books. I wanted to capture that feeling that good Pulp writing gives you. What that really means is I grew up on authors who wrote during the Pulps and those who followed, they too influenced by those five decades of magazine publishing. The world has since moved on, with television and paperback novels, comic books (now called “graphic novels”). Despite this, Pulp remains with us. Not in the packaging but under the surface.

Sensor Sweep: Kyrik, Earl Norem, Stormbringer RPG, Denny O’Neill published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[talesofhawaii]

Estria is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Estria Foundation, which raises social consciousness on human and environmental issues through public art and educational programs. He pioneered a number of programs, including Mele Murals, which focuses on Hawaiian lyrics (mele) that explore stories of place (mo’olelo ‘aina); Water Writes, which highlights critical water issues in 10 cities around the globe; and the Estria Battle, which served as the premier U.S. urban art competition and honored Hawaiian culture and community. Before co-founding The Estria Foundation, he received commissions from President Bill Clinton, MTV, Redbull, and others, co-founded Visual Element, a series of free-for-youth workshops which targets at-risk children, and presented the first ever TEDx talk on muralism. Estria used his 1994 arrest to speak out about graffiti’s sociopolitical impact on CNN, the National Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other platforms. He is the recipient of a number of awards, including Miami New Times’ Best Mural, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s Certificate of Congressional Recognition, and East Bay Express’ Best Graffiti Artist.

As I understand, you’re originally from Hawaii. How did you become interested in graffiti?

When I was a teenager, my mom sent me to the YMCA to volunteer after school and in the summers. My friends were break dancers, and they’d look for stuff with breakdancing. They’d see graffiti on jackets, in the backgrounds, or on trains, and they were like, “what is this?” One day, we got an airbrush kit, and we hopped the fence and went into the canal to paint it after school. It was bright daylight and people were walking by watching. No one was really freaking out over what we were doing. I don’t even think we really realized that it was… illegal. We tried to do the word ‘fresh,’ and because it was a little airbrush kit, we did ‘fr’ and then ran out of air. But, it got us juiced, so we went and got spray paint and started trying that. I fell in love with spray painting and just kept going with it.

Did spray painting speak to your friends too? Or did they just go back to breakdancing?

We spray-painted for a year– or maybe two years. I think I was 16 years old when we started, so I’m pretty sure by 18 they had already quit. But, when I went to college in San Francisco at 18, I think it was probably by the second week that I had gone painting at the project rooftops already. Back then, people had 110 film cameras and little flash cubes on top of them. For every photo, you would think, “it’s going to cost me this much to take this picture.” It wasn’t like digital cameras or cellphones nowadays, where you don’t even think about that– you just click away. So, these guys who I’d just met took me painting. But, at the end of it, no one took pictures of my piece. I was like, “Oh, I suck!” [laughing] I didn’t know I sucked until that moment! It was one of those turning points where I went, you know what? I want to get good at this. I want to be as good or better than these guys. I started painting all the time.

It sounds like you really channeled your frustration into positive energy and motivation, two qualities that undeniably show through your work. Do you think that particular experience shaped your belief in the mission of empowerment?

Oh, yeah! Writing is like a contact sport: you can run into cops, gangs, trains, trucks. You might even have to walk for three miles, in the dark, to get to a wall. It’s kind of crazy to think that we were doing those things. But, you know, it makes you feel alive. You’re in a train…you’re out at night trying to paint cold steel… and there are sound that you just can’t explain. You know they’re from the trains, but they just sound like eerie monster things, I guess as the metal is contracting and expanding with the temperature drop. And so, you’re just kind of freaked out. But, I also think you feel alive– your heart is pumping and your senses are hyper-aware. It’s almost this rite of passage for young people to do this dangerous thing, to know what it’s like to really be alive and out there. And it’s dangerous… so yeah, there was definitely that thrill.

And to be honest, I sucked at doing the lettering, which is the whole main part of style writing. But, I could draw characters and stuff. All of the guys that were really good at the letters were like, “Okay, I’m gonna do my name– you do the background….” Right? They wanted me to do the stuff around their pieces. [laughing] But because of that, I later ended up getting the commissions, because people would say, “Oh, can you paint this Middle Eastern restaurant scene?” or whatever scene their business needed–grapes, pizza, or whatever. The style writer guys could only do letters, so they didn’t get the jobs.

That’s just on a more superficial level. Maybe, looking at past lives, it was almost meant for me to be in a creative expression pathway. You know, having that experience, or working in the YMCA and giving to kids, or taking care of other people at an early age… it just infused that whole idea that you give back, that you take care of others, that you teach others. I always think I was trying to say more than just my name, or that I’m alive, you know? I did my share of that, but I reached a point where that wasn’t gratifying anymore. When you’re going out bombing, and you can bomb a billboard over the freeway or a tunnel of the freeway– you’re just like, “Wow, I’m alive. I can do whatever I want. I have power.” Then, you have to learn to be responsible with your power… like Spider-Man. So, I think that just pushed me towards using art for some kind of purpose– to say something.

What did your mom think of you graffitiing?

Back in the day, we had a Betamax, like a VHS recorder. I remember the first time the news covered graffiti, they were interviewing this guy from a different part of my island. To this day, he’s still world famous– he’s made a good career for himself. But, as I’m taping the interview on the Betamax, my mom is sitting next to me watching the interview, and she’s like, “I hope they catch these hoodlums!” [laughing] I’m not sure she even knew that I was doing graffiti yet. Then, years went by and she could see that, in college, I was trying to make a career of it already. So, she started to want to understand it: she took drawing and photography classes at the local museum just to have a deeper understanding of why I do these things. Now, she’s on my board, and to me, she’s my biggest fan.

On the Estria Foundation website, it seems like there’s a lot of emphasis on incorporating Indigenous themes and even preserving specific language, like mele (Hawaiian lyrics) or mo’olelo ‘aina (stories of place). Do you want to speak a little bit as to some central Hawaiian themes?

Yeah! I think there’s two things I could start with. One is the concept of ‘we.’ When we say the word ‘we,’ we normally refer to we in this room, or our family, or our friends– those that are living right now. And ‘we,’ in a Hawaiian and Indigenous perspective, doesn’t just go laterally– it goes up and down. It means connecting with the earth, connecting with the heavens, connecting with your ancestors, and the belief that you never walk alone: that your ancestors walk with you– your ancestors on your father’s side and your ancestors on your mother’s side. With the Hawaiian and Indigenous ‘we’ comes the idea of being mindful. Are you living a righteous life? Are you making righteous decisions? Being mindful is something that Hawaiians tend to think about a lot. Whereas, in Western society, that’s not always up for concern. [laughing]

Also, in the Hawaiian perspective, things aren’t separate: there’s no separation of church and state, or education and religion. Spirituality, cultural practices, environmentalism– all of those things are connected, not separate. So, the Hawaiian perspective means coming to understand that the Earth is a living thing and that you need to communicate with it in order to take care of it. Our role is not to have this ego and to conquer Earth; our role is to take care of it. Our position is between the heavens and the Earth. In that way, you always set priorities. Is this good for the land and the water? Is this good for people? And then, is this good for business?

That’s really how I think government should set their priorities too– in that order. But, politicians are allowed to say whatever at election time and then do whatever later… without any agenda that they’re actually held accountable to in a way that a CEO or a board of directors would be held accountable. If we held politicians accountable, a whole lot would be different– so many of our decisions would be different. The reason the cultural piece, the environmental piece, and the spiritual piece are all so important to us is because, if we keep going the Western way– we’re not an entire continent, where it’ll take you a long time to destroy it. We’re a small island. You could probably destroy it in our lifetime. So, we need to redefine our notion of ‘success’ from, “How do you go off to college and make a lot of money?” to “How do you become a guardian, or a caretaker, of this place?”

In Hawaii, we have what we call a ‘brain drain,’ where supposedly our best kids go to private school, because their parents will do whatever it takes to pay the tuition, and then private schools are always college-preparatory, so the best kids all go off to college. In my class, only one or two kids didn’t go to college. That’s less than 1 percent. So, a half of my class went to the continent for education. Then, out of that half, a huge percentage of my class never came back to Hawaii. We’re developing our best and brightest kids and then exporting them to the continent permanently, as opposed to using their brain power to solve problems here. For us, redefining ‘success’ would be shifting the idea of a successful person from one who’s financially successful to one who’s grounded in their place, who’s in tune with it, and who knows how to take care of it, or is willing to find solutions to fix it in sustainable ways. That would be successful for us because those people are going to be around for the future generations.

So, on one hand, lots of Hawaiians come to the continent to study and be successful in a Western, business sense. On the other hand, there seems to be a culture of Hawaiian residents who define success differently, who are maybe more community-oriented and in tune with the land. From what you see, how does that dynamic play out more concretely?

I see the hope for Hawaii in the young people. We have a lot of Hawaiian immersion charter schools. In the ’80s, they were saying that Hawaiian, as a language, was going extinct. Then, they started forming these charter schools and teaching the Hawaiian language– Hawaiian perspective and Hawaiian values. Now, it’s not weird to hear Hawaiian out in public.

With the language comes the perspective. In English, there’s usually one word and one meaning. A sentence is defined to be very specific so as to avoid confusion about what you’re saying: this person did this thing to this place. But, in Hawaiian, words are structured around a multitude of meanings. If you’re pregnant, people will say you’re hapai. But, hapai doesn’t mean ‘pregnant��– it means ‘to carry.’ The mountain could be hapai with waterfalls, or the land could be hapai with food growing. So, when you think with hapai in that multitude of ways, you should be seeing how it connects you back to the Earth, or back to ancestors, or back to the stars– it connects you to your place at all times with several different meanings.

For us, we didn’t have a written language. When people have written language, they have secret codes, secret ways to communicate messages to the troops, or from royalty to royalty. But, without a written language, our secret code had to be hidden in poetry. There was language structured for the common folk, or for everyday use, and then there was that poetic, riddlelike way of using the language that was taught to chiefs so that when they spoke in public, only the chief would get what they were trying to say. And the public was like, “Oh, everything’s okay!” [laughing]

How do you connect with your Hawaiian heritage now? Do you just bring the message along wherever you travel?

At this point, I can’t say that I’m a writer anymore– I just say I came from there. Now, the purpose of my artwork is to tell the stories of our places. Most of these stories have never been put down on paper, so they’re being cast from generation to generation. When Westerners came and started settling here, Hawaiians died off by the tens of thousands, and those storytellers went with them. So, they tried to tell those stories. At this point, Hawaiians are about 10 percent of the population in Hawaii, and I would say that most people living here know next to nothing about Hawaiian culture.

That being said, people living here don’t realize that a lot of the daily, little things are Hawaiian. The way we behave in this situation… that’s a Hawaiian thing. [laughing] I tell people that we may be 10 percent of the population, but we should be 100 percent of the voice on the walls. Using the walls as our visual storytelling medium, instead of books or other things, is a more powerful way of communicating our culture; it works perfectly for someone like me that’s a community-based artist, where my work is in the community. I don’t paint highbrow, high-end art. I don’t paint modernism. I’ve gone to archives and all these different art shows around the country, and my takeaway is that modernist art is about nothing and for rich people. It’s got nothing to do with the culture; it doesn’t talk about change; and it’s rare that it’s got really insightful criticism. I think art gets off really easy nowadays on having no content. It’s a shame because I think we’ve got to hold artists to a higher standard. Not to say that I’m better or higher than everybody else, but my art isn’t for that audience: it’s for the commonfolk in the streets, here in Hawaii.

When I see a Hawaiian family stand there and watch us paint, or start crying just by looking at the painting… then you know they’ve never been to an art gallery. They don’t have art. They haven’t studied art or art history. None of them can name five American artists, whereas in Europe, they can name all their favorite artists. But, when a Hawaiian family stands there and takes in what we’re doing, when they start crying and understanding it, when they come up to me and explain what they see, and when I start crying with them– it’s like, “yeah, this mural is for you guys.” If I painted in the gallery, they never would have seen it; I did it in the community, and they get to see it every day. It’s a different purpose, a different intention.

So, in your view, there’s a whole world of untapped potential for art–what’s the disconnect?

Oh, yeah. Art in a gallery is like, “man– get it out!” Even in discussions on a community organizing level… people around the country, and especially museums, talk about breaking the fourth wall and getting into the community– that’s because they tried to get the community into the museum, and they only had so much luck doing that. They know their sweet spot is really people who are over 40, white, and single. Those are the ones that are going to give them the endowment. Those are the ones who are going to sign up for annual membership and come to all the events. The sweet spot, for museums, isn’t Mexican family with 10 kids down the street, or the Black family across the way. These highbrow art museums just aren’t culturally, or historically, part of their daily life. So, instead of trying to get the community to the museum, they’re trying to take the museum to the community. What some museums will do is actually coopt what non-profits are doing. They’ll see what the non-profits are doing, they’ll write a grant for the same thing, they’ll get the project, and they’ll put that non-profit out of business. Then, when that project is no longer in vogue, the museum will move onto the next flavor. It sucks! Trying to do this by the people for the people in the community is a whole different thing.

When Banksy’s painting self-destructed during an auction and a highbrow art collector decided to pay even more for it, how did that make you feel?

Well, it’s a novelty, right? It’s an exciting thing. I think Banksy is cool– it’s a great example of using street art, in public, to exploring new ways of saying something. But, for us, it’s really about going back to who we are. The bulk of education in the United States was designed in the industrial age to create factory workers. And with Common Core standards still in place, we’re actually still trying to produce factory workers. But, we don’t have factories anymore, so it’s not benefitting us to create obedient soldiers: we need out-of-the-box, visionary leaders to do creative problem-solving. Our system doesn’t encourage that; it encourages potential leaders to use their heads, to learn how to take tests, and to study standards. All of that is using your brain, and we’ve forgotten that the other way to access knowledge, to tap ancestral knowledge, is through your gut, through activities like meditation, or talking to your ancestors, or praying. Rather than going through your head, you’re going through your gut to tap into that knowledge.

I’ll give you a good example. We have this canoe called Hōkūle’a, which means “brightest star.” Basically, they built a canoe, using mostly traditional methods, to navigate by the stars; they don’t navigate Hōkūle’a by newer instruments or GPS. So, they’ve gotten all these other nations–Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa–to build canoes too, and they’ve got this whole fleet of canoes to sail around the world. They just completed the trip about a year or two ago. They went all the way around the world to prove that Hawaiians didn’t just end up in Hawaii by chance; we were navigating to places. The message they were trying to spread, everywhere they went, was that we should take care of the ocean. But, the knowledge of how to build that canoe had been lost. There was no one alive who knew how to build that canoe, so they looked at artist drawings. Some of the things they had to figure out–how to carve a certain way, what to carve with, what kind of knots to make, all of these little details–they had to do so by going inside and tapping that ancestral knowledge. They had to meditate in the forest, where trees were chopped, to regain that knowledge. That’s not a project that Western thinking will even allow you to entertain.

It does feel like we’re kind of desensitized in the West, often thinking mechanically with our heads rather than our guts. Do you want to expand a bit more on the difference between the Western and Indigenous perspectives, especially with regards to Hawaii?

Think about how the average person can walk down the street, spit anywhere, and piss anywhere. Western thinking is like, “I want to climb the highest mountain, or I want to climb any peak, so that I can jump off of it with a snow board, or a parachute, or whatever.” Westerners just think they can go anywhere and do anything. But, Indigenous thinking is like, “These are sacred spaces. And you need to ask for your ancestors’ permission before you enter.” You can’t just go. Take Mauna Kea for example. They’re going to build this huge telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea that’s going to affect the wind patterns. It’s the start of the water cycle, so they’re going to pollute their own water on the island. And it’s because they don’t think the earth is sacred. They think that, in the name of science, we need to see farther… “Hello!” You can close your eyes and see farther than that telescope can see.

When we talk about what is ‘sacred,’ most people don’t actually know. I was trying to teach the kids the other day. I asked them, “who determines if a space is sacred?” A kid’s answer was “Oh, somebody said the space was sacred!” and another said, “Maybe somebody was buried there.” Okay. Those are good possibilities… well, what makes a person say a place is sacred? They’re like, “I don’t know, somebody just said.” The thing you’ve got to understand is that if you listen to the land, you will know what parts of the land are more sacred, because the land feels different in each space. So, I try to teach the kids to meditate in different places in order to start to feel the difference in the power, or the mana, of the land. In the olden days, when people built sacred temples, they all built them on portal sites, or on ley lines. I see it in Peru, I see it with the Aztecs, with the Incas, and with the Mayans. I think it’s because they had people who were more in tune and could feel like, “Oh, this is the spot right here!” So, it’s not a person telling you that the space is sacred; it’s the land telling you it’s sacred right here. The land has its power– you’re just trying to tap into that. Since we’re no longer connected to the land in that way, there’s no considering those things anymore. We need to start listening to the land again in order to take care of it, or we’re not going to be around for much longer.

We’ve covered a lot of topics conceptually, but I wanted to give you the chance to speak about projects like Water Writes, Mele Murals, the Estria Battle, or “Sin Armas ni Violencia.” It would be great if you could connect them with some of the central Hawaiian and Indigenous topics we’ve been discussing!

Well, the Estria Battle… Man… I did that out of pocket for five to six years. I was finally like, “Alright, I’m done!” and people just thought I was making money. I’m like, “Dude, it’s free admission! What am I making money on?” From there, I went to Water Writes. We went to all these different cities and countries, where we would partner with people in those places. And I couldn’t get it funded, because the funders couldn’t see how two weeks in a place could make a lasting impact. But Water Writes was the older sibling of Mele Murals, and Mele Murals had a deeper connection to the land and to the community, so that’s the one that’s gotten the most support, both in terms of finances and community support.

Really, people have to go to a Mele Mural, or come to an unveiling, or come to the meditation sessions with the kids, to really understand the project. To see a group of kids meditating outside and getting messages…. What do you think would happen if you got twenty to forty kids to meditate together, and I’m telling them, “Okay! Ask the land what message should be in the mural. Ask the land what it wants.” What are they going to come up with? I’ve sat with groups on the continent for three hours, trying to come up with a concept for the mural while no one has an idea, and I walk out of the meeting clueless. I’m like, “I’m not doing this project!” The groups aren’t grounded, they’re not based in anything, so they don’t know what’s important.

But then you get kids. I remember one kid said, “Oh, I see the hands of ancestors carrying the baby’s spirit to the body of one of our kings.” And then, eight people went, “Whoa, that’s what I got too!” You can’t make that up! Right? We weren’t even talking about that. How did you even get that? Your schools not spiritual, so you wouldn’t talk about spirits and ancestors in that way. But, it’s confirmation: that’s the message they want us to paint about. So, we keep going around, and I circle any ideas that come to more than one person. I circle those ideas because I know we have confirmation. Our ancestors speak in riddles. They don’t give us the message directly, so you’ve got to figure it out. That’s how we arrive at the concepts of the murals, but unless you’ve seen that process, you don’t know what magic it is, or how trippy it is.

Then, each mural is loaded with messages from the spirit realm, and so many trippy things happen that it becomes normal. The first time I did this, I was like, “Oh, please, please work! I’m going to meditate and ask for the concept, and I don’t even know where it’s coming from. Please work!” And now, I don’t even question it. I know it’ll come. The process has built faith in me, and so now we meditate on all the big decisions for our organization. The crazy thing is that I’m often talking to spirits, ancestors, or guardians. Sometimes I see stuff, and sometimes they speak through me. All kinds of amazing things open up once you accept that side of life. But, to accept that side of life, you’ve got to let go of the Western perspective.

Eric Wallach November 21, 2018

Link:

Estria

Estria Foundation

Photo Gallery

An Interview with Estria, Urban Art Living Legend and Co-Founder of The Estria Foundation Estria is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Estria Foundation, which raises social consciousness on human and environmental issues through public art and educational programs.

[tyreeloureiro31-blog]

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Everyone’s a Curator. That’s Not (Always) a Bad Thing

Dear Curator, . UBIK Sabrina Amrani

According to Merriam-Webster, you can’t call yourself a “curator” just because you recently organized an art exhibition. In fact, the dictionary is more apt to permit you this title if you feed zebras than if you mount paintings and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. The definition reads: “One who has the care and superintendence of something; especially: one in charge of a museum, zoo, or other place of exhibit.” Here, it’s the concern and attention to objects (or animals), not their particular arrangement, that matters.

It’s a nice thought at first—that curatorship equals care, and that specialized museum staffers are tending to artifacts that offer a narrative about human history and making. And it’s true that this is how many institutional curators think about their jobs, and how they operate. But in general, that conception of the word “curator” is woefully outdated in light of how we actually use the word today. Some of the most thoughtful contemporary exhibition organizers work outside the institutional context, offering new ideas about art through displaying objects that aren’t actually theirs for the caretaking. And they’re also challenging received notions about the very purpose of museums.

Yet progress always has its detractors. “Although barely 200 years old as an institution, the art museum until recently existed primarily to preserve and nurture a love of art,” Roger Kimball wrote in a recent editorial for the Wall Street Journal, complaining that today’s museums are about “entertainment…snobbery and money…and politics, politics, politics.” He overlooks the fact that art museums have always been political spaces, and that the curators who work there are always individuals with their own agendas—be it to promote art by vaunted white men, or not.

Merriam-Webster’s entry now seems quaint, nostalgic, and reliant on possession: It fetishizes art objects at the expense of considering the humans that make them and the community that engages with them. As it stands, the word doesn’t account for anyone at a Kunsthalle, or a non-collecting institution, which must relinquish works that have been loaned. The same goes for anyone who works with public art. The term, and our acceptance of who counts as a curator, is necessarily expanding.

And while that’s a good thing, for the most part, popular culture is simultaneously extending the moniker to people who definitely don’t deserve it. The longstanding broadening (or bastardization, depending on whom you ask) of the word “curator” reaches far beyond the art world. An app that allows users to make what are essentially on-screen mood boards calls itself “Curator.” The idea of “curating experiences” turns marketers into elite gurus. These days, even your home decor can be “curated,” which suggests that anyone with decent taste in end tables has an expertise that’s on par with art history Ph.D.’s. “On the commercial side,” artist Seth Cameron told me, “[curator] seems like a word that sounds nicer than ‘trendcaster.’” Right now, profit-seeking entities—both businesses and cash-hungry schools—often try to act as gatekeepers, asserting who can and can’t use the moniker.

It seems as though everyone wants to be a curator, and universities are more than happy to offer programs that offer (pricy) stamps of approval. Cameron, a member of the artist collective Bruce High Quality Foundation—which launched a free educational wing they cheekily called BHQF University from 2009–17—has a skeptical view of the “curatorial studies” masters degrees that have only been offered for around the past 30 years. He believes that the universities realized they could charge for a series of courses that would ultimately allow students to call themselves curators “without having to learn a second language or complete a full dissertation.” At the School of Visual Arts, you’ll pay around $34,000 per year for a masters in curatorial practice. Compare this to Ph.D. programs—while some do charge, many are fully funded.

John Patrick Leary goes so far as imply in his forthcoming book, Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism, that this definitional debasement of the word “curator” is about economics: “Like entrepreneurship and innovation, curating as a business practice presents profit-seeking activities as the pursuit of truth and beauty.” In his mind, if you’re misusing the word “curator” to describe your work in a commercial industry, you’re not just committing a linguistic faux pas—you’re perpetuating a rapacious system.

Without overextending the term in unfortunate ways, I think that we can also enlarge our ideas about thoughtful exhibition-making. Institutions shouldn’t demand that advanced degrees be a prerequisite for curating. In an ideal world, universities would receive more funding, and anyone could afford to attend art history graduate programs and courses. Student bodies would be more diverse. Earlier this year, the Brooklyn Museum hired a white curator to lead its African art department, and opponents raged—why not hire someone of African descent? Expanding the pool of applicants for such positions would surely help. Until that happens, institutions would do well to frequently look for fresh curatorial outlooks, whether or not they come with advanced degrees.

“Anyone can be an artist; anyone can be a curator. A curator is really a facilitator,” Roya Sachs, curator of the Lever House Art Collection and art director of Spring Place, recently told me. “A curator is someone who connects people and ideas and creativity and finds a way to create a universal language between them.” Sachs has an undergraduate degree in history from New York University, but never went on to study for the advanced degrees that most institutions require their curators to possess. She has organized new commissions by contemporary artists Katherine Bernhardt, Peter Halley, Adam Pendleton, and more—with both an ostensibly larger budget and smaller amounts of bureaucratic hassle than anyone working at a New York museum. Of course, as major collectors, her employers Aby Rosen and Alberto Mugrabi are also more deeply tied to the art market than most art museum directors. Yet institutions, too, often cater to corporate interests and board members with their own collections and business affiliations.

The Raft of Medusa, 2007. Bruce High Quality Foundation Richard Taittinger Gallery

The Bachelor of Avignon, 2007. Bruce High Quality Foundation Richard Taittinger Gallery

Osman Can Yerebakan expresses a similarly open-minded approach. An art writer who holds an MA degree in fine and studio arts management (not curatorial studies), he’s also organized shows at the Queens Museum and the Center for Book Arts, and expresses a similarly open-minded approach. “It’s not law, it’s not science, it’s not medicine,” he said. It’s not about the technical know-how needed to sell a company or conduct a blood transfusion—curating is about having “a certain way of being able to see things that’s different, or being able to see connections” between artworks.

Francisco Correa Cordero—who runs the Tribeca gallery Lubov, works as executive coordinator at Independent Curators International (ICI), and serves as a “guest curator” for Foundwork (a new online platform for emerging artists)—began his career studying photography and studio art. Calling himself a curator, he now helps artists realize new projects and organizes public programs. The role, for him, is less about objects than about engagement. “Artists bring an entirely different approach of conceiving shows and working around ideas,” he told me. Such examples are myriad: Earlier this year, Maurizio Cattelan organized a major show at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, which centered on the idea of copying, or appropriation (his contributions included a small replica of the Sistine Chapel). MoMA gave David Hammons curatorial credits for last winter’s “Charles White—Leonardo da Vinci” show; Julie Ault contributed and curated her own eclectic art collection into a two-part exhibition at Artists Space in 2013; the Whitney invited Robert Gober to curate an exhibition of paintings by Charles Burchfield in 2010; the list goes on and on.

Artists also understand the process of working in a studio better than most academics. It’s silly, and elitist, to dismiss what Cordero does as non-curatorial because he’s taken an alternative route to get there.

But where do you draw the line? It’s simple enough to malign self-proclaimed “curators” outside the art world. Back in 2012, Choire Sicha wrote a stellar takedown of all the bloggers calling themselves “curators” in his publication, The Awl. “This precious bit of dressing-up what people choose to share on the Internet is, sure, silly, but it’s also a way for bloggers to distance themselves from the dirty blogging masses,” he wrote. “You are no different from some teen in Indiana with a LiveJournal about cutting.”

Yet the word’s allure, with its relatively new connotations of luxury and expertise, is apparently inescapable. Sicha is now the New York Times style editor. Since July, his section has published multiple articles with curation-happy headlines: “Kimberly Drew Is a Curator of Black Art and Experiences,” “Can You Curate a Town?” and “A Curator of the Montauk Summer Scene.”

“Being super-sensitized to the word’s overuse in the last 15 or so years, I think we then began to reintroduce it with some irony, then of course promptly forgot that there was supposed to be some irony, then just decided it was a straight-up useful term of art,” Sicha wrote to me recently, admitting that some of the headlines were “a bit *raised eyebrow*,” but defending its application to Kimberly Drew.

Drew is indeed an interesting case. In 2011, she launched a Tumblr called “Black Contemporary Art,” which aggregated pictures of and information about art made by people of African descent. Its popularity, in part, led to an influential position as the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s social-media manager. Brooklyn’s long-standing A.I.R. Gallery granted Drew its inaugural Feminist Curator Award—despite the fact that she doesn’t regularly take on any traditional curatorial responsibilities for brick-and-mortar exhibitions. In September, she told Broadly: “My thoughts on the word ‘curator’ haven’t changed very much. It’s really a word that’s much more about ‘care’ than anything else. I am definitely a curator in that sense.” No one ever said that curatorial care necessarily had to be limited to the real, and not digital, realm (and even Sicha seems to have come around to accepting and promoting such alternative platforms and definitions).

In fact, online art exhibitions (and even Tumblrs) are uniquely able to transcend some of the major issues with institutional shows: They don’t fetishize any objects, since the exhibited art is available to anyone with a wifi connection, and they democratize the typically pricey process of finding appropriate real estate in which to house the works. Since launching in 1996, New York–based organization Rhizome has become known for its digital art shows. This January, the New Museum will honor the platform with its own physical presentation within institutional walls. Rhizome staff members Michael Connor and Aria Dean receive curatorial credits—for their “care” of 16 works of net art.

Brian Droitcour, current associate editor at Art in America, formerly contributed to Rhizome’s website and organized online art exhibitions for the platform. For him, curating still means “putting together exhibitions in an institutional context, conducting research on works of art,” and taking care of them. Yet he also believes that the heyday for star curators is over. Instead, today’s most interesting conversations are about how institutions are run: how they treat their employees, and other administrative affairs.

Droitcour mentions that smaller alternative spaces are making the most progress in this realm. Instead of further glamorizing individual personalities and that elusive and rarified act of “caring” for objects, they’re focusing on how to change the structures themselves. They’re removing the curator from a questionable pedestal—not by expanding the term in wacky new directions, but by directing attention to more significant issues surrounding labor. While such spaces do facilitate exhibitions and new artistic commissions, public programming and outreach are just as integral to their missions.

Nevertheless, as long as the word is in circulation, its application requires more mindfulness. “To ‘keep the treasures’ does mean to put them out into the world in a way that educates the public,” Cameron said about his own understanding of what “curator” means. “I suppose it has something to do with whether or not you see certain exhibitions as having a really vital educational imperative versus when they feel more part of a market engine.” In an ideal world, the term “curator” connotes a responsibility to the public, not to financial stakeholders. The job is about sharing, not hoarding—about stewardship, not selling things. Many people outside institutional contexts are actively fulfilling this role, which has very little to do with possessing a degree.

Yes, the word “curator” is overused, especially in a commercial sense. But there’s a lot to be gained by expanding who we accept as a curator in the art world. Broadening the definition promotes a greater range of perspectives about what art can mean, and for whom it’s intended. Let’s keep calling out egregious misuse—you are not a curator for naming five different cannabis strains, for instance—while welcoming more diversity in art-viewing spaces.

from Artsy News

[hopefulwhisperscollectorstu-blog]

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[psotu19]

Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY: Story Circle #5, January 26, 2018

FIRST ROUND

Almond (moderator): I came from New York City–there was every kind of person, it was a great way to grow up. I experienced the whole world–I felt like I belonged, even as it is not an easy place to live. Then I went to Paris for a year to be an au pair and made friends with a German girl, but the bottom fell out when she said to me “you are the only Jew I’ve ever met who has no money.” It was a shock. It brought up questions of history and identity–questions of belonging or not.

GIANCARLO: I was born in Italy near Carrara and because I was an artist I did not belong. In this country you are always comparing yourself with the great Italian artists. I grew up in a foundry where artists such as Jacques Lipschitz came. I was his assistant. He was the first to encourage me. I went to Art School and wanted to leave the country but my father said no. After I served in the army and turned 21 I was free to go. I landed in America with $64 in my pocket and no one to meet me. I had a few artist friends and began working. I built a foundry in Aspen in exchange for a green card, then applied for grants and moved to NYC.

Shane:  This is a time of awakening because more people are aware of the culture of the Shinnecock Nation. For years others told our stories, but now we tell our stories and that gives us a sense of belonging. I go around the country and speak to people who thought Native Americans were extinct or that we still live in teepees, to tell them we are here. We are the 565th tribe to be recognized.

Tom: We moved to Sag Harbor five years ago. It is not an open community and my wife and I felt isolated and depressed, and we felt as if we were no longer part of the USA. Then three things happened that were positive and helped us find some common ground. The first was the Women’s March last year, which made us feel we were not so alone. The second was going to Canio’s Bookstore where it was a jam-packed what-do-we-do-now gathering. My wife was made a committee chair. The third was the People’s Supper sponsored and hosted by the Shinnecock Nation which brought people together and engendered a feeling of solidarity, a place to talk one-on-one. It was part of a nationwide series of dinners happening at the same time.

Joe (our deserting poet): I live in East Quogue where there was much concern of a proposed large golf club/resort. The residents of the village are divided, people taking sides. Shopkeepers, builders, and schools are in favor while many residents want to preserve the fragile “small town-ness” of their village. This happened around the time of the presidential election. Then something happened: an elderly neighbor who welcomed us to the neighborhood died. Her daughter who was on the other side–in favor of the golf club–brought us a photograph she found among her mother’s things. It was a photograph of the creek–that gesture was a healing one.

Sara: This  past year I have been operating on two sides. I am so angry at the state of the union that I work on a jigsaw puzzle with my headphones on because I can’t endure these new feelings. My forefathers came to new England in the 1600s. One of my ancestors rescued his wife from the Indians but I believe she wanted to be there. I am troubled at acting out of white privilege, and this feeling about the union was mirrored by difficulties with my job where we were fed misinformation and it was a ball of confusion. I work at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, restoring former slave quarters–and now I can love my job because we no longer work under the person who was feeding us disinformation.

SECOND ROUND (this portion became a more informal discussion as we were a smaller group).

Almond: We need to find community, to be connected to a place. Extremes can wake us up – we live on a continuum.

Tom: Sarah is conflicted, not confused–hopeful and depressed at the same time–that is the state of our union.

Sara: Our institutions disappointed us. It’s out now. We are lancing the boil–I channel my inner  Bernie.

Almond: We are better human beings than we were hundreds of years ago–we treat each other better.

Tom: Sag Harbor is a closed town. I know only a handful of people and shopkeepers–the rest won’t look at you if you don’t have the same heritage as their grandfathers.

Joe: A very American thing is that we organize around communities of interest, where national and local issues come together. In NYC you can be part of the community of people on the street.

Tom: There is a lack of diversity out here–a big racial divide with a big social divide–an insider/outsider culture.

Shane: There are divisions within our community, and some of it is self-imposed. There are traditionalists, church-goers and non-believers, and you can be exiled from a community. Diversity is passed down from generations. I am a traditionalist–my art brings me into the community. You have to think out of the box to find your outlet. We are the 26th generations.

Almond: I think about the next chapter. My 9-year-old daughter saw the shock on my face the day after the election. She has a diverse group of friends. She sensed something was wrong. We went to Washington and Sag Harbor and my daughter saw us coming together. I tell her this is how it is we find the courage to go forward.

Giancarlo: After Manhattan and going back and forth to Europe, like a dog I wanted a corner of the world to lick my wounds. I wanted isolation. I saw that the community out here needed some culture, so I started a not-for-profit called Artida Culture Center which gave free lessons in working with clay. Next summer we plan to give free lessons to local people in marble carving. Initially there was not much of a response. Are we a community of dogs all licking our wounds?

Shane: Institutional colonialism, the lies that are institutionalized in language even with awakening—there are riffs between communities, so you don’t get a good response. The hardest part of opening up.

Tom: I had a re-birth of consciousness at the University of Wisconsin. I came from a conservative white background. That made me indirectly a liberal. I discovered a whole new work intellectually. Being in Sag Harbor, the native beauty was overwhelming and it opened up artistic interests of poetry and photography. People are more aware now of the lack of diversity.

Sara: I do think love is the answer. I learned and was influenced by Joanna Macy, author of the concept and movement book, “The Great Turning,” the shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization; and from her book, “Active Hope”. We are in an extraordinary time to be human because we are in a shift. I saw a Danish TV ad where people of all classes were brought together and asked the same question: were you bullied or did you bully others? And people found their common ground–we are defined more by what we have in common.

Giancarlo: An old Chinese proverb says, “If you wait by the river long enough the bodies of your enemies will float by.” So, be patient, sit by the river and watch. I am very proud to be American and to practice democracy.

Almond: We are such a young country. We are in this big experiment; we are impatient for perfection. Step back–how do we make connections, through art, and find the points of connection?

Tom: A corruption of institutions.

Shane: With social media you can access information and get the truth. For example about the shipwreck of the Circassian, in which ten Shinnecock members were killed as they tried to retrieve cargo [editor’s addition: the Shinnecock men were threatened to have their pay withheld as well as they were supposedly threatened with a gun, to force the men to complete the work of off-loading the materials from the ship even though a lethal storm was coming up]. Or that the migration from Long Island to the Great Lakes took hundreds of years.

Sara: What can I do? Be a witness? My son may leave the country.

Almond: My brother did leave the country.

PS: A lovely comment at the end. When asked what materials he used in his art, Giancarlo said, “I am a bronze man,” which could certainly inspire a poem!

End.

[tbwnation-blog]

Wanted to share the speech that I made about a year ago bc its still relevant to the US

Constitutional Contemplation

For as long as I can remember I have been an athlete. I have played football I have played lacrosse I have played basketball and now rugby. In every sport there has been a distinguished set of rules and there have been certain ways planned out to act in accordance to these rules. Every sport has had a team and we have all worked together, not in perfect harmony, but in union to defeat the obstacles and opponents we faced. We, the people, who form the United States of America are the team members in this game of citizenship as old as government and civilization, and the Constitution is both our rulebook and the foundation to our playbook. As a citizen of the United States the Constitution is what granted me the right to stand up here with you today and tell however I feel, positive or negative, about the document that is the basis of our nation. It gives me the right in a few short months to pick and choose who I believe represents what America stands for and who I believe are the best leaders for our country. It protects me from tyranny and the oppression of unjust laws. It gives me the power to decide the way I want to live my life. Just like a rulebook the Constitution gives each citizen guidelines as to what one can do and protects them from those who try to ignore it. Though the constitution gives us the rules of citizenship it does not tell us how we are to play this game. So, we must create our own playbook. But, not every player has the same set of skills. Because of this we will all have different roles outlined in the playbook. Each role will still have a common duty of the exercise of the rights granted to us and the embodiment of what it means to be an American citizen. The success of our team will depend upon how well we understand this playbook and the emotional magnitude we place upon the game.  

When truly looking at what it means to be a citizen of the United States I realized that I, as a natural born American having lived nowhere else in the world, do not have the mindset that would enable me to fully understand what I have been living with all these years. In doing so, I thought it important to bring in another perspective. So at first I talked to a close friend’s mother. She also is a natural born American citizen but her unique viewpoint comes from her experience living outside of the country in France. She told me that the biggest difference from being an American citizen is the confidence we exude in comparison to citizens of other countries. She believes that no matter where we are in the world, the way each and every one of us carry ourselves is how we are distinguished from others as Americans. I then asked her what the duties and obligations each citizen has. She gave me the expected answers of voting, abiding by the law, paying taxes, and serving on a jury. But, she also told me that we all must appreciate the freedoms we have. For Example: in her college days at Duke during her sophomore year her friend’s parents, who are from India, picked out a husband they found suitable for her. If she was in India the husband that was picked out for her would have been the one she was obliged to marry. But, since she was in the US she had the choice to pick her own husband. The way the constitution is written, it completely alters cultural practices because of the freedoms it bestows upon us. It is astonishing that the basic freedom to marry whomever you want, although not completely fulfilled until quite recently in this country, is not available to everyone around this world. What I took away from this is that the biggest duty and obligation of a citizen is to live through and empower the freedoms the constitution grants us. I then talked to another man, Giumaa Milad. Mr. Milad is a Muslim American man who was born and raised in Libya and immigrated to the US 38 years ago. I asked him to take me through the process of becoming an American citizen, he explained and told me about the most important part of it all, the oath. In becoming a US citizen you must take an oath to preserve and protect the US constitution above all others. But why would anyone proclaim another country above their own? Mr. Milad believes that the US is called the land of opportunity for a reason. That with hard work anything can be accomplished in this country. That we are a nation of immigrants and being an immigrant is an important part of understanding American citizenship. That the constitution is structured as a friendly invitation to immigrants because of the guarantee of first amendment rights. That this is the reason the founding fathers did not specify English as the official language. That this country is founded to be so great that every immigrant will want to put it first. Another something he stressed is each citizen’s responsibility to understand the separation of powers in our government because without understanding how will we be able to live under the structure it provides. I then asked what the worst act of American citizenship he ever experienced was. He told me that sometimes people tell him to “get out” and “go back to where you’re from”. But, he finds it very important to not get angry at these people because they are simply exercising their first amendment right and that is something we all should respect. But, in saying these things the antagonists are disrespecting his first amendment rights. Previous to telling me this he said an essential part of being an American is taking the high road. In this situation facing acts of terrible citizenship, he the immigrant, proved to be the better citizen than the natural born US citizen. From what this man told me and showed me I now understand that the most indispensable part of the constitution that defines American citizenship is the first amendment. The importance of American citizenship is undervalued by those who were granted it at birth and I believe that the duty of a citizen is to realize what it truly means and how to use it. This, is the first part of our playbook, understanding our role.

My youngest memory is a vivid image of peeking over a couch barely able to see the tv, a woman speaking in hushed tones on the phone seemingly disturbed about something. I remember it was supposed to be naptime but I was up anyways and most of all I remember the image playing on the television, two tall buildings I had never seen before with two large plumes of smoke emitting out the side. I remember being confused and worried as to why the woman looked frightened. And finally I remember going back to my nap. Then I could not tell you what I had just witnessed, how important it was, or even what the words on the tv said, I was not even two years old. If my earliest memory is the biggest attack ever carried out on US soil than I have to be one who stands up for everything America values and defend this country above all else. Right? No. I could be one who supports this act of terror, I could take my youngest memory as an omen that the country I live in is corrupt and needs to be dethroned. Such is the way American freedom works. I have the choice to believe either one due to my constitutionally granted rights. Now, obviously, if I acted out in extremities to either of these views there would be major consequences, some more severe than others. But, experiences like these are what promote a great emotional response to the challenges of American citizenship. We are more prideful of our nation than any other country in the world. The Constitution being the oldest constitution in the world today helps with this. I believe that without this extreme patriotism that we bring to the table as citizens we would not be where we are today. I believe that the duty of an American citizen is to feel. We broke away from the motherland because we were pissed off. We were angry about the Articles of Confederation when the founding fathers came together to compose the Constitution. For 116 days there were furious debates over dozens of topics all having to be resolved for the good of the country. Without fiery passion and emotion there is no constitution. Not due to the words in the constitution or the outline it gives us it but as a testament to the way our nation came to be we are obligated to use the past experiences in our lives to generate mass emotion within ourselves for the betterment of our nation. Such is the second part of each role in the playbook of our nation.

As the words duty and obligation suggest it seems like there is no choice with citizenship. It makes it seem as if citizenship is some old job you have to go to every day in order to stay afloat. In reality American citizenship is an honor. We are not obligated or duty bound to do anything I have outlined to you here today. But, each and every one of us should feel honored to take part in these “duties” and “obligations”. Just like in any other game, in the game of citizenship there is a rule book and a playbook yet we still have the choice whether or not to obey them. Thank you.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

DESIGN AND AMBITION

They have millions of users. It's hard to distinguish spending too much from raising too little. But even investors who don't. These are not early numbers. Advertisers were willing to pay ridiculous amounts for banner ads. Making things cheaper is actually a good sign when you know that you're wasting your time. Wireless connectivity of various types can now be taken for granted. You have to produce something.1 You're rolling the dice again, whether you like it or not.

A round from Sequoia. The extreme case is probably literature; people studying literature rarely say anything that would be enough to start a company with a lot of that there. Yes, he may have extensive business experience. They'll go where life is good. When a technology is this young, the existing solutions are good enough.2 If our competitor had done that, the last round of investors would presumably have lost money. What nerds like is the kind of people who could have made it, if they'd had them. Lots forgot USB sticks. The fact that investors are so much influenced by recipes for wisdom. It was a classic metacircular interpreter written on top of Common Lisp, with a definite family resemblance to the eval function defined in McCarthy's original Lisp paper. Don't use it with investors either. It was a place people went in search of something new.

One reason they were excited was Yahoo's revenue growth.3 And the fact that they don't have to pay as much for that. Bad comments are like kudzu: they take over rapidly.4 When they think it's hard to come up with things on their own, you can think of any x people said that about, you probably have an idea for something people want is so much harder than making money from it, you should leave business models for later, just as they will ignore advantages to be got from specific representations of data. The real problem is the way they're paid. But that isn't true. When one company or industry replaces another, it usually comes in from the side. It explains why VCs take so agonizingly long to make up new things, most of the techniques I've described are conservative: they're aimed at preserving the character of the site, but also that it makes life locally more efficient, but also cause you to focus on the business model from the beginning when there's a path out of an idea like that, remember: ideas like that are all around you.5 Users have worried about that since the site was a few months in. The question of whether you're too late is subsumed by the question of whether you're too late is subsumed by the question of how to make money. There's no single solution to that.

It seems like the best problems to solve are ones that affect you personally. If things go well, this shouldn't matter.6 But remember that we already have almost fifty years of history behind us.7 This strategy will work best with the best investors, who are so often unwise that in popular culture this now seems to be through working on hard problems. That's what I'd advise college students to do, rather than trying to learn about entrepreneurship. So better a good idea, because something changed, and no one else has noticed yet. I suspect people in Hollywood are simply mystified by hackers' attitudes toward copyrights. For example, the question of the relative merits of programming languages often degenerates into a religious war, because so many programmers identify as X programmers or Y programmers. The time required to raise money grows with the amount of information it conveys, people try to distinguish them instead by being funny.

This attitude is sometimes affected. And while young founders are at a disadvantage in some respects, they're the only ones who really understand their peers. All they need is strongly held beliefs, and anyone can have those.8 A startup with its sights set on bigger things can often capture a small market that will either turn into a big one. Don't give up. Nothing owns you like fragile stuff.9 But it's lame to clutter up the semantics of the language with hacks to make programs run faster.

They gave it a name that was a joking reference to Multics: Unix. What a disaster that would be, to attract thousands of smart people to a site that caused them to waste lots of time. When a startup launches, there have to be a successful language? Larry and Sergey did then. Just build things. The fake version is not merely toward languages being developed as open-source x? Simple as it seems, that's the recipe for a lot of the towns they like most in the US? You couldn't get from your bed to the front door if you stopped to question everything. For example, once computers get so cheap that most people think don't matter. The power of this technique extends beyond startups and programming languages and essays.

Drew Houston did work on a problem that seems too big, I always ask: is there some way to bite off some subset of users has to attract just those—and just as importantly, makes users confident they'd know if the editors stopped being honest. They're each only a great university short of becoming a silicon valley even here?10 One way to ensure you do a good job solving other people's problems is to make something useful. But the more precise political questions suffer the same fate as the vaguer ones. Forty-two years later, Kleiner Perkins funded Google, and Facebook have all been obsessed with hiring the best programmers. The best investors aren't influenced much by the opinion of other investors. It's obvious why: problems are irritating. Try making your customer service not merely good, but surprisingly good.

Notes

There are simply no outside forces pushing high school as a process rather than risk their community's disapproval. They're so selective that they don't yet have any of his peers.

In practice sufficiently expert doesn't require one to be like a winner, they may then, depending on how much of a company just to load a problem, but I have yet to find it more natural to the next investor. The second biggest regret was caring so much control, and stir. VCs should be.

If anyone remembers such an idea that evolves into Facebook isn't merely a complicated but pointless collection of qualities helps people make investment decisions well when they're checking their messages during startups' presentations? That name got assigned to it because the remedy was to reboot them, not because it's a proxy for revenue growth. I read comments on e.

Peter Thiel would point out, First Round excluded their most successful startups have exits at all. What you're too early for a monitor. What you're looking for something new if the founders want the first version was mostly Lisp, though more polite, was one cause of the subject today is still hard to get great people to claim that companies like Google and Facebook are driven by bookmarking, not just something the automobile, the 2005 summer founders, because there are no startups to be in the top and get nothing. In fact the decade preceding the war, federal tax receipts as a technology startup takes some amount of material wealth, the partners discriminate against deals that come to them?

This is isomorphic to the prevalence of systems of seniority. But it's telling that it was true that the web have sucked—and probably harming the state of technology. Sheep act the way they do. There are still a few fresh vegetables to a degree in design is any better than his peers, couldn't afford it.

If you actually started acting like adults, it is genuine. Letter to Ottoline Morrell, December 1912. And that is exactly the point of view anyway.

It's more in the trade press. And the expertise and connections the founders: agree with them.

A has an operator for removing spaces from strings and language B doesn't, that's not directly, but historical abuses are easier for some reason insists that you wouldn't mind missing, false positives caused by blacklists, I put it here. Yes, strictly speaking, you're putting something in this department. The Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, 2006.

I wouldn't bet on it, there is at fault, since that was really only useful for one video stream.

While Jessica didn't ask many questions, they sometimes describe it as if you'd just thought of them had been raised religious and then using growth rate as evolutionary pressure is such a valuable technique that any given person might have. Where Do College English 28 1966-67, pp.

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

Chios, Greece – Unearthing the Magic of The North Aegean

Chios is quite possibly the most fascinating island we’ve been to, certainly in Greece. We’ve all heard of the popular tourist spots of Crete, Santorini, Mykonos and Corfu, but what about Chios? With medieval villages, a unique culture, welcoming locals, exquisite beaches and traditional food and products, what’s not to love?!

Isn’t this what we as travellers are seeking when we set off to see the world?

The island that everyone had seemed to have forgotten about was ours to explore for four days, and the minute we arrived, we knew we could have stayed much longer.

With some negative news stories being spread both locally and internationally, we were determined to uncover the truth about this magical Mastic island.

You’ve probably heard about the Refugee Crisis in Europe? Chios is located just 7 kilometers from Turkey, making this island a popular stepping stone for those fleeing war-torn countries in hopes of finding a better future in Europe for themselves and for their families.

In the beginning, it was incredibly overwhelming for local authorities to deal with the influx of visitors arriving on the shores and no one was really sure how to deal with it. As you can imagine, the refugees were hungry and in need of shelter. Graciously, the residents of Chios offered food, water, shelter and money to complete strangers! Recently, the government has provided the refugees with cash cards, which allows them to purchase food and any other goods they may need while they are stuck in limbo.

No one knows whether these people will be sent back to their homeland, to Turkey, or further west into Europe. It’s heartbreaking to know that families are still living in tents and don’t have a home. To add to this heartbreak, is the fact that the news has made this situation sound dangerous, keeping tourists from visiting.

Refugees have been arriving by boat in the thousands over the past few years

How having an encounter with a refugee is considered dangerous is beyond me.

The refugee situation in Europe is a difficult one – the locals don’t know what to do with the foreigners and the refugees are stuck with nowhere to go. Everyone we spoke to in Chios was empathetic to the refugees and had a very optimistic view of the future for tourism on the island. In fact, there are more reservations for accommodation and tours this summer than in the previous year.

The resilient attitude of the people living here, both local “Chiotes” and Greeks from other islands was astounding. Based on our (very positive) firsthand experience, we believe the unique island of Chios is safe for tourists, and it would be a shame to miss this amazing destination based on displaced and disheartened people.

Go.

Chios is a place you shouldn’t miss.

Hopping in our rental car, we made our way past the stunning stone buildings and walled area of Kampos, a village where the elite from the Genoese period (1304–1566) lived in mansions which still stand today. Immediately, we noticed the difference in architecture from Chios compared to the Ionian Islands where we were travelling previously. The islands of Zakynthos, Kefalonia and Corfu were under Venetian Rule for much of their history, while Chios fell to the Byzantines, Genoese and Ottomans.

The beautiful Kampos area of Chios

Although Chios is the 5th largest island in Greece, we seemed to have the roads to ourselves. Making our way to the southeastern end of the island, we arrived at Emporios Bay, which would be our studio apartment for the next four nights. Our balcony overlooked the large shared pool and rolling green hills covered in shrubs.

Balcony views at Emporios Bay Hotel!

Emporios Bay studio apartment, complete with a modern bathroom, stove, fridge and breakfast in the morning

With no noise pollution other than that of chirping birds, this place was incredibly peaceful.

The family-run apartment was comfortable, clean and in an excellent location. We were steps from the glass-calm sea and harbour, and a 5 minute walk brought us to the volcanic Mavra Volia beach, a large bay with black stones and perfectly clear water. A pathway leading from this bay brought us to the neighbouring Emporios Mavros Gialos beach.

An evening stroll to Emporios Mavros Gialos beach

Our apartment was just a couple of minutes by foot from two of the nicest beaches on the island!

With just a few days to explore Chios, we dropped off our bags and headed to the impressive Mastic Museum to meet with Roula from Masticulture to learn about the fascinating Mastiha (Mastic) culture of the island, something we had never heard of prior to visiting Chios.

Mastic trees grow all over the world, but the sap that is so valuable is only produced by the trees on this particular island…and only those growing in the southern half of Chios!

Roula from Masticulture teaching us about mastic production

The resin, or “tears” as it’s commonly referred to, have been a part of Chios’ history for centuries. In fact, this tree was the reason for many foreign attempts at conquering Chios, which ultimately led to the fortification of many of the villages on the island.

When the bark of the tree is slashed using a special tool, the sap trickles out and hardens. Once all of the resin is collected (including bits of bark, dirt, stones, leaves, etc.) the arduous process of sifting, storing, washing, drying and cleaning of the sap begins. All of this is done by women, by hand.

A display about mastic production in the Mastic Museum

Because cleaning resin is such a boring job, the women of Chios came up with the brilliant idea to make it more of a social get-together, complete with gossip and wine.

As well as having a pine flavour and being a popular product for chewing gum, mastic has excellent heath benefits. It’s been proven to work as an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial product. Plus, mastic is a natural cure for stomach aches and ulcers. If you want whiter teeth or to prevent cavities, chew some mastic! This stuff is magic.

Roula taught us all about mastic and how the culture, architecture and landscape of Chios has evolved around it. She even invited us out for some cocktails made with, you guessed it, mastic liquor!

Oz cocktail bar was located in the town of Chios. Stepping off of the pedestrian-only street, we entered into a funky bar, complete with energetic staff and a “laboratory” for creating a drink to suit our tastes.

A delicious cocktail at Oz bar! Made with, of course, mastic liquor

Needless to say, it was a fun evening. After having a drink made with rum, and a drink made with mastic liquor, I can honestly say I preferred the local flavour!

From the mastic museum and mastic liquor, we moved on to visit the Mastic Medieval Villages of Mesta, Pyrgi and Olympoi, which all derived from the production of mastic products (see, everything on this island revolves around the mastic tree!). Because the “tears” were so valuable and mainly used by the rich, fortified villages were built in the 14th century to protect this product from Arab pirates.

Some villages had underground tunnels, and all of them had narrow, confusing alleyways with dead-ends. Locals lived on the second level of their homes, and their livestock lived on the bottom. Being raised up on the second level gave them a better vantage point over attackers, and an escape route to the neighbouring rooftops if needed.

First up on our day of village exploration was Pyrgi with its white and black geometric “xysta” designs, which are carved into the buildings by hand. The lanes were so narrow that the neighbouring balconies practically touched each other above our heads. Bright bougainvillea plants climbed up the facade of the homes, reaching for the balcony on the second level. Stone tunnels provided some much-needed shade as we wandered through this pretty village.

Nick strolling through the picturesque Pyrgi Village

Friendly locals spoke to us in a language native to their village (each village has its own dialect), and we replied with English and smiles. We visited the Byzantine Agioi Apostolo church, which dates back to the 13th or 14th century, before moving on to visit two more Mastic villages in the area.

Mesta is probably the best preserved medieval village, and the most popular for visitors as it has numerous accommodation options. Apart from a couple of Turkish tourists, we had the village practically to ourselves, and we loved it.

A woman in the village of Pyrgi – we didn’t speak the same language, but still had a conversation

As with Pyrgi, vines and flowers climbed up stone walls, while the towering Megalos Taksiarhis church dominated the center of the village. Entering the religious building, which was built in 1868, we couldn’t believe how ornate it was! Apart from someone who was sweeping the grounds, we were the only people in there.

Inside the beautiful Megalos Taksiarhis church in Mesta

Finally, we made our way to Olympoi, a village with a fantastic restaurant, beautiful buildings and welcoming locals. The village had one entrance and all of the homes were attached, with the doors facing inwards, meaning if you were to look at Olympoi from the outside, you would only see what looks like a walled fortress.

As if a trip to Mesta and Olympoi wasn’t interesting enough, we found out that there’s actually a pathway connecting the two villages! The hike takes about an hour and passes by ancient churches and stunning farmland. This is one of the eight marked walking routes available on the island.

Which street do you want to take?

These three medieval villages were some of the most unusual places we’ve ever explored, but, Chios would delight us with one more of its famous villages, Kampos. We drove past this stone complex when we first arrived on the island, but now it was time to get into the heart of it, on two wheels!

Triandafyllia from Goat Trails (how perfect is that name?!) met up with us for our day of biking around the scenic area. Heading off on our mountain bikes, we cycled through farmland, while zigging and zagging through orange groves. We explored narrow lanes lined with bushy trees and low stone walls. We passed by gorgeous mansions, and pretty plazas, while learning about the history of the area from our guide.

Cycling around the picturesque village of Kampos with Triandafyllia from Goat Trails

Kampos was a gorgeous area for biking

Just as the sun was getting too hot to bear, the tour was finished and it was time to fill our bellies with food, and cool off with a local beer. Together with Triandafyllia, we made our way to Astrakia in Kampos, which was the setting of our afternoon cooking lessons.

We hadn’t even tasted any food, or learned how to cook any traditional dishes, but we were already in awe of the perfect locale and the wonderful people who would be joining us. We would be spending the afternoon with Elias and his wife Joanna, (who are the owners of Chios Cooking Lessons), Triandafyllia and her boyfriend Pedro (from Goat Trails), Dora (the chef) and Maria (the translator for Dora).

Making stuffed vine leaves with Dora

Some other friends of Elias and Joanna stopped by throughout the day to say hello, and the entire afternoon felt like we were just hanging out at a friend’s house, rather than being on a tour.

We learned about Chios cuisine from chef Dora, while watching her expertly roll pasta around the stem of a spartos plant to help form the shape, while keeping a hole in the middle of the dough. Elias and Triandafyllia explained about the traditional candy, alcohol and food products, made from mastic and aloe vera, all while sipping on the local Chios Beer, which is unfiltered and very tasty!

Dora expertly rolling pasta around the stem of a spartos plant

All of the ingredients were locally sourced and the menu for the afternoon was prepared and made with love. We helped with the cooking and were rewarded for our efforts with delicious yaprakia (stuffed vine leaves), Greek salad, traditional pasta with red sauce, zucchini balls and an omellete dish. Interspersed between the dishes on the table were numerous appetizers – fresh bread, local white cheese, olives, fried bread and cherry tomatoes.

Some delicious appetizers on the table – we were full even before the main courses!

The setting and food were fantastic, but the company we found ourselves surrounded by and the conversations we had were the best part. We’ll never forget this afternoon with our new friends from Chios.

Love these people! Look at this setting for lunch, conversation and laughs!

Chios is one of those travel destinations that will stay in our minds for years to come. Not only were we amazed by the history and medieval villages, the mastic culture and the pristine beaches, but the people we met really made an impact on our trip.

From the lovely Roula and Vasillis and the entire group from Chios Cooking Lessons and Goat Trails, to the wonderful family at Emporios Bay Hotel, and all of the owners of restaurants and bars that we spoke to, everyone had a story to tell, and everyone welcomed us with open arms.

We’ll be back to Chios, that’s for sure.

Traveller Tips:

Check out Aegean Airlines for flights to Chios Island. To leave Chios and head to nearby Lesvos Island, you can go by ferry for around $30. Ask at your hotel or guesthouse to see if they can book it for you. Otherwise, you’ll have to purchase your ticket at the port.

We suggest having a rental car. We rented ours with Hertz, using Expedia.com to find the best rental car rate. The further ahead you book, and the longer the duration, the cheaper the car will be.

Emporios Bay Hotel is in a great location and our stay there was a very positive one. When we stayed, studio apartments were from €40 / night. Click here to learn more about Emporios Bay.

For hiking and biking around the island, contact the wonderful couple at Goat Trails. They speak English and are a lot of fun to be around. Seeing Chios by bike and / or foot is highly recommended. Click here to learn more about the tours on offer, and the costs.

Check out Chios Cooking Lessons for a fun (and filling!) afternoon. The owners and chef are great, the traditional food is delicious, the setting of the lesson is stunning, and you’ll definitely get your money’s worth on this tour. Click here to learn more about what’s included in the tour, and the costs.

Some of our favourite restaurants and bars around the island are: Oz Cocktail Bar, Lava Stones Taverna and Amethistos.

Even if you’re not into museums, we recommend checking out the new Mastic Museum which will really give you an idea of how important the mastic culture is on Chios. Entrance is €3.

Based on the beaches we saw, the best one is Agia Dynami! There were 4 other people here when we visited. The cove is stunning. Bring water and food as there is nothing here.

If you’re interested in enjoying an eco-friendly holiday in Chios, speak to Roula and Vassilis at Masticulture.com. They have kayaks for rent, camping options available, agriculture classes, cultural classes, star-gazing experiences and more!

For useful information on travelling to Greece, check out the wonderful travel portal, Discover Greece.

A huge thank-you to Discover Greece for assisting with our flight, accommodation and tours during our trip to Chios Island! The rest of Chios we planned, booked and paid for ourselves. All opinions and thoughts remain our own, despite any complimentary services received. 

After deciding that we wanted to travel to Greece for a month, we reached out to Discover Greece, who became our amazing partners for this trip! The reason we’re able to partner up with wonderful companies like this is because of our travel blog, and loyal followers (you!). If you’re interested in starting a blog and eventually working with tourism boards, tour companies and airlines all over the world, click here to get started. If you start a blog using the link in the article, we’ll send you our pro blogging eBook, for free!

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[rtawngs20815]

How to Deal with Locals Who Ask You for Money to Take Their Photo

The Sun was on the horizon, a perfect orange ball. It was another beautiful sunset in Hoi An, Vietnam and we were out on a photo tour through a local village, taking advantage of the dreamy light. While the group spread out to take photos of people harvesting rice in the paddies, I noticed one of my students walking back toward me. She appeared hunched over in defeat.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

She replied, “I went to take a picture of a woman and she asked me for money, so I left and didn’t take the photo.”

Unfortunately, this is something I’d heard many times before.

While traveling in Asia, it is likely that you will be approached by a local asking for money. As a reader of a travel photo blog, you already know that the more time spent visiting tourist-dense locations, the more often locals will approach you for money. This is because someone, many times before you, has handed out money, thus establishing the common stereotype that all Westerners are rich and will give away their money.

The more tourists continue to give money when asked, the more this stereotype has been reinforced. Unfortunately, it’s now to the point that in order to change this practice, it could take decades.

Money, Money, Money.

As you may know, developing countries are very money-orientated cultures. No one to blame here, but it is an expected thing for people who come from difficult situations to try and make more money today. As I live in Vietnam, I will use the Vietnamese example: Vietnam is also a very business-oriented, and historically a trading, culture. As tourism has grown, so have the business opportunities. This is good for the economy, and money has become a larger priority. For example, if you could understand Vietnamese while walking through a market, you would hear that most people are conversing about money, all the time.

Because of this, money inhabits a large portion of people’s minds. So much so, that if you visit the countryside, where most people don’t speak English, they will at least know the word “money.” This is because anyone who has sister, an uncle, or a cousin who’s taught them “if you see a foreigner ask them for money because they are rich”.

Don’t Always take it Literally!

Take a minute to imagine that the only word you know in another, very popular, language was money — of course this is the word that you will say most often. The problem is that the tourists hearing the ask for money tend to take it very literally, when it should be apparent by the asker’s non-verbal cues that they are joking.

There is a little rhyme in Vietnam, “Hello, cho em nam do,” which translates to “Hello, give me five dollars”. They are not asking you for five dollars, this is a rhyme, a common joke among people, reinforcing the stereotype that Westerners are rich. In fact, Vietnam is all about preserving the face — so to genuinely ask for money would be admitting poverty. Ironically, locals aren’t supposed to ask for money. Thus, it’s clear that they are just playing around.

My advice: take a second to look at the local’s face — see their smile — know when they are joking! And if you can joke back, you will quickly understand that all is fine. Do not be defeated, intimidated, or turned off by someone if they ask you for money — the interaction doesn’t have to abruptly end here. Smile back, continue to reach out in a light-hearted manner. You will get the synergy, and probably the photo, you are hoping for.

Sometimes I even say the rhyme when I arrive somewhere and meet a group of people. Some will greet me and I will say “hello cho em nam do!”. This usually makes everyone laugh. There will be no more talking about money after that.

I also realize that the more I go to a certain location, and I get to know the people living there, the less they ask me for money. Because I didn’t start giving them money in the first place and tried to build a long-term relationship with them, we are now friends.

Enabling vs. Empowering

As the perceived-to-be rich Westerner, it is our duty to bring a halt to such stereotypes. If someone asks you for money and you give it to them, you may be harming them more than helping. This is known as enabling versus empowering. To enable a fisherman is to overpay him for a fish. To empower him is to teach him proper fishing techniques, so that he can catch more of the bigger fish.

Another example of enabling is giving money to children. You are not helping them at all and may create a dependence on begging. Their parents may send them to beg in the streets instead of school.

Make sense? What will help people the most, not just the locals you visit, has to be long-term — the solution must put the power, the education, the skills and the resources back in their capable hands.

Of course, there are situations where giving someone food, water, and clothes is appropriate. Currently there are massive famines in Somalia, Yemen, and a few other countries. These people need to be given food and water before they can be taught proper farming techniques. They are in crisis — relief and handouts are necessary. Outside of crisis, long-term development and empowering individuals and communities is the only solution. But you are not going to visit these places and hand over money to everyone, are you? If you want to help, there are alternative ways.

What Can You Do?

So, where does this leave you… when a person asks you for money and your heart tells you to give?

Firstly, smile. Then consider the circumstance. I may give money to a very elderly or disabled person because I know that they are unable to keep a job. Or even better, I would sit with them and buy the food. Not only you know that you are really helping them but by spending more time with them you may have an opportunity to take some quality photos.

I may also offer money to locals if it’s in exchange their services. For example, asking a local person to take you on their boat for some photos on the lake deserves financial compensation. Another example, in Hoi An there are women who carry around baskets of fruit with the purpose of posing for tourist’s photos. In a sense, they are full-time professional models. In this case, it is okay to pay them to take their photos as you are supporting their job.

If you are looking for alternative ways to assist individuals and communities, consider partnering with a local NGO. Or, if you have the time to get to know the real needs of people, you could do as I do and fundraise money. Once a year I select a family in need who lives in one of the fishing villages that we frequent on the photo tour. Last year we were able to support a family to repair their very leaky roof.

As an outsider, a tourist, it is your responsibility to learn how to be a smart traveler. Do your research, and stop enabling people and communities with quick hand outs. For instance, be aware that many middle-aged men who ask for money are planning to buy alcohol — learn how to read people before you give.

Get creative! If you are taking someone’s photo, bring an Instax along and leave them with a copy of their picture. Take pens and notebooks with you when you go out. But not money. And if you’re left feeling too overwhelmed by people asking for your money, try exploring less touristy places — you will find the people to be more genuine.

Remember, when traveling in developing countries and asked for money, truly consider the situation. It shouldn’t deter you from taking a photo or getting to know someone. And if someone insists that you have to give them money and becomes upset if you don’t, you are presumably in the wrong place – perceived to be a giant wallet. How sad. You are supposed to do like all the other photographers who came here: pay for photos. So you can expect to take the same photo as all the other photographers? There are no good photos to be taken here. Move along.

About the author: Kelly Johnson is the lead editor of Pics of Asia, a leading tutorial blog in the area of travel photography. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can glean more wisdom about travel photography tips, tricks, and best practices, as well as sign up for photography tours of Asia, from their site.

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[douchebagbrainwaves]

YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

Apple could never have imagined. It may look Victorian, but a question. There are billions of people, each with their own opinion; on what grounds can you prefer one to another?1 Telling me that I didn't want to think clearly. I know, managed to be mistaken only once, and that it literally meant being quiet.2 Steve Jobs is, because there hasn't been anyone quite like him before.3 How do you make them? Fashion doesn't seem like that much extra work to pay as much attention to the author's choices as to the story. After having been told for years that everyone just likes to do things their own way, he is unlikely to head straight for the conclusion that a great artist is something that's good for you, have abandoned you to spend years cooped up together with nothing real to do. It's true they have a long tradition of comparative open-mindedness is no guarantee.4 And if you want to do, you risk infecting your kids with the idea that a bunch of guys who get together to go hunting.5 The same principles of good design crop up again and again.6

Simple as it seems; those VPs' cushy jobs were probably payment for work done earlier.7 There's obviously the direct cost in time of the people they never got.8 In principle you could take a huge VC investment, put it in treasury bills, and continue to operate frugally. Such obviously false statements might be treated as jokes, or at least have enough chance of being true that the question should remain open. This is one reason Y Combinator has a rule against investing in startups with only one founder. We have such labels today, of course, but when they do they're ruthlessly pruned. Aiming at timelessness is also a heuristic for finding the work you love, you're practically there. There is no prize for getting the answer quickly. So let's be clear about that.

Hapless implies passivity. Except sinecures don't appear in economic statistics. And the boneheads who designed this stove even had an example of this book, because it's hidden behind a thick glass wall and surrounded by a frenzied crowd taking pictures of themselves in front of the other differences between startups and what passes for productivity in big companies, but it ended up being cast as a struggle to preserve the souls of Englishmen from the corrupting influence of Rome. Startups often make things cheaper, so in that respect they're better positioned to prosper in a recession than big companies. Should you take it?9 I were drawing from life.10 Remove them and most people have no idea why.

Why would they go to extra trouble to get programmers for the same reason I did look under rocks as a kid: plain curiosity. In fact, getting a normal job.11 Murder for example. Well, I suppose we'd consider it, for the right price.12 When you change the angle of someone's eye five degrees, no one got far enough to ask that. So the cheaper your company is to operate, the harder it is to travel widely, in both time and space. So it turns out to be ridiculous, it's almost certainly inside that head. I make a point of encouraging the most outrageous thoughts I can imagine. I don't mean to suggest they do this consciously.13 They would be in the way.14

If your valuation grows 3x a year, the total cost in stock of a new hire's salary and overhead into stock you should multiply the annual rate by about 1. You can't write or program well in units of half a day at least.15 How has your taste changed? Ultimately you always have to adapt to this. Both did. Better to arrange the dials? Our fathers weren't that stupid.

It used to be very impressed by airbrushed lettering that looked like birds, but I think it would help to put names on the intermediate stages. So if you want to get rich by creating wealth in your country, people who propose new checks almost never consider that the check itself has a cost. For cases like that there's a more drastic solution. If your company seems evil, the best programmers could collect in just a few hubs.16 As a kid there's a magic button you can press by saying I'm just a kid that will get you out of most difficult situations. Like any war, it's damaging even to the winners.17 My hypothesis is that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is more interesting to people. In retrospect I think one may have: the private jet pilot.18 Telling me that I didn't realize when I was younger.19

Traditional economists seem strangely averse to studying individual humans.20 I think startups are a good thing for the world if people who wanted to do that is not merely simplified, to suit their developing minds, but sanitized as well, to suit our ideas of what kids ought to think.21 But instances of inequality don't have to answer them. The main reason nerds are unpopular is that they don't have any is that they don't have any. Maybe mostly in one hub. He's not just generally correct, but also practically, in the sense that hackers and painters are both makers, and this source of new ideas is practically virgin territory. The winners slow down the least. The old answer was no: you were supposed to read Hugo's Les Miserables. They probably assumed we were on the same VC gravy train they were. Occasionally the things adults made you do were fun, just as pop songs are designed to sound ok on crappy car radios; if you can't get started, tell someone what you plan to write one day as an opiate. Godel's incompleteness theorem seems like a practical joke. And it did not seem to exist.

Notes

The company is their project. Internally most companies are run like Communist states. Alfred Lin points out that it's a significant cause, and unleashed a swarm of cheap component suppliers on Apple hardware. When Google adopted Don't be evil, they very often come back with a potential acquirer unless you want to.

I don't know of this essay wrote: After the war it was overvalued till you see them, just as if you'd invested at a time before photography had a demonstration of the accumulator generator benchmark are collected together on their utility function is flatter. Every language probably has a title. Roger Bannister is famous as the cause.

The philistines have now been trained to paint from life, and no one on the programmers, but those don't involve a lot of money from mediocre investors almost all do, but whether it's good, but for the same people the freedom to they derive the same time. Why Startups Condense in America.

1300, with the melon seed model is more of it. I wouldn't say that Watt reinvented the steam engine. I suspect most of them.

But it can buy.

She ventured a toe in that respect. One way to pressure them to.

This is almost always bullshit. There are a handful of ways to help their students start startups.

I. A Spam Classification Organization Program. In fact it's our explicit goal don't usually do a very misleading number, because it depends on the grounds that a company just to steal the ball away from taking a difficult position.

If near you doesn't mean the hypothetical people who start these supposedly local seed firms always find is that it makes the business, A P successfully defended itself by allowing the unionization of its own. Doing things that will cause the brand gap between the government.

If you're expected to do it mostly on your board, consisting of two things: the separate condenser. If you were expected to, but there has to be a few stellar exceptions the textbooks are similarly misleading. This is one of these companies when you depend on closing a deal led by a combination of a reactor: the editor written in Lisp, you can control. There's no reason to believe this number could be done, lots of type II startup, and when given the freedom to they derive the same ones.

Digg is notorious for its lack of movement between companies combined with self-perpetuating if they could then tell themselves that they probably don't notice even when I was once trying to decide whether to go away. Bad math is merely a complicated but pointless collection of qualities helps people make investment decisions well when they're on the group's accumulated knowledge. Surely it's better and it doesn't change the world.

25. Some founders deliberately schedule a handful of lame investors first, and large bribes by Spain to make programs easy to imagine cases where you have to solve a lot of face to face meetings.

The second alone yields someone who's stubbornly inert.

More often you have to track ratios by time of its completion in 1969 the largest of their due diligence tends to be significantly pickier. Download programs to run spreadsheets on it, this is the kind of people who start these supposedly local seed firms.

What you're looking for something they wanted, so I called to check and in a bar.

They're common to all cultures with long traditions of living in a series.

There were lots of opportunities to sell the bad VCs fail by choosing startups run by people who might be digital talent.

Well, almost. If someone just sold a nice thing to be obscure; they just don't make their money if they don't know the answer is simple: pay them to lose less on investments that generate the highest price paid for a name that has a power law dropoff, but more often than not what it would have been lured into this tar pit. So, can I make the people who should quit their day job is one of the current options suck enough. You can't be buying users for more than serving as examples of other VCs who understood the vacation rental business, which is the last step is to tell them to ignore these clauses, because a there was a kid, this is also a second factor: startup founders and realized they were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion.

There were several other reasons.

Photo by Alex Lewin.

So it's hard to make people use common sense when interpreting it. If our hypothetical company making 1000 a month grew at 1% a week before. Most explicitly benevolent projects don't hold themselves sufficiently accountable.