Notices by Alper Çuğun-Gscheidel 🇪🇺🌹🌻 (alper@refactorcamp.org)

I want to echo this and add that once you realize what the git `master` refers to, it is unconscionable that we reproduce it so often and so callously every day of our working lives.

(Disclosure: Alicia reports to me.)

https://buff.ly/2Cqx94K

An interesting argument that uses Scott's critique of high modernism to cast doubt on how beneficial machine learning will be for authoritarian regimes. Also a bit reminiscent of Weyl's critique of technocracy.

Let's hope it's true.

https://crookedtimber.org/2019/11/25/seeing-like-a-finite-state-machine/

A grand treatment by Arundhati Roy of the situation that India is in now.

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/arundhati-roy-assam-modi/

A lot of the problems in the world seem to stem from people’s inability to hold two opposing viewpoints in their mind at the same time.

Companies insisting on long hours is probably only one thing holding women back, but this article goes deep on that one question and uncovers a panoply of assumptions and attitudes.

https://hbr.org/2020/03/whats-really-holding-women-back

The Cantillon effect has been menioned regularly as part of the government bailouts but it is important to read this explanation of what it is and how money is not neutral.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-cantillon-effect-why-wall-street

Old German men explain the world to me.

@machado It’s a colonialist project. Any enterprising young person would be foolish not to board that ship towards the unknown and untold riches.

@machado The system is working as intended.

Not surprising that the entire concept of ‘ethical AI’ is another scam perpetuated by the MIT Media Lab. At this point I would assume any project coming out of that institution to be compromised unless proven otherwise.

https://theintercept.com/2019/12/20/mit-ethical-ai-artificial-intelligence/

“If “star salaries” can’t be explained by contribution to the productive enterprise, high managerial compensation would appear to be what economists call “rent” — essentially, profit extraction.”

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-supermanagerial-reich/

@octesian @machado I have the same rule after eating a very unfortunate dish that contained 'vegan duck' (still don't know what it was).

Vegan pastry is the same thing: it's not really pastry.

Every time I try vegan chocolate pastry, I throw it away uneaten. How is this good for the environment?

Wild that even a mild cycling habit at the population level can strongly reduce obesity rates.

https://twitter.com/ThijsNiks/status/1222008902918856704

Ian Bogost remarks on the eery flattening of place and the retreat of people into the domestic cozy, since home can be any place you want it to be thanks to digital technology.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/01/smartphone-has-ruined-space/605077/

@MrWanda I'm not sure if anything is happening in the Fediverse.

I'm glad that this takedown of Clean Code by Dan Abramov got so much traction. I have no problem with clean code (lowercase), but inevitably the process of getting there and the things people do as a consequence make the entire endeavor an anti-pattern.

As always, people get too attached to the parts that are the least important while ignoring the rest.

https://overreacted.io/goodbye-clean-code/

An incredibly sad and beautiful story of a father's last days.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/dec/14/saying-goodbye-to-family-motor-neurone-disease-reflecting-on-end-of-life

I used to know Wytze and the foresight and innovation that he put into the Urban Arrow back in the day (2010) which is still going strong is nothing short of mind-boggling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=240&v=pye09heBqfY&feature=emb_logo

I read this science-fiction short story “I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter” which is reminiscent of Ann Leckie's books in how it plays with gender and militarism, but I think this is better.

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/fall_01_20/