One aspect of mass-media communication that bears further discussion is the one-to-many (or in some cases, few-to-many) aspect of mass media, and the illusion of perception that it creates, and the illusion of legitimacy that it lends to what it presents to us on the screen ( Read more... )

I had a conversation the other day about relationships and other sorts of human interactions that put some things into perspective for me ( Read more... )

I've talked a lot about consent in the context of how one responds to, or reacts to, the actions and expressed intents and desires of others, and about choosing which of those expressed intents and desires one is and is not willing to participate in. Mostly in the context of sexuality, sex-related communication, and promoting sex-positive culture ( Read more... )

I came across a comment in a sex-positive group the other day that kind of startled me in the way that it emphasized a "no means no" message within a context that was, overall, more or less sex-positive, but in that specific instance, seemed to be very focused on refusing undesired advances ( Read more... )

A lot has been written about Babbage's Difference Engine, and the method of divided differences it exploited to do its job, but having been exposed to the genius of it in ways I finally understand, I want to recognize it for the extraordinary clever idea it was ( Read more... )

It's very naive. Unsupportably naive, in fact ( Read more... )

Do you trust that the candidates elected to office in this country were legitimately elected ( Read more... )

Over the past month or so, I've been watching Rick Santorum make long strides into extremist-theocratic territory, first with his extreme position on abortion, then with his increasingly bizarre pronouncements on contraception, public school education, and prenatal testing. There is little doubt anywhere that he is one of the most extreme right- ( Read more... )

Some thoughts from the ride in to work today, was figuring out how to explain my fascination with LED's and where to begin the story, and feeling like writing it down ( Read more... )

Let there be no doubt that there is a culture war in this society.The scope may be debatable, and the exact identities of the aggressors shady and shifting and difficult to trace at times, but a culture war exists. The only controversy lies in who started it -- the ones attacking the most earnestly claim they are the defenders and not the ( Read more... )