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• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  Ah, I was wondering why one of my posts didn't appear. Tiptoeing on eggshells it shall be. (And my apologies to Charlie.) I do wonder what it is lately with all the apparently peaceable guys snapping violently....
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  They may be homebrew nutjobs after all; one was a university student, and they'd been here ~10 years last I heard....
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  Umm... I live in the area. Haven't heard anything about people on the street being treated as criminals. The door to door stuff is to talk with potential witnesses, I don't think they're acting like people might be sheltering the...
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  Oh, you meant the shooters, not the named men. Sorry. Duh....
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  Umm, where? I am seeing the names named only on viciously right-wing sites. There is literally nothing anywhere else....
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  Various rightie websites have been spreading rumors as to the identities of the two bombing suspects, with much associated political baggage. I will not repeat the names they're using here. Just be aware that any names bandied about right now...
• Commented on Off the Map: Women in Science and Science Fiction
  Privileged != part of the problem. And you know how you can't trust your instincts when dealing with e.g. special relativity? Same can apply to sociology. People have blind spots, sometimes you have to compensate by listening to the evidence...
• Commented on Off the Map: Women in Science and Science Fiction
  If we can all see this as an essential part of our thinking, to reveal our own biases on sex and/or race, and account for them, like a correction factor. It helps if we can think of it in a...
• Commented on Off the Map: Women in Science and Science Fiction
  And speaking of mansplaining, what I described in the first post is exactly what the authors did above. Go me....
• Commented on Off the Map: Women in Science and Science Fiction
  Speaking of bad responses to the ugly truth, I've noticed that articles like this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/white-men-have-much-to-discuss-about-mass-shootings/2013/03/29/7b001d02-97f3-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_story.html tend to raise a surprising amount of bad sentiment, despite (IMO) making a good point. The "black community" and gang violence sure, but the "white...
• Commented on Off the Map: Women in Science and Science Fiction
  I would say education, first and foremost. Expose people to the idea that they have ingrained biases, and prove it to them via tests like the above. If they display irritation, indicate that that might be further evidence of their...
• Commented on Unbreakable (part 1)
  Never saw Sucker Punch. However, re fantasy, I think it's important to recognize that it can have a useful role if you keep it in a straight-jacket. Case in point, science fiction. You could IMO make the point that science...
• Commented on Unbreakable (part 1)
  In response to the original post: This. Absolutely. Especially the engineering analogies. One of my problems with a good number of SF novels is characters who are supposed to be decent people, but don't show an emotional response to violence....
• Commented on Understanding Reader Reviews
  Re Iain M. Banks, the last novel of his that I read, Surface Detail, really bothered me - it seemed rather shallow, and even had a cartoonish villainy type. I kept expecting the book to throw me a curveball, and...
• Commented on Understanding Reader Reviews
  This discussion reminds me of reading Dawn when I was a teenager, and being disgusted with the aliens' views on men. I obviously would have given the book a bad review, had I thought it worth reviewing. (These days I...
• Commented on Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!
  Uh yeah, that was page 277-278 of the paperback. It's implied (but not stated definitely) as part of Fiore-Reeve's revenge on Mick. (Who is himself a rapist, abuser, and generally disgusting character, but still.) Gods, I'd forgotten how hard to...
• Commented on Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!
  Umm, I might be misremembering. IIRC it was "offscreen," when (s)he was masquerading as Fiore; and implied in Reeve's narrative. Though I suppose the reader has a lot of reason to believe that Fiore-Reeve has a completely different personality, and...
• Commented on Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!
  OTOH, I do think there's sometimes a bit much of an emphasis on antiheroes in SF. Some authors (Octavia Butler comes to mind) have used ordinary characters with ordinary flaws, to great effect....
• Commented on Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!
  Re antiheroes. What I find interesting about gray characters is how and where we draw the lines in our head. e.g. Takishi Kovacs (from "Altered Carbon") is a murderer, and several other nasty things. And I hated him. Robin/Reeve (from...
• Commented on Context is everything
  Umm. Don't we at the very least have some ethical duty toward non-technological sapient species that have to rely on the biosphere? Elephants, chimps, etc.? Even ignoring that, there is stuff we can learn from all manner of organisms that...