Satirist and comedian (and Revolving Floor contributor) Rich Zeroth is gearing up his annual War Of The Words tournament. Basically, a bunch of words compete against each other in a bracketed tournament, and fans bet on the results. Updates will appear on the Facebook fan page, and you can sign up at Bracketmaker. It’s free to play, but the fan with the most accurate prediction wins $100.
I’m part of a vocal minority in a conversation over at Metafilter that has gotten a lot of attention from other blogs, and on the websites of popular print-based publications like Newsweek and Mother Jones. I’m disappointed at the lack of critical thinking and willingness to embrace the hype all round, and the mefi threads have proven unfriendly to skepticism, so I’m going to lay out my ideas here. I’ll also ping others who seem to share my concerns to some extent or other, in hope that they may see this post as a place to comment on the phenomenon, relatively unfettered by hype.
If you are completely unfamiliar with the situation, then the basic threads are here and here.
The popular narrative is this:
Two young women from Russia were suckered by a scam in which they were offered visas and good jobs in the US. Little did they know that they were on a fast track to becoming prostitutes and/or sex slaves. An American man who knew one of the women posted to Metafilter, asking for help. The community rallied, offering resources and contacting the authorities. One NYC mefite met the Russians as they arrived in the city and took them in. Crisis averted!
Taken at face value, this story has a lot of appeal, which is, I think, the main reason why so many people are already so resistant to the idea of taking it at anything more than face value. It has a sort of “we’re living in a movie” vibe to it. The clear line between good and evil; the international intrigue, the feeling of a conspiracy being foiled, the relief at seeing a group of altruistic people come together to defeat a group of selfish people, and the fascination at the idea that the benevolent people in the scenario mostly don’t know each other. Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know if they still do this, but when I was in second grade, all the kids gave little paper valentines to all of their classmates, regardless of gender. Our parents would buy them in a plastic bag of 30 or so, and we would write the name of each classmate on the valentine. Although these valentines were sometimes themed according to a popular TV show, they weren’t really cards, because they couldn’t be opened. The point of them was to get the kids familiar with the ritual. It’s Valentine’s Day, you’re a nice person, so you need to give valentines to others. The details can come later. Read the rest of this entry »
Every adult, as they watch this video, asks themselves what they would have done if they had been one of the children in this experiment. I can’t be sure, but here are my top choices:
I would have eaten the marshmallow.
I would have eaten the marshmallow while the experimenter was still in the room giving me instructions.
I would have thrown the marshmallow on the ground, stomped on it, and then sat there, glaring angrily at the two-way mirror.
I would have held off on eating the marshmallow, motivated purely by my plan to refuse the second marshmallow when it was offered.
I would have hidden the marshmallow, hoping to trick the experimenter into thinking that I had eaten it, and bravely foregoing the second marshmallow. Only I would know about my private marshmallow conspiracy.
I’m signed on to AIM, YIM, and gtalk pretty much every waking second. My friends, family, colleagues, collaborators, and business partners are all used to seeing me show up in their buddy lists every time they turn on their own computers.
So, when I block someone, they know.
I block many people, for short and long periods of time, on a regular basis, for a variety of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »
