myrrh's recent activity
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Comment on ‘Legend of Zelda’ movie first look reveals Link and Zelda in live action in ~movies
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Comment on McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers in ~food
myrrh Link Parent...mcdonalds is a real-estate and franchise-business company; as long as they can cover those operating costs, they're happy......mcdonalds is a real-estate and franchise-business company; as long as they can cover those operating costs, they're happy...
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Comment on ‘Legend of Zelda’ movie first look reveals Link and Zelda in live action in ~movies
myrrh (edited )Link Parent...disney's aggressively-diverse casting of historically-eurocentric characters brings out the ugly in a lot of people, unfortunately; meanwhile, casting a major franchise this straight is i think......disney's aggressively-diverse casting of historically-eurocentric characters brings out the ugly in a lot of people, unfortunately; meanwhile, casting a major franchise this straight is i think something only a japanese corporation would attempt today, due to cultural differences...
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Comment on AGI and Fermi's Paradox in ~science
myrrh Link...pham nguyen thought the same way; i think post-singularly solipsism is more likely, as synthetic substrates asymptotically approach subjective eternity the physical universe becomes......pham nguyen thought the same way; i think post-singularly solipsism is more likely, as synthetic substrates asymptotically approach subjective eternity the physical universe becomes increasingly irrelevant...
...standing waves of self-organising information naturally fizzle-out; that's the way of entropy...
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Comment on ‘Legend of Zelda’ movie first look reveals Link and Zelda in live action in ~movies
myrrh Link...do i say it?..i'm going to say it: you can tell it's not a disney film by the ethnicity of the casting......do i say it?..i'm going to say it: you can tell it's not a disney film by the ethnicity of the casting...
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Comment on For those who didn't know, find what you want to watch and for how much on services! (justwatch.com) in ~movies
myrrh Link Parent…i have no qualms about pirating material unavailable for commercial sale; subscription-only content flirts with ambiguity by that qualification……i have no qualms about pirating material unavailable for commercial sale; subscription-only content flirts with ambiguity by that qualification…
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Comment on "Awareness week" - don't we have enough attention already? in ~lgbt
myrrh Link...well we observed gay pride week at my studio a few years ago and two people in our office took the opportunity to distribute short factoid essays each day, which i think did improve demographic......well we observed gay pride week at my studio a few years ago and two people in our office took the opportunity to distribute short factoid essays each day, which i think did improve demographic empathy by virtue of making the unfamiliar a little more human: it's not just saying we exist, it's saying we're people too, just like you...
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Comment on How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers in ~science
myrrh Link Parent...nary a shampoo bottle nor toxic shock syndrome pamphlet was spared for the next decade, i assure you......nary a shampoo bottle nor toxic shock syndrome pamphlet was spared for the next decade, i assure you...
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Comment on How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers in ~science
myrrh Link Parent...oh i don't fault kids for how they're taught; i had absolutely no idea that letters represented sounds until my first grade teacher explained the concept one spring afternoon, then i went home......oh i don't fault kids for how they're taught; i had absolutely no idea that letters represented sounds until my first grade teacher explained the concept one spring afternoon, then i went home and excitedly devoured all my textbooks over the next week...
(a decade later, my mind was blown by my first pair of eyeglasses when i discerned indiviual leaves on trees and couldn't stop giggling with glee for days)
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Comment on How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers in ~science
myrrh Link Parent...i've been honestly shocked by the innumeracy of people entering my profession over the past decade, shored-up by such blind faith in calculators that they have absolutely no awareness of......i've been honestly shocked by the innumeracy of people entering my profession over the past decade, shored-up by such blind faith in calculators that they have absolutely no awareness of catastrophic errors until their repercussions are made self-evident...
...i strongly suspect that they're vicitims of the math wars...
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Comment on How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers in ~science
myrrh Link Parent...i can't speak to current academic sources but three decades ago my american university absorbed the student population of its japanese sister-campus and i learned quite a bit from the cultural...- Exemplary
...i can't speak to current academic sources but three decades ago my american university absorbed the student population of its japanese sister-campus and i learned quite a bit from the cultural exchange, part of which was the start contrast in literacy of lexigraphic (kanji) versus phonemic (kana) writing systems, which resonates across unrelated linguistic cultures including deaf populations who must necessarily learn english lexigraphically...
...i think the data pretty resoundingly demonstrates a correlation between literacy rates and phonetic versus word-recognition approaches...
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Comment on How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers in ~science
myrrh (edited )Link...ye gads, what a train-wreck: they promulgated quick-and-sloppy text scanning as a substitute for the foundational skills of meticulous reading... ...somehow that feels like a just reward for......ye gads, what a train-wreck: they promulgated quick-and-sloppy text scanning as a substitute for the foundational skills of meticulous reading...
...somehow that feels like a just reward for our modern information landscape, though; a natural evolutionary strategy for navigating the ever-diminishing signal-to-noise of text in our daily lives...
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Comment on Looking for watch recommendations as my partners Apple Watch doesn't even last a day anymore in ~tech
myrrh Link...at the risk of stating the obvious, has she considered sending it to apple for battery replacement?..that's an option for devices less than seven years old, and has always served me well for......at the risk of stating the obvious, has she considered sending it to apple for battery replacement?..that's an option for devices less than seven years old, and has always served me well for devices which otherwise remain useful...
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Comment on Cataloging your home library in ~books
myrrh Link...i've never used it, but isn't this what delicious library was created to do?..i'm curious to read folks' experience with embracing and ultimately migrating away from the platform as a case study......i've never used it, but isn't this what delicious library was created to do?..i'm curious to read folks' experience with embracing and ultimately migrating away from the platform as a case study...
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Comment on Crossdressing Garbage in ~creative
myrrh Link Parent...i've never been bold-enough to go commando; truth is i'm more comfortable with shorts underneath anything i'm wearing......i've never been bold-enough to go commando; truth is i'm more comfortable with shorts underneath anything i'm wearing...
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Comment on Experiences with united healthcare in ~health
myrrh Link Parent...the most frustrating aspect of the HSA/FSA dichotomy is how the rules are transitive across both spouses regardless of separate health care plans: for example, since i've quit using my UHC......the most frustrating aspect of the HSA/FSA dichotomy is how the rules are transitive across both spouses regardless of separate health care plans: for example, since i've quit using my UHC coverage i'd be an ideal candidate for an HDHP/HSA arrangement, but since my wife's health care costs (and coverage through her employer, a pharmaceutical company) are formidable, she needs (and fully exhausts) her FSA each year, which disqualifies me from contributing to my own HSA...
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Comment on Experiences with united healthcare in ~health
myrrh (edited )Link Parent...i think you mean FSA (flexible spending account); HSAs are an entirely different beast fraught with coverage and accounting complications, best suited as a long-term investment vehicle for...We make full use of my employer-sponsored health savings account every year. I highly recommend setting up an HSA for families with even moderate care needs in the current insurance environment. An HSA means you can use pre-tax earnings to cover deductables and co-pays, but the money set aside is use-it-or-lose-it. Best if you know how much money you're likely to spend.
...i think you mean FSA (flexible spending account); HSAs are an entirely different beast fraught with coverage and accounting complications, best suited as a long-term investment vehicle for people with negligible near-term healthcare costs...
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Comment on Experiences with united healthcare in ~health
myrrh (edited )Link...UHC are fine as long as you don't use your coverage, are comfortable scheduling annual checkups several months in advance, and don't mind a several-week denial song-and-dance between your......UHC are fine as long as you don't use your coverage, are comfortable scheduling annual checkups several months in advance, and don't mind a several-week denial song-and-dance between your pharmacist, insurer, and physician whenever you first fill or renew a prescription...
...for acute treatment or special exams, expect an automatic denial-and-appeal followed by several letters and calls before UHC acquiesces to pay their minor portion of the cost; top practices handle that for you and build their administrative cost into your up-front payment, which won't apply toward your deductible...
...anything you pay which is not covered, administered, and pre-approved by UHC typically won't count toward your deductible, and most in-network practices also include out-of-network specialists which you won't discover until your billing comes through, despite hours of advance research and coordination...
...UHC's business model is build upon denying healthcare, not providing it, and they plan for automatic denials to wear down a large portion of abandoned claims by attrition of patients too exhausted to spend hours fighting for coverage, before they finally relent to satisfy their obligation...
...i've had UHC for thirty years and eventually learned that it's cheaper for me to tell doctors upfront that i'll pay cash-out-of-pocket than to do the whole UHC dance and pay even more to cover their administrative costs; i've since reduced my policy to catastrophic emergency coverage only and mostly ignore it...
...UHC works best if you're comfortable just forgoing health care and living with anything that's not catastrophically disruptive...
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Comment on Crossdressing Garbage in ~creative
myrrh Link Parent...long autumnal skirts are gorgeous regardless of gender; i rocked them proudly presenting male back when my body shape could pull them off and nobody other than my own mother batted an eye......long autumnal skirts are gorgeous regardless of gender; i rocked them proudly presenting male back when my body shape could pull them off and nobody other than my own mother batted an eye...
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Comment on Tilderinos in ~talk
myrrh Link...i suppose we each bring a mote of whichever online communities we imprinted upon when we first engaged the temporary autonomous zone, before it lost coherence and spontaneously emerged......i suppose we each bring a mote of whichever online communities we imprinted upon when we first engaged the temporary autonomous zone, before it lost coherence and spontaneously emerged elsewhere anew, as standing waves inevitably do...
...for myself, that was usenet culture before the eternal september, and dial-up BBSs before that; we never needed names to identify our communities as we were simply individuals engaged in self-selecting fora of mutual respect...i think the notion of cliques can foment powerful branding amongst outsiders but is ultimately antithetical to the fundamental presumption that everyone deserves that same respectful engagement, at least until they've demonstrated otherwise...
...it's telling that overtly blonde-hair/blue-eye/fair-skin casting of established protagonists is conspicuous in today's media landscape; whether that's telling of the source material, the culture to which it's being adapted, or the culture which is producing the adaptation i think warrants contemplation...
...there's an ethnic sameness to both link and zelda which carries a lot of cultural baggage, baggage which proactively-diverse casting seeks to redress, and also baggage which the japanese market largely ignores, whether by ignorance, indifference, or choice...had this film been produced thirty years ago or (hopefully) thirty years hence with the same faithful casting choices, it'd've been wholly unremarkable, either due to ignorance of demographic inclusion in the former case or (hopefully) irrelevance of cultural redress in a more-inclusive world...
...but we're here, now, in an early-twenty-first-century global culture which feels more divisive and intolerant than any era of that sixty-year window, so the choice is conspicuous, really either way...while avi arad isn't ike perlmutter, his track record isn't exemplary either and he's earned his share of controversy, too...
...there's nothing in the lore which compels zelda + link's ethnicity to be cast any particular way, so i ask: could disney have pulled off this casting without comment?..if not, why do sony (columbia) and nintendo get a free pass?..japan carries an entirely different set of cultural baggage which isn't entirely pretty either; should it be subjected to the same scrutiny?..
...when does proactive diversity become irrelevant?..when should historic media be respected?..what assumptions in the adaptation of historic media belie biases in the interpreter?..
...i think these questions are all topical to salving today's clash of cultures, questions made conspicuous by this casting decision...