The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Damien Neil:

It's a well-written apology, which I respect.

However, I still can't shake the feeling that Amazon hates my childhood. I remember discovering my elder brother's science fiction collection, forgotten in boxes in the attic. Those books introduced me to Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, and dozens of other authors. I remember my sister bringing home more boxes of science fiction, salvaged from the shelves of some unknown benefactor. Those books gave me Pohl and Kornbluth.

In Amazon's perfect world, none of that would have happened. No child would ever read a book without paying amazon their Danegeld.

I recently lent my copy of Archer's Goon to a friend's ten-year old daughter. She read it twice in three days. In Amazon's perfect world, nobody would ever lend a book to a child, ever again.

I don't like Amazon's vision of the future. It's a cold and lonely place.

Best wishes, Teresa and Patrick. Get well!

Fragano @ #78:

Perhaps you aren't. I, however, am.

Fragano @ #67:

Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Every man's death diminishes me. Yes, even murderers and rapists.

Every man's death diminishes me.

Clark @ #213:

When you say "a fair number" of people in Lebanon who deliberately gave birth to babies in the US for the purpose of giving US citizenship to those children, how many people are you talking about? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions?

I've never heard the phrase "anchor baby" before, but it instantly makes me think of "welfare queen": A simple concept, easy to identify and vilify, that does not require any significant representation in objective reality to have political power.

Also, contrary to your assertion, I don't see any definitions of "anchor baby" in your post at #189--just a statement that both people living in and out of the US have them. What definition are you using? If one of my foreign national coworkers has a child while living in the US, is that child an "anchor baby"?

Japan is another country with a sizable population of second or third generation non-citizens born in the country. Talking to a bitter young man of Korean descent and Japanese birth cemented my opinion that ius soli citizenship is a very good idea.

I'm having a hard time separating the "charisma is untrustworthy" points from "you must never vote for a politician that you like".

What is charisma? I'm assured that Reagan had it. I didn't like Reagan, though I was still just an unruly teenager at the end of his term. I feel no attraction when I hear is speeches today.

I'm told that George W. Bush has charisma, and that he's the kind of man that you can have a beer with. I can't listen to him speak three words without wanting to dump a glass of beer on his head, and I've had that visceral reaction since the first time I saw him on television.

When I hear Obama speak, I feel inspired. Is that because he has charisma that does an end run around my critical thinking abilities? I'd like to think that it's because I like what he has to say.

Is there some disconnect between what he says and what he does that I'm unaware of? Because when I look at his record (as described in that post of Hilzoy's, for example), I don't see it.

I'd like to have a president that I like. It'd make a nice change from...well, my entire adult life up to now.

Xopher - If your habit was to always write your name in green, would it be incorrect usage for someone else to fail to do so? What if you always write it in twenty point bold Comic Sans?

I think that there are clearly circumstances when local style can trump a person's preferred orthography for their name.

Keir @ 74: The iMac is referred to as the iMac, the iPod as the iPod, and so-on. Why should danah boyd be treated differently?

However, adidas is referred to as Adidas, and Wikipedia's stated policy is to capitalize trademarks, even when they are officially uncapitalized. Apple's iProducts appear to be getting an unofficial pass on this.

It seems clear to me that Wikipedia has yet to arrive at a consistent consensus on how to deal with unconventional capitalizations. It isn't surprising that different articles follow different conventions.

There's a difference between "Wikipedia doesn't think danah boyd knows how to spell her own name" and "there is debate on Wikipedia over how to represent names with unconventional orthographies". I'd say that the latter seems rather more accurate.

Haiku of the day (not mine):

Hippopotamus.
Antihippopotamus.
Annihilation.

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