The Fear Machine (by sarah)

ok so just finished The Fear Machine part of the John Constantine HellBlazer and I have some questions - they maybe slightly slightly spoilery so looking for people who have already read the series.

a) Is he actually needed for the plot at all? I mean over all because in this one he wasn't he was kind of a exposition aid, we found things out through him but he was kind of interchangeable with others.

b) Please please tell me there are some evil she demons etc.... about in the rest of it, as lovely as the 80's womens empowerment through having their own powers that are equal but different to men is... it really kind of chaffed as they weren't off to do touchy feeling strong powerful women things to counteract the men things of violence. Kind of it was a stepping stone but I now read this kind of thing and go ARG that is sexist in it's own right. Is the whole series like that?

c) I kind of forgetting that it wasn't part of the Sandman comics as it could easily be set in the same universe it even seemed to be referencing it though I have no idea which comic series was written first etc...

d) at the back there is a write up to get you to read the rest, it says he's an anti-hero but I'm kind of like how? He's just a realistic "hero" ie one who is powerless in a lot of situations but does his best none the less. To me the anti hero is someone on the "wrong" side who is still noble and not evil and you can see why they are doing things - I assume I have gotten this wrong?

e) Is the TV series any good?

Anyway overall I really enjoyed it though I was kind of expecting it to be about the guy Keanu Reeves played in the film Constantine but it was completely and utterly different but with odd similarities - I know the film was supposed to based on the comic and there is like an undertone there but yeah... Americanised?

I really loved the way I recognised the places in the story - Gloucester, Bristol, Bath and so on...

Acceptable Suicide (by sarah)

A few days ago one of my favourite actors died, it was suicide and the press where all over it, as was social media and the conversations in the cafes and at the dinner tables and so on.

Reaction ranged from sad to angry to hurtfully belittling. The press predictably where not brilliant at presenting it as an illness rather than 'selfish idiot' or 'weak celeb' - mental health charities and supporters riled to show how it should be portrayed and where using it to highten awareness of various mental health issues and though I think that that is kind of noble it is also kind of using the mans death and I am not sure how that makes me feel - another exploitation of the situation as it were.

As things progressed a darkness within humanity emerged - newspapers are well aware of copycats imitating what they see in the news and therefore decided to put the method of death in big letters on their front pages. Then the trolling began, trolling here means an attack on social media. Robin William's daughter proceeded to receive vile comment after comment on Twitter resulting in her deleting the apps and things on her phone so she wouldn't have to deal with it at the moment. This behaviour is something that has been becoming progressively worse over the last few years and it is becoming a very real issue and one there are not brilliant ways of address at this point in time.

Now people have a right to think that the suicide was stupid or selfish, as everyone has their own head space that is theirs and you know it wouldn't be an issue if they spoke about it with their friends or on threads that were not directly targeted at a family member who is distraught as they are dealing with a loss.

Then more information starts to trickle out and it is revealed that he had Parkinson's - a horribly debilitating disease with a distressing decline. And that is when my skin really started to crawl over comments and such over the net and in the physical.

Suddenly it is OK that he killed himself - it was just self euthenasia and he is saving his family from the grief etc...

But erm... it is still suicide - he was still suffering from depression and mental anguish - weather it was brought on by a physical situation or a brain chemistry screw up is kind of irrelivant. In either case a pre-existing condition made him feel so small and lost and vunerable or terrible and burndenistic or confused and worried that he took his own life.

The issue of suicide is a difficult one, with children of suicide victims being more likely to follow suite and those surviving attempts often saying they were grateful to be saved - but how much of this is due to our cultural set up?

If we are going from the angle that self-euthenasia is acceptable but crying down the telephone and then downing a butt load of pills isn't then we need to look at what makes a suicide acceptable?

Now with medical stuff I am in a high risk category, I am a chronic pain patient and have been for over 10 yrs, I was young and being told there is nothing that can be done to take the pain away, to give you back the life you never quiet got to lead - well that is depressing. Chronic pain suffers often take their own lives, on the pain management cause I was on at least one of the people was there because they didn't want to do the same as their mother and leave their family devistated.

But one of the questions that then comes up is - is not the families grief then being selfish to the person who is in so much pain they want to go?

And here I think it is a time to say that emotional pain can be as if not more debilitating than physical - if you can ever truly separate the two - we are complex interlocking feedback systems and as such one affects the other.

The ancient greeks - I can't remember which flavour, had thought about this and had a system where you could commit suicide but you had to public state you wanted to do so and then wait a certain amount of time in a quiet contemplantive environment, if you still wished to go ahead after that then you were at liberty to. Of course this was open to abuse - such as being given the choice of suicide or family being ruined etc... but I think that kind of happens with everything to a certain extent when people are faffing with power play.

The other thing is how different is killing yourself due to not wanting to face a future of medical deteoration verses feeling you can't face the future with all it's heart ache? There is a thing here over the likely hood of things getting better - many people look at it and say 'ah yes but they can get meds to sort their heads out he didn't have a choice' but the thing is that the meds for mental health tend to have very bad side effects and they become less effective over time for the patient and conversly: medical research is being done into conditions like Parkinsons meaning that even for those suffering now there is hope that something will come up.

See how undifferent they actually are? Having a "physical" medical condition does not somehow make a suicide more acceptable, nor should there be such stigma associated with it. All that does is stop people who want help with the feelings that may lead to suicide. And that is before we factor in the religious beliefs of not going to heaven etc...

I wonder what would happen if we had 'the right to die'?

Because… War (by sarah)

Most of the time I try and remain positive about humanity and where the future is going etc... I know that the world is actually becoming less and less violent and prejudice but that that is not a straight forward progression and slips back and forth but there is a positive trend there.

I know the dangers inherent in our advances in science and technology but see the good out way the bad on a daily basis. And then I get days like today. I was going to be researching Mongolian archery in the 11th century but I saw the news and there were the bodies of kids on a beach in Gaza for no reason than ideaology and then another plan down over the Ukraine/Russian area. This time the plane was carrying over 100 researchers and workers in the field of HIV and AIDS research and prevention. They were all on their way to a conference in Australia.

And this rips my heart out.

First off it doesn't make the plane crash worse - if it had been a bunch of 'ordinary' people who died on the plan then it would still have been horrendous it would still have been 100's of minds lost, hundreds of families and co-workers moarning. It does however give it more of an impact on a global scale, that is a lot of researchers lost in one field and there is no way it will not impact the science and rate of break threws and how quickly the medical care will get to the people who need it.

AIDS is still a global epidemic and still impacts ALOT of people. I have friends who are only alive now due to break threws in this field but also it isn't just this field. Most academics I know have been on plans full of people going to the same conferences, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

Politicians and business people do not travel like this, for this exact reason but budgets mean that scientists are all likely to be in the cheap seats on one plan - all together.

Worse though is that this is not an accident, even if it is mistaken identity it was still an active act, one human against another - BAM! Lives gone and lost.

Because... War... like the kids on the beach, like those sitting in camps within Australia and places themselves... because one lot of people fail to see the value in the other peoples lives. BAM BAM BAM.

Because land and food and wealth are seen as limited resources or faith renders them OTHER. But solutions are on hand to solve the food problems and humanity as a whole out grew this world at the end of the last century. Most of the time this is a mirage - there are enough resources its just even one is so scared of sharing. Add in expansionist regimes and the fall out of them collapsing and you have rebellions and separatists and counter rebellions. And at some point it stops being a fight for freedom and ends up with dead kids.

Of course to make things more depressingly complicated sometimes it is those in charge killing the kids or both sides of a skirmish have innocent blood on their hands and heros who saved foe and friend alike.

In war there are no winners same as the torturer gets post trumatic stress in a similar way to the tortured. And sometimes you do have to fight even knowing this but never should it be a light decision.

And how soon we forget the victims - remember the kids shot by a religous and political loon a few years ago? No you'd all forgotten. Because there is a continual feed of it all, drip drip drip, war, death, power play.

The plane crash itself was initially reported as part of the larger power games and those lost upon it were hardly mentioned at all.

Of course social media stepped up with the continual 'but that isn't as bad as this or that and my cause is being ignored and things are far worse here...' etc.... and yes that is no doubt true but it doesn't take the tragidy and pain away from those families.

But then the media and people in general do have a blinkered view and I am continually amazed that people don't know of the suffering that surrounds them in this world or even in their own country. Blinkered we are and suffering is ignored on a daily basis like the Congo and I have no solutions, no ideas or powers to sort any of this out.

I have kind of given up - I can not save the world, for a while I couldn't look after myself nor my family but when I can I help those I see who need help. Most of the time that is people around me or in extended friendship groups but it is something and it is what I have to give.

I sometimes hope that I am changing the world through my art and writing but know that I really am not. Perhaps I could have helped more as a scientist but that is no longer really me. So I do what I can. I don't think I can do much for those affected by today news.

Sometimes I write flash fictions about victims, sometimes I give happy endings or just voices to those who don't have them - it is probably a waste of time possibly even something considered bad taste - I don't know.

The thing that really gets to me though is that people watch this stuff on telly and they seem to not actually absorb it, not see it as different to the programme that was chopped in half to bring them the news. Grizzly pictures abound on my facebook but it's all 'this made me feel sick and I can't believe this!' no action no love, just a recycling of news to get the biggest NOW effect.

You still meet people who think the worst atrocity was the Twin Towers. It was an atrocity and one where the victims should be recalled and remembered like all those others that have happened globally. It was the worst for those who's city it was, for the families effected possibly even for the country it was in but IT WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE.

Violence is very cyclic and we are all capable of it, we respond and adapt.

But throughout all our history war and murder and abuse and violence and oppression have not even been the main thing that kills us. Humans kill humans often with war machines and other such trappings of our intelligence I wish we could turn the ingenuity of war into the fight for our lives for our survival against disease. Flu killed more people in the outbreak between the two world wars than those who died combined in the two wards and that is the case even taking the upper estimates for the camps.

And plague outbreaks of the past are pretty dam scary, ebola is scary, AIDS is scary... oh yeah look the people fighting to save our lives globally have lost theirs due to war. Because... WAR, like the kids on the beach and families in the camps and women in the Congo, because.... because... because... ?

I didn't really have a point with this, just that sometimes I find it all depressing.

Our existence as a species is precarious, life in the solar system is precarious, all of it is fragile, why destroy rather than making us more robust?

Disease kills us accidently. War does not.

You Fib, Voting and Representation (by sarah)

A dark malaise is pouring over my country
The hate is bile rising choking community
Dear politicians You Fib
Not even the old skool twist of the figures
You simple do not check them in the first place
And it scares me how reasonable you can appear
How you have lulled the desperate and greedy
How you have twisted the heart of my land
I fear the outcome of those he seek the easy answers
Not like those other parties
Unlike them and yet... ah yes there
Hate of the different just because it is not you

Choose wisely when voting - remember MEP is proportional representation so tactical voting is stupid - you get what you vote for - also think careful about the council elections and who you want running your area and the knock on effects. PAX

Though I don't agree with it, an out of Europe policy is a valid position; I just wish that there was someone to represent my friends who feel this way without all the other baggage. I think there is a minority of those that think this is what they are working for and getting, but evidence is against it and that is sad. I see images of people trying to discuss the actual facts and figures of Europe and it sinks into obscurity due to the racism, sexism and other such topics. They do not have anyone to represent them in reality and that is wrong.

Of course there isn't really anybody to represent me and Al either, and here we hit a crux of politics - are we voting for parties or people?

If it is a party then I want a big list of all the parties and policies and to pick what I want from that - if it is people then what they do and say is incredibly important and the idea that their words and actions are not party policy becomes void, especially if they say something or do something and retain their position of power.

Given the choice I personally would probably go for Pirate Party, Green, TUSC (trade unionists and socialist coalition followed by lib dem - this is from having been lib-dem/green depending on what the vote was for and who was on offer. Sadly my choices are very limited and options here seem to be lots of far right groups, which frankly scare me.

I think if UKIP had turned into the party that was planned, then I wouldn't be worried, but that is not what I am seeing - I am seeing xenophobic, racist, sexist, homophobic view and hate of the vulnerable and different.

And that is without the privitization of the NHS and business practices - of course, I concede that privitization of the nhs is a valid political standpoint; just not one I agree with.

And of course the big three (Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dem) are not innocent at all in this - they have candidates and councillors that have said awful t hings, though they tend to lose their positions (of course the media could be covering stuff up and running a smear campaign but actually they seem to have been mostly supporting UKIP and so on. We have been astonished that there have not been any balanced pieces with the upcoming elections.).

Politics, like everything else, depends on your own story as to what you see - people can see the same interview and get different things out of it. One side sees a victory, the other evidence of bullying and so on. It is a mine field - I just wish people would actually think for themselves - go and research and think and look at their own biases - and we all have our own.

A hundred years ago women were still dying to allow me the vote - something which at least one UKIP member would have taken away.

Personally I want to stay in Europe, for human rights reasons - ie maternity leave, holiday pay etc... and I believe it can work for economics too - happy workers are hard workers (some tweaking is often needed depending on job type etc... but it pretty much holds.) And even with the risk of those I urge to vote, even voting UKIP. I will still do it as I believe voting is important (even if voting methods and politics in general have huge flaws).

At the same time I am actually sick of political canvassing - I think it kind of shouldn't be allowed - that there be one website that contains the policies (in accessible ways so explained in videos etc...) of ALL the parties. One day I had the BNP, UKIP and British Democrats in a row - this then caused me to snap at the little old man who was with TUSC who's policies I quiet like - canvasing fatigue I'm calling it!

Of cause there is the apathy issue in the UK were politics is concerned as well and therefore how you would get people to actually go and look.

I actually don't really have much of a point in this post other than - go and vote, think about who you are voting for though especially with Europe stuff as it is proportional representation and so there is no protest vote - you get what you vote for. Also though UKIP in general scare me, I feel sorry for the minority who seem to actually be trying to discuss political points and get derailed both within and without and those drawn to the party inside and outside of London seem to vastly differ.

ie political representation in this country sucks as does the actual voting system, but please still vote.

The scariest thing I've seen so far was the BNP youth video - truly scary - I kind of don't want to put it on here - even if it turns out I agreed with one policy :/

This is me looking at everything with the coolest, rationalist head I have - emotionally I want to just rage about Nazi attitudes and scapegoats.

Other good articles on voting:

Go Vote Dammit

Voting For Tomorrow

Thoughts on Programming and Tracing (by alaric)

I was recently pointed at this interesting article: Learnable Programming.

It's a good read, overturning many assumptions the software industry has picked up over the years, and propagated without thought since.

The first part suggests allowing a programmer to trace the flow of execution of a program graphically, using an interactive timeline. My first thought was that this was all well and good, but would rely on every library in the language annotating every operation with information about how to present it - producing the little thumbnails to go in the timeline, or exposing numeric values that can be plotted onto charts. Also, highlighting the "current" drawing operation in red on the canvas relies on those operations being things that affect a canvas; more abstract operations, such as writing to a database (or even generating images to be encoded directly into a file rather than onto the screen) would require a more explicit "object preview".

However, those are not insurmountable goals. And, perhaps, things that can be built on top of my ideas about logging and tracing, making it possible to use such an interface to go through traces of execution captured from production servers, rather than just within a cute live-coding IDE; the trace entries generated by operations in your libraries could, with the help of a meta-library of trace visualisation rules, generate those little thumbnails. However, it would need to be augmented with dynamic scope information provided by the programming environment itself to know which line of code caused the trace event; the kind of thing one finds in a stack trace.

He asks "Another example. Most programs today manipulate abstract data structures and opaque objects, not pictures. How can we visualize the state of these programs?"; so I suggest that the abstract data structures and opaque objects be annotated with code that summarises their state. Many languages have a notion of "return a string representation of this object", generally aimed at debug logging - Python's repr() versus str(), for instance. Perhaps if we moved to expecting objects to return HTML representations of themselves, we could take a step in that direction.

The second part (and I'm taking some temporal liberties here, as some concepts I've included in the first part are touched upon in the second and vice versa) is also inspiring; it looks at the bigger picture, considering how libraries and code-editing environments can be designed to make it much easier for programmers to identify what operations their libraries are making available to them, rather than requiring the first step to be the reading of documentation. It touches on topics such as the dangers of mutable state (preaching to the converted here!), and the choice of library function names to make code using them clear (I'm also a big fan of smalltalk / Cocoa-style function call syntax, and how it might be brought into the Lisp family of languages...)

I've written before that I think modifying software should be a much more widely-practiced activity; and I think that should be achieved through removing unnecessary obstacles, rather than forcing everyone through complicated programming classes. I'm always interested in more thoughts on how to make that happen!