Month: June 2009

The thin line between art and vandalism

Featured on KTRK-TV (among other sources) was the story about Joseph Carnevale, a Raleigh, NC, college student who swiped three barrels from a construction site to make a larger-than-life sculpture of a surreal monster trying to hitch a ride.

News of Joseph’s arrest on two misdemeanor charges (larceny and destruction of property) is all it took to draw hundreds of supporters out of the woodwork demanding the charges be dropped.

And I think the supporters of Joseph’s work have a point. Absent any provable danger to the public (unlikely) there is really no need for a criminal trial. The only thing I can see for sure resulting with a criminal trial is more unneeded mistrust of the police and court system– which we already have way too much of as it is. And that happens whether or not our budding artist Joseph Carnevale is found guilty or not guilty.

(Note that given the positive publicity Hamlin Associates, the construction company, has received, a civil lawsuit is not in the cards either.)

One of the supporters on Facebook makes references to “carjackings, drug deals, domestic violence and murders” happening at the same time as all this. I couldn’t have said it better myself. The Raleigh police need a hard lesson in priorities.

Despicable discrimination by Abercrombie & Fitch

A recent post on the blog Zeldalily details the firing of Riam Dean, a UK native who was employed at the clothing mega-chain Abercrombie & Fitch. Riam has a prosthetic arm and normally wears a long-sleeve shirt to conceal it. The A&F store dress code normally requires employees to wear short sleeved shirts but Riam was given permission by the store-level management at A&F to wear a sweater.

Fast forward to a few days later. Riam’s store gets a visit from an image assessment team, and is summarily reassigned to stockroom duty, since she does not fit A&F’s “look policy” which, by its very name, sounds like it is a discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen.

Which, in this case, is exactly what happened: Riam is suing A&F for what they did. And I don’t blame her. In fact, this is so far out of bounds, I dare call it Hitleresque discrimination, and A&F deserves to pay dearly for this mistake.

Particularly disturbing is that this is not the first such misstep for A&F. The site afjustice.com documents a class-action lawsuit filed against A&F in 2004, based on flagrant racism in hiring practices, and settled for US$40 million. I’d like to think that lesson wasn’t so quickly forgotten. Apparently, it was, or A&F management forgot to tell the UK/Europe division about it.

How to confuse a toddler: a sham birthday party

Every once in a while I hit a news story that completely sticks out from the norm, where the “huh?” factor just hits the roof. This is one of these stories.

An article posted on Springfield News-Leader’s Web site (and assumed to be in the print version as well) details what I consider a misguided attempt at parenting. The parents turn a 2-year-old’s birthday party in an attempt to teach her a life lesson. Yes, at the age of 2, when most kids don’t even know how to read yet, much less understand the concept of charitable giving.

In place of gifts the parents asked the party’s guests to bring donations to a local animal adoption facility.

Key quotes from the article:

“During the past year I saw how many toys she had that she didn’t play with and wanted her to learn a lesson she could continue as she grew up … that it’s always nice to get something but it gives you a good warm feeling inside to be able to give something.”

“I don’t want her to grow up be selfish. I want her to show kindness and friendship for her community in any way she can … That’s important in our society now,” said Karen Campbell. “I hope this will be a good starting point for her since she loves animals.”

There are multiple issues I need to address here. The article’s headline, “2-year-old gives up birthday presents to help adoption site,” implies that this toddler made the decision of her own free will. This is so obviously not the case here. The parents (particularly the mother) almost certainly made this decision on her behalf. In fact, it would not surprise me if Rylee (the 2-year old) said she wanted just a regular birthday party and was overruled by her parents. So, shame on you, Springfield News-Leader, for this little act of deception. You got away with it for two weeks… and then I came along.

The next issue I have is that I suspect the outcome of this experience will not have the positive effect that Rylee’s parents think it will. All it may wind up doing is fostering Rylee’s resentment against her parents– and by the time she’s 18, greed will be the least of her problems.

On what basis, you may ask, am I qualified to make such a judgment? My own personal experiences. I don’t have a psychology degree, or for that matter even as much as a few months working at a day care center. I do know, however, what my reaction would have been to what Rylee’s parents foisted upon her, when I was Rylee’s current age. I know I would have said “I want a normal birthday party like the other kids, and if I can’t, then I don’t want a party at all.” Really, I was teased enough for being different as it was. (I was able to convince the family members responsible for me that private school wasn’t in my best interests, finally, after fifth grade. I don’t regret being allowed to switch to public school in sixth grade and beyond one bit.)

Internet routing anamolies in Iran

I don’t remember where I saw this, but I figured I should post at least something about the Iran elections in some form. This renesys.com blog article I found details a very odd and not easily explained sequence of Internet routing outages and instabilities during the period of 2009-06-12/14.

This is so bizarre that I am still not sure what to make of it two days later. I do know this doesn’t happen on its own, and that this kind of thing is too important to just ignore.

Hopping off the proprietary game console train, revisited

Ars Technica reports on Sony’s new release of the PSP Go, and once again I’m glad I quit doing proprietary game consoles.

This one is particularly disheartening, as I felt like Sony was the one decent console manufacturer remaining. Sony’s apparent plan, with the release of the PSP Go, becomes more obvious: take yet another option away from the customer.

The move comes as a consequence of moving to a digital delivery model. Instead of buying a disc (UMD) with the game on it, Sony will soon be making titles available only as a download, DRM-locked to the individual console. In other words, something you can’t just sell back to GameStop when you’re done playing with it.

The article, as written, states that right now, titles will continue to be made available as both physical media and downloads. Put another way, Sony knows how fast to turn up the heat to boil the frog. Don’t be surprised when the option to buy some new titles as UMD simply does not exist.