Author Archives: zephoria

voyeurs google

A Nation of Voyeurs: How the Internet search engine Google is changing what we can find out about one another – and raising questions about whether we should

This is another great article on the concerns raised by our past collapsing into the present. The writer uses anecdotes to explain why this can be troublesome, yet it’s so appealing that we wouldn’t want Google to disappear; he even shares the stories of revenge where people get hurt under the powers of Google. Unfortunately, i haven’t really run across anything that suggests what *should* be done to way out the cons with the pros. (They just typically share the scary stories, the good intentions of the Google creators and the legal impressions of Zittrain/Brin/Lessig/Rosen.)

Columbia

When i was first heard about Columbia today, my heart was filled with so many emotions. Prior to breaking my neck, my life goal was to be an astronaut… i had even gone so far as to applying and getting the nominations necessary to go to the Naval Academy (since so many astronauts came from there). I was obsessed with space in every way. I remember the Challenger and the confusion that i had sitting in that classroom as my teacher completely lost it (his friend from college was on board). So hearing this brought back all of those memories of loss and sadness. Yet, in spite of all of this tragedy, i received a note revealing a quote from Kalpana Chawla that reminds me of why space is so important to so many of us. When asked about her Indian heritage, she said: “When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.”

Battle Raper: HYPER REALACTION

Battle Raper: HYPER REALACTION is a new Japanese fighting game where the user “fights” by raping women in the game.

Defining Moment: Seeing the first grapple attack with the chest rubbing and the first molestation attack with some topless chest rubbing were both certainly eye-openers. However they both pale in comparison to the face rape the first time I experienced it. Each time I pressed a button Zenon forced poor Chihaya’s head down on his invisible penis and tears ran down her cheeks. It, much like the entire game, produced a mixture of shock, revulsion, and shame.

protest tactics

It seems as though anti-war protest tactics have changed. I find this interesting because, while i’m adamently anti-war, i have yet to feel any meaningful anti-war *community*. I mean, my friends and colleagues are all super anti-war and i’ve been supporting Not In Our Names in a variety of different ways, but i really don’t feel connected. I guess attending the protests would remind me that there are other people involved, but everyone who i know who went to SF’s anti-war protests felt great about going, like it was a festival, but they didn’t come out feeling more connected to an anti-war community…

safely in San Francisco

Oh my gosh… Driving a 17foot Uhaul + towing my car was not nearly as easy as i thought it should be. Oh my goodness goodness goodness. On Day 2, we watched a double tractor trailer wrap himself around a bridge as we were going under it. It was icy and terrifying. Gusts of winds would make us rock and my car fishtailing was a horrifying site. We only jackknifed once which convinced us never to back up at all. I couldn’t even bear the idea of driving – i was too terrified. Thankfully Aaron was an angel with strong arms and the ability to overcome his nerves as we were both wondering when the next accident on the road would be us (there were soooo many in the ice and snow). As luck would have it, things eased up once we arrived in Colorado. We hit a break in the snow in Wyoming and got through the Rockies with only some gusts of wind. Our breaks managed better than the smoking tractor trailers stopped on the roads and we even got through the Sisters without much of a wince. The Sierra Nevadas were done on a very warm day and voila, we arrived in San Francisco. My couches were a bit of a bitch to get up into my new apartment, but with the help of everyone, it was done. And now, settling…