MetaFilter posts tagged with identity

The Lurking Fear

Artw — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:13:44 -0800

Lovecraft 101: Get To Know The Master of Scifi-Horror. For more detailed insights into each of Lovecraft's tales in publication order you might want to follow the H.P.Lovecraft Literary Podcast. For another story-by-story guide to Lovecraft you might want to check out Kenneth Hite's Tour De Lovecraft (also available in expanded form as a book). China Mieville on Lovecraft and racism and a lecture at Treadwells by Archaeologist James Holloway which delves deep into Lovecraft and identity. The making of the Call of Cthulhu RPG. The making of Cthulhu (Hipsters! Ego! Madness!). Happy Halloween with H.P. Lovecraft!

The Market for Lemons, or Thieves Discount the Value You(r Identity)

filthy light thief — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:37:22 -0800

Calculate the value of your identity on the black market, based on how you access your financial information, your involvement in social and file-sharing networks, and security software installed. Spoiler: it's less than you imagine, as using the data is riskier than stealing the data, and the thieves market is polluted by liars (you can read more in the 12 page Microsoft research PDF). If you think you've been the victim of identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau have lists of actions to follow. For a broader view of legal responses, wikipedia has details listed per country for a few nations (currently listing information for Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, India, UK and US). The Consumer Credit Reporting Agency page on Wikipedia is thinner, covering the US, UK, and India.

A Mystery Man Awakes in Seattle

bz — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:37:29 -0800

A well-dressed man wakes up in a Seattle city park. He has $600 in his sock and no memory of who he is or how he got there. He is fluent in English, French and German and has an apparent deep knowledge of European cultural history. He seems to have traveled the world. And he says he is a widower. Doctors suspect he is not faking it but they don’t know how to help. Police are stumped as well. The man has provided a list of clues but nothing authorities are able to use to identify him. Within hours of his story going online, a reader in Shanghai, China recognizes him. At least, now, they know who he is but they still don’t know how he ended up in Seattle. The story is still unfolding and the stories in these links may change.

And like that... he's gone

homunculus — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:42:04 -0800

Gone Forever: What Does It Take to Really Disappear?

Parents keep child's sex a secret.

Four-Eyed Girl — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:01:03 -0800

A pair of Swedish parents are keeping their child's ("Pop") sex a secret. The parents believe that gender is a social construction, and they want to keep Pop from being placed into any categories based on his/her gender. Psychologists, medical specialists, and other researchers disagree on how this decision may affect the child, and some believe this secret is similar to the one David Reimer's family kept from him. Via Feministing.

A spectre is haunting Western academia

Abiezer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:05:02 -0800

Slavoj Žižek recently gave five talks under the title Masterclass - Notes Towards a Definition of Communist Culture. It sez 'ere, "The master class analyses phenomena of modern thought and culture with the intention to discern elements of possible Communist culture. It moves at two levels: first, it interprets some cultural phenomena (from today’s architecture to classic literary works like Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Heloise) as failures to imagine or enact a Communist culture; second, it explores attempts at imagining how a Communist culture could look, from Wagner’s Ring to Kafka’s and Beckett’s short stories and contemporary science fiction novels." Audio of Zizek's talks and subsequent discussion is now online: Part I Utopias; Part II Architecture as Ideology; Part III Wagner’s Ring as a Communist narrative; Part IV Populism and Democracy; Part V Environment, Identity and Multiculturalism. Those who like to watch the beard in motion will find links to video of some of the talks posted here.

Protect Yourself, Your Family, Your Identity

netbros — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:42:49 -0800

The commercials are all over television — and they certainly are attention-grabbing. They’re the ones where the heavy, bald guy is sitting in his easy chair talking in a squeaky female voice about all the clothes he bought — including a bustier. Or the little old lady speaking with the gruff voice of a younger man about the sweet motorcycle she now owned. Identity theft is a serious crime — one that is occurring with an alarming frequency. The Identity Theft Manifesto explains how criminals get your personal info, and what you can do about it.

I am a strange loop.

loquacious — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:30:41 -0800

Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid has been recorded as a series of video lectures for MIT's Open Courseware project.

If I Had a Hammer

mattdidthat — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:13:21 -0800

Downloadable original logos and badges for restoring old woodworking machines. Via Old Woodworking Machines and the Draplin Design Co.

above us only sky

plexi — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:05:10 -0800

The end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability. "At the moment, we can call this the triumph of multiculturalism, or post-racialism. But just as whiteness has no inherent meaning—it is a vessel we fill with our hopes and anxieties—these terms may prove equally empty in the long run. Does being post-racial mean that we are past race completely, or merely that race is no longer essential to how we identify ourselves?"

Fighting boys, strong men and gorillas

Smedleyman — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:35:15 -0800

At nightfall youth gangs transform the streets of Kinshasa's townships into arenas of the fight. Although many of these boys and young men are trained in foreign fighting styles such as judo, jujitsu and karate, in the public clashes between the fighting groups, these boys and young men perform mukumbusu. This fighting style, inspired and based on the gorilla, was invented during the last decade of colonialism, and is an original mixture of a traditional Mongo wrestling practice, libanda, and Asian and Western fighting practices. An essay from Edinburgh University's Center of African Studies (PDF - or accessmylibrary link) More on race and African martial arts and Africa, America, Identity and African martial arts (and plenty of other stuff) from Lloyd De Jongh.

"What are you?" "Tired of answering that question."

yeloson — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:40:45 -0800

The Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage (pdf) is a great document covering some basic issues of self definition many take for granted, including the right to not be pressured to choose an identity for the comfort of others. Of course, it's not like this is new, though it seems little headway is being made despite growing numbers of multi-ethnic people in the media spotlight. (Previously)

Do you know these children?

Asparagirl — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:32:10 -0800

Do you, or an older relative of yours, recognize any of these children? More than 70 children separated from their families during WWII, now all elderly men and women, are using the Internet to try to find some answers about their pasts, their families, and sometimes even their own names. They are soliciting help and suggestions in the comments sections on each story. Sadly typical story: "The infant was hungry and crying, so her mother asked for milk from a Polish couple that happened to be on the train station. The Polish man brought milk for the baby. Then the Jewish mother asked if they would want to take the baby as their own because she could not keep it. This couple did not have any children, so after some consideration, they agreed. They asked the Jewish mother who she was, but she told them that it was better for them and for the baby not to know who she was. She then gave her newborn baby girl, who was probably one month old, to the Polish couple. The Polish couple raised the girl as if she was their biological daughter and never told her how she had come into the family. The girl grew up, married and had a son. It is this son who wants to find his Jewish roots..."

Trans in the Red States

Kattullus — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:11:51 -0800

"In Loveland, Colorado -- population 61,000, 92 percent white and heavily evangelical Christian -- Michelle didn't know what to expect when she began to work with the school to facilitate her daughter's transition from a boy to a girl. At first, it was difficult. The school 'freaked out when I told them,' Michelle says. 'When we started with M.J.'s transition, I was envisioning riots.' And so Michelle became an advocate for transgender people -- those who identify as a gender different from the one assigned at birth. Michelle organized trainings for the faculty and staff and prepared 'cheat sheets' in case any of their students asked prying questions. But on the first day of school, nothing happened." - Trans in the Red States by Jeremy Bearer-Friend and Daniel Redman. [via Obsidian Wings]

Metafilter -> MeFi -> Mefi

gwint — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:50:47 -0800

Evolution of Corporate Logos

Individual Google

tkolar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:47:25 -0800

Things [blank] people like. New search engine RushmoreDrive is a first step into the waters of Identity Based searching. Specifically, it weighs your demographic heavily when ordering your search results.

Is $40000 fair punishment for setting up a fake Facebook profile?

dabitch — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:02:00 -0800

£17,000 damages for victim of fake Facebook profile. Matthew Firsht found a fake facebook profile created in his name, and he has successfully sued the person who did it. Amol Rajan knows exactly what having your facebook online ID 'stolen' feels like, as do many others. Are your social networking friends always who they say they are?

Banksy uncovered?

Kattullus — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:03:59 -0800

English newspaper Mail on Sunday claims to have uncovered the identity of artist Banksy claiming his name is Robin Gunningham: "People who know Gunningham are now unable to say what has become of him. His father Peter, who lives in Kingsdown, Bristol, denied that the man in the photograph was his son, and his mother Pamela was surprised by the picture, then denied she even had a son, let alone one called Robin." More information in a report from CBC. If you don't know who Banksy is visit a Flickr pool with over 7000 pictures of his work in situ or check out previous MetaFilter posts about Banksy.

The folking English

Abiezer — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 01:02:07 -0800

The Imagined Village [promoting an album too but plenty of interesting free stuff] Several luminaries of a now more globalised British music scene reinterpret the folk heritage and pose questions about a modern English identity. There's Benjamin Zephaniah's version of Tam Lyn and a retelling of Hard Times in Old England; even our American cousins get in on the act, for instance remixes like Doghouse Riley's doo-wop Cold Hailey Rainy Night. There's also a few thinky pieces explaining what it's all about.

Just don't tell Podhoretz...

Skeptic — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:38:07 -0800

HEMA (Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschapij Amsterdam) is a quintessentially Dutch department store chain, specialised in selling unbranded no-nonsense goods at low prices. It is also known for its whimsical (previously) advertising and strong corporate identity. The art collective Mediamatic decided to have a few multicultural laughs by launching "El Hema", an Arabic/Muslim version of the Dutch classic. At first, the original HEMA was less than thrilled, but it then decided to join the El-Hema Design Contest jury, which had to choose between such proposals as the Cut-Up Djellabah and the rain-burqa (perfect for the Dutch weather, I think). In the meantime, the El Hema logo has won the Dutch Design Award 2007 in the "Visual Identity" category.

A Website about Corporate Identity.

JBennett — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:16:12 -0800

A Website about Corporate Identity. A large archive of corporation logos with design credits, typeface identification (or, at least the typographic roots of the ID's.) and Pantone color information. Not at all complete, but it's a very nice start. Hopefully it will continue to expand. via: Grain Edit (design blog)

Keep still

parmanparman — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 06:59:37 -0800

Two stunning minutes of MTV Though, you'll only see it in South America.

Please put down your hands, cause I see you.

fair_game — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 11:10:04 -0800

A View In Your Mirror: Painter Jan Verhulst compiles self portraits made by artists in their preferred medium.

Caramel Crème Latte Like Me

jfuller — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 07:59:08 -0800

Are Africans Black? The population of African immigrants in the United States is rapidly growing. Since 1990, about 50,000 Africans have come to the United States annually, more than in any of the peak years of the international slave trade, which was abolished in 1807. They add to the steady influx of black immigrants from other continents and the Caribbean, and those who have been in the United States for generations but who don't racially and culturally define themselves as African American. These blacks feel cramped by the narrowness of American racial politics, in which "blackness" has not just defined one's skin color but has served as a code word for African American.
Maybe Not. After all, Obama's mother is of white U.S. stock. His father is a black Kenyan. Other than color, Obama did not - does not - share a heritage with the majority of black Americans, who are descendants of plantation slaves.... when black Americans refer to Obama as "one of us," I do not know what they are talking about. In his new book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama makes it clear that, while he has experienced some light versions of typical racial stereotypes, he cannot claim those problems as his own - nor has he lived the life of a black American.

Does that make him the murderer, or do the homemade curtains reduce him to the level of the child molester?

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 02:33:18 -0800

The Way We Are: David Sedaris makes coffee with tea while ruminating on identity