Ancient Egyptian technology may be our first line of defense from hospital infections

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/17/1352496/-Ancient-Egyptian-technology-may-be-our-first-line-of-defense-from-hospital-infections?

Uh, oh. Out of stuff.

Erm... I ran out of stuff to link...

Currently playing King's Bounty games (on steam), because I enjoy them despite their flaws. Don't really want to make a post on them though.

*sigh* Sorry.

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (The Real Reason For The Forty-Hour Workweek)

http://www.trueactivist.com/your-lifestyle-has-already-been-designed-the-real-reason-for-the-forty-hour-workweek

6 Things That Annoy You Every Day (Explained by Science)

http://www.cracked.com/article_19004_6-things-that-annoy-you-every-day-explained-by-science.html

Comcast sued for turning home Wi-Fi routers into public hotspots

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Comcast-sued-for-turning-home-Wi-Fi-routers-into-5943750.php

Propaganda Has Triumphed over Journalism, and the Consequences Are Enormous

http://www.alternet.org/propaganda-has-triumphed-over-journalism-and-consequences-are-enormous?

Chris Rock on Racism in America: White People Aren't as Crazy as They Used to Be

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/chris-rock-racism-white-people-were-crazy-now-theyre-not-crazy

I Don't Play Video Games Anymore. I Wait For Them.

http://kotaku.com/i-dont-play-video-games-anymore-i-wait-for-them-1665496091

This is why my PS3 doesn't have internet access. It can't make me wait for updates to download if it doesn't know there are any.

Walking While Black

http://mic.com/articles/105398/michigan-cop-stops-black-man-for-walking-with-hands-in-his-pockets-in-freezing-weather

Why I don't feel loved.

It's really quite simple: My flaws are a deep part of who I am, and everyone wants to fix me.

I didn't really understand it when I was younger, but I do now: Everything people have all praised me for, exists because of everything people condemn me for. My flaws aren't just a part of the whole package. They are largely responsible for why I am who I am. I wouldn't be me without them.

My high perception? My ability to notice and remember details most don't? That's because I'm very sensitive to stimuli, and it's why I hate taking showers or baths and have crappy hygiene.

My high intelligence and knowledge? That's largely because I can't focus on anything I'm not interested in. I can't make myself do work, and when I try, my mind just wanders. So what I do manage to accomplish, is I end up thinking about, and contemplating everything that ever happens to me. Everything I see or read, or hear gets thought about over and over and over. I end up thinking about everything far more deeply than anyone I know. The whole reason I am smart, is just because I never stop thinking. It is also why I can't work. I can't set myself a goal and expect to accomplish it.

People will say they love me, and in the same breath wish that my flaws would be fixed. Which just sounds like all they really love is their idea of me. Some perfect construct that doesn't exist, and never will. What they want is my potential. Not my reality. They don't want me, just what they think I could be.

My name is Regina

http://www.womenforwomen.org/what-we-do/stories/my-name-regina

A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design

http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/

Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

Bill Moyers Puts the Spotlight on the Bare Knuckle Fight to Buy and Control Our Democracy

http://www.alternet.org/bill-moyers-puts-spotlight-bare-knuckle-fight-buy-and-control-our-democracy?

America: The Grim Truth

https://americathegrimtruth.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/america-the-grim-truth/

Why Do Sexual Assault Survivors Feel Shame? A Cartoon Sums It Up.

http://www.upworthy.com/why-do-sexual-assault-survivors-feel-shame-a-cartoon-sums-it-up-by-the-4th-panel-im-taken-aback?c=ufb1

Sonic and the Worst Fandom Ever

http://gamebabble.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/sonic-and-the-worst-fandom-ever/

The strange case of Rudolph Fentz

http://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-strange-case-of-rudolph-fentz

Scientists believe they’ve identified the genes responsible for high levels of rage and violence

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11195840/Are-some-humans-born-evil.html

The man who made a game to change the world

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-30-the-utopia-that-never-died

Choice Architecture: How To Commit To Behavior Change When You Lack Willpower

http://thoughtcatalog.com/sam-davies/2014/10/choice-architecture-how-to-commit-to-behaviour-change-when-you-lack-willpower/

The software awards scam

http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/08/16/the-software-awards-scam/

Most People Are Depressed For a Very Good Reason

http://www.violentacres.com/archives/169/most-people-are-depressed-for-a-very-good-reason/

One man's life changing moment

http://www.upworthy.com/it-only-takes-7-images-to-see-things-that-might-have-been-invisible-to-you

Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

http://www.newsweek.com/assange-google-not-what-it-seems-279447?piano_t=1

The Role Of Men In The Fight Against Sexism

http://thefbomb.org/2012/07/the-role-of-men-in-the-fight-against-sexism/

Ornish Diet Ranked First For Heart Health By U.S. News

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/ornish-diet-heart-health-us-news_n_1188205.html

Obama Is a Republican

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/obama-is-a-republican/

"Invisible Electrostatic Wall" at 3M adhesive tape plant

http://amasci.com/weird/unusual/e-wall.html

Good People Don’t Get Good Jobs

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/leowgerard/good-people-dont-get-good-jobs?page=0%2C1&paging=off&current_page=1

Help, We're in a Living Hell and Don't Know How to Get Out

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/congress-living-hell-1114

Why encouraging intimacy between men might save lives

http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/elliot-rodger-intimacy-masculinty-crisis/

Bisexuals Passing As Gay

http://harriefarrow.blogspot.ie/2014/10/bisexuals-passing-as-gay.html?m=1

3 Examples Of How "It's Policy" Has Become An Excuse For Absolutely Unspeakable Acts

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=35933

Not Simply Double Standards

I've read complaints that when men are abused by women, it's not treated as seriously as when women are abused by men. They complain about double standards. That doesn't really explain what's going on.

When a woman is in trouble, the socially accepted solution is for a man to help/save her. When a man is in trouble the socially accepted solution, is for him to solve the problem himself. This is why people will react so very differently depending on who does the oppressing, and whom is being oppressed.

People will laugh when a man is abused, not because they think it's okay to abuse the guy, but because they think it's absurd for him to not fight back. They will try to goad him into standing up for himself, condemn him for his weakness, and demand that he solve his own problems.

People don't laugh when a woman is abused, because what happens is exactly what they expect to happen. They expect women to just take the abuse and not fight back. They expect men to abuse. It's not funny, because everything is exactly how they believe things are supposed to be.

It's not that men and women are held to different standards, it's that there's one standard being applied to everything: Men are in charge. It's not Feminism refusing to help the men. It's the Patriarchy refusing to.

http://www.robot-hugs.com/strip/

War

http://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/2hrntm/last_week_tonight_with_john_oliver_drones_hbo/ckvmq7m

Deconstructing Masculinity

http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2006/02/deconstructing_masculinity

Out of Sight, Out of Mind.

http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

What's Going on With Social Security?

http://economixcomix.com/home/social-security/

How Playing Good Christian Housewife Almost Killed Me

www.alternet.org/belief/how-playing-good-christian-housewife-almost-killed-me?

Exploring the Implications of Moral Anti-Realism

http://adversusapologetica.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/exploring-the-implications-of-moral-anti-realism/

Buddha seems to bring tranquility to Oakland neighborhood

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Buddha-seems-to-bring-tranquillity-to-Oakland-5757592.php

ELI5: Why do all animals, even insects, seem to go nuts over the red dot?

http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gemn1/eli5_why_do_all_animals_even_insects_seem_to_go/ckielrb

How A Foot-Powered Washing Machine Could Change Millions Of Lives

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670355/how-a-foot-powered-washing-machine-could-change-millions-of-lives

Almost All the Books People Say Influenced Them Were Written for Children

http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2014/09/people-like-to-sleep-with-people-who-were-affected-by-great-books

Years of Rape and ‘Utter Contempt’ in Britain

www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/world/europe/reckoning-starts-in-britain-on-abuse-of-girls.html?_r=1

An amusing little story.

http://theuserpool.squarespace.com/journal/2007/11/7/suicidal.html

Saves Go In the Save Place

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=21611

ELI5: Why do humans cry during emotional distress?

http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f0gch/eli5_why_do_humans_cry_during_emotional_distress/ck4ropd

'The useless organ': Maggie Lee tells of the devestating effect her hysterectomy had on her sexuality and more

http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2008/11/the_useless_org

France is ditching the ‘Islamic State’ name — and replacing it with a label the group hates

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/09/17/france-is-ditching-the-islamic-state-name-and-replacing-it-with-a-label-the-group-hates/?tid=sm_fb

The Most Amazing Lie in History

http://mentalfloss.com/article/58468/most-amazing-lie-history

Radical Opacity

http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/radical-opacity/

Dungeons and Dragons: Players vs Dungeon Masters

http://community.wizards.com/comment/51039976#comment-51039976

An insightful post about the nature of running a D&D game, and how player and game master desires can conflict.

Ship Happens - AMV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tc7MH5ZXbg

Was browsing AMVs, this one made me laugh.
If you don't know what Shipping is in this context, check out TV tropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shipping

No-Win Situation: The Troubled History of Firefall, Part 1

https://web.archive.org/web/20160422234139/http://www.gamefront.com/no-win-situation-the-troubled-history-of-firefall-and-red-5-studios-part-1/

Essential Truths of Corporate Business

http://www.friesian.com/corpor.htm

Why the US Government Is Hated All Over the World

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=22083

What Emotional Intelligence Reveals About Your Personality

http://www.laraequy.com/blog/personal-leadership/emotional-intelligence-reveals-personality/

I am not Anonymous - but they have a point.

http://www.graphictruth.com/2011/06/i-am-not-anonomous-but-they-have-point.html

They are mine, they are mine, they are mine

http://zeroatthebone.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/they-are-mine-they-are-mine-they-are-mine/

Not Everyone Has the Tools to Become Rich: How Our Childhood Shapes Our Ability to Succeed

http://www.alternet.org/economy/not-everyone-has-tools-become-rich-how-our-childhood-shapes-our-ability-succeed?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Suicide vs. Love

https://medium.com/meaning-meaningfulness/suicide-vs-love-a01df4bed3b

One Little Piggy Had Birth Defects: Is Monsanto's Roundup to Blame?

http://www.alternet.org/environment/one-little-piggy-had-birth-defects-monsantos-roundup-blame?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

What Happens to Police Officers Who Shoot Unarmed Black Men

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/heres-what-happens-police-officers-who-shoot-unarmed-black-men

Why Guys Like Asian Girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zWFQ1uiD8LA

Employers Can Legally Lie to Workers, Court Rules

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/career/employment/employers-can-legally-lie-workers-court-rules?page=1

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

http://archive.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all

Ferguson Feeds Off the Poor: Three Warrants a Year Per Household

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/22/ferguson-s-shameful-legal-shakedown-three-warrants-a-year-per-household.html

People are basically stupid

http://everything2.com/title/People+are+basically+stupid

When Authorities “Don’t Give a Shit”

http://thecurvature.com/2008/05/20/when-authorities-dont-give-a-shit/

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Ferguson, MO and Police Militarization (HBO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUdHIatS36A

Neverwinter (the MMO)

I tried playing Neverwinter. It made me laugh, and also confused me. What I found so funny, was how the game tried so hard to look and feel like an action game, yet underneath the surface it was clearly using standard MMO mechanics. What I found confusing, was that the animations seemed much worse than I'd expected. Champions Online has better animations. Both games were made by the same company: Cryptic. Aside from the animation issues (mainly the run/walk animations and the tails... and the fact that archers don't shoot like that...) Neverwinter was very pretty.

Sadly, I'm not a big fan of standard MMO gameplay, so I didn't play Neverwinter very long. It felt very much like a standard MMO, with some heavy instancing, and tons of polish. It also, really, did not feel like DnD. It felt like a standard MMO paying lip service to DnD ideas.

P.S. Not being able to move and attack at the same time was frustrating. Not being able to fire my cone attack unless an enemy was under the targeting cursor was even more annoying. I have to stop attacking if I want to dodge anything... I liked TSW better.

Even atheists have sacred cows

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2014/08/13/even-atheists-have-sacred-cows/

Defiance (the game, not the behavior)

Started playing some of the game Defiance. I'm not really sure what to think. Many of the game mechanics and design I'd wanted to see done in an MMO are there, yet the overall quality of the game is somewhat lacking. It's like there's a lot of good ideas executed poorly.

The core element that really sets Defiance apart, and makes it special, is the way everything is built with open missions, which anyone can show up and help with. If someone else is already doing a mission I've been sent to do, I can join them, and we'll both get credit when it's done. I've never had to wait for a boss to respawn because someone else beat me to it.

The core problem with the open mission structure, is how easily it leads to certain missions being swarmed by players in such numbers that the missions become trivial. Other missions are simply ignored, and I end up having to avoid them because I can't handle them solo. Thankfully, most of the plot missions I did were both soloable, and often one or two other players would help out.

Personally, I'd like to see MMOs take advantage of the ability to give each player different mission requests to try and spread players out more. Would probably require a kind of AI director (*cough-L4D-cough*).

P.S. while I have enjoyed the shotguns that shoot grenades, I don't really understand why they are in the game, when there are also grenade launchers. Wouldn't it make more sense to just have a larger variety of grenade launchers instead?

P.P.S. I'm running out of articles to link. I guess I'll have to write more stuff myself. Unfortunately, all I really have to write about, is video games. My life isn't very exciting, and I don't do anything of importance.

Chris Hedges: Why Israel Lies

http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/chris-hedges-why-israel-lies/

Harassment, male privilege, and jokes that women just don’t get

http://www.feministlawprofessors.com/2011/11/harassment-male-privilege-jokes-women-dont/?t=1320806691

When Catcalling Isn’t Just an Annoyance

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/05/25/when-catcalling-isnt-just-an-annoyance

How Reality Caught up with Paranoid Delusions

http://aeon.co/magazine/altered-states/how-reality-caught-up-with-paranoid-delusions/

Murphy's Law and its progeny

http://zira.home.xs4all.nl/murphy.html

About Alcohol Depression

http://aboutalcoholdepression.com/depression-from-alcohol/

Most Republicans Think Jesus Would Denounce Universal Healthcare

http://www.alternet.org/belief/most-republicans-think-jesus-would-denounce-universal-healthcare

"Evolution-like," wisdom of crowds systems

http://karmatics.com/docs/evolution-and-wisdom-of-crowds.html

How one judge single-handedly killed trust in the US technology industry

http://www.zdnet.com/how-one-judge-single-handedly-killed-trust-in-the-us-technology-industry-7000032257/

Reddit, tell me your "glitch in the Matrix" stories

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/oeo0h/reddit_tell_me_your_glitch_in_the_matrix_stories/

Circadian Rhythm and Blues: The Interface of Depression with Sleep and Dreams

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mindful-sleep-mindful-dreams/201103/circadian-rhythm-and-blues-the-interface-depression-sleep-a

Divinity: Original Sin

I recently played Divinity: Original Sin. It proved to be a better game than I had expected.

One of the simple mechanics introduced in the game very early on, is something I've realized is missing in most games. I can spill oil on the ground, then light it on fire. The green ooze/poison stuff is explosive if burned. If I hit an enemy that is on fire with poison, it will explode causing extra fire damage. A spell available in the first town, that can be cast (theoretically) by someone at level 1, makes it rain. The rain makes characters wet. Wet characters are harder to burn. These are all really simple concepts that make a much richer game mechanically.

Objects can be moved around. I beat a boss by abusing this. Arranging the vases in the room, messed with the Boss' AI so that instead of starting the fight by blasting me with a big spell, they ran around all the vases and swung a sword. Another time I managed to place a bunch of oil barrels around a room, before starting the fight by attacking them with fire. The fight was basically over as soon as it began.

The game certainly isn't perfect (it seems to reward save-scumming rather heavily) yet it seems very much like a big forward leap for it's genre. It isn't simply more of the old stuff, like so many other indie RPGs have been. Divinity: Original Sin has raised the bar, providing new mechanics and ideas for everyone to (hopefully) raid and pillage for their new games.

The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/

My problem with Hearthstone

If I try to just enjoy playing ranked, I end up running into a wall I can't pass, because I don't have enough good cards. To get better cards I need gold. To get gold at a reasonable rate, I need quests. To do quests I must log in and play a short while on whatever hero it tells me to play every day or two. So, either I get annoyed by the task I'm given, or I get annoyed when the task ends. Either way, I lose interest after a short while and stop playing.

It's frustrating to not be able to make progress when I just do what I want, and frustrating to not be able to do what I want when I try to make progress.

How To Deconstruct Almost Anything

http://www.fudco.com/chip/deconstr.html

Ten Mind Control Distinctives

http://www.spiritwatch.org/mincon10.htm

Du bist Terrorist (You are a Terrorist) english subtitles

http://vimeo.com/4632310

Things I Learned By Spending Five Thousand Years In An Alternate Universe

http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/15/things-i-learned-by-spending-five-thousand-years-in-an-alternate-universe/

Floating Point - Computerphile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZRI1IfStY0

The Truth About Pavlov's Dogs Is Pretty Disturbing

http://io9.com/the-truth-about-pavlovs-dogs-is-pretty-disturbing-1591853321

How extreme isolation warps the mind

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140514-how-extreme-isolation-warps-minds

“The Door Problem”

http://www.lizengland.com/blog/2014/04/the-door-problem/

Why “I love you” is not the best reason to commit (& what is)

http://beyourwholeself.com/why-i-love-you-is-not-the-best-reason-to-commit-what-is/

​When Your College Is Being Investigated For Its Sexual Assault Policy

http://jezebel.com/when-your-college-is-being-investigated-for-its-sexual-1547344535

GENDERED MARKETING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JDmb_f3E2c

David Graeber: “Spotlight on the financial sector did make apparent just how bizarrely skewed our economy is in terms of who gets rewarded”

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/01/help_us_thomas_piketty_the_1s_sick_and_twisted_new_scheme/

The problem with false feminism (or why “Frozen” left me cold)

https://medium.com/disney-and-animation/7c0bbc7252ef

What's Really Behind Slut Shaming

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-bejeezus-out-me/201406/whats-really-behind-slut-shaming

2011: A Brave New Dystopia

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/2011_a_brave_new_dystopia_20101227

How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings

http://markmanson.net/school-shootings

Things My Therapist Has Taught Me

http://sipsofjenandtonic.com/2013/11/07/things-my-therapist-has-taught-me/

Cyberpunk: Our (Post) Modern Mythology

http://turnstylenews.com/2013/08/08/cyberpunk-our-post-modern-mythology/

VC&G Interview: Jerry Lawson, Video Game Pioneer

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/545

Good For Nothing

http://theoccupiedtimes.org/?p=12841

The Suicide Bandage (or) How I Learned To Live After Death

http://remycarreiro.com/suicide-bandage-learned-live-death/

Joss Whedon Shows How Being Awesome Rewards Creators

http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20140516/04044027247/joss-whedon-shows-how-being-awesome-rewards-creators.shtml

Hostile AI: You’re soaking in it!

http://omniorthogonal.blogspot.com/2013/02/hostile-ai-youre-soaking-in-it.html

Aquinas vs. Intelligent Design

http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/aquinas-vs-intelligent-design

Disturbing Stories From Former Cops

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/24yjv1/workers_of_reddit_what_is_the_most_disturbing/chchxee

It's three times cheaper to give housing to the homeless than to keep them on the streets

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/30/5764096/its-three-times-cheaper-to-give-housing-to-the-homeless-than-to-keep

PLEX for GOOD: The Philippines - Results

http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/plex-for-good-philippines-results/

Korean Plastic Surgeries Are So Good Patients Need Certificates Now To Prove Who They Really Are

http://fusion.net/culture/story/korean-plastic-surgeries-good-patients-certificates-now-prove-618812?cid=pn_su_net_us_mill-ent

No girls allowed

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/12/2/5143856/no-girls-allowed

37 Men Show Us What Real Men's Activists Look Like

http://www.policymic.com/articles/90079/36-men-show-us-what-real-men-s-activists-look-like

6 Horrors of Being an Atheist in a Fundamentalist Country

http://www.cracked.com/article_21125_6-realities-life-as-atheist-in-fundamentalist-regime.html

Dude, It’s You

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2014/05/dude-its-you.html

Beyond true and false

http://aeon.co/magazine/world-views/logic-of-buddhist-philosophy/

Who Is Behind the Pain Killer Epidemic? Big Pharma, Of Course

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/who-behind-opioid-epidemic-big-pharma-course

Final Word on U.S. Law Isn’t: Supreme Court Keeps Editing

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/us/final-word-on-us-law-isnt-supreme-court-keeps-editing.html?

Heartsmith

http://madeitfunny.com/image/heartsmith

How computer-generated fake papers are flooding academia

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2014/feb/26/how-computer-generated-fake-papers-flooding-academia

Study Finds That Women Aren’t Run by Their Periods. Scientists Everywhere Are Confused

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/05/02/menstrual_studies_debunked_women_do_not_make_mating_decisions_based_on_their.html

Americans Are More Likely to Be Killed by Right-Wing Terrorists Than Muslims—But the Media's Afraid to Say It

http://www.alternet.org/media/americans-are-more-likely-be-killed-right-wing-terrorists-muslims-medias-afraid-say-it

Free is a Lie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldhHkVjLe7A

NY Times And Washington Post Describe Net Neutrality Vote In Diametrically Opposite Ways

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140516/07025727255/ny-times-washington-post-describe-yesterdays-net-neutrality-vote-diametrically-opposite-ways.shtml

A Man Asks Mike Rowe For Life Advice. He Destroys His "Dream" In The Best Way Possible.

http://news.distractify.com/people/mike-rowe-crushes-a-mans-hopes-for-finding-a-dream-job-and-i-agree-with-him-100/?v=1

DRM Strikes Again: Creative Professionals Blocked From Using Adobe Products For Days

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140518/06371227275/destructive-drm-strikes-again-creative-professionals-blocked-using-adobe-products-days.shtml

The FCC's False Net Neutrality.

ISPs, like Comcast basically control gated communities. When their customers access the internet, all traffic goes though the ISP's gates. Tom Wheeler believes the rules that are being proposed will protect net neutrality because they will not allow discrimination at the main gate. All traffic at the main gate will need to be treated equally. However, the rules allow Comcast to make a side gate for VIPs.

Since only VIPs (people that pay Comcast extra money) get access to the side gate, it will have far fewer traffic jams, and will generally offer better service. This is why Netflix is paying Comcast money for a direct connection. They are paying for access to the VIP only gate.

Comcast is notorious for having terrible traffic jams at their main gate. Allowing them to charge for access to separate VIP gates will only encourage them to never upgrade their main gate.

Success really does breed success, unique online experiments find

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/ucl-srd042514.php

​Fighting Online Abuse Isn't About Trolls, It's About Community

http://kotaku.com/fighting-online-abuse-isnt-about-trolls-its-about-com-1577028219

The glamorous life of a whistleblower: Working a dead-end job for minimum wage

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/25/the_glamorous_life_of_a_whistleblower_working_a_dead_end_job_for_minimum_wage_partner/

Capitalism is a Paperclip Maximizer

http://thoughtinfection.com/2014/04/19/capitalism-is-a-paperclip-maximizer/

The Intelligence Explosion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK5w3wh4G-M

I believe most people who think and talk about the AI intelligence explosion, don't understand that we are already in the middle of a human society intelligence explosion. Every advancement in communication and travel, has expanded humanity's effective intelligence and rate of technological improvement, by reducing waste in effort.

Previously, separate towns, due to lack of communication might each spend time developing the same technologies. As communication ranges increased, one town's technological development could benefit other towns, letting them spend time making new inventions or improvements instead of having to reinvent what the other town already made.

Each expansion of communication range, expanded the effective intelligence of humanity, and enabled faster and faster advancement. Now, with the internet, the range any new technology or discovery can reach is nearly global (large portions of the world are still too poor to gain much benefit). It's easy to see from looking at history, that advancements in technology and communication keep getting faster.

Humans and AIs are not separate things. Every step along the path to creating strong AI is a new tool we integrate into our own use, becoming an aid to our effective intelligence, speeding up the creation of more and better devices or programs. The first strong AI's won't be able to get loose and self-improve faster than we can keep up with, because it will be in a world where it is surrounded by powerful tools and weak AIs developed for human use. It would first have to either develop it's own tools, or figure out how to use tools that were never designed for it to use. That would give humanity a pretty big head start, plenty of time to figure out how to integrate the new AIs into our toolkit such that they become an extension of ourselves, just like our phones and search engines already are.

How We Lost 200 Girls in 12 Days

http://www.alternet.org/world/how-we-lost-200-black-girls-12-days

This Is How Elon Musk Can Build the Hyperloop for a Tenth the Cost of High-Speed Rail

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/how-elon-musk-can-build-the-hyperloop-in-10-days-for-a-tenth-the-cost-of-high-speed-rail

This Response to That Princeton Freshman Should Be Required Reading for White Males

http://www.policymic.com/articles/88903/this-response-to-that-princeton-freshman-should-be-required-reading-for-white-males

The decline of the American Empire - Just for Laughs - Montreal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK_u7yWTd3U

Cops Keep Raiding Home Looking for Man Who Died 8 Years Ago

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/05/cops_keep_raiding_home_looking_for_man_who_died_8_years_ago.html

The Most Irony Ever: Food Poisoning Strikes Diners at Gov’t Food Safety Summit

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-most-irony-ever-food-poisoning-strikes-diners-at-govt-food-safety-summit_042014

The oRouter Is A Tor-Powered Linux Box That Secures Your Internet Connection

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/04/the-orouter-is-a-tor-powered-linux-box-that-secures-your-internet-connection/?ncid=rss

Are Anti-Depressants Causing Depression?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mad-in-america/201106/now-antidepressant-induced-chronic-depression-has-name-tardive-dysphoria

DMing for your toddler

http://gygaxmagazine.com/selected-content/dming-for-your-toddler/

Russia Is Weaponizing Jedi Mind Tricks

https://news.vice.com/articles/russia-is-weaponizing-jedi-mind-tricks?

Creepy Imaginary Friends

http://popcornhorror.com/creepy-imaginary-friends/

On Smarm

http://gawker.com/on-smarm-1476594977/all

Gunshot victims to be suspended between life and death

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129623.000-gunshot-victims-to-be-suspended-between-life-and-death.html

Is surging inequality endemic to capitalism?

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/03/31/140331crbo_books_cassidy?currentPage=all

A Rigged Game

The more I study the stock market and finance, the more I'm convince the entire system is deeply unfair. I've learned I can make money on the stock market fairly easily. Some will say the money is earned because I must be smart, or skilled or something. Slight problem: The amount of money I can make is entirely dependent upon how much money I have.

I started trading on margin. What's the interest rate on that? Well, depends on how much money is in the account. People with lots of money, only pay 5.75%. Not so wealthy people, pay as much as 9.75%. That means, if they were getting 10% annual return on the money before, using margin trading could increase the wealthy person's profit to 14.25%. Meanwhile the not so rich would only be getting 10.25%. I actually have an uncle who's super rich, and can borrow below 2% interest. For him, that 10% would become 18%. I've heard that hedge funds frequently operate on 10x leverage. Meaning for every dollar they have, they borrow 10. That could easily multiply their profits 5x or more (probably more, depends on how much they pay to borrow the money).

The stock market is a rigged game. The rich can make off like bandits with tons of money, while providing very little to the economy. Numbers just inflate. Even if I do eventually make enough money to support myself, I don't think I could claim to be providing society with a useful service. I'm just exploiting a rigged game.

Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/is-neuroscience-the-death-of-free-will/

City to Pass Law Allowing Cops to Seize Homeless People's Belongings

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/city-pass-law-allowing-cops-seize-homeless-peoples-belongings

Facebook’s facial recognition software is now as accurate as the human brain, but what now?

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/178777-facebooks-facial-recognition-software-is-now-as-accurate-as-the-human-brain-but-what-now

Startup Employees Think They Are Going To Get Rich — Then A Horror Story Like This Happens

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-liquidation-preferences-work-2014-3

iPhone to Microscope With Just a Drop of Water

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/03/15/it-really-works-turn-your-iphone-into-a-microscope-with-just-a-drop-of-water/

Doctor: ADHD Does Not Exist

http://time.com/25370/doctor-adhd-does-not-exist/?hpt=hp_t3

The Impossibility of Flying Heavy Aircraft Without Training

http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=5115

In the Nation's Boomtown, Homeless People are More Visible and Invisible Than Ever

http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/how-booming-techtropolis-sf-has-created-huge-homeless-problem

The US Government Now Supplies Cannabis Extracts to Epileptic Kids

www.vice.com/read/the-us-government-now-supplies-cannabis-extracts-to-epileptic-kids

Watch A Robot Take On A Ping-Pong Champ In This Epic Matchup

http://www.fastcompany.com/3027535/fast-feed/watch-a-robot-take-on-a-ping-pong-champ-in-this-epic-match-up

Americans Are Huge: 5 Surprising Reasons Why We May Be Getting Fatter

http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/americans-are-huge-5-surprising-reasons-why-we-may-be-getting-fatter

How the Meat Industry Keeps Chicken Prices High

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2014/03/meat_racket_excerpt_how_tyson_keeps_chicken_prices_high.single.html?

Fake Mirrors May Soon Ensnare Shoppers in Web of Lies

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/08/07/incendiary_reflection_mirrors_make_you_look_happier_than_you_are_so_you.html

In Times of Government Surveillance, Whose ‘Security’ Is at Stake?

http://inthesetimes.com/article/16368/government_surveillance_security_noam_chomsky

Optic Nerve: millions of Yahoo webcam images intercepted by GCHQ

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo

Over 120 Science Journal Papers Pulled for Being Total Gibberish

http://gizmodo.com/over-120-science-journal-papers-pulled-for-being-total-1534110496

What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

http://aeon.co/magazine/living-together/what-solitary-confinement-does-to-the-brain/

“Why Do I Fuck Up So Much?” – why this is the wrong question to be asking

http://michellelopez.net/2012/08/why-do-i-fuck-up-so-much/

Asking the right questions is one of the most important things in life. It's the key to finding the right answers.

Synthetic Muscle Made of Fishing Line is 100 Times Stronger Than the Real Thing

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/synthetic-muscle-made-of-fishing-line-is-100-times-stronger-than-the-real-thing-16514805

The car dealers' racket

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-shermer-tesla-sales-new-jersey-20140317,0,365580.story

The English empire

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21596538-growing-number-firms-worldwide-are-adopting-english-their-official-language-english?

The Logic of Poor People

http://tressiemc.com/2013/10/29/the-logic-of-stupid-poor-people/

There’s a Reason They Call Them ‘Crazy Ants’

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/magazine/crazy-ants.html?_r=0

How Blind is Double-Blind?

http://bigthink.com/devil-in-the-data/how-blind-is-double-blind

How A Simple New Invention Seals A Gunshot Wound In 15 Seconds

http://www.popsci.com/node/134234?

Rethinking schizophrenia: Taming demons without drugs

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24992-rethinking-schizophrenia-taming-demons-without-drugs.html?page=1

Bitcoin Is Broken—Here's a Simple Plan to Fix It

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/bitcoin-is-broken-heres-a-simple-plan-to-fix-it/283624/

The Complete Guide to 'Twitch Plays Pokemon' (DONE)

http://www.dorkly.com/article/59505/the-majesty-of-twitch-plays-pokemon

Victims Of GCHQ's Denial Of Service Attacks Start Asking Who Are The Real Criminals?

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140205/09440926098/those-convicted-ddos-attacks-uk-wondering-why-gchq-was-allowed-to-ddos-them.shtml

Cryptography Breakthrough Could Make Software Unhackable

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/02/cryptography-breakthrough/

Allergic to America: I Had to Move Away Because Life in the US Was Making Me Ill

http://www.alternet.org/allergic-america-i-had-move-away-because-life-us-was-making-me-ill?

Free Will Requires Determinism

Some believe that Free Will and Determinism are incompatible because if all choices are pre-determined, then there's no freedom. I think they have it backwards. There's no freedom if they aren't.

I would like to believe that my choices are determined by my values, and beliefs. That the lessons I learn in life have an important impact upon the choices I make. That every time I'm given a choice, I'll always make a choice that fits my values and beliefs, and won't suddenly betray myself without a clear explanation for why. Otherwise, I'd have to question my sanity, and if I'm not sane, how can I possibly be free?

Determinism simply means there is cause and effect. That all things have an explanation. It is the anchor of logic and reason. Without it, we'd all be insane.

The Horror Show of America: 'We Are Slaves to Profit,' the Creator of The Wire Tells Bill Moyers

http://www.alternet.org/economy/horror-show-america-we-are-slaves-profit-creator-wire-tells-bill-moyers?

Pregnancy No Proof of Motherhood; Woman Was Her Own Twin-and the Twin Was the Mother of Her Children

http://guardianlv.com/2014/01/pregnancy-no-proof-of-motherhood-woman-was-her-own-twin-and-the-twin-was-the-mother-of-her-children/

Fru game proves Microsoft needs indie developers for Kinect to succeed

http://www.geek.com/games/fru-game-proves-microsoft-needs-indie-developers-for-kinect-to-succeed-1583827/

Britain’s Ministry of Nudges

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/business/international/britains-ministry-of-nudges.html

Knowledge

http://existentialcomics.com/comic/5

Why America Has Forgotten Its Three Biggest Economic Lessons

http://www.alternet.org/economy/robert-reich-why-america-has-forgotten-its-three-biggest-economic-lessons?

The Anime Elitist’s Paradox

http://animeseptember.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/the-anime-elitists-paradox/

For those with more time than sense, a comic.

http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/0

The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-vampire-squid-strikes-again-the-mega-banks-most-devious-scam-yet-20140212

Hyping Artificial Intelligence, Yet Again

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/the-new-york-times-artificial-intelligence-hype-machine.html

The Real Reason the Middle Class Is Dead

http://www.alternet.org/real-reason-middle-class-dead?page=0%2C2&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Is Atheism an Intellectual Luxury for the Wealthy?

http://www.alternet.org/atheism-intellectual-luxury-wealthy?page=0%2C1&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Why Marketers Fear The Female Geek

http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2013/12/marketers-fear-female-geek-2/

How Software Companies Die

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~chuck/jokepg/joke_19970213_01.txt

AMERICA — From Freedom To Fascism (Full Length Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8RtL3azDg

A psychiatrist thinks some patients are better off without antipsychotic drugs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-psychiatrist-thinks-some-patients-are-better-off-without-antipsychotic-drugs/2013/12/06/547f5680-48aa-11e3-a196-3544a03c2351_story.html

The High Cost of Leaving Your Faith

http://godlessindixie.com/2013/12/07/the-high-cost-of-leaving-your-faith/

Why everything is so confusing.

Did a search on Google for:
The effect of minimum wage

The first two articles were:
http://www.epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_min_wage_bp/
"Historically, analyses of the minimum wage’s impact on young workers have never shown the predicted large job-loss effects."

http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/negative-effects-minimum-wage-laws
"decades of economic research show that minimum wages usually end up harming workers and the broader economy."

Huh, that's two very different conclusions, both claiming to be obvious based on past evidence. I then looked at their About pages:

"The Economic Policy Institute’s mission is to inform and empower individuals to seek solutions that ensure broadly shared prosperity and opportunity."

"The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank – dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace."

Well, Cato's mission statement seems to include a clear bias against minimum wage, as minimum wage is a form of wage control and opposite the concept of limited government and free markets. I guess I understand why they offer such vastly different views now. However, both present themselves as neutral experts in their fields, which means anyone wanting to argue either point now has experts they can point to to back up their claims.

I feel like I'm in a world heavily burdened by incomplete information, where there is so much info to be learned, that it is easier to know only a little, than to know a lot. Thus resulting in most people only knowing a tiny piece of the truth, yet assuming they know all they need to.

Having not actually done the research, I can't say for sure which one is right and which is wrong (though based on the mission statements, I'm more inclined to trust the EPI over Cato). However, it's clear that there are "experts" out there either deliberately, or unintentionally sowing disinformation. That's why it is so hard to make sense of the world.

After reading the articles a bit, it seems both are suffering from only looking at a small piece of the picture. EPI is looking at the continental US and finding minimum wage increases to be beneficial or at least not harmful. Cato is looking at US territories such as Puerto Rico and Samoa, both of which showed large negative effects of minimum wage increases. This implies that the effects of a minimum wage depend on the local situation, and cannot be universally stated as good or bad. This also implies that while a high minimum wage may be good in some states or cities, implementing it on a national level may be a bad idea because the proper wage level varies from place to place. Location matters.

The modern world is suffering really heavily from selective presentation of information, combined with the standard desire for a simple explanation. Life isn't simple, and can't be summed up in a pithy slogan.

the Kids Who Flee Abusive, Isolated Christian Homes

http://www.alternet.org/belief/escape-christian-fundamentalism-kids-who-flee-abusive-isolated-christian-homes?page=0

Violence against women—it's a men's issue: Jackson Katz at TEDxFiDiWomen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTvSfeCRxe8

Jose Mujica: The world's 'poorest' president

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493

I Took Down the Man Who Posted a Hacked Topless Photo of My Daughter on the Internet

http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/i-took-down-man-who-posted-hacked-topless-photo-my-daughter-internet?akid=11199.253200.48oGFi&rd=1&src=newsletter930566&t=5&paging=off

Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt

http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/science-says-revolt

Introspection Illusion

http://www.readability.com/read?url=http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/05/26/the-perils-of-introspection/

NAFTA was a disaster.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140214000108/http://www.citizen.org/documents/NAFTA-at-20.pdf

Not a terribly easy read, but it makes pretty clear that the NAFTA trade agreement was a total disaster.

6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About the Founding of America

http://www.cracked.com/article_19864_6-ridiculous-lies-you-believe-about-founding-america.html

Menace

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/10/menace.html

I Worked on the U.S. Drone Program—Here's What Really Happens

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/i-worked-us-drone-program-heres-what-really-happens?page=0%2C1&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Teen Scientist Invents Life-Saving Cancer Test

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/student_voices/teen-scientist-invents-life-saving-cancer-test/

The internet is changing the world.

Jesus was very demanding.

Jesus asked people to treat complete strangers as well as they treated those they loved. This is why so few actually follow his teachings.

Afraid of pain and loss, people will not love their neighbors. Instead they condemn and complain, believing themselves just, because their neighbors sin. They complain loudly about the sins of others, so they might avoid noticing their own sins. Pride is so very common a sin, and acknowledging one's own faults is such a difficult thing for people to do.

All people are sinners, not because of some original sin (Jesus absolved humanity of that) but because no human is so strong of spirit as to live a life totally devoid of sin. One is far more likely to sin without knowing, than to not sin at all.

The Innovation of Loneliness

http://elitedaily.com/news/world/this-video-will-have-you-completely-rethink-how-you-conduct-yourself-online-and-in-person-video/

Amsterdam pays alcoholics in beer to clean streets

http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article10413118.ece

My Dad Will Never Come Home Because He Sold Drugs To Pay For My Brother's Bone Marrow Transplant

http://www.businessinsider.com/april-andersons-dad-serves-life-sentence-2013-11

Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/opinion/edward-snowden-whistle-blower.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

Just a Guy

http://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/1qmbjm/man_pulls_woman_from_cta_tracks_with_train/cdeg2or

Many researchers taking a different view of pedophilia

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/14/local/la-me-pedophiles-20130115

At Last, A Pope Who Actually Acts Like a Pope Should

http://idlersdream.com/at-last-a-pope-who-actually-acts-like-a-pope-should/