Linkee-poo can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness

The Rob Reid TED talk on copyright math. Otherwise called "the $8 billion iPod." Rob Reid is the author of Year Zero a first contact/copyright infringement novel. I think I've said similar things before (about the copyright math, not the first contact stuff). (Pointed to by Dan)

A review of Occult Traditions. That's a book with essays on some of the older traditions of magic, such as binding angels/gods to the will of the practitioner, or ways of scrying and bending fate. If that book isn't full of story bones, I'm a monkey's uncle. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

INNNNTERJECTION! Show excitement or emotions. They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong. Wait, w00t! isn't on there? WTF?! (Grokked from Mer Haskell)

More on that Disney REVEL/electrically stimulated touch sense technology. As battery energy density increases, we're now seeing tech advance that will take up that extra capacity. Sort of like how basic computer files have expanded to fill our increased hard drive spaces. Although that's not a criticism, I think the tech is quite interesting, especially if you add in interference technologies (such as physical objects or just electronic field manipulation) it could completely change how we experience the world (or experience a world without being in it). With that interference though field manipulation and better sensor technology (which is already out there), there's the possibility of adding remote sensing for operators of robotics that make force feedback look like a buggy-whip technology. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

A mole of moles. xkcd on some physics and world building (on the totally, completely, weirded out side of it). "But this is where it gets weird." It was pretty weird to begin with if you ask me. (Pointed to by Dan)

A local church in PA held a mock kidnapping of their youth group to show them just what Christian persecution is like. Only, they didn't really tell anybody and now they're being taken to court on criminal charges. I'm a veteran of "weekend hunger strikes" (and I know the difference between "get to eat late Sunday night" compared to "don't know when or if"), hoedowns, working on Habitat for Humanity Houses in Appalachia and the like, so events like this aren't all that strange. However, this went way, way beyond what could be considered good shepherding. Sure, some kids "knew right away" it was fake. Bullshit. What they thought was, "this can't be happening for realz." What the youth minister hadn't realized is not every kid has the concept "this could never happen to me." All too often their horror is real and everyday. Also, some people don't have an ability to, I don't even know the word for it, they don't have a wall between them and what they're experiencing (these are the kids who jump a what happens on the TV). So when you pull a stunt like this, those kids don't have that buffer that allows them to break out mentally. Some kids, like the ones of the parents who are suing, go straight down the rabbit hole into the false reality you created. And it's not their fault. They're kids. It's your fault because you're the adult. You betrayed those kids and it's apparent you don't even have the basic human capacity to see how you affected others. You wanted to make it real for the kids. Congrats you succeeded. Now the court will do their duty. It's too bad you won't go to jail. Fuckers. Also, just as someone who is worldly, you really have a martyr complex thinking that this happens daily "all over the world." And as to you and your fellow evangelicals' concept on being persecuted here, bullshit. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"What creates the jobs, Hanauer astutely observes, is a healthy economic ecosystem surrounding the company, which starts with the company's customers." It's called the "Virtuous Cycle", btw. Very common concept that is taught as a part of Macroeconomics 101. (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)

Linked from that article was this, the 40 highest paying jobs you can get without a bachelors degree. First off, those look like national averages and they're lumping several levels of jobs together to get those numbers (like "artists" more than likely includes designers to art directors lumped together). Good thing what I'm retraining for is in there. Although pissed I can make more with an Associated Degree than with my Bachelors. Have I mentioned how many people with PhDs I've met who are also retraining with certificates and associate degrees?

"Hey White Guys" intro. What looks to be a video series on trying to make white guys a little more aware of the world they operate in (instead of shouting "bias against white guys" whenever they don't get their way, of which they're used to getting and think it's the natural order of things because they're white guys). I think we need a term for this concept along the lines of "mansplaining". "Whiteplaining", "WASPlaning"? (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Of related topic, "10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists." That's Juan Cole with the top 10 differences between white terrorists and those other kinds. Won't see that one on Letterman. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

"(The duplicity around the argument of religious freedom vs women's contraception coverage) became doubly obvious when Wheaton College, a Christian university, decided to grandstand about how much they opposed contraception insurance coverage, only to find that they won’t be getting the religious institution extension on non-coverage because their insurance plan was already covering contraception." And that's the argument in a nutshell. "The school had to quickly change its policy, so it could pretend to be outraged that Obama is forcing Wheaton to do what it was largely already doing voluntarily." (Grokked from the Slactivist)

"Gingrich said of Haskins’s (the Republican aide who crafted the 1996 law,who said 'there’s no plausible scenario under which it really constitutes a serious attack on welfare reform') rebuttal: 'I’m sorry that he has such a lack of imagination.'" Oh that Newt. Jesus on a pogo stick, conservatives, have you not learned from the lack of WMDs in Iraq that maybe your paranoid delusions aren't in fact reality? See, even Newt doesn't believe what he has to sell because he states that the attack is, in fact, in the "imagination." You know, I don't put much faith in polls, especially at this time, more than 3 days out from the election, but I've been watching that "TPM Electoral College Scoreboard" (on the page linked) with some mild interest ever since they put it up. If you haven't been watching it, about a month ago it looked as if Romney would win. Now he's sorely behind. That maybe why the conservative side has been shifting into Hysterical gear for the past month. (Pointed to by Dan)

And just to show, there's whacks on both ends of the political spectrum. However, I'll note here that last pull quote, "The only time that Clayton has voted in a Democratic primary was when he was voting for himself… the Tennessee Democratic Party disavows his candidacy, will not do anything to promote or support him in any way, and urges Democrats to write-in a candidate of their choice in November." Compare that reception with the darling lunatics of the hard right who are coddled and nurtured in their ambitions.

Tom the Dancing Bug editorial cartoon showing you the Romney tax returns he doesn't want you to see. Hahahahaha. (Pointed to by Dan)

Good thing there isn't some sort of culture war going on or this could get nasty. People are upset that a kid was photographed in the projects using an iPad? Oh holy frack. Is it "an expensive gadget"? Sure it is. But I'm a notorious skinflint. And even I own one. Look, you can get a New iPad for $500 and an iPad 2 for $400. Some schools are even handing them out. When you come from a position of privilege where you look at the iPad as an interesting toy that you can set up and use while the kid is using the X Box and your wife is driving your laptop (or her own computer) you can be mad that this kid is living large as you read the news, not through your 802.1N wireless home network, but through the more expensive wireless data plan. How about if it's a rent-to-own (another form of usury) that the mom scraped enough money together so her son would have a leg up on the other kids and may want to and be able to get the hell out of the projects. I know about rent-to-own. My brother works for one of the larger companies. He often tells me about his customers who "are all on assistance" and are getting all the cool tech his company rents. And then I ask him if he would trade places. No, he wouldn't. Because he also tells me about how often he has to go repossess their equipment, how they go into some places in twos to make sure they don't leave with cockroaches on themselves, and how the sheriff won't back them up with repossessions (and their company won't fight them for it). Yeah, those people in the projects, they're livin' the high life. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

You know, Eric may be on to something here. Mitt Romney doesn't care if he's causing us cognitive dissonance with, well, you have your pick of things don't you? Loves Israel's culture and suggests it's what makes them more successful then those Palestinians but then says he can't kibitz with the kibbutz. Was for a 1) woman's right to choose 2) individual mandate and 3) releasing all the tax returns before he was staunchly against them all. He just doesn't give a flying fuck what we the proles think. I'd like to say Eric is full of hogwash here, I mean, that's damn cynical. It's also sort of the narrative the Obama campaign is spinning. But like working with a bunch of MBAs, so knowing just how valuable I view that degree (which is why that is option C for the reboot, but only because of the money and the transferability of the degree), I've also worked with a lot of very rich people. I'm talking about the less than 5%, with some in the 1%. Even now. Also I have some family connection into that world and have vacationed there (not as much as I would have liked, but enough to realize that's an okay thing). And, yeah, more often than not people at that level have that mind set.

Tweet of my heart: @MikeDrucker: "There has to be more to life than crushing enemies and hearing the lamentation of their women." - Conan the Barbarian at 40.

Alligator Quotient: Shhh, they're sleeping.