Linkee-poo knows although scary is exciting, nice is different than good

The historically inaccurate (in regards to diversity) fantasy world we create. But mostly about Dragon Age.

I'm just gonna drop this link to an Apple support page for using the Control Center, and I'll just point to the helpful screen grab of the iPhone. Either you're gonna get it, or not. (Grokked from Dan)

Shields up.

Some people rebuild cars or motorcycles. Some people rebuild computers. The pride, craftsmanship, and reasons are the same. (Grokked from John)

Mukbangs in Korea, where watching other eating can be entertainment. If you put this in your fiction, people wouldn't believe you.

Why "organic food just costs more to produce" is a falsehood. It cost most because they can charge more. And switching to organic feed these days wouldn't raise the price so much (unlike the 70s when much of our modern food culture was engineered).

"Today, hospital bills are so hard for patients to understand because they're not written for patients — they're written for the insurance companies that pay 97% of them." (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"According to a new study just out in Nature Climate Change… we’re now seeing a slowdown of the great ocean circulation that… helps to partly drive the Gulf Stream off the U.S. east coast." Right now they're saying about a 15-20% drop in circulation. While it's not a "Day After Tomorrow" situation (the physics of that just can't happen) If it slows circulation enough and the Greenland Ice continues to melt at an accelerated rate, that, friends, is called "the tipping point." Fisheries, crops, forests, surface temperatures and a lot more will be thrown into kilter, not to mention a large sea level rise on our Eastern Coast. If it turns out to be true, we're all fucked now. (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)

So, on Monday the Supreme Court heard a First Amendment/Free Speech case from Texas where the state's motor vehicle department refused to issue a license plate with the Confederate Battle Flag. Um. Okay, this is weird that I find myself supporting the government of Texas, but when is it free speech is someone else refuses to speak? In this case, the Government refuses to issue a plate that people want, and because the government won't endorse a symbol they feel (rightly IMHO) promotes racism, the people claim it's restricting their right of free speech. What the… What? How is this not spiked at the lower court level?

Boom to bust. A woman truck driver is getting out of the Bakken Oil Fields. Note the societal issues implied in the article (well, more hinted at than implied) and the economic wasteland coming to the West as the price of oil falls.

How to shoot yourself in the foot without even trying. In this case, the cover for the University of North Georgia which brings to the fore the soft racism/sexism this country still has problems with. As a professional graphic designer I know how easy it is to fuck up like this (hey, at least they HAD a woman and a black man on the cover, in some cases you don't even get that). BUT (and yes, I meant that in caps because here's the "professional" part) you have to be consciously aware of the subconscious messages you are sending. There are many times I've rejected what I've considered "the better photo" because of what that photo was saying. You have to see the person in the back of the crowd flipping off the camera. When setting up the photo (in this case it's a stock image) you have to make all the decisions consciously and purposefully. Do I think UNG intended the message the cover gave? No, not really. However it exposes the unconscious nature of prejudice and the acceptance by the conscious brain of those assumptions. They just didn't see anything wrong because the message fit their unconscious and unexamined mental picture of the world. (Grokked from Dan)

So, apparently to get uber-conservatives to apologize for past bigotry we need to get GOP presidential hopefuls to speak at their places of power. Then it's a good thing there's going to be another long roster this time, because there's a lot of apologizing to get done.

Zombie Reagan.

Another example of a false flag operation. Why this is not labelled "terrorism" (because it has all the hallmarks of the same motivation and the intended results, not just because "BOMB") is still baffling to me (not really, my guess is the suspect is white and doesn't have an accent).