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enjoyablethings  ·  3148 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Microsoft's data case could unravel the US tech industry

This truly could set precedent for the new century.

That's a pretty wide scope for a book. I'd write a book about something else. Like a story about a hacker that gets caught up stealing information from megacorporations. Then in the background of the story you see the wealthy consolidating power and climate change happening. That'd be easier than writing a straight up story about wealthy consolidating power.

enjoyablethings  ·  3191 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Is mathematics an effective way to describe the world?

I don't even see how telepathy/twin-thought could be explained by quantum mechanics. I mean...I'm no physicist, but I don't see an explanation there. Electrons in two peoples brains are entangled so they think the same thoughts? That's not how your brain works. Everyone's neural patters are different. Flipping one electron's spin in one atom of one molecule of one neuron isn't going to make you suddenly read someone's mind. I think people aren't appreciating how complex this is.

enjoyablethings  ·  3192 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Is mathematics an effective way to describe the world?

Armchair theoretical physicist rarely know what they're talking about. It's the same people who espouse ESP and stuff based on quantum entanglement.

enjoyablethings  ·  3197 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If anyone wants to talk I'll be awake for a while. I don't usually open up.

thank you

enjoyablethings  ·  3197 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If anyone wants to talk I'll be awake for a while. I don't usually open up.

thank you

enjoyablethings  ·  3198 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Prof. Stephen Hawking backs venture to listen for aliens

Also, they may live for a long time and communicating one sentence could take years. They might perceive time differently.

I agree with this. Whatever institution holds power--peaceful protests fit within their narrative. Only by causing instability or radical departures from the institutionalized system will change happen.

enjoyablethings  ·  3206 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 131st Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Reminds me of Cowboy Junkies.

enjoyablethings  ·  3206 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 131st Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Wow, i haven't listened to this is so long.

enjoyablethings  ·  3209 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015: USA vs Haiti Official Game Thread!

be sure to share!

enjoyablethings  ·  3209 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015: USA vs Haiti Official Game Thread!

I realize I'm quite early on this.

enjoyablethings  ·  3209 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Anime Club Revival -- Series One: *Serial Experiments: Lain.*

Just commenting to say I will be following along. Excited for the discussion, but I'll probably only join in at the end regardless if there are per-episode posts. Thanks for getting this going Difference.

enjoyablethings  ·  3209 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Is anyone going deer hunting this fall?

I don't deer hunt, but I'm from NW Florida. My older brother hunted. I can't really offer you much advice, but I will say enjoy it. I hope you're not just a trophy hunter. But being out in the woods is wonderful. It's like a zen thing. Once you are way out there and it's quiet you remember you are a part of nature.

enjoyablethings  ·  3210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The difference between feed, chatter, global, etc

https://hubski.com/primer

Did you miss the intro when you made your account? Go to the bottom of any hubski.com page and click "tutorial". It'll answer all your questions.

No reason to give the programmers more work for something so simple. It's already covered when you make your account, and the tutorial link is right there. I think if it needs to be any simpler it's not worth the time to code. It's already plain. Then again I really dislike overly simplified things. IMO people should be able to think and figure things out. It's a big problem in education today that people are becoming habituated to things be ultra simplified. Of course that's a personal belief. I just don't think in regards to hubski it would be worth the time to code. People are smart. They can figure out how to help themselves rather than create more work for other people.

Can't really call Obama a lame duck. Pardoning drug offenders, helping legalize gay marriage, needed anti-discrimination laws.

enjoyablethings  ·  3211 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How can I begin the self study of Philosophy?

Philosophybro is awesome. His Wittgenstein episode with Partially Examined Life is super interesting.

enjoyablethings  ·  3211 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: F5 F5 F5 F5 F5

Just hit the back button.

...also I think it posts. Don't keep resubmitting or it posts more copies. The problem is fetching the new page, not posting the link.

enjoyablethings  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How can I begin the self study of Philosophy?

Some people you could read without having read from the beginning. Nietzsche, Descartes, Sartre. But if you're wanting to tackle guys like Berkeley, Heidegger, Kant or even newer guys like Saul Kripke you're going to want to go back and read Plato and read the guys from the analytic tradition like Bertrand Russle, Frege (even if he was kinda off about his ideas), Leibniz etc.

The problem is you're going encounter philosophers who use words like "idealism", "monad" and other words that may or may not seem familiar and often have different meanings than what you're used to them meaning. Reading, or at least having a good understanding of, the works these guys read to come up with those words is important.

If you're interested in philosophy I strongly recommend checking out the Partially Examined Life podcast. It's very informal, but very interesting discussions.

enjoyablethings  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The U.S. And EU Will Collapse Regardless Of Economic ‘Contagion’

Oh, no I'm stoked you posted it. It's thought provoking.

Sometimes I wonder if it's a game where the ultra wealthy elite such as media moguls make plans for example who will be the next president, and then basically battle the public with their agenda. Like a strategy game, media influence and resources vs will of the people and individuality.

That's probably more of a post-modern 1984 fiction than the more mundane truth. I tend to think nobody really knows what's going on. Everyone is just working from their vantage point sometimes at odds with each other sometimes together. All of the actors constantly subverting everyone creating an almost absurdist plot.

enjoyablethings  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are your favorite browser based games?

Thanks

enjoyablethings  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you reading this week?

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

enjoyablethings  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you reading this week?

From Wikipedia:

Klosterman presents his essays as if they were tracks on a CD. Between each essay, or track, is an "interlude"—a short, entertaining blurb linking the essays. The following essays are included in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs:

1. This Is Emo: Klosterman recounts "fake love" we are conditioned to pursue, and the false, unbalanced nature of When Harry Met Sally.

2. Billy Sim: Klosterman describes his experience with the reality-mimicking video game The Sims and how The Sims illustrates that "even eternally free people are enslaved by the process of living."

3. What Happens When People Stop Being Polite: The impacts of MTV's The Real World and how it led to the development of one-dimensional personalities.

4. Every Dog Must Have His Every Day, Every Drunk Must Have His Drink: An ode to Billy Joel, particularly the universality of his album Glass Houses.

5. Appetite for Replication: Klosterman interviews and spends a few days with the members of a Guns N' Roses tribute band, "Paradise City," and outlines the significance of tribute bands.

6. Ten Seconds to Love: An analysis of how American culture is upset with the unrealistic images of success it has created, as stemming from a discussion of the Pamela-Tommy sex tape.

7. George Will vs. Nick Hornby: A rant against soccer (particularly among youth), claiming it supports outcast culture.

8. 33: Klosterman explains how the 1980s rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics symbolizes all rivalries in life, including politics, religion, and race.

9. Porn: An explanation of how the Internet has proliferated the porn industry, as per the need of the presence of the amateur and celebrity in our lives.

10. The Lady or the Tiger: A brief history of the cereal industry, and how Kelloggs was begun as a religious company, but now is a microcosm for coolness. The "cocoa puffs" in the title comes from this essay.

11. Being Zack Morris: An analysis of Saved by the Bell and how "important things are inevitably cliché."

12. Sulking with Lisa Loeb on the Ice Planet Hoth: Why Star Wars is so overrated, and how it has come to represent basic morality.

13. The Awe-Inspiring Beauty of Tom Cruise's Shattered, Troll-like Face: A discussion of the question "What is reality?" as answered by movies such as Vanilla Sky, The Matrix, Memento, and Waking Life.

14. Toby over Moby: How the Dixie Chicks are the new Van Halen, as they are one of the only pop bands with musical quality, and how Van Halen's teenage boys have been replaced by the Dixie Chicks' teenage girls. Also how music taste is used to gauge coolness, and those who ignorantly say they like all kinds "except country" only say so to appear cool.

15. This is Zodiac Speaking: A description of three people Klosterman has interviewed who have known or met serial killers, and an exploration of "What does it mean to know a serial killer?"

16. All I Know Is What I Read in the Papers: Most of the media's bias is accidental, and stories are mainly developed by circumstance and by the interviewee who calls the journalist back first. Also how sports reporters hate sports, and how newspapers are designed for those who cannot read.

17. I, Rock Chump: Klosterman narrates his visit to the 2002 Pop Music Studies Conference by the Experience Music Project, and how it was largely an experience without rock and roll.

18. How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found: A commentary on the Left Behind Series and the lifestyle of Evangelical Christians. The chapter title refers to the book How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found by Doug Richmond and possibly the song How To Disappear Completely by Radiohead.

enjoyablethings  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The U.S. And EU Will Collapse Regardless Of Economic ‘Contagion’

Eh, I skimmed through this article. Admittedly, I do not know enough about macroeconomics and international affairs to suppose if the Greek debt crisis is part of an orchestrated plan by international banking firms for the goal...what? World domination?

I do, however, agree with his point at the end that a universal currency would be terrifying. I do not think that would be good for a labor force.

"...disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose leaves, I do not know." --T.S. Eliot

But yeah, why make a new site? I went from browsing reddit a lot to maybe looking at it once or twice a day. I didn't realize how much of it was "AND MY AXE" and puns and just mindless bullshit. I'm way happier browsing hubski for discussion and content. At least if someone tells a joke here it's not contrived or just a brainless pun or joke that's been done literally hundreds of thousands of times.

enjoyablethings  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How to put a bitch in check

I'm 90% sure guys who enjoy these videos are latent homosexuals. I do the dishes. I clean. Why? Because I'm a fucking adult. If you need to watch something called "manhood academy" here's a hint: you're doing it wrong.

enjoyablethings  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why do we inject patriot acts into sports?

It feeds into the "warriors, competition, badasses, woohoo, USA!, USA!" thing. I think it's a way for people to transpose those competitive feelings about sports into nationalism. Vaguely thinking about war as an international competition.

enjoyablethings  ·  3213 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Anyone Believe in a Metaphysical (Paranormal) Reality?

Not necessarily. It is possible to believe in idealism and still believe that there are multiple people. Just that we inhabit a world of ideas. Basically "we're all in God's mind" kind of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism

enjoyablethings  ·  3213 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Anyone Believe in a Metaphysical (Paranormal) Reality?

A shorter read that also deals with a metaphysical sort of reality or dreamscape by Murakami is Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World. It's two novels in one. All the odd chapters are Hard Boiled Wonderland and the even chapters are The End of the World. I recommend read through all the odd ones first. Then go through and read the even chapters. Hard Boiled Wonder land is a sort of cyberpunk novel and the end of the world is kind of a fantasy story or dream like story that's kind of hard to explain. It is an absolutely fascinating book, and it was my first exposure to Murakami. I've read a couple of more since then (Wind Up Bird Chronicle and After Dark).

enjoyablethings  ·  3213 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Anyone Believe in a Metaphysical (Paranormal) Reality?

Give an example. You only know things based on your senses anyway. This is basically what Decartes, Berkeley, Kant, etc were interested in. Kant actually wrote a lot about ethics too, but he began with that "how do we know what's real" question.