a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
fr33lunch's comments
activity:
fr33lunch  ·  2865 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Shopski: Flat belt pulley

Neat project for sure. Lots of fun/frustration ahead

fr33lunch  ·  3342 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: New strongest material in nature

I read this article a few days ago without posting it here, but wondered how they might synthesize this new found material.

Well, I found the article that I meant to post and went through the process of submitting it...and here it is. You beat me to it by several days it looks. Thanks for your comments on the other article anyhow!

Ah yes, thanks for reminding me! thenewgreen told me that a long while back. I've been spoiled by websites auto-loading the mobile optimized version. I'll have to bookmark the mobile version instead.

In this case, the fault is my own for being careless and rushing to post with too many browser windows open.

However, FWIW, the aspect of this article that captured my attention was this statement:

    It’s a hell of a lot easier to confront Williams’ misstatements of fact — which have no practical consequences, except for him and his employer — than to think about the cascade of lies and cheerleading and propaganda and incurious circular groupthink that smoothed the way for America’s invasion of Iraq and characterized nearly all coverage of the war for years.

kleinbl00, Thanks for your thoughtful response. You went deeper into this article than I did.

Honestly, I posted the wrong article. I've read about a dozen articles about this "scandal" on my phone which is really easy to do. Submitting an article to Hubski or commenting on any post on my phone is an exercise in futility. I cannot see what I'm typing into the text boxes because of the floating header---one of the major reasons I don't comment or share much anymore. I must have pasted the wrong URL and didn't notice because it was familiar in some way.

That being said, I look forward to rereading the article with your notes. Thanks again!

fr33lunch  ·  3373 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: ARETHA FRANKLIN - CALL ME - 1971

Her songs fill my chest with sorrow, joy, heartache, and solace. Her voice elevates the art of song. Maybe not rock & roll, but undeniable talent. This is my all time favorite.

fr33lunch  ·  3380 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Future Of Money, Among Other Things...

    The only way to predict the future is to invent it

If google has anything to do with the autonomous vehicle licenses issued here in California, I would say that is a pretty good predictor of their future.

fr33lunch  ·  3441 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Sad one-sentence stories

Borrowed from flash fiction:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

fr33lunch  ·  3441 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Can You Spot the Liar? - NYTimes.com

I only missed one.

fr33lunch  ·  3441 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Brigham Young publicly acknowledged what Mormons call "plural marriage"

That is deplorable. I'm sure that outside of a few fundamentalists, this type of behavior is on the rare side but boy is it really fucked up behavior...

I wonder if it is easier for people to see how ridiculous the beliefs and dogma that this religion was founded on because of how recently it was established. Maybe 1700 years or so ago when Constantine conspired to end Islam and replace it with his new version of Christianity , people were equally outraged and suspicious of what they were being fed. Who knows? I can tell you I will not be voting to elect anyone who shares their beliefs though.

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Truth About the Wars

Telling Iraqis that in order to "free" them, we would need to kill them by the thousands is a real conundrum.

    co·nun·drum kəˈnəndrəm/

    noun

    a confusing and difficult problem or question. "one of the most difficult conundrums for the experts" synonyms: problem, difficult question, difficulty, quandary, dilemma; informalposer "the conundrums facing policy-makers"

    a question asked for amusement, typically one with a pun in its answer; a riddle. synonyms: riddle, puzzle, word game; informalbrainteaser "Rod enjoyed conundrums and crosswords"

    See also: Complete and utter nonsensical bullshit

I applaud the students' tenacity. The vulgarity and language of those questions are the very reason we are even talking about this event. If it weren't for the raucous Q&A session, we might have missed the display of hypocrisy by this presidential hopeful.

    Honestly, though, we don't even need net neutrality, we need enforced competition. It's bullshit that we have one or two choices of internet provider, and the federal government should be stepping end to end this cycle of lobbying for local governments to shut out start-ups and protect the existing networks.

As kleinbl00 stated above, internet providers hold a natural monopoly because of the simple fact that they already are a utility company. They have built an established infrastructure and expecting a start-up company to come along and lay fiber-optic cable across the nation or launch a few dozen satellites into the exosphere is just downright unrealistic. Operating costs would price the Internet so far out of reach that most families would likely be unable to afford it. The effect would be a far more restrictive internet than we have today.

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: This Place is Not a Place of Honor

It's cute that someone who buries irradiated rods in the desert thinks that humans will somehow still exist in the future to discover these dangerous sites. #naive

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Wrote this a while ago. I like it, feel free to add to it if you'd like

Great work on the strings. I swear that sounded like a cello, but it either way, it added a richness and tenderness to the vocals that was very pleasing to my ear.

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Wrote this a while ago. I like it, feel free to add to it if you'd like

This is really great. Your talent is limitless, it seems.

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Welcome to a Comet

I hope that the power situation gets resolved. The information that could be gathered would be a boon to researchers.

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Welcome to a Comet

Important...Chris Hardwick, you evil genius you.

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Welfare Reform in the US. What, if anything is needed?

    In urban areas I would love to see small business loans made available easily and cheaply. Not huge loans, but something where a person can start a food stand, open a lawn care business, etc. Small one or two person operations that the proprietor can feel proud of. There's no access to credit for most people who live in ghettos, and giving them a couple hundred bucks per week does very little to help their mobility, although it adds up to a lot of money in the long term.

Micro-lending is a viable alternative. Organizations like Kiva.org have had great success rates. As Americans, I think we are quick to rally round kickstarter as though it were a micro-lender, but there are other options available.

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Welfare Reform in the US. What, if anything is needed?

    What do you think of the Welfare system in the US?
It is as necessary a publicly funded program as Healthcare and Education.

    Does it work?
Not sure there. Has it worked? Can it work? Does it work categorically? The answer to the latter is complex. but I would respond in the negative.

    Have you been a recipient of it? If so, did it work for you?
My mother was a single mom raising two kids in a studio apartment in Garbage Grove, working two jobs, and getting fuck all from my father. She stood in line to get canned meat, powdered milk, dried beans, and whatever shitty leftovers government subsidies paid Big Farm to produce for its "down-trodden". To escape the shame associated from taking a "handout", my mother married the first thing with a paycheck that came knocking. Unfortunately for us kids, his paycheck came with regular physical and mental abuse.

    Do you know examples of fraud? Do you know examples of it not working?
I know several people who were on some form of welfare during their childhood but none of them are still on it. In fact, most of them are quite successful now as adults. Fear and shame are some strong motivators...

Like most I'm sure, I have heard of someone who "knows how to work the system" and isn't a damn shame and what-not. I don't have relationships with or associate myself with people that have a different moral compass than my own, so I do not know anyone directly who has committed this type of fraud. That said, I am certain that welfare fraud happens...but so does tax fraud, white collar crimes, insider trading, dine & dash, and whatever the fuck else you can think of that will make debating whether or not the acts of isolated individuals should condemn the under-privileged to a life spent digging themselves out of a hole that they were born in because of a shitty roll of the genetic dice a futile endeavor.

fr33lunch  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?

As usual, I am late to the conversation but I have thoughts about this discussion. I was a fan of Cosby as a kid because his show spoke to me in a way that I needed at the time. My family situation was pretty tumultuous to say the least, so what I saw on channel 13 on Sunday nights looked like everything that I was missing in my life. --No time here for what that says about my unrealistic expectations based upon the Hollywood portrayal of family & the american dream-- So The Cosby Show has always held a special place in my heart. But, and that is where stuff gets complicated, if he is guilty of this or any similar crime then he should be in jail.

Why isn't he in jail? He is rich & his name brings a ton of press. It is troubling enough that the victim of a sex crime is scrutinized for every prior act of indiscretion, but when the victim accuses a person with such clout, they are almost certainly going to come under some heavy interrogation. We have seen so many cases where public opinion has all but sentenced a public figure: Oj Simpson, R Kelly, Michael Jackson, George Zimmerman, etc, yet jury members fail to find the accused guilty at trial. It seems that, come judgement day, the only individuals on trial are the victim and the jury members.

Last random thought: If Cosby is innocent of the crimes Barbara Bowen has accused him of, why hasn't he sued her for liable and defamation of character? His silence speaks volumes to me...

fr33lunch  ·  3447 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My First Ayahuasca Experience

Thanks to this discussion I have a growing wish list of books I would like to read before diving in. Another book I own, but have only been able to thumb through, is McKenna's "Food of the Gods". _refugee_, you may find that read interesting since you've had first hand experience with shrooms.

fr33lunch  ·  3447 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How I reverse-engineered Google Docs to play back any document's keystrokes

That is a pretty captivating little program.

fr33lunch  ·  3447 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ayahuasca Will Make You Cry, Vomit, and Feel Amazing

Late to the discussion, but I'm interested in hearing more of the story of your dad's five day trip.

fr33lunch  ·  3447 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My First Ayahuasca Experience

Thank you so very much for sharing this experience. I have been reading "The Spirit Molecule" and have been thinking about a DMT and/or Ayahuasca experience for sometime. I find it interesting that you have decided to go down this path, as I may eventually do, because several of your other views on life, humanity, and evolution, etc are commensurate with my own. (Edited to remove questions that have been answered)

fr33lunch  ·  3447 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Elizabeth Warren: It’s time to work on America’s agenda

I agree, though, I'm cautious about being too optimistic that she will run. It is infuriating that the our representatives in government don't try to provide the most basic duty--which is to represent their people, not businesses or special interest groups.

Here is an Interesting clip from John Oliver's show about ALEC.

I have never had a fear of judgement from my parents because honestly their judgement or approval mean nothing to me anymore. These days I don't bother to ask those types of questions because I'm suspicious about the honesty of their responses. Unfortunately, I've had to stop entertaining the notion that I might ever have the answers to the questions I have about my childhood and their parenting. Thankfully, it has left me with more energy and passion to explore the things that I can control/understand today.