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The awesome blogger I posted here before has a new blog up, and it's an especially interesting one that hit home pretty heavy for me, if anyone's interested: http://buildameworkshop.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/conversations-of-color-pigmentation-and-perception/

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

http://pdxintelligencer.com/sanctimonious-portland-activist-tells-native-american-to-not-self-reference-as-an-indian/

Nailed it!

The Truth About The Good Reverend Roger and The Pentagon

Have you ever noticed that The Good Reverend Roger has "no position" on important issues like chemtrails, vaccines causing cholera in children, and bigfoot sightings? Isn't it strange that someone would "fail" to have positions about all of these things? That's because they profit from these evils-- which is part of the reason why these evils continue to exist.

Amateur radio enthusiasts know that if you spend longer than a few minutes on the Pentagon's frequencies, you'll hear cryptic messages that confirm some sort of massive research initiative focused on spreading cholera.

Outspoken journalists researching this matter have been repeatedly silenced by libel lawsuits.

The Pentagon has been secretly exploring possible applications of arsenic for government profit.

We've taken a big risk to post this information on the internet-- many others have seen their careers destroyed for doing much less.

If you think Monsanto is what they claim, think again: in 2008, the night before the government bailout, the Pentagon accepted over $150 million in donations from Monsanto.

Perhaps tellingly, several diplomats were barred from the country for agreeing with these claims.

The time for action is now. If upstanding citizens finally hold these people accountable, we can change the world for the better.

Sources:
Barro, Robert J. "Are government bonds net wealth?." The Journal of Political Economy 82.6 (1974): 1095-1117.
Castleman, Barry I., and Grace E. Ziem. "Corporate influence on threshold limit values." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 13.5 (2007): 531-559.

http://www.verifiedfacts.org/i/The%20Good%20Reverend%20Roger/NTcxMDU0

So, some of the fucktards on Facebook decided that because they didn't like Zach's trolling in the group, that they would take things IRL by harassing his business page, which reflects his livelihood and interacts with clients. Not shitting you. 

hxxps://www.facebook.com/groups/409043185893449/421213064676461

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/science/new-truths-that-only-one-can-see.html?ref=science&_r=0

Paradoxically the hottest fields, with the most people pursuing the same questions, are most prone to error, Dr. Ioannidis argued. If one of five competing labs is alone in finding an effect, that result is the one likely to be published. But there is a four in five chance that it is wrong. Papers reporting negative conclusions are more easily ignored.

Putting all of this together, Dr. Ioannidis devised a mathematical model supporting the conclusion that most published findings are probably incorrect.

Other scientists have questioned whether his methodology was skewed by his own biases. But the same year he published another blockbuster, examining more than a decade's worth of highly regarded papers — the effect of a daily aspirin on cardiac disease, for example, or the risks of hormone replacement therapy for older women. He found that a large proportion of the conclusions were undermined or contradicted by later studies.

His work was just the beginning. Concern about the problem has reached the point that the journal Nature has assembled an archive, filled with reports and analyses, called Challenges in Irreproducible Research.

Among them is a paper in which C. Glenn Begley, who is chief scientific officer at TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals, described an experience he had while at Amgen, another drug company. He and his colleagues could not replicate 47 of 53 landmark papers about cancer. Some of the results could not be reproduced even with the help of the original scientists working in their own labs.

 hxxps://www.facebook.com/GlobalMarchAgainstChemtrailsAndGeoengineering

The crazy lady who posted this link on my friend's page said that chemtrails and HAARP are the real reasons behind global climate change. 

I went to the first monthly mutiny meeting of Brain Club tonight. It was pretty much excellent, and we are making plans to reclaim original Brain Club from the fucktards that took it over this last Fall when the founder went on to OHSU, and restore the original charter.

This is the new neuroscience, bitches, and this shit is COLLABORATIVE and INCLUSIVE. Get used to it.

http://boingboing.net/2014/01/06/the-unipiper.html?utm_campaign=moreatbbmetadata&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=boingboing.net

I'm fascinated by these fuckers. We don't have them on the Western side of the state, but go to the Eastern side and they're everyfuckingwhere:





And they're quite large.











I've never gotten up close to them. You can drive through them, but you aren't supposed to stop and hang out with them. Do you guys have many of them near where you live? They're so weird. And cool.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24871810/colorado-marijuana-stores-see-steady-business-dwindling-inventory

Only one week into Colorado's history-making recreational marijuana industry, one shop has already sold out of pot, others fear they may soon join it and perhaps as many as 100,000 people have legally purchased marijuana at Colorado stores.

Industry advocates estimate Colorado stores have already done more than $5 million in sales — including $1 million on New Year's Day — though National Cannabis Industry Association executive director Aaron Smith acknowledges those are "back-of-the-envelope" figures. The owner of one store said she expects to make as much in sales in the first 10 days of January as she did all of last year selling medical marijuana.

"I had a dream once that I opened my store and didn't have any competition," said Robin Hackett, a co-owner of BotanaCare in Northglenn. "I had no idea it was a nightmare."

Fears of marijuana shortages pervade the young industry. On Wednesday, a sign hung in the door to The Clinic location near Colorado Boulevard and Interstate 25 in Denver: "We are currently out of recreational cannabis. Please check back tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience."

Many shops have imposed caps on maximum purchase amounts well below the caps required under state law. Numerous store owners say they have sold out of marijuana-infused edible products. Toni Fox, the owner of 3D Cannabis Center in Denver, said she closed her store down on Monday and Tuesday this week, just to restock and give her staff a rest.

Even for stores that reported robust inventory, like High Country Healing in Silverthorne, owners said marijuana could become scarce across the industry if more stores don't get their licenses approved and open to absorb the flood of interest.

I almost wish RWHN was still here, just so I could witness the hand-wringing spin. 

So here is a crazy super-undeveloped realization that I had on my way to the store for a beer tonight. It has to do with being mixed-race.

Out of the blue, I kind of went oh. OH. I was born in 1971. My mom, a blond blue-eyed white woman, was all up in the equal rights movement. For me, a kid, it happened a long time ago. So long ago, before I was even born. Right? No. For my mom, it was happening while she was fucking a black guy, my dad. I mean, the difference between 1968 and her getting her ass knocked up in 1970? That ain't shit. She was a white girl choosing to fuck a black guy. Never mind he's 3/4 Native American, 1970 don't give a fuck about that. That is, unbelievably, even more complicated.

So I grew up. And rarely, I would see little mixed kids, and I would always be happy when I did. INCREDIBLY rarely, in the Pacific NW, I would see a mixed-race adult, and I always thought they were so so amazing. In my era, the talk shows often featured mixed-race families, with the kids who could never fit into black or white communities. The outcasts, the kids with no identity.

And I got older. And would see more and more mixed-race kids, and they would stare at me. Especially in my late 20's, early 30's, they would stare at me and I would smile at them and their mamas and papas, to say, yes, yes, you are doing something right. But I still didn't get it. And into my late 30's, encountering more mixed-race adults, having that excited conversation with the clerk at the grocery store, somehow it took me until now to realize;

There aren't actually that many of us from my generation. I came into existence on the very tail end of segregation. When I was born racist lending laws were still in place in my hometown, it was still illegal for a human being to be black after 4 pm in a nearby burg. That was happening. That happened. I used to blow my own mind at the idea that when my dad was growing up, he could not drink from white water fountains, use white bathrooms, or eat in white restaurants. Now, I am astonishing myself at the racism that I myself grew up with, and wonder, truly, at what my own children will find astonishing when they turn 42.

http://djrioblog.com/2013/11/26/new-wave-artists-aging-gracefully-an-80s-world-gone-by/

This is Peter Gabriel now:


We're old, and we're gonna die. Merry Christmas!

This is AWESOME!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=O-9uv8HvtPE#t=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmCJEehYtU

[Sweden's Christmas goat torched yet againGävle's Yuletide goat has failed to survive until Christmas after it was set on fire during the early hours of Saturday morning in what has become an infamous annual event.]

...

What is going ON over there?

http://www.thelocal.se/20131221/swedens-christmas-goat-torched-yet-again

Sweden's Christmas goat torched yet again

Gävle's Yuletide goat has failed to survive until Christmas after it was set on fire during the early hours of Saturday morning in what has become an infamous annual event.

The massive straw goat, which this year had been beefed up with flame retardant liquid, has long been a target for arsonists since the first one was erected in the central Swedish city in 1966.

Police authorities were alerted at 4am that the 13-metre tall Gävle goat (Gävlebocken) was on fire and emergency services were quickly on the scene.

"We are out looking with patrols and as usual keeping an open mind on this matter," Fredrik Nilsson of the Gävle police told Aftonbladet.

He added to the TT news agency; "I have a hard time believing that it may have started because of natural causes."

In November officials in Gävle were confident the 2013 vintage would stand a chance of surviving through the holiday season telling The Local that it "should be much harder to burn down."

However, such optimism proved unfounded with the latest arson attack leaving members of the local goat committee dismayed.
"We are really sorry. We are supposed to celebrate Christmas and New Year with the goat in place. We are very sorry that it can't be just left be," said Maria Nässert, spokesperson for the goat committee in Gävle to TT.

The goat has made headlines in the past after Swedes tried to kidnap the structure by helicopter and after some youths got suspicious goat tattoos shortly after it burned down last year. Once, an American tourist was convicted of arson after he burned it to the ground, thinking it was a harmless tradition and not realizing such an act was indeed against the law.

Indeed, the goat has been burned to the ground more often than it has been left standing. It was first torched in 1969 while the class of 1977 only got to bleat for six hours.

The goat, which has its own Twitter account, posted a message on Friday saying it felt "confident" and was "longing for Christmas.

After it was set ablaze the goat took to the social media network to express its sorrow but did keep the Yuletide spirit alive by wishing its thousands of followers a happy Christmas.

"I'm so sad my friends that I have to leave you now! Thank you for this year! Take care and have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year!" posted the Gävlebocken. 

Local media reported that the goat has been set ablaze at least 24 times since the first one was put on display back in 1966.

So, we're all basically a raft of assholes. But in the past, we've been assholes who vaguely followed a system of checks and balances to make this board more fun for newcomers, because the bottom line is it's an internet and nobody is going to play if it isn't fun.

This system consisted of two parts:

Part 1. The 50-Post Rule, later downgraded to the 50-Post Suggestion, which was the practice of waiting until a new person had made 50 posts before Showing Them What or accusing them of being a troll, even if they were cocky, annoying, pineal, or lame.

Part 2. The Welcoming Committee, which if I recall consisted of myself, Ratatosk, and Cramulus. We in particular were tasked with being friendly and inquiring and trying to engage the noob in conversation.

Over time, however, the system has deteriorated, and in fact has at this point been cast pretty much entirely to the wayside. Internet forums are not as popular as they once were so we get fewer visitors, and persistent trolls like Poptart have made us suspicious.

The problem with that suspicion is that if you are wearing shitheel-tinted glasses, every noob is going to look like a shitheel. That affects how we perceive and interact with every new person here. Some people sail on through it, others, perhaps already a little intimidated, try too hard or make the wrong jokes, or hold their mouth funny or are wearing the wrong color sweater, and invariably someone tells them they're doin' it wrong, and things after that usually go as well as you'd expect them to go.

I don't especially like to see my bipedal friends on all fours, and the way we react to noobs has become reflexive, habitual... it isn't very bipedal of us. We're wearing shitheel-tinted glasses. I'd like to propose a new 50-Post Rule, in which we refrain from telling the noobs that they're doin' it wrong, and give them a chance to figure it out on their own. Even if you don't care for their tone. Further, it would be nice if a few of us made a point of seeking to reach out to the new person and engage them in conversation. Just like you would do at a party. Hey there, new guy... so what do you like to do?

Maybe they'll turn out to be a shitheel. Lots of people are, and basically every single one of us is a dumbass on some level or other. Maybe they'll turn out to be Poptart. But so what, really? There's plenty of time to verbally abuse them later, and the worst thing Poptart can do is "I'm Poptart, LOL!"

This is my new theme song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIpUblDP9dQ

So, I don't know if you actually intend to read the Atheists and White Supremacists thread. But if you do, I think you'll find what I found, which is that Coyote shat all the fuck over me, and over Roger (he did more shitting on Roger in Open Bar) and that I didn't shit back. Nor did Roger. I am not at all clear on how or why it is that you have concluded that he is somehow the poor, beleaguered victim in need of your support. I have no idea what's wrong with him but as far as I can tell he just comes across as a mean fucking drunk.

I don't know why you're insistent on blaming me or Roger for Coyote's meltdown. Whatever it is, is HIS problem, and HIS bad behavior. Nobody else caused it. Nobody he targets with this kind of abusive venom deserves to be told that they should kiss and make up.

This is abusive:

Fuck this place.
I don't even remember if spine out against peny being an edgy ass for the billionth time in a way pissed Nigel off.

so fuck you and Nigel

the fuck ever.  I'm too d fucking pissed to go fucking digging for the thread Whet pent fucking acts like an ass towards the religious and people did or did nor jumo all over his ass for it.  Evidently that thread is being used to talk shit about atheists being pissed about Nigel' s sweeping inclusion of atheists with white supremacists.  not even that we are terrible people but that we are people that aren't of much account huddled up to attack members Oahe of our tribe or some other bullshit.

so I'm fucking done with you and Nigel.

well you have certainly shown me the errors of my sinful ways.


nope

get fucked Nigel.
you chose to make a point in deliberately trollish wau and while I acknowledge the validity of your point you have lost my respect.  not that anyone actually gives a shit about my opinion or input or contributions here.

seriously get fucked.  I had no fucking vine in this weird ass beef you have with atheists the  because fucking white boy pent shat all over religious folk. I defined myself as an atheist because I didn't give a fuck about the existence of a fucking diety,  but evidently this is a fucking "check your fucking privledge white boy" moment.  Thank you fucking condescending wannabe mother figure.  I fucking had this sneaking suspicion that was the root of your fucking issue. could you care to enlighten this poor ignorant white boy about how his fucking white privledge had some how blinded gin to the wondrous fucking position of privledge he had gained by rejecting the validity that he needs to pay homage to a fucking diety that regardless of its existence doesn't fucking matter to him?

I was fucking super religious, until I left basic.  Then I had a very very fucking brief religion is stupid phase that lasted die maybe a year.  Now I just don't fucking care.

Funny fucking thing two fucking days ago I publicly coving my support to a friend of mine regarding her faith and my vehement disdain for Atheists, and constantly point all the fucking awesome shit we have because certain religious faiths placed knowledge of the natural world on a pat with seeking the knowledge of the divine because they saw no difference between the two.
but because I don't fucking brag about how often I defend religion in my day to day life from Jack ass Atheists and don't fucking chew out the fucking jackass behavior of pent I am evidently the sane class as white supremacists. 
shit maybe I should have been talking shit to twid for gigs spiritual exploration,  or rofer die fits fucking sermons, or you for whatever Tybee duck thing your Jahr recently dinner towards some shrine.

that is why I am pissed.  not because I have suddenly had my white cishet male privledge shoved in my face. 
I've gotten shit from my family for not being Catholic so fuck off.

I've been dealing with a whole other level of shit beyond my bitching about school so again fuck off with your weird fucking agenda

and then being told I have a position of privledge or have to have one in order to say "hey I don't worship gods" and then to have roger invalidate my fucking rage Obert this shit because I didn't get his back on pent being a dick about religion.
that is is also why I am furious.
I evidently only matter in so far as I support and defend certain people here and only if I always do so.
because it's not life I haven't ripped into people for being shits before.  But I guess it only matters if its special topics.
I've been so furious I almost cut class because I am shaking with rage. This is the kind of rage that were those two assholes members of my family i would have cut ties with them after screaming at them until my throat bled.
so fuck them
I've been having a shitty quarter already. I don't need some selectively moralistic shits call me I am a fucking nazi for not kowtowing to invisible sky dudes.
It's not life I already hate myself for being tpo cowardly to be combat arms and for even being a member of the fucking us military who may have probably had a hand in killing hundreds of people simply by doing his job.
I don't need some fucking whit privilege giilt trip fire being an atheist.

or withdrawal it make you fucks happy if I just stopped posting here for f I bkung 3v er.
becaue evidently what little content I have provided,  directly to riger, us just not enough.  u need to do when he wants it and gods ducky forbid I fucking write a paper instead of coming up with clever insults or goi g trolling.  or whatever the dunk else us what he wants.

He didn't even read the fucking thread. He doesn't give a fuck what my intentions were, or what I meant. He just wants to tell me I'm a "fucking moralistic shit" and that I can fuck off.

I wouldn't put up with this kind of abusive treatment from ANYONE, and I don't give a fuck whether he's going through rough times or whether he's your friend. Don't stand on your head to apologize for him, or stir shit by texting him that people are being mean to him on Peedee by referencing the fact that he told them repeatedly and incoherently to fuck themselves.

So he has problems. He has PTSD. Is there something that makes his PTSD trump mine? He can do what I did, which is get therapy. And while he's at it he should consider getting his drunk, abusive ass under control.

BF wants to know why there are clamshells in Phoenix? I told him that whole thing used to be under the ocean but he is convinced that there are desert clams in Arizona. Help.

I WANT TO KNOW NOWWWWW.

http://io9.com/scientists-are-close-to-solving-one-of-2013s-greatest-1481082180

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis

It snowed last night. That means that when I woke up, the world was blanketed in two inches of soft, white powder. I had, on short notice, agreed to bring my poster in and speak for a student event.

Ordinarily, I walk. Bringing my poster meant driving. In snow.

Newcomers don't understand why Portlanders hate driving in snow. They think that the way the city shuts down is ridiculous, especially the ones who come from those icy northern countries like Nebraska, where it snows ten feet a day every winter, and the winters last eight months. The  thing they don't realize is that there are multiple factors influencing Portland's snow-preparedness. The first, not insignificantly, is that this shit only happens about once every three years, and it usually melts off or evaporates before anyone has to drive in it. For the first 30-odd years of my life, the City of Portland only owned three snowplows. The first response to snow is "ignore it and see if it goes away". Not without reason; it usually does. IF the roads get graveled, it will invariably be too late, after the snow has been packed into ice. And they use pea gravel. The effect on vehicular traction is not unlike throwing ball-bearings on a skating rink.

If people want to live in a city that is prepared for snow, they should move to one where it snows.

I myself have only driven in Portland snow twice, including today. I've driven in the mountains in the winter; that's utterly different. Driving in the snow in Portland is terrifying, and that terror is five parts snow, and eight hundred parts people who came here from somewhere else who think they can drive in snow. They're probably right, but that's irrelevant; the mistake they're making is in thinking that snow in Portland is actually snow. That's an easy mistake to make, but it isn't snow, it's treachery, and it's a lot harder to drive in treachery than it looks like it would be. So they're like "I have my four-wheel-drive SUV and I'm experienced in snow driving" and the thing they don't realize is that it's going to use that against them. And then the next thing they know they've driven into a row of bike racks, a motorcycle, a parked car, and a light post at 5 miles per hour, their SUV is totaled, and they're confused and humbled. Thereafter, they are just as afraid to drive in snow as any good Portlander, because what happened didn't make any sense and they don't understand it so they fear it. Just like the rest of us.

Science tells us that it is this way because the temperature here just isn't cold enough, so the snow packs down into ice on the roads right away and is so close to the melting point that the friction of car tires melts it a tiny bit, making it extraordinarily slippery. My theory is that it's the song of the bridges, the same song that occasionally causes us to have the urge that leaves a lone bicycle leaning against the railing, no rider in sight. We don't mean to, it's just that the siren song rises these urges up in us and before we know it we're on autopilot, climbing over the railing or fighting the impulse to swerve off the bridge.That water vapor rises right up off the rivers and captures some of that song, and then it falls down on us in the winter, the soft pat-pat-pat of the snowflakes masking the song as they fall.

THAT'S the real reason the city shuts down when it snows, and the real reason everyone scurries home, pulls the blinds, and drinks until it passes.

I did get there safely, despite several mildly alarming slides and being stuck behind a guy turning left for several lights because he couldn't seem to get enough traction to get started. When I got to the auditorium, the event was canceled.

This made me think of you: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cromulent

...but one of the exciting things about getting older is other people's ideas.

I'm still young enough to get a tingle in my genitals over some hot gentleman who correctly socially presents for my idea of a mateable youth, but you know what really gets me going? Yeah. It's the ages-old story of the girl who can present the best research. Right?? You have all felt the same pressures, as young scientists... it's Darwinism, pure and simple, present or die.

RIGHT?

Right?

Right

There was some more super-entitled shitneckery on Facebook last night. Over an article in which some pipsqueak decided to take the drag community to task over their embracing the word "tranny", because people who don't know better use it as a slur when addressing transgendered people. And of course, transgendered people, specifically the ones under 30 who are apparently TOTALLY disconnected from the historical reasons drag queens and kings use the word "tranny" in the first place, are all that really matters.



I wonder if they're next going to inform the gay community that they aren't allowed to call each other fags? And tell all the lesbians how insulting it is when they refer to themselves proudly as dykes? Perhaps they will post flyers informing black people that they are horrible people for reclaiming the word nigger.

  what

http://music-mix.ew.com/2013/11/25/beastie-boys-respond-to-goldieblox-lawsuit-with-open-letter/

[What in the fuck are you people up to?]

Portland city buses are now sporting wraparound ads that declare "FREE YOURSELF IN TUCSON, SEE YOURSELF IN TUCSON".

What in the fuck are you people up to?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjHt5BJWBhA

I liked this lots: http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/10/brimstone-and-marmalade-aaron-corwin

My daughter has graciously informed me that much of the music she listens to is furry music, which is apparently their one positive contribution to society. An artist she recommends is called "Futret", who makes electronic music of the genres "Gabber" and "Pisscore".

Now you, too, can be in touch with the kids these days.

You're welcome.

This is a thread for all those conversations you wish you could have. You know the ones.

I'll start.

Dear Customer,

I was in the process of shipping the order that you placed this morning, and noticed that you requested that I get back to you on whether I could expedite your order and how much it would cost. I sent you the information you requested regarding shipping costs: $8 for Priority (1-3 days), $28 for Express (1-2 days), or no additional charge for the First Class (1-3 days) shipping that you already paid for, and am awaiting your response so that I can move forward with the shipping process. Your order, which would otherwise already be on its way to you, will be delayed while I wait for you to respond.

Wow, so I downloaded the Blippex tool for Chrome and it WON'T UNINSTALL. Plus it throws some seriously dirty lag on me. Anybody run into this?

First: My computer is in cahoots with them; it keeps marking all read when it thinks I'm not looking, but this time I watched as it did it, and my hands were nowhere near the keyboard.

This compound the Enemy has created is really very convincing at first. It offers the superficial trappings of luxury; an underground shopping mall, an indoor river, buildings inside of buildings and ballrooms with grand chandeliers, conference rooms and waterfalls and fountains and endless restaurants, a district called simply "The District" denoted by street markers with the silhouettes of dancing people, complete with nightclub and Irish pub and a sports bar and several stores selling Western gear. And you wander through that, and at some point you can make it to doors that you THINK lead outside, so you go out into the world and the trees and the bushes and you head toward the grand library building in the distance but when you get close you realize that despite the columns and the sign, it's no library. It's a bar and grill, and you're still inside.

You start to realize that most of the people aren't real when you notice that they disappear around eight in the evening. Whole wings of the hotel, the ones you aren't supposed to be in at that hour, are eerily empty.

By the second day, you have started to realize that what you mistook for grandeur is merely gaudiness, and that the luxury is superficial, like the delicious-looking custard tarts that turn out to be made of instant pudding and artificial whipped topping. There is no good food here; it all looks like gourmet food cooked by professional chefs but it's Food Service of America dressed up on bulk-rate white china.  So you go to the other side, and walk in a straight line, a simple straight line, because you know it can't actually  go on forever, it must end. You find a vast hall, a vast empty falsely-grand hall with great chandeliers dripping with molded-plastic crystals, and you walk through and push the doors on the other side. The air is cold; you have finally found the real outside, not the outside-that-is-inside but the real thing. You set out briskly, your heart pounding in excitement and relief. Until you get to the other side and realize that the creek you crossed over leads to a swimming pool and that you. are. still. inside. You give up and go back to the bar on the fake island in the fake river and ask for a cup of tea. They have no hot water, so you order a $12 glass of wine. It's drinkable, barely.

I got out for a while, today. I followed the tornado shelter signs into a concrete staircase and downward until I reached a bleak corridor with a pair of metal doors at the end. Pushing through them I found an awning and two metal benches, occupied by old people smoking cigarettes. Beyond the curb, a mile of empty parking lot. They ignored me as I walked past them and across the abandoned asphalt, dry leaves crunching underfoot, fists thrust in pockets and my breath making bursts of fog in the cold air as I strode briskly into freedom.

So I'm in this single mom group on Facebook and I swear to god, an awful lot of these ladies make my bad-decision-making days sound like the wisdom of the elders. Seriously, ladies. This week alone, one of them has given birth to a child she conceived during a bad decision that she knew at the time was a bad decision (and has spent her entire pregnancy raving about how angry she is at the father for not being there for her), one of them just found out a few days ago that she's pregnant by her bad-decision-du-jour, and a third today is regaling us with the story of her "Pull and pray" with some friend of hers she knows is a bad decision.

Condoms, ladies? IUD? Pill? ANYTHING? I swear to god I think I had less unprotected sex when I was TRYING to get pregnant.

I feel kind of guilty about being judgmental, but seriously with the frequency this is happening I'm kind of astounded. It's not a large group, there are under 50 members.   

Almost all of them are divorced and come from dysfunctional families-of-origin, and almost all of them are seemingly intelligent women in their 30's, who are doing things like inviting a bad idea to come to their house to give them a backrub and then "Oops! I was so surprised I didn't have time to point him to a condom! Great orgasm though!" and I'm like, what. Was that really a surprise? Because it sounded like a booty call. And then they're like "Oh shit I'm ovulating cross your fingers for me" and I'm like "Are you trying to get pregnant by a deadbeat? Because my reaction to that would be the morning-after-pill, which is totally available over-the-counter".

Also to me unprotected sex means "not using a condom even though I really should, but at least I won't get pregnant because of my primary birth control method", not "absolutely no contraceptive method with some backwoods yahoo that will disappear into the trailer park jungle in order to avoid supporting the accidental child I am totally unconsciously deliberately trying to conceive for some mysterious reason".

Of course, my method is not 100% either, witness Little Orange. But I can honestly say that was a bit of a surprise. And my ex is anything but a deadbeat.

Anyway I am apparently way more uptight and judgmental than I thought I was. And I want to take all these jacked-up fools to Planned Parenthood and teach them how it works.

Girl who just found out she was pregnant is having her period now and is freaking out.

Bet money she has her oops-friend over for an it-all-happened-too-fast-to-put-on-a-condom around ovulation time next month, too.   

I can't believe these women really exist.

So he doesn't mention the bridges. It's kind to not mention the silly little flaws in a love letter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/love-letters/love-letters-portland_b_4045539.html

Adapted from something I posted on Facebook (several teacher friends chimed in there, if you go to my profile you can read the whole discussion):

There is something very, very wrong with a world in which a ten-year-old child has more hours of homework to do each week than a full-time honors science major does. The common excuse given for this sorry state of affairs is that it "prepares them for college", which might be some sort of justification if it were true... which it is not.

Children coming out of the public school system today are less prepared for college than they have ever been in the past, and this isn't the fault of the teachers. It's the fault of a system that is so defective that from where I stand there is no redemption but to gut it entirely and rebuilt from the ground up, in a way that allows the educators themselves, people who have devoted their own educations and lives to understanding how to educate others, to make the calls and teach the children.

Why we EVER thought a one-size-fits-all approach would work in public education is absolutely beyond me. Here we have all these highly-educated teachers - people with Masters degrees who continue to attain higher levels of education annually - and for some reason, we decided that wasting their intelligence and expertise by requiring them to teach to the test and not to the child was a good idea. Are we freaking serious? What are we thinking?

This system is analogous to going to the doctor and requiring them to diagnose us based on looking things up on the internet. We have literally created a system in which highly trained professionals aren't ALLOWED to use their knowledge of education to teach our children. We are completely insane. We are churning out kids who can obey authority and take a test but have poor critical thinking skills and are afraid to use their inherent creativity, skills that are vital for college and for any fulfilling career, as well as for any nation's future success as a creator of innovation.

This link is old, but it's a sentiment I've heard echoed over and over again from public school teachers, and its flip side, the frustrating level of unpreparedness of recent high school graduates, from my college professors. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/09/a-warning-to-college-profs-from-a-high-school-teacher/

What I see, both as a parent of teenagers and as a college student sharing a classroom with the first wave of No Child Left Behind public school graduates, are people who have been trained to take tests. They may be angry, and they're right to be as their time and childhoods are being squandered, but they're obedient. They are also radically unprepared for a college environment. They want to know what's going to be on the test; they have been trained to memorize what's going to be on the test, not to understand and relate learning materials to their lives. The enormous, unrealistic amounts of homework - mostly pointless, grinding repetition - schoolchildren are expected to do in addition to being in a classroom for seven hours a day are also simply preposterous and bear zero relationship to what they can expect in college.

It's absurd. We've got all these educators, and we've rendered a system that effectively prevents them from educating.

Children literally have a biological imperative to learn; it's what they're designed to do. Somehow we have managed to invent a system that trains it out of them, and we call it "education". It's terrible. Worse, we all seem to have sort of agreed that even though it's terrible, it's necessary, so we keep on sending our kids to these terrible, ineffective schools to have a really unpleasant time for most of their waking hours, because we're convinced that if they don't, they won't learn. We are convinced that it's "better than nothing" even though study after study shows evidence that leaving a child up to their own devices, especially in this era when information is readily available over the internet, will usually result in a more comprehensive and deeper education.

Some references:
http://www.amazon.com/Dumbing-Down-Curriculum-Compulsory-Anniversary/dp/0865714487/ref=pd_sim_b_2
http://www.amazon.com/Instead-Education-People-Things-Better/dp/1591810094/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1383543408&sr=8-7&keywords=john+holt

I will post more tomorrow, along with some lecture links.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bin-laden-has-won-they-confiscated-my-honey-outspoken-academic-richard-dawkins-in-airline-security-twitter-row-over-jar-of-honey-8919618.html

World famous English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and unrelenting critic of religion and the religious, Richard Dawkins, has turned his anger on airport security rules after he had a jar of honey confiscated.

Dawkins, who is no stranger to Twitter controversy following alleged anti-Muslim comments he made back in August, declared on the micro-blogging site that 'Bin Laden has won, in airports of the world every day' after security took away his jar of honey.

The outspoken atheist, who came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, criticised what he called 'dundridges' - his word for petty jobsworths - and described the confiscation of his honey as a 'STUPID waste.'

The latest outburst follows a tweet in August in which he said: "All the world's Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. They did great things in the Middle Ages, though."

He was widely criticised by fellow twitter-users who claimed his comments were 'anti-Muslim'.

Last month the academic once again found himself at the centre of a row over an interview he gave to the Times Magazine in which he appeared to suggest he was the victim of 'mild paedophilia' at school and that current cases of historical child sex abuse had been overblown.

"I am very conscious that you can't condemn people of an earlier era by the standards of ours", he said.

There was little sympathy today in response to the tweets regarding the confiscated honey.

I mean, I hate the NSA. Everybody hates the NSA. But it's like this man can't open his mouth without something monumentally stupid and offensive flying out.

EXPLAIN YOUR PEOPLE.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/24/21115934-its-sad-mexican-clowns-distance-selves-from-drug-lords-slaying?lite

When people talk about "Americans" but what they really mean is "White people".

One of many problems, actually, that I have with almost any time people start a sentence with "Humans evolved to...", including myself. Seriously, I will punch myself in the face.

HUMANS DIDN'T JUST MAGICALLY STOP EVOLVING 10,000 YEARS AGO.

WE'RE STILL DOING IT. It's an ongoing process.

Anyway. Peeve aired. Carry on.

It's a sad day for comedy.



http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/TV/9805/28/hartman/

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/ryan-dunn-dead-jackass-star-car-crash_n_880322.html

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FI9JE00/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk



I really need to start publishing erotica on Amazon.

...basically at the heart of it, they're the same thing. Insecure people looking for a group to belong to that makes them feel superior to another group through no doing of their own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7IGiBJU4c

So, a local comedian told a rape joke, which fell flat. He then called out another, more popular local comedian, who was sitting in the front row, for not laughing at rape jokes even though she laughs at feminism jokes.

She went home and blogged about it, albeit without identifying him. Ensuing high drama is to be found here: http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2013/10/12/my-least-favorite-piece-of-misogyny-this-week-comedy-bullies

finding a good chainsaw forum, here's a handy guide: http://www.chainsawsdirect.com/stories/452-How-to-Find-the-Best-Chainsaw-Forum.html

This is interesting, and worth a serious look, IMO.

Abstract:

To date, 17 states have passed medical marijuana laws, yet very little is known
about their effects. The current study examines the relationship between the
legalization of medical marijuana and traffic fatalities, the leading cause of death
among Americans ages 5 through 34. The first full year after coming into effect,
legalization is associated with an 8 to 11 percent decrease in traffic fatalities. The
impact of legalization on traffic fatalities involving alcohol is larger and estimated
with more precision than its impact on traffic fatalities that do not involve alcohol.
Legalization is also associated with sharp decreases in the price of marijuana and
alcohol consumption, a pattern of results consistent with the hypothesis that
marijuana and alcohol are substitutes. Because alternative mechanisms cannot be
ruled out, the negative relationship between legalization and alcohol-related
traffic fatalities does not necessarily imply that driving under the influence of
marijuana is safer than driving under the influence of alcohol.

Full paper:
http://pages.uoregon.edu/bchansen/MML_Alcohol_Consumption.pdf

So, I think it's bullshit that this board has an entire topic that directly affects many of our lives, and is more or less afraid to discuss because one member insists on hijacking every conversation about it. Since I and a number of other people live in states where marijuana, medical or otherwise, is legal, I'd like to be able to simply share and talk about these findings and what they may mean. With that in mind, I would like to ask RWHN to please just leave this thread alone, or, if you must post, please refrain from endlessly repeating your disagreements merely to disagree, and provide citations for your assertions. The rest of you, I would ask you to please refrain from baiting, taunting, or mocking RWHN in this thread.

Thank you.

We've done this before, but I am interested in a slightly different take on it, especially in light of how it went before. I'm curious about not only what people recognize about their own privileges, but also what they see as their privilege detractions, and what others see as their potentially missed privileges. I would encourage everyone to recognize that privileges are not brags, but elements of each person's makeup which are unearned benefits. In that light, we are all making ourselves vulnerable by stating aspects of our being that we have been granted by no merit of our own.

I will start with my own privileges:

I am light-skinned, in a society which values light-skinned nonwhite people above dark-skinned nonwhite people.
I have good hair, by the above metric
I have fairly symmetrical and pleasing features
I have clear unblemished skin
Both of my parents are highly educated
I am above average intelligence


These are my privileges. I will talk later about my detractions. For now, I would like to hear about your privileges.

... but if you do, it could be invaluable.

At the beginning of April this year, I was tapped by the Huffington Post Live team for a discussion on narcissism. I happily agreed to appear, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that narcissism happens to be one of my favorite subjects. Early in my training, I had the pleasure of working with one of the foremost authorities on narcissism in our field, and in part because of that experience, I went on to work with quite a few clients who'd been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. That's where I learned that the formal diagnostic label hardly does justice to the richness and complexity of this condition. The most glaring problems are easy to spot — the apparent absence of even a shred of empathy, the grandiose plans and posturing, the rage at being called out on the slightest of imperfections or normal human missteps — but if you get too hung up on the obvious traits, you can easily miss the subtle (and often more common) features that allow a narcissist to sneak into your life and wreak havoc.
Just ask Tina Swithin, who went on to write a book about surviving her experience with a man who clearly meets criteria for NPD (and very likely, a few other diagnoses). To her lovestruck eyes, her soon-to-be husband seemed more like a prince charming than the callous, deceitful spendthrift he later proved to be. Looking back, Tina explains, there were signs of trouble from the start, but they were far from obvious at the time. In real life, the most dangerous villains rarely advertise their malevolence.
So what are we to do? How do we protect ourselves from narcissists if they're so adept at slipping into our lives unnoticed?
I shared some of my answers to that question in our conversation, and I encourage you to watch it. But there were a few I didn't get to, and others I didn't have the chance to describe in depth, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to revisit the topic here. Tread carefully if you catch a glimpse of any of these subtler signs:

http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/5-early-warning-signs-youre-with-a-narcissist/