CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About…
A really good article with a ton of statistical data. Definitely worth the read:
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1
Reddit comment about Steve Jobs legacy
"It reminds me of Chicago film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, who was one of the few critics that disliked Star Wars. Even though George Lucas was part of that generation of filmmakers (Coppola, Scorsese, even Spielberg to some extent) of the 1970s that were creating personal and creative films, Star Wars pushed the film industry to big blockbusters and Rosenbaum wonders what wonderful gems might have been created had Star Wars never happened.
I think the difference between Jobs and Stallman is that Jobs was still a salesman, however visionary he may have been while Stallman believed in more of a communal view of computers as something we should share. Jobs had a vision for what people should buy and Stallman has a vision of what people should be. One can see which one our society values more."
Battlefield 3 Beta
So I tried the Battlefield 3 beta and I was fairly disappointed. Luckily I don't have to talk much about it because this YouTube video sums up the experience quite well:
Italian Wikipedia possibly shutting down because of insane legislation
A ridiculous new law has been proposed in Italy:
"This proposal, which the Italian Parliament is currently debating, provides, among other things, a requirement to all websites to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image.
Unfortunately, the law does not require an evaluation of the claim by an impartial third judge - the opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required, in order to impose such correction to any website.
Hence, anyone who feels offended by any content published on a blog, an online newspaper and, most likely, even on Wikipedia would have the right for a statement ("correction") to be shown, unaltered, on the page, aimed to contradict and disprove the allegedly harmful contents, regardless of the truthfulness of the information deemed as offensive, and its sources."
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Comunicato_4_ottobre_2011/en
Impulsiveness
I want to be more and less impulsive at the same time. It doesn't make much sense.
The Internet, social news websites & me
If you know me then you know that am obsessed with the internet. I have been obsessed ever since I was first introduced to it as a child. I don't remember exactly when and where I first 'logged on'. If I had to guess I would say at my friend Robert's house. When I was younger and he was still alive we would spend hours on the computer. He knew more about using them and knew his way better around the internet than I did. I remember being envious of him, but he showed and taught me a lot. I will always be grateful for that. Anyhow, Some of the most vivid memories of my childhood and adolescence are of using the internet. Not necessarily looking up crazy things, but the interactions that I have had with people. Part of me 'grew-up' online.
Using the internet when I was younger was overwhelming. The shear amount of information available on it was and still is almost incomprehensible to me. I will be eternally thankful to be one few people privileged enough to have internet access in the early nineties. The nostalgia of my childhood, growing up online, is really something I need to write about more. The reason I started this post was to talk about my love for internet culture, so I'll try and stay on topic. I'll probably end up editing this paragraph. It is really late now and I keep changing what I want to say in this post.
My first social group online was the AOL community. I quickly learned how to navigate the chat rooms and bbs systems that were available at the time. I became interested in the hacker, warez, pirate, phreaking scene and found some community in private chat rooms and websites. Eventually I graduated to using IRC and running a few of my own servers. Anyhow, during all of this I became aware of the first two social media websites that really appealed to me Slashdot and Fark. Slashdot.org was a site that I have spent hours on and still occasionally visit. At one point, around 2003-2004, it was probably the best tech news site on the internet. Not just for the content or the consistency of good articles, but for its community. The group of people posting there on a regular basis were probably the most intelligent and qualified concentration of individuals the internet had ever seen. Fark on the other hand appealed to my love of pop culture. A love that has really morphed in the past few years.
Around 2006 Digg.com was launched. I started using it when it was still fairly young. Again, the community was niche, similar to Slashdot, but without the regulations of a single topic. Anyone could post about anything, and I think that is what made Digg amazing, and ultimately what killed it. In the end Digg felt like it had been taken over by too much corporate advertising and sponsorship. The terrible site redesign should also be mentioned as a catalyst to the collapse. While I was enjoying Digg I knew Reddit existed. I didn't really like it but I never really gave it a fair try. Now I spend most of my time online on Reddit. I love Reddit because of its diversity. I started writing this post because I was on the subreddit for the environment.
The social opportunities of the internet will always amaze me, as long as it exists. More on that later though. I need to stop writing now, this will be completed later.
New iPhone and Apple rant
I really need to write out all the reasons why I first loved the iPhone and have now come to hate it and the evil parent company that produces it.
Now that I think about it, its a good metaphore for our current economic situation. I'll really have to sit down and type this out. It's going to be a few pages so it will probably take a couple of days.
Also, I'm getting a Samsung Galaxy S 2. I know I don't need a new phone, but I am starting to hate Apple and AT&T so much that I have decided I should stop using thier products. I will be putting my iPhone up for sale and switching to Sprint most likely.
I'm really tired of CORPORATISM. And I think the people who actually understand what it is and why it's bad are too. Maybe I'll go get in those occupy wallstreet protests. However, I'm not sure if any good will ever come of that. Trying to come up with a realistic demand in that kind of situation is impossible in my opinion.
PS - Fuck Comcast too! Thier internet service is farily reliable, but for what they charge, and the fact they have a government granted and protected monopoloy, it should be way faster. I am probably going to cancel my cable TV service as well.
Everything you would ever want to know about the Koch brothers
This Bloomberg article is really in depth, I haven't finished reading it yet. I've known about the Kock family for years now because my Dad loathes them. They are the epitome of coprorate greed.
Occupy Wall Street Day 10 Photos on Flickr
Not my photos but I figured I would share these:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixbuffalo/6187522516/in/set-72157627762555952
Cell phones in the Subway of NYC
Are you wondering why they don't put more cell towers in the subway stations of NYC? One could argue it is a safety issue not to have them. The MTA needs money.
"It has to pay the MTA 50 percent of the revenue it receives each year from "occupancy fees" paid by wireless carriers and other sub-licensees, with a minimum of $3.3 million annually once the build-out is complete."
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393671,00.asp#fbid=q6x4zHSqH75
Is this the world we want? (Anwar al-Awlaki’s extrajudicial murder)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/30/anwar-awlaki-extrajudicial-murder
"Can the executive order the assassination of a US citizen without first affording him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based on the mere assertion that he is a dangerous member of a terrorist organisation?"
Bricks will be thrown, warns David Simon, creator of The Wire
Great article about the war on drugs:
""Those who support it are essentially saying, 'In order to create some mild additional bit of distance between drugs and my middle class children, I will suffer, from my perch, seeing places like West Baltimore become free-fire zones. … I’m willing to fight my drug war to the last Mexican.'”
NEW FRONTIERS OF SOBRIETY – BEING ANTI-HIGH FEELS ANTI-GOOD
http://www.vice.com/read/new-frontiers-of-sobriety-984-v16n8
"Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In particle physics we learn that for all matter there can be antimatter of opposite charge. But what about drugs? Is there an anti-weed, an anti-heroin, or an anti-beer? Pharmacologically speaking, the answer is yes. Scientists can identify regions of the brain stimulated by a given drug and then create an anti-drug with the opposite mechanism of action. Substances that do the opposite of common recreational drugs are useful in overdoses but rarely become recreational drugs in their own right for the simple reason that they make you feel totally and completely miserable. I decided to systematically test three of the most powerful anti-highs over the course of one week. Here are my results:"
Nardwuar
This crazy guy from Canada named Nardwuar Serviette interviews musicians in quite a different way. Just watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RKbSi87J5Q&feature=related
Everyday Carry
This website is awesome and it makes me want to buy a new knife and flashlight. http://everyday-carry.com/
Wachovia, Wells Fargo & Epic Money Laundering
Wachovia helped launder drug money. How much you ask? Oh only $378.4bn, one third the GDP of Mexico. No one individual is criminally prosecuted though. To top it off, Wachovia settles with the government for a measly $110mn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs