Our Collapsing Civilization

User avatar
zaratustra
Posts: 1665
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:45 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby zaratustra » Sun Jul 24, 2016 5:19 pm

It is possible that they were confused by the many twitter users that voluntarily bracket their names with ((( ))) in order to throw off nazis.

It is possible.

But I doubt it.

User avatar
Romosome
Posts: 426
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 7:14 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Romosome » Tue Jul 26, 2016 12:49 am

I wish I could say that I'm surprised that an online hacking ground turned out to be a bunch of alt-right shithead 4channers but uh.

Even a dog knows this one.

User avatar
Romosome
Posts: 426
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 7:14 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Romosome » Tue Jul 26, 2016 1:59 am

what I hate most about this coincidence detector thing is how blatantly it's just 4chan greentext grammar

>>>IMPLYING etc

Like it literally just came from people replying to stuff with emphasized quotes like >>>HOROWITZ and that's so fucking lazy and sad

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Fri Oct 28, 2016 10:56 am

Someone on here's already mentioned the Philipines turning into MURDERLAND since Duterte's election, right? I think there was some brief discussion about the causal murder of thousands of "suspected" "junkies" (and the fact that this is wildly popular) as well as Duterte's crazypants version of "diplomacy" (not as popular, but the former is sadly trumping the latter)?

Anyway! It's ESCALATION TIME!

NYT: Duterte now just straight-up murdering politicians he doesn't like.

My guess is he gets away with it for now too. He's untouchable at home at the moment.
Image

User avatar
Da_Beerman
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 5:32 pm
Location: Republic of Korea offbase

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Da_Beerman » Sun Oct 30, 2016 3:55 am

Not sure if this belongs here or the election thread.

New This American Life episode about the GOP and insane misinformation made to stir anti-Muslim attitudes from town hall meetings.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Wed Nov 09, 2016 2:24 pm

Image

User avatar
Lyrai
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 5:34 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Lyrai » Mon Nov 21, 2016 10:03 pm

Are they woke?

User avatar
nosimpleway
Posts: 4514
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:31 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby nosimpleway » Tue Nov 22, 2016 4:05 am

You might be thinking of the security firm. You know. FAM.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sat Dec 10, 2016 4:47 pm

Whoops there goes all the sea ice!

(note that sea ice melting does not in and of itself contribute to rising sea levels - but it does accelerate the seas warming and land ice melting which does)
Image

User avatar
beatbandito
Posts: 4300
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:04 am

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby beatbandito » Sat Dec 10, 2016 6:37 pm

Welcome to another episode of slamming Mongrel for clickbait link titles!

Now, I don't understand the usage of Sigma as a measurement of accuracy any better than that it is used as a measurement of accuracy, so leaving just the data of the graph alone we still have the top comment:

Only problem is this data isn't from the exact same source.
The data is coming from DMSP F18 instead of DMSP F17. F17 had sensor issues starting around April 5th, and they transitioned data from F17 to F18 from April 1st on.
This can lead to inconsistencies in the data, since it isn't from the same source. Additionally the satellites won't have the exact same orbit, nor sensors.
Just something to keep in mind while looking at the data.


and even if you just look at how the end of year data lines up with the start of year
Image

That seems like the same declining pattern to me, not a big change.
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sat Dec 10, 2016 7:01 pm

Well that's all true, but isn't the 2016 line still markedly off the other, previous lines? It's still a cycle but the 2016 cycle is depressed as compared to the others?

Also, I was inclined to take it as presented because the guy who sent it to me actually works as a professional statistician (albeit for gaming companies).
Image

User avatar
Blossom
Posts: 2297
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 8:58 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Blossom » Sat Jan 07, 2017 1:58 am

You might have seen recently that Simon and Schuster gave Milo Yiannopoulos a quarter of a million dollar advance for a book deal, and a lot of people rightly calling for a total boycott of S&S publications over it. Well, the CBLDF released a joint statement announcing their support of Simon and Schuster's new pro-nazi publishing policy, trotting out that same tired "First they came for the Nazis..." false equivalence we've all come to know and love.
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Sat Jan 07, 2017 5:42 am

They should be free to publish.

Consumers should be free to boycott.

Seems fine.
Image

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Thad » Sat Jan 07, 2017 2:04 pm

Well, even the best civil rights organizations get it wrong sometimes. I've been disagreeing with the ACLU about money as speech for my entire adult life.

Boycotts are both an essential instrument of a free-market economy and a way of punishing speech we find unacceptable with more speech rather than government sanction. They don't oppose free speech, they express it.

(Though yeah, I acknowledge a little bit of cognitive dissonance between saying "money isn't speech" in one paragraph and "boycotts are speech" in the next.)

Plus, telling people they shouldn't boycott a thing is equivalent to telling them they're obligated to buy something, which is downright silly. People can choose to buy or not buy whatever they want, for any reason or no reason at all.

I disagree with the CBLDF on this one but I'm not going to boycott them over a misstep like this. They're still pretty high up on my list of charities to donate to (though in the past couple of months they've probably moved down a few notches; I'd say SPLC's probably at the top now given current circumstances). Hell, I wore my CBLDF T-shirt yesterday.

They do great work, and have been for decades. This is disappointing, but I hope it doesn't put anybody off donating to them.

But if it does -- hey, it's your money and you're free to spend or not spend it how you choose. And there are a lot of worthy charities you can put your money towards.

At the same time, personally I don't intend to boycott S&S over this. Milo is odious and I'd prefer they hadn't given him a platform, but if S&S publishes a book I want to buy, I'll still plan on picking it up. (And if I wait to buy it used in paperback, that's not me making a statement, it's me being a cheap bastard. ...except for the part where I won't buy it digitally because of DRM; that is me making a statement.) But anyone who does want to boycott the publisher, hey, that's your right, and more power to you.

User avatar
Classic
Posts: 1025
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 6:53 am

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Classic » Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:50 pm

I think the distinction you want to make is that you don't think money should be unconditionally protected speech. Ideally, the point of protecting free speech is enabling democracy and fledgling political parties. Not to provide the plutocrat class with megaphones for their ideas.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Tue Jan 17, 2017 2:37 am

Apology/warning: This is in French, so few of you will be able to read it, except perhaps via a klodgy Google translate version (though French-English is one of Google Translate's least awful translations).

Elle did an article on the state of love and sex in Japan.

I mean, I'm sort of familiar with all of this from various news stories in passing in recent years and it's probably not all that new for any of you either, but this a more comprehensive look. While the pitfalls for men are probably well known to most of us weeaboo scum and the article looks at both sides of the issue, they're definitely looking more at the female view (almost all the actual quotes are from women) so it's great to get that.

This is one of the saddest articles I can recall reading. Somewhere in Japan there are still young couples in love, but geez are the odds are ever against them. It really highlights the rising cultural challenge that's the other side of the Japanese government's attempts to raise the birthrate.
Image

User avatar
Mothra
Woah Dangsaurus
Posts: 3963
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA
Contact:

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mothra » Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:12 am

What's it say about women's side if the issue?

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:12 pm

Couple things. First, they talk about the rigid gender segregation in Japan, which encourages people to do stuff with their own gender and also mentions the rather severe taboo on public displays of affection. So BOTH genders are predisposed to doing "friends" stuff in stead of romantic stuff (BTW, the article didn't mention anything about homosexuality or related views). Part of the trouble is that the gender equality movement in Japan is actually quite large, but faces such a strong culture against it that they've responded in a very Japanese way, reinforcing gender segregation as a "separate-but-equal" system.

There's also gripes about disinterested men who don't put out, (and Japanese men are apparently despaired of in terms of sexual technique even when they do have sex more often) or who do, but only until the couple has a child. Part of that is the segregation factor, but it seems like love and intimacy just aren't taught as being valid by many families. Not that Japanese parents don't love their children, but they're so restrained that those children have no idea how to express anything but similar restraint. Women often throw themselves into child-rearing once the couple has a child and the man ceases to pay attention to his wife (separate bedrooms are apparently very common after a couple has a child), but it all repeats itself since the problem's been internalized, so you get mother-in-laws who defend sexless sons and tell off wives for demanding sex.

There's even a fair number of women who've bought so heavily into the notion that they approve of childless, sexless unions as "more pure" or who feel that the removal of sex from human relationships is empowering to women. But they're still the minority I think. For the most part there are a lot of very lonely women over there. The bit that I think most of us know is that the male side of the problem is the issue of many young men being raised on porno/VN/digital fantasy worlds. But there's also the issue of a lack of knowledge of real affection, of not being raised in an environment where that's normal. So the two in combination are particularly deadly.
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Mongrel » Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:45 pm

Guardian Longread: How Statistics Lost Their Power

Lies, damn lies, and...
Image

User avatar
Büge
Posts: 5440
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:56 pm

Re: Our Collapsing Civilization

Postby Büge » Sat May 20, 2017 7:57 pm

Image

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 34 guests