More Brains Than I Know What to Do With

[elfs]

Hidden bombshell in an article about political advertising. This article was supposed to be about how political advertisers are having trouble reaching an audience. For me, though, the bombshell was this: 31% of us don't watch TV according to schedule. Almost a third of Americans use Tivo or some other time-shifting device, get their television through an internet source, or don't watch television at all. Television isn't a broadcast medium at all anymore: it's a supplier of media in inconvenient packaging, an inconvenience which more and more of us are routing around with technology.

The Kindle Fire: Deeply Evil. Forget the walled garden of Apple, and enjoy the panopticon of Amazon. Not only does Amazon "optimize" your experience by caching your results, they also get to see record absolutely everything you do. They capture purchase and behavior information for everything you buy, and use that information to "optimize" Amazon to be more attractive than any alternatives. The market persists only because both sides have incomplete information about the value of a sale; Amazon is making sure that only you have incomplete information, but Amazon will know everything.

Lifehacker recently had a pick your Kindle flowchart, but it's missing one: "Value your privacy? Go to a fucking bookstore before they're extinct already."

Oregon: Jurors convict "faith defense" of manslaughter. Good for Oregon to claim that faith, and faith healing, are no longer positive defenses when charging someone with manslaughter for failing to get medical assistance for a minor child. The comments are... special. "This is the state telling us what we can and can't do to our children." Well, yes, that's partially what the state is for, you fool: the watchmen assuring you do not, even by omission, inflict mortal pain and suffering on those to whom you have responsbility.

How Stastical Behaviorism made video games compelling, rather than fun. This is a genuinely creepy look at the way the statistics were generated, and are now used, to create "social" games where you feel obliged to participate, but don't actually get any pleasure out of them. At least one woman who'd I desperately like to get into the pants of take out on a date has disappeared down the rabbit hole known as Farmville.

A more progressive tax system Confirming results we've known for ten years, the more egalitarian and equitable the arrangement, the happier and wealthier a state will be. When income disparity is relatively low, those on high don't feel the need for excessive guard labor, a hidden drag on economies, and the general welfare goes up faster. High Gini coefficients are associated with general popular malaise and mistrust. Just like the United States!

Comments

[reynai.livejournal.com]

On the 31% didn't watch live TV thing: Just today I read an article that showed more explicitly a similar thing on yahoo. Don't have the link handy -- but essentially, the 'live watch' audiences that the hit shows are getting today, are equivalent to what got shows just 10 years ago canned for lack of interest.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Regarding guard labour: I just returned from a trip to visit LJ friends in California, and was shocked at how many police officers and security guards there were. There were more police officers at the train station than Amtrak personnel. At the bus station, there were two guards at each bus inspecting the contents of people's luggage before they boarded the bus (approximately 20 people), but only three people at the ticket counter. When my friends took me to a supermarket, I commented on how there were two security guards ARMED WITH GUNS at the door; they were surprised, as they hadn't even noticed them.

Just for reference, there are no guards at Canadian train stations or grocery stores; there is a police officer on duty at the bus station in downtown Toronto, although he mostly just writes tickets when people park in the bus loading bays.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I went into guard labor over a decade ago because I saw the coming economic crunch and wanted to make sure I was indispensable.

Bus stations range from skanky to extremely dangerous.

I am surprised at your ARMED WITH GUNS remark. I am one of those myself, you see.

Canada appears to be extremely civilized.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Canada's not necessarily more civilized; we're just more effective at causing each other harm without needing weapons or violence.

Example: we destroyed the culture and language of many First Nation peoples by giving parents money if they sent their children to residential schools, even as late as 1996. At the schools the kids were required to only speak English or French. Without firing a shot, we committed cultural genocide. The government just paid the students a minimum of $10,000 each in compensation, but the damage is already done.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system#Reconciliation_attempts

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Ummm...

Yeah. Because we still do that. And the Head Tax too.

From that same wiki article, you should be aware that they link to the American version of the Residential School system, which they point out was remarkably similar.

As such, since America had declared *war* on its aboriginal population before sending any survivors to reserves and residential schools, we still come out ahead, since during that same period (namely, the Indian wars in the post-civil war period) we were actually protecting said people - from aggression from other tribes as well as from the American Army.

So your soap box is looking kind of shaky from here.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Agreed, the US had a similar system - but as you said, they had to declare war and send in lots of heavily armed troops to commit their genocidal crimes against humanity. We spread peace, order, and good government first, and THEN commited our atrocities.

It's a more subtle evil. Everyone expects the US government to kill, torture, lie, steal, break treaties, overthrow friendly governments, and basically act like an unsupervised five-year-old with poor impulse control. However, we're supposed to be better than that.

Being attacked by a known homicidal maniac hurts the body, but isn't too much of a surprise. Being stabbed by a trusted friend hurts the soul.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

The difference between bus stations in Canada and the US is very odd, considering that Canadian company Greyhound dominates the market in both. The six intercity bus stations that I've been to in Canada have been architectural cliches, but clean and well-maintained. The seven bus stations I've been to in the US had washrooms that would be classified as biohazard sites. I've never had my luggage or person checked by a security guard up here, but have on all bus trips in the US in the past few years. US Greyhound buses cram in more seats than Canadian buses, and the ones I was on lacked wifi and power outlets.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

I was doing PDX-SEA & back on Greyhound about once a month (and occasionally Portland to Eugene & back) for close to four years. Only once did I ever see security check bags. The security folks worked their way down the line rather than position themselves at the gate/door and have the line work their way past the guards. My ex was standing with me at the time. I'd realized I had a pocketknife in my bag. I handed it to him, he moved off to the side about 3-4 feet, the security folks worked their way past me, then my ex came back over to me and gave me back my knife.

Feel safer yet? For reference: this was in the late 90s, early aughts.

I've been on Amtrak a couple dozen times between PDX and SEA as well, and never once seen a baggage security check.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Likewise regarding Amtrak security - I've taken Amtrak five times in the past three years, and no baggage checks on any of them. Odd that they do the checks on buses, which have fewer passengers and would therefore be a less attractive target for violence.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

IIRC, that one time I saw security doing baggage checks at Greyhound was a week or two after a bus driver got stabbed during his route. Now that all the homeland insanity security is in place, I'm kinda surprised we don't see more security checks at Greyhound or Amtrak. Not that I'm looking forward to it, just surprised it isn't there. (Never mind appalled at how it was carried out the one time I did see it in place)

[zanfur.livejournal.com]

Wow. 69% of people in the US watch television to a schedule? Insane.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

"This is the state telling us what we can and can't do to our children."

What? You mean I can't sacrifice my children anymore and call it freedom of religion? Aw fuck!