elfs | Entries tagged with brains

How Public Transportation Really Works: The Geometry of Cities A very good essay on how conservative and technological fixes don't change how cities work. Elon Musk and Uber can't engineer our way to a better city; what's really needed is strategic allocation of public transport and infrastructure money to encourage walking within the city, and public transport such as busing and light rail, to reach the city.

Less than half of all stocks outperform US Treasury Bills

Which was more technologically advanced, the Roman Empire or Han China?. Spoiler: While the answer is "it's a tie," the differences between the two are very interesting.

Pre-Kindergarten programs for low-income students offer high-quality and long-lasting benefits

Stark divide in generational acceptance of Trumpism: Even young Republicans are disgusted with the Republican Party

The Coming Age of Genetics is Now. This one is really important, because I've long held that American squeamishness over stem cell research and other biological issues is going to cripple us; twenty years from now, the wealthiest Americans will be jetting to South Korea and Scotland to receive working cures for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, and significant reversals of other gerontological defects, and the rest of us will be reduced to third world status, fit only to be discarded by time.

How to fold a fitted sheet

Observe, Orient, Decide, Act

The EPA is being dismantled from within I hope you've enjoyed the last 30 years of clean water and breathable air, because Trump's EPA wants you to have to pay for those things. They're not inalienable rights.

Why Personas Fail. I've seen this several times in my career. As a professional developer, I've often said and even written, "This software is meant to be used by people," and then had other teams end up writing software that made sense to them, but not to anyone who lacked their context.

If Statements: Guard Clauses may be all you need This is something I'm surprisingly passionate about: the use of if statements in programming as guard clauses is valid and useful, especially if the language permits early returns, but is otherwise a code stink; if statements create separate code branches which are not immediately visible and yet must both be tested well. One thing that deeply frustrates me about Rust is the lack of an if not let clause which would allow guard conditions with Option.

Podcast listeners actually do listen to the ads. Good stuff if you podcast; your message is getting through, and so are your advertisers.

Current Mood: contemplative

The Hobbit: The Misty Mountains covered acapella, by one guy. Peter Hollens does a very convincing multi-voiced piece all by himself.

Do you like Leonard Cohen? Of course you do! Do you like pain? Of course you do, you like Leonard Cohen! Therefore, you will love this Christian (or Christianist) re-write, with Youtube recordings, of Cohen's masterpiece, "Hallelujah." (I disagree with Jessica that it's "The Best Song Ever." It's awesome, but nothing will drive me to tears faster than Cohen's "Thousand Kisses Deep.")

Phrase of the day: agnotologic capitalism: a capitalism systematically based on the production and maintenance of ignorance. Unfortunately, I don't think the writer goes deep enough into the willful participation of the ignorant. They really would rather not know how deeply dipped in shit we all are.

Ah, Victor Davis Hanson. I've actually read a few of his histories, and found them bracing and manly. Which is why his descent into a whining wingnut cretin grates so on the nerves. Davis refuses to take the world as it is-- refuses to even try to understand the world as it is-- and instead wishes we went back to a time when naked oil wrestling was the way real men settled disputes. Only, in a purely heterosexual way.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: The Misty Mountains
Crossposts: http://elfs.livejournal.com/1531676.html

Increasing Wealth Inequality Is A Warning Sign Of Instability: Forbes Magazine (!) posts a rather obvious review of the work of J. K. Galbraith, and admits that the biggest creating of "money" (not "wealth") in our country is the financial industry, which has made more money by moving money around, rather than manufacturing or building great stuff.
Apollo Flags Still Standing, Photos Reveal: But that's impossible. Everyone knows the landings were faked. I think this is 'shopped. I can tell by the pixels, and because I've seen quite a few 'shops in my time.
Phantom States and the Neo-Medieval Internationalists: I don't think this is so Neo. After all, Panama in the 19th century was more or less a phantom state; as long as it sent its ~~tribute~~ taxes to Colombia, Colombia was willing to not send troops into that thin isthmus. It wasn't until the US wanted the isthmus for itself that Colombia started freaking out about the little territory so far on the other side of impenetrable jungle and high mountains that the only reliable way to communicate with it was a four-day sea voyage.
Church refuses to marry black couple in Mississippi: The couple claims it was due to their race. Still, as the late Senator Anselm J. McLaurin of Mississippi once said, "The right of the community to rid itself of personae non gratae must be defended. They must submit to the will of their neighbors; that is the way of the South. I myself have known persons who were asked to leave town in twenty-four hours." I have no doubt the Senator did.
NASA will be able to monitor Curiosity Landing in real-time: Oh, good. I'd hate to miss the opening of the best adventure flick of the season.
The Secret Consensus Among Economists: Despite the willingness of some loudmouths to hog the spotlight, the fact is simple: the broad consensus among economists is that the stimulus worked and prevented deep depression, that cutting tax rates now will not help the economy one whit, and that energy policy won't change the price of gas. All of these are completely contrary to typical right-wing talking points.
Nice! The Dems speak truth to power for once.
Mitt Romney surrogate suggests Obama doesn't understand the 'Anglo-Saxon heritage': Yep, no race-baiting from the Romney camp at all.
Richard Mourdock on 'Tyrannical Principles: The man who defeated Richard Lugar to run as the Republican senatorial candidate from Indiana called Barack Obama's rescue of Chrysler as 'tyrannical' and that Obama "fails to understand the types of Americans ... who work and sweat and toil."
Libertarianism has two paths to political power: (1) vote Republican, (2) there is no 2.: Political charity is seen as weakness, not compromise. The Republicans are no longer interested in governing; they are interested in ruling.
Mitt Romney calls on the US to adopt Israel's single payer health care system.: And yet, somehow, the US must retain insane profits for health company stockholders and outrageous compensation for the CEOs.
Puppeteer for Christian Television Network children's show busted for kiddie porn, "child cannibalism porn.": Eww. I'm just sayin'. Eww.
Democrats introduce 'Cure for AIDS' Act: It's to fund a Manhattan-project sort of system to find the cure. It's an interesting choice. HIV is a well-studied virus, a specific problem (unlike cancer), and curing it could be a breakthrough in discovering viri's weaknesses. It's also politically popular. People don't like fucking in fear.
Romney's speciality is destroying relationships: Paul Krugman on what Romney did for a living:
Bankers of yore operated by building relationships; Bain made its investors money in large part by breaking relationships, e.g. by walking away from implicit promises to workers. It’s not a style that makes for good diplomacy.
And again, it's the brokenness of the US Tax Code that makes creatures like Romney so impossibly successful.
Scalia rejects privacy rights: Can we just impeach this man already? Last week he said he wanted an 'originalist' reading of the Second Amendment, so banning the carrying of hand axes was legal since they're not "hand-portable firearms", but it was okay to walk around with a rocket launcher, since they are. Now he believes that Griswold, the decision that made conversations between a doctor and patient about birth control none of the State's business was wrongly decided.
Paranoid Delusion as Marketing Strategy: Dr. Science points out that since guns are among the most durable goods sold, and gun sales have been outstripping population growth over the past decade, sales indicate that an ever-shrinking population of gun buyers is buying whole arsenals. James Holmes didn't stand out because there are thousands of people who buy in the same pattern. What are these people buying them for? Are they hoping to arm the rebellion once it starts, or what?
Income vs. Tax Rates for last five presidents, and Mitt Romney: Look at that spike! It's like he's from another planet or something. What this tells you is that Romney is certainly the wealthiest man we've had running for president in a long time, and he's really good at gaming the tax system.
The Meth Labs of Democracy: A long article outlining just how psychotic red states are, how badly they fail their citizens, and just how badly they drag down the rest of the nation. The worst example for me is Louisiana, where Bobby Jindal is ready to turn over the state's education coffers to Christian schools exempt from any standards compliance whatsoever. An advisor to Jindal said it would "Release the word of God." Because that's what education is for.
Shark Sex: Nastier and skiffier than you already imagined. Breeding is basically rape. Sharks have two uteri to produce two progeny, although many eggs will be fertilized, because each will have eaten all its siblings in the womb.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Laurie Anderson, Love Among the Sailors
Crossposts: http://elfs.livejournal.com/1513346.html

Good advice of the day: The Fake AP Stylebook says, when writing villains: Show them all, don't tell them all.

Your brain [not] on porn. This website would be an absolute hoot if people didn't take it seriously. The author goes from noting that while watching porn certain portions of our brain are activated, to reviewing studies that show that rats on meth show degeneration in analogous brain locations, and concludes that "looking at porn is as destructive as being on meth." Even worse, his site cross-promotes with a "kindler, gentler pick-up-artist technique" site.

Mitt Romney's awkward bonding tour with America. Suave doesn't begin to address this guy. One thing Andrew Sullivan's commentors said of the "dressage" video was "You know, Romney looked relaxed and human." Of course he did-- he was in the presence of useful sycophant and fellow rich guy Sean Hannity.

Harmless Movie: The trailer for a Christian fundamentalist horror film about a man who starts watching porn. You have to watch the trailer. It's unbelievable.

Don't expect applause. Seth Godin is being smart again. Accept applause, but when you aim for applause, you're aiming for what you can't control.

The Republican National Convention attacks Obama for being "too human." No, really, compared to the MittBott™, Obama is too funny, relaxed, and human for the guy who's supposed to be running our country. We need a soulless vulture in the oval office, stat.

I bet civilized, successful nations like the Netherlands, Germany, and France don't let debt collectors be part of your hospital care team. What the fuck is wrong with this country?

Mental illness on display: When one lawmaker tried to deny Medicare payments to "pray the gay away" therapists, another challenged his belief in Jesus, and on that justification the amendment to deny was defeated.

And finally, if this video doesn't make you weep, you're dead to me:

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Analog Pussy, Dream On
Crossposts: http://elfs.livejournal.com/1502755.html

James Scott, "Legibility," Flavius Apion, Anoup, the Emperor Justinian, Robin of Locksley, Rebecca Daughter of Mordecai, King Richard, and Others... Brad Delong tells a tale of "legibility." "Legibility" in this case is the ability of a centralized government power to discern what is going on in the periphery of its responsibilities. He starts with Emperor Justinian's inability to see clearly what is happening in the provinces, which are behaving more like feudal states with local lords than like the legal order of the Imperial Republic, and Justinian's inability to do anything about it because he relies on the local lords to inform him. "Illegibility" in this case is a description of The SNAFU Principle.

Police Tell Brooklyn Women Not To Wear Skirts If They Don’t Want To Be Raped. [Ads on this site probably NSFW]. The Department For The Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice strikes again. Look, whoever's assaulting women in Brooklyn would attack even if every woman wore a freakin' burqa. It is not the police's job to police the public dress of its citizenry.

On the other hand, I'm annoyed by Roche's attitude toward the gun thread on the news site. The world is full of assholes, and the cops can't hover over every single one of them. It's a sick and misogynistic attitude to believe that a woman who has been raped is somehow morally superior to the one who shoots an assailant, but that is the moral calculus at the extreme end of liberal sensibilities. It's as misogynistic to tell a woman that "carrying a gun is acting like a man," as it is to question my masculinity when I wear my kilt.

The Fermi Paradox solved: our galaxy farts, so no one will come near

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Adagio, Second Sight

Shortpacked nails the DC Sexism Controversy. In case you missed it, DC Comics "rebooted" their entire universe this past month. Reception to the new Wonder Woman was strong, especially since they gave her pants, but then came the release of Red Hood and Catwoman, two comics that were so repulsive in their depictions of woman (Starfire and Catwoman in particular) that many people reeled back with alarm. Laura Hundson at Comics Alliance has more to say about it, and includes some valuable demonstrations about how both Starfire and Catwoman were, in the late '80s and early '90s, depicted as sexual and sexually secure, but now they're just bad wank machines.

One reason you should never just grab your spouse's computer

The Unintended Consequences of Cyberbullying Rhetoric. I don't believe Stormy's bullied in the way people talk about modern bullying. Certainly the one time she tried to date a girl she took an awful lot of harassment, and the relationship ended because of it. She's taken on a political role by joining her high school's GSA, and I'm glad to hear it. But this article goes a long way toward explaining why high schoolers won't admit to being bullied: it would mean taking the label of "victim," and that's a surrender of power. High schoolers use the word "drama," and twist what we tell them ("High school is a hellish hothouse completely unlike real life") to deflect any suggestion that they're weak.

Brown people in America are obliged to be patriotic! Remember all that brouhaha about how Obama didn't have his hand over his heart during the national anthem? Rick Perry doesn't do it either. But Perry's white, and Republican, so he gets a pass.

The Gay Soldier and the Republican Debate. This is the event that had me fuming about Rick Santorum, and his failure to honor the soldier (who's freaking in Iraq as he asks his question) or get angry at the audience for booing. Even worse, a soldier back from the war tells Newt Gingrich about how badly gays and lesbians will be for morale, and Newt says they can undo Obama's "social engineering."

Current Mood: amused

That's right, kids, I have a terrible headcold and can't think straight, and I don't have the energy to write much, so today's is an all-entertainment edition of the Braindump:

ThunderLOLCats. LionLOL and his father defend the Cat Fortress from as many memes as you can pack into four minutes.

Airwolf. All of history has been leading up to this one thing. Airwolf. The coolest thing you can imagine? Airwolf. It's an adjective, a superlative. When you've done the best work of your life, at that moment, you are Airwolf.

Sesame Street Gets Gleeful. Sesame Street tells kids about the letter 'G', gets right with the 'G' club, and has a faaabulous ending song, complete with gay Sesame Street characters and glitter!

"The Sword of Cold Facts" is my Carl Sagan cover band! As for why Carl Sagan even needs a cover band, check out A Glorious Dawn!

My Little Pony cosplay. Safe for work, but super-cute costumery from six super-cute women is worth a glance!

Sinfest on where Cupid gets the raw material for his arrows. So cute it makes My Little Pony look weak. Actually, Tatsuya makes so many MLP references, and if you look at the lines and gradients in his 2011 Sunday comics you start to see that he's a major Lauren Faust fan.

How to peel a head of garlic in ten seconds. Entertaining and useful! You can thank me later.

Current Mood: amused

Wonkette pens the speech Obama should have given about Libya:

We were dealt a pile of complete shit, and the only way out of it is trying to pick up the shit. There were three options for doing this, and all of them were bad and would end up getting at least some shit on our stuff. I had to pick one, so I did. We may have to switch that strategy in the coming days and put even more effort into this so we don't get shit all over the fucking place, so don't get all pissy, but that's the one I'm going with right now. I'm sorry somebody put this shit here. Hopefully we can get it picked up eventually. God bless America or whatever.

Changing Corporate Gender: A Case Study. It's about oil-rig workers (!) being trained out of their traditional macho attitude (!) to embrace their feminine side, only to be shown and ultimately accept how doing so saved lives and money.

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, there goes my whole image of Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis all shouting at each other, "I will make 800 feet!" Never mind Bill Fichtner's awesome delivery: "Get. Off. The. Nuclear. Weapon!"

Tea Party Nation warns America: White people are going extinct, and you can't have America without them.

All of these programs, ideals and ideologies are doing one thing and one thing only - reducing America core total fertility rate to the point of no return. The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant population in America is headed for extinction and with it our economy, well-being and survival as a uniquely America culture.

This county is dying not because it is aging, it is dying because of infertility as public policy.

Google's Recipe Search deliberately privileges big producers, hurts food bloggers. An article on how Google's use of the hRecipe microformat makes it hard for Grandma to tell the world about the best pumpkin pie humanity has ever experienced.

Current Mood: giggly

The Art of Manliness: How To Make a Bed.

Monday night's dinner: Moroccan Pita Sandwiches. These were yummy with a carrot slaw dressed with macadamia-lemon sauce.

Tuesday night's dinner: Chicken Butternut Tagine. With couscous on the side. We had an acorn squash left over from the winter groceries, and it needed to be used up. Also, dates instead of prunes. Kalamata instead of picholine.

Also: How to hold a knife. I've been using this technique recently and it really does work. It takes some getting used to, but the power and accuracy earned with it are worthwhile.

Newt Gingrich's Family Value Problem. David Frum sez: "It's not the infidelity. It's the arrogance, hypocrisy, and - most horrifying to women voters - the cruelty. Anyone can dump one sick wife. Gingrich dumped two." Yep.

And apparently I've done a good job of taking care of at least one major component of the Elf Sternberg brand: In Gender Differences and Casual Sex, Thomas Maculay-Millar discusses findings that show that

That most of the gender difference in women's and men's propensity to agree to a proposition for casual sex is driven by women's perception that their risks are higher, and their likely enjoyment is lower from the proposer. ... The only consistently significant predictor of acceptance of the sexual proposal, both for women and for men, was the perception that the proposer is sexually capable (i.e. would be "good in bed") ... People who perceived the proposer as a better lover were more likely to accept the offer. Warmth was a marginally significant predictor of acceptance of the sexual offer, with those who perceived the proposer to be warm being somewhat more likely to accept.

Huh, so that's what I've been doing right all these years. Gotta work on that 'warmth' thing, though.

Current Mood: amused

Nerdy:

Roll a Powerful Media HTPC for Less Than $500. I've been planning on doing this as one of my two special-purpose computers for a while. This is a nice intro, although once again the Ars Technica HTPC Guide has a different, more powerful set of recommendations.

Effective Design for Multiple Screen Sizes.

Tutorials for Making Your Website Mobile Friendly

What Are The Top Three Things All Small Business Websites Need?

An Introduction to Backbone: Models and Collections. Backbone is awesome. There a part 2 for Views and Controllers, as well. (I quibble with the Backbone definition of "controller", though; it's more of the application router in the Rails or Django sense, not a controller the way it's used in MVC.)

Food and Exercise:

Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie. Again, the message here is: strength is longevity, 99% of fitness advice is BS, freeweights and form are everything.

Black-Bean and Tomato Quinoa

Puerto Rican Pernil: Pork Shoulder

Stir-Fried Chicken With Ketchup

Sex and Politics:

Sex-Positivity and Asexuality: Bringing Them Together. A fairly good article about how sex-positivity is about understanding and appeciating your sexuality, even if it's one where happiness is defined by a lack of actual sexual content.

Maggie Gallagher wants women to stop enjoying anal sex, saying sodomy is an "anti-feminist act". Maggie has just been thinking too much about anal recently, with her obsession with gays. When she rants about gays being "unnatural" and "unhealthy," it's buttsecks she's thinking about. Even I don't think that much about sodomy!

Canadian bishops want women to stop enjoying anal sex. As usual, the Catholic Church wants humanity to cut itself off from its own nature, saying "Only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love."

Congress moves to redefine rape. They want rape to require the use of a weapon or restraint in order to qualify as "rape". For all others-- for example, a minor who becomes pregnant from an adult relative-- any abortion procedure would have to be paid from a separate fund from all other health care funds her caretakers have, as almost any traditional fund comes with tax breaks the Right wants to deny in this case.

Current Mood: happy

A free story from Jay Lake: Elf Shit. Pure Jay. Inhale deeply.

Finite State Machines in Erlang

Finite State Machines in Javascript

David Brooks meets the Jews. You know, Brooks is supposed to be a Jew. But he seems surprised by the effectiveness of what is the fairly standard community building and training techniques of schul.

Wait, what? Apparently, the Council of Conservative Citizens is very upset that Marvel has cast a black guy in the role of Heimdall, Guardian of the Bifrost Bridge. (Guiding principle #2 of the CofCC reads, "We believe the United States is a European country and that Americans are part of the European people.")

Current Mood: tired

The State of The Music Industry and the Delegitimization of Artists

TuneCore brings us the good news: the music industry is doing better than ever. Revenues are up 50% over 5 years ago (that's 10% growth each year, exceeding inflation!). But you would never know: the noise machine that surrounds, supports, and derives revenue from the music industry only tells us that labels are suffering.

Who gives a shit about the labels? The labels do, and they have lawyers, money and attitude. The bad news, TunaCore reports, is that the labels are working harder than ever to de-legitimize musicians you've never heard of, describing unlabeled music as "noise" and even denying "undeveloped" musicians the label of "artist." Worse, your rights as a musician are poorly articulated and frequently missed by those who just want to get their music out there, leading to your being screwed by those with the lawyers, guns and money.

An excellent article for any artist, in any medium. I hear similar arguments from the gatekeepers to the Nook or Kindle every day.

Judge in Xbox-Modding Case Berates Prosecution, Puts Trial on Hold

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez berated the prosecution in a case involving the modification of the X-Box. Matthew Crippen was arrested for selling his skills as an X-Box modder to people who wanted their boxes hacked and the security circumvented. Guiterrez went all-out on the prosecution, saying that one of their own witnesses was himself a modder, something the prosecution fought to keep from the record, and that another witness had violated California's privacy laws to obtain evidence. (If true, the evidence is tainted; why is it even being considered?)

The judge even reversed himself and decided to permit a "fair use" defense at the trial. Now that's actually interesting, because I feel that if you own something, it's yours, and you ought not to be "protected" or prevented from modifying it in any way you see fit.

NASA announces discovery of new form of life

Although not as Earth-shaking as the discovery of alien life, this one blows my mind. I mean, the very basis for life on Earth is phosphate groups, isn't it? All DNA is made of phosphate groups. The idea that there's a bacteria that uses arsenate groups for its encoding is mind-boggling. It also implies that abiogenesis may have happened more than once.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Boom Boom Satellites, 9 Doors Empire

My husband is a programmer and I have no idea what that means. One geek girl's attempt to convince the wives of programmers to better understand their geeks.

Nerd Boyfriend: Carson Kresley (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) for Nerds. Wanna dress like Einstein? Here's where you can buy his shoes.

MC Chris. Nerdcore galore, with some great tunes well worth listening too, including the unlisted Ke$sha autotune parody, I love doing drugs.

Dark Patterns: The Evil That Website Developers Do.

Watermelon Feta Salad. A very cool recipe for these hot summer days.

Will Wall Street require Python: "We are proposing to require, along with the prospectus filing, the filing of a computer program of the contractual cash flow provisions expressed as downloadable source code in Python." From page one of the SEC's proposed revisions 33-9117. Fascinating!

How Video Games Taught Me About Sex, a right-on article about a woman claiming her sexuality as her own after Bloodrayne's title character showed her that it was possible to be smart, sexy, and unstoppable.

Spanking 101 Warning: this article was written by Fox New's "sex health expert." Brainbleach, please!

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Nine Inch Nails, Heresy

How Goldman Sachs gambled on starving the world's poor - and won. Johann Hari explains how Goldman Sachs pressured legislatures to deregulate futures trading in food commodities, and then used those commodities markets as a reliable retreat from collapsising real estate markets, in the process jacking the price of bulk foods up by as much as 320%, causing mass starvating and death. Futures trading is a way of managing risk; bundling those futures as derivatives created even more risk than a market without futures trading. Goldman Sachs exploited that "flaw" for its financial benefit.

The strong do what they will, the weak endure what they must - Thucydides.

How to make an American job before it's too late. Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, explains how the disconnect between startup and manufacturer threatens the future of American prosperity, and how we need to stop thinking about "China strategies" and start thinking about "America strategies" for our companies when they get big enough to need mass-production.

Many Poisoned Rivers. Jonathan Mirsky reviews Jonathan Watts's new book, When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind - Or Destroy It. Watts outlines how China's manufacturing zones are becoming toxic wastelands, the rivers are contributing to the Pacific Ocean's degredation, the water is undrinkable and the air unbreathable.

After you've read about fifty pages you will find his occasional attempts at fairness bizarre, as in his clichéd conclusion that, faced with two 'extremes', 'the truth was probably somewhere in between'. But there is no 'in between'. China is destroying itself and threatening the rest of us. And, like useful idiots, we are helping the Chinese do it.

Proportional Leading For Fluid Web Designs. White space between rows of text must be proportional to the width of the text. This article shows you how to lead (that's "led", not "leed") your line-heights properly so your pages show up great on both your 1920x1080 monitor and your 320x480 smartphone.

How to use Starbucks as your office. Now that Starbucks offers free wi-fi, learn how to use it well.

Very Scary Fireworks. In 1962, the United States exploded a fusion bomb over Hawaii. Here's the video of that event.

Wonder Woman's new costume. Woah. No heels. No excess skin. What is the world coming to? (Apparently, JM Strazynski is coming to Wonder Woman, that's what.)