Link Archive 8/10/14 – 9/17/14

Yes, today there are at least three links that originated from Scott’s blog. I don’t have a problem! I can quit any time I want! But first: This is what I think of your rabbit!

An atheist church is coming to Denver. Interesting… I fear this will be one of those things for “families” and “children,” but willing to give it a shot

Did you know this about Marx? Cuz I didn’t know this about Marx.
“[He’s] basically just telling us to destroy all of the institutions that sustain human civilization and trust that what is baaaasically a giant planet-sized ghost will make sure everything works out”
Damn, mysticism poisons *everything*. :/

The Answer That Destroys All Our Futures. A good point about banks that I never really thought about before. Society would suck quite a bit more without them. Article goes on to draw a parallel to make a social point, which is also good, but I found the up-front bank commentary to be most insightful.

San Diego School District gets a 18-Ton Armored Vehicle. School Librarians to Tamika Flynn: “Your move, bitch”

“Sarwar and Ahmed, both of whom pleaded guilty to terrorism offences last month, purchased Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies
..[They] may try to justify their violence with recourse to religious rhetoric […] but religious fervour isn’t what motivates most of them.
..large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy

Flight makes emergency landing because woman wouldn’t stop singing Whitney Houston song I Will Always Love You. This is exactly how I want to be escorted off a plane some day. (there’s video!)

Drone Discovers Abandoned Renaissance Faire Deep in Virginia Woods. I know what I’m doing if I’m ever in Virginia.

It hurts me a bit every time Scott says he’s against feminism, since he’s such an ideal example of all the best parts of feminism. I can’t stop admiring him. But he does have some good points which need to be made. If we’re losing people like Scott, we won’t win the long fight.
“everyone knows a Henry. Most people know several. Even three years ago, I knew there were Henry-like people – your abusers, your rapists, your bullies – and it wasn’t hard to notice that none of them seemed to be having the crushing loneliness problem I was suffering from.
And, like my patient Dan, I just wanted to know – how is this fair?
And I made the horrible mistake of asking this question out loud”

Jai responds to Scott – “there’s a much more charitable explanation of a world where almost everyone was and is trying to do the right thing.” Further quoting would just be me quoting the entire post, so… there’s the link.

The Denver Police Department has started using body cameras on their officers. Proud to be living in Denver. Over the past few years we’ve become a hell of a state. :)

Oh hell yes!! MTV releases the Liquid Television archives to the masses. Everyone who was a teen in the 90s knows how awesome this shit is. No one else will care. Which is too bad.

Posting in the hopes that this will help normalize the procedure, and more people will sign up for cryo over time. Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopter Is Cryonically Freezing His Body to See the Future. Also, he posted on LW when he was first diagnosed. The first two comments contain updates as he progressed. I can’t believe how fast that went. Get signed up early, most life insurance companies won’t accept you after something like this is diagnosed.

Good news everyone! Starting in October, Alzheimer’s Patients Will Be Injected With the Blood of Young People. If this works out, old people can feel better, and young people will have an easier time getting established and not suffer through as much getting-started poverty! Everyone wins :)

I always found Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun unbearable, because it seemed like a terribly depressing song forced into an upbeat tempo. At last someone has fixed this and made the music match the song. THANK YOU.

The Gingerbread Scientist. A short, sad story in comic form.

Facebook using their powers for good! Clearing clickbait from your news feed

We recycle everything we can. But in some cases, recycling is actually worse than throwing something away (most notable example being the dark glass of colored wine bottles)

Memorization of certain copyrighted material is infringement. Notably, many of these are test-practice materials. Even if these claims wouldn’t hold up in court, fucking someone over with thousands in legal fees to defend themselves is nearly as abusive.

The Strange Tale of the North Pond Hermit. This entire story is just FASCINATING. But one of things that most stuck out for me:
Robin Hanson has stated that the conscious self is a social adaptation – Consciousness is the PR-firm of the self, trying to make our actions look good to the other humans around us while still pursuing our own genetic interest. The North Pond Hermit provides support for this view –
“I lost my identity. With no audience, no one to perform for, I was just there. There was no need to define myself; I became irrelevant. The moon was the minute hand, the seasons the hour hand. I didn’t even have a name. I never felt lonely. To put it romantically: I was completely free.”

Humans Need Not Apply. “Horses today are unemployable. The horse population has plummeted since 1910.”
I expect my job to last 10 years before the computers replace my field entirely. 20 at the very outside. In the USA we *already* condemn a chunk of the population as Too Unproductive To Live, things are gonna get bad as this percentage of the population goes up. Perhaps at some point we will adopt the mentality Scott Alexander recommends and realize that “we were here first and society doesn’t get to make us obsolete without owing us something in return.”
But I’m not holding my breath, and I’m hoping to amass enough capital before that happens to hold me through the upheaval time in between.

The Jon Stewart Show back when he was on MTV. Somethings changed a lot, somethings haven’t changed at all. :)

Ferguson – “How does a stop for jaywalking turn into a homicide and how does that turn into an American town essentially coming under military control with snipers, tear gas, and a no-fly zone? … events like this don’t happen without a deeper context. Part of the context is the return of debtor’s prisons
… fines and court fees comprise the second largest source of revenue for the city
…You don’t get $321 in fines and fees and 3 warrants per household [annually] from an about-average crime rate. You get numbers like this from bullshit arrests for jaywalking and constant “low level harassment involving traffic stops, court appearances, high fines, and the threat of jail for failure to pay.”
(Also, did anyone else not know that we have a fucking NO-FLY ZONE over Ferguson?)

I know this dates me, but this is still my go-to Fuck The System music.
“I look in the mirror and what do I see?
It will all end in anarchy”

Ferguson – “Your right to demonstrate is not being denied” For exactly as long as you can stomach having machine guns trained on you.
The public is the enemy.

Ferguson – If the police shot you, what picture would the media use to represent you?

A news story from 150 years ago: The great balloon riot of 1864
“It is humiliating to think that after all the civilising influences which have been exerted upon them, so much of the savage should still linger in the blood of our working classes.”

Welcome to The Future! (Please enjoy responsibly.) (note: not sarcastic or ironic)