With an election coming up we're all sure to be exposed to repeated insistence that a person who works hard can make it anywhere in America, science continues to disagree.

I may have found The Pervert's Guide to Ideology marginally more easy to follow if Slavoj Žižek could have kept even half of his cocaine sniffles off camera. Did the director think they added to the film?

I’m scared of people who look at someone like Zoe Quinn, an individual who makes free indie games, or Anita Sarkeesian, an individual who makes free YouTube videos, and honestly think that these women are a powerful “corrupt” force taking away the freedom of the vast mob of angry young male gamers and the billion-dollar industry that endlessly ( Read more... )

I'm reading Exopraxia, the followup to Blindsight, a book that is available for free, and which I highly recommend if you can handle some existential science horror. I feel like if Ian M. Banks' culture series is emblematic of a European hyper-humanist brand of futurism, Watts' fiction is the beginning of a movement dedicated to depicting exactly ( Read more... )

Today I was supposed to leave with my parents on a road trip to San Diego to see my sister who lives there currently. It was to be my first trip out of my room for more than say 2 hours in ages. Ever since I became aware of the trip I've been feeling anxiety about it. I haven't got one night of uninterrupted sleep where I don't wake up thinking ( Read more... )

Today the supreme court ruled that, being people, corporations have the right to freedom of religion. The form this freedom takes, in this case, is that people who do not follow the owner's religion must not use their pay to buy anything the owner objects to. Hooray for freedom ( Read more... )

Longdon is no stranger to such attacks. Last May in her hometown of Phoenix, ... Longdon returned home around 10 p.m., parked her ramp-equipped van and began unloading herself. As she wheeled up to her house, a man stepped out of the shadows. He was dressed in black and had a rifle, "like something out of a commando movie," Longdon told me. He took ( Read more... )

As a twin I find this article amusing. Twins are subject to a lot of stereotypes and even some discrimination and I occasionally find it gratifying to find tropes about twins mocked.

The top of my left foot, where I was stung by the scorpion several days ago, stopped hurting two days ago but is still completely numb. I cant feel heat or cold there, I cant feel any touch there. I hope the sensation returns, mostly because I hate to think I'm sharing my room with creatures that can give me permanent nerve damage ( Read more... )

A few nights ago I killed the first scorpion of the season in the kitchen. Just a moment ago I got stung on the foot by the second. Evil evil fucking bugs.