CAT5

Ya know. Despicable as it is, people lie all of the time. You have people that lie for absolutely no reason, you have people that think telling white lies somehow makes it less of a lie. You've got lies of omission. You've got ppl who deliberately lie for selfish and/or nefarious means. Even some of the most upright folks will lie if it benefits them. And hell, most of us lie to ourselves on a daily basis. People lie.
 
But what amazes me is that some people have a hard time even just entertaining the possibility that many things that have been accepted as fact or that people put their trust in, whether we're speaking about history or modern times, could indeed be lies.
 
Maybe it's because being so-called "woke" has become such a meme that people seem less inclined to consider ideas that might directly contradict the status quo or history as we know it? I don't know. But I don't even think it's a matter of being woke, honestly. I think it's a matter of common sense: Just because one has a title like historian, scientist, politician, banker etc....that does not exempt them from fallibility, corruptibility, or the human condition.
 
Everything we put our trust in is the product of other human beings, most of which are just as fucked up as we are (if not more). That's a sobering thought. Knowing how humans are, it just makes me wonder how many personal/political/religious agendas and biases have shaded the lenses through which we view the world.

sheesh.
 
I hope this band keeps pushing forward. They'r one of the few, newer VK bands that I've taken a serious interest in.

Ya know. Despicable as it is, people lie all of the time. You have people that lie for absolutely no reason, you have people that think telling white lies somehow makes it less of a lie. You've got lies of omission. You've got ppl who deliberately lie for selfish and/or nefarious means. Even some of the most upright folks will lie if it benefits them. And hell, most of us lie to ourselves on a daily basis. People lie.
 
But what amazes me is that some people have a hard time even just entertaining the possibility that many things that have been accepted as fact or that people put their trust in, whether we're speaking about history or modern times, could indeed be lies.
 
Maybe it's because being so-called "woke" has become such a meme that people seem less inclined to consider ideas that might directly contradict the status quo or history as we know it? I don't know. But I don't even think it's a matter of being woke, honestly. I think it's a matter of common sense: Just because one has a title like historian, scientist, politician, banker etc....that does not exempt them from fallibility, corruptibility, or the human condition.
 
Everything we put our trust in is the product of other human beings, most of which are just as fucked up as we are (if not more). That's a sobering thought. Knowing how humans are, it just makes me wonder how many personal/political/religious agendas and biases have shaded the lenses through which we view the world.

Ya know. Despicable as it is, people lie all of the time. You have people that lie for absolutely no reason, you have people that think telling white lies somehow makes it less of a lie. You've got lies of omission. You've got ppl who deliberately lie for selfish and/or nefarious means. Even some of the most upright folks will lie if it benefits them. And hell, most of us lie to ourselves on a daily basis. People lie.
 
But what amazes me is that some people have a hard time even just entertaining the possibility that many things that have been accepted as fact or that people put their trust in, whether we're speaking about history or modern times, could indeed be lies.
 
Maybe it's because being so-called "woke" has become such a meme that people seem less inclined to consider ideas that might directly contradict the status quo or history as we know it? I don't know. But I don't even think it's a matter of being woke, honestly. I think it's a matter of common sense: Just because one has a title like historian, scientist, politician, banker etc....that does not exempt them from fallibility, corruptibility, or the human condition.
 
Everything we put our trust in is the product of other human beings, most of which are just as fucked up as we are (if not more). That's a sobering thought. Knowing how humans are, it just makes me wonder how many personal/political/religious agendas and biases have shaded the lenses through which we view the world.

Ya know. Despicable as it is, people lie all of the time. You have people that lie for absolutely no reason, you have people that think telling white lies somehow makes it less of a lie. You've got lies of omission. You've got ppl who deliberately lie for selfish and/or nefarious means. Even some of the most upright folks will lie if it benefits them. And hell, most of us lie to ourselves on a daily basis. People lie.
 
But what amazes me is that some people have a hard time even just entertaining the possibility that many things that have been accepted as fact or that people put their trust in, whether we're speaking about history or modern times, could indeed be lies.
 
Maybe it's because being so-called "woke" has become such a meme that people seem less inclined to consider ideas that might directly contradict the status quo or history as we know it? I don't know. But I don't even think it's a matter of being woke, honestly. I think it's a matter of common sense: Just because one has a title like historian, scientist, politician, banker etc....that does not exempt them from fallibility, corruptibility, or the human condition.
 
Everything we put our trust in is the product of other human beings, most of which are just as fucked up as we are (if not more). That's a sobering thought. Knowing how humans are, it just makes me wonder how many personal/political/religious agendas and biases have shaded the lenses through which we view the world.

I've been thinking a lot about the death of the age of individual genius.

No one calls it that, but that's what I've taken to calling it. Humanity has progressed so far that most, if not all, of the "low-hanging fruit" of scientific discoveries has already been discovered, studied, and refined. There are plenty of things left to create and discover, but that will be done by teams of scientists working together. But it is not the same. Humans have a fascination with the number one, because it's one of the few numbers humans can conceptualize mentally. Teams of scientists don't have the same ring to it that "John Bale, M.D." does, and that got me to thinking if Einstein's theories would have penetrated pop culture as deeply if he worked closely with another scientist and they proposed their theories together. A large part of me thinks that it wouldn't have, because "Einstein & co." isn't as marketable psychologically as "Einstein". With one you can spin a story of team work and collaboration, but the other you can deify into a figure whose last name becomes synonymous with genius. Everyone alive is looking for a way to earn a footnote in the history books, and inventing some new math or new technology is an easy way to do it. Or is it? This is where I see the idolization aspects of American culture eating away at cultural progress. Think back to a few months ago when we captured the first ever photo of a black hole in space, and how quick the press was to assign credit to only one person for a good example on this.

Our society is addicted to technology, dependent on it even, and we're constantly pushing people to enter STEM to advance the fields, but we can't name the inventors of many of these technologies without looking it up. Cell phones? Internet? GPS? Wi-Fi? Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks? Self-driving cars, voice recognition software, graphical user interfaces? A lot of this stuff expands past casual conversation and requires some real thought to work through, so when things get reduced to simplest terms it turns out that credit doesn't matter if it benefits humanity all the same whether the person knows your name or not. Maybe other scientists read your paper and give you credit, maybe your name hits the newspapers, maybe you win the pop culture lottery and people remember your name for longer than fifteen minutes. Most likely, you'll end your lunch break to get back to those open-ended, graduate level problems in your queue.

When it comes down to it, credit shouldn't matter and the discovery should stand as a testament to itself. But our society requires that you have clout in exchange for funds to continue existing research and start new research, and that begins with making a name for yourself. But it's hard to do that when most work is collaborative and your name never appears first on any of the work you do, and you don't get full credit for the work that you do. It's difficult to see the point in continuing to do what I do everyday when all of these "benefits to science" aren't benefiting my pocket or my resume. I've done some crazy impressive shit while people are waiting for the next Einstein to enter the field and do some crazy impressive shit, and it's almost as if people aren't looking for what they say they are.

It's twice as depressing knowing that yesterday someone gave a 45 minute talk casting doubt many of my clients have on the value of what I provide to the institution, as if I haven't spent five years of my life untangling 60+ TB of twenty seven of the most poorly managed big data sets I've ever laid eyes on.

 

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person here playing this gacha game. Otherwise, this needs no introduction. If you like Fate animes, then you must've heard about this mobile game. It's one of the most popular gacha games globally. Lots of waifu and husbando servants to play as, but do to the gacha nature, chances of obtaining those servants are rare.
 
Here's a video of Noble Phantasm showcase for those who want to get a glimpse before trying out the game.
 
Does anyone else play it? If so, post your friend code and discuss your favorite servants!

-
 
also for the record, i don't give a fuck about this movie or the "controversy" surrounding it - i just think this shit is funny
 

I'm finding this manufactured controversy around the skin tone of Ariel the mermaid endlessly annoying. Society loves picking at old scars over and over again when we get bored, eh?

this is further redhead erasure!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FUCK THAT YO!!!!

Why are y'all so upset about this thread? You can all ignore it. It's not like no one posts random shit here, people come and cry about their failed relationships all the time and no one bats an eye about those "boohoo my ex left me" threads. There's no specific rule on the forum about political discussions so I don't really see the problem. Y'all can just ignore the threads you aren't interested in instead of making a fuss about them. Or then rewrite the rules or something, idk. Go post about VK to balance it out.
 
To secret: yeah, the religious post was fun and insightful as a few others that had real substance, but just posting a link or a youtube video and expecting discussion to take off in a healthy manner is not the way to go either, this isn't your FB newsfeed. I advise to either restrain from it or at least provide a richer starting point for a conversation to make it interesting. Otherwise it looks like cheap clickbait and I can see why users get upset. 

Not sure really whether to take it as a compliment or not, but my older brother has been going through some things lately, so I sat with him, listened to his issues, and offered him some counsel. He told me that "he wish he could record me (what I was saying) right now", ahahaha. It's funny, because I don't consider myself to be particularly wise, and on the contrary - I actually believe myself to be quite naive and bumbling in a lot of ways - so the fact that I could offer my brother some words that could feed his spirit and uplift his countenance....I was genuinely shocked at his response.
 
But I feel where he's coming from. I've found myself having that exact same reaction towards a lot of the people I've met over the past 2 years....literally wishing I could record our conversations because they were just that impactful. So i get it. I'm just surprised that someone would say the same about me.
 
I think it may be what some refer to as the spirit of wisdom, or perhaps the spirit of truth....because as I was talking to my brother, it's like I was talking to myself as well, as the words cut me just same...they applied to me just as much as they applied to him. Whatever the case - I know I don't know much, and I can often be a complete idiot, so it's pretty surreal being able to "channel" something like that, and actually affect someone in a positive way. So I suppose my brother's response is a compliment in a sense, but I can't imagine myself taking credit for it.
 
 

Can't stop listening, this is sooooo good, oh yeah... MIYA DA QUEEN