From social media spats to civil wars, status anxiety underpins everything we do - "In one of those creepy bits of writing that makes readers suspect they’ve woken up in the matrix, Storr describes how religious and political values, when connected to virtue status, light up the same parts of the human brain if people are placed in an MRI scanner. If you want to see this process and its close relationship to physical violence unfold in real time, watch comedian David Baddiel’s short documentary Social Media, Anger, and Us. At one point, neurologist Professor Sophie Scott stuffs Baddiel in an MRI tube and exposes him, serially, to complimentary tweets and then antisemitic or plain abusive tweets. His entire body engages with the latter; he must work hard to stop his ‘fight’ response going into overdrive. There’s a subtle difference between the two non-violent ways of securing prestige, too. Competence-status is much more bottom-up, while virtue-status has a domineering and performative element to it. This explains the religious and political attraction, and how people can do something like perpetrate a genocide and still consider themselves on the side of the angels. Such is the beneficial effect of high status that The Status Game manages to explain any number of behaviours that, superficially, are baffling. One learns why most workers prefer a fancier job title over a pay rise, for example, or how having more power does not equal a happier life, or why – once national incomes have risen past a certain point – average happiness plateaus. Our desire for status is insatiable in a way that desires for money or power are not. People are fine if everyone gets poorer, so long as they have more themselves, for example. As a Somali colleague with whom I once worked used to say when describing his country’s descent into chaos and warlordism, ‘the Caliph of ruins is still a Caliph’. It turns out, too, that we need welfare states not just to ameliorate the problem of poverty but to flatten out inequality. Societies where there is too much relative deprivation – ie, everyone may be housed, fed, and clothed but there’s a vast gulf between those at the top and those at the bottom – are more vulnerable to civil disorder than more egalitarian places where there’s genuine poverty and hardship. Relatedly, it’s middle-income countries where a superannuated elite is locked in combat with a rising middle-class – the latter often shut out of status and power – that are more likely to have revolutions. Unfortunately, status is a zero-sum game. Unlike the wealth pie, the status pie cannot be grown... ‘The lesson many will find impossible to accept is this: never believe groups who claim they just want equality with rivals. No matter what they say, no matter what they believe, they don’t. They weave a marvellous dream of fairness for all, but the dream is a lie’. And so, we return, as discussed on Triggernometry, to social media. Storr calls it a ‘slot machine for status’. It supplies affirmation with every like, but also encourages group against group competition, which is when humans are at their most dangerous. Anything that facilitates virtue-dominance status competition feeds into our outsized capacity for proactive aggression, the bad trait we share with the chimpanzee, our violent cousin. It doesn’t matter that social media’s ‘groupies’ are based on identity affiliations that are neither universal nor particularly salient. Evolution selects for joining groups, not the groups thereby joined."
Nasty Coaches and the Damage Done - "Data were obtained from NBA players and coaches between the 2000/2001 and 2005/2006 seasons; the information was based on external rather than self-reported sources... Abusive leadership was consistently associated with increased psychological aggression (technical fouls) over the course of the players’ career. Specifically, abusive leadership experienced at some point within the six years of the study shifted the players’ trajectory of psychological aggression upward across their career. Abusive leadership significantly predicted lower task performance across players’ careers (as measured by the player efficiency score)."
Traffic mimes in Bogotá - "Faced with a notoriously corrupt traffic police force, sky-high traffic fatality rates, and chaos on the roads, Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus took bold and audacious action: he disbanded the corrupt cops and offered to retrain and rehire them… as mimes. Using popular education techniques, the traffic mimes fanned out through the city, mocking lawbreakers, applauding courteous drivers, and dramatizing the frustrations and challenges of citizens moving through traffic. The result: a 50 percent drop in traffic fatalities, reduced traffic gridlock, and a marked shift in the traffic culture of the city."
Meme - "Chicken pillows topped with aged Wisconsin cheddar and Sicilian pasta, accompanied with a vine-ripened tomato puree *chicken nuggets with mac and cheese and ketchup*"
Meme - "First satellite in space *USSR*
US caught up in : 4 months
First animal in space *USSR*
US caught up in 3 years (and chimp returned alive unlike russian dog)
First man in space *USSR*
US caught up in 1 month
First woman in space *USSR*
US caught up: decade later, nobody cares
First space walk *USSR*
US caught up in : 5 months
First space station *USSR*
US caught up in : 2 years
First man on the moon *US*
Soviet Union caught up: NEVER
First successful Mars probe lander *US*
Soviet union caught up: NEVER. 'And no, failure literally immediately after landing does not count as "succes"
First to Jupiter *US*
Soviet Union caught up: NEVER
First to Saturn *US*
Soviet union caught up: NEVER.
First to Uranus *US*
Soviet union caught up: NEVER.
First to Neptune *US*
Soviet union caught up: NEVER.
First object to leave solar system *US*
Soviet union caught up: NEVER.
UNCONTESTED WINNER OF THE SPACE RACE: US of f'n A. SUCK IT UP VATNIKS."
Won't stop commies pretending that the Soviet Union won the space race
Meme - "First communications, weather and geostationary satellites *US*
First orbital photograph of Earth *US*
First pilot-controlled space flight *US*
First spacecraft docking *US*
First orbital telescope *US*
First humans on the moon *US*
First to kill a dog in space *USSR*
Winner of the space race *USSR*"
Meme - ">pirate game
>delete it and download it again 9 more times
>company loses $600"
Meme - "STOP BLAMING YOURSELF OR OTHERS
LEARN FENG SHUI AND BLAME THE FURNITURE"
Meme - Q107 Toronto: "There is only one person in this photo. *Man on motorcycle making it look like there's a woman on it too*"
Meme - keep6ixsolid: "Two high calorie humans wanted for allegedly setting fire to apartment in Toronto"
B @libraasff: "high calorie????"
keep6ixsolid: "Substantial snackers"
Meme - Skeletor: "Two CHICKS. AT, THE SAME TIME"
Make A Wish Foundation: "SIR, I THINK YOU ARE CONFUSED ABOUT WHAT WE DO HERE."
Meme - "The 4 horsemen of optical illusion
*Woman with cat's paw on her mouth looking like she's sucking a penis*
*Man with sling bag that makes it look like his shoulder is a butt*
*Man with head on sphere where it looks like his reflection is a penis on his head*
*Man with guitar which looks like a butt*"
Meme - "Saw this completely irrelevant comment on a post"
"The design on the British coins can be pieced together to form the Royal Shield."
"That's cool and everything, but who's Flag is on the moon? Oh right, ours. Murica"
Meme - *Dumpster*: "No babies"
Meme - "I'M DYING. MY LIFE FLASHES I BEFORE My EYES *Man at computer*"
Meme - Bob the builder: "can we fix it?"
Woman: "no bob just sign the divorce papers"
Meme - "Christ, The Spice Girls have had a tough year...
Gerry *bald fat man*
Emma
Mel *old man with white hair*
Victoria *fat woman*"
Meme - Jacob Olier @JacobOllder: "This is the hardest I've ever known someone didn't watch the thing they were writing about"
"families. Other shows for which the occupation is not blue collar or is not specified are set in working-class locales. The occupation of Hank of King of the Hill (1998) is unspecified, but the setting suggest a blue collar suburb. The Tor-"
Meme - Dispropaganda: ""They have Dollars, we have God." - Former watermelon salesman
World of Statistics @stats feed
US Dollar (USD) to Turkish Lira (TRY) exchange rate:
2010: 1.50
2011: 1.68
2012: 1.80
2013: 1.90
2014: 218
2015: 2.72
2016: 3.02
2017: 3.64
2018: 4.84
2019: 5.68
2020: 7.02
2021: 8.89
2022: 16.57
2023: 25.42"
Meme - "There once was a very happy tree...
...WHO DiED FOr THis CArD. THE END. Happy birthday, tree killer"
Meme - "Doctor: "Don't confuse your Google search with my 6 years of medical school".
Patient: "Don't confuse the one-hour lecture you had on my condition with my 20 years of living with it"."
What happens when "Trust the Science" clashes with "Trust Lived Experience?
How Old Is the Cerne Abbas Giant? - The Atlantic - "the Cerne Abbas Giant is a geoglyph—a large artwork emblazoned into the landscape. The 180-foot-tall figure was created by scouring away grass to reveal the white chalk beneath, then packing the trenches with more chalk quarried nearby. Thanks largely to his 26-foot phallus, the giant has become a beloved fertility icon. According to folklore, couples who couple on his crotch will successfully conceive. But this naked man has been clothed in mystery. Until this May, researchers debated whether he was an Iron Age fertility symbol, a Roman representation of Hercules, or a parody of 17th-century politician Oliver Cromwell. Now, using a combination of laser beams and snails, scientists have established that the giant was born between A.D. 700 and A.D. 1100 in the late Saxon or early medieval period. The results were totally unexpected because no other chalk figures date from that time, says environmental archaeologist Mike Allen. “We were all wrong … and that’s tremendously exciting.”"
WestJet: A Painfully Obvious Example Of Why Monopolies Are Harmful - "Back in 2018, WestJet launched a new airline, Swoop, to enter the low-cost flight space. Swoop was initially competing with Flair Airlines in the domestic market but quickly expanded to southern destinations like Mexico and the Caribbean, which had previously been dominated by Sunwing. Last year, WestJet announced that it had come to an agreement to purchase Sunwing. The only person standing in the way of this deal going through was Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport. After the potential deal was announced, the Competition Bureau of Canada conducted an analysis and produced a damning report for Minister Alghabra, filled with robust economic analysis to help him decide whether or not to approve the deal. The report illustrated that WestJet and Sunwing were the only vacation providers for many markets and routes, and that the result of the merger would be a monopoly, with negative consequences for consumers... for reasons we can only speculate about, Minister Alghabra approved WestJet’s acquisition of Sunwing... We don’t really even need experts to help us understand how things will play out. A simple search of Google Flights tells us everything we need to know... Rising prices are the most obvious consequence of high market concentration, but they aren’t the only problem. Consider again our debacle coming back from the Caribbean last year. We were only able to make it back in time because there was another airline (i.e., Swoop) flying our route that was unaffected by Sunwing’s software outage. Booking a flight with another airline in an emergency is less likely to be a viable option now that we have fewer airlines operating in Canada. Future travelers in the same position we were in may be left stranded, and a hospital may go a night doctorless. Wages are also harmed by a lack of competition. Fewer options for employment mean that mechanics, engineers, flight attendants, and other workers receive lower wages than they otherwise would."
Meme - *Pill Bottle*: "You are reading this because you forgot your smartphone when you went to the toilet didn't you"
Meme - Moose Mortemoose: "Which fruit has the best pussy? Hi, I'm lan! Welcome to my 30 part documentary detailing my journey to discover the most powerful frussy on planet Earth!..."
Meme - "Deux millions d'annes d'évolution... Pour seulement perdre les poils ! *Un orang-outan et un homme avec un gros ventre*"
Meme - "When you find a CD of a game you loved, but your PC no longer has a CD drive
I'm limited by the technology of my time"
Meme - "HELP i have 5 kids *condom*"
The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized - Scientific American Blog Network - "I have spent my entire career studying the psychological characteristics that predict achievement and creativity. While I have found that a certain number of traits-- including passion, perseverance, imagination, intellectual curiosity, and openness to experience-- do significantly explain differences in success, I am often intrigued by just how much of the variance is often left unexplained. In recent years, a number of studies and books--including those by risk analyst Nassim Taleb, investment strategist Michael Mauboussin, and economist Robert Frank-- have suggested that luck and opportunity may play a far greater role than we ever realized, across a number of fields, including financial trading, business, sports, art, music, literature, and science. Their argument is not that luck is everything; of course talent matters. Instead, the data suggests that we miss out on a really importance piece of the success picture if we only focus on personal characteristics in attempting to understand the determinants of success...
About half of the differences in income across people worldwide is explained by their country of residence and by the income distribution within that country,
Scientific impact is randomly distributed, with high productivity alone having a limited effect on the likelihood of high-impact work in a scientific career,
The chance of becoming a CEO is influenced by your name or month of birth,
The number of CEOs born in June and July is much smaller than the number of CEOs born in other months,
Those with last names earlier in the alphabet are more likely to receive tenure at top departments,
The display of middle initials increases positive evaluations of people's intellectual capacities and achievements,
People with easy to pronounce names are judged more positively than those with difficult-to-pronounce names,
Females with masculine sounding names are more successful in legal careers...
the Italian physicists Alessandro Pluchino and Andrea Raspisarda teamed up with the Italian economist Alessio Biondo to make the first ever attempt to quantify the role of luck and talent in successful careers... they replicated the well known "Pareto Principle", which predicts that a small number of people will end up achieving the success of most of the population (Richard Koch refers to it as the "80/20 principle"). In the final outcome of the 40-year simulation, while talent was normally distributed, success was not. The 20 most successful individuals held 44% of the total amount of success, while almost half of the population remained under 10 units of success (which was the initial starting condition). This is consistent with real-world data, although there is some suggestion that in the real world, wealth success is even more unevenly distributed... On the one hand, talent wasn't irrelevant to success. In general, those with greater talent had a higher probability of increasing their success by exploiting the possibilities offered by luck. Also, the most successful agents were mostly at least average in talent. So talent mattered. However, talent was definitely not sufficient because the most talented individuals were rarely the most successful... Many meritocratic strategies used to assign honors, funds, or rewards are often based on the past success of the person. Selecting individuals in this way creates a state of affairs in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer (often referred to as the "Matthew effect"). But is this the most effective strategy for maximizing potential? Which is a more effective funding strategy for maximizing impact to the world: giving large grants to a few previously successful applicants, or a number of smaller grants to many average-successful people? This is a fundamental question about distribution of resources, which needs to be informed by actual data. Consider a study conducted by Jean-Michel Fortin and David Currie, who looked at whether larger grants lead to larger discoveries. They found a positive, but only very small relationship between funding and impact (as measured by four indices relating to scientific publications). What's more, those who received a second grant were not more productive than those who only received a first grant, and impact was generally a decelerating function of funding. The authors suggest that funding strategies that focus more on targeting diversity than "excellence" are likely to be more productive to society...in complex social and economic contexts where chance is likely to play a role, strategies that incorporate randomness can perform better than strategies based on the "naively meritocratic" approach. With that said, the best funding strategy of them all was one where an equal number of funding was distributed to everyone"
This won't stop Americans pretending that working hard is necessary and sufficient to do well and that if you fail it's because you're lazy
Study Says This Profession Has the Most Sex - "the profession having the most sex is (drum roll please)…farmers... The answer may lie in the fact that farmers are typically quite physically fit. They are constantly lifting heavy objects, walking around in the fields, and doing other strenuous activities. This regular exercise helps to keep their bodies toned and strong, which can lead to higher libido. In addition, farmers might eat a healthy diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables. This nutritious diet helps to improve overall health and vitality, both of which can contribute to more active sex life... farmers are often working close to home, so they don’t have to deal with a long commute or other stressful work-related activities. In addition, farmers typically have more flexible schedules, which can allow for more opportunities for intimacy... Farming is typically a very isolating job, which can lead to feelings of loneliness and boredom. As a result, farmers often find themselves seeking out physical intimacy as a way to combat these feelings. Finally, it is worth noting that many farmers live in rural areas where there are fewer opportunities for social interaction...
Get your resumes ready because these are the top five professions having the most sex.
Farmers
Architect
Hairdresser
Advertising
Lawyer & Teachers...
According to the UK study, journalists have the least amount of sex. They reported engaging in sexual activities about once per month. But it gets even worse. Journalists rated their partner’s sexual performance as only “average.” While there are a number of possible explanations for this, the most likely reason is that journalists simply don’t have as much time for sex. With long hours spent working on stories and deadlines, there is often little time left for anything else. In addition, journalism is a notoriously stressful profession, which can lead to lower levels of sexual desire. Moreover, many journalists travel frequently"
The Rent-Seeking Is Too Damn High - "Wouldn’t it be nice if you could keep your competitor from setting up shop in the first place? There’s evidence that a growing number of businesses in the U.S. are trying to do exactly that. And while that may be good for them, it’s bad for entrepreneurs, workers and the economy as a whole. On Tuesday, a Senate subcommittee held a hearing on “occupational licensing” laws, which require government-issued licenses to perform certain types of work. Such laws have long existed for doctors, lawyers and others in highly skilled professions, but they are increasingly spreading to low- and mid-skill jobs as well. A White House report last summer found that occupational licensing requirements have increased fivefold since the 1950s, covering more than a quarter of all workers in 2008. Cosmetologists, tree trimmers and even interior designers need licenses in some states... Occupational licenses are good for existing businesses, which face less competition, and for workers who already have licenses, who according to one study earn roughly 15 percent more than they would in a free market. But they’re bad for everyone else. Research has found that occupational licenses inhibit entrepreneurship, especially among low-income workers. They also raise prices, lower productivity and limit workers’ ability to change careers or cities. One recent study estimated that licensing laws cost the U.S. as many as 2.85 million jobs. Occupational licensing is just one example of rent-seeking. For another, see this Aruna Viswanatha story in The Wall Street Journal on the rise of noncompete agreements in fields such as journalism and fast food. Yes, fast food... There is evidence that rent-seeking, in various forms, is becoming more common in the U.S. economy. In a recent paper, economist Dean Baker argued that rent-seeking has driven much of the recent increase in income inequality. And while Baker is a liberal, conservatives are also concerned about rent-seeking, such as land-use restrictions that make it hard to build housing in high-priced coastal cities."
Who Creates Jobs? Small vs. Large vs. Young - "The view that small businesses create the most jobs remains appealing to policymakers and small business advocates. Using data from the Census Bureau Business Dynamics Statistics and Longitudinal Business Database, we explore the many issues at the core of this ongoing debate. We find that the relationship between firm size and employment growth is sensitive to these issues. However, our main finding is that once we control for firm age there is no systematic relationship between firm size and growth. Our findings highlight the important role of business startups and young businesses in U.S. job creation."
Basically new firms create more jobs especially if they grow
Wine-tasting: it's junk science - "Hodgson's findings have stunned the wine industry. Over the years he has shown again and again that even trained, professional palates are terrible at judging wine. "The results are disturbing," says Hodgson from the Fieldbrook Winery in Humboldt County, described by its owner as a rural paradise. "Only about 10% of judges are consistent and those judges who were consistent one year were ordinary the next year. "Chance has a great deal to do with the awards that wines win." These judges are not amateurs either. They read like a who's who of the American wine industry from winemakers, sommeliers, critics and buyers to wine consultants and academics. In Hodgson's tests, judges rated wines on a scale running from 50 to 100. In practice, most wines scored in the 70s, 80s and low 90s... Hodgson went on to analyse the results of wine competitions across California, and found that their medals were distributed at random... Hodgson isn't alone in questioning the science of wine-tasting. French academic Frédéric Brochet tested the effect of labels in 2001. He presented the same Bordeaux superior wine to 57 volunteers a week apart and in two different bottles – one for a table wine, the other for a grand cru. The tasters were fooled. When tasting a supposedly superior wine, their language was more positive – describing it as complex, balanced, long and woody. When the same wine was presented as plonk, the critics were more likely to use negatives such as weak, light and flat. In 2008 a study of 6,000 blind tastings by Robin Goldstein in the Journal of Wine Economics found a positive link between the price of wine and the amount people enjoyed it. But the link only existed for people trained to detect the elements of wine that make them expensive. In 2011 Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist (and former professional magician) at Hertfordshire University invited 578 people to comment on a range of red and white wines, varying from £3.49 for a claret to £30 for champagne, and tasted blind. People could tell the difference between wines under £5 and those above £10 only 53% of the time for whites and only 47% of the time for reds. Overall they would have been just as a successful flipping a coin to guess. So why are ordinary drinkers and the experts so poor at tasting blind? Part of the answer lies in the sheer complexity of wine. For a drink made by fermenting fruit juice, wine is a remarkably sophisticated chemical cocktail. Dr Bryce Rankine, an Australian wine scientist, identified 27 distinct organic acids in wine, 23 varieties of alcohol in addition to the common ethanol, more than 80 esters and aldehydes, 16 sugars, plus a long list of assorted vitamins and minerals that wouldn't look out of place on the ingredients list of a cereal pack. There are even harmless traces of lead and arsenic that come from the soil. Three of wine's most basic qualities – sweetness, sourness and bitterness – are picked up by the tongue's taste buds. A good wine has the perfect balance of sweet from the sugar in grapes, sourness from the acids, particularly tartaric and malic acid, and bitterness from alcohol and polyphenols, including tannins. Many wines are more acidic than lemon juice and are only palatable because that acidity is balanced by sweetness and bitterness. "It's the holy trinity of the palate – sugar, acid and alcohol," says Dr James Hutchinson, a wine expert at the Royal Society of Chemistry... Some of these, the primary volatiles, are present in the grape. Others, the secondaries, are generated by yeast activity during fermentation. The rest, the tertiary volatiles, are formed as wine matures in barrels or bottles... People struggle with assessing wine because the brain's interpretation of aroma and bouquet is based on far more than the chemicals found in the drink. Temperature plays a big part. Volatiles in wine are more active when wine is warmer. Serve a New World chardonnay too cold and you'll only taste the overpowering oak. Serve a red too warm and the heady boozy qualities will be overpowering. Colour affects our perceptions too. In 2001 Frédérick Brochet of the University of Bordeaux asked 54 wine experts to test two glasses of wine – one red, one white. Using the typical language of tasters, the panel described the red as "jammy' and commented on its crushed red fruit. The critics failed to spot that both wines were from the same bottle. The only difference was that one had been coloured red with a flavourless dye. Other environmental factors play a role. A judge's palate is affected by what she or he had earlier, the time of day, their tiredness, their health – even the weather... More evidence that wine-tasting is influenced by context was provided by a 2008 study from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. The team found that different music could boost tasters’ wine scores by 60%. Researchers discovered that a blast of Jimi Hendrix enhanced cabernet sauvignon while Kylie Minogue went well with chardonnay."