Sofa vs Couch - What Is the Difference Between a Couch and a Sofa? - "today’s designers are looking to take the nuance out of our seating and sell it like we say it: A sofa is a couch and vice versa. “Today, the choice of ‘sofa’ versus ‘couch is entirely subjective and a reflection of how you live with the piece,” explains Nidhi Kapur, founder and CEO of Maiden Home. “‘Couch’ is the more casual term used for a comfort-driven piece, while ‘sofa’ is the more formal and might refer to a polished, design-driven piece.”"
Teaching Is An Art, Not A Science - "There is a great deal of talk today on college and university campuses about “social justice” and “equity.” It is time these concepts are expanded to include the growing academic underclass that does much of the heavy lifting when it comes to teaching undergraduates. While the University of Michigan spent $10.6 million on eighty “diversity officers” in 2018 (an average of $132,500 each), according to the American Federation of Teachers, a third of non-tenured faculty members made less than $25,000 in 2019 and another third made less than $50,000. College and university tuitions have tripled since 1975, but very little money has been spent on teachers... For “lecturers,” “adjunct” or “contingent” academics, contemporary higher education has more in common with the meatpacking industry than with the world of ideas and scholarship... because of the professional track he is on, it is very unlikely that he will ever receive tenure. All the state of- the-art educational technology in the world is meaningless without dedicated professors like T. Robert Hart who support their students in and out of the classroom. Teaching is an art, not a science. Students are not customers and learning is not a commodity."
Leftists only rage at CEOs, not the diversity racket. For example the President of the University of Michigan only makes $852k, under 10% of the cost of all the diversity officers
When the supply of academics exceeds the demand for them...
Academics like to glorify the research track. Is it surprising that that would pay better than the teaching track?
Instacart Driver Calls Out Customer For No-Tip MacBook Delivery - "“Now I know you hoes aren’t out here placing orders for MacBook computers to be picked up and delivered to your homes, and you ain’t got no money for a tip?” they said in the video. “Okay.” Some commenters agreed, joking that he should take the computer as his tip and run. “Tell them,” one commenter wrote. “I don’t get how they don’t think that it’s not a service to deliver packages, it should be looked at like eating at a restaurant, tip.” Others pointed out that if a customer selected same-day delivery from their local Apple retailer, the store might contract delivery apps to take the item, leaving the matter of tipping out of the customers’ hands."
Tipping culture is toxic
To Tip, or Not to Tip? - The New York Times - "In interviews, customers, including some who have worked in the food-service business, said they felt uncomfortable with the many requests to tip, and pressured into giving more. Higher menu prices, a result of inflation, have raised the amount of a traditional 15 or 20 percent tip. In some cases, restaurants are adding service charges and gratuities to the bill that some diners may not notice right away. The mechanics of tipping have also changed in many smaller businesses, where the tip jar on the counter has been replaced by touch screens, which have become even more widespread during the pandemic. Leaving an amount that doesn’t fit the suggested percentages takes extra time and effort. And as the customer decides, the food-service worker is often standing there, looking on. On social media, there are complaints that “tipping culture has gotten out of control,” with consumers venting about being asked to leave a little extra in places they never did before... Brian Wacik, 59, a dog trainer in Tucson, Ariz., said he never tips on to-go food that he picks up himself. “Nobody’s serving me, the food is being prepared, those people are being paid,” he said. “I don’t tip for pickup, ever.” Some diners said that tips allow business owners to deflect the responsibility for paying a living wage. Gabriel Ramirez, who works in a Los Angeles smoke shop, said he would prefer that labor costs were reflected in menu prices rather than leaving it up to customers to tip. “It is our social duty to make sure that the person that is feeding us feeds themselves,” said Mr. Ramirez, 24. “Employers shouldn’t be looking at the tip jar and saying, ‘This is how my employee is going to make it this month.’”... Anxiety and social pressure play into the tipping decision, Mr. Solar said. “The act of being in front of someone while they have that screen — they know if you tip, don’t tip or go into custom screens,” he said. “People in that moment are much more likely to be generous and to tip.” The new technology also eliminates an easy excuse for not tipping: that the customer doesn’t have cash on hand. Still, Mr. Solar said a customer’s generosity wanes when a business becomes too aggressive in soliciting tips, as when some touch-screen systems start the tipping options at a minimum of 25 percent. “People will be generous to a certain point”"
Doordash driver returns customer’s food over tip dispute - "A delivery driver who made a 40 minute trip to deliver food for a customer refused to give the customer his order after discovering that he had tipped her just $8 dollars (£6) for the 12-and-a-half mile trip. In viral footage captured by the homeowner’s doorbell camera, the clearly annoyed driver asks to speak to him before handing the food over... The driver then asks the man to adjust his tip to which he responds “What the hell are you looking for? I gave an $8 tip.” At this point the driver explains that she is going to return the food and starts walking back down the path towards her vehicle."
Doordash couriers might be especially toxic not so much because they are paid less but because they can see the tip before accepting the order. But tipping in general is awful
Has giving gratuities reached a tipping point in restaurants? New report shows shifting attitudes - "Tipping is more complex than simply adding 15–20 per cent (or more, during the pandemic) onto the bill. Data has shown that tipping can perpetuate inequalities of class, gender, race and sexuality. It has also been identified as reinforcing a dynamic of servitude — only one constant in the guest-server equation has the power to give or hold back money as they see fit — and contributing to the social stigma of hospitality work as a stopgap, not a career. “No matter how you do it, tipping hits BIPOC workers in the pocketbook, it exposes more female workers to sexual harassment, and it keeps all workers from making a steady, solid salary,” Canadian chef and anti-tipping advocate Amanda Cohen of New York City’s Dirt Candy told Eater... The pandemic has provided an opportunity for people to rethink the way forward, and some restaurants have adopted no-tipping policies in an effort to make workplaces more equitable. Toronto’s Avelo, Burdock Brewery, Richmond Station and Ten have all gone tip-free over the past year. “It sounds radical, but it really shouldn’t,” Emma Herrera, head chef at Burdock Brewery, told NOW Magazine in August 2020. “We’re just aiming for the most basic acceptable professional level, the same as all other industries. We don’t want our staff to have to rely on the whims of guests to make sure they can pay their rent.”"
Tips And 'Service With A Smile' Rules Fuel Sex Harassment In Restaurants, Study Says - "More than 70% of female restaurant employees have been sexually harassed, one recent survey found, and half experience sexual harassment on a weekly basis, according to another. Harassment complaints come to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from restaurant industry workers more often than from any other sector... Dependence on tipped wages, along with job requirements to appear friendly and pleasant — in other words "service with a smile" — jointly create a culture of sexual harassment, according to a team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame, Penn State University and the Emlyon Business School in France, who say their study is the first to provide an empirical link between tipping and sexual harassment... The team's findings on tipping back up those of previous nationwide surveys. A 2018 report by the Restaurant Opportunities Center, a nonprofit group that advocates for better working conditions for restaurant workers, found that a majority of respondents who reported experiencing sexual harassment associated that harassment to their dependence on tips. While women make up roughly half of restaurant employees overall, they are about two-thirds of tipped employees, who report sexual harassment at higher rates than their nontipped colleagues. More than half of women in tipped jobs said depending on tips led them to accept behaviors that made them "nervous or uncomfortable," according to a 2014 survey from the group. "By introducing many women to working life, the industry establishes cultural norms around sexual behavior that can shape perceptions of what's acceptable behavior in the workplace that workers carry with them long after they've left the restaurant industry," the 2018 Restaurant Opportunities Center report said."
Meme - "If you did it when you were drunk you wanted to do it sober."
Ter-Lee Comedy: "I'm pretty sure I didn't want to sleep outside in a wheelbarrow all night but alright."
Ben Mora, PsyD., L.P.C.C on Twitter - "TikTok users are like: If someone says hello to you they are engaging in psychopathic manipulative behavior psychologists called “nicebombing” and it’s basically attempted murder also human trafficking"
Lessons From a Chinese Massage Parlor - "The Chinese massage parlor is a place that, more than anywhere else, reminds me of the cultural difference between China and the U.S. Each trip is a telling ethnographic exercise. From the moment I walk into the Chinese massage parlor, I’m usually barraged with questions by my masseuse, who is invariably very eager to get to know me. I become a reluctant party of an hour-long conversation with a Chinese woman that I’ve never met before and never chose to talk to... The Chinese massage parlor is a noisy place where your masseuse could be chitchatting with another masseuse who’s massaging your friend in the same room, gossiping about their customers and colleagues as if there is no one else in the room. It’s a place where I can never fall asleep. This is pretty much the polar opposite of my experience in American massage parlors. When I walk into one, I’m first told that “Your therapist will be with you in a minute” (I have never heard anyone say the word “therapist” in China). I’m there to receive a “therapeutic treatment,” and my massage should be a recuperative experience that leaves me refreshed. It’s a tranquil space where everything is designed so that I can rewind, where any noise could be considered unprofessional. I’m asked if the lighting is soft enough and if I would like the background music to be changed. The therapist-patient relationship is a strictly professional one. I often need to sign a form certifying that my health condition is fit for a massage before I can start receiving services. The therapist takes care not to invade my privacy and hardly talks to me besides asking whether the pressure should be adjusted. I often fall asleep during massages in the U.S. In sum, there is a clear-cut line between service industry professionals and customers, and breaching these boundaries can lead to anything from consumer complaints to a lawsuit. To me, the masseuse represents Chinese culture at its most authentic. The Chinese common people endorse a universalist view of other people: Everyone is a human. No one has special rights over the others. The server-customer relationship is much more fluid and informal. If they are curious about some aspect of your life, they ask about it—whether you are a relative or a stranger. There is no such thing as “political correctness” or “appropriateness” or “privacy” or “awkwardness.”... while Americans care more about “correctness,” Chinese people care more about “cordiality.” If I’m asking you a personal question like how old you are, it shows that I see you as family or friend, and if you accept my invitation to be part of my ingroup, you wouldn’t mind me asking. “Politeness” is defined not in rigid patterns of what one can say and what one can’t say, but in a more fluid way: Are you being nice to this person? Are you contributing to his/her well-being? It’s a different way—warmer, fuzzier—of thinking about interhuman relations. Chinese culture focuses on harmony and belonging, not individual rights of privacy. Sharing is an important part of getting along."
Sathnam Sanghera On How Modern Britain Is Shaped By Empire | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "‘You describe British attitudes towards the Empire today, a term you used to describe that is selective amnesia. What do you mean by that?’
‘I guess we see Empire in a combination of nostalgia and selective amnesia. So nostalgia is evident through things like there's tourist companies out there that offer colonial tours of India and Africa, the East India Company has come back, it’s a retail outlet in London and other parts of the country. There was a recent poll which found that 59% of Britons are proud of British Empire. And also any suggestion in public life that Empire was not all great, is seen as unpatriotic. I mean, there was an illustration recently with the rule, Britannia controversy, when Nigel Farage tweeted saying, The woke agenda is to make us ashamed of who we are, kind of British Empire history is seen as an extension of nationalism or patriotism. And you don't have that attitude, say in Germany, where they can talk about the Holocaust, and still, and still be patriotic, you don't see in Japan where you can talk about kamikaze pilots and still be patriotic. But over here, it's seen as kind of a betrayal to dwell on any of the negativity 'of British Empire. But I think the ultimate illustration of the nostalgia is the Indian railways. I mean, it's very hard to put on the TV nowadays at 6pm and not see a middle aged white presenter telling us that the railways were this great gift that the British gave the Indians. The actual story is very different. I mean, if you read Christian Wolmar who's this amazing railway historian, you'll find that actually, the British built the railways, you know, for themselves, it was for military and commercial reasons, and actually held India back...
There's some clearly Imperial events that have shaped post war politics… I think Coronavirus, the way our obsession with being world beating when actually we just need to be average, that would be great. You know, I actually found, I think, almost 20 examples of politicians talking about ourselves as world beating in this pandemic. And I think that goes back to an imperial psychology...
Often Brexiteers talk about us being a colony of the EU. I think that goes back to the fact that we see the world through imperial eyes. You're either a colony, or you're the Empire, you know. There's been this obsession with global Britain, which I think goes back to Empire, I would argue it all goes back to Empire...
There's this idea that if we started giving things back, the British Museum would be empty. Actually, this is just not going to happen. According to some recent research, the British Museum only has 1% of its collection on display. Even if it gave back 2 or 3%, it would still have a lot. And I think giving things back would result in incredible scholarship. And also it would mend relations at a time where Britain really needs good relations with the international community...
I think other countries provide an example. I mean, New Zealand has recently totally revised, you know, its education, and it seems to be having quite a healthy debate. France, President Macron has said some very powerful things about colonialism. And he's getting French museums to repatriate certain items. In Germany provides a great example of how to confront difficult history in that it has an art scene that confronts the Holocaust and Nazi history. Police trainees are made to study Nazi history when they train as police officers, they have some sort of so called stumble stones, it's outside certain building the Berlin, which tell you where Jews were kidnapped and taken to their death. It has a very proactive relationship with its past. And I think there's inspiration to be found in what they do.'
Ironically, he also has selective amnesia in ignoring (at least in the interview) all the positive aspects of Empire (though he claims he doesn't think it was all bad and it's hard to find nuance). He also ignores that just because you do not engage in one-sided condemnation of history doesn't mean you think nothing bad happened
The poll actually found that 59% thought the Empire was something to be more proud of than ashamed of, but he does a good job at pretending that 59% don't see anything wrong with Empire at all. Of course the same poll also found that more would rather the Empire not exist today than wanted it to still exist, but he ignores that to push his agenda
Weird how the railways held India back, but they still use them today. Of course he conflates the fact of the railways being a boon for India and so colonialism wasn't all bad with the claim that the British built them as a act of charity
Weird. Trying to manage covid well is "imperial" and being "average" on covid is a good thing. Truly, the left reveres mediocrity. Ironic, given their obsession with covid
Not wanting to be ruled by another entity is an "Imperial" mentality. Presumably anti-colonialism is itself evidence of an "Imperial" mindset. Freedom is bad
Of course he doesn't want to admit that museums giving things "back" will just increase the calls to return even more things, since he makes the simplistic assumption that people don't respond to incentives, and he naively claims to believe that grievance mongers will ever be satisfied when they will just be emboldened to complain even more.
Apparently New Zealand enshrining indigenous "knowledge" in the science curriculum is healthy, as if German self-flagellation. But if you want Western civilisation to destroy itself...
John Withington On History's Assassinations | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "‘It was a Russian who said about the Russian Empire that their method of government was despotism tempered by assassination. But actually, that was far more true of the Roman Empire. The problem with the Roman Empire was that there were no rules of succession really, the, the Roman Empire just kind of appeared. And so they had to kind of make it up as they went along... I looked at the 17 assassinations. 15 of those were carried out by the Emperor’s own bodyguard or by his own troops. And it was Augustus the first Roman emperor who said the most terrible thing is that most people have to be afraid of their enemies, but we, we emperors have to be afraid of our friends and those closest to us.’
‘One thing that I found particularly interesting was there's an… ethics of assassination, which I know it's a bit paradoxical. But there's been various philosophers over the years, who've, you know, they posited this argument that actually assassination, if you're wanting to get rid of a tyrant, is an ethical way of doing it, because you're just, you know, you're killing one person, as opposed to going to war and risking hundreds of 1000s’...
'In the 1950s, the French had rather an interesting approach. So, there are a lot of Russian emigres in France, who left Russia at the time of the revolution, didn't much like the communist regime. So in the 1950s in France, if Soviet dignitaries were visiting, these potential troublemakers among the emigres would be very strongly advised and invited to go and stay in an expensive country hotel at the expense of the French government while the Russian visitors were in the country... Abraham Lincoln, what, the night he was assassinated. His regular bodyguard was off doing another job and he had a standing bodyguard who had already been reprimanded, I think for falling asleep on duty and, and Lincoln let his standing bodyguard go off for a drink and so when, when John Wilkes Booth arrived at the presidential box to shoot him there was no bodyguard to be seen.'...
‘Do assassinations work?’...
‘I analyzed 266 assassinations. Now all of them worked in the sense that the victim died. But what I tried also to analyze is whether the assassin would have been happy with the outcome of the assassination. Disraeli, for examples said, after Lincoln, after Lincoln's assassination, that assassination never works. Well, for what it's worth, this is plainly a very subjective decision, isn't it? How, you know, trying to evaluate would a particular assassin have been happy with this particular outcome, but for what it's worth I, I made a judgment in about 215 cases, and I, and the judgment I made was that in about 132, the assassin would have been happy. But in 83, they would not have been happy. There was a study actually that American, an American team did in 2007. This is slightly more precise than the one that I did. They looked at 300 assassination attempts, and they looked at a sort of narrower question than I did, really. And they concluded that killing democratic leaders had very little effect. But that if you killed, if you assassinated an autocrat, that had a 13% greater chance of that country, transitioning to democracy, if the plot succeeded than if it failed...
‘The classic example of unintended consequences was perhaps the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Now, there are arguments about whether that quote caused the First World War or not, but it's certainly was an important factor in kicking off the First World War. So you couldn't have a much more momentous consequence. And although there're, although there are arguments, or some historians will argue, well, the First World War was going to happen anyway. But what we do know is that at least some of the assassins who would kill Franz Ferdinand felt that they were responsible for the First World War, and one of them said, If I'd known what was going to happen, I would have sat down on our bombs and blown myself to bits. So I don't think any I don't think any of those assassins who killed Franz Ferdinand believed this was going to lead to the most dreadful conflict the world had seen up to that point...
The first [assassination] I could find was an Egyptian pharaoh called Teti, who was assassinated about 4300 years ago… an Egyptian, ancient Egyptian historian wrote about it, about 300 BC, so 2000 years after it happened, but possibly drawing on sources that have since been lost to us. And the historian said that Teti was, quote, murdered by his bodyguard...
I think the prize for failed assassinations has to go, to those who tried to kill Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro actually was the subject of a documentary, which is called something like 683 ways to kill Castro. Because that was the number of failed assassination attempts that his security services calculated had been made. And the CIA were behind a lot of those and they, they tried all sorts of things. They tried exploding cigars, radio full of poison gas, a seashell that would explode at his favorite snorkeling spot. And all of them misfired. And on the very day, actually, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, yet another attempt on Fidel Castro's life failed, using a poisoned pen… he said, actually, if there was an Olympic event of beating assassination attempts, I would win the gold medal.’
Some (presumed) anti-theist was claiming there was no evidence Jesus ever existed, claiming that since the earliest non-Christian sources are from 30 years after his death, they are unreliable. Presumably this master of historiography would think even less of a source 2000 years after the event. I wonder how much of history we'd have to throw out to meet this (ideologically motivated) standard
Rebels, hostages and diplomats: royal women of the crusader states - HistoryExtra - "'What sort of differentiates Outremer from Europe is the fact that because of all the military pressure on the society, across all levels, women are beginning to outlive male rulers. So women who would ordinarily be controlled by their husbands or their fathers for their whole lives are suddenly finding themselves orphaned or widowed, and in unique positions to forge new roles for themselves in the political landscape… the kings of Jerusalem who were actually born in the Holy Land, they had an average life expectancy of 26 years old in the 12th century. Whereas if you compare them to their counterparts in France, and England, the average life expectancy of a native born king is 57, and 56. So you can see that in Outremer, the male rulers just aren't living as long. And that's due to a variety of factors, whether it's them being killed on the battlefield, or, you know, horrible diseases that are less common in Europe such as leprosy… in Europe, because the dynasties and the family groups are so established, having been there for generations, even if one male relative dies, even if there isn't, you know, a brother or a son to succeed, there's generally a convenient cousin living in the next county who can pop over and assume, assume the rule of that region… At this period for the Crusader states to survive, there needs to be absolute unity. And what we begin to see is in the latter half of the 12th century, when the unity between the different Christian rulers in the region begins to deteriorate rapidly, that's when the Crusader states and Outremer begins to crumble. And so it's that they're, they're, they're living in a very delicate balance. They're almost on borrowed time in unfamiliar lands. And so maintaining a stable line of succession is vital. And it's for this reason alone, that women are able to, you know, fight their way up to the top and become Queens Regnant and Princesses Regnant and regents for their children and the like and claim real agency.'"
The Byzantine Empire: Everything You Wanted To Know - HistoryExtra - "‘Basil I was a very extraordinary figure. He started as a stable boy, he was one of those who made a career by looking after horses. And he became such a famous horse tamer and groom, that he was adopted by the Emperor Michael III, and he became his friend. And then he decided that he'd rather be Emperor in place of his friend. So he had him murdered. That's a very Byzantine story…
‘When you say something is Byzantine, and it implies it’s really complex like, labyrinthine. So where does that idea come from? And does it have any basis in history?’
‘I think there are two ways of looking at this. One is that the Byzantium court in Constantinople was the only medieval court in the Western Hemisphere, apart from China. Was the only major court that had a ceremonial with costumes, with regalia, with ceremonies and processions and amazing set pieces for banquets, and all sorts of activities, which were very highly choreographed and very brilliantly set up with colors, with music, singers. Everything that we associate with a very powerful ruler. And that notion of power expressed symbolically in these very major events that took place frequently on a Christian, Christian, celebrat-, celebrations, particularly at Easter, for example. But nonetheless, that that court was a hub of intrigue, everybody wanting to get ahead, all the different courtiers competing with each other to win the favor of the Emperor or the Empress. And sometimes the children of the Emperor all competing for the same thing. And so it was a center of enormous power. And everybody wanted a slice of the pie. And quite a number of the visitors from the West expressed their jealousy, their envy, their admiration, but it was admiration through gritted teeth. They didn't really want to admire these Greek speaking emperors with all their finery. They didn't really want to admire their churches and their art. They didn't really want to think about how they used Greek and what they knew, because they quoted Homer and all this, Aristotle and Plato. They didn't really want to say, this is a great center of learning. They were jealous, and they went home. And they said to the Bishop of Rome, these people are heretics. They speak Greek. They have all sorts of customs that we would never allow. They have all these eunuchs, castrated men who organize the court. It's a, it's a dreadful place, and the women are too powerful. And so on, and so on. So they gave the Byzantines a very bad name in the West. And although we know perfectly well, that great rulers like Charlemagne admired the Byzantine art and its culture and wanted desperately to learn Greek, and understand what they, what the Byzantines were studying, many lesser rulers were just envious. And so there was a problem for the Byzantines, who are undeniably proud, stuck up people who wanted to show that they were very great achievers, and they had a great empire. And they had this extraordinary center of patronage. And they wanted to convert all non Christians to Christianity, and they took it very seriously as a Christian duty. And they spread Roman law and they spread good traditions among people who'd never been part of the Greco-Roman world. So they did a great deal for the rest of Europe and Russia and the Near East, in the same way, as the Chinese emperors did. But there was no, there was nothing else that was quite like it in the West. And I think it meant that people there, were constantly looking to this city. There were rumors, you know that there was so much gold, they didn't know what to do with the gold, they paved the streets with gold. Ridiculous rumors that were not true. But it is correct that in the, in the Byzantine Empire, the gold currency was sustained at a very reliable level. And people continue to pay their taxes in it. And the gold circulated through the Empire, and was very, very much admired in the West where they only had a silver currency. And they could not extract taxation, and arrange a similarly sophisticated type of administration.’"
The Elizabethans: everything you wanted to know - HistoryExtra - "‘How did the Elizabethans remember Henry the Eighth? Was it out of sight and out of mind? Or did they reference him and remember significant days in his life?’
‘Henry had definitely made an impression, and he was remembered throughout the reigns of all of his children. And we know that Elizabeth in particular revered him and his memory. And by her, by the time that she came to reign, he was remembered as great Harry, who had saved England from the folds of the Catholic Church in Rome. So you know, this was really his his legacy and his posterity. But everything else that he'd done, you know, including executing his wives, executing numbers of his subjects. This seemed to have been either completely forgotten or overlooked…
‘I would always have assumed that she would have been a bit antagonistic towards him with the death of her mother.’
‘No, it's interesting. She always identified herself with her father publicly, at least anyway, so say, yeah, at least in public, she was she was keen to be remembered as Great Harry's daughter...
Fruit and vegetables were also available. But interestingly, the rich didn't tend to eat lots of vegetables, it was mostly considered to be a poor man's food. And fruit would often appear baked in pies and tarts, as opposed to eaten raw…
In 1567, there was even an attempt at a lottery. So ticket holders were promised a prize in the form of money and also freedom from arrest for all crimes other than murder, felonies, piracy or treason. But unfortunately, it was something that never took off’"
Meme - "How "self made" billionaires got their start
Bill Gates: Mom sat on the same board as the CEO of IBM and convinced him to take a risk on her son's new company.
Jeff Bezos: Started Amazon with $300,000 in seed capital from his parents and yet more from some rich friends.
Elon Musk: Dad owned an emerald mine in apartheid South Africa.
Warren Buffett: The son of a powerful congressman who owned an investment company."
Dorsa Amir on Twitter - "My new favorite historical artifact is this 1,000 year old, 14-sided die from Korea with instructions for a drinking game 🎲 Known as a juryeonggu (주령구, lit. “liquor command tool”), each side of the die has an action, like “drink two cups” or “dance without music”."
Viorica Marian on Twitter - "I once taught an 8 am college class. So many grandparents died that semester. I then moved my class to 3 pm. No more deaths. And that, my friends, is how I save lives."
Meme - Arabic: "Appreciate life"
"This literally means "I'm Rotten" please don't listen to Tumblr LMAO."
Adrian Tan en LinkedIn: US court gives Amos Yee, who faces child porn, grooming charges, time - "Human Rights Watch called the decision “a dangerous affront to freedom of expression” and Yee “a victim”. Amnesty International declared Yee a “prisoner of conscience” and said that Singapore breached the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After Yee’s release, he gained political asylum in the United States. Yee broadcasted more free speech (this time about pedophilia). He's now languishing in jail on child pornography charges. This time, there is no international outcry. Is this hypocrisy?"
This is a strawman caricature of freedom of speech. Presumably conservatives think that if someone who supports free speech doesn't think people should be able to cry fire in a crowded theatre, he's a hypocrite
Felix on Twitter - "The year is 2019. Teenagers are against porn. Nerds tell socialites to have sex. Liberal arts majors argue that free expression shouldn’t exist. The rich say “eat the rich”."
Cellmate: Male chastity gadget hack could lock users in - "A security flaw in a hi-tech chastity belt for men made it possible for hackers to remotely lock all the devices in use simultaneously. The internet-linked sheath has no manual override, so owners might have been faced with the prospect of having to use a grinder or bolt cutter to free themselves from its metal clamp. The sex toy's app has been fixed by its Chinese developer after a team of UK security professionals flagged the bug. They have also published a workaround... Pen Test Partners (PTP) - the Buckingham-based cyber-security firm involved - has a reputation for bringing quirky discoveries to light, including problems with other sex toys in the past. It says the latest discovery indicates that the makers of "smart" adult-themed products still have lessons to learn. "The problem is that manufacturers of these other toys sometimes rush their products to market," commented Alex Lomas, a researcher at the firm. "Most times the problem is a disclosure of sensitive personal data, but in this case, you can get physically locked in."... Techcrunch said Qiui's chief executive subsequently told it he had tried to tackle the issue but added: "When we fix it, it creates more problems." Five months on from first getting in touch, the UK security team decided to go public."
Internet of Things!