There are these maps of the popularity of certain cuss words in the US — I, of course, browsed through them looking for my county to see what word is representative of our preferred profanity. There are all these words that I’d blush to say in front of my mother, and nope, Stevens County is on the low end for all of them. There’s only one where we stand out.
It’s always only been second to YouTube in the abysmal quality of its comments, and it’s intentionally structured to promote the worst behavior in its community.
In practice, the ability of anyone to spawn their own subreddit plus the upvoting/downvoting mechanism leads to each subreddit being an angry little fiefdom fiercely dedicated to its own idea of consensus where dissenting opinions get downvoted into oblivion. A community that’s seen to have a particularly obnoxious bias, say, r/Android supposedly being in the tank for Google Nexus devices, will develop a community focused on attacking the first community for being a “circlejerk” (r/Androidcirclejerk) that has the exact opposite bias and exists to post memes mocking Google Nexus devices for how they’re overrated trash. Eventually one community will lose its patience and “brigade” another community, flooding it with hostile posts in order to show the other side how wrong they are, and mods are forced to stay up all night banning people until everything settles down again (and several users, usually female, have quit Reddit for good after being blasted with death threats).
Let me tell you, cellulitis is no fun at all. I had a rocky weekend of excruciating pain, culminating in an an emergency room visit and big ol’ needles puncturing my plumply adorable butt. Then this morning, our Changes in Nature workshop started up, and I gamely stumbled in and did the first 3 hours. And that’s it. I’m done. I have collapsed onto a cushy chair and am lapsing into a kind of restless catatonia.
Oh, right, there was another doctor’s visit after class, and more needles and pills. No, really, I can’t do no more.
The Pan Am games start in Toronto this week, and they have a remarkable demand on their website.
Links to this Site are not permitted except with the written consent of TO2015™. If you wish to link to the Site, you must submit a written request to TO2015™ to do so. Requests for written consent can be sent to branduse@toronto2015.org. TO2015™ reserves the right to withhold its consent to link, such right to be exercised in its sole and unfettered discretion.
Aww. That’s so cute. It makes me nostalgic for the old days when clueless lawyers would send cease-and-desist letters to people, telling them to remove any links to their precious and pure website.
Well, you heard the man. Don’t link to toronto2015.org, because that would be bad. Unless you’re evil like me, that is. I’m linking to them in order to drain their vital essence, and in order to send poisonous corruption up the web to toronto2015.org.
I never even heard of the Pan Am games before this! I’m also gnashing my teeth in frustration that their SIWOTI advertising campaign is working.
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
It’s the last day of Convergence! We partied into the wee hours last night, and now comes the dreaded time when we have to break down and clean up the party room. It’s going to be drudgery all morning.
But I’m not done with the con! I have two science panels this afternoon before I can escape.
At 12:30 in Atrium 7, we’re discussing Human Augmentation.
We may not be able to fly or record our lives with memory implants, but existing developments are exciting, from 3D printed hands to mind-controlled exoskeletons and neuroprosthetics. We’ll discuss the latest advances and what’s possible for the future. Panelists: PZ Myers, Christopher Hunter, Tim Shank, Brian McEvoy, Cassandra Phoenix
At 3:30, it’s time for Genetic Engineering: From Fiction to Fact, in Atrium 7 again.
Dystopian books, movies and video games are filled with genetic engineering nightmares, from Oryx and Crake to Gattaca and Bioshock. We’ll discuss how much of this fiction is becoming fact (and the implications) in the growing field of synthetic biology. Panelists: Kris Coulter, PZ Myers, Ross Conklin
I’m also going to have say goodbye to my daughter and son-in-law, who have been tending bar all weekend and making sushi, and will be driving back to Colorado; my oldest son is heading back to St Cloud after his long weekend as a party gopher; and the middle son has a few more days with us before he flies back to Korea. I think we’re all going to sleep well tonight.
Today is the opening day of Convergence. Yesterday, we got all our stuff moved in, today we get it organized and pretty.
What I’m doing today: this afternoon at 2 Mary and I will be in the Sandbox showing kids how to identify bones in owl pellets. It will be disgusting and fun.
At 5pm in Plaza 1 I’ll be on a panel that is optimistic: “Technology won’t destroy us.”
Paranoid predictions about the technological downfall of mankind abound in media, but technology has also made human lives immeasurably better. We’ll talk about more realistic portrayals of tech, science, and human improvement. Panelists: Renate Fiora, PZ Myers, Heina Dadabhoy, Dan Berliner, Jason Thibeault
I’ll do my best to bring everyone down.
Then at 8pm, we open our party room (228) to the world. We’ll be there until 1am, talking and drinking and shaking our fists at god or whatever it is we atheists do.
Come on out!
This is The Mended Drum, the thread for off-topic conversations on Pharyngula. Talk about whatever you want.
We’re in a bit of a tizzy around here — Convergence starts on Thursday, and since we have a Freethoughtblogs party room at the event, Mary and I are actually heading out to Bloomington tomorrow, to start putting it all together. It’s a big job — we have to spill-proof a hotel room, move in lots of special furniture (like a bar!), put up flyers, register, decorate, etc., etc., etc. And then during the con, I’m doing 8 panels/demos (I have sensibly cut down from previous years, when I’ve done as many as 15, which was exhausting).
Aren’t they lovely?
I suspect they are also Cthulhu-approved. You will suffer, puny human, and you will go mad.
