That we’ve never sent humans to Mars is such a travesty, an utter failure of initiative and imagination.
Day: September 20, 2018, 11:59 PM
Paper Wasp
I wish I had this typeface when I was at university: Times Newer Roman looks like a teacher-approved font, but it actually lets you cheat on your paper, as this typeface runs bigger than the regular Times Roman.https://t.co/g8xiW5V05a
— Tina Roth Eisenberg (@swissmiss) September 18, 2018
I need Times Older Roman, that looks the same but compacts the font. Never have written a paper or article that didn’t run too long. I can keep going forever, as I am sure you can tell from this blog.
A 3,000 word paper? Sure, will have it done by lunch. What next?
Weighty Matters
This is really good. I recommend. Only a few problems, none worth mentioning, and building any strength is better than doing nothing.
I’d recommend using free weights as much as possible, though. They will allow for better form and quicker muscle building if you are otherwise healthy, but they are somewhat more challenging to use.
And it is a good counterweight (heh) to this ball of garbage. Nearly everything in there is wrong, invalid, or outright propaganda and lies. Especially the portions about health and obesity are just utterly factually wrong, just completely scientifically unsupported. I would not be surprised if the processed food/fast food industry paid for this.
There’s a reason doctors mention obesity so much — it contributes to, exacerbates, or sometimes causes every single health problem there is. Just about every single one. I see progressives linking to this utter horseshit article approvingly because they want to be inclusive and all that. But that kind of inclusiveness is killing people and pretending it’s all good is not going to help, just as shaming will not.
Anyway, I took the push-up test that was linked from the NYT piece. I am doing pretty good!
Fifty-five reps is what I can do now without resting. When I was in the army, I could do 130 at my peak. I’ll get there again.
Waver
I want a microwave for offices that detects when someone is attempting to make popcorn and then forcefully opens the door and ejects it onto the floor.
Just as one should not take a dump in the hallways at the office, one should never make popcorn. I believe my popcorn-ejecting microwave should be an OSHA requirement in all offices.
Why else do we have all this AI and such? We need to direct it to the truly important problems.
Magee
“Now if we consider together the two points that have just been made — the point that no argument can add to the content of its premises, and the point that all arguments have to rest in the end on unproven premises — it becomes clear that the widely accepted notion that every truth needs to be proved, and that only what has been demonstrated is true, is the opposite of what is actually the case; in fact every proof must rest on foundations whose truth is not demonstrated, must go back eventually to something which is not the conclusion of an argument. We may be inclined, for as long as we do not think about it, to suppose that human knowledge about the world has come into existence through chains of reasoning, and is embodied in their conclusions, but in reality all the information we have is already embodied in the premises from which those very chains of reasoning begin — if we know anything about the world we know it not because it has been demonstrated or proved but because it has been directly experienced or perceived, or else because it follows by logical processes which contribute nothing all in the way of empirical content from what has been directly experienced or perceived. In this fundamental sense, all knowledge precedes all demonstration.”
–Bryan Magee, The Philosophy of Schopenhauer
How To Do a Bad Cover
This is how to do a bad cover — try to clone the song. This might as well be sung by a robot. There is nothing wrong with her voice, if you like robots and dislike emotion and depth.
Now compare and contrast the song done with emotion and actual depth:
Just what a great, great song. I mean, if I ever wrote anything even half that good, I would just hang it up. I’d be done and fuck all the rest. Time to retire and laugh at all the people who couldn’t compare. (She used to cry nearly every time she sang this one. She’s visibly crying at 3:18.)
Out of the Woods
Remember when everyone just knew that Taylor Swift had no talent and that it was all autotune? This song captures anxiety better than just about any song ever written, except perhaps “Time Baby III” by Medicine.
I think “All Too Well” is perhaps one of the best songs ever written from any time, but “Out of the Woods” is probably my favorite Taylor Swift song because it just resonates more for me.
Love this next performance, too. It’s so simple yet so effective.