it's remarkable how many people think the issue here is technology, as though people treated each other more respectfully before computers were widespread. the reality is that people have always spoken to and about each other like this. it's not "human nature", it's a function of social interaction. a corollary of existing in advanced societies.

so, yes, bullying can have some positive social aspects. some of those kids need to lose weight. i'd rather talk about the growing obesity epidemic. the peer pressure is an effective means of coercing kids that are raised poorly into better diet and exercise routines. obviously, gym class isn't working. in canada, especially, health is a public concern. i have no problem with this. in fact, i think it should be encouraged.

we can't be drawing equivalences between that kind of positive peer pressure and ignorant, racist stupidity. being fat is not the same thing as being black. accepting unhealthy lifestyles as "normal" is not the same thing as abolishing racism.

at the end of the day, people need to react. they can choose to ignore it and find a way to escape it, they can submit and change themselves or they can find something in between. but, this nonsense idea of total acceptance of everybody regardless of anything is neither realistic nor desirable.

the literature refers to peer pressure as an "informal social control". it's the kind of thing that requires development and fine-tuning in order to make the abolition of the state a feasible goal. and, so it's no coincidence that you get liberals and statists pushing the point of abolishing peer pressure so strongly - it cements their own place in society. it enforces the idea that we can't police ourselves, that we need a government to do it for us.

abolishing peer pressure would cut the bottom out of society. it's increasing atomization. right in line with the neo-liberal drive towards the cult of the self.

go ahead, eat yourself to a quick death. consume eight times as much food as you need. bog down health care resources. fuck your neighbours! and fuck anybody that wants to hold you to account for it!

you're an isolated individual with no connection to the world around you. it's your personal choice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f_kavukuKI

i couldn't live without the ports. i need a mouse, to begin with, and i tend to quarantine my different data types by drive. so, i've got an external drive for mp3s, a usb key for web design, etc. and i'm paranoid about wireless technology. everything in my house is wired. my desktop was built to not have wireless (i paid extra for a board without an integrated chip), i've got it disabled in the bios on my laptop and i actually physically damaged the receiver in my router...

so, i would find this useless.

but, in the end, might they actually be right, regarding the general market? do most people really want more than a glorified netbook?

i don't really know why people think this idea of a "slim laptop" is in any way meaningful in the first place. this ideal is just taken for granted. nobody explains the reasoning underlying it. it's suggested that having less ports is a valid trade-off for a slimmer size [and i don't think this is true - if you make the thing thick enough for one port, it's already thick enough for three], but i see no reason why a slimmer size has any value. i'll take a fat laptop with higher functionality, please.

but, again...i'm not the market. if the market wants a device to stream shit over netflix and access data from the cloud, the peripherals are increasingly useless.

Adam Shay
The reason why sheep's fall for it is because of the marketing strategy look at the introduction video they spend millions on it if they could at least spend that much on the hardware (I would personally pay any price they mention for it)

Zac Spurgeon
Although if the market wants a device to stream shit over Netflix and access data from the cloud, I still think that it's unethical to charge them for a fully-featured machine when they're basically getting a mid-level tablet with a keyboard.

deathtokoalas
dude thinks corporations care about what's ethical. ahahahahaha. do you realize who makes these things?

Zac Spurgeon
I didn't say they care about what's ethical, but normally they keep their unethical practices behind closed sweatshop doors, instead of just being blatantly dishonest to their consumer base.

deathtokoalas
i don't find apple tends to go out of it's way much, really. they just gloss over it with slick advertising. i mean, their operating system is just a tweaked bsd, which is open-source software. a lot of people put a lot of work into that, and didn't get a cut out of it when apple privatized it. everything they've done has been overpriced forever. it at least made some sense when they were selling power pcs, but since they switched to intel they're literally selling dells with freeware for three times the price. so, this is absolutely consistent with everything they've been doing for years.

Zac Spurgeon
True, but I think this is also the worst they've gotten so far. Whenever I've looked it up, you're paying a little less than twice as much for the same specs on a machine that's more difficult to service and overheats more easily. This is just a whole other level of ripoff. To be clear I'm not shocked or surprised, just increasingly annoyed.

Philip Kwok
Most people can't live without it. I can see people who buy this new MacBook and find no problem of is are those who don't really use computer more than a few hours a day, only surf webs, email, youtube and such. For anyone who even want to do lite office things will not even consider this piece of expensive paper weight. Yea. 1 to 2mm thinner and I don't have a USB port.... sorry, I don't really mind that extra 100g or 1 mm. I rather get 2 USB ports. Do they really think that matters more than versatility? Yes, people want thinner laptop but nobody told them they want to trade off usb ports and other ports for the extra 1 to 2 mm reduction. Who cares about that 1 to 2mm seriously?

so, i quit smoking for most of february and noticed the dysphagia improved but didn't disappear. i also noticed i was less alert and less productive. as the smoking does not seem to be the cause of the dysphagia, and i wanted to increase my alertness and productivity, i picked smoking back up for the first week of march. while my alertness and productivity did increase, the dysphagia quickly became unbearable. i'm at a breaking point and will stop. i need to eat. but it means i need to deal with the effects of withdrawal this week, which is extreme sleepiness. again. grargh.

i have enough evidence at this point to conclude that i either have ms or cancer. i'm going to have to go to the clinic and have this sorted out, as i know the dysphagia is not going to go away by not smoking. i just want to finish this song first...

there's really only one "easy way out", and it's that i have a massive ear infection. but, i'm grasping at straws.

my perspective about ms is that i can't do anything about it, so why waste the time in a doctor's office? but, it's starting to affect my arm, which affects my playing. if i can get some drugs for that, i'll take them.

cougars in downtown windsor

hi...

i saw your name in a newspaper report on cougar sightings in the region.

here's the thing: i don't have enough evidence to bring this to a police department or animal control or something. but, the mere premise of a cougar setting up in the middle of a city would be remarkable from a behavioural perspective. and, it's obviously of safety concerns, nonetheless.

i've been seeing various signs for months. large tracks through the snow (i didn't take pictures), glimpses out of the side of my eye, apparent movement in bushes, etc. it's easy to write these things off as mind tricks. and i do in fact have a history of mental illness.

but, i think i may have spotted some cubs this morning around marion street, just south of wyandotte. certainly, i've never heard a house cat make the "raaaaawr" sound i heard out of a small cat that reacted as soon as it saw me. feral cats don't generally react to people at all, in my experience. to get "raaaaawr"-ed at like that by a small cat was something i've never experienced before.

now, i didn't stick around to get a good look - i know i don't want to get between a cougar and it's cubs. and i wasn't wearing my glasses. but (from a distance, with weak vision) they looked like small, muscular, cream coloured house cats. maybe they were just that. but it's the behaviour that was unnerving to me, combined with other weak evidence.

cubs in the city? i know it's remarkable, but we know coyotes are doing this. and i know there's been an increase in sightings in the region lately.

however, i haven't seen a decrease in feral cats in the region lately. that's really what i've been looking for before i decided to make a call to an enforcement agency.

it's one thing to think you thought you saw a mountain lion. it's another to think you thought you see mountain lion cubs. i can't bring this to animal control, but i'd never forgive myself if i sat on this, wrote it off as mind tricks and then learned some kid down the street got taken. so, i think bringing it to the attention of somebody that can make a better scientific assessment is the best idea....

jessica