01) Waking Up with Sam Harris #128 – Transformations of Mind (with Geoffrey Miller)
“In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Geoffrey Miller about evolutionary psychology. They discuss sexual selection, virtue signaling, social media, public shaming, monogamy and polyamory, taboo topics in science, genetic engineering, gender differences and the “Google memo,” moral psychology, existential risk, AI, and other topics.
Geoffrey Miller is an evolutionary psychologist best known for his books The Mating Mind (2001), Mating Intelligence (2008), Spent (2009), and Mate (2015). He has a B.A. in Biology and Psychology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Stanford University, and is a tenured associate professor at University of New Mexico. He has over 110 academic publications addressing sexual selection, mate choice, signaling theory, fitness indicators, consumer behavior, marketing, intelligence, creativity, language, art, music, humor, emotions, personality, psychopathology, and behavior genetics. He has also given 180 talks in 15 countries, reviewed papers for over 50 journals, and also worked at NYU Stern Business School, UCLA, and the London School of Economics. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and his research has been featured in Nature, Science, The New York Times, The Washington Post, New Scientist, and The Economist, on NPR and BBC radio, and in documentaries on CNN, PBS, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and BBC. He has consulted for a variety of Fortune 500 companies, governments, NGOs, advertising agencies, market research companies, and social media companies.
“Two people are standing in the middle of a desert, which once has been the bottom of the largest river of the world; they are looking for water.
They discover a point, being the basis of a line. During the process of their search for water, they are creating the concept of time, whereby lines inherently are being connected with it. Time is getting scarce. Speed. In what way can lines play a role in increasing speed?
Human creature shapes lines. From now on, line structures are subjected to logics and technology, as a base for the creation of his society. Points are being connected to each other, as straight as possible, as a clear conclusion. From now on, lines are guiding human being at an ever increasing velocity. An obsessed striving for rectilinearity, not knowing he is also part of a cycle.
The human being is offered a present in the form of beauty. For the first time, he discovers the curved line, sensual. He is getting aware of the sense of feeling admiration, in order to eventually return to the stream he had been looking for, the stream in its smallest unit, in its most pure form and floating in an endlessness. A drop.
As a point.”
“National Guard troops from eight states will be withheld or recalled from the southern border, the states’ governors announced this week, over mounting objections to the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents there.
The governors of Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Virginia and North Carolina declared that their soldiers would not help to secure the United States’ border with Mexico, adding their names to widening outrage over the policy.
President Trump called in April for the National Guard to be deployed to the border, saying that thousands of troops were needed to stanch illegal crossings, even though they are at a 46-year low. Few governors outside the Southwest immediately embraced the plan.
“Until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded, Maryland will not deploy any National Guard resources to the border,” Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, said on Tuesday. “Earlier this morning, I ordered our four crew members & helicopter to immediately return from where they were stationed in New Mexico.
01) Cynthia Nixon Unveils SWEEPING Anti-Corruption Plan
“TYT Politics’ Emma Vigeland breaks down Cynthia Nixon’s anti-corruption plan, which she announced on the same day that a second Andrew Cuomo administration bribery trial began.
01) Fire Pro Wrestling World Info & Discussion – #CUPodcast
“Fire Pro Wrestling World is coming to PS4 and Early Access on Steam – Pat & Ian discuss why they’re excited.”
Fire Pro Wrestling World Review (PC) + A Brief History of Fire Pro – Kim Justice:
Why buy Fire Pro Wrestling World on Steam?:
So…there I was, about six months back…wondering to myself, if they ever made a Zoo Tycoon 3…or if I could at least get a functional version of Zoo Tycoon 2, on Steam…
I have the complete version of the first game [never purchased the second], which I’ve had a hankering to play…but it’s “obsolete” on modern computers…So, I thought maybe I could pick up Zoo Tycoon 2 […3…4…whatever modern version might possibly exist] on the cheap…
As it turns out…this is now a game genre, in it’s own right…and a lot of knock offs have come into being…including online games…
Since this happened about six months back…and I should have written this while I was fresh, in the excitement phase…I forget exactly what I decided to also look for…but, I was kind of dissuaded by the prospect of having to wade through a bunch of cheap knock offs, to figure out what’s good…But, I decided to start snooping around at what was available in Tycoon games, instead…
For some reason, I typed in “Tycoon World”…
…and this peculiarly familiar graphic popped up, in the recommendation list…not directly related to the search, mind you…but I saw it recommended, when looking at games under the search term “world”…
Much to my shock…looking closer at the screen…I saw the words “Fire Pro Wrestling World”…
“Fire Pro Wrestling” is a very old series, which has it’s roots in the pro wrestling title for the original Nintendo Entertainment System…It’s continued on with 2D sprites, and really became a legendary series during the early to mid 90’s…
With only one exception…they never quit using 2D sprites [until now, where they’ve implemented something more 3D in nature]…which may sound insane…until you realize, what all this allowed them to jam pack into a game for actual pro wrestling fans, who love pro wrestling simulation video games…
This series has a bit of a learning curve…but once you get it…you come to realize, there has never been a better pro wrestling video game on the market…ever.
Of course…Fire Pro Wrestling has had a few “false deaths”…Notably with Fire Pro Wrestling Z [the intended finally], back in 2005 or so…followed up by Fire Pro Wrestling R [aka “Returns”…the intended comeback] in 2007…The latter would be the only game in the series, to get a proper North America release, with menus and text in English…and it didn’t manage to recapture the fan base excitement of previous installments [probably because it didn’t add an enormous amount of new content, and still more they’d planned on adding, did not make it in]…A few years later, the main creator behind the series died…and everybody thought Fire Pro Wrestling was totally over, for good…
This is a Japanese series…only released in Japan…With the first three installments that I purchased [G, D and Z], I had to download and print out a books worth of translations put together by the very dedicated North American fan base…
…So…this is a game community, with a level of dedication and love…that you just don’t encounter, with most games…
I’m aware of the Fire Pro Wrestling R release, on the PlayStation 3 network, three or four years back…to gage interest in the game…I didn’t bother purchasing it, because I couldn’t gather that anything of substance had been changed from the original…and I didn’t want to start from scratch, in recreating my own roster of private characters…just to play in the exact same game…
…But then…when I’d spent years believing that we’d never see another game in this series…and after the community enduring false stories about a new FPW game in development, created and spread by a member of the community…after I’d written this series off as totally done…I’d found out, that a new installment had been created and released, entirely without my knowledge…And there it was, on Steam…for something like $30…
After spending an hour or two verifying that it wasn’t a simple rehash of R…this became an instantaneous, “no more questions asked” purchase for me.
I guess they still have to work out some bugs [I’ve not encountered myself, yet]…but, this is an amazing game!
…And it’s also the first time an FPW game exists…which can have easy expansions added, from the developer…It’s even being unofficially modded, by some players…Because it’s finally made it [or returned, technically] to the PC platform…when it was almost entirely a game for game consoles…
…So…this is, potentially, a “living” game…which can evolve…maybe get new game modes…
It can already create a limitless sized roster…with limitless number of groups and stables…limitless number of rings, with graphics you can import into the game…And it’s all tied into the Steam Workshop…so, the amount of downloadable content is staggering…and the ease of sharing your own content…Well…Let’s just say, I intend on sharing a project or two of my own, when I get them completed…Which isn’t something I typically do with the games I play…because my video game creations [IE: Mods] aren’t usually all that great.
I just wish I could openly talk about those projects here, without getting too reckless with my security…But, I’m afraid they’ll be very unique and somewhat obscure…
I’m not really doing this game justice, without describing it…but, I think these videos do a good job of that…And the basis of this post has been stagnating for six months, as I keep putting off writing something for it…even while I want to release the post…
At times…I’ve described FPW as “the world of pro wrestling, on a game disk”…It has a massive amount of moves and holds…an artificial intelligence editor, which is insane in depth…Every style of pro wrestling [power, technical, giant, Mexican, heel, Japan, and a number of others] and fighting [including MMA and kick boxing] is represented in this game…And the game mimics pro wrestling, as a simulator…It’s not some brainless, arcade like game, with the shallow aim of hitting your opponent till they run out of energy…There’s deep strategy behind this game.
I’m leaving it there…
…I don’t normally talk about this type of thing, because…well…it’s the world of “pro wrestling”…which is largely in an embarrassing state, these days…
…And it’s always been really dorky, at any rate…But I was once a tween, who fell in love with it…and stuck with it, into my twenties…
…I adore the Fire Pro Wrestling series…It’s the pinnacle of what is possible, with this type of game genre.
01) Teenager jailed for naming victims of her brother’s sexual abuse on Facebook in landmark case
“Attorney General warns that ‘anyone can face prosecution’ for violating victims’ right to anonymity online…
A teenager who named victims of her brother’s sexual abuse on Facebook has been jailed in a landmark case.
Sophie Turner, 19, broke the law by identifying two girls protected by lifetime anonymity in hate-filled posts.
She was sentenced to 18 weeks’ imprisonment in a young offenders’ institution after being convicted for two counts of publishing the names of victims of a sexual offence and two counts of harassment.
Liverpool Magistrates Court heard that Turner, of Old Swan, posted the victims’ names on the Facebook page of the Liverpool Echo and wrote further posts when the first was deleted.
The attorney general gave permission for the prosecution to be brought, with a judge warning that laws drawn up for newspapers were being violated on social media.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said: “Publishing the names of sexual assault complainants is against the law in England and Wales. Whether it is in print or online, anyone doing so can face prosecution.
…
Detective Inspector Jacky Fitzpatrick, of Merseyside Police, said the naming of sex assault victims “will not be tolerated under any circumstances”.”
What do you even say to this?
I’m not sure of the evidence in this specific situation…so, I wont comment on that…
…But what happens when you’re falsely accused and wrongly convicted?…
…Neither you nor your family, nor anyone else, can point out what someone else has done to you?…
It’s a crime to go to the public, and alert them of the crime that’s been committed against you?
Obviously…this sister believes the facts of the case against her brother are distorted, at the very least.
I can only imagine what it is like…to watch a family member [or close friend] go through this, and be forced into silence by a draconian law like this.
01) Waking Up with Sam Harris #127 – Freedom from the Known (with Michael Pollan)
“In this episode the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Michael Pollan about his new book How to Change Your Mind. They cover the the resurgence of interest in psychedelics in clinical practice and end-of-life care, the “betterment of well people,” the relationship between thinking and mental suffering, the differences between psychedelics and meditation, the non-duality of consciousness, the brain’s “default mode network,” their experiences with various psychedelics, and other topics.
Michael Pollan is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world. His most recent book is How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.
Twitter: @michaelpollan “
I’ve always had a natural detachment from modern concepts of “normal life”…or “life expectations”…
…Maybe it’s that I’m an INFP [Introverted Feeling Personality]…Maybe it’s that I’ve been ostracized from “normal culture”, due to my sexuality…Maybe I’ve spent such a large portion of my life physically ill, that my inability to function in “the normal world” has made me incapable of personally identifying with it…Or maybe my ability to come out of deep religious indoctrination, has left me with a unique understanding that societies own moral compos is broken…
…but I’ve always tended to recognize the negatives and the wrongs, which “normal and moral” culture imposes upon those who deviate from “the laid out plan”.
I reject various accepted “cultural morals”…and “cultural ethics”…because they reject the natural and good diversity of the human being…and in such, they are immoral and unethical in the ends they met out.
One such “moral” or “ethic”…is that of absolute rejection on illicit drug use.
It’s a complicated issue, yes…
…But as someone who has found no release in traditional, legal methods…I have found this topic to be intriguing and alluring…
If one spends a life suffering…who is anyone, to tell that person they may not explore this option?…
When things are so bad…that use of these substances might credibly improve a person’s quality of life…how do you deny them that?
…This is their existence to experience and get through…first and foremost…
01) Economic Update: Tariffs In An Unraveling Economy
“This show is available at no cost to public access and non-profit community stations! Contact your local channels and let them know you would like them to add Economic Update to their programming. Let us know if you’ve reached out: info@democracyatwork.info”
01) Waking Up with Sam Harris #128 – Transformations of Mind (with Geoffrey Miller)
