"Look Up."

Emma Stone just crushes Jimmy Fallon in what may be the best lip sync battle yet.

Of two minds... internet interaction can be just as valid as 'irl.'  The backlash against the online strikes me as too much 'get those kids off my lawn.'  Otoh, I completely am on board with the 'focus on what you're doing when you're doing it.'  Engage with the world when you engage with the world. Do what you do.  Not what you're not doing.

Bjørn Lomborg: 

"Africa's top economy -- Nigeria -- produces half the electricity of North Dakota. For 249 times more people. There is an incredibly lack of availability of electricity in Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, excluding South Africa, the entire electricity-generating capacity available is only 28 gigawatts — equivalent to Arizona’s — for 860 million people. About 6.5 million people live in Arizona. Again, this is why getting more power to the developing world is one of the most important ways forward."

Fred On Everything: 

"In something called Upshot, apparently the love child of the New York Times, I find a piece by a negligible robot happily chronicling the failures of boys in school. This has become a ritual for feminists and pussy-whipped male Sonderkommandos.  If smugness and condescension were oil, these tali-wagging unmen would be gushers, maybe a gas fielñd. This particular dropping rattles on (if droppings rattle) about the superior “social skills” of girls, which in fact they have. (“Social skills” is illiterate sociobabble. It is plural, so I ask, what are these skills? Bright smile? Curtsey? Subtle flattery? “Sally has a really good bright smile, but her subtle flattery needs work.”)

...There is in all of this much schadenfreude from women who enjoy seeing boys fail, and a great deal of passive aggression: “Bobby, we are making your life miserable and doing our best to turn you into an involuntary lesbian for your own good. Now keep quiet, take your Ritalin, and don’t move an inch, you little bastard.”"

A thread running through it all is the notion that boys are just, well, to put it frankly, not very smart, good perhaps for carrying heavy objects but not suited to a modern world founded on intelligence.  A couple of quotes catch this: “As the economy continues to shift away from brawn and toward brains, many men have struggled with the transition.” And “’Boys are getting the wrong message about what you need to do to be successful,’ Ms. Buchmann says. ‘Traditional gender roles are misguiding boys. In today’s economy, being tough and being strong are not what leads to success.’” Women of feminist stripe have always resented the physical strength of men and have argued that either it doesn’t really exist or that it doesn’t matter (women in the infantry), and that anyway women are more intelligent if not held back by oppressive etc.  It may well be true that women are more suited to a bureaucratic society in which order, procedure, following rules, and placidity are paramount. "

Internet Ranting and the Myth of Catharsis | Psychology Today: 

"The idea that “venting” anger has a beneficial cathartic effect is well entrenched in modern culture. Belief in the value of venting has manifested in the online world in the form of “rant” sites (e.g. Rant Rampage) where people not only get to freely express their vitriol, they can also read and comment on rants left by other venters. However, decades of research have shown that venting, far from releasing anger, actually makes it worse. Not surprisingly, a recent study has shown that online ranting seems to increase anger and is associated with anger-related problems. Ranting may be problematic because it associated anger with aggressive behaviour. On the other hand, expressing anger in a constructive and non-aggressive way can actually be beneficial."

Seems Legit.

   

  

  

Seems like a bad idea.  You know, tactically speaking.