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HEP2go, a physical therapy exercise reference
HEP2go is a site that helps physical therapists and other rehabilitation professionals create home exercise programs for patients and clients, and helps patients by providing clear instructions and examples for each exercise. The inventory of exercises is divided up by anatomical category and exercises are annotated with text descriptions, photo illustrations, and -- in many cases -- short demonstration videos. (Click the "play" icon in the lower left corner of the photo to get a Vimeo inset to pop up and play.)
suddenly, one of the show’s history experts starts getting very excited.
Time Commanders
is a technological game show which sends contestants back in time to reenact historical battles, with the aid of an unnamed real-time strategic combat simulation and 3D CGI visualisations provided by The Creative Assembly.
It happens to all of us unless we go first.
My Parents Are Dead: What Now?
A resource (aimed at Millennials, but useful to people of any age) for those who have no idea what to do when their parents die. From the last days through the funeral to probate and beyond, useful advice and links for folks who are working through one of the awful parts of adult life. US-centric.
everything in physics is made up to make the math work out
Dr. Katie Mack wrote a short article for Science Focus to talk about what's "real" in physics: "..in practice, physics isn’t built around ultimate truth, but rather the constant production and refinement of mathematical approximations. It’s not just because we’ll never have perfect precision in our observations. It’s that, fundamentally, the entire point of physics is to create a model universe in math - a set of equations that remain true when we plug in numbers from observations of physical phenomena."
can everyone kindly shut the f up about AI
The robots aren't coming, but the people who can't shut the fuck up about them are already here.
Please please please can everyone just take a moment to shut the fuck up about AI? It’s so stupid and it’s barely even started and already everyone can’t stop nutting about how cool it is BUT IT IS NOT COOL. "It's fascinating and it's going to change every single aspect of our lives forever!!!" Do you even hear yourself??? It’s a fucking chatbot just like Alexa, Siri, and the exception that proves the rule, the GOAT itself SmarterChild.
HUMAN_FALLBACK
"When Brenda went off script, an operator took over and emulated Brenda’s voice. Ideally, the customer on the other end would not realize the conversation had changed hands, or that they had even been chatting with a bot in the first place." HUMAN_FALLBACK by Laura Preston, published by n+1 in late 2022 (a shorter version is in The Guardian), details the job Preston did from early 2019 to early 2020, "impersonating a chatbot that’s impersonating a person" for an real estate leasing platform.
Modular, Scaleable Everything
As the gig economy grows, so too does the danger that engineers, in attempting to build the most efficient systems, will chop and dice jobs into pieces so dehumanized that our legal system will no longer recognize them. And along with this comes an even more sinister possibility: jobs that would and should be recognizable—especially supervisory and management positions—will disappear altogether.Short read: Susan Fowler in Vanity Fair notes that the
Atlas Has Shrugged
I am John Galt (SLTwitterThread)
"Canned beans and ramen noodles night after night"
Budget Bytes is a weblog/recipe collection I use every single week. It has priced-out ingredients for each recipe and often recipes stay under about $1.50/serving, which is nice for those of us on tight budgets.
Electronic Self-Protection
How to encrypt your entire life in less than an hour
"In this article, I will show you how you can protect yourself by leveraging state-of-the-art encryption. In a single sitting, you can make great strides toward securing your privacy."
Portland Protests
Portland protests
For the fourth night, protests continue in Portland. KGW is broadcasting live.
"We asked 86 burglars how they broke into homes"
KGW of Portland, Oregon, sent questionnaires to 86 people convicted of burglary and currently serving time, asking how they picked targets, what they looked for, and how they carried out their thefts. Two notable points: they always knock first, and a car in the driveway or a radio or TV left on are big deterrents.
The Fellatio Modification Project, etc.
The Fellatio Modification Project; The Cunnilingus/Anilingus Modification Project; Dolphin Eroticarium; Pet's Pettings: some concepts/projects by the Taiwanese dentist & new media artist Kuang-Yi Ku. Note: all links are NSFW.
Solving unconcious bias one step at a time...
Unconscious bias is particularly insidious, and most simple methods developed to address it typically work for only a few days, if at all. Of the approaches tested in a 17,000 person study, only 8 techniques appear to lower bias temporarily, and many of those require the rather troubling method of both raising empathy for the minority group and creating negative associations with the majority group. In fact, simply educating people about negative stereotypes can actually increase stereotyping. The problem is still being worked on, and researchers are optimistic. In the meantime, it can be best to avoid triggering bias at all: blind auditions can reduce bias in settings like orchestras (though maybe not in technical hiring, where the problem appears to be that disadvantaged groups give up sooner). It can also help for people from advantaged backgrounds to speak out when they see racism or bias: a just-published study shows that if a "high-follower white male" calls out a harasser on Twitter, there is a drop in overt racist behavior. You can also become aware of your own biases through the Implicit Association Test.
100 African Writers of SFF - Part One Nairobi
An African writer who makes mix tapes of game soundtracks. A Nairobi filmmaker with Nietzsche on his smart phone. A chess champion who loves Philip K Dick. An African SF poet who quotes the Beatniks… meet the new New Wave in Nairobi, Kenya. Part one of our series 100 African Writers of SFF.
Skepticism Refocused
When "Rationalism" makes you dumber:
Scientific American writer John Horgan's recent talk to a large skeptic conference was cut short when he called for turning skepticism towards "hard targets" such as psychiatric drugs, medical overtesting and militarism, and away from "preaching to the choir" rants against the paranormal and superstitious.
“I do not have the answer to that one.”
Helena’s mission is to “create positive impact across the globe,” is funded by “significant personal capital” from 20-year-old Henry Elkus, and “thus far, we’ve been awed by the bonds of friendship and collaboration Helena Members have begun to make in advance of their first meeting.I Have No Idea What This Startup Does and Nobody Will Tell Me
Becoming an uber-Spock? Or becoming the love-child of Spock and Kirk?
Proponents of rationality tend to talk about the brain as a kind of second-rate computer, jammed full of old legacy software but possible to reprogram if you can master the code. (SLNYT) A group teaches ways to overcome your primate brain to help yourself.
Replace X with Y
Here is the Chrome extension Word Replacer II, and here is the Firefox extension FoxReplace. You can use them to replace words on web pages you visit with other words of your choosing. They could be used to duplicate the action of previous extension cloud-to-butt, or you might think of other things you could do with it. There's another extension for Chrome that automatically changes all uses of "millennials" to "snake people".
The Trials of Alice Goffman
‘‘Alice used a writing style that today you can’t really use in the social sciences.’’ He sighed and began to trail off. ‘‘In the past,’’ he said with some astonishment, ‘‘they really did write that way.’’ The book smacked, some sociologists argued, of a kind of swaggering adventurism that the discipline had long gotten over. Goffman became a proxy for old and unsettled arguments about ethnography that extended far beyond her own particular case. What is the continuing role of the qualitative in an era devoted to data? When the politics of representation have become so fraught, who gets to write about whom?
“...left a trail leading right back to his door”.
Stephen Leather accused of cyberbullying by fellow thriller writers. by Alison Flood [The Guardian]
Over the past week, the authors Steve Mosby and Jeremy Duns have each alleged that Leather is behind websites set up to attack them. On 4 January, Mosby blogged about the launch of the site fuckstevemosby.com, which featured an exhaustive collection of the times he swore online. Mosby claims that the site was set up by Leather. Duns, the author of the Paul Dark spy novels, then blogged a lengthy analysis of the reasons why he believes Leather is behind a series of sites abusing him – including the claim that the recently established site fuckjeremyduns.com briefly redirected to Leather’s own site about his character Spider Shepherd.
Fabio Helped Me Escape From a Cult
When you’ve been in a cult and you meet new people at a dinner party, you’re never quite sure when to bring it up. But I know one thing: If I do bring it up, nobody ever finds my story boring.
The Unqualified Reservations of Mencius Moldbug
Unqualified Reservations
is a fascinating ongoing commentary on society and governance in postmodernity. He's currently on about the pwning of Richard Dawkins, after writing about Mediocracy and Official Journalism. It might be best to first read his earlier posts in which he defines the self-invented terminology he's fond of using, like: Formalism, The Iron Polygon, Universalism, Neocameralism, and The Rotary System.
The Dark Enlightenment
As the term suggests, the Dark Enlightenment is an ideological analysis of modern democracy that harshly rejects the vision of the 18th century European Enlightenment—a period punctuated by the development of empirical science, the rise of humanist values and the first outburst of revolutionary democratic reform. In contrast, the Dark Enlightenment advocates an autocratic and neo-monarchical society. Its belief system is unapologetically reactionary, almost feudal.
The many bloggers who constitute the movement style themselves as “Dark Lords of the Sith,” self-described fearless truth-tellers, who—mixing their cinematic metaphors—offer Matrix-evocative “red pills” of awakening in the form of sulfurous conclusions about the state of the world. Indeed, questioning the prevailing Western narrative is typically a Dark Enlightenment writer’s modus operandi, skewering the values of the liberal establishment.
The many bloggers who constitute the movement style themselves as “Dark Lords of the Sith,” self-described fearless truth-tellers, who—mixing their cinematic metaphors—offer Matrix-evocative “red pills” of awakening in the form of sulfurous conclusions about the state of the world. Indeed, questioning the prevailing Western narrative is typically a Dark Enlightenment writer’s modus operandi, skewering the values of the liberal establishment.
Brother, can you spare an hour for a CEO down on her luck?
The Beggar CEO and Sucker Culture
castigates employers who think their employees should do extra work for free.
Good and hard
Health of Hard Science Fiction in 2015 (Short Fiction)
- Greg Hullender of Rocket Stack Rank looks at whether this years stories support claims of doom for Hard SF.
“This station is now the ultimate power in the universe!”
It’s a Trap: Emperor Palpatine’s Poison Pill by Zachary Feinstein [.PDF]
In this paper we study the financial repercussions of the destruction of two fully armed and operational moon-sized battle stations (“Death Stars”) in a 4-year period and the dissolution of the galactic government in Star Wars. The emphasis of this work is to calibrate and simulate a model of the banking and financial systems within the galaxy. Along these lines, we measure the level of systemic risk that may have been generated by the death of Emperor Palpatine and the destruction of the second Death Star. We conclude by finding the economic resources the Rebel Alliance would need to have in reserve in order to prevent a financial crisis from gripping the galaxy through an optimally allocated banking bailout.via: Popular Science
Leaked Documents Show Dothan Police Department Planted Drugs
The Henry Country Report has revealed leaked documents that show a narcotics team in Dothan, AL planted drugs on black men for years.
The cases were prosecuted by Doug Valeska. All of the officers involved were in a local neo-confederate organization, and many of the targeted individuals remain in jail.
Why Are Sports Bras So Terrible?
"Today, there are a lot more choices than the original Jogbra jock strap design.
In fact, as anybody who has gone shopping for a sports bra recently can attest, there is an overwhelming number of choices, from strappy yoga designs to padded cups to the classic racerback. But the choices women face come down to two main categories: compression bras and encapsulation bras."
they burn witches here
"In Papua New Guinea (which was fully 'opened' to the outside world only in the late 19th century), the tradition of witch hunting has not simply persisted in the face of Western intervention—it has become much worse. The ritual is warping, the violence is metastasizing." [cw: graphic content]
John Candy really lost the game for us, and as a crummy Johnny LaRue
The cast and crew of SCTV play softball (SLYT).
The Super 8mm footage of the game, which was taken at a park in Edmonton (possibly Pleasantview Park) in 1982, was discovered by Rose Candy, John's widow. via AV Club.
Afrofuturism: The New Wave
A New Wave of Black Filmmaking: Experimental and Black Speculative Indie Films
"A brief survey of the contemporary Black independent film scene yields a long and ever-growing list of experimental and Black speculative (including horror, Afrofuturism, sci-fi, fantasy, fan fiction) short cinema, film trailers, music videos and other projects. (/The Atlanta Black Star)
When you speak—and when you are heard—you are committing a political act
It’s true that my detective is physical—she is sometimes criticized for being too physical, for courting danger and taking her lumps. Her main function, though, is to speak, to say those things that people in power want to keep unsaid, unheard. Her job is to advocate for those on the margins. It is her speech that unleashes a physical reaction against her: she does not provoke the powerful by punching their noses, but by speaking when they want her to be quiet.The Detective as Speech: Sara Paretsky talks about the origins of V. I. Warshawski in the context of Second Wave Feminism's high point and why it's important to have female heroes who didn't become detectives out of unresolved trauma.
Snake said he didn't want to talk.
Kenny "The Snake" Stabler died last week. Sports reporter Bob Padecky recalls a memorable interview with the Oakland Raiders quarterback.
“If you get pregnant here, you are stuck”
Colorado’s Effort Against Teenage Pregnancies Is a Startling Success, by Sabrina Tavernese, New York Times
People can understand strange desires; not having desire freaks them out
DoubleX Gabfest: The Beazel Better Have My Money Edition
- "On this week’s Gabfest, Slate’s Hanna Rosin and June Thomas join New York editor Noreen Malone to talk about what it means to be asexual, Rihanna’s music video for 'Bitch Better Have My Money' and other prefatory uses of bitch, and the 1939 film The Women."
The weird worlds of African sci-fi
African sci-fi features all manner of weird and outlandish things, from crime-fighting robots to technological dystopias. But could they be closer to predicting the future than they realise?
"They're trying to be King of the Mormons"
So what happened? In the run up to 2008, Jon Huntsman Jr. wanted to be a player in national politics, and Mitt Romney all but patted him on the head and urged him to sit on the bench. Three years later, the specter of the next presidential election would fan smoldering resentment into flaming disgust in full view of the political world. Huntsman, then ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, left his dream job for his own White House run against Romney, whom he considered an exceptionally weak front-runner. Romney, for his part, saw Huntsman as a political opportunist he would relish crushing. Members of both families deny a feud exists and instead offer polite, politically correct compliments about their counterparts. Behind the facade, though, lie two political tribes that have grown to dislike and distrust one another.
Inside JFK's amazing, abandoned TWA terminal
A pristine time capsule from 1962.
Stunning pictures and video from this classic terminal, designed by famed Finnish architect Eero Saarinen. [via]
"Girl has look of mild panic."
While hanging out in a coffeeshop, Toronto-based writer Anne Thériault live tweeted the bad date that took place at the table next to hers.
We fuck up. All of us.
Last March, activist Asam Ahmad posted a critique of call-out culture, arguing that public call-outs for bad behavior on social media are an ineffective as well as toxic method of furthering social justice. Instead, he advocates Ngọc Loan Trần's concept of calling-in, which emphasizes compassion and kindness while holding people accountable for their actions. While call-out culture is often criticized based on its effects on more privileged people, it can also have negative consequences for marginalized groups. For example, language policing can stifle discussion about social injustice.
A Global Neuromancer
"I merely want to remind us that cyberspace is a literary invention and does not really exist, however much time we spend on the computer every day. There is no such space radically different from the empirical, material room we are sitting in, nor do we leave our bodies behind when we enter it, something one rather tends to associate with drugs or the rapture. But it is a literary construction we tend to believe in; and, like the concept of immaterial labor, there are certainly historical reasons for its appearance at the dawn of postmodernity which greatly transcend the technological fact of computer development or the invention of the Internet."
- Fredric Jameson looks back on Neuromancer by William Gibson