Tag: culture

Web Trolling

Another troll explained the lulz as a quasi-thermodynamic exchange between the sensitive and the cruel: “You look for someone who is full of it, a real blowhard. Then you exploit their insecurities to get an insane amount of drama, laughs and lulz. Rules would be simple: 1. Do whatever it takes to get lulz. 2. Make sure the lulz is widely distributed. This will allow for more lulz to be made. 3. The game is never over until all the lulz have been had.” /b/ is not all bad. 4chan has tried (with limited success) to police itself, using moderators to purge child porn and eliminate calls to disrupt other sites. Among /b/’s more interesting spawn is Anonymous, a group of masked pranksters who organized protests at Church of Scientology branches around the world.

/b/ and trolls in general

4chan

Poole set up 4chan because he wanted to share his passion for Japanese comics and TV rather than as a moneyspinner, which is just as well. Although the site is popular, its scurrilous reputation makes it difficult to sell advertising space. ‘That’s been an uphill battle for me personally. My biggest time spent has been convincing companies in marketing potential in 4chan but no one sees eye to eye.’ For now he will have to be content with shaping western culture as the most influential web entrepreneur you’ve never heard of.

Comical Failure

Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart is facing a tough reelection campaign. He’s been accused of abusing his office for personal gain, and will go on trial in the fall on felony campaign finance charges. But apparently, this is all a conspiracy of homosexuals, liberal do gooders, and good ol’ boys to force Rinehart out of office. Rinehart lays out his case in a comic book he’s sending out to voters, which—you may be surprised to learn—he wrote himself.

i suspect this is fake, but who knows. those pedifiles are tricky.

Anthropomorphic Robots

The scanner showed that the more human-like the features of the supposed opponent were, the more such neural activity increased. A questionnaire also revealed that the volunteers enjoyed the games most when they played human-like opponents, whom they imagined to be more intelligent.

using the prisoner’s dilemma and fMRI to confirm that humans prefer humanoid robots

Computer Illiteracy

Not too long ago, most people I knew continued to harbor a certain social prejudice well after the major social prejudices had fallen out of favor among the thinking set. This prejudice was not against a person, or a stereotype. It was against the computer. No one ever spoke openly of this prejudice. It was transmitted subtly: a gentle roll of the eyes when someone cautiously suggested that a quick Google search might resolve the conversational impasse; a derisive snort when the token geek in the room offered to show the group what he or she was working on. When a friend said in mixed company that her local movie theater used to project video game play on the big screen for public viewing, there was an unmistakable ‘only in Maine’ undercurrent to the response.

Poor rekha, having computer refusenik friends. The few I had I re-trained them years ago. Nothing beats fact checking a conspiracy nut cab driver on the spot.

Burrnesha

Pashe Keqi recalls the day nearly 60 years ago when she decided to become a man. She chopped off her long black curls, traded in her dress for her father’s baggy trousers, armed herself with a hunting rifle and vowed to forsake marriage, children and sex.

Had she been born in Albania today, she would choose womanhood.

“Back then, it was better to be a man because, before, a woman and an animal were considered the same thing. Now, Albanian women have equal rights with men and are even more powerful, and I think today it would be fun to be a woman.”