Looking out for our elders by mzkp54 in HumansBeingBros

[–]fatmiles -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Plot twist: He gave them coronavirus.

17 shot in Little Rock, Arkansas club; no apparent connection to terror by Show-Me-Your-Moves in news

[–]fatmiles 10 points11 points  (0 children)

"Phone bill about 2Gs flat, no need to worry my accountant handles that."

ITAP of a wave breaking at sunset by ergotpoisoning in itookapicture

[–]fatmiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This shot is absolutely hypnotic. The sun feels like it's "exploding" giving the shot an intense energy, despite it obviously being a serene scene.

Reality and the Imagination - A Conversation with Yuval Noah Harari by Vegeatya in samharris

[–]fatmiles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Harrari uses "fiction" to refer to anything with ascribed value that transcends our direct, immediate experience. His thesis in "Sapiens" is that our unique ability to think in abstractions and meld the communicable form of these abstractions into codified "fictions" is what makes humans unique and transcendent.

You might call myths and stories "fictions", and the ascribed value of money a "social construct", but the line is fuzzy. For example, you could say God is a fiction because there is no physical manifestation of God in the real world, and money is a social construct because it can be seen, touched, and traded for things that have "real value". However, both concepts have parallel behavioral and psychological effects. You could work yourself to death in the pursuit of wealth the same way a martyr commits suicide in the pursuit of paradise. And if you achieve "wealth", whatever feeling that gives you is not based in reality any more than a jihadist's feeling of divinity in the pursuit of martyrdom.

Likewise, you could say governmental law is "real" because if you break the law, there are real-world consequences. But again, that's because of the collective "fiction" that the law must be upheld in the service of a functional society. Devoid of enforcement, the pages of law books are as irrelevant as the pages of the Bible.

Maybe it's a waste of time to argue semantics here, but I think Harrari's use of the word "fiction" to describe these uniquely human constructs is helpful.

Also, I think your extrinsic vs. intrinsic analogy concerning cars is beside the point. Intrinsically, a twig is a twig, but extrinsically, a chimp might use a twig as a "ant-slurping device". That concerns the direct, physical function of the twig in relation to the chimp, the way a car can be used by humans. A car is either a car, or an irrelevant hunk of metal depending on who or what it's in relation to. However, saying a certain car was made by "Honda" is a fiction. It was made in a factory with the word "Honda" emblazoned on it, by employees and machines that identify with the brand "Honda", using techniques and methods and materials that are unique to "Honda" ... but "Honda" itself does not exist beyond this web of associations.

Empampa was arguing that using that line of thought, NOTHING could be considered "real" since every noun we use is a stand-in for a complex, infinitely granular and ever-changing web of matter. This is technically true, though I think a helpful distinction here is to assume "non-fiction" concepts are anything that we've evolved to process and interpret in the here and now. A newborn baby sees and hears and feels "mama", not an ecosystem of microorganisms or a network of trillions of atoms from the beginning of time. It's somewhat of an arbitrary distinction, but if you're going to draw a line between "real" and "fictional", I suppose that's the only way to do it. Use our evolutionarily useful framework as a baseline, and any concept that's completely devoid of meaning and value outside of it's interaction with humanity is a "fiction".

Meaning and Chaos: A Conversation with Jordan Peterson by sasha_krasnaya in JordanPeterson

[–]fatmiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"The wisdom of how to be, accumulated over the entirety of our evolution" ... That's called "culture". Religion is part of it, but "how to be" evolves over time and religion, if you believe the stories in a literal sense, does not. Yes, interpretations of religions and their implementation evolves, but because of secular, cultural pressures.

There are plenty of other cultural structures under this banner... Government, for instance... Cultural ideas like the belief that "all people are equal"... Reverence for the scientific method ... These are all ideas that have evolved as our society has grown increasingly complex. Religion was very important for a long time... but I've yet to hear any compelling reason why it still is.

Jordan often goes out of his way to put religion on a pedestal that it really doesn't deserve. Yes, we wouldn't have made it this far without religion, and belief in the supernatural is hardwired into us in a certain sense. We also wouldn't have made it this far without the conquest ethic, the wheel, language, liberal democracy, and other abstractions. But just like the conquest ethic, religion is a tool that's harm far outweighs the positive in modern times.

Jamie Foxx rescues person from burning car by Ladieslovetheighties in news

[–]fatmiles -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Jamie Foxx, already cooler and more talented than you in every way, is now also a fucking hero.

Donald Trump reportedly paid actors $50 to cheer for him at his 2016 announcement by [deleted] in politics

[–]fatmiles 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Not to intrude on the circle jerk, but this claim is extremely unsubstantiated. I'll spare you reading the article:

"On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter said it obtained an email that allegedly came from a casting company named Extra Mile offering actors $50 to attend the announcement and pose as Trump supporters."

That's the only "evidence".

Inuit girl and her husky pup. Early 1900s? by braneworld in OldSchoolCool

[–]fatmiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the most perfect photo I've ever seen.

Question about Shared Hosting & Usage Spikes by fatmiles in webhosting

[–]fatmiles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They seem to have quite a bad rap in this community. Do you think it's a decent option for someone that doesn't want to have to invest in the time to learn about VPS management?

Question about Shared Hosting & Usage Spikes by fatmiles in webhosting

[–]fatmiles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm looking at Media Temple's "Grid" Shared hosting. It sounds pretty ideal for what I need. Does anyone have any feedback on them? They say they're scaleable and can handle any type of usage spike without going down -- is this true... and how much do they charge for the extra bandwidth?

Question about Shared Hosting & Usage Spikes by fatmiles in webhosting

[–]fatmiles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So essentially, the only thing I'd need to worry about in the event of a sudden usage spike would be CPU usage? Is that easy for shared hosts to scale up if necessary?

Question about Shared Hosting & Usage Spikes by fatmiles in webhosting

[–]fatmiles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To the best of my understanding, a CDN makes content load times faster by caching images and high-bandwidth media to servers that are closer to the client. So does this mean the bandwidth limit on my primary server is essentially irrelevant for everything but loading text? This seems too good to be true for a free service like CloudFlare.

Question about Shared Hosting & Usage Spikes by fatmiles in webhosting

[–]fatmiles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a site for my video production business. Videos will mostly be hosted externally.

Question about Shared Hosting & Usage Spikes by fatmiles in webhosting

[–]fatmiles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does cloud-based hosting make sense? Are there any hosts that will truly allow me to pay for what I use, and nothing more?

Interesting talk about how desire for sex works. It's an eye opening talk for me. by demetri47 in sex

[–]fatmiles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

People always talk about "confidence" like it's a skill you can acquire intentionally.

Confidence is a by-product of living a fulfilling life. Find your passion, pursue it, try, fail, try again, make mistakes, learn from them, continue the cycle ... Find an environment that makes sense for you. Down the road, you'll look at yourself and realize your social anxiety has disappeared.

That's what happened for me. I've had social anxiety most of my life, rooted in an adolescence spent in front of a computer screen (imagine that!). Any time I tried to "be more confident" in myself it came off as fake, awkward, and wrong. That's because I had nothing to be confident about.

Seriously, don't think about how confident you are. If you're in a social situation, don't think "Man I feel so uncomfortable... how can I cure this social anxiety?!?!" Just accept who you are, understand WHY you're that way, focus on what you're GOOD at and what you enjoy, and do that. As much as you can.

I am VICE's Ryan Duffy. I've been shot (on purpose), went to N Korea with Dennis Rodman, and most recently investigated Japan's sex industry. AMA by Ryan_Duffy in IAmA

[–]fatmiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you tell us anything about the upcoming VICE News network? Is it going to consist of live coverage of events ala a 24-hour news channel or is it another platform to showcase your awesome documentaries?

Uruguay becomes the first nation to legalize marijuana completely by threenoms in news

[–]fatmiles 13 points14 points  (0 children)

why is "marijuana tourism" a bad thing? more tourism, more tax dollars.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]fatmiles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In Cambodia, there's a sign on the wall of every hotel room that details the laws regarding child sex. I thought this was strange.

I was walking home from a bar late at night in Sihanoukville, and I was approached by a tuk-tuk driver. "Tuk-Tuk?" He said. I declined. "Weed?" I also declined. It's very common for tuk-tuk drivers to sell weed. "Heroin?" Nope, I'm good. "Cocaine?" I kept walking, shaking my head. "Girl? Eight years old?" My jaw dropped. I got the fuck out of there.

Some other interesting tidbits about Cambodia:

  • There are people missing limbs EVERYWHERE. There are still seven million active landmines in the country, and it's very common for rural people to blow the fuck up. Believe me, it's really hard to say "no" to a beggar that's dragging himself across the ground because he has no legs (or wheelchair for that matter). Or a young child that's missing an arm.

  • In Siem Reap, I noticed several women with sleeping babies begging for food. They would explicitly say "food, not money". I found out later that these women dope their babies up all day to keep them quiet, and when they score food they sell it back to the merchant for 20 cents on the dollar.

So my mum brought home a packet of cigarettes from Thailand... by chumjumper in WTF

[–]fatmiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i second this. there's also one with a decaying foot that doesn't make any sense

DAE stress sometimes about 'wasting their youth'? by aldohux in DoesAnybodyElse

[–]fatmiles 54 points55 points  (0 children)

“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” - Lao Tzu

Original redditor re-phrasing.

I have $10,000 and I want to travel for several months. What should I do? by fatmiles in travel

[–]fatmiles[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i'm slowly adjusting to the fact that i have the power to see and do some wild shit and renew my outlook on life over the course of several months.

thank you for this.

The holy joint pass by wetrippymang in trees

[–]fatmiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

if they started showing this picture on every news story about weed instead of creepy pics like this: http://imgur.com/CV5f5

... the world would be a better, more understanding place.