Glenn Hauman: View From Above

Henry Rollins: Teeing Off: It’s a Gamble:

I don’t understand the compulsion to gamble, why anyone would take their hard-earned — or whatever way their money comes to them — and hand it over to a stranger.

There are literally millions of people in America who do not share my view and spend hundreds of hours and millions of dollars gambling in casinos and online like never before. I remember when gambling was something only tough guys did in movies but now it seems that millions of Americans are willfully gambling away their earnings, thus insuring them a broke-ass future. Gambling has become a mainstream pastime. It went from the casinos to seemingly everywhere else and the demographic has widened and now there’s children with gambling debt.

What is the attraction of throwing your money away? Why are so many college students getting addicted to online gambling? Shouldn’t they be studying? Whose money are they gambling with? What amazes me is that people can’t wait to divest themselves of their earnings. Casinos don’t even have to try, people are willing to pay to lose their money! In Las Vegas, they can’t build hotels fast enough to stem the flow of incoming suckers. Why are people so eager to go into debt? I don’t get it. Perhaps I spent too many years working for minimum wage and being broke to throw it away in a few minutes. The final irony of America might be that the freedom that was so hard-won might be the very thing that is the country’s undoing, one hand at a time. Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?!

Eric Hoffer – Wikiquote (I gotta read more of this guy’s stuff):

The frustrated follow a leader less because of their faith that he is leading them to a promised land than because of their immediate feeling that he is leading them away from their unwanted selves. Surrender to a leader is not a means to an end but a fulfillment. Whither they are led is of secondary importance.

Metcalfe’s Law and Video – from Mark Cuban @ Blog Maverick:

1. The more people that see content when it is originally “broadcast”, regardless of the distribution medium, the more valuable the content.

This is the example of “appointment viewing” or “breaking news”. The more people who planned to watch, or did so as soon as they heard about it, the more valuable the content.

Call this the “heat check”.

10mm people watching a tv show at the same time creates more value for the content than 10mm people watching the same show on demand over the course of time.

2. The greater the number of people that watch content simultaneously, the greater the emotional attachment of the viewer.

The greater amount of confirmation that a viewer can get from other viewers that there were others, like them that made an appointment to see a video or immediately changed their plans to watch a video, the greater the “we ” effect and emotional attachment.

3. The longer the period required for content to saturate viewer demand, the cheaper the cost of delivery. Without the constraint of time, the originator to choose the least expensive method of delivery

4. The shorter the period required to saturate demand, the more expensive the cost. This is not intuitive. At first blush it may seem that broadcast technologies can reach an immense audience in realtime with a zero marginal cost of delivery to a new viewer.

However, there is a signicant cost to build a network that can saturate demand immediately. It usually takes constrained resources, whether it is spectrum for broadcast networks, the delivery infrastructure to reach an uncapped audience and the ability to deliver it without time constraints.

5. The greater the number of content alternatives at any given point in time, the more expensive it is for any given piece of content to acquire an incremental viewer. The cost may come in the form of investment into the production of the content, advertising, promotion or placement. It may come in the form of sweat equity from hustling to promote the content.

The Tawdry Rich – another book I have to read:

Richistan is the name author Robert Frank bequeaths on America’s booming microcosm of super-wealth, a demographic whose relative financial power and unique woes has created a kind of “country within a country,” increasingly isolated from the workday mainstream.

And while we’re talking about books– Book chief: Conservatives want slogans – Yahoo! News:

Liberals read more books than conservatives. The head of the book publishing industry’s trade group says she knows why %u2014 and there’s little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation.
ADVERTISEMENT

“The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: ‘No, don’t raise my taxes, no new taxes,'” Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. “It’s pretty hard to write a book saying, ‘No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes’ on every page.”

Cannibals prefer those who have no spines.
—Stanislaw Lem, “Holiday”, 1963

A little something that one should remember when dealing with bullies, elected or otherwise.

My twentieth high school reunion is this weekend. Sadly, I won’t be in attendance, as I’m in Chicago this weekend on business. So, for the few people from Earl L. Vandermeulen’s class of ’87 who’ll read this, a few kind words.

Um…

Give me a few minutes, I’m thinking.

Right. Well, first off, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. Not just because I wanted to see a bunch of you, but because I didn’t want anybody to think I was afraid to show up (premature baldness, missing teeth, extreme weight gain, or general homeliness) or that I was unable to show up (restraining order, house arrest, non-house arrest.) As you can see, I haven’t changed all that much.

My, how your kids have grown.

Yes, I do remember that time with the thing in the place with the photos.

Third spouse, you say? Third time’s the charm? Okay.

How soon do you think you’re going to need that replacement liver?

Me? Much the same as ever– I did weird stuff in high school and had fun doing it, now I do weird things for a living and have even more fun. And even make money at it.

Uh-huh– still married.

Strangest things that have happened since you saw me last? Let’s see… got written up in the Jewish Forward and NPR for writing the first Klingon/Jewish wedding ceremony, was involved in a lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court (we won), started two new businesses, wrote a few books, um… lots of miscellaneous strangeness all over the place. You?

My god, she got even better looking. No, I don’t know how. No, she didn’t have work done. Glory be, it’s a miracle.

Where were you when the towers fell?

What do you mean, how could I forget you? You changed genders on us!

No, I didn’t actually get taller. But I’m wearing lifts.

We always suspected that about you, glad you could come out and finally admit it. How is it up in Massachusetts?

Hey, whatever happened to him? He just fell off the face of the earth.

No, she joined a convent.

I’m hope you’re all happy. Take care. See you– hey, is there going to be a 25th?

Steve Benen reminds me of an anniversary that I, and most of the rest of the world, have forgotten about.

An ignoble anniversary:

The past few years, weve taken to highlighting certain anniversaries, many of them painful. The fifth anniversary of 9/11, the fourth anniversary of the Iraqi invasion, the third anniversary of the Mission Accomplished speech, etc.

It hasnt received much recognition in previous years, but today, Aug. 6, is a noteworthy anniversary as well six years ago today, the president, on vacation in Crawford, was handed an intelligence briefing document. It was titled, Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.

And with the words “Okay, you’ve covered your ass now,” our brilliant leader went back to his golf game. But it was all okay, because Bush had surrounded himself with smart people.

(Via The Carpetbagger Report.)

The arrest of Chris Gore this week in a Prius reminded me of a TV commercial idea I had two years ago:

We open on a Prius zipping along, and the driver hear sirens. He looks in the rearview mirror– it’s a cop. The Prius and cop pull over, and the cop gets out of the car and heads over. The cop pokes his head in the driver window.

COP: “You were doing 85 miles an hour in a hybrid car, and there’s not a judge in the state who’ll believe me. Now get out of here and stop speeding.”

The driver starts the Prius and drives off, carefully but smiling.

VOICEOVER: The Toyota Prius. Good for the environment, and good for your wallet. In more ways than one.

Officer walks back to his car and tries to start it, but the engine won’t turn over. The gas tank reads “Empty”.

COP: “Ahhhhh, nuts.”

VOICEOVER: Did we mention it gets fifty-four miles to the gallon?

So after a rough volleyball game, I noticed some extra bruising on my hands, etc. I went to Google and typed in “minimize bruises”. The first half-dozen links or so were indeed tips on minimizing bruising… but they were all BDSM community sites.

How can you not love a page which starts with “Since we are in the middle of the swimsuit season, how can one minimize bruising after s/m play, so as not to wreak havoc at the beach?”

Ah, the voices of experience.

Quoting in part:

…He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance….

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people…

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

For any George who believes he possesses the divine right of kings. Now hang on for the fireworks.

1. They hate us for our freedom.
2. When they try to come here and share in our freedom, we get pissed and try to keep them out.

Somehow, I don’t think the word “freedom” is the word that plugs in well for that sentence. Let’s try some other word to indicate the bounty of things we have here– let’s try “wealth”.

1. They hate us for our wealth.
2. When they try to come here and share in our wealth, we get pissed and try to keep them out.

That sounds more like it to me, no? How about you?

Most of my stuff has been at ComicMix lately (and we were just named SciFi.com’s site of the week to boot) but there’s some things that don’t quite fit over there, so I’m just going to hammer through them, Avedon Carol style:

Card sharks set bait to hire rats: All about some rigged gambling going on, in the $15-$20-million range.

Why, according to Seventeen, you should date a blogger:

The Blogger:

You don’t agree with all his posts, but they make you think about new issues — and whether he’s as cute as his pics!

Find him at: A friend of a friend’s Top 8 Your first move: Bloggers love having an audience almost as much as they like a battle of wits, so stir up some controversy by telling him when you disagree with a post.

Hidden payoff: An outspoken guy can stir up passions you never knew what you had — and help you figure out what you really stand for.

12 things I’ve learned since being diagnosed with bipolar.

Nothing like being accused of plagarism to make it tough for you to come up with ideas for your next novel… unless, of course, you didn’t think of ideas for your novel the first time around.

Lessons the Internet Has Taught Me :

Everyone else gets all the fun trolls.

My side of the internet is the cool side. We’re also sexier and dress better.

Using your blog to grind personal axes gets really old really fast.

Marvel has been corrupted by the homosexuals. Or the Arabs. Or possibly the gay Arabs.

YouTube makes up for not having anything to say today quite nicely.

I’m far too polite. The fact that I haven’t responded to anyone’s post on any blog or message board with the phrase “you’re fucking retarded, aren’t you” is proof of that.

We have the comics industry we deserve.

If comic fans go for more than forty-eight hours without complaining about something online, they’ll have an aneurysm.

Watching people miss the point leads to wonderful, unintended comedy. Than great sadness. Then comedy again.

Why yes, I do think less of you if MySpace is your blogging platform of choice.

Concern trolling, when applied to comics, is just sort of tragic.

Guys, she’s not going to sleep with you, and yes, your intentions are just that transparent.

The existence of the internet is justified by pictures of cats and other animals with funny captions.

More stuff as I get back up to speed.

I can’t decide whether this is depressing or not:

Intelligence has nothing to do with wealth, according to a US study published Tuesday which found that people with below average smarts were just as wealthy as those with higher IQ scores.

“People don’t become rich because they are smart,” said Jay Zagorsky, research scientist at Ohio State University whose study appears in the Journal Intelligence.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics survey included 7,403 Americans who have been interviewed repeatedly since 1979. Based on 2004 answers, people who are now in their mid-40s showed no link between brain- and earning-power.

“Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth. And being very smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty,” Zagorsky said.

The study confirmed previous research which has shown that smarter people tend to earn more money, but pointed out there is a difference between high pay and overall wealth.

“The average income difference between a person with an IQ score in the normal range (100) and someone in the top two percent of society (130) is currently between 6,000 and 18,500 dollars per year,” it said.

“But when it came to total wealth and the likelihood of financial difficulties, people of below average and average intelligence did just fine when compared to the super-intelligent.”

An irregular pattern of total wealth as well as financial distress levels — such as maxed out credit cards, bankruptcy and missing bill payments — emerged among the various degrees of intelligence, the study said.

The study measured intelligence based on scores from the US Armed Services Qualification Test, a general aptitude test used by the Department of Defense.

(Via Raw Story.)