Transhumanism Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.[1] Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the ethics of developing and using such technologies. They speculate that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".[1] History[edit] According to Nick Bostrom,[1] transcendentalist impulses have been expressed at least as far back as in the quest for immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as historical quests for the Fountain of Youth, Elixir of Life, and other efforts to stave off aging and death. First transhumanist proposals[edit]
Is 'Adventure Time' One Big Allegory For Discovering Sex? Cuber presents five more short graybles in latest "Adventure Time." Cartoon Network Watching last night's anthology episode of "Adventure Time," entitled "Five More Short Graybles," I was reminded of the crazed photographer in Leos Carax's "Holy Motors" when he first spots the scraggly-haired Merde character, played by Denis Lavant, in the middle of a crowd and can't stop snapping pictures: "So... weird! So weird!" That's the reaction "Adventure Time," with its loopy blend of bright colors and surreal mini-plots, constantly invites. A sequel to last season's "Five Short Graybles," the episode once again featured narrator Cuber, a portly futuristic being who presents a series of interlocking "Adventure Time" short stories on his Holo-Pyramid Viewer. READ MORE: Why 'Adventure Time,' Now In Its Fifth Season, Is More Groundbreaking Than You May Realize Jake and Finn stick their thumbs in a lot of holes. The final installment with BMO brought everything home.
Naked Came the Stranger Cover of reissue of Naked Came the Stranger Naked Came the Stranger is a 1969 novel written as a literary hoax poking fun at contemporary American culture. Though credited to "Penelope Ashe", it was in fact written by a group of twenty-four journalists led by Newsday columnist Mike McGrady. McGrady's intention was to write a deliberately terrible book with a lot of sex, to illustrate the point that popular American literary culture had become mindlessly vulgar. Hoax [ edit ] Mike McGrady was convinced that popular American literary culture had become so base—with the best-seller lists dominated by the likes of Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susann —that even a wretchedly written, literarily vacant work could succeed if enough sex was thrown in. The publisher, Lyle Stuart , was an independent publisher then known for controversial books, many with sexual content. Synopsis [ edit ] Reception [ edit ] See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] External links [ edit ]
I don’t hate millennials anymore! Like many of my colleagues in the American academy, each fall I consult the Mindset List for entering college freshmen produced annually by Beloit College of Wisconsin. Designed to identify “the experiences and event horizons of students and . . . not meant to reflect on their preparatory education,” the list is marked by a frequent use of “always” and “never,” reminding us that many cultural and experiential commonplaces for those writing syllabi are foreign, inscrutable, and sometimes ancient history to the syllabi’s intended audience. On the list for the class of 2013, three facts controverting my own early experience catch the eye: one demographic, one geographic, and one pedagogic. As a member of Generation X (b. 1970), I have long attributed the difference between my contemporaries and the Generation Y, or Millennial, students I teach (born between 1979 and 2003 or so) as one of substance and content. I was stunned. “What do you mean?” Oh, that’s right, I thought.
Generation X: An Inconvenient Era A data-based look at the financial context of the past 30 years from the perspective of Gen X. I am honored to publish an insightful essay by longtime contributor Eric A. on the inconvenient financial era Generation X finds itself in. What sets this essay apart from most other generational analyses is its focus on data and charts. In The Brewing Generational Conflict (May 15, 2013), I mentioned the Cultural Monster Id (CMI) that arises whenever inter-generational emotions are freely expressed. Personally, I don't find much value in these outpourings of Cultural Monster Id, for several reasons. There's also a bit of intrinsic falsity in defining generational characteristics. We can while away many a night around the campfire lambasting or lauding various supposedly generational traits, but I don't think that gets us anywhere useful. Luck matters, timing matters, but so does context. Large cohorts generate their own self-referential feedback loops. Wow, this investing stuff is easy! Wow!
In Montreal The Swings Are Alive With The Sound Of Music | PlayGroundology These are sweetnote dreamswings an innovation in play and sound. The 21 swings installation is located in Montreal’s Quartier des spectacles on the Promenade des Artistes. This is part of the city’s celebrated arts district where the Jazz Festival and Just for Laughs strut their stuff. Now strangers can make music together by leaning back and kicking for the sky. Cooperation, the unbearable lightness of swinging and musical permutations scoring new compositions – it just doesn’t get any better. Photo credit – Quartier des spectacles on flickr I’m sure this trio’s work has inspired many a passerby since the exhibition opened toward the end of April. Beautiful concept. Montreal Gazette reporter, Jeff Heinrich wrote a good review that includes a nicely shot video – check the bottom lit swing seats. Credits for 21 Balançoires here. Follow the conversation on Twitter at #21B. Like this: Like Loading...
Folsom Street Fair The event started in 1984 and is California's third-largest single-day, outdoor spectator event[citation needed] and the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture.[1] It has grown as a non-profit charity, and local and national non-profits benefit with all donations at the gates going to charity groups as well as numerous fundraising schemes within the festival including games, beverage booths and even spanking for donations to capitalize on the adult-themed exhibitionism. The coordination agency, Folsom Street Events (FSE) is a registered charity and has also started similar events in Canada and Germany. Origin of the leather subculture[edit] History of the leather community in San Francisco[edit] The first proto-leather bar in San Francisco was the Sailor Boy Tavern, which opened in 1938 near the Embarcadero YMCA and catered to Navy boys looking for some male-to-male action.[5] In 1971, the modern bandana code came into use among leather people.
Paula Deen’s Racist Wedding Fantasy Was Once Reality Paula Deen is in trouble. Last month, in a deposition for a discrimination suit brought by an employee, the Food Network star blithely admitted to using racial slurs. Perhaps equally disturbing, she also said she had fantasized about throwing a slavery-themed wedding for her brother, an idea that came to her after eating at a restaurant with an all-black staff. Deen has apologized, though the Food Network has announced that it won’t renew her contract. Whatever her motivations, she tapped into a long history of slavery fantasy in the U.S. In the years preceding the Civil War, as northern states gradually emancipated their slaves, many expensive hotels in New York and other northern cities made it a policy to hire only black men to wait tables in their dining halls. Because New York was a center of the cotton trade, southern cotton merchants and their emissaries spent a lot of time in the city’s hotels. Read more from Echoes online.
thenextosama.com The Perfect Definition of This Goddamn Digital Life The Science of Familiar Strangers: Society's Hidden Social Network We’ve all experienced the sense of being familiar with somebody without knowing their name or even having spoken to them. These so-called “familiar strangers” are the people we see every day on the bus on the way to work, in the sandwich shop at lunchtime, or in the local restaurant or supermarket in the evening. These people are the bedrock of society and a rich source of social potential as neighbours, friends, or even lovers. But while many researchers have studied the network of intentional links between individuals—using mobile-phone records, for example—little work has been on these unintentional links, which form a kind of hidden social network. The results are a fascinating insight into this hidden network of familiar strangers and the effects it has on people. All this is made possible by the Singaporean bus service’s smart card ticketing system. The pattern of in-vehcicle encounters is rich, and the results of their analysis make for interesting reading.
Hipsters On Food Stamps, Part 1 In the John Waters-esque sector of northwest Baltimore -- equal parts kitschy, sketchy, artsy and weird -- Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through a small ethnic market stocked with Japanese eggplant, mint chutney and fresh turmeric. After gathering ingredients for that evening's dinner, they walked to the cash register and awaited their moments of truth. Those are two "hipsters", and the punchline is that they pay for their foodie porn with foodie stamps, which sounds like it should be a terrible thing, except it's in Salon.com, which means they're going to try and tell you how it's a good thing, which they don't, because they can't. It's very easy and satisfying to hate these two, and nothing would make me happier than to hit them square in the back with a jack-o-lantern. No one but the state and psychiatry can profit from another's misery, and they are the same thing, so let's see why Election Day doesn't matter. "It's the economy, stupid!" However, secondly: "I have a degree."
Harvard study of teens links soft-drink consumption to violence | Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2012 Already implicated in the obesity and diabetes epidemics, soda may be linked to violence in young people, new research suggests. In a study of 1,878 students at Boston public high schools, heavy soda drinkers were much more prone to violent behavior than other teens. That finding came about by accident. While seeking to document the incidence of violent behavior among the high-school students, professor of health policy David Hemenway, who directs the Harvard Injury Control Research Center at Harvard School of Public Health, agreed to incorporate unrelated (or so he thought) questions about nutrition at a colleague’s request. Analyzing the survey, he found surprising correlations. Even within the scientific community, people found these results very surprising, Hemenway reports: “When you think about the causes of violence, soft drinks are not on the map of variables that you tend to look at.”