evilflowerpot

[evilflowerpot]

Funny counterargument to dumb “fact”

> We only use 10% of our brain.

> We only use 33% of the traffic signal! Imagine how efficient our intersections would be if we used all three lights?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/yv5z85/comment/iwd1jef/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[evilflowerpot]

> No one sees the version of you that you see of yourself

via https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ytabd9/comment/iw3clol/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 > The brain isn't designed to keep us happy. It's designed to keep us alive.

via https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ytabd9/comment/iw3xyqw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

#therapy

[evilflowerpot]

Feelings about 9/11 and wars

Its hard to explain. I’m from the East Coast and 30 some odd people died in 9/11 from my home town, including my neighbor. I spent my entire childhood and youth afraid I’d miss the war. I wanted to do my part.

I enlisted when I was 17 with my parents’ consent. I graduated high school on a Friday and shipped to Parris Island the following Monday. By December I was in Afghanistan. My unit had around 14 guys KIAd and 100+ wounded, mostly amputees. I got my purple heart when I was shot in the shoulder and the round came through my neck and came out of my cheek.

I came home and nobody seemed to really give a shit I went to war. I got a ton of thank you for your services, but I think most Americans say it because it makes them feel better. Anyone from my hometown just knows me as that guy who got shot in Iraq, or maybe Afghanistan (I was shot in Afghanistan, never been to Iraq, completely different war). Most Americans couldn’t really name a single battle or town we fought in. I was in the Sangin River Valley and it was probably more comparable to Vietnam than the typical desert the average American pictures. We didn’t drive around in vehicles, we walked for kilometers everyday seeking the Taliban or stepping on IEDs, mostly IEDs. When we did engage the Taliban, they usually DD’d before we could kill them. It felt like insanity losing a guy to an IED, but not being able to engage the enemy that planted it.

I gave my youth to that country, lost friends, bled for it. My high school girlfriend broke my heart when I went to war and she went to college and broke up with me. When I got out of the Marines and moved back home, my only friend was my dog. Thankfully hes still around, but hes 14 now. I couldn’t really relate to my friends who had just graduated college and moved home because to them, the war was not important or really any aspect of their lives. I didn’t like bars or clubs because the crowds would make me feel uneasy, so I slowly stopped being invited out because I’d never go. I felt really lost leaving the service. Over a decade later I realize that was a war we’d never win, 1000 years or 1 year, as soon as we left it was going to go to shit.

I don’t talk about Afghanistan because a lot of people don’t even realize some guys actually fought a war there. I was in over 50 firefights, some within 50 meters, most 500+ meters. Some lasted minutes, others lasted hours. All of them felt like a life time. Nobody can really relate. Its a part of my life that will always stay vivid to me, but also feels like a dream that never happened.

Watching those poor kids die last summer made me sick to my stomach. All for nothing. I feel pride in having served, done my part, etc, but in hindsight I went there for my country, but only fought for my friends.

I don’t have PTSD or anything. I don’t have nightmares. I just feel like I gave my youth for nothing.

I ended up going to college on my gi bill and coming back into the Marines as an officer. I had a hard time being a civilian and readjusting to real life. I worked a job in a fortune 100 company for a year after college and was very unhappy. In a way, the military is now my safety bubble because I can be with friends who get me.

Sorry for such a long reply, venting on an anonymous account feels somewhat therapeutic for me.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/xbtpzq/comment/io373bk/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

#9/11 #army #war #ptsd

[evilflowerpot]

Social networks are changing our language

> For instance, in many online videos, it’s common to say “unalive” rather than “dead,” “SA” instead of “sexual assault,” or “spicy eggplant” instead of “vibrator.”

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/08/algospeak-tiktok-le-dollar-bean/

#algospeak #algorithm #social networks

[evilflowerpot]

Productivity / consistency images

Source: https://twitter.com/StephandSec/status/1534554541533929473

#productivity

[evilflowerpot]

Mental health in USA sucks

> My brother was recently off his meds for 6 months, he attacked someone in his board and care home. He went to jail. Then he was released. He lost housing, was homeless and walked the streets deranged because he refused to get back on his meds. The police would not 51-50 him, despite him being clearly unstable. He was in and out of jail and they wouldn't put him in a hospital despite my mother contacting everyone that could help him and explained his situation. She sent his whole medication and mental health history every single time, begging them to hospitalize him. Instead he ended up in and out of jail and on the streets, until he walked into a random person's house. He was then jailed and my mom was finally able to convince them to put him in a hospital to stabilize him. https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/uxr5sa/ysk_there_is_no_help_for_the_mentally_ill_in/

#mental health #usa #healthcare

[evilflowerpot]

Weed negatives

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/eh8gs2/what_are_the_downsides_of_weed_that_people_dont/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

[evilflowerpot]

[Reddit] I suffer from depression and after a painful breakup in 2018 I decided to monitor how many times a day I thought killing myself for a year. This chart shows when I finally decided to go to therapy and quit suffering. [OC]

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/dux5xw/i_suffer_from_depression_and_after_a_painful/

#suicide #therapy #depression

[evilflowerpot]

Together alone - on gay loneliness

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/gay-loneliness/

[evilflowerpot]

Postmortem

Když měl problém, šel na pivo. Nemakal na sobě, aby se měl líp (angličtina, škola...). Nevěděl, co od života chce (chtěl pouze dělat to, co ho zrovna bavilo).

V podstatě všechno vlastnosti, které vidím u sebe a přijdou mi špatné. V životě to přece musím někam dotáhnout... všichni moji kamarádi to taky chtějí. Musím být někdo... Nebo je to blbost? Proč nebýt prostě spokojený? Proč neřešit věci, jak zrovna přijdou? Proč hrát ten krysí závod? Byl jsem s ním šťastný. Myslel jsem si, ��e je to náhoda, že přišel zrovna v dobrém období... možná nebyla. Možná jsem byl šťastný hlavně kvůli němu.

Miloval jsem ho a nevěděl jsem o tom... Miloval jsem ho ale choval jsem se k němu jako k někomu pode mnou, protože jsem viděl jen to špatné. Proč bych se měl divit, že odešel?

Teď bude šťastnější...

[evilflowerpot]

The average german train conductor will see two people throwing themselfes infront of his train, in his career.

Hell, even in Switzerland that shit happens so often, that we got so efficient in the clean up, that the very same train involved in such a suicide only has a delay of a couple minutes.

In the very first day, new drivers get adviced: "If you see a person on the tracks, apply the brakes, close your eyes, consider to hold your ears and wait until police and a replacement driver has arrived.

They even tell you that you can light up a cigarette or do whatever the fuck you want, but to never step out of the train to check on the person.

Then you see a ambulance arrive. You suddenly feel happy that help arrived. But then you look into the shocked face of the younger medic and realise "oh yeah, i didn't just break a leg. My Legs are over there, and my intestines are fucking sliding out of my chest body. "

https://np.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/comments/3h4mn2/do_it_for_the_gram/cu4idye

[evilflowerpot]

Why apps launch on iOS first?

Unrelated: To speak to why many apps launch on iOS first. There a handful of reasons, but there are two big ones that I often see:

1.) Apple will often hint (they never directly promise) that they will promote your app upon its global release, if you launch on iOS-exclusively for a few weeks or more. This allows them to advertise iOS-exclusive apps, and for the developer it can mean a good promotion. Just getting your app in the first 5 slots of 'Best New Games' often translates to at least 150k downloads per day, trailing off to 75-100k minimum by the end of the week long promotion. That's about 750k-1m downloads from a promotion.

2.) Developing for iOS is easier and takes less time. The development tools for iOS devices are better. But most importantly, the number of hardware devices you'll likely need to test on is maybe 10-15, if you want to be safe. For Android you'll be releasing an app that will run on literally 3-5k different types of Android devices, depending on what kind of restrictions you place on minimum OS version, and some other stuff.

https://np.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/3a8gli/fallout_shelter_beats_out_candy_crush_for_1_app/csafgs7?context=3

[evilflowerpot]

Medieval combat

If someone's wearing an enclosed helmet, you just smash the helmet with the mace until it's no longer large enough to contain the volume of the head inside of it.

http://www.quora.com/How-brutal-was-medieval-combat/answer/Seth-Pace

[evilflowerpot]

Right to carry arms in Rome

Now as for a formal police force, Roman law prohibited the carrying of weapons within the city limits (pomerium) and any Roman soldier (or army) entering that boundary while armed was considered a rebel and enemy of the state. Militias, of course, limited themselves to sticks and stones, as it were.  Aside from having a special permit (such as while in a victory march [Triumphus] or for being the lictor of a dictator) there were only two forces allowed arms within the city. The first were known as the Urban Cohorts (also, Vigiles) and were essentially an army legion stationed within Rome to protect it, but mostly served as the local police (de facto), and the other (which came later) was the Praetorian Guard, originally an army legion that was converted into the Emperor's personal bodyguard and fighting force and were often sent on private "policing" duties for the emperor (such as rounding up "troublesome elements" and so on).

http://www.quora.com/How-bad-was-crime-in-ancient-Rome/answer/Omer-Hertz

[evilflowerpot]

Computer Science degree for programmer

A computer science degree is a poor match for a programming role and an even worse match for information technology roles like system administrator or IS manager, yet employers continue to fumble on trying to hire theoreticians to do the work of a skilled tradesman. You don't hire an mechanical engineer to fix your car, a structural engineer to build a house, or a chemical engineer to apply lawn fertilizer. Or mathematicians to do tax returns. That's what you're doing when you require a computer science degree for most programming roles.

http://www.quora.com/Are-there-really-programmers-with-computer-science-degrees-who-cannot-pass-the-FizzBuzz-test/answer/Kelly-Martin

[evilflowerpot]

Addiction & War on Drugs (Portugal)

The experiment is simple. Put a rat in a cage, alone, with two water bottles. One is just water. The other is water laced with heroin or cocaine. Almost every time you run this experiment, the rat will become obsessed with the drugged water, and keep coming back for more and more, until it kills itself.

But in the 1970s, a professor of Psychology in Vancouver called Bruce Alexander noticed something odd about this experiment. The rat is put in the cage all alone. It has nothing to do but take the drugs. What would happen, he wondered, if we tried this differently? So Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. What, Alexander wanted to know, will happen then?

In Rat Park, all the rats obviously tried both water bottles, because they didn't know what was in them. But what happened next was startling.

The rats with good lives didn't like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did.

After the first phase of Rat Park, Professor Alexander then took this test further. He reran the early experiments, where the rats were left alone, and became compulsive users of the drug. He let them use for fifty-seven days -- if anything can hook you, it's that. Then he took them out of isolation, and placed them in Rat Park. He wanted to know, if you fall into that state of addiction, is your brain hijacked, so you can't recover? Do the drugs take you over? What happened is -- again -- striking. The rats seemed to have a few twitches of withdrawal, but they soon stopped their heavy use, and went back to having a normal life. The good cage saved them.

This gives us an insight that goes much deeper than the need to understand addicts. Professor Peter Cohen argues that human beings have a deep need to bond and form connections. It's how we get our satisfaction. If we can't connect with each other, we will connect with anything we can find -- the whirr of a roulette wheel or the prick of a syringe. He says we should stop talking about 'addiction' altogether, and instead call it 'bonding.' A heroin addict has bonded with heroin because she couldn't bond as fully with anything else.

So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection.

This isn't theoretical. It is happening. I have seen it. Nearly fifteen years ago, Portugal had one of the worst drug problems in Europe, with 1 percent of the population addicted to heroin. They had tried a drug war, and the problem just kept getting worse. So they decided to do something radically different. They resolved to decriminalize all drugs, and transfer all the money they used to spend on arresting and jailing drug addicts, and spend it instead on reconnecting them -- to their own feelings, and to the wider society. The most crucial step is to get them secure housing, and subsidized jobs so they have a purpose in life, and something to get out of bed for. I watched as they are helped, in warm and welcoming clinics, to learn how to reconnect with their feelings, after years of trauma and stunning them into silence with drugs.

One example I learned about was a group of addicts who were given a loan to set up a removals firm. Suddenly, they were a group, all bonded to each other, and to the society, and responsible for each other's care.

The results of all this are now in. An independent study by the British Journal of Criminology found that since total decriminalization, addiction has fallen, and injecting drug use is down by 50 percent. I'll repeat that: injecting drug use is down by 50 percent. Decriminalization has been such a manifest success that very few people in Portugal want to go back to the old system. The main campaigner against the decriminalization back in 2000 was Joao Figueira, the country's top drug cop. He offered all the dire warnings that we would expect from the Daily Mail or Fox News. But when we sat together in Lisbon, he told me that everything he predicted had not come to pass -- and he now hopes the whole world will follow Portugal's example.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-real-cause-of-addicti_b_6506936.html

[evilflowerpot]

Everyone is Hoping You'll Fail

Beta males are hoping. White knights are hoping. Feminists are hoping. Believe it or not, some of your friends and family members are hoping. They want you to fail because your success is their failure. It reminds them of their laziness, their poor work ethic. I’m sorry to tell you that they all want you to fail. Their subtle jabs and withholding of encouragement are aimed to keep you in an inferior station. No one wants to see someone rise at faster speed than themselves.

There is no point in telling other people your goals. They will talk you out of it or give you bad advice. There is no point trying to convince others of your world view. They will plant seeds of doubts that prevent you from action and seeing the truth.

http://www.rooshv.com/everyone-is-hoping-that-youll-fail?utm_content=buffer48e00&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer