'We are apparently betting the nation’s (perhaps the planet’s) economic future on a service that essentially enables petabytes of frivolous banality to flow through the world’s data pipes. The critics are not wrong. Facebook is frivolous. Incredibly so. What they get wrong though is assuming that old economy stuff is not frivolous. Take the auto industry. For a century people have used cars for completely frivolous things like taking road trips, going to dumb B-movies, going over to visit friends to play board games, or to a workplace to sit in a cubicle and be bored for 8 hours. Drag races, NASCAR, random drives to feel the wind in your face (why not go running so you can lose some weight at the same time?): what is so “serious” about any of this? Still think the old economy is more serious than Facebook? Suddenly, Farmville seems very green and eco-friendly. Ultimately, to a scary degree, everything in the American economy is about sustaining frivolity. Much of it obesity-inducing, gas-guzzling, non-renewable, planet-destroying frivolity. If we’re going to do this, we might at least do it more efficiently. Enter Facebook. By digitizing much of the frivolous banality in our lives that currently takes expensive physical infrastructure, gasoline and tens of millions of jobs to sustain, Facebook is showing us the true value of the fading American industrial economy itself. -- The Facebook IPO is ultimately unsettling for just this reason. It shows us that even those who toil away today at apparently noble, uplifting professions that elevate minds and nourish souls, ultimately do so in service of a fundamentally frivolous economy. An economy that is basically one giant feedback loop between frivolous consumption driven by television and complicated production systems that absorb the talents of millions. It is really a huge circus of sound and fury signifying almost nothing.'

'The parents of 13-year old Caitlin Teagart have decided to end her life, saying she can now do nothing but lay on the couch and whine about things being "gay."'

'According to the historians, by looking at things that have already happened, Americans can learn a lot about which actions made things better versus which actions made things worse, and can then plan their own actions accordingly. While the new strategy, known as "Look Back Before You Act," has raised concerns among people worried they will have to remember lots of events from long ago, the historians have assured Americans they won't be required to read all the way through thick books or memorize anything.'

'According to recent data, the grown-up population has plummeted dramatically since 1950, when a Census count found that more than 24 million Americans could both admit when they were wrong and respect a viewpoint other than their own. Today, only one in three million citizens can provide thoughtful advice to a fellow human being instead of immediately shifting the topic to their own personal issues or what they had for lunch. "It may seem odd to the rest of us, but for mature adults, occasionally putting the greater good ahead of their own interests or remaining calm when something doesn't go their way is commonplace." "Imagine confronting a problem directly instead of pointing a finger, cowering in fear, or pretending it just isn't happening," Ambler added. "This is how these people actually live, if you can believe that."'

'Media is the science of handling the masses. The very word "HANDLING" is used constantly, not only in PR firms, but in major corporations and governments. "How are we going to HANDLE these people?" "We are going to have to HANDLE the public reaction" are sentences that are endlessly spewed all over the New York mass media, the Hollywood-based "entertainment" studios and the Federal Government in Washington DC. Handle, handle, handle. That's what the power-elite, ponzi artists are concerned with in their daily lives. So, they figure, the best way to "handle" all this is to consolidate the media down to less than 10 multinational corporations (done); take controlling ownership of each (done); and then promulgate an endless spew of false reality to the general population. Now the public can be HANDLED because they have been pre-programmed to act in "politically correct" ways. Part of this handling is done by people known as "PUNDITS" those puking, round faces and blond bimboes...'

'You may recall that right after Sept. 11th, there was a drove of 18-22 year old fresh highschool grads who ran out to join the military service. They are now 30 year old veterans. But if you looked at the pictures of those celebrating in front of the white house, you probably noticed they were all almost undergraduates (several had frat letters on their shirt for instance). How old were these kids when Sept 11th happened? In case you forgot math, the low end would be 7 and the high end would be 18. For lack of a better term, where were the “olds” during this event? Now, put your facebook feed in that context.'

'Persuasion profiling potentially offers quick, easily transferable, targeted access to your personal psychological weak spots. -- By alternating the types of pitches—Appeal to Authority (“Malcolm Gladwell says you’ll like this”), Social Proof (“All your friends on Facebook are buying this book”), and the like—Kaptein and Eckles could track which mode of argument was most persuasive for each person. Some book buyers felt comforted by the fact that an expert reviewer vouched for their intended product. Others preferred to go with the most popular title or a money-saving deal. Some people succumbed to what Eckles calls “high need for cognition” arguments—smart, subtle points that require some thinking to get. Still others responded best to being hit over the head with a simple message. ...people respond to the same type of argument in multiple domains. ' -- Has got electrolytes?

'What will happen when food disruptions occur, the currency collapses or social chaos breaks out in U.S. cities? This video answers that question by revealing how everyday people can transform into crazed animals who trample other human beings in order to get what they want. A shocking video that reveals a part of human nature that society tries to keep caged.'

"Alex, you live in a penal colony called the United States of America. You've got all these Americans stampeding on themselves to go shopping on Black Friday, killing themselves to be a spectacle for Network TV, who have utter contempt for Americans and treat them like performing stunt pigs. It's a joke!"

"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed." -- Ayn Rand

Homo-Interruptus

'From what I have heard, ‘backwards conservatives who hate brown ppl’ watch Fox News and ‘effing liberals who have white guilt’ watch CNN. Then there is some weirdo segment of people who watch ‘The Daily Show’/'The Colbert Report’ and think they are ‘smarter + more globablly aware’ than any1 else cuz they are able 2 ‘LOL @the_news’. -- The Article is titled “The Trouble With Hipsters.” Might start headlining every blog post ‘The Trouble With _____’ 2 let every1 know that I am about to ‘drop some mutha fuckin truth bombs’ [via opinion puff pieces]. Is ‘Al Qaeda’ a buzzband? Is this ‘the greatest Hipster Bashing piece of all time’? Do u watch Fox News, CNN, or just ur local news?'

Video: '"I'm going to continue making my videos, I'm going to continue updating my Twitter and going on Stickam and stuff -- just going to be a little more careful with who sees what I'm doing," the girl told ABCNews.com. "I just want it to kind of like turn positive," she said. "And I kind of do like the attention but I don't like so much negative attention."'

'Dianne Leonhardt: "I don't know if she made these videos or not, but she says she didn't."' -- Schrödinger's meme??

'While 45-65+Year olds are getting hit hard; 15-25+ Year olds have a unique culture, expectation and outlook which is not realistic given the context they are inheriting. I would want people in the younger age group to be more awake as they are demographically positioned as "revolutionaries" while older folks are simply too tired. ...the 15-25+ generation who would rather be rock stars, saving that they want a good job within the system that pays top money, they aspire to be executives at Goldman. They were told they were great by teachers and parents and they were special as they were driven around to a controlled agenda of activities. Only positive reinforcement was used and they were raised in group think, to work together. This is a large disappointment because rather than having a revolution we will have a group of people that are very vulnerable to government co-option thus they are expendable containers or batteries that will be herded and depleted in a slaughter situation.'

'Alex breaks down just how dumb down the typical american family is when it comes to drinking 'fluoridated water', that they now openly put it in baby's and children's bottled water at the grocery store!' -- "Why do I even do this show??"

'#Step one: Facebook is going to make the whole Internet a community space. #Step two: Facebook is going to be your identity card for the Internet. #Step three: Facebook will aggregate this data into a new type of search. #Step four: Facebook will be your virtual wallet. #Step five: Facebook will push this into the real world, and become your id card for reality. -- But I left out the part where people create Facebook identity skimmers and stand in front of the movie theater; where your history of likes gets analyzed by a third party and turned into direct marketing spam; where there’s a data breach and your credits get taken; where you lose a job because you once liked the wrong kind of site; where companies start paying people to form fake social graphs (“friend me and get free stuff!”) in order to push astroturfing influence into social recommendations; where Facebook bans you because you got rowdy, and now you have no virtual identity. Welcome to a crazy new world.'

'WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad—including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured. After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement".' -- Sir, the particular individual was posing as a journalist w/camera when the particular individual walked into the sights of my camera w/gun.

'Journalist Chris Hedges discusses his recent book Empire of Illusion: the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. In it, he charts the dramatic rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy, and illusion. Hedges argues we now live in two societies: one, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world and can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth; the other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic where serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins.' -- "Things become so grim that there's a retreat into self delusion." -- Excellent summary of progress already made along the road to serfdom, also an urgent warning of the rise of utopian christian fascism. It's a shame he calls for an equally utopian "militant" socialism to fight against it. Violence is violence is violence. Neither the left fist nor right fist can justify it.

'After the election—and anyone who didn't vote for Obama will know exactly what I'm talking about—you didn't dare say a negative thing about Obama in public. Certainly not a flippant slander, the kind that are common when discussing Presidents. If you were in a restaurant, before you said anything about Obama you took a serious look around to see who else was near you, and only if it was safe (read: white) could you quickly whisper some veiled comment. You weren't even allowed to be pessimistic about Obama. That was the climate. Again, if you didn't vote for Obama you will know what I mean, if you did you'll think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. Fast forward to last week. This is what I heard a guy announce in a crowded downtown restaurant, and I'm quoting: "Fuck him. Fuck Obama, fuck him, and fuck his horsefaced wife. I'm sick of his shit." That man doesn't hate Obama, he hates Obama supporters.' -- Corollary: He hates self-pwning idiocy, Obama supporters being the most depressing example.

'16-33 Million Americans are currently taking sedatives of some kind; I guess it takes the edge away from a broken financial system. The majority of these people will wake up and wonder why things have changed around them. The financial system is just an accounting system; it is the top level of a many layered society based ultimately on the physical world. Our prospects are a function not of the monetary system but instead have basis in the physical world multiplied by our ability to apply technology. "Bad news" may cause a lot of people to wake up as they find the goods we expect may simply not be there for us. We need to help build values to see if we can effect change.' -- Soma? Has got electrolytes?

"Dear Mr Orwell, The nightmare of 1984 is destined to modulate into the nightmare of A Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Yours sincerely, Aldous Huxley."

"We live in a bubble of fake bullshit." -- Ergo we must build an even bigger bubble of authentic bullshit.

'"At this point, having the word 'how' in a show's title is about as close to scientific investigation as we get," Myers said. "In fact, I don't even know how we can justify airing a show like Mantracker at all. A cowboy hunts contestants down using his trailing skills? I guess you could say it makes the audience use 'observation' by watching what happens on screen." "Observation is a part of science, right?" Myers added. "Jesus Christ."'

'Clean-up crews are hard at work after a VH1 bus carrying reality show contestants overturned, spilling 2,000 pounds of highly concentrated slut.'

'... every single one of us is as dependent on science and technology - and, by extension, on the geeks who make it work - as a patient in intensive care. Yet we much prefer to think otherwise. -- Scientists and technologists have the same uneasy status in our society as the Jedi in the Galactic Republic. They are scorned by the cultural left and the cultural right, and young people avoid science and math classes in hordes. The tedious particulars of keeping ourselves alive, comfortable and free are being taken offline to countries where people are happy to sweat the details, as long as we have some foreign exchange left to send their way. Nothing is more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could be masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple lives: to have a geek standard of living and spend our copious leisure time vegging out.'

'"All across the country, millions of men and women are dangerously unaware," AFPAT spokesperson Karen Teeling said during a press conference Monday. "What's worse, the vast majority of those suffering from this debilitating state of mind don't even know it."'