Dakryn's Batshit Theory of the Week

[Dak]

Yeah. It's convenient for barter, but direct barter isn't necessarily a hallmark of an "advanced economy". Of course I would also argue neither is central banking.

Digitized, electronic transactions are convenient. It is entirely possible to use commodity currency with today's technology without resorting to carrying around a pocketful of the actual commodities. The "basket of currencies" idea constantly purposed for the "SDRs" is merely a bastardization of the basket of commodities approach to reducing risk. The problem is you cannot reduce risk except in the short term by pooling a bunch of flawed exchange mediums.

 

[Einherjar86]

I plan on catching up with all of this after the honeymoon, but for now...

...shit's getting real.

With the help of functional brain imaging, we have begun to understand why some individuals possess this particular ability. We asked a group of mirror-touch synaesthetes to watch videos of other people being touched, and gave the same task to a group of people without mirror-touch synaesthesia. When we compared the brain scans of the two groups, we learnt that anyone, synaesthete or not, recruits parts of the brain involved in experiencing touch themselves (the mirror-touch system). Our brains mirror observed experiences. In people with mirror-touch synaesthesia, this empathetic system is over-excitable, and can activate rapidly to reach a threshold that allows them to experience tactile sensations literally.

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/michael-banissy-mirror-touch-synaesthesia-and-empathy/

 

[Dak]

I might be a face super-register, or something close to it. Not only faces, but arbitrary sections, particularly similarities in jawlines/mouth. I've lost count of how many times I've suggested one person looked like another person, either in general or parts, and usually meet with denial or mocking unless I can pair two photos with similar expressions for direct comparison.

 

[Einherjar86]

Laugh it up, ghost boy.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

 

[Dak]

I was being serious.

 

[Dak]

I think I know what Pat's objections would probably be, but I think this stands, no less so than my experience before a Provost Marshall Lt. Col. regarding a "failure to stop" on base while in the Marines. I even brought those with me in the car at the time as counter witnesses. Didn't mean shit. My word vs the MP's word to, essentially, his boss. Guess who wins?

The military, as the ultimate realization of the state, is not an anomaly.

 

[Dak]

My musing on monopoly

It's a given in the minds of most people that monopolies are bad, and rightly so. However,what constitutes a "monopoly" is not fully understood by most. The most successful, or "true" monopoly is not even realized because it is all-encompassing in the environment occupied by those things monopolized. It is an inescapable given. Microsoft was not a true monopoly. It had competition, even free alternatives , that it could not just go forcefully eradicate. We have other burgeoning corporate "monstrosities", such as Amazon or Walmart, which have reached their magnitude by specifically channeling all their focus into bringing what people want to them for the price they want it in the way they want it, comparatively and respectively (I won't get into regulatory capture involved in this pursuit, as it uses the existing apparatus, which I reject fundamentally as you will see). But they do have competition which people often use when there is a shortfall. Sometime we might use Target, or Ebay, or some other purveyor of similar services, as it benefits. We even have the option to abstain from purchases entirely. But we have no escape from the monopoly of the State, it's "services" and/or collections, both in the abstract and in the concrete. Even were we to escape "this" State, it is only to another, and they all are much more similar than propaganda would have us believe. The violent radical would have us believe that we must take up arms either now, or at some future point, when some arbitrary "line" is crossed, to overthrow or "take back" the state. But what does this give us but some other state? Why bother? Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Let's apply this to the State as a monopolistic ideal.

 

[Einherjar86]

I was being serious.

What the hell's a "face super-register"? You said so naturally that it made me question your authenticity.

My musing on monopoly

Lots of thoughts on this; more when I have the time.

Just an initial thought: can we apply economic terms like "monopoly" to something as non-market as the Law?

 

[Dak]

What the hell's a "face super-register"? You said so naturally that it made me question your authenticity.

Obviously you didn't read that whole Aeon article you posted:

But it’s a different matter with super-recognisers. These are a rare group of individuals who excel in the ability to remember faces. First reported in 2009 by researchers at Harvard University and Dartmouth College, these are people who really never forget a face. They can recognise people whom they might have seen only a few times in their lives or, as Brad Duchaine, one of the Dartmouth College research team, puts it, ‘an extra they saw in a movie years before’.

Such people can identify casual staff that served them years earlier, a waitress at a motorway inn they passed through, a car-park attendant they once glimpsed, or a fellow department store shopper with whom they never interacted. The difficulties that this super-ability might cause in social settings are easy enough to imagine, and many super-recognisers will hide their memory of long-ago encounters to avoid discomfiting people who never even registered them.

Work is ongoing to determine just how common super-recognisers are, but there is some evidence to suggest that they can put their skills to good use. For example, the Metropolitan Police Service in London used super-recognisers in their ranks to help identify individual rioters during the 2011 riots across the capital.

Lots of thoughts on this; more when I have the time.

Just an initial thought: can we apply economic terms like "monopoly" to something as non-market as the Law?

"Law", as reified by the State, is a service, one which the state has a monopoly on.

 

[Einherjar86]

You said "register," not recognizer. And it was so awkward that I didn't make the connection. Furthermore, there were some typos in your original post that led me to believe you were being sarcastic; for instance, you originally wrote "suggest" (you changed it to suggested now), and I thought you were trying to sound intentionally stupid. Apologies, it just came off as sarcastic.

 

[Dak]

Yeah, I was preoccupied while replying.I think register gives the same meaning without sounding like a Bushism ("I'm the recognizer").

 

[Dak]

Mises Daily: The Economic Sense in Game of Thrones

 

[Prismatic Sphere]

So NSA's Prism Project is going to turn all of our "private" conversations over to law enforcement and turn our webcams into nanny-cams. Dianne Feinstein just wants to protect us all. How precious and marvelous.

 

[Matt]

So NSA's Prism Project is going to turn all of our "private" conversations over to law enforcement and turn our webcams into nanny-cams. Dianne Feinstein just wants to protect us all. How precious and marvelous.

I don't agree with this policy, but I do believe it is mainly meant to find out who is communicating with the middle east etc? Haven't had the time to research it so I could be wrong though.

 

[Prismatic Sphere]

I think this overestimates the literacy of the Middle East just a little bit much.

 

[Dak]

If I were to talk with OBL on a daily basis it's no one's business. Least of all some bespectled schmuck in a datacenter in Utah. For years "raving lunatic conspiracy theorists" have been talking about this. Yet when it makes front page news finally, no one remembers, and almost as few care. Which is why it makes front page news now and not before. The masses have been successfully inurred before hand. Just like stratospheric sulphate aerosols, the technical term for "chemtrails". It will eventually be admitted to.

 

[Prismatic Sphere]

Yes. I understand this. Reminds me of how Obama joked about how big the government was in a speech and everybody laughed. Preening, weening, and demeaning; with a nice slice of apple pie.

 

[Dak]

Reuters:Obama Administration likely to open criminal probe regarding NSA leaks

Hope and change baby.

Zero Hedge:Obama lying about surveillance

Now maybe Obama is just reading the teleprompter. That's certainly possible, and given that I think most presidents are more marionettes than anything, probably probable. Beside the point, responsibility falls on the one making the promises and excuses. It's why he gets the "big bucks" and fame.

 

[Dak]

Iraq War Human Cost