April 30, 2012
The Knowledgable Free Speech of the Internet
| 1. | 1326 up, 208 down | |
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Reddit, it's like 4chan with a condom.
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| 2. | 5638 up, 1201 down | |
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A user generated web 2.0 news website with a
lefty, libertarian and geek slant. Tends to be slightly more upmarket
than its larger competitor digg.
The comment system at reddit actually works unlike the broken system
over on digg. This results in (usually) more intelligent conversations.
One issue with Reddit is that a number of users have installed bots
which automatically down vote or up vote specific topics. In 2007, it
was known for its support of Ron Paul (and then later Obama), its anger
at George W Bush and Cheney and its opposition to the invasion of Iraq
and its opposition to any potential attack on Iran. Reddit users are
also overwhelming against organized religion be it Christian, the Cult
of Scientology, Islam or Judaism.
One annoying or endearing feature of reddit that is also unique is "theme" usernames who behavior in stereotyped fashions usually occuring to their chosen username (eg. CAPTAIN_OBVIOUS.) These can be fun, but they usually wear pretty thin after a few days. In general, reddit is a smart forum than digg, although everyone is always saying that slowly reddit is becoming digg while digg is becoming 4chan.
From Urban Dictionary
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Reddit
In June of 2005, two 22 year old graduates of the University of Virginia, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, created the social news website of Reddit. Reddit features various and ample amounts of information that users post on the website to garner "upvotes" and "downvotes" from other users that determine the "karma" of the user and the popularity of the post itself. The more comments, upvotes and general votes that the post has, the more likely that it will show up on the site's frontpage of posts.
There are many different subreddits that contain information on certain topics that the subreddit has, ranging from solely pictures to gifs to politics to atheism. The users or redditors can obtain karma from their posts and comments as a way of showing how they symbolically are loved by the community.
Research done by Google's DoubleClick suggests that the main audience are males between the ages of 25 and 34 years old with some college education and are in the lowest income bracket.
Wikipedia's description of reddit is that,
Unsurprisingly, this ability of mass audience convinced that the site only has meaningful news on it has raised thousands to charity and has helped a lot for the worldwide community at large. Wikipedia explains some special numbers: Its popularity has enabled users to take unprecedented advantage of such a large community. Its innovative socially-ranked rating and sorting system drives a method that is useful for fulfilling certain goals of viewership or simply finding answers to interesting questions. User sentiments about the website's function and structure include feelings about the breadth and depth of the discussions on Reddit and how the site makes it easy to discover new and interesting items. Almost all of the user reviews on Alexa.com, which rates Reddit's monthly unique traffic rating 125th in the United States, mention Reddit's "good content" as a likable quality. However, others raise the negative aspects of the potential for Reddit's communities to possess a "hive mind" of sorts[47], embodying some negative aspects of group interaction theories like crowd psychology and collective consciousness. Unsurprisingly, this ability to raise a lot of money has done bad too. Reddit is endowed with a strong sense of personal freedom and especially freedom of speech. Their have been many subreddits dedicated to controversial issues such as r/jailbait and other disturbing things such as pictures of corpses or obscene material. Usually labeled NSFW/L meaning Not Safe For Work/Life, these things can be easily avoided. The only initial rule of the website was that you could not post personal information on the website, but after threats were made to the site, they banned suggestive or sexual content featuring minors in 2012. Reddit is considered to be a knowledgeable source of group wisdom and hysteria, but is very biased with a political agenda toppling on the left but does have influence from the political right. Reddit is a good case of mob mind set, but it still needs refinement to be perfected. -The Observer | ||
Background on an iPod
On an iPod, you can have any kind of background picture that you want. Whether it is a picture of a very attractive Emma Watson or a picture of a lizard and its reflection, it's up for you to decide. A great thing for reflecting personal identity, but fairly poor at doing much else. 
Calendars...
I have a scheduling problem, I for some reason can not keep a form
of time management under control. So I went to the app store on my iPod and the top results were mostly period tracking calendars. Disgusting, to me at least... So now I'll just like to say that I'm glad that I'm a man and don't need this. I'll just get back to using the basic calendar that is default.
of time management under control. So I went to the app store on my iPod and the top results were mostly period tracking calendars. Disgusting, to me at least... So now I'll just like to say that I'm glad that I'm a man and don't need this. I'll just get back to using the basic calendar that is default.
Why Manners Matter
I find that a great example of what manners are in society is told best by the author and writer for the New York Times and Vanity Fair, Henry Alford. He relates it to a German fairytale of three porcupines that live together in the cold. These porcupines have to huddle close together to maintain heat or else they will freeze to death, but the closer that they get, the deeper their spines poke each other. They eventually settle this problem by having each of them as close as possible so that the least discomfort is achieved while still staying alive. (Alford, 2012, pg. 28) As our society becomes more modern and technologically infused, we lose touch with our manners because we can hide behind a screen and think that no one can see you. We are on a path to being a hypothermic porcupine.
We can all agree that manners are needed, but some are needed more than others and too many manners over-complicate simple occasions. Manners can be described as a way of acting so that you are seemly the same as everyone else, but they can also be used to manipulate situations. You learn manners by seeing other people perform them, and when they should be used within certain boundaries. These examples can give you an expansive knowledge of when and how to use manners. These customs are vitally important in society and can cause people to be shunned or accepted based on how they are demonstrated.
A 2011 Rasmussen Reports poll was referenced recently in a NPR article that stated that 76% of the survey people thought that America was becoming increasingly rude. (Weeks, 2012) This might be true, but we are a long way from being without manners. As Henry Alford likes to point out, people in the distant past have been known to defecate, urinate, burp, spit and fart in public according to the sociologist, Norbert Elias in The Civilizing Process. (Alford, 2012, pg. 35) So when people consider the United States to be an uncivilized, rude country, we are still with manners. The only thing that commentators have to remark about is that our manners are changing or are underdeveloped in certain types of conduct.
Richard Sennett, a sociologist and professor at London School of Economics and New York University, has a theory that the degradation of American manners is a result of how in our culture people need to express their intimate emotions with acquaintances and strangers. (1978) In an interview, Sennett asserts that, “The notion that you show other people without restraint your intimate feelings is to say that those feelings don’t matter to you.” (Alford, 2012) The problem with our perception of society is that we need to stop talking about ourselves so much. Instead, we should speak more of societal problems, technology, politics, ideas or just thoughts – things that matter.
Henry D. Schlinger, a behavioral-analysis professor at California State University, researched an experiment dealing with the development of “theory of mind” in children. Theory of mind is a process of thinking where a person rejects his or her preset ideas and tries to empathize with other people. In the experiment done by researchers for the development of theory of mind, children are told about a situation where a child named Maxi places a chocolate bar in a cabinet, and then someone else transfers the chocolate to a drawer, without Maxi knowing of it. Then the children are asked where Maxi will look for the chocolate when he gets back, in the cabinet where it is no longer at or the drawer where it is at now. Most children before they are four years old will guess in the cabinet. At around four years old, they are able to differentiate between their own minds and the minds of others, so they almost always say in the drawer. (2009, Schlinger, pgs. 438-9) This is when manners start to develop, because the children try to understand what their peers would want from them. They can at this point understand that people don’t know things that they know, so they become more careful and understanding in an effort not to offend anyone.
The “Golden Rule” justification of manners is that we should treat others with the manners that we would want them to treat us with. Alford says that it is not about what you would want, but what they would want to be done to them. This can be accomplished by just taking on the worldview of surrounding people. This is what drives us to act the way we do and these worldviews of others may be impolite or rude. He writes about how people in gruesome wars do what they are told. It is theorized, in any situation, humans will try to maintain their status quo with their peers. (2012, Alford, 229-30) Clearly this is good reasoning as to why people can be led to do things that they wouldn’t normally do, but it is just as confusing as clarifying. If we were to need to maintain status quo, then does that mean that people are rude because it’s the normal thing and if so, than is there pressure to be impolite? Or even more importantly, is this impoliteness a result of accumulated sources of stress and can this stress be eliminated?
Most people think of manners as just well-wished ways of buffering your convictions on other people with opposing views. People know what not to do in situations, but they should be wondering what to do. This would mean that in the eyes of soldiers, they should kill because they are led to believe that if they don’t kill, they will be killed and they are led to believe that dying is bad. If this is true, that we only do what others will do, then we should all agree that this is a depressing commentary on mankind. We try to “behave about as well as our neighbors,” puts Randy Cohen, a writer on moral situations. (2012, Alford, pg. 230)
Alford continues on in his book to talk about a form of manners called, “imaginative manners” where he tries to find the perfect thing to do to manipulate people. Whether these manners help a homeless man make money or make others treat someone with respect, this form of manners in a groundbreaking idea. This is creating your own rules and applying them to everything.
This thought of imaginative manners forces the reader to acknowledge every experience possibly imagined as a setting for performing etiquette. Even though extreme, this would solve a lot of the problems that social critics point out in the public today. Everyone that is in retail or the fast food business knows that every once in a while, someone decides to come into your store five minutes before closing and ends up making your departure fifteen minutes later than expected. Imaginative manners may help these situations. Most people know that they are not wanted in the store that late, but most of the time they don’t know the extremity. If you ask a person to leave with a well thought-out reason, they will likely leave. Most people are hot-wired to think for themselves, but the manners described by Alford may just be a new way of using theory of mind and applying them at large scale. People who lack this ability to empathize with others are likely not as socially adept as most people and as the research done by Schlinger tells us, people with autism who are known to have a hard time communicating with people lack a strong theory of mind ability. (2009, pg. 439)
Communication etiquette is a difficult thing to master and with technology, it becomes harder. What is difficult in today’s technological society is to determine proper protocol on the internet and through text. With the anonymity of the internet, most people don’t fear saying what they want. Even if this is clique and over-stated, the simple truth is that when we do try to be nice, the internet has no body language and tone is extinct. This also applies to text messages and sometimes calls. When the other person’s tone is indistinguishable from sarcasm and true enthusiasm, you could get very offended. The fact of the matter is that when no one can see you write, you write what you think and everyone can see it. This is why blogs can sometimes have compulsively written things on them, or why the website, 4chan.org can be so popular. On the internet, you need to over emphasize yourself to bring across your point; but the problem is that this, over emphasizing, can cause anger too. People need to look at their words and figure out how to write the same thing in a less accusing voice before they post their words for all to see. Today is different than the 1950s and manners sometimes need to be redefined, invented and re-envisioned. In the world of technology, each advance means new protocol and systems of courtesy need to be established. Nowadays, people don’t care which side of the plate the fork goes on, but they do care if you are texting while eating. New advances are always being made and some manners build on others, so truthfully, all books on manners are never finished and Alford’s book is just another example.
Works Cited:
Alford, H. (2012). Would it kill you to stop doing that?: A modern guide to manners.
New York: Twelve.
Schlinger, H. D. Jr. (2009). The psychological record. Los Angeles: California State
University.
Sennett, R. (1978). The fall of public man. New York: Vintage Books.
Weeks, L. (2012). Please read this story, thank you. NPR. Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/09/148295675/please-read-this-story-thank-you
Total Words as of Now (1,633)
April 29, 2012
Makeup Makes the Difference
Makeup. A dreaded word for many women in the world who think that it takes to long for something so trivial. But in this world, very few people truly think that a lady without anything extra is attractive. In fact, a lot of the time that person who is suddenly unattractive is shunned or thought of as uncaring. People like to say that this is subjection of women by men, but I'd like to argue that point. Yes, men want women who are attractive, but only as much as women who want attractive men.
Men who are tall, have sculpted abs and are well paid have a lot of admirers. The same goes for attractive women. Our society tries to enforce the thought of perfection on it's people with how famous people and characters of cartoons are generally thin and at the minimum not unattractive. This is embedded at a very young age and the idea of perfect is instilled to grow out to be the monster it is today.
As you can see in the photo from above, that is a compilation of models without their makeup. Many of them are innately attractive, but you can clearly see how they many aren't "models" without makeup. It's sad that people's physical appearance is an indication of how desirable that they are, but it does happen.
-The Observer
Men who are tall, have sculpted abs and are well paid have a lot of admirers. The same goes for attractive women. Our society tries to enforce the thought of perfection on it's people with how famous people and characters of cartoons are generally thin and at the minimum not unattractive. This is embedded at a very young age and the idea of perfect is instilled to grow out to be the monster it is today.
As you can see in the photo from above, that is a compilation of models without their makeup. Many of them are innately attractive, but you can clearly see how they many aren't "models" without makeup. It's sad that people's physical appearance is an indication of how desirable that they are, but it does happen.
-The Observer
Hypnotism
When I went to hypnotist yesterday late at night, I sat wondering how it was like to be hypnotized and why it worked. For good reason, I felt like it was a lot of elaborate acting and not close to reality.
I heard that my group was going to go see a hypnotist and that made me want to get hypnotized because according to my friends, a half hour of hypnotism is equivalent to eight hours of sleep.
I got there and when the man asked for volunteers, I rose my hand a shouted along with about 40 others and strained my shoulder, but I didn't get picked.
He started it off by explaining the importance of the first five minutes. He said that this is what makes the show and that at your seat you could still become hypnotized. I was sitting on the floor, surrounded by people, so it was difficult following the instructions of "lean back in your chair and relax, you butt is now glued to your seat and you won't fall off," but I sat leant forward, head touching my chest, breathing shallowly whilst slowing becoming disconnected from the world.
I heard people remark and exclaim, but I didn't care, I sat in an almost trance in concentration while I was half listening to the hypnotist speak. I could tell I was about to fall under as it is called until someone hit my shoe and took my attention. I was wide awake and looked around, scorning the young woman to my right who was readjusting herself.
I looked at the men and women seated at the front of the group and they were all leaning odd directions, clearly near sleep. I was disappointed, but then I saw another audience member about five feet away laying down on one of his friend's lap.
As the people were put to "sleep," he sent them through very embarrassing tasks. The nearby man was not only following his commands, but also speaking seemingly of his own accord. He got attention of the hypnotist who promptly woke him and directed him to sit up and wait until he needed his help later.
He quickly fell back into the trance and even latched himself onto another member of the audience in desperation of warmth. The man was called to the front and sat down. Up there, he was the most expressive of the people up there and spoke, nodded and created his own adventures. He had a bald eagle fly away and screamed moo so often that he started to question his sanity.
I felt bad for him in the end, but I did wonder if he was just pretending to act the way he was. I didn't think that he would act like a stripper, but he did.
I really wish that I might experience this someday, because the hypnotist stated the way to find this trance in very similar methods to how you meditate to a state of peace with one's self. I can try, but I will never know how it's like until I try hard again to get chosen next year.
-The Observer
I heard that my group was going to go see a hypnotist and that made me want to get hypnotized because according to my friends, a half hour of hypnotism is equivalent to eight hours of sleep.
I got there and when the man asked for volunteers, I rose my hand a shouted along with about 40 others and strained my shoulder, but I didn't get picked.
He started it off by explaining the importance of the first five minutes. He said that this is what makes the show and that at your seat you could still become hypnotized. I was sitting on the floor, surrounded by people, so it was difficult following the instructions of "lean back in your chair and relax, you butt is now glued to your seat and you won't fall off," but I sat leant forward, head touching my chest, breathing shallowly whilst slowing becoming disconnected from the world.
I heard people remark and exclaim, but I didn't care, I sat in an almost trance in concentration while I was half listening to the hypnotist speak. I could tell I was about to fall under as it is called until someone hit my shoe and took my attention. I was wide awake and looked around, scorning the young woman to my right who was readjusting herself.
I looked at the men and women seated at the front of the group and they were all leaning odd directions, clearly near sleep. I was disappointed, but then I saw another audience member about five feet away laying down on one of his friend's lap.
As the people were put to "sleep," he sent them through very embarrassing tasks. The nearby man was not only following his commands, but also speaking seemingly of his own accord. He got attention of the hypnotist who promptly woke him and directed him to sit up and wait until he needed his help later.
He quickly fell back into the trance and even latched himself onto another member of the audience in desperation of warmth. The man was called to the front and sat down. Up there, he was the most expressive of the people up there and spoke, nodded and created his own adventures. He had a bald eagle fly away and screamed moo so often that he started to question his sanity.
I felt bad for him in the end, but I did wonder if he was just pretending to act the way he was. I didn't think that he would act like a stripper, but he did.
I really wish that I might experience this someday, because the hypnotist stated the way to find this trance in very similar methods to how you meditate to a state of peace with one's self. I can try, but I will never know how it's like until I try hard again to get chosen next year.
-The Observer
April 28, 2012
Collective Destiny
We all are people in the world wondering how we got to what we are now. When you look outside, you see a window to the future from the past. That tree on the side of the road is only there because someone decided to plant it years ago. We are here because our parents decide to make us.
When we are young, we are influenced by our environment and our parents. Our society is also like a collective parent to us all. Some people think of it as fate. Fate is the thought that things are bound to happen no matter what you do and free will is ill-relevant.
Are we influenced to have certain decisions? Do our parents or friends pressure us into making decisions in our lives? In our lives, I find that their are remarkably few times where we can make choices that are not forced. Our time here on earth is dictated by those who have came before us and by those who are more powerful than us. When you do something, it effects everyone below you and behind you. Simple things can ruin lives and the thought of a better future is impossible to realize when you are so disadvantaged.
In our society, we like to believe that all men are equal. But that isn't true. When you are super rich, you have a lot more anatomy. Poor people like to believe that the rich people are different then themselves and in the thought of the knowledge that they gain from being on the streets and the things they learn about street etiquette, they are different. But contrary to social darwinistic belief, rich people and poor people are the same but with different innate responsibilities and differently grown ideas.
People are not always rich because they are hard working and some rich people get life handed to them from the golden chalice of their parents. They are the ones that hold real power and they are the people that should be the most materialistic. The more money they spend and invest, the more jobs are created and the more people can have a good income, but their is a trend that people with money don't spend their cash, but save it. When they cut salaries and wages it's to increase their profit. When they outsource, it is a global economic success but a domestic failure as the group of people who they are offering their product to suddenly becomes smaller because they can not afford it.
As much as some politicians like to believe, supply side economics is not working. I am a conservative and I can tell you that the parties of today help no one because they can not think of anything bigger than what can help them right now. Each debate is two-sided and no candidate shows any real potential as they have to appease the voting population who is apart of their party. Money dictates what you can do and the devil will nip out in hell before a poor man can become president. The people in power control our lives.
The few times that we have actual or atlases some direct control on our fate or destinies is when we are with extreme interactions with other people. When you get married with out any pressure and just for the whim of an ideal thought of "true love," you can achieve a thing that no one else can. People will try to theorize that maybe you married someone like one of your parents, but in the end, you did it because you can. The same thing happens in divorce too.
Don't get stuck up in the thought that you are doomed to the life you are given, but realize that you can attempt to change your temperament and in me saying this, in effect it would be the same as If I was saying that you can not.
Your life is your life and when you are faced with the choices that effect other people, that is your time to show off, make the right decisions and someday you'll be honored and upheld as a model of a human being.
-The Observer
When we are young, we are influenced by our environment and our parents. Our society is also like a collective parent to us all. Some people think of it as fate. Fate is the thought that things are bound to happen no matter what you do and free will is ill-relevant.
Are we influenced to have certain decisions? Do our parents or friends pressure us into making decisions in our lives? In our lives, I find that their are remarkably few times where we can make choices that are not forced. Our time here on earth is dictated by those who have came before us and by those who are more powerful than us. When you do something, it effects everyone below you and behind you. Simple things can ruin lives and the thought of a better future is impossible to realize when you are so disadvantaged.
In our society, we like to believe that all men are equal. But that isn't true. When you are super rich, you have a lot more anatomy. Poor people like to believe that the rich people are different then themselves and in the thought of the knowledge that they gain from being on the streets and the things they learn about street etiquette, they are different. But contrary to social darwinistic belief, rich people and poor people are the same but with different innate responsibilities and differently grown ideas.
People are not always rich because they are hard working and some rich people get life handed to them from the golden chalice of their parents. They are the ones that hold real power and they are the people that should be the most materialistic. The more money they spend and invest, the more jobs are created and the more people can have a good income, but their is a trend that people with money don't spend their cash, but save it. When they cut salaries and wages it's to increase their profit. When they outsource, it is a global economic success but a domestic failure as the group of people who they are offering their product to suddenly becomes smaller because they can not afford it.
As much as some politicians like to believe, supply side economics is not working. I am a conservative and I can tell you that the parties of today help no one because they can not think of anything bigger than what can help them right now. Each debate is two-sided and no candidate shows any real potential as they have to appease the voting population who is apart of their party. Money dictates what you can do and the devil will nip out in hell before a poor man can become president. The people in power control our lives.
The few times that we have actual or atlases some direct control on our fate or destinies is when we are with extreme interactions with other people. When you get married with out any pressure and just for the whim of an ideal thought of "true love," you can achieve a thing that no one else can. People will try to theorize that maybe you married someone like one of your parents, but in the end, you did it because you can. The same thing happens in divorce too.
Don't get stuck up in the thought that you are doomed to the life you are given, but realize that you can attempt to change your temperament and in me saying this, in effect it would be the same as If I was saying that you can not.
Your life is your life and when you are faced with the choices that effect other people, that is your time to show off, make the right decisions and someday you'll be honored and upheld as a model of a human being.
-The Observer
April 25, 2012
The Rules of Servitude
The Fabled Rules of the Internet were originally created on /b/ and were intended to be the groundwork meaning of 4cahn. Each set of rules are different excluding the first 30ish and 34, 35, and a few others. Though most people agree with a large amount, many are made up to take the place of different rules that they deem illrelevent. The first 100 are generally considered to be about the same everytime, here is my personal selection of what describes the internet and more specifically, 4chan.
(Excuse the Language)
THE RULES OF THE INTERNET
1. Do not talk about /b/
2. Do NOT talk about /b/
3. We are Anonymous.
4. Anonymous is legion.
5. Anonymous does not forgive, Anonymous does not forget.
6. Anonymous can be horrible, senseless, uncaring monster.
7. Anonymous is still able to deliver.
8. There are no real rules about posting.
9. There are no real rules about moderation either — enjoy your ban.
10. If you enjoy any rival sites — DON'T.
11. You must have pictures to prove your statement.
12. Lurk moar — it's never enough.
13. Nothing is Sacred.
14. Do not argue with a troll — it means that they win.
15. The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt it.
16. There are NO girls on the internet.
17. A cat is fine too.
18. One cat leads to another.
19. The more you hate it, the stronger it gets.
20. It is delicious cake. You must eat it.
21. It is delicious trap. You must hit it.
2. Do NOT talk about /b/
3. We are Anonymous.
4. Anonymous is legion.
5. Anonymous does not forgive, Anonymous does not forget.
6. Anonymous can be horrible, senseless, uncaring monster.
7. Anonymous is still able to deliver.
8. There are no real rules about posting.
9. There are no real rules about moderation either — enjoy your ban.
10. If you enjoy any rival sites — DON'T.
11. You must have pictures to prove your statement.
12. Lurk moar — it's never enough.
13. Nothing is Sacred.
14. Do not argue with a troll — it means that they win.
15. The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt it.
16. There are NO girls on the internet.
17. A cat is fine too.
18. One cat leads to another.
19. The more you hate it, the stronger it gets.
20. It is delicious cake. You must eat it.
21. It is delicious trap. You must hit it.
27. It needs more Desu. No exceptions.
28. There will always be more fucked up shit than what you just saw.
28. There will always be more fucked up shit than what you just saw.
34. There is porn of it. No exceptions.
35. If no porn is found of it, it will be created.
36. No matter what it is, it is somebody's fetish. No exceptions.
37. Even one positive comment about Japanese things can make you a weeaboo.
38. When one sees a lion, one must get into the car
39. There is furry porn of it. No exceptions.
40. The pool is always closed due to AIDS (and stingrays, which also have AIDS).
41. If there isn't enough just ask for Moar.
42. Everything has been cracked and pirated.
35. If no porn is found of it, it will be created.
36. No matter what it is, it is somebody's fetish. No exceptions.
37. Even one positive comment about Japanese things can make you a weeaboo.
38. When one sees a lion, one must get into the car
39. There is furry porn of it. No exceptions.
40. The pool is always closed due to AIDS (and stingrays, which also have AIDS).
41. If there isn't enough just ask for Moar.
42. Everything has been cracked and pirated.
44. The internet is not your personal army.
45. Rule 45 is a lie.
46. The cake is a lie
45. Rule 45 is a lie.
46. The cake is a lie
50. Anything can be a meme.
51. Longcat is looooooooooong.
52. If something goes wrong, Ebaums did it.
53. Anonymous is a virgin by default.
51. Longcat is looooooooooong.
52. If something goes wrong, Ebaums did it.
53. Anonymous is a virgin by default.
56. Don't mess with football.
58. Anonymous does not "buy", he downloads.
62. The internet is SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS.
63. If you do not believe it, then it must be habeebed for great justice.
64. Not even Spider-Man knows how to shot web.
63. If you do not believe it, then it must be habeebed for great justice.
64. Not even Spider-Man knows how to shot web.
67. One does not simply shoop da whoop into Mordor.
68. Katy is bi, so deal w/it.
69. LOL SIXTY NINE AMIRITE?
68. Katy is bi, so deal w/it.
69. LOL SIXTY NINE AMIRITE?
78. Mods are fucking fags. No exceptions.
79. All Caturday threads will be bombarded with Zippocat. No exceptions.
79. All Caturday threads will be bombarded with Zippocat. No exceptions.
94. If someone herd u liek Mudkips, deny it constantly for the lulz.
95. Combo breakers are inevitable. If the combo is completed successfully, it is gay.
96. I am a huge faggot. Please rape my face.
97. Shit sucks and will never be stickied.
98. Bricks must are required to be shat whenever Anonymous is surprised.
99. If you have no bricks to shit, you are made of fail and AIDS.
95. Combo breakers are inevitable. If the combo is completed successfully, it is gay.
96. I am a huge faggot. Please rape my face.
97. Shit sucks and will never be stickied.
98. Bricks must are required to be shat whenever Anonymous is surprised.
99. If you have no bricks to shit, you are made of fail and AIDS.
101. The internet is always right. No exceptions
102. The internet is really, really great, FOR PORN.
102. The internet is really, really great, FOR PORN.
- The Observer
Where the Internet's Ideas are Born
| 4chan | 1823 up, 439 down | |
An image board in which jaded and cynical internet users compete to see who can be the biggest asshole.
Imagery on 4chan ranges from funny and clever, to "shocking" gore and morbid type imagery, to paedophile humour and other inanely retarted crap. 4chan users have invented their own language in an attempt to create a psuedo-culture, much in the same vein as the emo, and the lolcats people. You will typically see words like "Moar" and "newfag" plastered across the boards. Whilst those of us looking objectively at 4chan might think "Stop slaughtering the English language you illiterate fuckhole", such words are apparently used to communicate within this E-community. Many users of 4chan are passionately defensive about the website, and often praise it as a tight knit global community and place for people to communicate whatever they want, uncensored. Others see it as a chaotic cesspit where people with no personality or ideals can vent uncreative cynicism and pretend they're clever.
Typical thread in 4chan:
User 1 posts a gif of a petite Asian girl smothering fecal matter all over her face. User 2 responds with "Sauce" User 3 responds with "Moar" User 4 responds with "fap fap fap" User 5 responds with "This is the first time i've been to this website... haha you douchebags are fucking lame as hell. User 6 responds with "must be newfag"
Courtesy of Wikipedia:
This post from Urban Dictionary pretty much sums up the horrors of what 4chan is. 4chan, created in 2003, it was originally intended for discussing anime and manga, but from there, it grew, launching out to spread, create and use popular memes and other subcultures. It has declared war on the Church of Scientology and started internet fads like pedobear, lolcats and rickrolling. The most notorious and popular thread is titled "Random" or "/b/" which has minimal posting rules and enjoys huge popularity. The title is a play off of the Japanese image board, 2chan and has only had one real employee while having many volunteers. 4chan is immensely popular and has been losing money for the costs of maintaining the site.
A large part of the popularity that has been associated with 4chan is that each and every person is anonymous and can stay anonymous as long as they want. If they want to, they can also post under names that they come up with or names that have already or are currently in use. Ideologically, the website maintains that anonymous is not a single person, but a group, mass or horde of people. The mods all can take down posts, images and sub-threads along with posting with a special cap code. They also have "mods in training" deemed janitors which can take out images and posts and suggest users to ban from the site but can't post with the cap code.
The creator, Christopher Poole, with the alias "moot" only had his real life identity revealed in 2008and in 2009, the people of 4chan attempted to and succeeded to hack the Time 100's most influential people list to place moot at the top with over 16 million votes. It was considered fairly obvious that it was hacked, because the initials of the first names of the people in the list in order spell out, "marblecake also the game."
Under the alias of moot, he has given speeches at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but is having difficulty making money off of 4chan and has lived with his mom many times. He is quoted by many sources to be one of the most influential people of the 21st century and is thought to be by Fred Leal of the Brazilian newspaper Estadão, the creator of the anti-thesis to social networking itself.
This place has been considered the origins of the group Anonymous and has many associations with it.
The /b/ board has few rules. They have bans on certain illegal content, such as child pornography,
invasions of other websites (posting floods of disruptive content), and
under-18 viewing, all of which are inherited from site-wide rules. The second rule about invading other websites was adopted after the 2006 overflow of Habbo Hotel.
4chan created a massive culture and various fads such as calling each other fags. Poole has also stated that the websites traffic as of 2008, the website garnered an outstanding rate of 150,000 - 200,000 posts a day. This large amount of posts allows new memes, or internet catchphrases or pictures to be spread in days or hours
According to the Washington Post, "the site's users have managed to pull off some of the highest-profile collective actions in the history of the Internet."[49]. This has been proven multiple times after they have attacked Youtube more than once, a law firm, multiple film industries and have even helped police track down potential terrorists. The most famous work of internet tracking was done in 2009 when a 14 year old boy was video taping himself abusing a cat named dusty. After the 4chan users contacted the local police, he was arrested and the cat was treated by veterinarians.
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4chan can be a place of immense evil and horror, but it is also a place of internet intellectuals and sociopaths. The threads and posts of the various users with the anonymity of the internet has resulted in the antithesis to social networking and has done things that one can only imagine.
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April 24, 2012
Free Will
Do we truly have free will? Can we really shape our destinies or is something stronger than us controlling our decisions? I think that to a point, we have control over specific indivisual things like what to do in a very specific time between eating or sleeping or talking or remaining silent, but for almost anything else, we have no choice. Each day we are influenced to do not want we want, but what society wants. In a few years I will go to college. I do not want to go to college at all, but the government, the economy and other people are influencing me so greatly to go to college, that I will.
What is frightning is that when we look at the things that we want, it isn't likely what we want, but just what we are made into wanting. I've heard of teachers who went back to school twice to get a degree in business, psychology and finally get a teaching degree while playing football until both of his kids were born. Today he is happy and will tell you about the times in his life where he made the mistake of trying to make so much money. He went to business school because, "society told me I needed money and business is where the money is." He eventually grew discontented and began to hate his job and life at his firm. He got out of it and is happy as a coach and teacher.
In society, what is hard to comprehend is how their are two different cultures at the same time. As human beings, we have a drive and need to belong. We usually act fairly similar to each other to fit in with each other. The better we are at fitting in, the better we feel about ourselves. What the problem is, is that currently, there is only two cultures in our society. As hipsters would put it, theres the mainstream and as historians would call it, there is also the counter culture. When as a child, you are brought up to be both unique and the same, it has a certain undefinable effect on you. It is as if our whole lives are in conflict of just two sides. Political parties, Justin Beiber fans and haters, religous people and aethists and a whole number more.
When you try to be different and make your own descions, you become a part of the counter culture that is another group just as large as the mainstream. You can't take a step in any direction but that of enslavement to society, no matter how hard you try.
-The Observer
What is frightning is that when we look at the things that we want, it isn't likely what we want, but just what we are made into wanting. I've heard of teachers who went back to school twice to get a degree in business, psychology and finally get a teaching degree while playing football until both of his kids were born. Today he is happy and will tell you about the times in his life where he made the mistake of trying to make so much money. He went to business school because, "society told me I needed money and business is where the money is." He eventually grew discontented and began to hate his job and life at his firm. He got out of it and is happy as a coach and teacher.
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| White People |
In society, what is hard to comprehend is how their are two different cultures at the same time. As human beings, we have a drive and need to belong. We usually act fairly similar to each other to fit in with each other. The better we are at fitting in, the better we feel about ourselves. What the problem is, is that currently, there is only two cultures in our society. As hipsters would put it, theres the mainstream and as historians would call it, there is also the counter culture. When as a child, you are brought up to be both unique and the same, it has a certain undefinable effect on you. It is as if our whole lives are in conflict of just two sides. Political parties, Justin Beiber fans and haters, religous people and aethists and a whole number more.
When you try to be different and make your own descions, you become a part of the counter culture that is another group just as large as the mainstream. You can't take a step in any direction but that of enslavement to society, no matter how hard you try.
-The Observer
The Process of Degradation
The cycle of how the internet degrades itself. When the OP posts one thing in the realm of 4chan, it is slightly digested and no one really pays much attention the the vulgarity and terrible evil of what can exist there. Once is makes its way to Reddit, it has been posted 20 times and is on a track of filtering out the terrible excess that was 4chan. Reddit maintains most of the Content, but segregates and prevents you from seeing the true horror of what 4chan is. Upon digestion, the material makes its way to Digg. By now, the post has been posted atleast 50 times and the love of the Original Content has been dimished. You look at the material and wonder, where did this come from and why is it gone. You wait and wait until it leaves the outdated Digg and enters the Hell of Facebook and loses all meaning. When it hits Facebook, it spreads and everyone knows the trend is over, but no one cares, because three more posts were made in 4chan by now.
April 22, 2012
The Story of a War Hero
What is courage and valor. When someone received a Medal of Honor, what are they getting? As a man not in the service without plans to join, I see the military not as the highest aspiration of what we should strive for, but also not as a place where evil men go to play out their desires. I've seen men that scream shouts of hatred and people who are quiet and reserved, but the people that I find the most surprising to be in the military are those who are normal. What surprises me more are those who go into the military and are full of ripe opportunities. I can understand when a man goes to war because he wants the money of the financial aid in the future, but what is hard to acquaint my mind to is when people go out to prove themselves or serve their country or feel obligated to fight. Trust me, I respect those men and women immensely, even when I feel like they are doing wrong. They are still helping the men and women back home to stay safe and healthy.
Heros of War are not those who play it safe or are the smartest about their own lives, but are those who embody what self-sacrifice is. Herbert K. Pililaau, Private First Class of the 23d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army is a man of courage, valor and self sacrifice. In his participation in the battle of bloody ridge and the battle of heartbreak ridge where he departed this world, the United States Army has awarded him a Medal of Honor.
On September 17th, 1951, Company C and Pililaau's platoon were advancing on one of the two peaks of Heartbreak Ridge in North Korea. Company C stalled on a ridge line when two battalions of the North Korean Army started to draw the Company back which was running low on supplies and ammunition. After 10:00 pm, with very low provisions, the company was given permission to withdraw and join the main force of the army. Pililaau's Squad was given the task of covering the retreat and Pililaau offered to be left behind. The men retreated until it was just Pililaau and his squad leader who eventually left as well.
"Pfc. Pililaau fired his automatic weapon into the ranks of the assailants, threw all his grenades and, with ammunition exhausted, closed with the foe in hand-to-hand combat, courageously fighting with his trench knife and bare fists until finally overcome and mortally wounded"
Heros of War are not those who play it safe or are the smartest about their own lives, but are those who embody what self-sacrifice is. Herbert K. Pililaau, Private First Class of the 23d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army is a man of courage, valor and self sacrifice. In his participation in the battle of bloody ridge and the battle of heartbreak ridge where he departed this world, the United States Army has awarded him a Medal of Honor.
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| Herbert K. Pililaau PFC |
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| A poorly drawn paint file of what was happening on the day that Pililaau earned his Medal of Honor. |
On September 17th, 1951, Company C and Pililaau's platoon were advancing on one of the two peaks of Heartbreak Ridge in North Korea. Company C stalled on a ridge line when two battalions of the North Korean Army started to draw the Company back which was running low on supplies and ammunition. After 10:00 pm, with very low provisions, the company was given permission to withdraw and join the main force of the army. Pililaau's Squad was given the task of covering the retreat and Pililaau offered to be left behind. The men retreated until it was just Pililaau and his squad leader who eventually left as well.
"Pfc. Pililaau fired his automatic weapon into the ranks of the assailants, threw all his grenades and, with ammunition exhausted, closed with the foe in hand-to-hand combat, courageously fighting with his trench knife and bare fists until finally overcome and mortally wounded"
-Medal of Honor Citation
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| M3 Trench Knife |
The Platoon retook the position the next day to see 40 dead Korean troops around him. It was said that as his squad was retreating they looked on helplessly as he threw rocks at the Koreans before charging them. It was found that he was killed by bayonet.
Posthumously, he was award the medal and had a cargo-ship named after him. He died at 22 and was buried in Honolulu.
He was the 9th of 14 children, born of Hawaiian parents in a "working class suburb" of Honolulu, and was a singer, ukelele player and a notable reader. After high school, he studied at Cannon Business School.
This man showed courage, but he didn't need to. I don't know why he offered to be left to die, but he did die. He had options and career choices. He had a family, he had hobbies, he had a life. He was young and he did die for the safety of not only his comrades, but for the people here in America.
-The Observer
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