I posted what follows earlier today on Website666′s Tumblr and it provides a great example of the left misleading anyone who reads their “info”graphic:

saboma:

American Censorship Day November [16th]

What the hell is the exact definition of an “infringing link”??  I hate these over-simplified “infographics” that fail to define basic terms. The fact that there is no definition of “infringing link” makes me want to ignore the whole thing.  I am so sick of people on either “side” of the political “aisle” failing miserably at properly informing the people they are trying to persuade.  This is a bad infographic because it does a great job of inspiring fear but a shitty job of, you know, actually providing information.

And it’s not just the lack of an “infringing link” definition.  Look at the “As a result” section.  It represents what website self-censorship is like now and will be like after SOPA passes.  Before SOPA, it’s a small circle.  After SOPA, the circle is MUCH LARGER!! OMG!!  THAT CIRCLE IS WAY BIGGER!!  How bigger?  Well, I can’t tell since there are NO NUMBERS describing the circles.  This is all beside the fact that there is no way to measure self-censorship in a future we haven’t lived in yet.  In short, this ven-ish diagram has zero basis in fact. In other words, it’s made up just to scare the shit out of you.

The same can be said for the line graph next to it.  Before SOPA, you see the number of new startups rises!  But after, it goes down. :( BUT THE DATA POINTS AREN’T NUMBERED, so we have NO WAY OF KNOWING WHAT THEY MEAN!!! This, also, is beside the point that this line graph does the same thing the ven-ish diagram does—it makes shit up about the future—there’s no proof that the number of new startups will go down after SOPA.

Under the “HOW DOES THIS AFFECT” section, it would be nice to see the part of the law that explains email providers would have to censor email with infringing links. It would also be nice to know how social networks could possibly censor the links of hundreds of thousands of users, especially when URL shorteners can be used to mask the links.

As I mentioned, this infographic fails to mention what an infringing link even is and that inspires even more fear than the even bigger circle of self-censorship or the non-specific datapoints in the “new startup” line graph.  What IS an infringing link?!?!  Is THIS an infringing link?  IsTHIS?  Would YOU be posting an infringing link by linking to this post?  OMG!!  WE LIVE IN SOVIET RUSSIA!!

It’s a shame propagandists get hired to make “info”graphics like this, instead of good human beings who want to properly inform people.  Especially since the truth about this bill is probably very terrifying.

THANKS FOR THE FEAR MONGERING, AMERICANCENSORSHIP.ORG!

saboma:

American Censorship Day November [16th]

What the hell is the exact definition of an “infringing link”??  I hate these over-simplified “infographics” that fail to define basic terms. The fact that there is no definition of “infringing link” makes me want to ignore the whole thing.  I am so sick of people on either “side” of the political “aisle” failing miserably at properly informing the people they are trying to persuade.  This is a bad infographic because it does a great job of inspiring fear but a shitty job of, you know, actually providing information.

And it’s not just the lack of an “infringing link” definition.  Look at the “As a result” section.  It represents what website self-censorship is like now and will be like after SOPA passes.  Before SOPA, it’s a small circle.  After SOPA, the circle is MUCH LARGER!! OMG!!  THAT CIRCLE IS WAY BIGGER!!  How bigger?  Well, I can’t tell since there are NO NUMBERS describing the circles.  This is all beside the fact that there is no way to measure self-censorship in a future we haven’t lived in yet.  In short, this ven-ish diagram has zero basis in fact. In other words, it’s made up just to scare the shit out of you.

The same can be said for the line graph next to it.  Before SOPA, you see the number of new startups rises!  But after, it goes down. :( BUT THE DATA POINTS AREN’T NUMBERED, so we have NO WAY OF KNOWING WHAT THEY MEAN!!! This, also, is beside the point that this line graph does the same thing the ven-ish diagram does—it makes shit up about the future—there’s no proof that the number of new startups will go down after SOPA.

Under the “HOW DOES THIS AFFECT” section, it would be nice to see the part of the law that explains email providers would have to censor email with infringing links. It would also be nice to know how social networks could possibly censor the links of hundreds of thousands of users, especially when URL shorteners can be used to mask the links.

As I mentioned, this infographic fails to mention what an infringing link even is and that inspires even more fear than the even bigger circle of self-censorship or the non-specific datapoints in the “new startup” line graph.  What IS an infringing link?!?!  Is THIS an infringing link?  Is THIS?  Would YOU be posting an infringing link by linking to this post?  OMG!!  WE LIVE IN SOVIET RUSSIA!!

It’s a shame propagandists get hired to make “info”graphics like this, instead of good human beings who want to properly inform people.  Especially since the truth about this bill is probably very terrifying.  

THANKS FOR THE FEAR MONGERING, AMERICANCENSORSHIP.ORG!

“If you look at the troubles which happened in European countries, this is purely because of the accumulated troubles of the worn out welfare society. I think the labour laws are outdated. The labour laws induce sloth, indolence, rather than hardworking. The incentive system, is totally out of whack.

He also said:

The welfare system is good for any society to reduce the gap, to help those who happen to have disadvantages, to enjoy a good life, but a welfare society should not induce people not to work hard.

This from a guy representing a country with some of the lowest paid workers in the industrialized world. Planet Capitalism is really starting to worry me. If China will be the one determining how workers are treated I think I’m going to start looking on Craigslist for good deals on spaceships.

I just LOVE how these rich assholes can just blatantly lie about the causes for the economic woes around the world. I don’t know the specifics of the EU’s problems but should a system that doesn’t treat humans well be supported? Should hard work be forced on every last citizen? This system is really getting out of control. Now where would “used spaceships” be on Craigslist?

“For another metric, we measure adoption. If you look at Windows 7, it took them about 20 weeks to reach 10% of their base. It took Lion 2 weeks. – Tim Cook”

Six million copies of Lion downloaded so far — 80 percent more than Snow Leopard – The Next Web (via thenextweb)

Sorry, kids, this was one of the many misrepresentations (lies, even) presented in today’s underwhelming Apple event.  Comparing Apple’s success to Microsoft’s is pretty much identical to comparing apples to oranges.  Why are the numbers above no significant? Because Apple charged a pitance for their single-versioned OS which was downloadable.  If Microsoft had such a system and chose to sell a single OS at $30/per, they’d reach higher saturation, too.  Instead, Apple did something entirely different and blamed Microsoft for not doing as well.“Yes, with the new ‘wheel’ from Apple, you can do so much more than you could with that old fashioned plank you drag around.  The guys who designed that thing were morons.”

Sure, it’s an improvement, and Apple’s system does move more product, but it’s hardly fair to compare.

But they pulled this crap all over the place.  It’s like they were trying desperately to cover for the fact that they weren’t announcing an iPhone 5.  Most of the numbers they presented were just utter bullshit, like those above.  At one point, they compared PC market growth to Mac market growth as though that meant something at all.  PCs are still everywhere.  It makes sense that their market growth is a paltry 4% since they’re already owned by everyone.  Yes, Mac market share jumped 23% and that’s nice, mildly impressive even, but the comparison to the PC market is just not a logical one.

They called the iPod Touch the number one handheld gaming system.  But that’s a total fallacy.  The iPod Touch isn’t a gaming system at all.  It’s a convergence device.  It’s like the Swiss Army Knife people claiming their knives are comparable to the butter knives in your silverware drawer.  And newsflash, I have yet to see Super Mario games show up on iOS.  When they do, maybe I’ll think about retiring my DSi XL.

Is any of this type of behavior new? No.  But this time around it seems worse than usual to me.  Basically nothing in today’s event made me want anything Apple is offering right now.  I couldn’t care less about their entire line.  Well, I’d like an iPad 2, but only because iPlayer isn’t available for Android.  But that had nothing to do with today’s announcements and I’m not about to drop $400 just so I can use one app.

What really scares me is that there is so little actual innovation going on these days.  People will point to “Siri,” Apple’s new voice-recognition/command system available only on the iPhone 4S, but since when does anyone like to use voice commands?  Android has had similar features (not as built-up, obviously) for a while and I’ve never used it once.  Sure, some folks might like literally telling their phone what to do but I like the tactile experience.  I don’t want to broadcast to everyone around me what I’m doing and I feel like speech requires more thought than just pressing buttons or touching icons.  I can be thinking about what I’m going to do while my fingers tap the icons on the screen, rather thing thinking of the right words to say to get the right app or info to pop up.

So, basically, Apple’s “innovation” is something I don’t think people really want.  It may seem like a cool bell/whistle, but really, it’s nothing that innovative.  It’s just another layer of interface.  Plus, who wants their requested information on that tiny screen?  I don’t care how crystal clear the screen is, I still feel like I’m looking through a hole at the words I want to read.

Anyway, it’s just more “fun” from the Apple Reality Distortion Field.

I still have three more questions for Apple:

1) Why does the iPhone 4S not support 4G networks?

2) Why no iPhone 5?

3) Why no plans to put out a midsized device, like a 7in tablet? (I already have a 10in netbook and you already sell a 10in Macbook Air, don’t you?  Won’t people who own those not want an iPad?).

Apple continues to make me shake my head.

From Coalspeaker.com:

More proof that nothing you see in the media is real.. or at least it is questionable.. the White House tipped off the AP of Michelle Obama’s Target trip before she went

So, whether it’s a story on protesters getting entrapped only to be rewritten 20 minutes later to be a story on protesters getting arrested, or even  the little, unimportant things like the above, the media isn’t representing reality.  This whole “paying attention” thing is getting pretty tedious.

Then again, I suppose the idea is to get us to stop caring. >_<

There also seems to be a prankster out there that created a “fallout map” warning Americans of a radiation cloud that will be heading their way. Of course, it is a hoax, not actually based on real data:

Some people really need to find better things to do with their lives.

All it takes is one click…

Sounds great, right? Except there are a couple of catches. First, I don’t know who this guy is. He doesn’t say who he is in the image. If you reblog this and get reblogged, I don’t know how people wouldn’t think it was YOU willing to donate 10¢ per reblog. Second and MOST IMPORTANTLY, when you click the link you end up at a page for UNICEF that explains:

The Government of Japan has long invested  in earthquake and emergency response preparedness and has not requested UNICEF support at this time.

That’s right, so this guy is asking we donate to a group that isn’t even helping Japan yet.  The worst thing you can do with money is to waste it.  Please research who you are giving money to before you do it!  Sadly, I have no idea who your donation to Japan would be safest with.  I would recommend checking out JapanProbe.com.  But even then, do your research!  Even trustworthy sources can make mistakes.

PLEASE NOTE: I WILL NOT BE DONATING 10¢ PER REBLOG TO UNICEF.

Sorry, but that could get pricey fast.  This is Tumblr, after all….

Gizmodo’s Tim Wu blogs about how innovation was stopped in its tracks, effectively, due to capitalist interests.  Funny how we’re all told capitalism is great for innovation. Too bad that’s only true until innovation might damage the current business model.  Take the example of the answering machine that existed in the office of a Bell Labs engineer… in 1934.

Yeeeee-NO.

Atheism is defined by Webster.com as:

a : a disbelief in the existence of deity

b : the doctrine that there is no deity

It’s NOT a “philosophical denial of the existence of God.”  It’s the rational requirement that we see proof of a deity before we believe in one.
It’s so nice when Christians spread lies about us.  Is there an atheist wiki that spreads lies about them?
Hm…