An awesome workout machine I like: Ultimate Body Press.
Real Estate in North Carolina: The Peaks at Wolf Ridge.
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Here's a great CD by RudePundit:
To start the day, here's short video just in case you are taking yourself too seriously.
Check back into this site in a few hours, to read a SHOCKING expose on the hidden, evil agenda of a well-known corporation. So SHOCKING that I am TYPING in ALL CAPS and using lots of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!
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Let's start the day with a bit of humor that my fellow bloggers should appreciate.
In case you don't "get" the joke, read Wikipedia's post for the Infinite monkey theorem.
I'll be back in a few hours with a Christmas story that will make you want to avoid malls, cameras and security guards.
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The researchers at Standford University are all atwitter that they figured out how to make a computer simulation seductive to college students.
Student Researchers at Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab strapped 69 student volunteers into an immersive, 3-D virtual-reality rig, where test subjects found themselves sitting across the table from a "digital agent" -- a computer-generated man or woman -- programmed to deliver a three-minute pitch advocating a notional university security policy requiring students to carry ID whenever they're on campus.
The anthropomorphic cyberhuckster featured moving lips and blinking eyes on a head that nodded and swayed realistically. But unbeknownst to the test subjects, the head movements weren't random. In half the sessions, the computer was programmed to mimic the student's movements exactly, with a precise four-second delay; if a test subject tilted her head thoughtfully and looked up at a 15-degree angle, the computer would repeat the gesture four seconds later.
For the other half of the participants, the program used head movements recorded from earlier students, ensuring they were realistic but unconnected to the test subject.
The results, were dramatic: Only eight of the subjects detected the mimicry (one of them falsely). The remaining students liked the mimicking agent more than the recorded agent, rating the former more friendly, interesting, honest and persuasive. They also paid better attention to the parroting presenter, looking away less often. Most significantly, they were more likely to come around to the mimicking agent's way of thinking on the issue of mandatory ID.
On one level this is kinda cool. But so what?
You don't need computers to convince people to do things - you need attractive people. To a normal heterosexual male, an attractive woman can persuade him to agree with pretty much anything.
Her: "I enjoy drinking raw sardines fresh from the blender. Would you like a glass?"
Him: "Are you kidding? I'd love one. Yum!"
This is why mass social movements are more likely to succeed if attractive women join them.
Case in point: If I asked you to give me $5 bucks for no other reason than I need a pint of beer tonight - you would laugh in my face.
Now if the person in the video below asked you for $5 - what would you do?
She isn't mimicking your movements, or even talking for that matter, but admit it: you tried to shove money through the screen. I'll bet many male readers combed their hair and tried to strike up a conversation.
In fact, you probably aren't even reading this last sentence, are you?
Read counterpoint here. (pdf)
Tags: mimic - chameleon effect
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A quick break from politics today.
As a public service to those of you who may be looking for employment, here is my list of questions you should never ask a potential employer during a job interview:
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This year, as it is the custom, conservative Christians complained that Christmas was under assault by the Liberal agenda. Bill O'Reilly, Republican apologist on FOX News, put it best when he said:
"Secular progressives which are driving this movement (against Christmas). They don't want it as a federal holiday, they don't want any message of spirituality or Judeo-Christian tradition because that stands in the way of gay marriage, legalized drugs, euthanasia, all of the greatest hits on the secular progressive play card."
While thinking people might suspect that hype about the so-called "culture war against Christmas" is nothing more than a cheap way to sell controversy to the conservative base; the reality is that if you approach the world from the perspective of a right-wing blowhard, you can see the evil Liberal agenda yourself!
For example; I have found conclusive proof that Google is in on the conspiracy to destroy Christmas, marriage, capitalism and decency through their holiday doodles.*
In case you don't know:
"Google Doodles are modifications of the Google logo created by the company for use on holidays, birthdays of famous people, and major events, like the Olympics. They are displayed on the day of the occasion, and then removed and archived. Google Doodles were first initiated in 1999 for the Burning Man Festival and various other holidays." (Wikipedia)
This year, Google commemorated the holidays with not one, but five doodles. As Christmas got closer, Google used the doodles to tell a simple story-line of a cat and mouse attempting to light-up the logo. However, these doodles were a thinly veiled trick to push the secular progressive agenda onto computers across the world.
As evidence of this, I have created a compilation of the doodles from December 20th to the 25th. Below each image is an analysis based on fundamentalist, conservative republican ideology:
Day 1: Note how the doodle leans to the left - clearly a sign of the left-leaning tendencies of the search engine. Also notice how the mouse comes out of the blue "g". Blue is the color of the democrat party. (The same party of HILLARY CLINTON.)
Day 2: The cat sticks it's head out of the red "e" to give a handout to the poor mouse. Since red is the color of the Republican party, the only logical meaning behind this doodle is that Googlebot plans to force corporations to give resources to the people who actually create the wealth. As every Republican knows, giving handouts to the poor is morally wrong, since they might waste the money on food, education and healthcare.
Day 3: What's this? The plug and socket don't reach! Clearly, this sends the message that male and female elements are incompatible, and therefore homosexuality should be preferred above heterosexual relationships.
Day 4: Here we see the worker mouse holding a hammer, one of the symbols of communism. In the meantime, the cat looks confused about it's sexuality as it stares longingly at the plug near its rear.
Day 5: (Christmas Day): The cat and mouse rejoice that they are able to celebrate the holidays without mentioning Christmas. Note that the mouse is using a non-petroleum, renewable source of power... thus making a statement that oil-wars in Iraq are wrong. In other words: Googlebot hates the troops.
Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives should call for a boycott of Google at once to fight against the anti-Christian, liberal agenda of the search engine.*
It may be too late to stop Google Doodles from attacking Christmas this year, but now Republicans have plenty of time plan a counterattack.
*Not really.
Read counterpoint here.
Summary: Google hates Christmas; as their doodles leading up to the holiday show.
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