Aqpwod comments on What is immediate red flag someone is not to be trusted?

Aqpwod 

No, you fucking listen here. The biggest pet peeve is not when someone rambles on and on in a circle, but it's when somebody initiates the conversation, goes on for twenty minutes and just ends up telling us his life story. It's annoying, no one wants to listen, and you'll just end up losing friends and alienating people. You reveal yourself as narcissistic and self centered, and it's some annoying shit because they're just fucking dickwads who should know better. I knew a lot of dickwads. They were fucking assholes who treated me like I was some second class shit. For a while, I actually believed them. Then I stopped, regained control of myself, and learned how to love myself. Eventually, I learned how to move on, and even get a girlfriend. This reminds me of the time that I walked down the stairs with my girlfriend in my arms, and then I suddenly tripped and fell, taking her down with me. Anyway, I landed on her, and it was extremely painful for both of us. She ended up going into the hospital with several broken bones, while I got off with a few bruises. I couldn't live with myself knowing that I hurt her, so I vowed to never let anything like that happen again. The most annoying part, however, was how she would do nothing but talk to me, about how it was all my fault, and how I should pay for it. That's how I broke my right hand. Anyway, I talked to the doctor, and he would do nothing but talk and talk and talk about some shit that I didn't even understand. Like medical lingo shit. I don't remember what he said, but I'm sure it was pretty funny, like wheeee. It was pretty funny. I can take a joke. I sometimes like to think I'm a pretty funny guy. I think I am a funny guy. No one is going to read this all, so no one can see this statement: Penis cock noodle. I get most of my jokes from the internet, but that doesn't bother me. I'm not a comedian or anything, but the way I tell them would be pretty good. Sometimes, I'll ramble on and on about how brilliant I am. But yes, my point is, if you want to ramble on and on about some shit we don't care about, then you shouldn't even bother talking to people, because obviously, you have proven that your social life is as disastrous as your conversation. Hitler maybe rambled, but at least he had class and power. He wrote a fucking book on it, you know. Pissed off a lot of fucking people, before they got their shit together but yeah. Speaking of which, I wonder how many tearcups they used on Hitler when their armies rolled into Berlin. That was some serious butt fucking, except there was not enough lube to prepare him for that. It was a good thing that happened, though. Imagine if Stalin didn't get his shit together. Maybe we'd see an Empire twice as big as Rome in the maps. That would be weird, wouldn't it? You know what's weird, actually? That I'm just rambling on and on, just for the sake of talking. I mean, I think I spent an upwards of 15 minutes writing this already. I guess I'm just trying to prove your point. I guess I am a douche, or a prick. Who am I kidding? I'm a nobody. I just do this shit to get karma and gold. If only I put so much effort into my assessments, then everything would be much better. What am I doing now? It's like midnight from where I'm at, I should probably get to bed. There's work to do, so I don't know what I'm doing typing here. I don't know. I guess I'll just end here, forget about everything. I'm not suicidal or anything, I'm just saying that if in any case some guy were to run in and shoot me in the head, I guess I wouldn't mind. Maybe I'm one of those people who want to go to sleep and never wake up again. That would be nice wouldn't it? I should sleep. I'm just writing on and on to prove a point and for what? This'll get buried, and no one will read it. I'm just preaching to a fucking choir. Fuck it. I have math homework here that needs doing, I shouldn't be talking here. Talking here just proves your point. People are dicks when they ramble on and on, not letting other people getting in the conversation. It's just all about them, and they never let anyone interrupt them.

But yes, people who ramble on and on are dicks.

madefromafistfight comments on Redditors who've walked in on your partner or SO cheating: How did you react in that moment?

madefromafistfight

i broke, man. i literally felt something in me die. this was 5 years ago, and only in the last 8, 9 months have i felt better about it.

i walked into my apartment, and her and her ex-husband were in my bed. which was a huge "fuck you!!" to me, cause they both had their own places. so, i walk in, see them, grab him by the throat (i know, i know) and drag him outside and throw him into the parking lot. im a big dude, im 6'8", 220. so i throw him into the parking lot, and shes yelling at me "PLEASE DONT KILL HIM" ... wtf. i just wanted him out of my house. i wasnt going to hurt or kill the guy.

shes running around, picking up her things, and his things, and shouting excuses at me. "oh, it was just a one time thing" ... "we were bored and it was a mistake" ... "we were drinking this morning and this was stupid" (who fucking drinks in the morning, anyway?)

i just looked at her and said "dont ever speak to me again. you fucking disgust me."

then.... i fell onto my couch and cried. she was standing there, watching me, and she tried to walk over and hug me, because now shes crying too. i pushed her away from me. i cried non stop for the rest of the day. fell into a deep, deep, depression, started doing painkillers, drinking, pretty much every drug i could get my hands on. i hurt so bad, mentally, that it was physically crippling.

the hardest part wasnt even breaking up with her, it was not talking to her daughter, who was going to be my step daughter. i was even saving to buy the ring. me and her were buds, man. we went everywhere together, i took her to preschool, we'd go to the mall every friday and get ice cream, id buy her some toys, or some clothes, whatever struck my eye.

ive since moved to a different state. got a good job, got my life back together. have an AMAZING girlfriend. she looks at me with love, and i look at her, and i see hope in her eyes. it took YEARS, but things finally actually turned around.

tl;dr: I POURED MY FUCKING HEART OUT TO YOU, REDDIT, READ THE POST. <3

Edit: thank you all. For not only the gold, but for the sympathy and kind words. I love all of you. And to anybody going through a similar situation, keep your head up. It gets better. <3

StoryTellerBob comments on The devil challenges you to a game for your soul, what do you choose?

StoryTellerBob

"Dungeons and Dragons, eh?" The devil cackled with laughter.

"But... I am the Dungeon Master." The devil's grin soured as he plucked a pen and paper from the folds of his robe.

"Fine, but when I beat your campaign your soul will be mine." Johnny nodded in agreement and the two took their seats, only a few sheets of paper and a pair of dice between them.

"You are an adventurer who has been captured by the dragon lords of Blackhollow. The dragons keep you locked in a cell where you await your execution for trying to trespass in their sacred halls. You must escape Blackhollow to win the game and my soul, but you must also kill the Vath, the king of the dragons, or he will not stop hunting you until you are dead. You awaken in your cell mere hours before the execution is scheduled to take place wearing nothing but a loin cloth. Through the bars of your cell you can see a huge, dimly lit hall with rows of pillars stretching into the seemingly infinite darkness outside."

"Alright, let's see... I search the cell for hidden passages."

"You search the cell thoroughly for an hour, but you find nothing."

"Fine, what about the lock? Maybe I can break it open with a rock or something."

"You give the lock a good bash with whatever pebble you can find on the ground, but it's made out of the finest steel, forged in dragon fire and you don't even managed to put a dent in it. You are running out of time", Johnny said and smirked at the devil.

"I'm not done yet. I, uh, bang on the bars of the cell, shouting for a guard."

"After a few minutes of making a racket a huge, thundering quake shakes the ground beneath your feet. Through the darkness a scaly black dragon emerges, his wings easily spanning a hundred feet. He stops in front of your cell and fixes you with his gaze, puffs of thick, black smoke spiraling from his nostrils. 'What do you want, puny mortal?' The dragon asks, the force of each word shaking the walls around you."

"Okay, I want to persuade it to let me go."

"You can't do that. You defiled the sacred halls of his ancestors, he wants you dead, there's no way that's going to work."

"Well, you can't make an impossible to beat game, that'd be against the rules."

"Alright, fine, you can do a persuasion roll, but you get a -10 because he wants to kill you, a -5 because it's hard to persuade someone when you're wearing nothing but a loincloth, -5 because the dragon is in a particularly shitty mood today and why not just throw in another -10 because he would break the laws of his people if he let you go and would most likely be executed himself. So there, you've got to roll a 38 on a D20. Like I said, there's no way that's going to work."

"Isn't a natural 20 always a success though?"

"Yeah, sure, but if you fail he will be so insulted that he will burn you to a crisp on the spot."

"Alright." The devil smirked and took the dice in his hand, rolling it in his hands and blowing on it for good measure. "Watch and learn, watch and learn." He send the dice flying across the table and when it clattered to a halt a burning 20 facing up.

"Boosh! Natural 20, baby!"

"Fine, the dragon takes pity on you and decides to stay and hang out for a while. The two of you shoot the shit, grab a couple of beers and just talk for a while. His name is Steve and he works at the grocery store, but that's just temporary until he makes his big breakthrough in his acting career. Unfortunately, when you ask him to let you go, he says you seem like a cool guy and he totally would, but he doesn't even work here, he was just passing through when he heard you making a ruckus."

"Oh come on, how is that even fair?" The devil complained.

"All is fair in love and D&D. Anyway, now the real guard-dragon shows up and drags you out of your cell. He marches you through the dark hallways out into a huge amphitheater where the councilors of Blackhollow have gathered to watch your execution."

"Don't I get a trial or something?"

"Okay, fine, but you're totally guilty and everyone knows it."

"I demand a trial by combat."

"Wow. Really? Okay, I guess. The dragon king Vath sits at the head of the council and he agrees to your request. The dragons send forth their champion, Eussath, a dragon so large and menacing that he makes you wonder if Steve was a dwarf or what the deal is. He lets out a roar that shakes the amphitheater and the other dragons join in. You are still unarmed, basically naked and have no weapons or magical abilities. What do you do?" Johnny smirked to himself, thinking he finally had the devil beat.

"I want to disguise myself and sneak out."

"Disguise yourself as what? The only creatures there except yourself are dragons."

"So I disguise myself as a dragon."

"..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, only a natural 20 works, got it." The devil cupped the dice again and blew on it before dropping it, once again rolling a 20.

"That's cheating!" Johnny pointed at the dice in disbelief. "There's no way you just rolled 20 twice in a row!"

"You learn a thing or two about dice, playing games for souls since the beginning of time, Johnny-boy."

"Whatever. Okay, you disguise yourself as a dragon. Somehow a whole group of dragons mistake you for a 80 feet tall fire-breathing monster with scales harder than steel instead of a half naked human. They're all terribly confused about where the guy they were about to kill went."

"Okay, let's get out of here."

"You still have to kill the dragon king to win."

"Crap, I forgot about that. Alright, I walk up to the king and punch him in the face."

"Alright." Johnny let out a heavy sigh. "Just roll." He buried his face in his hands and sure enough, a moment later the devil let out a triumphant squeal.

"Natural 20!"

"Okay, your fist connects perfectly with his jaw, but his scales are so thick that he doesn't even notice you hit him. You can't kill a dragon with your fists, man, that's like, D&D 101."

"Maybe you can't kill a dragon with your fists, but I have a plan. I let my dragon disguise drop and when the dragons all drop their jaws in surprise, I jump into the kings open mouth."

"That kills you. Getting eaten by a dragon kills people."

"No, see, I jump past his teeth and dive down his stomach!"

"... Fine."

"And now I punch him from the inside. No scales here, bitch!"

"Okay, you punch the dragon king for two points of damage. He's got 80'000. The dragon feels your punch this time, although just barely, and decides to breathe some fire. A giant fireball forms in his stomach, where you are, and burns you to a crisp. There's no way to run or escape it. You are dead."

"You can't just kill me without even giving me a chance to roll or anything, what kind of bullshit is that!"

"You jumped into a dragon's stomach, what did you expect, you idiot! Still, I suppose I should give you another chance. When you die, you're greeted by the devil. He tells you that he will play you in any game and the winner takes your soul."

"Alright, my game of choice is one where the least powerful of the two wins. If he wants to win, he'd have to make me more powerful than himself, in which case I can take my soul back with force."

"Damn, why didn't I think of that."

onewhiskeymore comments on What is your most memorable "I don't get paid enough for this" moment?

onewhiskeymore

Working in a dog boarding facility. One day I go to the bathroom and as I'm peeing, it feels like little bubbles coming out, little blip, blip, blip. Then a long one... You guessed it, I had worms.

Edit: Holy crap, Gold?!!? It didn't feel like it at the time, but it turns out it was worth it! Thank you!!

Also, for anybody wondering I think I probably got them from dogs licking my face (but it could have been lots of things), something I try to avoid, but it happens.
For the love of god, please deworm your dogs.

Edit 2: As to what kind of worms I want to say pinworm but it was a couple years ago and I don't remember. A quick google search turned up this http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/175134.php I scanned the page and have no idea how legitimate this site is but it was very upsetting and included things like pinworm eggs can become airborne and you can breathe them in and they will live on your toothbrush. At the bottom it mentions that they can move to the bladder, I'm thinking this is what happened to me? As to what happened next, the doctor gave me pills and I dewormed myself.

Feltlikesharing comments on Redditors who've walked in on your partner or SO cheating: How did you react in that moment?

Feltlikesharing

Long time reader, but this compelled me to write my first post.

I had returned home from a normal weekly business trip to spend the evening with my wife of 4 weeks (we had been dating for 6 yrs before the marriage) and some "new" friends of hers for drinks. During the course of the evening she became quite drunk, initiated a fight with me, and stormed out of the bar. I tried to pursue, but lost her in the crowd. Fearful for her safety, I contacted the few people in the group I knew, but no one knew where she was at. After searching for an hour, I decided to go home (mind you she had had a bad habit of blacking out since college so this behavior was not completely new). Not being able to sleep and somewhat angry, I went to her car early the next morning in hopes of confronting her. As I was rounding the corner on foot, I saw one of the new male friends dropping her off at the parking garage. From my vantage point I could not tell if he had leaned in for a friendly hug or was giving her a kiss. A cold chill ran down my spine. I would have liked to say I was angry, but it was more surreal than anything.

As he pulled away, I casually called out to her. She seemed surprised and immediately began a tale of losing her phone and how some of the new friends had found her drunk on their door step when they returned home from the bar. Not wanting me to worry, she had asked the gentlemen to drop her off so she could return home early. Having no proof to the contrary, I accepted the story as plausible. However, in the coming weeks, I noticed she became more and more secretive with her actions and phone in particular. Being in what I thought was a trusting relationship, I had honestly never looked at her phone. One night after she went to sleep, I was compelled I browsed through her texts. Everything looked fine. Out of pure chance, I typed the letter "v" into safari and it auto-populated with multiple search queries regarding how to identify venereal diseases. It occurred to me that she had been to see her OBGYN earlier that week. I became somewhat ill to think that my newly minted bride was having unprotected sex with this guy (who btw was in attendance at the wedding). However, I didn't say a word, and continued to play oblivious.

The following day I consulted a close friend who was a computer programmer about retrieving deleted text messages. He provided me with a bootleg program that will pull a text file of all content from the trash bin on the Iphone. In an ominous foreboding tone, he said, "Be careful what you wish for..."

That evening after she went to sleep, I retrieved the erased data. On initial scan I found a myriad of texts between her and him regarding various sexual acts (anal sex in the work bathroom, BDSM, and getting turned on by one of his room mates watching them through an open door), drug use during the day, and coordinating meetups around my schedule. I began to shake and ran to restroom. I dry heaved for 15 minutes and was in complete shock.

After composing myself, I entered our bedroom, awoke her, and told her that I wanted to talk about my "fears" of infidelity. After letting her lie to me for 10 minutes I presented her with a highlighted stack of texts. She immediately began crying profusely and said that she had been under a lot of stress, that it was purely physical, and that it had only been going on for a few weeks. She said that she would end it tomorrow.

As to the venereal disease, she confirmed that she been having unprotected sex with him and that she had an infection that the doctor thought she should take a "precautionary" round of antibiotics. She said she would get the results of HIV and Herpes back the following day as well. Both of which we later learned were negative...So I had that going for me.

Being embarrassed by the brevity of the marriage and the thought of telling all of my family, I told her that I would attend counselling for one month and if I didn't see any change, I wanted out. After a couple of weeks, I learned they were still seeing each other. I erupted and told her to move out by the first of the month. I cannot fully describe the convergence of anger, sadness, and confusion I felt by the whole matter.

As an epilogue, the only rewarding moment in the whole experience was after her being moved out for a month, I received a call from her father. He was confused why his daughter was still with them and why she and I had not tried to reconcile. He figured it was early marriage jitters. I politely told him, "It is over for good. I don't think it is my place to discuss it further. In due time, she will tell you what happened." He implored further and said that after he just footed the bill for a $50K wedding that someone owned him some answers. It occurred to me that I had been a man in asking his daughter's hand in marriage and that I guess I should go out like a man. I agreed to meet with him and my mother in-law that evening.

After some small talk and avoidance, I finally came out and told them that she had cheated and that her drinking had escalated quite significantly. I express regret and thanked them for everything they had ever done for me. As they pressed more, I told them the cold hard facts....no embellishment just the facts. By the end of the conversation, they both hugged me and said repeatedly, "We love you. We don't blame you, and we are sorry. We did not raise her to behave this way."

As I was leaving, I had one of the most rewarding moments of my adult life. As some background, I grew up poor in a trailer and had come from very humble beginnings. My wife, conversely, was from "old money" and had spent her youth riding expensive horses and travelling the world. Therefore, her mother always had an aire that they were superior to me. However, in that moment as I departed, I saw a thought cross her mind as we embraced for the last time. I cannot be for certain, but I believe in that moment she thought, "Maybe the boy who was never good enough for our daughter is actually too good for her."

A few years have passed and I have come to terms with the experience. I am much stronger and happier as a person. I have even had a few serious relationships (none of which have been marked by any residual issues with trust).

Raincoats_George comments on What is immediate red flag someone is not to be trusted?

Raincoats_George

Well the question is what is that friend doing that pisses you off? Is it something that could be corrected by approaching them about it and being honest? Or is it that your perception is perhaps at fault, in that you are only seeing the negative aspects of people for example.

When there's some issue like that there is this compulsion to deal with it because otherwise it's going to hang over us. The methods we use to deal with these problems are generally very poor approaches. We go bitch to other people. It feels good. You kind of catch a rush when you do it and it's therapeutic to release a bit of the crap that was stored up. But it doesn't last and it doesn't fix the problem. If anything it warps relationships and you end up causing more problems as this approach spreads in your social circles and soon everyone is seeing it as the best means of dealing with conflict.

So what do you do. The first step is recognizing that this approach is not effective. You're not properly dealing with issues by just bitching about it to others. Now breaking the habit can be tough but if you work at it you can make progress.

Ask yourself why you can't just face that person and bring the issue to light right then and there. Why are we humans so dead set on avoiding any conflict? Some people go so far into passive aggression that they become warped little people that live in these manipulative fantasy worlds. There's nothing healthy about that. It's delusional.

Don't fall into that trap. It's time to grow a little hair on your chest and work at speaking up and facing people. It's not easy. People get upset, they get loud, they may even hit you. But that is far better than the months and years that a problem can persist and get worse. Believe me I've confronted countless people and it was ugly, but generally it's a short period of conflict and an issue gets a resolved. Versus all of that backhanded nonsense that just drags on and spreads around.

Now the other side of that is two fold. One, is it really that they are doing something wrong or do you have a flawed perception that focuses on the negative. This is another coping mechanism. You can sort of revel in the negativity and you get some degree of satisfaction out of it. It of course is fleeting and does not satisfy our deep rooted needs. And the second thing is just as I make sure I try to call people on their bullshit. I depend on others to do the same for me. We have blind spots. We just don't catch ourselves doing some of the things that we do. It's important that there are people in our lives who can call us on our shit. And the fun thing is. We react the same way. We get mad, we overreact and then we brood over it. But eventually you realize they were right, and you change.

That is how you strengthen relationships. That is how you grow closer to your friends and get through some tough shit. You gotta be willing to work on yourself and help out your friends when they are pulling some shit they just don't realize. The problem is people just don't want to put in that kind of effort. It's laziness that makes for shitty social interaction. Be willing to invest in your friends and family and you will witness the Human capacity to grow and mature.

rrrx comments on TIL That every purple heart awarded by the military since 1945 is one of the 500,000 purple hearts manufactured in anticipation of U.S. casualties resulting from the invasion of Japan. There 120,000 left.

rrrx

This is the same false dichotomy that gets floated in every single discussion of America's decision to use the atomic bomb; either mount a mainland invasion of Japan, or force them to surrender with the overwhelming force of the atomic bomb.

The reality, of course, is that there were any number of alternatives. A lot of historians think securing Japan's surrender may have been as easy as agreeing to let them retain the Emperor earlier (which they ultimately did anyway.) The 1946 report of the US Strategic Bombing Survey found (emphasis mine):

Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.

You can say that it's not fair to judge history, which carries some weight, but a lot of people contemporary to the bombings had doubts about it at the time that were never addressed. Truman never even consulted MacArthur about it, even though he ran the Pacific campaign, ostensibly because of how much the two hated one another. MacArthur's biographer reported that had he been asked, he would have opposed the action as unnecessary.

It's a tremendously complicated question -- whether or not the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified and/or necessary -- and I hate to see it so consistently reduced to worthless, binary logic. The most odious commentary on the whole thing I think came from Truman himself, who said that he never lost a wink of sleep over it. Even if you had utter confidence in the weight and rightness of your conviction, I think it says something pretty contemptible about you to not lose sleep over condemning hundreds of thousands of people to painful deaths.

dontwakemeyet comments on What's your "that could have been me" story?

dontwakemeyet

Years of therapy and I'm still not sure I'm ready to type this out, but hell, here goes nothing.

I live in a pretty rural area in south Texas. The roads of the area are winding, wrapping around some pretty sizable hills and other odd land masses. A mere 16 years old, literally within my first week of driving, I was diving along at the ungodly hour of 5am for morning basketball practice before school. It was pitch black outside, and I was struggling to keep my eyes open after a night of little shut-eye.

Before long I realized I was being followed uncomfortably closely by a large pick-up truck. The jackass started honking his horn and flashing his highbeams at me soon after, and I could notice him swerving and swaying quite a bit. At the time I drove a little blue Honda Civic, as the decent gas mileage helped with my commute to and from the boonies. Needless to say, I was mortified. This guy's truck dwarfed my little coupe, and I was the only thing in his way. I would have given anything to get out of this dude's way, but there was no shoulder to pull over onto, no escape whatsoever.

As we rounded one of the larger hills I could hear his engine roar and I could see him enter the other lane to pass me. The curve ahead was a big one, and there was absolutely no way to tell if there was another car rounding the corner in the opposing direction. I remember this moment like it happened 10 seconds ago. I was in total shock that this guy was actually trying the pass me at such an awful stretch of road, and I was gasping "holy shit". I had gotten to the l in holy before I was interrupted by a deafening crash followed by the painful screech of tires against the asphalt.

The truck completely obliterated a small car in the most brutal head on collision I could have imagined. I swerved hard out of the way and nearly slammed right into the mess myself while correcting back onto the road. I managed to catch my breath and pull over a little ways ahead, grabbed my cell and started sprinting back to see what I could do to help. I arrived back to the wreckage and could barely work up the courage to peek into the vehicles which were separated by a few feet.

I hadn't really thought about what it would be like to see a corpse before. I had seen plenty in my video game career, countless on TV cop shows, etc. I had never, until that very moment, seen one in the nightmarish light that is reality. A middle-aged woman's body sat motionless, eyes wide open, bloody and contorted. I immediately felt woozy, and I was luckily able to make it to the side of the road before passing out.

I wasn't out long at all, a few seconds at max. I dialed 911 on my cell and tried my best to collect my thoughts and speak to the operator. I gave her the details, about the accident, the woman's current state, everything. She asked me about the driver of the pickup truck, and to be quite honest, I had completely forgotten there was another human being involved. I told her "I don't know" and she did her best to persuade me to go and check the truck for a survivor. I kept repeating "no way". I couldn't bear to see another mangled corpse, not so soon after. I was traumatized, I didn't know what to think about ANYTHING anymore, all I knew was that 100 men couldn't force me to go near that damn truck.

Eventually she gave in and stopped asking me to check the truck, and instead asked me the make/model of the two cars involved in the accident. I looked at the truck, and recognized it was a Chevrolet of some sort. I looked at poor woman's car, and it was a little blue Honda Civic coupe.

The paramedics arrived maybe 15 minutes after I made the call, and I was brought off to the side to speak with the police after the paramedics confirmed that I wasn't in any medical danger. My mom came and picked me up about half an hour later and we drove home. I read in the paper later on that there were no survivors, and surprise surprise, the guy in the pick-up was drunk out of his mind. No matter how much my therapist tries to persuade me that I am not to blame for any of this, I can't help but feel that if I was able to get up the nerve to check the truck perhaps a life could've been saved that day, albeit perhaps it was the life of a man undeserving.

TheLostBigBoss comments on How do you think the US Government would react to Protests like in the Ukraine/Venezuela?

TheLostBigBoss

Wow, the posts here are pretty stupid.

Easy, they wouldn't report it. The unique thing about the US is that it's such a gigantic country that it's hard for the average American to know exactly what's going on in all 50 states

Right, you think a major news organization would pass up covering a fucking riot in any US state? That is TV gold.

Doubt they could happen. We have a militarized police. The Government spies on our communications so organization would be difficult. Centralized media (eg: the coverage of Occupy Wall Street)

You don't need to "spy" on the people when all the organization is happening on social media.

Pretty spot on. Hell just look at what they did in Boston after the 'bombings'.

Why are you putting "bombings" around quotes? Are you suggesting that the bombs didn't actually exist or something?

You're acting like people were being forced out of their homes at gun point, where any slight movement would result in their whole family being murdered by the "militarized police".

By the way, what constitutes militarized police? Is it the combat vests? The armored personal carriers? The M4's that have a bunch of tactical attachments on?

It was an active combat zone, remember that firefight at two in the morning with the two brothers when they killed that MIT guard? I guess the cops shouldn't have protective equipment because they look scary to anyone who doesn't like to think for half a second.

You know what would happen if a riot like the one in Ukraine would happen in the US?

I don't fucking know, and neither do you!

We're not living in a country that was about to be swooped into Russian control. We're not living in a country where we are living under socialist rule for almost two decades.

If there was a riot on the scale of Ukraine in DC I'm pretty sure there would be major concessions to what ever caused those riots to happen in the first place.

Obama wouldn't go down as a president who ordered the killing of protesters to stay in power.

EvanRWT comments on TIL gold on Earth came from colliding neutron stars

EvanRWT

Then elements up to Iron (no. 26 on the periodic table) came from supernovas, heavy stars that collapsed and exploded.

Actually, elements up to iron are mostly produced by massive stars through fusion in their cores before they supernova. Elements beyond iron are created in the supernova.

Our sun produces most of its energy through the proton-proton chain. However, stars that are larger than about 1.3 solar masses produce most of their energy through the CNO Cycle - involving carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. CNO Cycles are catalytic, that is, they use intermediate elements, but produce energy ultimately through the conversion of hydrogen to helium. However, the intermediates produced are heavier elements, which increase in concentration until a balance is reached, which depends on the mass of the star.

So very large amounts of heavier elements are produced during the life of the star, up to fluorine through the Cold CNO 3 and 4 chains.

In addition, stars have something called the triple alpha process, which can produce large amounts of carbon. Heavier stars also have the alpha ladder, which can produce elements all the way up to iron.

So all the elements up to iron can come from fusion in massive stars before they supernova. The reason for the supernova is that after they have fused elements up to iron, fusion comes to a halt. This is because the binding energy per nucleon peaks at iron, which means that fusing elements to create iron actually absorbs energy instead of producing energy.

A star is in equilibrium between the heat energy of fusion at the core trying to expand the star, and gravity trying to collapse it down. So when the creation of iron suddenly cools down the core, the expansive force is lost, gravity wins, and the star collapses under its own gravity. This is the supernova.

When the star collapses, the potential energy of all that collapsing matter is converted to heat, which drastically increases the temperature of the core far beyond anything it had seen while it was still a star. Now the temperature is high enough to fuse beyond iron, and this is how elements beyond iron are created. There is no upper limit here, depending on the mass, all the known elements beyond iron can be created in the supernova.

This tremendous surge of heat literally tears the star apart. After the collapse, the star explodes, leaving behind a small core and blowing most of its material into space, creating a nebula.

Heavier elements came from the Neutron stars, heavy stars that collapsed but didn't explode.

No, neutron stars are the remnants of heavy stars that exploded.

Heavier elements came from the supernova, the explosion that occurred at the end of the star's life when it tore itself apart. Neutron stars are the result of the explosion of massive stars.

To give you a concrete example, suppose a massive star of 20 solar masses is born. This star will quickly fuse its way through hydrogen, helium, beryllium, carbon -- creating all these elements along the way until it reaches iron. Some nickle is formed too, which quickly decays into cobalt, which decays back to iron. At that point, there is no fuel left, so the star starts to collapse. This rapidly increases the temperature at the core until it hits 5+ billion C, at which point iron in the core fuses, absorbing massive amounts of energy. This rapidly accelerates the collapse, the star implodes. This is the supernova.

As the star implodes, all the potential energy of the outer layers of the star is converted to heat, as they fall towards the center. This creates very high temperatures at the core, which cause fusion and the production of heavier elements beyond iron. Theoretically, all elements on the periodic table can be created in this process, depending on the mass of the star.

The tremendous energy of the collapse tears the star apart. Most of it is blown out into space, forming the nebula. In a star that was originally 20 solar masses, you could have 10-18 solar masses worth of material blown out into space. The remaining material collapses to a small core under gravity. If this remaining core is over ~3 solar masses, it becomes a black hole. If it's about 1.4-2.5 solar masses, it becomes a neutron star. If it's below 1.4 solar masses, it becomes a white dwarf.

Now in addition to these mechanisms, which can create every naturally occurring element on the periodic table, there are other very energetic events happening in the universe, which can also create heavy elements. One of these is the collision of two neutron stars, as mentioned in the linked story. In this case, they studied a gamma ray burst of a type that indicated it was produced by a neutron star collision. The afterglow of the burst appeared to show that it came from the decay of higher atomic weight elements that had been created in the collision. Their guess is that some of those elements would have decayed to gold, hence the claim.

sfwonly comments on 911 emergency responders, what is the most ridiculous reason someone has requested emergency services?

sfwonly

Ugh... so many, I'll try to remember some of my good ones.

1) Lady demanding police respond to her house to turn off her ceiling fan, it wouldn't stop for some reason.

2) Lady called to ask where she should dispose of some old steak knives. When I told her that she should throw them in her trash can, she talked to me like I was nuts and asked "Well what if someone goes through my trash, uses the knives in a crime, and then I get blamed for it?" I face palmed pretty hard on that one.

3) Father demanding police respond to his house because his 8 year old daughter refused to go to school.

4) Husband and wife got into an argument because she found some dirty Q-tips in the bathroom trashcan. So naturally she accused him of sticking Q-tips up her cat's butt... That took every ounce of professionalism to maintain my composure.

5) Lady originally from Russia calling to state that there was a bear on her front yard (I work in a very industrualized/suburban city so it was a really weird call for us). When we get there, turns out it was raccoon. She had never seen one before.

6) People calling 9-1-1 to ask the time, ask for a phone number (I usually refer them to 4-1-1) and other basic things that I would have never even thought to call 9-1-1 for.

The usual attention seeking individuals who want to get transported by ambulance for minor injuries just so their friends feel sorry for them. It can be really frustrating sometimes when people like that are tying up services when there are plenty of other people who genuinely need them.

_vargas_ comments on TIL: When asked what his IQ was, Stephen Hawking said "I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers"

_vargas_ 

"But how exactly did Stephen Hawking become so smart in the first place?" You might be asking. Well, I'll tell you.

I'm sure you have heard that when a person loses one of their 15 basic senses (taste, touch, smell, sound, sight, thought, libido, pride, revenge, fear of minorities, herpes, telekinesis, The Sixth Sense, entitlement, urinary burning), the other 14 become "heightened" or "more gooder." The same principle applies to your muscles.

You see, the muscles that make up the legs (sartorious, gluteus, clitorus majorus, biceps femorus, quadriceps, vas deferens, triceps sorae, tina majorino, peroneus longus, tibialis anterior) account for over 80% of total muscle mass in the human body. Unfortunately, there is only a limited amount of blood in each of us, typically about 200 kilograms worth or, for us Americans, "two and a half of the big Mountain Dews" worth. This is where the problem comes in. In a cruel twist of creation, Jesus didn't give us enough of his blood (that he made from wine coolers) to run all the muscles at peak output.

Think of it this way; your body is like a public school. Your muscles are students in this school. Your blood is like the teacher in this school. She is only one person. She knows she isn't going to be able to properly educate all the students. She has to pick and choose which ones are the most important and deserve the majority of her time. The rest? She basically says "fuck em'" and gives the bare minumum of her abilities. So, your legs, since they are used to walk or "locomotivate" the body, get the most blood or "attention." A muscle - like the brain - only gets what is needed for the bare minumum of survival.

Now, Mr. Hawking was born in 1942 during the height of the Vietnam War. The world needed smart people to figure out how to end this war, which had famously been started by Ghengis Khan twenty years earlier. Hawking's parents made a bold decision. They decided Stephen would not be allowed to use his legs in an attempt to strengthen the brain muscle, thusly giving him the mental powers to, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "End the terrible conflict with the sewer people of Vietnam."

At first, the wizards suggested amputation of Hawking's legs. This would have been the absolute best way of ensuring maximum blood flow away from his legs and into other parts of the body. This method was abandoned, however, as it was decided that he would "look too retarded" to be taken seriously. The next best way was to simply put rubber bands around his legs, limiting blood flow.

In the end, as we all know, this gamble paid off. Hawking's brain muscle became much more powerful than the average person proving the hypothesis that leg usage was serving as a handicapping mechanism to higher brain function. By 1965, Hawking had helped to not only end the Vietnam conflict, but also to take down the Berlin Wall, fly a talking monkey into space, and introduce crack to inner cities in America as well as the United States.

One additional note: As a pleasant side-effect of the redistribution of blood flow in his body, Hawking's penis is now capable of becoming 18 inches long and as wide in circumference as his calf muscle would have been had it grown normally!

Five Reasons Why Your Boss Isn’t Giving You Feedback - And What To Do About It | Groupability

Five Reasons Why Your Boss Isn’t Giving You Feedback - And What To Do About It | Groupability:



'via Blog this'

kinetic obersong

kinetic obersong.. kinetic obersong.. kinetic obersong

The Outer Light | Written By: Morgan Gendel & Andre Duza | Art By: Don Ellis Aguillo

The Outer Light | Written By: Morgan Gendel & Andre Duza | Art By: Don Ellis Aguillo:



'via Blog this'

My kindle won't turn on [FIX]

1. Disconnect the charger.
2. Hold the power switch "on" for 30 seconds.
3. Release.
4. If it is a Fire, click once.
5. Wait for restart.

Touching Comic Strip Between A Boy and His Dog

I Didn’t Realize A Comic Strip Could Make Me Cry. But Here I am, Tears And All.

October 26, 2013Other Stuff

When I first started reading this, I didn’t expect much. But the end hit me like a ton of bricks, so I thought I’d share.

Source

Wow.

Share this with others if you liked it.

MtGox - Bitcoin Exchange

TOKYO - JAPAN - November 27, 2013

Dear MtGox Customers,
 
Thank you for your patience during an incredible year for Bitcoin and MtGox. We’ve not been able to communicate as we may have wanted, but we’ve been working tirelessly in the background and we’re looking forward to even more progress in the coming weeks, which we’ll be announcing soon.
 
We have four developments that we are proud to announce today:
 

1. Introduction of the MtGox OTP Card
2. Increased limit for SEPA withdrawals from Poland
3. A modified ­trading interface
4. Trade with no fees from Bitcoin Black Friday through Cyber Monday

1) Introducing the MtGox OTP (One-Time Password) Card:
 
With Bitcoin prices at record highs you can never be too careful with maintaining account security. Malicious parties can compromise your login information if you aren’t careful, but by using a one-time password (OTP) you can prevent anyone from being able to use that information to access your account.
 
To have secure OTP on all devices, we have now released the MtGox OTP Card, a physical one-time password solution that can be used for your MtGox account, and is shipping immediately. Used on its own, or combined with other solutions such as the MtGox Yubikey, you can rest assured that MtGox provides you with the most secure account protection in the Bitcoin world.
 
To find out more, click here : OTP Card User Guide

2) Increased SEPA withdrawal limits
 
You’ve been asking for it, and now we’ve managed to negotiate with our bank in Poland to better facilitate SEPA withdrawals. In fact, they’ve doubled our limit. This is great news, and we’re trying to get more all the time to increase the speed of withdrawals.
 
3) Modified trading interface released
 
While not exactly a site overhaul, we’ve changed the MtGox experience by making the trading interface cleaner and easier to use. This includes color-coding based on trading activity, a new confirmation step before trade finalization, and a display highlighting applicable fees for the trade so you know exactly how much you’re spending per transaction.
 
4) Bitcoin Black Friday through Cyber Monday – Trade with Zero Fees!
 
To celebrate Bitcoin Black Friday and encourage adoption of Bitcoin by merchants and consumers, MtGox is cutting trading fees to 0% for four full days starting Friday morning through midnight on Cyber Monday (Tokyo Time). Since your trading is free, get out there and support merchants that accept Bitcoin!
 
Additional Points:
 
1) To increase the speed of Bitcoin transactions, we will now require all Bitcoin transfers to pay the standard 0.001 BTC network fee. The fee will be charged separately from your balance.
 
2) We’ve recently released the launch version of bitcoins.com, an information site for all things Bitcoin. The site is not centered on MtGox specifically and we've tried to keep it as neutral as possible in order to promote Bitcoin. Please visit and share with anyone who needs an introduction to the economic future we’re building together.
 
Thank you again for your support,

Regards
Mt.Gox Co. Ltd Team.

Mt.Gox Contact press@mtgox.com

Urgent announcement on all SEPA and POLISH Deposits

TOKYO, JAPAN - February 25, 2013   Dear customers,  We have been warned last Friday by our Polish Bank of the following request regarding SEPA and POLISH deposits:  From Monday, February 25, 2013, all deposits made to our polish account MUST include Mt.Gox Poland's registered office address in Warsaw. Please note that all transfers sent to our bank account without Mt.Gox Poland's address will be automatically rejected by our bank without notice.  Our Address in Poland: 
 MT.GOX POLAND Inc. Sp. zo.o. PLAC POWSTAŃCÓW WARSZAWY 2  00-030 WARSZAWA  POLSKA 
We have updated our SEPA and POLISH "Add Funds" pages to make sure that you will have our correct address to comply with our Polish Bank request for your next deposit(s).  Thank you very much for your help on this matter and for your understanding.  

Regards
Mt.Gox Co. Ltd Team.

Media Contacts
press@mtgox.com

Mt.Gox & Coinlab Announce Strategic Partnership to Bolster American Presence, Celebrate $1/2 Billion per Year in Annualized Trades

TOKYO, JAPAN - February 28, 2013   Dear customers,  Mt. Gox, the owner of the world’s dominant Bitcoin exchange, announced today that they have selected CoinLab as their exclusive partner in the United States and Canada. As of March 29, all US and Canadian customers currently transacting with Mt.Gox will transact through CoinLab, Inc.  "This move will bring local product delivery, liquidity and customer service to a huge group of Bitcoin fanatics," said CEO of CoinLab, Peter Vessenes. "We're excited by, and awed at the responsibility we have caring for our over 100,000 new customers and over a half-billion dollars in annualized trade volume."  Mt.Gox will continue to provide back-end exchange clearing services, and transition over handling of customer accounts, deposits, withdrawals, and other functions to CoinLab's US-based team.  "This should be a huge win for everyone -- faster deposit and withdrawal times, easier-to-reach customer service, and better access for United States financial markets, market makers and liquidity providers" said Mark Karpeles, Managing Director of Mt.Gox.  CoinLabs plans for the customer base? "Service, Service, Service. Oh, and also, Liquidity, Liquidity, Liquidity," said Vessenes. "Also, we're planning on launching some pro trading tools; we have some samples up for comment and review ahead of launch at http://coinlab.com/liquidity."  Mt. Gox is the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, providing at least 80% of global bitcoin trading volume. It resides in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. CoinLab is the world's first US Venture-backed Bitcoin Company; it was funded in April 2012 by a group of progressive investors, including Tim Draper, Roger Ver, and Geoff Entress.  

Regards
Mt.Gox Co. Ltd Team.

Mt.Gox Contact press@mtgox.com
Coinlab Contact Peter J. Vessenes, 855-LAB-COIN, peter@coinlab.com

Bitcoin blockchain issue - bitcoin deposits temporarily suspended

TOKYO - JAPAN - March 12, 2013

UPDATE 5:25pm JST. We are now resuming Bitcoin Deposits.   Early this morning, a bitcoin block too big for version 0.7 was mined by miners using version 0.8, creating a fork in the blockchain. After some deliberation in the community, it was decided that miners should downgrade their version and continue the 0.7 fork until the issue is resolved.  Also in order to avoid any possible problems we decided to temporally suspend all Bitcoin deposits on Mt.Gox until one of the blockchain wins.  Please note however, that Bitcoin deposits with Mt.Gox or those in transit are safe and that once the situation is back to normal, we will resume Bitcoin deposits and that all deposits done in the meantime will be confirmed too.  Finally we believe that this matter will be resolved within the end of the day for us in Japan.  

Regards
Mt.Gox Co. Ltd Team.

Mt.Gox Contact press@mtgox.com

Mt.Gox announces new withdrawal limit rules for its customers

TOKYO - JAPAN - March 13, 2013   Due to recent events in the Bitcoin community and the spike in the Bitcoin price we at Mt.Gox are putting in place a new daily withdrawal limits.  While our daily limits for traditional currencies will remain unchanged with a maximum of $1,000 USD per 24 hrs, the Bitcoin daily withdrawal limit will change from 200BTC to 100BTC per 24 hrs for unverified customers.  Verified and Trusted customers that already have their daily/monthly limit raised will not be affected with this change, however, Verified and Trusted customers that have not yet asked for their withdrawal limit to be raised will then be offered the following limits :  Verified Status (Level 1)  Maximum monthly withdrawal of 50,000 USD (or equivalent) capped to a maximum of 10,000 USD per 24 hrs and a 1,000 BTC withdrawal per 24 hrs without any monthly limit.  Trusted Status (Level 2)  Maximum monthly withdrawal of 500,000 USD (or equivalent) capped to a maximum of 100,000 USD per 24 hrs and a 10,000 BTC withdrawal per 24hrs without any monthly limit.  Of course we will re-evaluate these limits and adapt and revert them to their past value if necessary and if the value of Bitcoin against USD decreases.  

Regards
Mt.Gox Co. Ltd Team.

Mt.Gox Contact press@mtgox.com

New AUD fee trial run saves you money on each deposit

TOKYO - JAPAN - March 15, 2013

Dear Australian Mt.Gox users,   We are happy to announce that for the next two months, we will be offering cheaper fees on each domestic deposit.  Starting today, for a limited period of two months, our new deposit fee will be of 3.45% instead of 3.95%. If successful, this trial run will then become permanent.  

Regards
Mt.Gox Co. Ltd Team.

Mt.Gox Contact press@mtgox.com

It's been an epic few days: What happened?

TOKYO - JAPAN - April 04, 2013 

Dear Mt.Gox users and Bitcoiners,

It’s been an epic few days on Bitcoin, with prices going up as high as $142 per BTC. We all hope that this is just the beginning! 

However, there are many who will try to take advantage of the system. The past few days were a reminder of this sad truth.

Mt.Gox has been suffering from its worst trading lag ever, 502 errors, and at one point some users were not able to log in their account. The culprit is a major DDoS attack against Mt.Gox. 

Since yesterday, we are continuing to experience a DDoS attack like we have never seen. While we are being protected by companies like Prolexic, the sheer volume of this DDoS left us scrambling to fine-tune the system every few hours to make sure that things don’t go beyond a few 502 error pages and trading lag. 

Why has Mt.Gox become the target of a DDoS attack? 
It is not yet clear who is behind this DDoS and we may never know, but these actions seem to have two major purposes:

 • Destabilize Bitcoin in general.
It is not a secret Mt.Gox is the largest Bitcoin exchange with more than 80% of all USD trades and more than 70% of all currencies. Mt.Gox is an easy target for anyone that wants to hurt Bitcoin in general.

 • Abuse the system for profit.
Attackers wait until the price of Bitcoins reaches a certain value, sell, destabilize the exchange, wait for everybody to panic-sell their Bitcoins, wait for the price to drop to a certain amount, then stop the attack and start buying as much as they can. Repeat this two or three times like we saw over the past few days and they profit.

What can be done? 
Believe it or not, there is pretty much nothing that can be done. Large companies are frequently victims of these kinds of attacks. Even though we are using one of the best companies to help us fight against these DDoS attacks, we are still being affected.

There are a few things that we can implement to help fight the attacks, such as disconnecting the trade engine backend from the Internet. By separating the data center from the Mt.Gox website, we will continue to be able to trade.

What can you do?
Like our favorite author here at Tibanne says… Don’t Panic! 

“Panic-selling is a wide-scale selling of an investment which causes a sharp decline in prices. Specifically, an investor wants to get out of an investment with little regard of the price obtained. The selling activity is problematic because the investor is selling in reaction to emotion and fear, rather than evaluating the fundamentals.” (Source: Wikipedia)

I understand that many of you have a lot at stake here, but remember that Bitcoin, despite being designed to have its value increase over time, will always be the victim of people trying to abuse the system, or even the value of Bitcoin decreasing occasionally. These are not new phenomena and have been present since the beginning of time when humans first started trading.

Trade Engine Lags

Lag affects everyone, not only us, but also major, world-renowned exchanges like the NASDAQ and NYSE. We can fix lag, but we cannot eradicate lag. Only small exchanges with low volume and liquidity are immune to lag. 

Does this mean that we are giving up fighting lag? Hell, no. We are working on it by creating a new trade engine that will solve many problems, but it’s not a magic bullet. We can always try to scale our servers, but we cannot predict what happens from external sources: DDoS, panic selling, immediate increase of buyers, etc. Lag will always be there, but our mission is to make lag as small as possible. 

Account Verification
As if a major DDoS attack was not enough, we at Mt.Gox are victim of our own success!

Last year, Mt.Gox saw an average of 9,000 to 10,000 new accounts created every month. This number doubled in January, tripled in February, and sextupled in March. In this month alone (March), over 57,000 new accounts were created! 

Our support and account verification team went from four people in January 2012 to twenty-two people working every day of the week. We are now hiring even more people to solve this problem by finalizing some deals with external companies.

Remember that even if you are waiting for your account to be verified, you can still deposit or withdraw funds via our Japanese account and make your trades! (Only accounts that we pro-actively required to be verified are limited to deposits and trade only.)

Finally
We have seen a significant amount of comments on the web (various forums, Reddit, etc.) that portray Mt.Gox as a company held by “idiots” and other rather rude words, complaining about inability to deal with lag and other system issues, without understanding the magnitude of work and attacks we are facing every day.

I understand the frustration many of you feel. We hate this situation as well. Since we took over Mt.Gox, we have been through Hell and back and we are still here. We are still the largest exchange with over 420,000 trades per month and  USD $121 million monthly trade volume. We have worked our way through all the requirements needed to run our exchange legally. 

Now, there are some things we can improve, but so far we are doing an incredible job that no other exchange has been able to do so far. While I understand a certain amount of frustration, realize what we have accomplished. I appreciate all the work you are doing everyday to push things forward and to help secure the future of Bitcoin

And to all of you who are supporting us on a daily basis, thank you! We could not have done any of this without your help!
  
 
Regards
Mt.Gox Co. Ltd Team.
Mt.Gox Contact press@mtgox.com