Category Archives: Recommendations

Recommendations from around the web.

A Birth of Art

August 21, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

More than a bit of time has passed since April Fools’ Day 2017, but this year there was at least one fantastic initiative that has to be remembered. Reddit launched an amazing 3 day experiment it called Place. You can see it and read all about it in this excellent article:

http://sudoscript.com/reddit-place/^

Stuff like this fills me with hope for the future of humanity. We’ve made it a long way and we sure can make it much further than this. What I see in Reddit’s Place is a snapshot of the Internet’s intellectual health, which I consider to be extremely important for our future. Things seem to be not as bad as I thought and this is wonderful.

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The Birth of a Mother

August 14, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

I consider this article as a must read for all parents or parents-to-be. It’s short and to the point. Both men and women will find here information that few doctors talk about yet it is vital for a healthier family life:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/well/family/the-birth-of-a-mother.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur^

I’ve long believed that the physiological and psychological changes that come with motherhood should be planned for accordingly, long before conception. The mother must have a supportive partner that understands a lot about what motherhood entails. Of course, it’s not impossible to ignore all this, but why not minimize the risks?

I’m quite sure that a lot of grief can be avoided if such information would be more wide-spread. There can be far less cries and misfortune for both babies and parents. Integrating children in one’s life shouldn’t be as difficult as the current “culture” seems to suggest.

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Blasts from the (Tech) Past

August 11, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

Here are two awesome links with echoes from our technological past.

Let Windows 95’s startup sound slowed down with 4000% guide your meditation:

http://boingboing.net/2017/03/21/windows-95-startup-sound-slowe.html^

And then bow in front of the all-mighty Floppotron and the Computer Hardware Orchestra playing AWOLNATION’s “Sail”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KclRiK-L-_4^

I can’t help it to also link another awesome fan-made video for “Sail”:

www.mentatul.com^

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The Slow Loris and the Pet Industry

July 31, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

I have to confess that this one caught me completely off-guard. During the past years of course I’ve seen several videos featuring the ridiculously sweet Slow Loris. Little did I know about the horror hidden behind the Loris pet trade. The website below explains the crime being committed in no uncertain terms (beware, the video may be difficult to stomach, as it should be):

https://www.ticklingistorture.org/^

This is the same video as the one from the website, provided here as back-up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otTNxR8C4uE^

In case you don’t want to watch the video, here’s a page that explains things in text mode:

https://www.internationalanimalrescue.org/how-slow-loris-became-someones-pet^

I’ve signed the pledge to never encourage this heinous trade. And as a matter of fact, please give me a pledge where I can sign to not have any pets. Forcing any creature to live in an enclosure much smaller than its usual habitat is, in my opinion, unfair. I’m (not) sorry to break it, but this applies to the super-common dogs and cats.

I also don’t condone the actions of people who sterilize or cut parts from their pets “because it’s for their own good”. Yes, it’s for their own good because they’re prisoners and owners don’t want them to (hear them) “suffer” while their procreation instinct is not met. This human interference in the ways of nature has to stop sooner or later.

I have nothing against animal companionship that is gained naturally and where the animal has freedom to move inside a large habitat. Creatures shouldn’t be bound by the owner’s schedule of allowing them droplets of freedom (often, even those are by the end of a leash).

There is no delicate way of saying it: the pet industry (food and chemicals producers, slave “cute animals” shops, etc.) reeks of ignorance and lack of respect towards other life-forms. In general, our attitude towards our ecosystem is one of this species’ worst crimes.

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Why Do We Make Children Sleep Alone?

July 20, 2017 Axonn Echysttas 4 Comments

As “the Internet likes to say”: this!

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-reiss-sleep-alone-20170324-story.html^

I’ve been meaning to write something about what I think regarding having children sleep in their own rooms. Fortunately I found this excellent article first. It says everything I would have said, and then some. It’s well researched and will hopefully give parents and parents-to-be some good food for thought. Key concepts: emotional stability, effective sleep, nurtured development.

To be clear: I have nothing against parents’ wishes for a good quality rest and need for intimacy. But co-sleeping is not necessarily mutually exclusive with quality of life for adults (as many, including myself, can confirm). Of course, co-sleeping doesn’t always work and in that case, it’s equally important for mom & dad to do what they can to be happy parents because parents who sacrifice too much become even more dangerous for their offspring than parents who isolate their kids in another room.

Just as I was looking for a thumbnail for this article, I stumbled upon this horrible news^. Some parents actually found it suitable to administer hormones (melatonin) to their children to “help” them sleep. Parents do this without there being any long term study on the effects of messing with the neurotransmitters of these young children. Talk about complete ignorance in the age of consumerism. This happens when “religion saves” turns into “the drug store saves” (check my Consumerism as Religion^ article).

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A Dark Side of Software

July 10, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

Lying and cheating to get a competitive edge is nothing new and certainly not limited to human beings. But Earth has plenty of resources and there’s no serious threat to our existence in sight (other than ourselves, of course). Because companies affect so many beings, cheating has serious effects.

Thanks to software, never before has cheating had so many ways of staying hidden through complexity and obscurity. Thankfully, some people still have a conscience and this is how we found out about the way Uber, Volkswagen and probably many other companies have stayed above the law and ruined the lives of countless people:

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/dark-genius-how-programmers-at-uber-volkswagen-and-zenefits-helped-their-employers-break-the-law-b7a7939c6591#.k774sps2y^

As software engineer, to say that I’m disgusted by what these guys did would be an understatement. It is not unethical. It is outright criminal. What’s even worse is that such people^ usually manage to escape justice. Laws are changing too slowly to be able to keep up with these crooks and their perpetually changing methods. It’s like an old turtle chasing a cheetah. It’s not even funny anymore, it’s painfully sad.

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The Importance of Empathy

July 3, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

This wonderful video explains in no uncertain terms why empathy is important, how empathy should work and examples of proper empathetic behavior:

http://lifehacker.com/the-importance-of-empathy-in-everyday-life-1791961488^

The video can also be found below:

https://www.facebook.com/lifehacker/videos/10154117508751356/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED^ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzPMMSKfKZQ^

Some people are empathy deficient while others have so much of it that it can become overwhelming under certain conditions. But empathy is a skill and like all skills it can be trained. Through practice, we can hone our empathy so that it aligns with our society’s natural tendency towards evolution and success through mutual support.

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The High Cost of Cheap Fuel

June 19, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

The plummeting price of fossil fuel has made certain industries quite profitable due to decreasing production and delivery costs. It also marginally helped car owners in certain parts of the world, even though the actual fuel price has not decreased as much as crude price. That is due to the fact that the cost of transforming crude to fuel (refinement, transportation) has not changed that much.

Unfortunately our reliance on fossil fuels may end up being much more costly in the long run than any short term gains. Here’s an article that explains why the situation is the way it is while also highlighting one of the worst effects of the worldwide drop in oil prices: collapsing oil-depending economies whose fall hurts millions of people:

http://www.bikebandit.com/blog/post/the-high-cost-of-cheap-gas^

The damage to the ecosystem is not that hard to quantify either. The sudden release (in geological terms) of all this energy that nature has stockpiled for millions of years^ is destabilizing the delicate balance of the atmosphere and oceans. The planet will rebalance itself, but the 99% of the Earth’s population that doesn’t afford shelter from the extreme weather conditions coming our way will pay a steep price for the shortsighted goals blindly followed by corporate leaders. United States’ withdrawal from the Paris accord^ encourages these dangerous practices and may set a very regrettable precedent.

And if the destruction of societies and ecosystems is not enough reason for developed countries to think twice about burning these fossil fuels so fast and greedily, how about money lost due to the exaggerated focus on private transportation? Traffic jams are very expensive:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/02/20/los-angeles-new-york-and-san-francisco-most-congested-us-cities/98133702/^

But who knows, I’m not ruling out the possibility of this industrial spurt spawning a scientific solution to the coming predicament. It’s a risky bet to make. I’ll always wish for the best while preparing for whatever I find likely to happen next.

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Trump, Putin and Cold War 2.0

June 10, 2017 Axonn Echysttas Leave a comment

I present you with one of the best geopolitical analysis articles I’ve read in the past couple of years. It’s also quite a long read. But if you care about the conflict between the world’s superpowers, this will be an excellent use of your time since it’s also very well written.

The text goes in ample detail regarding cyberwarfare and how Russia has become a force to be reckoned with in the field of social media manipulation. You will also learn why it was possible for Russia to influence the elections in the United States. In turn, this will make it clear that democracy is facing a threat as a result of the intense polarization affecting many societies on Earth.

This polarization is a result of people having become disillusioned with the establishment (both political and economic). Unfortunately, everybody stands to lose when power is transferred to irrational, perhaps even sick individuals.

In the article below, you will also be presented with valuable historical information that will help in understanding the current geopolitical situation.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and-the-new-cold-war^

Even though the text is written from an American point of view, I found it to be quite balanced. Of course, I’m aware that this judgement is based on my ideological preferences. In any case, there’s a lot of useful information to be extracted from the text, which is why I highly recommend it.

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Mentatul