OHAI you’re the company social media guru now.
When I was 16, all I wanted out of life was sex and drugs. I wanted sex and drugs so bad I didn’t know what to do with myself.
But I was a dork and couldn’t really get either of them so I spent most of my time playing D&D and teaching myself to program.
Now I’m almost 39 goddamn years old, and not to humblebrag but I can have all the sex and drugs I want. That programming thing turned out to be sort of lucrative, so even if I still lack the moves to participate in frankly ludicrous sex acts (Fig. 1, above) I can pretty much make use of FREE MARKET CAPITALISM and buy it.
And yet all I think about lately is how awesome it would be to play some D&D.
(I’m thinking this after the sex, mind you; I’m not a complete dork.)
Things I hope for in 2012: an end to stupid pubic hair politics on Tumblr
Can we please be done with stupid debates on Tumblr about pubic hair? So incredibly stupid.
First and foremost: there is no political statement to be had. None. Sorry. The notion that removing one’s pubic hair is some modern side-effect of pervasive pornography (and thus, having it is counter-culture or whatever) is bullshit. You can tell, because if the complete removal of pubic hair was a totally post-70’s construct, we wouldn’t need to invent a word like ‘merkin’ in the 1600’s. Granted removal of pubic hair was probably a hygiene issue (helps cut down on lice) in terms of its utility in antiquity. Still. People have been removing their pubic hair for pretty much as long as we’ve had the ability to do so; for hygiene, for aesthetics, for whatever.
Point the second: the idea that those who favor the removal of pubic hair are latent pedophiles is bullshit. There is simply no data to support this; it’s not been a commonly-held scientific belief since the 1800’s (when phrenology was believed to be a thing). So if everyone could please stop it with the “UR A PEDO LOL” bullshit. Unless unfounded arguments are your thing; in which case may I suggest Christianity? They’re huge on that.
Let’s break this down.
What you do to your pubic hair is your business. Even if you’re in the business of letting people see it.
If anyone makes you feel bad for what you do to your pubic hair, they’re an asshole.
If you make anyone feel bad for what they do to their pubic hair, you’re an asshole.
If you ask someone their preference and you give them shit over their answer, you’re an asshole.
It’s just hair. It grows back. (I wish the same could be said for the hair on the top of my head.) Shave it, grow it back, style it like a fucking topiary.
There. We are now completely done with pubic hair debates on tumblr. let us never speak of this again.
For Xmas my wife got me a bunch of incredibly-hard-to-find CDs from a British indie band, and a bunch of parts for my shotgun.
My life is incredibly … uneven.
US Congress attempts first ever ban on a specific brain function
From mindhacks:
The United States Congress has just passed a bill to ban ‘legal marijuana’ incense products and ‘bath salts’ stimulants – a legal move which, possibly for the first time, prohibits substances based on their action in the brain and not solely their chemical structure.
The bill is an amendment to the Controlled Substances Act which currently contains a list of prohibited drugs, defined entirely by their name.
Due to the varied nature of cannabinoids, and the fact that semi-legit labs seem to be producing new variations at a remarkable rate, the bill uses quite a wide definition.
The bill (pdf here) specifically prohibits “cannabimimetic agents”, defined as:
…any substance that is a cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1 receptor) agonist as demonstrated by binding studies and functional assays within any of the following structural classes…
and any preparation
…which contains any quantity of cannabimimetic agents, or which contains their salts, isomers, and salts of isomers…
In other words, the definition includes a general class of compounds and possible chemical variations that have a specific action in the brain – namely binding to the CB1 receptor.
This is, as far as I know, the first attempt to ban a specific brain function.
This is sort of chilling. I’m not really much on mind-altering substances (that aren’t alcohol) but the idea of “ban the effects of a receptor by name” just doesn’t sit right with me.
