In some respects, Millennials’ residential aspirations appear to be changing just as significantly as their driving habits—indeed, the two may be related. The old cul-de-sacs of Revolutionary Road and Desperate Housewives have fallen out of favor with Generation Y. Rising instead are both city centers and what some developers call “urban light”—denser suburbs that revolve around a walkable town center. “People are very eager to create a life that blends the best features of the American suburb—schools still being the primary, although not the only, draw—and urbanity,” says Adam Ducker, a managing director at the real-estate consultancy RCLCO. These are places like Culver City, California, and Evanston, Illinois, where residents can stroll among shops and restaurants or hop on public transportation. Such small cities and town centers lend themselves to tighter, smaller housing developments, whether apartments in the middle of town, or small houses a five-minute drive away. An RCLCO survey from 2007 found that 43 percent of Gen‑Yers would prefer to live in a close-in suburb, where both the houses and the need for a car are smaller.
via The Cheapest Generation – Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissmann – The Atlantic.
Let the Body Rest, for the Sake of the Brain – The Atlantic
Something I need to take seriousy.
In fact, according to Roenneberg’s groundbreaking study in Current Biology, about one-third of people living in first-world countries are required to wake up two hours before their circadian clocks, or “natural waking times,” tell them to, and 69 percent of people have to wake up one hour before their bodies would like them to.
Of course, different people require different amounts of sleep and although there’s no universal rule for how long we should all be sleeping, it’s becoming increasingly clear that working late and waking early can cause serious problems. It’s not just repeated sleep deprivation that does people in, either. Just one restless night can seriously affect us in the morning.
Getting less than five hours of sleep a night makes people dumber and less able to concentrate, and it can make people more susceptible to false memories, according to a new study published in the September issue of Psychological Science.
via Let the Body Rest, for the Sake of the Brain – The Atlantic.
John Wick: An Idiot Killed His Puppy and Now Everyone Must Die – The Atlantic
Strangely excited to watch this movie.
John Wick, played with quiet, slow-burning grace by Keanu Reeves in what’s being billed as a comeback for the 50-year-old actor, is both. At the beginning of the film he seems like any Wall Street banker or startup whiz who has cashed out early to enjoy life with his wife, Helen (Bridget Moynahan, seen only in flashbacks and blurry iPhone clips). That’s until Helen dies of a serious but unspecified illness, leaving Wick all alone in his sleek, monochrome mansion as a living, breathing, sobbing manifestation of Sad Keanu.
In one of the most emotionally manipulative plot devices ever seen on film, the doorbell rings, and he takes delivery of a puppy, a canis ex machina, ordered by Helen before she died to give Wick something to love. The bond is instantaneous: The adorable dog and the handsome man eat cereal together, and snuggle up in bed, and drive around in a killer 1969 Mustang—sometimes breaking into what looks like an airport to do doughnuts and handbrake turns in front of gas tankers—and for a fleeting moment it seems like the movie might have the makings of an existential buddy comedy. Only a thug, Iosef (Alfie Allen), who’s eyed Wick’s car in a gas station, breaks into his house with a handful of friends late at night, beats up Wick, steals the car, and kills the puppy.
This is 2014 in immature, animal-worshiping, Cute Emergency-retweeting America. You come at a puppy, you best not miss its owner, whose mystique as one of the most ruthless killers ever to wear Kevlar is quickly established in the following exchange between the owner of a chop shop (John Leguizamo) and Iosef’s father, Russian crime lord Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist):
Viggo: I heard you struck my son. May I ask why?
Aureilo: Because he stole John Wick’s car and killed his dog.
Viggo: Oh.
Iosef doesn’t just kill John Wick’s dog, as Wick expresses in possibly the fiercest monologue Reeves has ever delivered: He kills his hope, and in doing so, unleashes the full fury of a now footloose and fancy-free angel of death. John Wick kills, by my count, 78 people in the movie’s 93 minutes, and he doesn’t just kill them, he toys with them first like a cat with a mouse, delivering a stray bullet in the shoulder or a kick to the kneecap before offing his targets with two shots to the head, assassination-style. The movie’s tagline is “Don’t Set Him Off,” but it really should be “This Idiot Killed My Puppy and Now Everyone Must Die.”
via John Wick: An Idiot Killed His Puppy and Now Everyone Must Die – The Atlantic.
Camarines Norte governor's photos with another woman show up online – Yahoo Philippines News
Gov Resign now please!
She revealed that the naked woman in the photos is the governor’s alleged 24-year-old mistress. “Siya po yung bagong kinalolokohan ni governor,” she said.
Josie has said in reports that the governor had suspected her and her aide, Darlene Francisco, of leaking the compromising photos online.
She related that he had gotten hostile over the “sex photos” being leaked and had even destroyed her laptop with a gun.
Atty. Lorna Kapunan, Josie’s lawyer, explained, “She’s never seen this in the husband. Ang picture kasi napaka-compromising. Yung mistress nakahubad at masturbating. Matindi yun. Napahiya si Governor at napahiya yung mistress kaya siya ang napagbintangan (na nag-leak ng photos).”
via Camarines Norte governor’s photos with another woman show up online – Yahoo Philippines News.
The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed | WIRED
I was given a look at the Whisper moderation process because Michael Heyward, Whisper’s CEO, sees moderation as an integral feature and a key selling point of his app. Whisper practices “active moderation,” an especially labor-intensive process in which every single post is screened in real time; many other companies moderate content only if it’s been flagged as objectionable by users, which is known as reactive moderating. “The type of space we’re trying to create with anonymity is one where we’re asking users to put themselves out there and feel vulnerable,” he tells me. “Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s tough to put it back in.”
Watching Baybayan’s work makes terrifyingly clear the amount of labor that goes into keeping Whisper’s toothpaste in the tube. (After my visit, Baybayan left his job and the Bacoor office of TaskUs was raided by the Philippine version of the FBI for allegedly using pirated software on its computers. The company has since moved its content moderation operations to a new facility in Manila.) He begins with a grid of posts, each of which is a rectangular photo, many with bold text overlays—the same rough format as old-school Internet memes. In its freewheeling anonymity, Whisper functions for its users as a sort of externalized id, an outlet for confessions, rants, and secret desires that might be too sensitive (or too boring) for Facebook or Twitter. Moderators here view a raw feed of Whisper posts in real time. Shorn from context, the posts read like the collected tics of a Tourette’s sufferer. Any bisexual women in NYC wanna chat? Or: I hate Irish accents! Or: I fucked my stepdad then blackmailed him into buying me a car.
via The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed | WIRED.
Fishy | Inquirer Opinion
If you have problem’s understanding why Anthony Tiu’s claims are fishy then please read Mrs. Monsod’s article.
Well, what new things did we learn from Wednesday’s hearing?
The most important, to me, was that Anthony did not yet own—not by a long shot, anyway—“Hacienda Binay.” The owner of the property he is not. Anyone who pays some P11 million for a P450-million property, and naturally has no TCT to show proof of ownership, cannot be called an owner. And Anthony admitted it in the Senate. So why make ownership claims?
But here’s what else was fishy to me (from listening to the hearing, as the documents are not available to me):
1. Anthony says he paid P11 million in two yearly installments starting in 2011 or 2012, but nothing in his financial statements shows that he paid that amount (at least as shown during the hearing).
2. No other installments were paid since then, because he said the seller, Laureano Gregorio, had to first show that the property was indeed his (Gregorio’s), and only then would he pay the rest, also presumably in installments.
3. But he has had full use of the property since he paid the installments (usufruct) even if he doesn’t own it. Which means Gregorio gets nothing from it.
Only consider, Reader, from the point of view of the seller Gregorio. He lets go of a P450-million property (with a standing orchard of 3,000 mango trees, plus at least a house with a pool area and another house with an English-style garden, and arguably a piggery and a fighting-cock farm) for the full use of someone who has paid only P11 million. Now, if that were a normal transaction, he would have P450 million in his pocket, from which, assuming he puts it in a bank and gets a minimum of 2 percent for it, he should have been earning P9 million a year. But I am told that nowadays, with a judicious choice of financial assets to invest in, he could be getting more like 6 percent, or P27 million a year. So the opportunity cost of this deal with Anthony Tiu ranges from P9 million to P27 million a year. In the three years since he made this deal, therefore, he has already lost anywhere from P16 million to P70 million (subtract P11 million from P9 million x 3 and P27 million x 3).
Why would he consent to a deal so onerous to him? Three choices: (a) Gregorio is dumb; (b) Gregorio took a shine to Anthony Tiu and decided to give this promising young man a golden opportunity of a lifetime; and (c) the whole transaction was done to save Binay’s skin: a false seller who never intends to come up with proof of ownership of the land until Binay steps down from his promised land, a false buyer who will not touch the Binay property, but rather protect it for Binay.
via Fishy | Inquirer Opinion.
Alan Eustace Jumps From Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner’s World Record – NYTimes.com
Engineers are better daredevils than daredevils!!!
Toast to an awesome achievement!!!!
Mr. Eustace’s maximum altitude was initially reported as 135,908 feet. Based on information from two data loggers, the final number being submitted to the World Air Sports Federation is 135,890 feet.
The previous altitude record was set by Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who jumped from 128,100 feet on Oct. 14, 2012.
Mr. Eustace was carried aloft without the aid of the sophisticated capsule used by Mr. Baumgartner or millions of dollars in sponsorship money. Instead, Mr. Eustace planned his jump in secrecy, working for almost three years with a small group of technologists skilled in spacesuit design, life-support systems, and parachute and balloon technology.
He carried modest GoPro cameras aloft, connected to his ground-control center by an off-the-shelf radio.
Although Mr. Baumgartner was widely known for death-defying feats, Mr. Eustace describes himself as an engineer first with a deep commitment to teamwork. He pilots his own Cessna twin-engine jet and has a reputation in Silicon Valley for thrill-seeking.
via Alan Eustace Jumps From Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner’s World Record – NYTimes.com.
Aaron Paul’s Response to Toys ‘R’ Us Breaking Bad Controversy Is Perfect | TIME
But Aaron Paul, who played Jesse Pinkman on the show, was perturbed by the concession, tweeting out:
Wait, so @ToysRUs pulled all of the Breaking Bad figures from their shelves and still sells Barbie? Hmmmm…I wonder what is more damaging?
— Aaron Paul (@aaronpaul_8) October 23, 2014
Though the Breaking Bad toys were sold in the adult-action-figure area of Toys “R” Us stores, parents said that the figures were “a dangerous deviation from [Toys R Us’s] family friendly values.” After all, Breaking Bad does follow a teacher and his former student as they try to cook and sell meth, and the dolls come with detachable bags of drugs and cash. A campaign on Change.org to ban the toys that had over 9,000 signatures as of Thursday evening.
But Paul makes a legitimate argument—at least about the potentially damaging effects of Barbie dolls: A recent study published in The Journal of Sex Roles found that girls who played with a buxom Barbie dressed up as a doctor thought they had fewer career choices than those who played with an amorphous Mrs. Potato Head doll.
No word yet on how playing with a Jesse Pinkman toy affects major life choices.
via Aaron Paul’s Response to Toys ‘R’ Us Breaking Bad Controversy Is Perfect | TIME.
VC-istan 8: the Damaso Effect | Michael O. Church
A fun article. I also think that we have a similar effect in some of the people who go back home. Although we have the heroes who go back out of real love for the Philippines we also have the Damaso kind who just can’t hack it overseas and returns home to tell people who never left they are beneath him on some aspects. I am actually thinking of a specific person from one of our clients.
JANUARY 5, 2014 BY MICHAELOCHURCH
VC-istan 8: the Damaso Effect
Padre Damaso, one of the villains of the Filipino national novel, Noli me Tangere, is one of the most detestable literary characters, as a symbol of both colonial arrogance and severe theological incompetence. One of the novel’s remarks about colonialism is that it’s worsened by the specific types of people who implement colonial rule: those who failed in their mother country, and are taking part in a dangerous, isolating, and morally questionable project that is their last hope at acquiring authority. Colonizers tend to be people who have no justification for superior social status left but their national identity. One of the great and probably intractable tensions within the colonization process is that it forces the best (along with the rest) of the conquered society to subordinate to the worst of the conquering society. The total incompetence of the corrupt Spanish friars in Noli is just one example of this.
In 2014, the private-sector technology world is in a state of crisis, and it’s easy to see why. For all our purported progressivism and meritocracy, the reality of our industry is that it’s sliding backward into feudalism. Age discrimination, sexism, and classism are returning, undermining our claims of being a merit-based economy. Thanks to the clubby, collusive nature of venture capital, to secure financing for a new technology business requires tapping into a feudal reputation economy that funds people like Lucas Duplan, while almost no one backs anything truly ambitious. Finally, there’s the pernicious resurgence of location (thanks to VCs’ disinterest in funding anything more than 30 miles away from them) as a career-dominating factor, driving housing prices in the few still-viable metropolitan areas into the stratosphere. In so many ways, American society is going back in time, and private-sector technology is a driving force rather than a counterweight. What the fuck, pray tell, is going on? And how does this relate to the Damaso Effect?
via VC-istan 8: the Damaso Effect | Michael O. Church.
'Dating' vs. 'Married': How Text Messages Change Over Time – The Atlantic
MEGAN GARBEROCT 21 2014, 7:45 AM ET
Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
So many loves start with a “hey.” A tentative “hey.” A hopeful “hey.” And more often than ever that “hey” is not spoken, but sent through a text message.
That first “hey,” if all goes well, is returned; from there, the “hey” becomes a plan to get together. Which becomes another plan to get together. And then more plans, and then more plans, until making plans becomes redundant.
In October of 2009, Alice Zhao’s boyfriend gave her a gift to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their first date: a Word document containing all of the text messages they’d exchanged during the previous year. He called his present, awesomely, #thegiftofdata. This October, to commemorate their sixth year together, Zhao took that Word doc and expanded it. She took the texts from their first year together and then compared them to another set of data she’d gathered: texts from their sixth year—a year that saw the two transitioning from engaged to newlywed.
What Zhao found was, if not scientifically rigorous, then romantically revealing
via ‘Dating’ vs. ‘Married’: How Text Messages Change Over Time – The Atlantic.