Category Archives: Infarticles

All sorts of interesting facts and articles, scraped from the remains of my brain at the end of the day. Hot or cold they are served up with a bit of spice and some humour wherever possible because facts do not have to be boring!

a day in the life, Dating, Infarticles, mE, Random Thoughts, Rants

Excercise in futility; aka the dating game

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Having completed Tinder, OkCupid, Match and Bumble, I can honestly say I prefer GTA4.

The rules of the game are simple; “swipe until it’s empty”.

I have done that at “Boss” level. It’s not difficult. Just takes loads of time. Time I clearly had.

I have a whole method for efficient swiping… It’s tap tap tap… Swipe.

Any sedated tigers, chihuahuas, pouting, or loads of gym photos, or a guy’s name on seemingly a woman’s photos, or all serious photos with no smiles, swipe left.

The slightest possibility I might be attracted to them and they seem normal and their smile actually reaches their eyes, swipe right.

Works just as well as randomly swiping left and right with my eyes closed (I have tried it).

And you have to have lots of uncomfortable chats where you try way too hard to be charming and funny – think pickup lines without the alcohol and background noise to distract from the utter awkwardness of it, a few slightly awkward dates (now video calls, which is the “advanced” level difficulty), and end up realising you can’t work out the most basic reason people are attracted to one another – that magical unknown quantity of “chemistry” – without actually meeting the person in person.

It is at that point that you “complete” the dating app.

And, just because we are creatures of habit, we then go try other dating apps, because maybe, just maybe, doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome is not the definition of insanity.

Once we have completed all available dating apps, and come to that same realisation time and again, with friends and strangers egging us on the whole time by dangling that “I have friends who met online and got married and are really happy” magical power up in front of us, do we officially “complete all levels” in the online dating game.

There is no winning. It is realising that we are simply confirming the uselessness of it all that means we have “leveled up”.

That is why it is called “gamifying”, or the “gamification” of, dating.

It’s a game, and the only ones to win are the companies that make money from us endlessly swiping.

So we get frustrated and delete the apps, only to return a few months later in desperation, hoping against hope that, somehow, this time it will be different.

For proof of this, just see how many profiles say, “I had deleted this app but I am back now hoping to delete it again…”

I think we need a “Dating Apps Anonymous” group.

Infarticles, mE, Rants

“Illegal immigrant” is a bigot’s term

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To all the so-called US patriots (and other “patriots” of other countries):-

Labelling a human being “illegal,” is by its very nature dehumanising them.

So let’s start with terminology.

I think the word we are looking for is, “undocumented” immigrant.

According to the US Constitution, there is no such thing as an “illegal” immigrant.

That is a term used by conservatives, right wingers, racists, and bigots to dehumanise other human beings, to justify treating them inhumanely. (See Nazis for labelling Jewish people “it” rather than “him” or “her,” to dehumanise them to make it easier to justify murdering millions.)

With regards to UNDOCUMENTED immigrants, they are actually legally protected under our US Constitution;

“As an undocumented immigrant, you do have constitutional rights here in the United States,” she said, “and that has been said over and over in the courts, that they do have constitutional rights.””
(http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2017/mar/29/florida-immigrant-coalition/do-undocumented-immigrants-have-constitutional-rig/)

Therefore, anyone spouting a “send them back where they came from” blanket response to UNDOCUMENTED immigrants is counter to Constitution law precedent, and therefore fundamentally unAmerican, and therefore the opposite of the patriotism one purports to feel towards America. (In other words, the very use of the term “illegal immigrants” is unpatriotic, as well as bigoted.)

We can all have an opinion, but please avoid selling happy horseshit as fact.

ANYONE using the term “illegal” when applied to human beings (or any living being for that matter) is a bigot (either unknowingly, or, having read this post, on purpose).

Here is some info on why labelling anyone “illegal” is wrong, from a technical standpoint – http://ideas.time.com/2012/09/21/immigration-debate-the-problem-with-the-word-illegal/ …

And from a linguistic standpoint – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/06/illegal-immigrant-label-offensive-wrong-activists-say

a day in the life, Lyme Disease, mE, Poems, Random Thoughts, Rants

Mustn’t grumble

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As old ocean
Grumbles, deep down joints
Are scanning for movement
Not the way it used to be,
When all was young and new,
And lateral movement a daily joy,
Untainted by fear of damage, break-
Age, or flipped wrong-side-up ligaments,
Tendons squeak tensional protest, as
Old edges to a young body complain,
The gym a place of self mutilation and
Torture, eagerly and easily signed up for,
We pay for the privilege of suffering
In company, misery does not want to be
Alone, and so it is, I push my aching muscles and
Protesting joints to their limit, knowing
That body beautiful is not important
Yet being healthy is. Bow down to the
Shrine of self-flagellation that is called
Fitness, bow down and be counted
Head-low, for this is the new age of
Old timers getting into the swing of
Things, oldtimers no longer rule the
World, but we sure as hell can crowd
The gym!

Infarticles, Random Thoughts

a partial solution…

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We don’t need to ‘ban’ guns. We just need to punish those who carry handguns by automatically applying federal law to anyone caught committing a crime while carrying a deadly weapon. What this means in reality is that anyone caught committing a crime (no matter how big or small) whilst carrying a gun (even if they did not use it in the crime) will automatically go to jail for 10 years. This was trialed in three states over two decades ago.

The outcome? Gun homicide fell by 30% in the first year. They even anonymously interviewed a cocaine dealer from the area, who was quoted in saying that all of the cocaine dealers he knew stopped carrying weapons because 10 years in jail was too costly… if they were caught with cocaine they could get up to 3 years in jail. But if they were caught with cocaine and a gun, they automatically got 10 years. With this one dealer earning over $200k a year selling drugs, 10 years in jail is a loss of $2 million which is just not sound business logic. Hence why he and other dealers stopped carrying. Hence why the gun homicides by criminals was cut so drastically so quickly. How was this kicked off?

By a slight change in state law making all people caught committing crimes while carrying a deadly weapon automatically tried in federal court instead of state court, and guaranteeing them 10 years in jail. Billboards were posted all around the areas, publicising the new application of existing laws. (I wrote a paper on this in Uni.)

So yes, there is a real solution (tried and tested) with a simple application of EXISTING federal gun laws which would focus the government’s anti-gun legislation on criminals, not your law-abiding gun owners (win-win). We could do it now.

Why does the NRA not want this? Because all the NRA cares about is selling guns to anyone and everyone. They care about making money not helping people or protecting homes. They are the face of big business.

If the ‘law-abiding’ gun owners of the US want to continue to exercise their right to bear arms, they should support real-world solutions and force the NRA to back the implementation of tighter federal law punishments for all criminals who commit crimes carrying deadly weapons. It is proven to work.

The world is not black and white (guns for everyone or guns for no one). The world is GREY. (Rules applied to punish criminals, lower gun homicides, and improve our way of life.) … I would like to point out that even if we did implement this law and cut gun homicides by 30% nationally in the first year (which would be great) we wouldn’t actually solve the problem of the massacres in the schools – the majority of which were committed by the children of people who legally own guns (‘law-abiding gun owners’).

That is obviously an issue to resolve in another manner. (Not sure how to solve that problem without limiting / minimising gun ownership across the board.)

a day in the life, Lyme Disease, Poems

Scent of winter

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The scent of winter settles
Calmly, gently, slowly, over
Un-tensed shoulders, a word
Remembered from childhood
Humour, Fridays spent at Synagogue
Dinner with the community,
Friends together sharing family time,
Good food, good company, good
Humour, good times, the echo of the
Core principle that warmed my heart
Still rings true today, through a life-
Time of ups and downs, a quarter
Century as a stranger in a strange land
Not quite one of the crowd, yet fitting in
At least somewhat, before a moment’s blurt
The feeling burst through the dam of self-
Preserve, reserve lost in a moment of passion,
Weary of too much control too much of the time
Let loose reality, so that is how I feel, good!
Now dealing with the emotional remit re-
Percussions pounding deep, soul crevasse,
So be it, abeegazunt, that is just the way, just so,
Just so. Still the summer’s tease of tomorrow heat
Sunshine frozen in a memory of glowing warmth,
Until all that is left is the dull ache of an old-young spine,
Joints de-lubed by Lyme Disease, impact and time, the real
Me coming through in many flavours, today, tomorrow, more
Hereafter, until all that is left to note, is the
Scent of winter’s bite in the wind, promise
Of summer dead and gone, ghost of a
Memory, now teasing winter out of
The woodwork, summer may be
Over, yet, abeegazunt, I am
Still standing, still here
Another year parted,
One more promised
Better still to come,
Still I stand here,
No longer alone,
Happy, two as
One.