socalledunitedstates:

MNT Reform DIY Laptop

Modern laptops have secret schematics, glued-in batteries, and mystery
components all over. But Reform is the opposite – it invites both
curious makers and privacy aware users to take a look under the hood,
customize the documented electronics, and 3D-print their own parts.

  • A free and open source modular laptop that respects your rights
  • Customize and repair it yourself with 3D printed and standard parts
  • Reclaim your privacy and security: No microphone, camera or management engine
  • Interchangeable and customizable motherboard, slim mechanical keyboard and trackball, each with open firmware

We are currently finishing the limited beta shipment of Reforms to
collect feedback from early adopters that will feed into the final
design for the campaign model.

Read more…

Source: socalledunitedstates

25 Basic Life Skills That Should Be Taught In School (But Aren’t)

stuff-that-irks-me:

#1 Individual Thought

Instead of regurgitating what the teacher says and mirroring their peers, people need to think for themselves only. That means no groupthink. Most people think they are unique but are only parroting. That’s why you can figure out who they are from just two of their beliefs. A lot of people struggle with who they really are but can’t even have a thought of their own. Life shouldn’t be so monochromatic and Borg-like. Calling all real individuals.

#2 Personal Finance, Saving & Budgets

The credit card and personal finance industry should not be the ones teaching us about money. And while I think Dave Ramsey’s advice from Total Money Makeover to start an emergency fund is golden; I’d like to nominate The Index Card by Helaine Olen as the curriculum. It is by far the best, most objective personal finance advice I’ve ever gotten. Takes all the confusion away. The name is from the idea that everything you need to know about finance fits on an index card – and the book even comes with it!

#3 Health & Nutrition

No fad diets. Just self-care and nutrition. Food selection and important information about vitamins, minerals, and bio-compounds. I know they teach health in school but c’mon… And why not include gardening and food prep?

#4 Resiliency & Failing Gracefully

The world can be crushing enough, perhaps resiliency and tenacity can be emphasized instead of measuring students against failure. Failure is inevitable after all, so people should be shown how to fall and get back up again.

#5 The Art of Conversation

‘Sup! Hav U taken this class B4?

#6 Logic, Reasoning, and Public Discourse

Did you know that schools have been rapidly dropping Logic classes? It’s time to stop the Idiocracy from spreading and revive Logic! Also, it would be nice if public discourse didn’t amount to two people rabidly screaming at each other.

#7 Character

You can’t legislate morality, but young people are eager to learn character. Instead of burdening children with global warming responsibility and punishing them severely for breaking unspoken social justice mores – how about letting them have fun but fostering a sense of character. Show them they have personal control/responsibility and that there are real-world consequences for their actions. Relationship skills probably shouldn’t be taught by government-run schools but ultimately those come from a person’s character.

#8 Negotiation

In order to make it in the real world and provide for a family, negotiating is crucial. It means being firm, having a backbone and the willingness to exhibit some disagreeableness.

#9 Cooking from Scratch

It’s a seriously needed lost art! And it overlaps with health, budget and survival classes.

#10 Survival & First Aid

All forms of survival, prepping and first aid, including wilderness first aid, should be taught to everyone. Survival without tech and during disasters or live shooting events – all of it. Gardening, self-defense, and firearms overlap with this class, too. The Dangerous Book for Boys, The American Boys Handy Book,  The Field and Forest Handy Book: New Ideas for Out of Doors would be a great, fun start! Of course, The Organic Prepper makes a great curriculum – hi, homeschoolers!

#11 Speed Reading (But with Deep Comprehension)

Speed reading is not the same as skimming. Many people have been taught to skim haphazardly because of the Internet, new gadgets and pressure to multi-task. This study shows that skimming is actually not a great way to comprehend more. Speed reading removes “subvocalization” while reading, and it can be done while maintaining comprehension.

#12 Self-Defense

Both with and without firearms. It would include boundaries, situational awareness, and improvisation.

#13 Crash Course on How Government Works

People are told to go out and vote but a lot of them don’t even know much about the positions they are voting on. I wish School House Rock had kept up the government songs! “I’m just a bill…”

#14 Creativity

Our linear-thinking and tech-driven world is rapidly extinguishing right-brain thought, and that is a travesty. Our creative force needs to be ablaze at all times and should never be downgraded or snuffed out.

#15 Household & Basic Car Mechanic Repairs

Why are these skills not taught to everyone? Learn to be handy and be independent from others while putting thousands of savings toward paying down a house. A lot of people are afraid to try, but only because they weren’t taught and may be afraid to ask for help.

#16 Time Management, Focus, and Productivity

Multi-tasking is a proven fraud. In a world driven to distraction, the art of focus is priceless in the working world. Maximized time is a maximized life.

#17 How to Read Literature With Deeper Understanding

Let’s face it: high school makes a lot of people hate books. Something tells me that’s the real reason why 1984 is mandatory reading. Who actually remembers the deeper message later in life? Curriculum: The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer is a straight-forward, wonderful guide through the classical education most of us never got.

#18 Entrepreneurship, Career & Starting a Business in a Gig Economy

This is a crucial skill desperately needed in a changing job landscape. It could teach sales skills for all different personality types. And hey, wouldn’t it be great to cultivate what your passions are instead of being wedged into categories by those career assessments?

#19 Etiquette

Seriously. Make. This. A. Class.

#20 Social Skills

Social skills are different than etiquette and manners. It involves picking up on cues and tone, and knowing how to appropriately respond in different situations. There is dating etiquette and there is also dating social skills. These are just as important as having social awareness on the job.

#21 Study & Deep Research

Why do 12 years of school without first learning this key element?

#22 How to Selectively Make Real Friends

An elective class to win GOOD friends and influence people. Networking. Watching out for red flags in relationships. School is basically a big bullpen where you’re with the same people every day for 12 years. And they think homeschoolers aren’t “socialized”? Sheesh! Plus, social media gives the false impression of connection without much selectivity.

#23 Effective Communication & Writing

So apparently this is being taught now, but…is it really?

#24 Resume & Cover Letters

Firstly, a lot of people do not know how to craft these. And secondly, most of them are thrown into the trash or get lost in cyberspace. The soul-crushing job application process needs a serious makeover, but until that happens, people need to learn how to write an attention-grabbing human-voiced resume that gets that foot in the door.

#25 Understanding Credit Cards, Bills, Taxes, House/Car Purchases, Student Loans, Insurance

This is a much-needed course, unfortunately. This class would help students avoid predatory financial practices instead of being ushered right into them. Day 1: teacher cuts up all credit cards in a class demonstration.

Last but not least….a bonus that is only being sort of taught apparently?

25 Basic Life Skills That Should Be Taught In School (But Aren’t)

ace-pervert:

serinnel:

ace-pervert:

serinnel:

ace-pervert:

Users Leaving Tumblr In Droves As iOS App Fiasco Drags On – ValueWalk

Ok apple is killing tumblr. Time to find a different site @omega-bellum @celestewolfs

Legit, does the apple store not feature Twitter or Pixiv app? Because both those are swimming in NSFW content and thats is where the artists are fleeing to. And we can use that to gauge  if Tumblr will (sigh) see reason and ultimately lift the NSFW blacklist as that has neither stopped the bots or appeased Apple.

Since Tumblr’s fate ultimately depends on allowing NSFW content, its a question of how far they’re willing to push NSFW content out since its also crashing their notably large NSFW user base. So at some point Tumblr either has to cut its loses with Apple or drop the ultimate bomb by changing its TOS and banning NSFW entirely.

As i’m using tumblr primarily to find artists to commission, let me
give my perspective on why Tumblr was the best platform before the NSFW
blacklist (which ultimately effects even SFW commissions when whole
accounts are invisible). A lot may be obvious considering people will
crawl back after being deleted time and time again, but openly
acknowledging why is necessary to find a replacement.
As while I might flex the effort to expand over multiple sites: I’m
going to guess most people/potential customers are  going to stick to
one because, as recurring, Time.

1. Its mobile :
nothing can compete unless it has a mobile friendly app. I mean thats whats killing it right now, people can’t get the app! And compared to
say, Deviantart app, Tumblr is a good one (blasphemy). For example,
even if there is a feature on Deviantart’s app to delete art
notifications without going to desktop, the fact i haven’t found it is
BAD. Even if Piczel had more features it NEEDS an app. This is why Furaffinity
and Hentaifoundry are negligible alternatives. ( FA has an unofficial
app but that’s just asking for your account to be hacked)

2. Scrolling is the business: not even swiping comes close.
Just having to click on a icon slooows the process down exponentially.
With scrolling its very easy to keep up with current events such as “I
just opened my commissions”.
Oh and i also don’t have to delete the vast majority of notifications
since i just scroll on by. Time is Money.

3. Being able to reblog beats the snot out of just saving in a gallery:  Its just helps
everyone. I’m not going to rattle on too long about the obvious here but
if Its easy for artists to make status updates, its easy for me to keep
track. Fellow artists and customers can spread the word. I don’t follow
mere onlookers on Pixiv or Devianart, but I do here and on Twitter. I
can remember who does commissions, whose open at the moment. I know when
they close. etc. etc.

4. Journals and updates in the first place:
again, if for instance Pixiv mobile has artists journals/status/polls
etc. The fact I haven’t found it is veeeery bad. Which is very annoying
when I’m trying to use these platforms to give artists my money.

5. Not just personal messaging but  instant messaging : even if another
competitor’s private messaging system (and be damned if you don’t even
have that) is technically at the speed of light, if its not that
scrolling response, its killing response time. Having to refresh and  instinctively
treating all interactions like an email. Not in today’s world.

6. Tags Tags Tags:
Perhaps i’m using Piczel’s gallery feature wrong, but i’m having a hell
of a time pulling up anything with its tags feature. And a working and
robust tag system is essential. One of the many reasons why Twitter is
such a bad alternative. Limited characters means limited tags, and even
though Tumblr’s website wide search is silently limited to the first 20
(or 5), its way better than Pixiv’s ten or having to sacrifice talking
about the piece to cast the widest net on Twitter.

7. Sub- accounts are god-like:
Hey, remember when Ted Cruz’s twitter “liked” that porno? Yea, being
able to hide your likes, who your following etc is great feature as even
online aliases need anonymity these days. More over, not having to make
a completely separate account to divide your personal life, art life,
SFW/NSFW, political or whatever is amazing and again saves time.

To
not belabor my point, streaming and gallery sites just won’t do. Even
as I cast nets over instagram and Twitter and Newgrounds  and whatever else. On Tumblr, it feels like
I’m browsing for an artist instead of hunting for one: which has
ultimately dramatically increased the number of commissions I’ve been
able to order over the past several years.

Even through all the mess, nothing comes close to Tumblr. Pillowfort, way off in the distance, may ultimately usurp the title but until then its the starving artist’s stock market crash.

Its doubtfull that pillowfort will ever amount become much of anything as long as it doesnt offer free accounts, and because sites like newgrounds and deviantart limit what you can do unless you are willing to pay for it, there isnt any other site that is as risk free , and free in general as tumblr is or was.

That is certainly true and it is only the hope that after it officially opens and its start up costs are resolved that it can move to an ad-based revenue system. As there is only two realities: the user is the customer or the user is the product.

The cause for doubt being that being openly NSFW friendly will deter advertisers like leprosy. I’m not too deterred by a “premium” feature (its honestly a miracle/redflag that Tumblr doesn’t have one) if its within reason. But again, these are distant aspirations.

Crowdfunding in mind, I’ve seen a number of artists move to the open source Mastodon system which is both Tumblr-like and, depending on the user run “instance”, NSFW friendly. But this Wild West style system has its risks. Being run by the community, it WILL ultimately need said community to support it financially and with bodies willing to work for free as administrators and programmers. Oh and its stability will subject to the whims of net-revolutionaries who tend to fall out and in with drama like your mother’s favorite 80s band.

In order to be a true succesor to Tumblr a site has to be a combination porn, politics, and other interrests blogging site, be lgbt friendly, be free or at least have free accounts, and have a large community. Now because any site that becomes the place where the tumblr refugees move to will get a large community, that last one isnt an issue, however any place run by fickle net revolutionaries cant become a bloggjng site like tumblr simply because the personal views of the revolutionaries might result in topics suddenly being off limits making those kinds of sites less interresting for the exodus.

redbloodedamerica:

What is Spontaneous Order?

Spontaneous order is a fundamental concept in Austrian economics. Spontaneous order is basically those orders that are not deliberately created by someone.  They are orders that are emerging from the bottom up, not implemented from the top down.  

There are meany examples of spontaneous order, and we don’t only find it in society.  We find it in the biological order, we find it in–of course–the economy, and we find it in legal institutions.

Spontaneous order is a series of behavior and norms that arise through the process of discovering people who are doing their part to solve a problem that initially can be simple but in general usually develops into something tremendously complex.  For example, we can see it in a market full of people.  People are crossing nobody has designed where people have to go–people aren’t getting crushed and it seems miraculous that people do not crash and do not stumble against each other.  You see thousands of people going from one place to another, each one is trying to get to his destination and they do it totally spontaneously.  Nobody tells them where they have to go or why.

That’s a simple example of spontaneous order, but we can take it more complex. For example, how international trade is carried out, as it has been developed with its systems, with infrastructure that no one has designed from above; a whole global network that has been emerging from bottom up.

Spontaneous order is fundamental for the economy and for Austrian economics, because without a spontaneous order we would think that our life depends on someone who is very intelligent–who knows all the elements, all the information, time and place, and how to solve our problems.

On the other hand, if we understand that problems, especially complex problems, can’t be solved from top to bottom, it has to come from bottom up.  We understand that society and those societies that flourish will be societies that give their citizens the freedom to explore, to explore different solutions, some of which will be joining, will be building, all of which add up to generate tremendously complex orders that solve real problems–the real problems that really matter to people and families.