Employers give you comfortable office chairs because it would be awful if the lasso around your neck killed you by accident just because a leg on your chair broke.

Languages are like bridges. They connect you to places across chasms that you cannot otherwise overcome. But that's about it. If you don't move on across the bridge, you ain't getting anywhere.

TNBT : The End of Advertising

TNBT : The End of Advertising

Humans evolve, albeit at a glacial pace compared to technology. But with the density and volume of information coming at us everyday, we are bound to develop our ability to filter out irrelevant information from our senses, and soon we will no longer register advertisements in our minds. We'll have dual screens that we multi task on, should one of them be held up by advertising, making online advertising a black hole for your bucks.

Advertising will change. Advertisers will work more closely with content creators and people they sponsor to ensure their brand appears in an "actionable" manner with each view of any content that is of genuine interest to the audience.

Movies will integrate sponsors' products directly into footage, and psychologists will help edit to ensure the branding is promoted by but not intruding on the story. Rendering technology will allow product branding to be swapped realtime in footage. Tap any branding in movies to order a video catalogue "toilet break" on your other device.

Digital print will not have ugly banners and click baits but have AI- generated product reviews that seek to address issues raised by the text. Read about a refugee crisis and a sponsored floatnote (footnote) linking to a donation page will be linked. Read about a sports event and it links to AI generated profiles of athletes, with live feeds of training sessions at sponsoring gyms and training programs you can sign up for online.

Geolocation sponsored content will be mainstream. Mark on your shopping list you need to pick up shampoo, and your lunch will be partly sponsored by the groceries store across the road, which will send your shopping list a map right down to the shelve with the product, and the time needed to pick it up. Offer any personal information to geolocation ads and get a permanent discount at participating stores.

Ubiquitous omni-search will replace plain spell check. Type a happy-birthday note to someone and use the word "present" and it will suggest a list of products that they can click on a choose to redeem. Enter "lunch at Chinese restaurant" into your calendar and it will suggest suitable locations. Sign the restaurant's recommendation list, and if your friend visits the restaurant, get a discount on your next visit.

The possibilities are endless. Why are we still stuck at competing for that spot on the screen everyone wants to ignore?

Sometimes I feel like I'm just a run-of-the-mill "typical" fella without much imagination, living in a reality 10 years behind where I'm really from.

That's where I'd be

That's where I'd be
Yeah, that's where I let myself be me

Turning thirty eight and didn't make it
Into the league of the rich and their friends who fake it
From Siglap to Sakae to Shinjuku it's not a lot of world
But when it's all up in your face you see the blood behind the jewel

In sharing the treasure in kissing the danger
In living the guilt of the silent reprove
In learning the touch on the back of a stranger
Memories locked away in tattoos
That's where the world labels my sins
That's where I leant that's where I'd be
That's where I stop hating my skin
That's where I let myself be me

Turning my face away from the struggles I was hiding inside hoping no one heard my voice fumble
Pretending to crave what success desires while fighting the thought I was born for defeat
Never asking why the rest have it easy until the dark night of my soul
Embracing myself into a tumble I'm falling free but in control

That's where the world labels my sins
That's where I leant that's where I'd be
That's where I stop hating my skin
That's where I let myself be me

Culture is not open source. It's a proprietary inventory of patents owned by the imperialistic right wing living deep inside your very soul.

Why can't free-thinkers date Non-free thinkers? (A

Why can't free-thinkers date Non-free thinkers? (A satire)

This question has always been on people's minds but seldom voiced. It may sound hate-provoking, intelligence-discriminating, and downright condescending, but trust me, it's not meant to be.

I'm 28 this year, and a free-thinker, and one of the most common things I hear from my religious friends go along the lines of "why do you continue your sinful life? Let me introduce you to my religion and you will be a changed person". While I wholly believe in their well-meant intentions, it's time someone explained the reason behind this "disobedience", lest it be classified as another moral standard the world refuses to live by.

A long time ago, I went out with someone, who, apart from the fact that he wasn't a free-thinker, was more or less perfect to me. Perfect in the sense that, we were exactly complements - he loves cooking and I love cleaning, he loves eating up the food I don't eat, he's always energetic when I'm down, and I'm always cheerful on his sad days. We even support different players in the same curling team. All except for the fact that he wasn't a free-thinker. It didn't matter to me at first, because I was head over heels with his free gifts and amazing sex, but sure enough, one day I found myself not being able to go on anymore - it felt so profoundly "wrong". So I broke up with this perfect guy for being religious. All my friends thought I was nuts. But decisions like this do baffle, and must be clearly explained - I cannot otherwise think of another way to appease my good conscience for hurting a completely innocent guy.

What I want non-free thinkers to understand is that, I'm more concerned with us free-thinkers. Sometimes when dating the what, we forget the who and the why.

I think the biggest example of this - and I'm not going to sugar coat it here - are free-thinkers who extend dating non-free thinkers to "being open to conversion because his religious social circle opens up opportunities to career advancement", or "his status as a religious group leader makes him reliable". The list goes on, but you get what I mean.

So yes back to the question why free thinkers should not date non-free thinkers. There are probably more, but here are four simple ones.

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1. You have a complex system of things you believe in that cannot be summed up in one convenient word

Religious people subscribe to one prescribed system of belief, and no matter what they say, when faced with two opposing possibilities,
it is necessary that they decide that the one that matches their religion is true, and the other is false.

You on the other hand, are comfortable with half-truths and useful illusions. You absorb and learn when faced with something you cannot comprehend. You are willing to "try" religion as a learning experience, even if it is a ten-year project going through bible school without converting to the religion. Your journey demands thorough investigation and critical thinking, and the discipline and courage to fight what establishments push on you. Just because you live like a religious person and sacrifice like a religious person doesn't mean you need to think like a religious person. This something religious people find hard to understand.

You on the other hand, cannot comprehend why religious people would disobey federal law in the name of religion, and do scandalous things in the dark while forcing their religion of light down your throat. Christians, specifically even discourage themselves from dating you:

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" - 2 Corinthians 6:14

2. It's never "just marriage"

I should clarify at this point that by dating I don't mean strictly relationships that result in marriage, children, and widowhood.

We know that people in the real world date for all sorts of very real and valid reasons, get married for the same, choose not to have children for the same, and divorce for the same. We knew that people change, learn, and grow through what they live through - and we revise out priorities through every stage of life.

Marriage is usually focused on the specific version of the partner people know - and demand that you stick to. When I get to know you and you decide I'm the one for you, you're almost or guaranteed to find a side of me you never knew. "What!" you say "I'm not ready for that!"

3. It's never just God or no God

Religious people always have ways to justify their belief, and since at some point they need to answer whether or not to believe, are polarized into a binary paradigm that goes along the line of God vs no God, Jesus vs Satan, Enlightenment vs Suffering.

And when religious people use this world view to justify their actions while you psychoanalyze them, only one result will end unhappy disagreement - that you give in. Religious people have limits to what they are willing to accept, and it's nowhere near yours.

4. The joy of being free

And finally, we have to consider not just the pitfalls of dating a religious person, but also the benefits of dating a free thinker.

Religious people are often driven by some kind of zeal, but free thinkers respond to real compassion and show honest desire.

Dating a free thinker means that there are no invisible gates that bar you from challenging their thinking or actions. It means that you together are free to change and grow, and to experience everything the world had to offer, and to survive to tell.

That is not to say that marrying a free thinker makes the marriage perfect. Far from it - rather you enjoy it for all its imperfections, and cherish the fact that love will never be perfect.

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If you've read this far, you would have realized that not all religious people are as straightforward as what I described above. There are deeply good religious people who do not hide behind the brand of the religion but are sincerely involved in helping people in ways I cannot even imagine to.

There are religious people who go out without questioning your faith, and wholeheartedly want to be part of your community and your life, and help you achieve what you want.

If you are struggling with the whole idea of dating free-thinkers, one thing I've written above remains true: Sometimes when dating the what, we forget the who and the why. Don't look at the label. Look into his eyes.

The fruit of science is power over nature. The fruit of art is power over men. Art has always been about power, and nobody knows this better than oppressive governments around the world.

From a discussion on the possessive noun for inani

"How would you write a book's cover then? Inanimate objects can also possess things. Have a look at that chair's wobbly leg."

True that there isn't a strict consensus on this so I'm wrong to say it's outright wrong.

But it's actually a good rule to teach - considering you can simply say "book cover" which makes "book's cover" sound awkward.

I admit "wobbly leg of the chair" is somewhat cumbersome, but in writing you could phrase it something like "He was worried the chair would not hold up on its wobbly leg" instead of "he was worried the chair's wobbly leg would not hold up". Gramma allows you to make complex sentences - but English writing tends to favor simple sentence structures.

Have a look at that chair's wobbly leg could be rewritten as have a look at that chair with the wobbly leg.

What if religious rituals were imitations of voice and behavioral biometrics used by aliens who visited Earth during prehistoric times? #random

March

March. And naked
Trees look into a blue sky
With raised arms
Praying to be young again.