Mahmoud

Binge watching is the cool new way to binge! So new that the wiki article was made barely over a year ago. This is only the beginning, though, because binging is the FUTURE. Here are some exciting binge trends to look out for in the near future:

Binge-Driving
Sure, this could be called a “joyride” or a “road trip,” but Binge-Driving is the new cool! Just get in the car and DRIVE until the car breaks down or you soar off of a pier and into the ocean.

Binge-Farming
You ever get so hooked on something that it became your profession? Someday there will be people on the planet who spend all of their time growing crops out of the ground. They might even LIVE on these “plant camps.”

Binge-Architectural-Engineering
This is when you wake up on the couch in the morning you’re surrounded by blueprints for skyscrapers. We’ve all been there at least once, but it’s really going to pick up once once we finally enter the urban-sprawled dystopian retrofuture you see in sci-fi movies.

Binge-Drinking
You know how it’s fun to have a drink or two to loosen up? Well, what if instead we drank to excess?? That’d be NUTS.

In the meantime, we suggest saying goodbye to moderation by going back and reading all 900 of our old comics, binge-style.

wes

dcblogs writes: The Internet of Things (IoT) may be more significant in reshaping the competitive landscape than the arrival of the Internet. Its productivity potential is so powerful it will deliver a new era of prosperity. That's the argument put forth by Michael Porter, an economist at the Harvard Business School and James Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC, in a recent Harvard Business Review essay. PTC is a product design software firm that recently acquired machine-to-machine firm Axeda Corp. In the past 50 years, IT has delivered two major transformations or "waves," as the authors describe it. The first came in the 1960s and 1970s, with IT-enabled process automation, computer-aided design and manufacturing resource planning. The second was the Internet and everything it delivered. The third is IoT. That's a strikingly sweeping claim and there will no doubt be contrarians to Porter and Heppelmann's view. But what analysts are clear about is that IoT development today is at an early stage, perhaps at a point similar to 1995, the same year Amazon and eBay went online, followed by Netflix in 1997 and Google in 1998. People understood the trend at the time, but the big picture was still out of focus.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We’ve all been there!

 

From NetEase:

Peking University Releases Diaosi Living Conditions Report: Changchun Is Most Diaosi City

On October 29th, Peking University’s Market and Media Research Center released the first national “Diaosi Living Conditions Report/Study, with the report showing: diaosi earn an average of 2919.7 yuan per month [~479 USD], and 72.3% of diaosi are unhappy with their lives. What worries diaosi the most remains their family, with diaosi giving 1076.7 yuan to their parents on average every month. In terms of industries, agricultural industries have the highest diaosi index, whereas the diaosi index in marketing/public relations/media, sports & fitness, and finance/banking/investments/funds/securities industries is relatively low.

The Peking University Market and Media Research Center expressed to The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that the word “diaosi” originated from the internet, spread until today where it is no longer derogatory, and represents the rise of an internet subculture. The 2013 Diaosi Living Conditions Report is a study jointly conducted by the Peking University Market and Media Research Center and classifieds portal Ganji. The study ran from 2014 September 1 until October 1, collecting a total of 213,795 questionnaire responses covering over 50 large, medium, and small cities, comprehensively reflecting the living conditions of those working at the lowest levels of the workforce.

Level of education not high, essentially without savings

Are you a diaosi? Have you saved up 100,000 yuan? Have you purchased a home for yourself in which you paid/pay the full amount? If your answer is yes, congratulations, you are no longer a diaosi.

The diaosi in this study primarily covers people who have already joined the workforce, have less than 100,000 yuan in personal savings, have not purchased a home or have purchased a home but did/does not pay the full amount [purchase price or mortgage payments].

The term diaosi is no longer derogatory, and more and more people are using the word diaosi to characterize their own lives. So then, just what are “diaosi” like?

Male diaosi are generally between 21-25 years of age; female diaosi are between 26-30 years of age; commonly their level of education is not high; most have gone out [left their hometowns] to find work, have yet to find a life partner, and have an average monthly income of 2917.7 yuan. Generally, they do not have any savings.

Monthly income of 2917.7 yuan, half work overtime every week

Among the over 210k people who participated in the questionnaire survey, 62.2% consider themselves diaosi, with their ages primarily distributed between 21-30 years of age, and low-level workers most common in the workforce. Their average monthly wage is 2917.7 yuan, while 2013 official statistical data showed that the average wage in Beijing was 5793 yuan [~950 USD].

Among diaosi, 73.6% are far from their hometowns, their main reason for leaving home was the hope of earning more money, thus changing their own lives and that of their families. Drifting far away from home, the lives of diaosi are simple, keeping their three meals a day within 39 yuan [~6.40 USD] total, with 7.8% of them keeping it within 10 yuan [~1.64 USD], and the monthly rent paid by half of the respondents are 500 yuan [~82 USD] and under.

To make a living away from home, they must rely on themselves, with 41% of diaosi relying on the internet to find work, and most of them changing jobs once every three years.

The study shows that over half of diaosi don’t need to work overtime, but those who have to work overtime nearly every day still make up 21.7% of the whole. Hard work does not necessarily earn a commensurate return, with nearly 60% of diaosi working overtime without getting paid overtime, with the proportion of diaosi who work overtime almost every day without getting paid overtime being the largest, reaching 68.6%.

Even so, diaosi do not actually consider overtime the biggest source of stress in their work, but instead it is interpersonal relationships and employment uncertainty that torments these low-level workers in the workforce.

Work and making money occupies the majority of their time. Leisure for most diaosi is something of a luxury, with 54.2% of respondents only having 500 yuan a year in travel funds. Compared to going out for fun, diaosi prefer to stay at home, and as such, 65.7% of them choose online shopping as their primarily method of shopping. Social networking and gaming software also become godsends for those who stay at home.

Half of diaosi are single, with 71% giving money to their parents

CCTV once did a famous street interview [in 2012], asking “are you happy?” 52.7% of male diaosi feel they are unhappy, with female diaosi being a little better, but still 48.1% of respondents are not happy. Diaosi between the ages of 25-30 especially are the least happy group among all diaosi. Apart from the pressures of work, they are either struggling as singles or bearing the burden of providing for the elderly above [their parents] and the young below [their children].

Compared to peers still in their hometowns, 50.4% of diaosi who have gone out remain single.

What worries diaosi the most is family, with 33.1% believing their biggest regret/failure to their parents is not being able to care for them in person. Diaosi on average send their parents 1076.7 yuan [~176 USD] every month, and with an average monthly income of 2917.7 yuan, what they give their parents makes up 36.9% of their monthly income. A 71% majority of diaosi give their parents money [for living expenses], with “1-500 yuan” being the highest proportion at 31.2%, then “501-1000 yuan” at 24.4%.

Financially independent diaosi have an awareness of repaying their parents, and those with children also give whatever they can towards the raising of their children, spending [an average of] 2639.7 yuan on their children every month, nearly taking up all of an individual’s [average] income.

The mental and emotional state of diaosi is even more deserving of attention. This huge grassroots-level demographic, just what kind of thoughts and feelings do they have? 37.8% of diaosi believe they have mental disorders, simultaneously have not received proper psychological guidance, with most resorting to sleeping, venting, and drinking to cope, but still 4.4% of respondents choose self-harm/injury to relieve stress.

Diaosi index ranking: Jilin highest, agricultural and forestry industry the most

Through calculations, the study obtained diaosi indices for different cities, provinces, regions, industries, etc.

Changchun is this year’s most diaosi city, while Jilin is the most diaosi province. The average diaosi index of every province was 78.81, with Jilin’s diaosi index being the highest, reaching 86.07, followed by Shanxi at 83.92, and Mongolia following closely behind. In comparison, the diaosi index for the Imperial City and Magical City are both low, with Beijing at 74.89, and Shanghai at 75.11.

In terms of industry, the agricultural and forestry industry was the most diaosi industry, with the highest index rating, reaching 85.6. Second was the supermarket/department store/retail store industry, and ranking third was the pharmaceutical/bioengineering industry. The diaosi index for the marketing/public relations/media, sports and fitness, advertising, and finance/banking/investments/funds/securities industries were relatively low.

(Original title: Peking University Releases First National “Diaosi Living Conditions Report”: Changchun Most Diaosi City)

Comments from NetEase:

网易北京市手机网友 ip：111.197.*.*

Peking University has already become a collection and distribution center for stupid cunts!

网警002 [网易安徽省芜湖市网友]：

Me, monthly income 8k, debt/mortgage of 2 million, I bet I’ll be a slave all my life, not even rising to the level of a diaosi. For 2 million, I’m willing to sell my soul, any takers?

上网真不容易啊 [网易广东省深圳市网友]：

My base pay is 5000, and including commission, I make around 100k a year, yet I still feel I am a diaosi, with overwhelming stress, without a house or car, and not daring to buy a house or car, scrimping and saving wherever I can in my spending, so much that I even think I’ve developed clinical depression.

自古貳樓出煞筆 [网易广东省佛山市手机网友]：

The Imperial City finally goes into open sneering mode…

小鸭子 [网易江西省吉安市手机网友]：

All true, collapsed in tears in the bathroom.

From NetEase:

State-Media Discusses “Diaosi“: This Word Conceals Self-Demeaning, Must Be Criticized and Spurned

The December 2nd People’s Daily [newspaper] focused on the subject of “diaosi“.

In an article titled “The Belittling of Oneself, Can We Give It A Rest?”, the writer definitively writes that the term “diaosi” has already become a label many young people give themselves.

The writer worries that the popularity of the subculture associated with this term has complex social and psychological factors behind it. But the implicit self-denigration in it should be criticized and spurned, as its destructiveness to the psychological health of young people cannot be ignored.

The writer also claims people who consider themselves “diaosi” can be divided into three types: one type are those who belittle themselves on the surface but do not necessarily think little of themselves within; one type are those who belittle themselves and genuinely believe it; the third type are those who actually are stunted [lacking] and don’t care.

“The first type is self-deprecating [being humble], the second type is lacking self-esteem, while the last type is simply in a state of indifference.” The writer believes, “no matter what type, even if the existence of diaosi culture is subjectively intended to manifest courage in the face of the mainstream, or treated as a down-to-earth internet spirit, objectively it still has not made young people more independent/unconventional much less fostered much of a healthy atmosphere/environment in society.

i’m paraphrasing

have a good one!

good-enough-for-a-poke:

Grum appreciates maize

POW!

HOLY SHIT WE DID IT!!! Superpoop is back and updates every Thursday. Drewtoothpaste is back and updates every Monday. Subscribe to the combined RSS feed for Superpoop and Drewtoothpaste and get updates in your RSS reader.

hissbitch:

GRUM AWAKES FOR ANOTHER THANKSGIVING !!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the tardy comic!!! Gotta work on my biz and get my crap together.

Scary zombie comic in lead up to November Halloween in November. This time with zombies! Or zombie arms anyway, which is the scariest part of a zombie according to a 2012 poll.

Available as a print

Facebook | Tumblr

The post zombie comic appeared first on Moonbeard.

This is idiotic.

A Bay Area Toll Authority committee voted Wednesday to pay a consultant $10 million to produce a proposal for an Oakland-to-SF crossing.

Earlier estimates of the cost of a bike path, most likely attached to the sides of the approximately 2-mile western suspension span, placed the price at $400 million to $500 million. [...] Because attaching two paths would increase the weight of the suspension span, causing it to flatten slightly, the study suggested replacing the bridge decks with lighter materials, which could push the cost to $800 million to $1 billion.

Are you fucking kidding me? Can you imagine what a billion dollars of bike-infrastructure improvements in the city would look like?

Neither can I. But it wouldn't look like a single bike lane, hanging in the wind off a bridge.

Can you imagine what even ten million dollars of bike-infrastructure improvements in the city would look like?

Actually, I can: it would look like more than half of SFMTA's 2015 budget for bike infrastructure ($17.8M). Instead, we'll get a stack of design-fiction drawings from some parasitic consultancy. What the what?

Obviously improving bicycling infrastructure is a topic relevant to my interests, but this is a comically catastrophic use of public funds. Give me protected bike lanes on every major road in the city first, and you know what? I'll take the fucking train when I have to cross the bay.

Previously, previously.

From NetEase:

Construction Workers for a Kunming Logistics Center Clash with Villagers

October 14th in Jinning County, Kunming, during the construction of the “Jincheng Transasia Industrial Logistics Center”, construction workers and a number of villagers from Fuyou Village clashed. According to early reports, this has already led to 4 deaths and 10 injured. After this was reported to authorities, the provincial, city and county leaders rushed to the scene and made every effort to treat the wounded. The details of the incident are currently being investigated by public security organs [police].

Comments on NetEase:

战争之王一柚子 [网易浙江省杭州市手机网友]：

Only 60 years later do we discover…we’ve been duped…

该不该找兰翔 [网易广东省广州市网友]：

I’m seeing if I can comment.

1054523737 [网易云南省昆明市呈贡县网友]：

There are 3 tied up with rope who were burned to death alive.

网易重庆市手机网友：

There’s no more that needs to be said, everybody knows/understands.

宇宙de真理 [网易四川省乐山市网友]：

If the land belongs to the people, what right does the government have to sell the people’s land to other people? If the land belongs to the government, can I ask where did the government get the land from? Is it bought with taxpayer’s money or is it stolen from the hands of the people? If it is bought with taxpayer’s money, then this land belongs to the people and not the government, but if it was stolen from the people, then the government are bandits.

90t [网易浙江省杭州市网友]：

They killed one villager, then everybody got fed up and grabbed 5 running dogs present, who were all burned to death.

jiaowan008 [网易河北省廊坊市手机网友]：

The armed police are the tools of those with power and money.

zgame209 [网易河南省平顶山市网友]：

I saw this on Baidu Tieba, the 4 who were tied up were burned to death alive. So brutal. Fuck, if they have such guts, then tie up the boss and burn him instead.

网易江西省新余市网友：

What kind of news is this? Nothing was made clear.

莲花染尘g8t8 [网易安徽省合肥市手机网友]：

Socialism is good.

From Sina Weibo: (since deleted)

@darkmnum October 14th at Fuyou Village in the town of Jincheng, Jinning County in Yunnan Kunming, an fierce clash occurred between villagers resisting demolition and hundreds of people wearing police uniforms and using riot shields. During this incident, 2 villagers were beaten to death, 8 demolition crew members were captured, and among them 5 were burned to death by angry villagers. The villagers also captured large amounts of tear gas, riot shields and police gear. To resist the government taking their land, Jincheng villagers have already been defending their rights for two years, during which numerous clashes have occurred.

Comments on Sina Weibo:

梦想家邬亮：

Support all people’s right to bear guns!

小意达的猫：

After seeing government personnel burned like that, it is very hard to cheer for the villagers!

霞客丁：

Where there is oppression, there will be resistance.

pingdanz：

This needs to be widely reported, forced demolition is illegal. During the course of social development there needs to be gradual understanding and compromise during conflicts, but people’s basic rights should be protected.

邹江元：

Local governments rely on selling land to make money, and the land they sell is the land of peasants appropriated at low prices. But, peasants also have to rely on their land to survive [make a living]. The conflict between the two sides leads to bloody forced demolitions.

George_liu088：

This is clearly class conflict and class struggle.

princessjin：

Oh my god, is this what current society is like? For there to be such rampant villagers. However much hate you have, it shouldn’t result in using such extreme methods to kill people. Where is the law? When the clash happened, did no one call the police?

安小姐Angela：

That the villagers retaliated and killed must be due to their anger reaching its limit. Some things cannot be solved by reason, because I’ve personally witnessed the violent law enforcement [brutality] of the chengguan. Seeing this makes me heartbroken and full of tears. If the villagers do not fight back, they’ll be beaten to a pulp by the police with weapons… This is the apocalypse!

彭晓风：

Burned to death! What kind of hatred is this?

铭人语言：

Chinese peasants are perhaps the easiest people in world to rule over and manage. But they are slowly waking up, this is without a doubt. People often say China needs democracy, needs rule of law, and those who say it are perhaps so-called public intellectuals who have woken up first. But in China, the people who push for democracy and constitutional government, including voting rights, will definitely be the peasants, not the intellectuals, middle class or the rich (the capitalist classes/bourgeoisie)…because peasants don’t have anything really to lose, apart from their lives!

Rios_ll：

Arise, those who do not want to be slaves.

Not many rappers have come out and said “Yeah, fuck it, I smoke crack, and I’m better than you because I smoke crack.” That’s Viper, the creator of “You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack,” on the song of the same name. Crack is mentioned as a way to make money in a lot of rap lyrics, or as a scourge of the impoverished, but not often are the crack songs actually about the rapper smoking crack.

His weirdly sluggish beats and low-in-the-mix vaporwave vocals might be blowing up Tumblr right now if they were ironic, or if he had even one Unicode character in his name. There are 15 of his songs here and they’re weirdly listenable.

The 2014 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) is a big deal for Beijing, since it is the first international economic organization that China takes part in. To make sure that CEOs and leaders of the region have a nice stay in Beijing, a series of new approaches are put in place.

The most significant objective is to recreate the blue sky that Beijing has long lost. In order to get rid of the embarrassing smog, factories in Beijing and nearby cities are ordered to suspend production during the conference; all construction sites in Beijing stop working. Farmers and residents living in 50km away Huairou District have to stop cooking with woods and make do with natural gas for a while. During Nov 3-12, cargo trucks, three-wheel truck, tractors, motorcycles, and buses that don’t meet the emission standard are forbidden to enter Beijing’s 6th Ring Road or further within. Car drivers have to observe the odd-even license plate rule that was invented in 2007 for Beijing Olympic Games with the same purpose, i.e. during these 10 days they can drive on the road only if the last number of their license plates match the parity of the date. An interesting result is that Beijingers won’t be able to drink fresh milk first thing in the morning as milk delivery trucks are not allowed to run on the roads until after APEC conference.

Beijing is also trying to clear people out of the city. Companies in Beijing have 6 days APEC holidays to their employees to let them go travelling, but not in Beijing, since many tourist spots in Beijing such as the Bird Nest, the Water Cube, the Olympic Forest Park are either completely closed during APEC or open only on selective days. Worry not, the Beijing Railway Bureau has increased several lines destined to Shanghai, Hefei, Zaozhuang and Hangzhou City. Think twice if you want to travel by plane though, as it is required to check-in 5 hours ahead. Besides the push, there is also pulling efforts made by nearby cities to get people out of Beijing. Many tourist areas out of Beijing will give half price or even free tickets for tourists from Beijing; hotels and inns are also offering discounts.

Beijing not only encourages people to get out of the city, but also makes some odd rules to minimize traffic and trouble inside the city. For example, marriage registration services and passport application office are closed during APEC; senior economist exam will be postponed until after the conference.

(Beijing on Oct 24, 2014)

(Beijing in early November 2014)

The effect is immediate and astonishing, Beijing has been seeing miraculous blue sky and clear air in November. But everybody knows by heart that this is just temporary and there is still a long way to go to really hold on to such luxuriously clean air. As a matter of fact, netizens have corned this phenomena as "APEC Blue", and use it to refer to something that are beautiful but doom to be short-lived. For instance, "he is not that into you, it is just APEC blue."

 

(Source: Netease)

Sam Smith - In recent days I found myself taking another look at two stories from the past that I had followed closely but had failed to see the connection.

The first was DC Mayor Marion Barry's drug arrest in 1990 and other stories about his drug use during that period.

The other was Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's reported drug use in the same period as well as his look-the-other-way oversight of a state that had become one of the nation's largest drug trading centers. Among the accounts:

Arkansas becomes a major center of gun-running, drugs and money laundering. The IRS warns other law enforcement agencies of the state's "enticing climate." According to Clinton biographer Roger Morris, operatives go into banks with duffel bags full of cash, which bank officers then distribute to tellers in sums under $10,000 so they don't have to report the transaction.

Historian Roger Morris, in his book ''Partners in Power,'' quotes several law enforcement officials who say they had seen and knew of Clinton's drug use. One-time apartment manager Jane Parks claims that in 1984 she could listen through the wall as Bill and Roger Clinton, in a room adjoining hers, discussed the quality of the drugs they were taking.

Journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard will describe the Arkansas of this period as a "major point for the transshipment of drugs" and "perilously close to becoming a 'narco-republic' -- a sort of mini-Columbia within the borders of the United States." There is "an epidemic of cocaine, contaminating the political establishment from top to bottom," with parties "at which cocaine would be served like hors d'oeuvres and sex was rampant." Clinton attends some of these events.

And in the year that Marion Barry was arrested:

 Sharlene Wilson tells a US grand jury investigating drugs in Arkansas that she provided cocaine to Clinton during his first term and that once the governor was so high he fell into a garbage can. The federal drug investigation is shut down within days of her testimony. Wilson flees, terrified of the state prosecuting attorney -- her former lover, and Clinton ally, Dan Harmon. She will be eventually arrested by Harmon himself and sent up for 31 years on a minor drug charge

Mayor Barry would go to prison for his failings in 1991. One year later, Governor Clinton would become president of the United States.Thanks in no small part to a mainstream media that picks and chooses which stories it will cover and which it will pretend never happened. 

Halloween is a time of dreams, when we can be anything or anyone we choose to be. And the United States of America is a country where we eat big, drive big, and we damn sure dream big. We don’t “dress up” for Halloween. We “be” for Halloween. Kids ask themselves, “What are you going to be for Halloween?” It’s a linguistic tip of the hat to the idea that the spookiest of holidays is for transformation, beyond our earthly means. So… what do you want to be for Halloween?

I want to be an insurance commercial for Halloween!

I want to be a hamburger commercial for Halloween!

I want to be a different insurance commercial for Halloween!

I want to be a different hamburger commercial for Halloween!

Unless you’ve lived without popular media for the last decade, you know who these characters are. And the next time your neighbor says hello, but you don’t know their name (let alone anything about them) remember that you know characters from commercials better than you know the actual people who sleep thirty or fifty feet from you, every night, for years.