What I’ve found from all of this is that the net does not buzz with constant activity. To the contrary, there are up days and down days and up hours and down hours. And when things are slow in one place, they tend to be slow everywhere. Then, when they pick up again, they pick up everywhere. It’s like the whole world decides, “For the next X hours, we will all stay offline.”
Sometimes a cause is obvious. An NFL game, a holiday recognized in multiple countries, a dramatic change of weather. But at other times, it just seems that humanity as a species all decide at the same time that they need some time off.
Fascinating.
70 comments:
I got nuthin'. However, I did try the Waffle Taco from Taco Bell and I thought it was damned good.
Really? I haven't even heard of it. I have tried the pretzel burger at Wendy's and the pretzel hot dog at Sonic and found both lacking.
NEW PROBLEM WITH OBAMACARE
It turns out that few of the applications that made it through the Obamacare process and reached the insurers have enough information on them to enroll people. One insurer claimed that less than 1 in a 100 were good enough. Another "guessed" it was around 50%.
What this means is...
Experts said that if Healthcare.gov's success rate doesn't improve within the next month or so, federal officials could face a situation in January in which relatively large numbers of people believe they have coverage starting that month, but whose enrollment applications are have not been processed.
They said the fault is mainly at the Federal government's site which is handling this for 36 states and that the Feds will need to contact those people themselves to get more information before the insurers can continue.
Whoops.
Here's the link: LINK
If you want to see something a little creepy actually, here's a robot created by DOD which can run. The whole thing is like something out of science fiction.
Wildcat
Andrew- here is another interesting development. Now we all know O'Care was touted to help all of those people who couldn't get and/or afford insurance. But in those states that have opted out of the Medicaid expansion, there are people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but, not enough to qualify for gov't subsidies. Huh???
On the biorhythm thing. Interesting because that would rman, like ant to plankton, humans are a giant collective organism that ebbs and flows together. Until there is conflict which disrupts the collective. Don't tell the Communists they are on to something...YIPES!
it takes a village (eeewwwww!)
Bev, except the communists aren't onto anything. They want to form a collective where they get to decide who are the works and drones while they appoint themselves Queen Bee. But that's not how natural collectives work. They are self-organizing, which means one cannot simply stand in a high place and declare himself in charge. In fact, about the only way to be in charge on the internet is to demonstrate some area of competence. That is a very irksome idea to communists who only subscribe to the theory with aspirations of control.
So the country is in "chaos" and Obama thinks that the owner of the Redskins should change the name...because if HE were the owner that's what he would do. Seriously...country is in "chaos" and this is what he chooses to dwell on.
What is the take-a-way, here? Hmmm, faux crisis...
tryanmax and Andrew -
I can't say I've ever had the waffle taco... but last time I was at IHOP (iHop?), I had the Cinn-A-Stack French Toast. It was perfection... and might as well be desert!
As for Obamacare, my folks mentioned it to me since it's been on the news lately and I told them I'm not thinking about it at the moment. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some basic health insurance through the Container Store during the next enrollment period.
At least, that's the theory. :-)
Bev, It does suggest that we are a giant collective creature in some strange way. I've tried very hard to find a cause for this, but I can't. It literally happens the world over (the sites I visit and sales data are from everywhere).
Sometimes, it can be explained because of a major event (e.g. Superbowl) or because it's the first nice day of Spring in one of the hemispheres or it's a worldwide holiday, but beyond that, there doesn't seem to be a reason for it.
And it's bizarrely consistent. I have never seen a busy day in one place and then slow days at the other places. I'm not sure I understand it, but it must be part of some sort of human rhythm pattern, like we need X hours off after Y hours on or something. It's very strange.
Terry, That is oddly creepy. It's like watching to beginning phases of Terminator construction or something. Can you see those things patrolling streets in the future?
Bev, On the medicaid v. subsidy issue, that shows how stupidly this law was constructed. This is what happens when you let liberals write laws.
As an aside, I understand that 2/3 of the people they wanted to cover with Medicaid are in states that aren't playing along.
Jed, It takes a Borg.
tryanmax, Very, very true. Natural collectives form around things the members see as needs. Communists offer only anti-needs. "I give you suffering in the name of equality, which is something no one needs... even if you want it."
Communism really is just about swapping around those who have needs with those who don't, but it only achieves this for the elite few. So it really doesn't offer anything to people.
And yes, communist and competent rarely go together in the same sentence.
Bev, That's been becoming the Civil Rights issue for anguished white liberals... which tells you how pathetic they've become.
Scott, Don't sweat it. The worst that happens is you get hit with a 1% tax.
Andrew, there is a fairly recently discovered phenomenon (if that's the right word) called circaseptan rhythm, which means "about seven."
The Wikipedia page on the topic reads, in it's entirety, "A circaseptan rhythm is a cycle consisting of 7 days in which many biological processes of life resolve."
When I say "fairly recently" I mean biologists have known about it since the 90s. I can only guess as to why this phenomenon isn't more widely acknowledged, studied and discussed. (And I think I have a really good guess.)
Interestingly, the seven-day week is not the only week ever tried. In ancient times, various cultures dabbled with weeks as short as three days and as long as ten. The Revolutionary French attempted a 10-day week, as well. The discovery of circaseptan rhythm seems to shed some light as to why the whole world settled on the tradition of a single ancient nomadic middle-eastern tribe. (Some also credit the Babylonians with the seven-day week, but really their lunar system was a mess requiring constant adjustments.)
tryanmax, Fascinating. I wasn't aware of that!
Human nature really is fascinating to study. It really is about patterns and rhythms, complete with pendulum-like behavior. In fact, it's bizarrely mathematical, just like everything else on the planet.
As an aside, I actually suspect humans did not evolve in Africa. I think they evolved in Asia. The reason I think this is the concentration of the population. If you flatten the world and look at the population, you will see what looks just like "the golden spiral," which you see in things like sea shells, the human shape and disease spreading patterns. And the center of the spiral is south-east Asia. That tells me that that is where humanity started and it spread out from there. Africa is actually a remote arm.
The reason I think they wrongly think it's Africa is because (1) that's where they looked when they came up with the theory, so that became the favorite, and breaking that momentum has been too hard, and (2) fossils are better preserved in Africa, which is dry and geologically stable, thus it's easier to find older fossils in Africa than Asia.
I recently encountered another theory that debunks the "out of Africa" theory from a genetic standpoint. The genetic OOA theory states that the diversity in Africa demonstrates they are the oldest population. However, it doesn't account for reverse-migration, so the counter theory says that a sufficiently isolated group will appear older than an non-isolated group. Historically, Africa has been very isolated, whereas the Middle East--which shows genetic signs of being the second-oldest--has always been a hotbed of migration.
Interesting. Africa is indeed isolated, seeing as how it must have broken off from the rest of the landmass fairly early to be so far from India, and with access to Africa being blocked by warring tribes and a series of ever-worsening deserts.
I wonder if they have completely a gene map and what that says?
Obviously, this is all still speculation, but I put a lot of faith in the mathematical case which tells me that Africa can't be the center, it is just a distant arm of the spiral. I will not be at all surprised if the scientists change their minds over the next 100-200 years.
I'm sure there's more than a little political motivation behind the out of Africa theory. If it is to be believed, then it represents the largest case ever of "white flight." LOL
LOL! Nice. That's how you get banned from scientific journals. :-P
I like how Gloria Allred (always a source of hilarity) is defending the biker that got run over after his gang surrounded and attacked an SUV. If she can successfully sue the banker who was trying to escape from the crazed bikers, she is the best defense lawyer ever,
Anthony, I almost wrote about that instead today. Amazing. So this guy and his buddies decide to intimidate some guy and end up getting hurt and now he thinks he's the victim? Give me a break.
As an aside, have you seen the picture of the gang catching up to this guy? They are lucky it wasn't me. I would have thinned the ranks with my car... a man on a motorcycle is no match for a man in an SUV.
'The guy didn't hold still and let us beat him to death and I want to be paid for my resultant injuries!'.
Anthony, Exactly. Actually, the guy is trying to claim that he wasn't involved, he was just trying to help his fellow gang members who had been injured. Tough. He shouldn't have joined the gang in the first place.
Actually, Allred is implicating two plainclothes or "undercover" cops who allegedly stood by as the father who had his wife and new baby in the car were being menaced and was eventually beaten. I am sure she is looking at the deeper pockets of NYC rather than the Tech millionaire father.
Bev, He's in a tough spot and I'm not sure how he was supposed to act. I saw that they suspended him though.
Allegedly the injured biker didn't have a license either. And the Hell's Angels are furious with this biker group. Apparently menacing parents with babies is crossing the line.
Bev, I saw that about the Hells Angels. That makes sense because it makes them all look bad. What kind of tough guy beats up a nerd who is with his wife and kid? That's shamefully pathetic bullying... very cowardly.
Footage: LINK
Here is the timeline I've gathered from it and some news reports.
-Biker pulls in front of black SUV and slows down resulting in a fender bender.
-Everyone stops. Now, news reports say that here the other bikers started attacking but the bike the camera had moved to far ahead to see much of anything*.
-Then he hit the gas and sped away. You can see him speeding out.
-Chase ensues into urban area where the car reaches traffic, stops and several bikers begin bashing the windows with one break the driver's seat window. The camera ends before the man was dragged from vehicle.
Notes.
1.) You can clearly see the biker moving in front of the vehicle and slowing down. He even appears to be looking back as he slows down. That motorcyclist has been arrested.
2.) Upon closer inspection, shortly before the SUV plows its way out, you can possibly make out what appears to be some bikers possibly standing around the car. Again, its hard to see.
3.) The NYPD may have other evidence as it is possible that other bikers might have had cameras.
They were trying to shut the highway down. The video I saw, there wasn't a car on the Westside Highway. THAT's unusual for NYC. And one of the bikers was wearing a helmet-cam. They surround the SUV, started beating on the windoes and then spiked his tires. Now if one thinks that the driver overreacted, I would say not. This isn't the first time this gang has menaced NYC. Last year they took over Times Square.
Bev, I don't think he overreacted at all. If anything he showed great restraint. When they threatened this guy with physical violence, they opened themselves up to whatever he felt was needed to defend himself. They are lucky he stopped by just hitting a couple.
And whining about it now is PATHETIC. They should change the name of their gang to the Whining Wussies.
Like I said before, the REAL target is NYC, not the driver. I expect a complaint filed in NY County against the driver (just because they have to) and the NYC police department. Since there's already a war going on against the Dept in general. I'm so curious, I will be on the watch for it.
Bev, I think you're right. They will sue the city/county because that is where the money is. The thing is, I'm not sure what they're going to claim though.
When it comes to police actions, the state typically has total immunity. The only exception is something like a civil rights violation. And since there's no civil rights issue here (e.g. the cop wasn't the one beating on anyone), the city/county should be immune.
Moreover, even if they aren't, I don't see how they create a claim here. Presumably, they'll argue that the undercover cop had a duty to protect them, but (1) I am not aware of such a thing in law and (2) they instigated this, which means they are the negligent party, and (3) I don't see how the undercover cop could have done anything before the injury occurs.
The claim would literally need to be: "The moment we started beating on that guy's car, the cop should have stopped us," and that's a frivolous claim.
Will be interesting to see where this goes.
"The video I saw, there wasn't a car on the Westside Highway."
I caught that as well.
"They surround the SUV, started beating on the windoes and then spiked his tires. Now if one thinks that the driver overreacted, I would say not."
I want to make clear I was not trying to deny that. I was stating what I could see in the footage. And the video I saw was shot too far way to get a truly good look at whether or not they were attacking the vehicle before he plowed over the guy. All I could see in the footage was a bunch of bikers stopped in a cluster around the SUV. Too far away to see anything else in the video.
But there are reports (that I mentioned) that say that the bikers were trying to attack his vehicle at that time and you can see one biker walking towards the gathering before the SUV speeds off.
Now, the confrontation that resulted in the driver's injuries happened a while later down the road.
"Now, the confrontation that resulted in the driver's injuries happened a while later down the road."
That they had stalked and harassed him down.
-----------
"The claim would literally need to be: "The moment we started beating on that guy's car, the cop should have stopped us," and that's a frivolous claim."
That would be entertaining.
Kit, It doesn't matter. A self-defense claim does not rely on actual violence, just the threat of violence. And when these guys surrounded his car, that was as good as telling him they intended to kill him. At that point, he was free (IMO) to use whatever force he felt was necessary to defend his life and the lives of his family whether or not they were actually beating on the car.
Kit, There are lawyers who will argue truly stupid claims like that, but it should be tossed out and would likely result in sanctions against the attorney.
"A self-defense claim does not rely on actual violence, just the threat of violence."
I agree. I should wait until I finish putting thought into coherent words before I post.
Andrew,
The claim is why Gloria Allred is trying to call her client an "innocent victim" and saying that he was trying to stop the violent.
Well, if and when a complaint appears, I will send it to you. This ought to be really interesting...I can't wait to see what a judge will do! I think you are so right, but I can almost see it now - They didn't stop us from trying to assault that guy and his little innocent baby and other NY'ers too! They should have...shame on the NYC undercover cops! They violated our civil rights by not stopping us! Those heartless b@stards! They should have stop us!
Bev, Great, send me the complaint when they file! :)
LOL! Yeah. I think that's what it will be. Allred will probably try to clean it up a bit... "Allowed a dangerous situation caused by a negligent driver to escalate." But the underlying part she will dance around is that the gang brought this on themselves.
Or she'll present totally false facts, like Kit is referencing: "innocent victim"... just helping little old ladies cross the street all day, when I happened upon this gang oh my! I tried to stop the violence and protect those who had been injured, but this man who appeared to be an undercover cop just kept laughing at me, and then I was run down... boo hoo hoo.
Bev, You have no idea how hard it is to keep a straight face while reading your last post.
Genius!
Kit, The twisted part is that Allred could argue that with a straight face.
"Kit, The twisted part is that Allred could argue that with a straight face."
So Bev's satirical mocking of the gang's claims might suffer from an effect similar to Poe's Law?
LINK
Kit, I hadn't heard of that one, but yes. I love the quote they lead off with:
"Satire doesn't stand a chance against reality anymore."
— Jules Feiffer in 1959
Here is the NYPost on it: "Gloria Allred’s defense of ‘innocent’ injured biker"
Maybe Bev should do the post from the point of view of someone supporting the biker's side.
Kit - I will wait for the complaint to filed and the post will write itself. And dear Lord, she's licensed in NY. Poor guy, he's so damaged that he can't even hire her yet! Isn't that unethical? What am I saying? It's Gloria Allred! Everything she does skirts legal ethics.
"I will wait for the complaint to filed and the post will write itself."
Like what was said above: "Satire doesn't stand a chance against reality anymore." — Jules Feiffer in 1959
:) ... :(
One thing I love about old movies are the quotes that really hit you today...
"I have to really like a girl to spend eight-five cents on her." (1941)
LINK
Kit, It was meant to sound cheap even back then, but it really sounds cheap now.
Well, to be fair, $0.85 would get you $13.52 today.
LINK
Ah, screw it. I flubbed that. Sorry about that. I didn't see you reply until it was too late. Sorry.
But that is a funny line.
Kit, It is. I laughed when he said it.
Andrew....and Bev.....I think we will see this video in a commercial for Land Rover soon.
Announcer: (In British accent) "Surrounded by hooligans? Scared for you and your family's life? You needn't be in the new 2013 Range Rover 'Urban America' model. Designed for those times when you need to 'Escape from New York" in a hurry, the all new Range Rover delivers unparalleled safety and road clearance for those afternoon excursions on some of America's most dangerous byways like the Westside Highway. Whether you're surrounded by undercover bobbies in motor cycles gangs or just transporting your wife and child to an afternoon spot of tea, the all new Range Rover Urban America allows you to avoid danger in any form. See your local Range Rover dealer today and ask for the "Danger Avoidance" options. Your family will be glad you did."
One Factor in Biorhythms for the Internet may be related to the placement of continents on the planet.
11,000 miles
11,000 Miles
The Atlantic's width varies from 1,538 nautical miles (2,848 km; 1,770 mi) between Brazil and Sierra Leone to over 3,450 nautical miles (6,400 km; 4,000 mi) in the south.[citation needed]
Atlantic Ocean
Sorry this link did not go through
Kit I have not been following this but the story I heard was that these gangs go in the highways attempting to stall traffic. The get in front of cars and pop wheelies and pull other stunts to slow the cars down and freak the other drivers out as part of some stupid game.
I think this is what Cruz was arrested for. The tape captures him doing this. Supposedly the driver surrounded by these guys freaked out that his car would be hit and ran through the bikes to get away running over Miertz.
I think however in the civil suit filed by the biker that was run over .... I heard he is suing the driver of the SUV that he is going to have a hard time prevailing if the other bikers names won't be revealed/
Patriot, They need to sell a motorcycle plow.
Indi, I don't follow you about the oceans?
The Pacific Ocean is much wider than the Atlantic and on top of that it is S shaped meaning there are land masses that jut out into various time zones. Plus the Islands on the Atlantic are more populous.
The Pacific probably has more time zones that are relatively unpopulated due to the lack of land mass and the fact the land mass in the ocean Australia, New Zealand Borneo that does jut into the ocean are probably less populated.
So as day goes over the pacific there may very well be a reduction in human activity in general including internet activity. This might account for a rhythm in activity (or it might not) that is a daily cycle. Maybe not all of it.
Just thinking out loud
Indi, It's not rhythmic. It's just unified worldwide. For example, you may get a Tuesday night that is stunningly slow compared to normal Tuesday nights. Or you may get a Friday that is super busy or super slow compared to normal.
I haven't been able to find a pattern in it, except that it happens globally when it happens.
Well then I got nothing except that there should be a pattern somewhere due to time of day.
I swear, it's phases of the moon. And not in some 1970s "what's your sign" sense, but more like a woman's menstrual cycle - if you don't get too caught up in it, you can almost anticipate the next time the Internet's going to go through a kumbayah phase, followed by an extra-bitchy phase. I'm sure this is influenced, to some degree, by news of the day - but it's more in how we react to the news, than in the news, itself. (I got here by searching "biorhythm of the internet" so obviously, I agree with you. I think this bears further study.)
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