Manipulating a Person to Create an Imbalanced Trade

Hahahahah!!

But really, just like how hacking improves security, I believe that understanding how manipulation works could improve the sophistication of trade. I'm going to describe a 2-step case of manipulation with a story. Environments this can be used in include flea markets, used car lots, with real estate agents, garage sales, craft fairs, black markets, vehicle/computer repair stores, or with your 'friends' you jerk. Basically anywhere where the person you're purchasing from owns the rights to the item being purchased.

Imagine a situation where you and somebody, lets call them Jack, have some items to trade. Alright, before we can begin to describe the process of manipulating Jack to create an imbalanced trade we must first take heed of two things: what Jack wants and what Jack knows. The reason why we must know what Jack wants is so that we may appeal the emotions of Jack. The reason we have to know what Jack knows is so that we can avoid getting detected in our disingenuous schemes!

Go: Jack comes up to you and is like, "Look I just got a lot of [magical item]!" Jealous, and wanting to get more of this [magical item], you start your game.

The first step you can take is to make Jack think less of the [magical item]. THE BEST way to do this is to find REAL faults with the [magical item]. For example, when you go to purchase a used car you may notice that there is a dent in the door or a crack in the windshield. Call those things out -> ????? -> Profit! You can also do this by providing false information about the [magical item] or by devaluing the positive impact of the [magical item]. The reason you may wish to provide false information alongside real information is because perhaps you just can't get the price low enough being honest! And if you can get better than the honest price, why not?

The easiest way to have somebody believe false information is to guise it in an informal fallacy. The reason that informal fallacies are useful in this situation is because Jack isn't stupid, and he knows the basic information about his [magical item]. If we tried telling him that his [magical item] does something extra or doesn't do something that he knows it does, he'll [b]catch us[/b]. Boo. But if we used an informal fallacy such as "Oh, everybody I know that has [magical item] actually say it isn't that great in regard Y" then he will generally be more willing to assimilate your proposition, rather than to just discount it. Also, a key about using informal fallacies is that they are generally difficult to verify! That means two things: Jack would have difficulty verifying it on the spot, and that Jack probably hasn't had the chance to verify such information in the past, especially if the proposition false.


Particularly useful informal fallacies:
-Argumentum Ad Populum: It is of my experience that people tend to trust - at least somewhat - the popular opinion. Nevertheless, be careful because there are some people that - for some reason - are inclined to reject popular opinion.
-Argumentum ad Verecundiam: Similarly you can tell somebody that a very respectable authority claimed something to be true. The awesome thing about this is it doesn't have to be true at all! Precede what you're claiming the authority to have said with the fragment "Dr. X said something like" and all of a sudden your claims are unverifiable.
-Slippery Slope: Oh, this one is slightly harder to employ but so useful. To use this one effectively you could tell Jack "Hey, I heard people that use [magical item] tend to get addicted to [magical item], which leads to [negative habit]."
-Appeal to Emotion: This requires knowing a little about your victims values. Lets say that Jack has a strong aversion to stupid people. You could then claim that the people that generally use [magical item] are stupid, and you don't really want to get caught up with that crowd.

These are all methods of making Jack feel as if his [magical item] isn't quite so valuable. That is, the process we are undergoing is lowering the oppositions wealth inherited from the desired item. Also, the opposition will assume you will not trade quite as much as you would have for the item. It is important that you don't overdo it because the next step is to do the first trade!

Step two is to encounter your first trade with Jack. For some reason you want some of this devalued item. Luckily people don't make sense and you don't have to either. Besides, you're just "trying it out" for the first time! You're not certain of how much the product will benefit you! So you make an offer to give Jack something, probably money, for his [magical item]. Depending on your success at changing Jack's opinion of his [magical item] through information manipulation, you'll get a lower price.

Again, Jack isn't stupid, he wants to get the best price, too, so he's going to try and haggle the price upward! How might he do this and how can you detect it?

1) He may take a long pause or seem undecided, which means he wants more. In these cases your job is to IMMEDIATELY withdraw your offer for trade. A statement like "Oh, well don't worry about it then" does the trick. This does two things: (1) It makes it so that Jack must make his decision to trade or not trade immediately, and (2) If Jack keeps a supply, it makes possible for you to reissue the same offer next time the situation arises.

2) He might lie to you. It's generally hard to tell if somebody is lying, especially if they know how, but a few indicators are: (1) They look towards the right, which indicates creative rather than factual thinking, (2) they touch their face which indicates a rush of blood to the head, (3) they act defensively.

3) He might just outwardly claim he feels like he's being tricked. Just dismiss this with "Well, hmm, I don't know, hmm..."

Beware of:
Competition: Most industries tend to have competition. If Jack is aware of the market conditions for his good then make sure you do not ask for the same quantity of that good that the market provides. That way there is no direct way for Jack to tell if the transaction is inferior or not. Competition can also be used in your advantage if Jack isn't aware of the market conditions. This allows you to claim market conditions. When claiming market conditions you must make sure you're claiming the market sells a different amount than the amount you're buying to avoid any direct indicators of what the price should be in your transaction. I'm sure by this point you're already thinking about making the market look like it offers a better deal than the one you're asking for. ;) Prepare a couple reasons for why you're willing to buy at a worse price than the market offers, ofc. My favourite two are: (1) I just don't want to head over to [place where market is] right now, and (2) I know you have to make a profit.

Useful Phrases:
 "That sounds about right" <-- When accepting offers
"Well, hmm, I'm not so sure, hmmm" <-- To avoid confrontation
"Yeah, but I heard"  <-- To acknowledge information in passing while changing the focus in your favour
"But here's what I'll do for you" <-- When offering to do a trade.

Keep In Mind
Build rapport with your victims!
Stay flexible as the process is highly circumstantial!
Don't be evil!

Markedness

This will be brief, because the idea is simple. The purpose of this writing is to make adjectives more meaningful. I will be doing this by discussing the concept of markedness and by attempting to show the applications of it.

You're at a meeting. Eight people are dressed in suits. One person is dressed in a hotdog outfit. The person in the hotdog outfit is the marked person. Why? Because they are the person that stands out. Another way we can state this is they are the person that makes us think about something special. Now, check out the following statement:

You are my favourite reader!

So, which word stands out? That's the marked one. Check out this next sentence:

You are my favourite reader!

The same word is the marked one, but it doesn't stand out as much. That is, it's not as marked. What we can tell about this information is that something is not only marked or unmarked, but rather something is placed along a spectrum of markedness. We can relate that to almost all adjectives. One is smart or not smart, but rather they are somewhere along the spectrum.

Markedness: The quality of an object that determines how much that object innately provokes thought.

What are the requirements for something to have markedness? Well, we can easily deduce that all objects have some level of markedness, so the real questions is: What makes something more marked than something else? There are a few conditions making something especially marked:

(1) It is out of context.
(2) It is a large part of the context.
(3) Attention is purposefully directed toward it.

Gotta fly.

Schedule Optimization

"The key to success is motivation. The blueprint to success is organization."
-Gary Shikora

Opportunity cost is the price encountered when one decides to do one thing and is thus unable to do the next best alternative. I define Schedule Optimization as the process in which one attempts to use their time in the way that results in the least opportunity cost. The concept of opportunity cost is frequently used in not one, but two models. I will temporarily refer to these two models as (1) the exchange model, and (2) the time model. I find one of these models to be primitive. In any case, I would do well to illuminate what I mean by the two models.

Let the exchange model of opportunity cost be used for exchanges. Let there be two parties. When these two parties are to trade goods they must consider if they are using their resources optimally. Lets say there is another party. This new party offers the first party a finer deal than the second party. The second party is rejected and the first and third parties undergo trade. The objects of trade can be anything of wealth, i.e., anything we value. The reason why the first party opted to trade with the third party is because the third party offered more wealth to the first party. As such, the opportunity cost of trading with the third party was less than the opportunity cost of trading with the second party.

Let the time model of opportunity cost be be the process in which one makes a decision to better their lives, with their lives being the set of all time they are sentient. One may quickly make note that one must decide to make an exchange. Yes, it is then true that the exchange model preforms only one of the many functions of the time model. Furthermore, the time model has the capacity to be used within the realm of one's personal productions, extending it's authority to all possible living human phenomena. Let us now assert that the exchange model is totally worthless as it only looks at a very narrow part of the opportunity costs we all endure, and move on to explaining the possible situations of living human phenomena.

A very simple rendition of the processes of a given human would be: Sensory input leads to internal learning functions which result in outputs. Because one is constantly queued to make some sort of action, we can determine that all individuals decide at the margin. We can also assert that margin extends for what we call a moment. Now, within each of these moments a human decides what to output. When making this decision they are - consciously or not -  determining their opportunity cost. I assert there is a dichotomy of the decisions a human can make. One category shall be contemplated decisions, with the other category being decisions not completed. The two categories should be handled very different for schedule optimization.

Before moving onto the complexities of contemplated situations I will first assert that decisions without contemplation are much easier to facilitate. That is, there are two very direct ways to improve decision making without having to contemplate decisions. The first method is through good health. The second method is through conditioning. I assert that the more one becomes familiarized with a given subject the easier thought becomes on that topic. I would attribute this phenomena to the concept of intuition. The concept of intuition shall be defined as the process in which a human rapidly comes to a decision by recomposing past ideas. Exampli gratia: the more one reads economic textbooks then the less time they will have to spend consciously thinking in order to produce a decision related to economics to the point in which no time is spent consciously thinking at all. Furthermore, I believe one can build an intuition for building intuitions. So, to optimize a given area of decisions made without conscious thinking you must build an intuition for that given area of decisions. What about decisions made with conscious thinking?

Decisions made with contemplation require a lot of work to optimize. I will assert that the optimal understanding of a decision is when the decision can be made both accurately and intuitively. However, when building an intuition one is faced with their conscious. When communicating with one's conscious I think it is very important for one to remain open and to not take themselves too seriously. Any other way and one may very well establish an intuition that is not sound or accurate. It is much harder to learn things once learned wrong than to learn things not learned at all. I digress, when handling one's conscious one must be very keen on weaknesses. If we assert that an intuitive understanding for something is a strength, then any lack thereof would be a weakness. If one is able to locate and eradicate these weaknesses at some positive rate, then they will be able to move toward an intuitive understanding.

Finally, there is a category of contemplated decisions which are just so freaking complicated nobody has the time to intuitively understand them. Rational ignorance. With these sort of subjects comes the heavy labor of schedule optimization. Humanities primary method of retaining and building ideas that cannot be readily produced is to immortalize the ideas with symbols, namely language. I am by no means qualified to tell anybody how to organize their ideas, but I am able to express how I handle mine. When I want to handle ideas I don't wish to commit to memory I think of one thing: technology. The goal of technology is to minimize production costs, and there just so happens to be plentitudes of technology available that would minimize almost anybody's personal production costs ....

1. GOOGLE CALENDAR "Free"
-I think this is like the best thing ever for people that are constantly moving/have something to do. I hate having to remember when everything is due, when that dance is, who I need to see tomorrow, so with Google Calendar I gleefully abstain from any such duties. Google Calendar allows one to create recurring events, which is why I opted for it over other calendars I could have chosen.


2. Smartphone/Tablet Pretty expensive
-The smartphone/tablet PC is becoming more popular than 'conventional' PCs. For good reason. Without my smartphone I wouldn't have constant access to countless news feeds, Wikipedia, The World Factbook, Google, Wolfram, and Dictionary.com. All these internet technologies are very essential to expediting the expression of ideas. If one hasn't the ability to readily pursue their thoughts then they are bound to forget at least some of them.

3. Notecards Becoming peculiarly more expensive
-I like to carry a couple notecards in my pocket because I am a student. More specifically, I hate taking notes but I love listening to lectures. However, there comes certain times during lectures when I wish to pursue more information, but can't take my iPhone out and do so, because I am listening to the lecture. In these cases I write down on a notecard a couple things. The first thing is what idea I am interesting in pursuing. The second thing is the way I plan on pursuing it, be it the book for the class or a simple Wiki search.

4. A Briefcase Like 50-100 bucks, but who carries a briefcase?
Ok, so it's kind've a weird fashion statement that a lot of people probably just don't want to make, but a briefcase is an amazing tool for organization. There are plenty of alternatives like backpacks, purses, satchels, binders, etc, but briefcase has been my favorite because I am able to neatly organize and readily access my belongings in a single compartment. Furthermore, I hate wearing backpacks.


5. Good Friends Is it ok to be calling humans technology? No, really?
My friends tend to remind me things about my life without even trying all the time. They are also there to talk to when I feel like expressing an idea but don't know how. Friends can generally help with that, because you can generally tell when somebody does and does not understand you. Also, good social health is important, etc.


So, a recap. 
-Opportunity costs are always present.
-The process of minimizing opportunity cost for decisions differs depending on which types of decisions are being addressed (those that are contemplated, and those that are not).
-Conditioning builds stronger intuition.
-Effective use of technology helps one to stay organized.

-Khriss

An Essay on Debate for the Maximization of Utility

It is no doubt that with the ever-expanding nature of human production, and thus demand for capital, that we – as a society – are ascending toward a more economical attitude. However, while the stress of keeping an able economy is mounting, the idea of using resources economically has been around since deep into antiquity. If one were to take a brief look into history one would observe different, independent, unique forms of government that all aim at one common deed: to provide supply for the demand of a union by making the best use of the union’s commodities. Let the term union be defined as the persons living within the affected body of the provided government(s). And Let the term commodities be defined as it would in Marxism (Marx). I believe that the crux of government is the ability to use debate and reasoning to maximize utility. Out of interest, I shall provide an abridged system of debate which aims to provide the best argumentative medium for maximizing utility .

First, it is rudimentary to explain two things: 1) what is meant by debate, and 2) the purpose of debate. Let debate be all argumentative discourse (Lyon, L.I) between two parties that proposes change. Ideally, the two parties of the debate would be working together to find the best adaptation of the proposed change. Let it be decided that a proposition shall be formatted in a manner that states a single subject should undergo some definite change. Let it also be decided that in order to affirm a change should take place we must first find - through debate - if the net acceptance of the affected body is positive or negative. Therefore, we can currently consider that the goal of a debate is to find the most economical model of ethics for the given proposition based on the affected body. Now, let it be decided that the purpose of debate is to establish changes which would create a net improvement amongst all domains of economy. Later on, I shall provide that all of the most pragmatic, and formal models of ethics can be represented economically.

Next, I shall explain what I mean by the domains of economy. I would first like to provide that an economy is by no means bounded by a monetary connotation, id est, the economy of one’s emotions should be personally relevant in issues which one has invested sentiment. I will adopt the system of academia that segregates Economics and Ethics. In order to keep terminology clear throughout my explaination I will temporarily refer to the academic disciplines of Economics and Ethics as, respectively, the financial domain and the moral domains of economics. Let it be asserted that the purpose of financial domain is to provide the most money. Let it be asserted that money is to provide a type capital that can be easily traded for other commodities. Let it be asserted that the purpose of commodities is to bring their bearers pleasure. Therefore, the purpose of the financial domain is to bring its bearers the most pleasure. Therefore, the financial domain is a device in pleasure, and thus also a device in pain. Let it be asserted that the system of pleasure and pain is a device in utilitarianism (Amicus). Let it be asserted that utilitarianism is a device in the moral domains (J.S. Mill). Therefore, the financial domain is a device for the moral domains, id est, ethics.

Now that the two domains of economics have been consolidated into a single entity, I will no longer refer to the Economics and Ethics as previously provided. Instead, I shall observe that Economics is a tool for actualizing the goals of Ethics. Therefore, I can now clearly state that the goals of debate are to: 1) Determine if a proposition is ethical, and 2) Improve and manipulate the proposition to its most ethical form. I shall now go on to describe the processes inherent to achieving these goals.

Let the process of determining if a proposition is ethical be described. A natural method is to observe the amount of demand for commodities. Let it be asserted that as the demand of a commodity increase so does the perceived positive impact by society. A notion against this method one must take heed of is the notion that a commodity can be unproductive. Furthermore, a commodity may be partially unproductive and partially productive. Exempli gratia, a steak may overall be productive due to the rich protein and efficiency of distribution, but the unwanted fats and the sufficiently less diligent workers are still unproductive commodities. One can draw the line between productive and unproductive in the same spot one would for desired and undesired.

The process of determining the demand of a commodity shall now be addressed. To do this it is important to analyze statistics in both the marketplace as well as in any relevant polls within the affected community. Exempli gratia, if there existed a family where five people wanted corn and three people wanted peas, and the cost of obtaining both were equal, then the corn is clearly the more popular choice. However, if the price of peas were double the price of corn, then determining which one is truly more desired becomes more complicated. If the family were to observe that while a majority of them enjoy peas more than corn, it could still turn out that most of them would still rather choose corn in the marketplace due to the cheaper price. However, if, perhaps, the town they lived in realized that their residents wanted peas more than corn, then, perhaps, they could shift their agricultural focus in order to improve utility and happiness for the residents. The key concept is that while the marketplace may suggest that the affected body enjoys one substance more than another - due to the elasticity of the market - that may only be due to a lack of other resources that would have been purchased instead. To be able to identify situations like these and investigate accordingly is a talent of a good debater.

Let the process of manipulating a proposition to its most ethical form be described. The debater’s duty of maximizing utility is fulfilled by: 1) maximizing prospect of all the productive commodities a proposition presents, 2) minimizing the possibility of all unproductive commodities a proposition presents, and 3) identifying how desirable productive commodities are. In achieving this, the two teams shall work together. Let the teams be bisected into the affirmative team and the negative team. The affirmative team shall: 1) exhibit the productive commodities a change would produce, 2) manipulate the proposition to avoid unproductive commodities the change would produce, and 3) identify how desirable the productive commodities are in relation to each other. The negative team shall: 1) argue the positive effects of the presented productive commodities are minimal, 2) exhibit the unproductive commodities the change would produce, and 3) identify how undesirable the unproductive qualities are in relation to each other.

With this system of debate defined, I am now to compare it to other popular systems of debate to ensure that it prevails above them in its goal of the acquisition of utility. First, one may disqualify all forms of debate that preclude written argumentation, for written argumentation has: 1) a higher capacity for logical analysis inherent to its immortalized state, 2) an easier method of distribution, which allows for more opinions and thus more refinement, and 3) the ability to be continued over an indefinite amount of time by an indefinite amount of persons. Secondly, one may disqualify all forms of debate that rely on an appeal to an audience, for these are intrinsically manipulative as the teams have an incentive to win (Lyon, L.V). With these two disqualifications of debate devices one would find that there are no contemporary systems of debate left to consider. Therefore, this is the best current system of debate for maximizing utility.

While I would argue this system is not the best possible system, I would argue that it is better than all other current systems. I believe that improvements could be made upon this system, such as the addition of a faction of each debate team that participates in a judged, oral debate. With this faction running concurrently and under the right conditions, perhaps it would promote better research and intuitive understanding of the debated issues. The infinite series of improvements like this is only limited by the resources of human imagination.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism can be succinctly defined as a perspective dictating that the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people is ideal. Pragmatically, this is hard to refute.

If we are to define utility then we would be compelled to assert it as something that provides some fashion of benefit. Furthermore, when handling matters concerning human productions, benefit would be defined as whatever aids the mentality of humans, or rather, whatever makes humans happier. Therefor, utility coincides with subsequent happiness encouraged from utilization of said utility.

Utilitarianism. The best is what makes the most happy. Seems easy enough, right?

One fatal flaw. Happiness is not all encompassing. The countless variations of emotional state are all vital for integral development. Not a single one can be objectively stated as inferior to another. Happiness as an ultimate goal is a childish perspective of 'good and bad' with ambitions far too restricting. I'll use guilt as an example.

Guilt is an emotion that one feels when they observe that others have found their actions to be inferior or insufficient. When one feels guilt they normally feel obligated to rid the possibility of such guilt occurring in the future. This is true with other 'negative' emotions, as well. I digress. With the attempt to solve the problem of guilt one will better their situation. While they may not immediately remedy all such faults, they will *definitely* produce thoughts that will increase their mental activity in such a way that they will be better equipped for the future. In fact, all situations encountered cause a response that will give the person the *opportunity* to become better equipped for the future. Whether or not somebody is open-minded and creative enough to harness each moment is another thing.

So on the scale of personal development we can see that total happiness would fall short of allowing one to have complete development. Seems obvious, huh?

That's not all. Humans aren't the only thing in this universe, and there is absolutely nothing that causes us to fall under a different criteria for physical interactions. Gravity still affects us. We can't produce things against the will of the ever powerful wavefunctions that persist a stable flow of all universal actions. The most simplest way to put it is, the best is what happens. Because that is what is *stable*. Everything else would make the universe bluescreen. Crash. Kaboom.

So utilitarianism? A *convenient* ideal that should be encouraged in situations in which there are multiple people involved when no other superior system is available. Logically sound? Not quite.

The First Steps in Learning

Is amplifying your capacity to learn. Seems like a catch-22, huh? Learning how to learn? Sounds gnarly. It's actually a very easy process, though, and I'm sure you can do it. I'll be supplying you with a list of different activities, behaviors, and topics. With these you may select the ones that appeal to you and ignore the rest as you see fit. While deciding though, remember that reading all of it will produce the best results.

Best results -> Best learning -> Best information -> Best responses -> Happy

Diet
I cannot stress this too much. The benefits of a good diet are tremendous. It would be nearly impossible to go through all of the different details on how to diet, but there are some very basic measures you should take.

1. Avoid drugs and alcohol. This should be obvious
2. Drink tons of water. A gallon a day if possible.
3. Don't let yourself get hungry. When you're hungry, your body is sending you a panic response.
4. Take a multivitamin designed for your profile (age, gender). This will ensure that you get all of the proper vitamins your body and mind needs.
5. Invest in some Fish Oil. The Omega-3 fatty acids support development of your brain.
6. If you have internet handy ... look up the foods you're eating. Some things may surprise you.

Lifestyle
Lifestyle changes are also fundamental aspects of improving your brain, assuming you don't already have amazing lifestyle choices.

1. Get enough sleep. I know that if you woke up at 4 in the afternoon on Sunday going to bed at 11 doesn't make much sense. So don't. But don't stay up all the way until six AM like you did the night before when you were out practicing bad habits. (; Go to bed the second to feel tired.
2. Exercise. At least do something. This will improve memory, reaction times, catalyze new nerve cell formation, increase neurotrophins, promote nutrient delivery, increase volume of certain neural regions, and inhibit the thinning of your cerebral cortex.
3. Keep your mind stimulated. You can do this in a large number of different ways. Like any sorts of puzzles? Maybe you like writing? Do these things when you wake up and your brain will be ready to accept and organize information for the rest of the day.
4. Learn new words. The more words you can formulate situations in the more accurate your internal model of representing the world about you will be. Don't do a word of the day system. I've done those. They don't work. Just learn a single word, use it until you master it and move on to the next. I like to take new words I use and apply them to the specific terminology they would be present in.
5. Listen to music when not anything else. This is a very simply lifestyle changes that will build intelligence and neurons in otherwise untouched regions.

Topics
There are definitely topics that you should learn before learning other topics. In fact, you've probably noticed that there are classes you can only take after you've taken prerequisites. Well, there's a topic that I find to be a prerequisite for all learning, and that topic is Logic.

LOGIC
Logic is a very well defined science. There is very little art to it at all. In fact, top debaters don't even worry about logic anymore because they've mastered it, and the debate becomes entirely about using deception and creative tactics. There are plenty of ways to work on your logic (go chess!), but this is my method:

Facts and Inference: We know what facts are and what opinions are. I think opinion is a term that people use for preferences when they don't know the reason that they have that opinion. I think opinions are stupid. (: Inferences are conclusions that we draw from the facts. Like, (premise, fact) pain hurts, (premise, fact) this person is in pain, (conclusion, inference) this person hurts.

Also, don't just blindly accept your own opinions, always try to rationalize your reasons. My conscious might say I prefer fruit to candy, but I'll have to think further to outline the reasons of that preference. Maybe I do like candy more but I'm stuck in the *shallow conscious* mindset that I like fruit more. It might not be true even though I'm saying it. Though, upon further investigation I can find the reasons like it's healthier, tastes better, promotes a better mood, etc.

Argument: An argument must have all of these to be complete:

1. Stated thesis Arguing can go on forever if somebody doesn't know what they're arguing against
2. One or more premises Otherwise you're simply stating a conclusion. Make sure your premises are logical or concrete facts, and if necessary have premises for your premises
3. Conclusion Your premises need to lead to something. Kinda ridiculous not tell the opposing views _what_ it leads to
4. Acknowledgment of opposing views Otherwise you're kinda just stating information

Don't leave room for error. If somebody asks a question or makes a statement, do not sit there trying to figure out what was implicit about what they were saying. Ask for further details if necessary, or, if possible, just answer it straight-forward. This leaves a lot less room for error and the ever so popular red herring (a reply that does not reference the original issue).

Signification: Not everyone will assume the same mental image or thought to the same words. Environmental development is different for pretty much everyone, so not everyone will be relating in the same exact way. For example, if I say "Soup Bowl", not everyone is going to be able to picture the same soup bowl in their head because not everyone has seen the same soup bowls.

That brings us to

Definition: When you use a term, be sure to define exactly what you mean by it. Not everyone will define the same term the same way unless the person who introduces the term sets exactly what it's supposed to mean for the discussion. Arguing over the definition of a term is also rather ridiculous because the presenter of the term and thus the presenter of related data concerning use of the term is ... well, presenting a term. A set variable that holds information that is being discussed. If you want the term to mean something different, just present a _different_ term.

Logical fallacies. I'm sure everyone has heard at least one person call out a logical fallacy, possibly even in Latin. I do it. If you can simply identify the exact reason why something is wrong, there's no more need to consider it's right. It's not. There's no debate. This is a nice feeling, and leads to a much clearer mental environment. Learn your logical fallacies. There are too many to list so hit up Google and Wikipedia. Eventually it will become second nature, if you're dedicated.

Deduction and Induction: There are two types of logic. Induction is informal, but practical. If everybody said a movie was bad, then it's probably bad, but that's that deductive, ergo, it's not essentially true. Induction is a method of making conclusions based on patterns. Deduction, however, is a method of making conclusions based on cold hard facts.

Assume the following statements are true:
The man has a hat.
Hats are worn on the head.

Then we can deduct that:
The man is wearing a hat on his head.

Boring, but once you get comfortable with it you will be making some very exquisite deductions that will make you the envy of all of your friends ... or something.

OTHER TOPICS
Significantly less important topics that can improve your ability to learn include the following:

1. Linguistics
2. Mathematics
3. Physical Sciences
4. English (especially if you don't have a high school understanding of it)

(:

How much you can suck at aiming a ball

In the sports of Basketball and Soccer your goal is to get a ball into a net. I've decided to calculate the number of degrees that you can make the shot within while still having the ball going into the net.

Soccer
*This assumes a 24 ft wide net and that you are in front of one of the net.
F(x) =  57.3(8/x)
Where x = distance from net in yards
("8/x" calculates radians, and multiplying by 57.3 converts that to degrees)

This outputs roughly:

05y: 91.7 deg

10y: 45.9 deg

15y: 30.6 deg

20y: 22.9 deg

25y: 18.3 deg

30y: 15.3 deg

40y: 11.5 deg

50y:  9.2 deg

As you can see, the further you get away from the net the substantially harder it is to make sure that you're shooting within the right range.

Basketball
*This assumes a 17" hoop, 9.4" ball and that you are aiming for the hoop, not the backboard. I am also considering the range in which the ball can hit the rim and still go in, which makes the arc that you can shoot into roughly 14.3" wide.

F(x) = 57.3(1.2/x)

Where x = distance from hoop in feet

05 ft: 13.8 deg

10 ft: 6.9 deg

15 ft: 4.6 deg

20 ft: 3.4 deg

25 ft: 2.8 deg

30 ft: 2.3 deg

FREETHROW: 5.3 deg

THREE POINTS: 3.5 deg 

Ok, so if you play basketball and know what percentage of the time you make Freethrows you could theoretically calculate the amount of times you will land three pointers. Neat, huh? Just run this function:
F(x) = 3.5/(5.3/x)
Where x = percentage of time you make a freethrow (without the backboard) in decimal
Note: If you replace 3.5 with the degrees from another distance your result will correspond to that one.


Trigonometry sucks.

Fitness, Now Start Exercising

Ok, you got your diet down. You're feeling way better. If you did it right then you even have your own favourite multivitamin. Clearly you are not super toned and jacked, though, and you know you have to exercise for that. However, it does prove to be a little daunting to figure out where to start when you see all sorts of people doing all sorts of things for their exercise. So first things first, we have to define your goal!

Are you trying to improve for a sport? Then maybe you should figure out which exercises will supplement that the best and work with that. Or maybe this is something more general, like getting buff or strong, or maybe you want to be able to run for days on end. Unfortunately, you can't train all these types of fitness at once.

Endurance
Do you want endurance? Well that means you are going to be trying to stimulate your type I muscle fibers, AKA your slow twitch muscle fibers. These fibers aren't as large as their fast twitch counterparts but they do have their own unique role of allowing one to sustain stress for a long period of time. In order to gain endurance you will also want to be working on your heart, generally in the form of cardio. If you want to do weight training then you'll probably be focusing on doing high reps with less weight.


Strength and Speed
So yeah tearing phonebooks in half and bending iron rods with your bare hands is pretty cool too, so how do you get that? Well, strength, speed and explosiveness is generally found in the form of fast twitch muscle fibers. Sorta the opposite of endurance, you'll want to focus on doing sprinting and very heavy resistance for only a few reps to gain strength. Some people shy away from this thinking they aren't making any gains because their muscles aren't sore, but that's because they have a misconception of how strength and muscle works together.

You see, muscles do not produce linear strength. This is why the 150 lb powerlifter can outlift the 300 lb bodybuilder. First, lets look at the flight or fight response. When you are undergoing an adrenaline rush you get stronger, faster and smarter. If you have the capability of doing this, then clearly you are not using 100% of potential otherwise. That's because your CNS restricts you from preforming at a level which may damage you. It doesn't want you to bench 315 because that's *scary*. So what you need to do to get stronger isn't really build muscle, but rather convince your CNS that you are capable of doing what it thinks you can't. This comes from doing really, really heavy, hard things.

Cardio
The heart is your most important muscle. Having good cardiovascular function will provide a plethora of benefits ranging from immune system strengthening to improved social activity. No matter which other type of fitness you pursue you should always do some sort of running/jogging/biking/whatever in order to keep your heart strong. The human heart beat is finite!

Flexibility
Similar to how you only use part of your muscular capacity, you only stretch as far as your body thinks is safe. Flexibility is a very easy part of fitness to implement within one's routine. Convenient times to stretch or do yoga would be in the morning and after (not before) exercise. If you do any form of stretching other than dynamic you risk tearing soft muscle tissue, which could lead to injury during exercise.


There's are lots of different pursuits that you can have with your fitness, but as long as you focus on the right areas you should be able to apply the same simple concepts to all of them.

Did you hear about that Egypt thing?

So as some of you may know, I am 100% Egyptian. There is quarrel in my home country and it is my duty to evangelize those of our situation! Doom may come! But together we are strong!


First lets get some facts out:
Hosni Mubarak is the President of Egypt at the moment. Some people hate him. Some like him.
Riots and Protesters are abundant within the streets of Egypt.
They even took away Facebook.

So what's going on over in Egypt? Well, besides the poverty, unemployment, and a surplus autocratic governmental corruption, people can't even use Twitter any more! Which was blocked due to people collaborating protests against Mr. Mubarak. Some slightly less humane measures are being taken such as tear gas and baton beat downs, whatever. Freaking internet access country-wide was abrogated and thus many organizations and companies that were not even involved with primitive protesting are suffering due to this cat fight. At least they're letting the relatively affable military handle this instead of the police.

Anyways, enter stage left, USA. Aside from Israel, Egypt, parasitically, receives more aid from the USA than any other country. More than 1.5 billion dollars.  Naturally, we're marching over there to see what's going on with our investment. Some of them, including reporters and human rights activists, are getting arrested and thrown in jail, or even being beaten by "gangs" that support the President. Anyways, back to the elite. Obama has been taking some actions to communicate with Hosni in attempts to persuade him to resign, allowing an interim, or provisional, government to be formed ... kinda like the one in Iraq. Either that or transfer the power of the government over to VP Omar Suleiman. A situation worth following.


With possible more than 300 people dead and a lot more wounded we have quite an itch on our planet.

Book: The Dumbest Generation

So I was perusing Barnes and Noble when I had perceived a peculiar book protruding out of my Mathematics section. I quickly procured the culprit for further interrogation when I noticed that it was a book detailing why people underneath the age of 30 are stupid. Baffled, I had to prod further, which promptly led to me polishing the book off on the spot.

At first I was highly skeptical seeing as we are, in fact, the information generation. In addition to that we score higher on IQ tests than ever before. However, the book happened to boast a very wide base of statistical information (probably why it was in the math section) that made it hard for me stop reading. Though, a lot of these statistics (there were a lot so I'm not going to list them) really seemed like they were only partial evidence and neglected other information. It's fairly easy to get information to fit a theory (instead of the other way around), after all. After reading it I do find a lot of the points made hard to refute.

Affirmative
There was a lot of stress on the way that today's youth allocates their time. Natural, seeing as most of us are guilty of watching too much television or playing too many unproductive games. However, because we prefer playing those games and watching those movies instead of furthering our education the industries have reflected this behavior. This is a poisonous downward trend, but should eventually taper off.

Negative
Ugh, books, really? I know I'm writing about a book right now and clearly I do read books, but this book really stressed that people don't read books anymore. A large amount of that statistic could easily be attributed to all the alternative sources we have. Fiction is easily replaced by stories within video games and movies, which are definitely becoming more intellectual. Nonfiction is even more easily replaced by Wikipedia. Furthermore, games require one to make decisions and plan out their agenda whereas books do not. Books are becoming obsolete.

Especially classics. They're classics. We have vastly superior contemporaries. Screw the 20's.


Affirmative
Nobody really seems to know much about what's going on with the government or with the world in general. That sorta segregates the youth from political decisions that they would have otherwise been able to be a part of. We, our generation, is going to be running this country and every single city in it. Look at your friends, which one do you trust to do it? Got one? Good, now how many more can you count?


Negative
This book also tends to focus on the USA in regards to other countries. Which is kinda weird to me seeing as we have all kinda meshed into a single community. One that fights with their neighbors, but a single community nonetheless. We have very good methods of information exchange and communication that allow us to easily breach cultural and physical boundaries when it is wished. Segregation of countries is a very classical approach to demographics.

Extremes
There is also the total exclusion of extremes in this book. Back in the 50's if somebody wanted to be a mathematician then they have a physically limited ability to study math. This is not true in the information age. If somebody wanted to be an amazing mathematician, there is nothing stopping them from knowing it all. If somebody really wanted to become an expert at absolutely anything they wouldn't be stopped, and because of this capacity the chances that somebody will develop an extreme ability with a given subject is bound to be much better.


Check this book out if you'd like, but take it with a grain of salt and don't be too quick to internalize all the skewed presentation of the statistics.

6 Parts of a System

After brushing up on Aristotle's 'Parts of an Object' I decided to assemble and supply diction for my own, similar rendition, titled

6 Parts of a System

First lets define a couple things
Universal System: The all encompassing entity of the mechanical universe.
Isolated System: An arbitrarily designated subsystem within the universal system.

Now let us carry on...

1. Location
First and foremost it does well to designate what the coordinates and boundaries are within a system. Whether this is universal, galactic, global, local, or inside a given room or not is up to the person defining the system.


2. Time
There will always be a birth followed inevitably by a death when it comes to systems. Very literally, the system of one's person will eventually cease to exist. This is true with everything and therefor applying time boundaries as well as physical boundaries makes a lot of sense.


3. Relation
There is going to be some sort of reason why an isolated system is partitioned from the universal system. For example, when handling most matters on our planet we don't consider what other planets might think about it, since we can only work within our realm anyways. Another example may be that we want to look at how Facebook works and therefor would define an isolated system for substances related to Facebook. The relationship between the entire system would be that they all have something to do about Facebook.

4. Substance
There are going to be items within a given system. For example, our global isolated system includes countries, oceans, mountains, people, paperclips, and buttons. A chemist could sum this stuff up much easier in terms of which chemicals are naturally found on Earth, however, we have linguistics to help us with this. In linguistics we take arbitrarily defined sets of atoms (like those within a button) and classify them. So lets say that within the isolated system that is the room that you're sitting within there are the substances {You, Desk, Computer, Chair} etc. These substances also have certain properties or...

5. Attributes
This one is easy. Colours, weight, height, sound, smell, taste, etc. Basically all the properties of a substance that you can assimilate with your senses. Next!

6. Activity
Last but certainly not least there is activity. Look around you and you'll notice that some things are animate and some things are inanimate. There's also activity that you can perceive quite so adeptly with your senses including gravity, drafts, and radioactive decay, for example. Also, there are two types of activity. Intraactivity and Interactivity. I made these words up. Intraactivity would be all activity that is happening within an isolated system, such as your heart beating within the system of your body, whereas interactivity is activity that is happening to an isolated system or from an isolated system. For example, if you say you're room is an isolated system and a car drives into it then you just suffered some serious interactivity.


Khrisstian: 1
Aristotle: 0

Fitness, From the Top

I find myself training people or giving advice to people about fitness as part of my daily life. Something that I can never really fit in, but find to be the most important part for any new fitness enthusiast, is how to get your diet down. The reasons this is the initial issue that needs to be fixed is attributed to the following

Why begin with your diet?

1. Muscles aren't Everything

Alright, lets say you're the person that eats whatever you want and goes to the gym (also probably whenever you want) in order to build fitness. You probably even see some progress. Well, if you're not eating well while your muscles are getting enough fuel to get bigger and stronger (bigger probably because you're just now filling out your natural frame. Stronger because your CNS was so inefficient before) then your organs are probably having some difficulty keeping up. This is because every day you work out your organs have to deal with the breakdown of your body as well and aren't getting all the proper support they need. You can't keep this up for long before your body rejects you from making any more progress.


2. Muscle is Rebuilt in the Kitchen

Going to the gym does not necessarily make you stronger. For example, when fresh to working out and when after working out one can no longer perform as well athletically. That's because the person's muscle fibers are all ripped up and need some time healing back together. The only way they can do that is if they are properly fueled. This comes from a good diet. Another note, if you tear your fibers up too bad don't expect them to heal up very quickly. So if you work out biceps every day a week, there's the reason you still have 13" Pythons. ;)

3. Healthier

Because everything you do will be effected by the support of a good diet whereas only certain operations are effected by the support of good exercise; most notably, your capacity to experience and internalize information related to fitness objectively.

4. Required

No matter where somebody start with their fitness pursuits, this is always something that they will be required to eventually do.



How to diet


Step 1: Organization

One can't expect to have very luxurious understanding and success when it comes to projects, including a diet plan, unless they're organized. Keep track of what you eat. Now don't go overboard and try to write down every calorie and every type of calorie if you don't want to. Just do something that works for you. maybe that's just taking a glance and what's on the label and trying to remember it. You must however, be reading nutrition facts. ;)

Step 2: Information

The best result will always come from the most informed decision. Before you try throwing together a random diet based on what people tell you and the media shows you it does well to read a tad; not talking about reading all the latest gimmicks and what _exact_ food may be something to avoid, but rather the physiology and science behind what you are eating. Here's a inquisition method you could use to progressively learn relevant information:

1. What does protein do? What about carbs? And now fat?
2. What are all the types of fats? Trans? Saturated? Unsaturated?
3. Complex carbs vs. simple carbs?
4. What do amino acids do? Enzymes?
5. How long does it take for certain foods to digest?
6. What are ways digestion might be slowed down or sped up?
7. What are all these micronutrients and vitamins for?
8. Can I overdose on different vitamins?

You better have your own questions by here. :P


Step 3: Motivation

You probably won't like doing things you don't want to, so a little motivation can help. If you want you can keep track of your measurements, weight, exercise stats, etc. Other things like how fast you can solve a Sudoku (lame) puzzle are effected by health, too, keep in mind. Learn some neat quotes, whatever. Just keep yourself interested! (I do this by learning new things in the field (: )



By the way. You can use those same three steps for doing anything.

You're welcome (:

Destroy the Village

I just indulged in a physics game that I found on http://www.physicsgames.net/

Seeing as this was a flash game I don't want to be overcritical of the graphics and audio. The graphics were not in a very aesthetic fashion, but the music was decent. Anyways...

The main premise of the game is to control a rocket and try to murder the townspeople littering different structures. There are unlockable rockets, though most are generally just better than the previous so it's more of a strange level up system. The actual gameplay was very nice, though. Seeing as while there was the conventional blow up the rocket next to the person method, you could also cause projectile deaths, nudge people off cliffs, or crush them with debris. A lot of this requiring very complex maneuvering to get the flashiest kill.

I found it worthy of my 10 minutes.

Exponents and Imaginary Numbers

I made this flowchart as a means of handling the different exponents that could be on (i). Just fill in for (x) and follow the flowchart to get your answer.

When should I go to bed?

Seeing as it is the end of the weekend I would love a believable excuse for staying up later than usual even though I still have to wake up at 8:00. So I let math convince me. This series of functions I formulated will let you deduce when you should go to bed:

First you will have to convert the time you woke up and the time you will be waking up tomorrow into a different format:

F(v,u) = 60v + u
Where: v = hours (military), u = minutes

I woke up at 2:30 so that equals 870 and I plan on waking up at 8, which equals 480. Now you will have to figure out what the time to go to sleep will be in the same format:

G(w,x) = x - [(1440-w+x)/3]
Where: w = time you woke up (converted), x = time to wake up (converted)

1440 - 870 + 480 = 1050
1050/3 = 350
480-350 = 130, which is the time I will be going to bed

H(y) = └y/60┘ , y - (└y/60┘ * 60)
Where: y = time to go to sleep (converted)

My answer would be: 2 , 10
The time I'm going to bed. :D

Btw: └3.23┘ = 3
It just removes the decimal place/fraction.

Restaurant Review: Gallo's

I had a wonderful time at Gallo's today, however this was not at all due to the restaurant that was picked, but rather by the company in which it was with.


(Note: Ratings are with an average of 5, 10 being the best)

Service: 4.3
The service was for the most part very average. Although, my water was only refilled once (at the end), and I had found a bone within my Chicken Taco. Quick and prompt, however that may be because there was nobody else to serve.

Delectables: 3.6
I ordered nothing more complex than a meal with two tacos. I had gotten beans, which were heavily congealed and looked as if they were squeezed out of a tube, as well as some undercooked rice alongside my main entree. The tacos were very simple, broke easily, and one had a freaking bone in it. Repulsive. I know I already took away points for that but it ruined the feeling of both qualities. Furthermore, far too much money for being a less successful, more pretentious Taco Bell.

Atmosphere: 3
I'm not really a fan of the whole Mexican theme, so the fact that there was _no music at all_ wasn't extremely disappointing. Just regular disappointing. Across from the (very angular) booth I was sitting at there was a design on the wall. The art was lackluster, boasting a couple large sun and  moon crafts, as well as a plethora of little suns. One of them was broken. There was no flow within the colours, not having any sense of refinement within colour psychology. Oh, and nobody else was there.

3.63/10

Six Day Powerlifting Routine

I've established a unique routine for myself and those that I train that is somewhat similar to Westside Barbell's method of weight training. The routine that I run's main focus is to build strength in all muscle fiber types as well as cardiovascular fitness, not muscle-mass:

Standard Rep Scheme: (harder) 3x12 or 4x8 or 5x5 or 6x4 or 8x3 (easier)

ME = Max Effort
DE = Dynamic Effort

Sunday: Deadlift ME/Back day
Main: Deadlift, work up to one-rep max
Secondary: Pullups, endurance exercise: focus on increasing number of reps in a standard set scheme
Compound: Barbell rows, standard
Isolated: Shrugs, 3x20
Isolated: Rear Delt Flies, standard

Monday: Bench ME/Chest day
Main: Bench, work up to one-rep max
Secondary: Dips, endurance exercise: focus on increasing number of reps in a standard set scheme
Compound: DB Bench, Standard
Isolated: Front Raises, Standard
Isolated: Skullcrushers, Standard

Tuesday: Squat ME/Leg day
Main: ATG Squat, work up to one-rep max
Secondary: Squat, Standard
Compound: SLDL, Standard
Treadmill: 20 mins

Wendesday: Accessory Day
During this day you work out any weaknesses you may have noticed alongside some sort of overhead pressing movement and some grip exercises.

Thursday: Bench DE/Upper Body day
Main Chest: Bench, 60% of max for 8 sets of 3
Main Back: Pullups, endurance
Secondary Chest: Dips, endurance
Secondary Back: BB Rows, standard
Compound Chest: DB Bench, standard
Compound Back: Bodyweight rows

Friday: Squat DE/ Leg day
Main: ATG Squat, 60% of max for 8 sets of 3
Secondary: Squat, Standard
Compound: SLDL, Standard
Treadmill: 20 mins

Saturday: Off


My stats:
Bench: 305, 6x4
Squat: 370, 5x5
Deadlift: 505

Movie: The King's Speech

(Note: Ratings are with an average of 5, 10 being the best)

Plot: 7.3/10 
Definitely above average however not substantially so. While the plot did not have any psychologically moving concepts or contraptions, it did, however, boast a wonderful link to the past, allowing us to delve within the world of King George VI in an involving manner. Not only does the film depict the more historically relevant topics ... such as the speech ... it also does well to illustrate the behavior and personality of the king in a more personal guise. Overall the plot sufficed to hold attention.


Music: 4.2/10
Aside from a few classical pieces there were not many musically driven segments. The music was all appealing to my taste in particular, but I seeing how arbitrary that is in nature I will try to stray from bias and simply state that the music was not expertly placed nor awe-inspiring.

Special Effects: --
If there were any, I don't recall them.


Acting: 5.8/10
The acting was well, especially on the part of Geoffrey Rush. While the acting didn't provide much spectator dissension and flowed nicely throughout the film, the cast was not so impressive as to make it noteworthy or to designate it as greatly superior to some of it's peer films.

Dialogue: 8.2/10
Awesome. The dialogue was awesome. Parts of the dialogue was taken from historical speeches, adding a great deal of rapport between the audience and the time setting in which the movie takes place. In addition to this there were many clever exchanges between Lionel Logue and King George VI that could stimulate one's brain in socially complex ways.

Cinematography: 5/10
I didn't sense much refinement in the camera usage, though all of the basic elements of cinematography were clearly present. I'm going to give this a dead average rating because it was so average I really haven't anything noteworthy to present.

Mental/Action
Serious/Funny
Heavy: 5 (4) 3 2 1 :Light

Overall Rating: 6.1

Kakuro Puzzles

I've always been a fanatic of puzzles and riddles, and eventually that led me to discover Kakuro. I enjoy Kakuro due to the mathematical and logical synergetic nature. I also enjoy the sense of superiority when I compare it to a popular yet very simple puzzle, Sudoku ... which Mindona does. ;D

This is an example of an easy Kakuro puzzle. The objective is to saturate the grid with the numbers 1-9 while making certain that you do not use the same number twice in a given row or column and that all the numbers within a given row or column add up to the given total. Now look at the upper left where you see two rows both with three square. The only way to fit three integers into six is by using the smallest available (1, 2, 3) and to fit three in seven you substitute the three for a four (1, 2, 4). Next, we'll look at the column that calls for two numbers that add up to 4, which will be 1 and 3. Seeing as 7 cannot host a 3, we can tell that a 1 will go in the top box and a 3 will go in the bottom box. Rinse and repeat until solved.

While ones like these are excellent for beginners, do not fear that the difficulty caps off here. There are many puzzles which will require you to look numerous steps ahead in order to deduce which numbers should go where.

I generally do these while eating breakfast and during any periods in which I find myself doing nothing else productive ... such as waiting for Mindona to finish up in the locker room. ;P

Hello, World!

I do suppose it would do well to start off my blog with an introduction of sorts. I could drag on needlessly about my life and interests, but I'll resort to a more objective means that will allow you to draw your own inferences.


People that are the most prominently included within my life:
-My lover, Mindona Grunin. Of whom which I spend roughly 22 hours a day with.
-My best friend, Delbert Thronsen. Of whom I occasionally have adventures with.
-My grandparents, Marie and Dave Kerner. Of whom I share intellectual conversations with.

Groups that I am a part of:
A metal band. I  am a lead guitarist. Mindona plays bass. Josh Weibheber plays drums.
A gym. I am an avid powerlifter. I do this with Mindona as well as my friend Anthony Glaze.
Chess Club. I am a ~1500 rated chess player.

As far as stats go...
I am 18 years old
I weigh 198 lbs at 6'1"
My race is other
I have tan skin, brown eyes, and gold hair.


I fuck like a porn star.