Can’t Hardly Wait

Bust out your super-size Che posters – next week is social justice week at UWA!

Logical Conclusion Reached

In all its glory – the end result of indiscriminate public funding of increasingly stupid research topics:

Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:

– Fear and aggression
– Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
– Uncertainty avoidance
– Need for cognitive closure
– Terror management

That’s right kiddies! Conservatives are mentally unbalanced!

Disparate conservatives share a resistance to change and acceptance of inequality, the authors said. Hitler, Mussolini, and former President Ronald Reagan were individuals, but all were right-wing conservatives because they preached a return to an idealized past and condoned inequality in some form. Talk host Rush Limbaugh can be described the same way.

I invoke Godwin’s law!

Contrary to the researcher’s findings, Reagan embraced many changes. One shining example was the decision (as then governor) to employ helicopters to fire teargas canisters into herds of morons at the UC Berkeley campus, where this rubbish was written. As the original poster notes:

It remains the only military airstike on an American University to this day. The best part is that we don’t have to pine for an “idealized past.” In the real past, lefty nutjobs at Berkeley really were heavily sprayed with teargas.

Amen.

Glaser acknowledged that the team’s exclusive assessment of the psychological motivations of political conservatism might be viewed as a partisan exercise. However, he said, there is a host of information available about conservatism, but not about liberalism.

This must come as quite a shock to Jon Ray.

If anti-leftist publications were helicopters, Jon would be followed everywhere he roamed by a full orchestra playing “Ride of the Valkyries“. I don’t think those guys were looking particularly hard.

Melbourne Bloggers

If you aren’t busy this weekend, Carlton could use some assistance.

Nerds Review Life

Gamespot reviews one of the most underrated games of all time: Real Life!

The only problem is you’re relegated to playing as a human character, though the game does randomly choose one of several different races for you (which have little bearing on gameplay and mostly just affect appearances and your standing with certain factions).

The gameplay itself is extremely open-ended, though it’s structured in such a way that you’ll have a fairly clear path to follow when you’re just starting out. Real life features a great system whereby newbie players will automatically be guided along through the early levels by one or more “parent” characters who elect to take newbie characters under their wing. This is a great system, as these older, more-experienced characters reap their own benefits from doing a good job of guiding the newbie character along.

…

It’s also true that real life is constantly being refined. Some players argue that many of the numerous changes constantly being made are for the worse–for example, players running once-profitable tobacco companies, as well as the players who are addicted to using popular tobacco products, often complain that the tobacco business is being “nerfed” for no good reason. But either way, it’s good to know that players are able to actively improve certain features that require finer tuning. This keeps the developers free to focus on bigger issues.

Ultimately, if you take a step back and look at the big picture, you’ll see that real life is an impressive and exciting experience, despite its occasional and sometimes noticeable problems. It says a lot for real life that, even with these issues, it’s still very highly recommendable. Simply put, those missing out on real life are doing just that.

Found at Nepenthe Island.

Dumbleyung #1

Dumbleyung not only produces great footballers, but also Australia’s best farmers:

A WEST AUSTRALIAN farmer who can mend a fence and understands conservation farming techniques has been named Australia’s young farmer of the year.

Shayne Smith, 23, works on his family’s 3000ha wheat and sheep property near Dumbleyung.

He beat seven other young farmers from around the country, topping them in fields such as welding, conservation faming systems, fence mending and farm general knowledge.

Mr Smith plans to take over the family farm one day, but admits life on the land does not look all that inviting to other young people.

Even when being praised for his own excellence, Smithy doesn’t forget to remind Australia of the mighty Kukerin-Dumbleyung Cougars, or the sad demise of the Dumbleyung Parrots:

Another problem caused by the lack of young people in country areas was in the social connections that keep many rural towns alive.

Mr Smith’s own local Australian football team Dumbleyung had to merge with nearby Kukerin a few years back just to keep afloat.

“It’s a problem all over Australia, it means you have to travel further to play, and it’s a sign of the lack of young people,” he said.

Luckily, there’s still enough young people left to make the Grand Final for 9 of the last 11 years.

(thanks to Slatts for the tip-off)