Study raises doubt over research funding – but it’s even worse

It is known for long that scientific funding is as ineffective as it can be, and now a study found that competitive funding does not lead to a better research output. Take aside the question whatever may define a better research output, the fact that competing for research funding by writing long applications develops writing skills but not necessarily the creativity to seek out and solve the burning problems. And even worse, so much productive time has to be spend on networking. Maintaining good relationships with colleagues is essential because every colleague is not just a competitor for the same funding sources but also a potential reviewer of publications or grant applications.

Being in place for several decades now, the funding process triggered a remarkable evolutionary change in science. This change is rather reflected by the composition of research teams and the type of research that is conducted than by the scientific excellence.

First, the share of women in research increased steadily. It might exist other reasons for this trend to, but it is at least partially due to the fact that women are better at languages. No doubt about that, but writing an impressive grant application doesn’t make you automatically a better scientist in mathematics or a better developer in a technical profession. I remember the anecdote that when Röntgen discovered X-rays, he just wrote a few lines on a single sheet of paper, and nevertheless it revolutionized medicine. Unthinkable today, Röntgen would have even failed to apply for a job in a research institute.

Second, but it is not only that women flock to research institutes, it is a specific kind of males too. Men that are social, extroverted, talkative, and convivial are particularly successful in contemporary research business, while the silent, deep thinkers are in decline. And some science doesn’t accumulate by chatting around but requires actual hard brain work which might become so expensive that every other brain activity only becomes a distraction. Remember Newton fell mute for several days before he came up with his extraordinary theory.

Third, of course the funding process also has big implications on the research topics as well. This results in predominantly data collection research as opposed to conceptual research. The reason is twofold. (1) Those who climb up the career ladder in science, as we learned in the previous paragraphs, are mainly people that posses fewer creativity. Why would they propose a creativity challenging project? (2) By an application for funding you have to convince bureaucrats that are even less visionary to understand the impact of a creative research. How to better win those people’s trust than with counting peas?

All these developments in science follow a simple logic and can be proved empirically if someone would bother to perform the research. Funding for such a research topic better not be sought among governmental research agencies. They wouldn’t invest in research proving their inability, would they 😀 And as a matter of fact, they support research to prove their efficiency. But the above mentioned paper that gave the impulse for my article here is based on such bureaucracy-flattering research.

As we probably have to go along way before we can analyze hard data to prove the inefficiency of governmental funding, we have to retreat on simple logic, and so I will list the logical arguments what goes wrong, why does it go wrong, what are the major impediment to any improvement.

In order to analyze what goes wrong, lets perform a little thought experiment. What would it look like if those who proved to be gifted researcher and developers would have been given the opportunity to decide whom to sponsor. Given the Dunning-Kruger-Effect the governmental research bureaucrats who mostly recruit from failed scientists are unable to gauge a genius, but a genius can recognize an other genius.

The argument that such a procedure would cause too much distraction for a genius can be countered as follows. (1) It takes only seconds or maybe a few minutes for a genius to recognize a soulmate, and it accomplishes even more easily (2) by simply allowing the money to stay where it is. As a genius is more intelligent and as in the present nothing but intelligence (aside from corruption) better determines a persons wealth, geniuses are wealthier than average. If you think of it that way, you have to come to realize that the funding procedure that is in place in all western countries means nothing but shoveling the money from the extraordinary people to the mediocre.

Give the conclusion from the previous paragraph it is easy to answer why it goes so wrong. Of course governmental research funding is a distinct possibility to generate income for the government. Not only research funding provides the pretext to levy taxes, but also a plethora of mediocre bureaucrats can claim their share. This host of civil servants constitute an important pillar of bureaucratic power.

Again, given the final conclusion of the previous paragraph it is easy to imagine what are the major impediments to a substantial improvement of the research funding policies. To overthrow this rather parasitic rusty mechanism of bureaucratic self-enrichment is overdue. It is not just to help scientists to get better funding by occluding all the leakage holes in the flow of all-so-yearned-for resources to research. It is also an important contribution to environmental protection. Imagine those bureaucrats not draining off resources would also keep them from further polluting the planet.

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Arrogance Quote

Arrogance is just a self defense mechanism to prevent realization of being too stupid.

It doesn’t help you to to read a lot of decent books if you want to convince a jury that is drenched with propaganda.

You know nothing about the world if you don’t know the fallibility of human knowledge.

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My Twitter Quotes

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When I started my Twitter accounte I hoped it would serve as a long lasting archive of my quotes. Now I realized that not even I can access my older tweets. Fortunately I was able to save them by the Twitter download function, so I can store them here. Twitter so my conclusion goes is an endless pile of profanity and therefore better forgotten.

“Westerners are doomed. Their philosophers are either killed or deified but hardly understood.”

“Notwithstanding the ubiquitous believe in human intelligence, human’s evolutionary success on this planet is the result of inducible stupidity.”

“It is not bad when there is someone who controls everything. But it is definitely bad if this someone is stupid.”

“You cannot fight all the crime on this planet. You cannot even fight all the crime that affects you”

“The war against the easy access of data is the same as the war against the easy access of drugs. #WarOnDrugs #DSGVO”

“The aim of protection of data privacy is to increase the value of data to those who have access #DSGVO”

“Over the centuries physicians worldwide improved the art of interrogating their patients to reach an ever more precise diagnosis. Recently that became nearly a criminal act #DSGVO”

“The essence of every law is the exception.”

“I’m interested in science in general and in women in particular.”

“If you don’t understand the problems of the world you are just part of problem.”

“Ignoring human races is just the most severe form of racism, as it also ignores the need of protection.”

“A government can be defeated on the field of public shaming.”

“You cannot fight a government by violence. As a government consists of all but violence, it will always win the violence contest.”

“The greatness of politicians is not defined by what they do but by what they refuse to do despite their power to do it.”

“The more powerful a country the more powerless its political representatives.”

“You can only trust those politicians who are assassinated.”

“It is the most trusted people who use to inflict the most harm.”

“The state is a criminal, and those who exploit the state to pursue their own goals become criminals themselves.”

“We have a waste disposal problem in this planet. This does not only include non functioning gadgets but non functioning institutions as well.”

“The paradox about government is that it perpetually commits crime just to allegedly prevent it.”

“The more you think the wage gap is unjustly discriminating against you the more it doesn’t. (At least that is true in a society where there is absolutely no kind of hidden slavery.)”

“A genius accepts criticism even if unjustified a dunce doesn’t even if justified.”

“The less you think you belong to the incompetent the more you are.”

“A genius shows the reverse Dunning-Kruger effect: gauging other more valuable than they actually are.”

“You cannot excel in sociology if imbued with ideology.”

“The real world is shielded by illusions intentionally made up to keep you from understanding and changing it.”

“The most rewarding thing on this planet is making other people happy.”

“The most curious paradox however is that people feel safe when submissive to those groups and unsettled when asked to control them.”

“The central paradox about life on this planet is that although social groups consist of people, people suffer the most from those groups.”

“Or take it from the other perspective. The less controlled a social groups the more it becomes criminal up to a degree that social groups that absolutely evade control commit all imaginable sorts of atrocities.”

“All social groups are as benevolent as they are controlled by rational and conscious people.”

“A system that works without feedback doesn’t work at all. A system whose feedback is slow is negatively selected.”

“As by conspicuous consumption social status is bought, it thrives in societies in which status not performance matters.”

“The highest stage of the evolution or development of morality is when moral of a group is not passively followed but actively changed. Only few in history people reached that level.”

“Although a declining culture ideology fervently teaches you otherwise. The progress of humanity is always the success of the most gifted people.”

“A declining culture is characterized by the imbecile getting ever better positions. Eventually they run the whole country and nobody bothers any more.”

“That you cannot make it public doesn’t mean you don’t know it.”

“The purpose of law is to destroy human’S inborn eusociality and replace it by submissiveness.”

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles [Marx]. It is the history of struggle for privileges.”

“The problem with social science is that every group favors only those views that maintain their privileges.”

“The best way to upset a psychopath is to treat it as a human, to presume remorse and empathy.”

“Psychopaths are not a problem as long as you don’t allow them interact with your live as humans.”

“Reasonable politics is neither Left nor Right.”

“We need feminism as an other mechanism to polarize society.”

“We need feminism to side-track people from really burning social questions.”

“Feminism is a disease that is cured as soon as you forget about its existence.”

“Rant about feminism is a diversionary tactic to keep men and women from doing things that really matter.”

“Feminism is exploiting women for committing a worldwide genocide. https://t.co/xpNWNjzPUC”

“Feminism is not a social disease itself it is just a symptom like fever is a symptom of an infection.”

“Feminism is a female social disorder spreads by social contagion.”

“It is a sign of stagnation and coming of age when the same mistakes are made again and again.”

“If shittested by a women, you can simply ignore her as a whole. She would become a bad mother anyway.”

“Why women use to shittest? Because of childabuse his book claims https://t.co/w3LvozBDhC.”

“Common female borderline personality: I hate you, but please don’t stop following me.”

“A man can well differentiate whether the creases in her face are caused by laughter or spite.”

“The more a woman fights her age the older she looks.”

“Women are stupid but that’s not a problem at all it’s a blessing.”

“There is no need to change the world you can just stay on this planet and help to improve it.”

“Women can be loved for their emotions. They shall be loathed for rationally suppressing them.”

“You are rescued from oneitis when you notice your colleagues exposing their tits.”

“Be faithful to a women or loyal to a government and they will treat you with contempt.”

“The best indicator of your success is the envy of your competitors.”

“An irrefutable sign of love is that you feel excited when she is happy.”

“That people expect solutions just from those psychopaths who create terror is the most horrific news these days.”

“Next time I think I love you (period). If you don’t love me, that’s not my problem it’s yours.”

“Sometimes I hate myself for still loving you.”

“Indifference is stupefying self-denial.”

“If a government commits a crime, there is no need to follow.”

“There is a fine line between indifference and serenity.”

“People strive for freedom but all they get is democracy.”

“Democracy is a whore. Everybody who pays for it can get it.”

“Women turning 30 that never considered pregnancy become a social burden.”

“It doesn’t matter what kills you. Lion and tiger are both dangerous animals.”

“… and every time I spot an other alluring women I just realize that I still love her so much.”

“The genuine task of a government is not to protect people but to commit genocide.”

“Groupthink: Quite rational individuals often become irrationally stupid in a group.”

“The world is at war; and as long as most people beg for help from those who wage the war, that war will continue and even get worse.”

“People are so different which can be best demonstrated by the jokes they laugh about.”

“Seti = Searching for extraterrestrial intelligence as we gave up on finding terrestrial one :-)”

“For most people stupidity is kind of self defense, so they are not obliged to understand the full scope of the mistakes they made.”

“The problem with  social theories is that misconceptions play an essential role to social compounds.”

“A theory is just a model of thought to rationally handle misconceptions.”

“The illusion of competence also includes the illusion of other people’s competence.”

“Some people are told their prison is a privilege and they believe it.”

“Not being allowed to socially adjust behavior is like living in a prison.”

“Never being criticized is not a privilege but a burden.”

“You’ll never win a lawsuit against corrupt judges and corrupt by the government all they are.”

“The true heroes are those who manage to resist the temptation to copy Hollywood monsters.”

“Although the Hollywood virtual reality tries to convince us otherwise elegance is not self confidence.”

“Elegance is beauty combined with coldness—charm is beauty combined with warmth.”

“The best way to fight back the criminals of this planet is not allowing yourself to indulge in hatred and spite.”

“The best way to thank a good person is being a good person yourself.”

“As with many propaganda terms: Justice is often just the opposite of what it pretends to be.”

“In love affairs women really don’t feel anything but the need to find a man that can be best exploited.”

“Why are people so disappointed by governments again and again? Do they really expect an asshole to deliver anything but shit?”

“I cannot afford to fall in love as I know how manipulable I become.”

“Although we are perpetually taught otherwise, famous heroes aren’t rarely happy. On the contrary the more socially compliant the less happy.”

“Sorry baby, I made so many mistakes. My worst of them all was you ;-)”

“It is a contradiction in itself to fight aggressively against aggression.”

“What comes first? Study says that happiness derives from good relationships, but good relationship develops only when happy.”

“The extend of the collateral damage of collapse of state exclusively depends on the people that stupidly defend it.”

“The history of Europe convincingly demonstrated that the collapse of state always translated into progress.”

“Many problems in this world could have been solved if only people admitted the insufficiency of their mind.”

“The power and atrocity of any  terrorist organization will grow as long as there are enough people around expecting protection from it.”

“Terrorism wouldn’t stop as long as many people seek protection from those of all organizations who are the primary source.”

“Much too often the oppressed are against oppression only as long as they suffer from it, but they soon change their mind if beneficiaries.”

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“The probably most taken-photos-of mermaid worldwide.”

“Unfortunately quite a few women think they become inspiring when provocative and rude – they have watched too much Hollywood movies.”

“It is not difficult to find a women for sex, even a good looking one, but it’s a real challenge to discover an inspiring lady.”

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“I’m going to instantly kill everyone who calls me a aggressive ;-)”

“Social media is a valuable resource to study socio- and psychopathologies.”

“Those who have no values are of no value.”

“For years confidence is build, but it is destroyed in seconds.”

“A fool believes others are stupid too. A reasonable person believes in others people’s reason. I wonder who is more naive.”

“To invest in people’s reasoning is cheaper than to pay for the mistakes of their ignorance.”

“Sponsoring people’s thinking is always worth it as suffering their stupidity is much more expensive.”

“The stupidity to choose wrongly will be punished by the bad ones not the good friends.”

“Reality is always ugly—only illusion is pleasant.”

“I wonder if some women were more aware of the harmfulness of their weaponry they still would use it so indiscriminately :-)”

“When a women grows older, her attractiveness is increasingly defined by intelligence, dignity, and pride.”

“Self confidence without achievements is pathetic.”

“The problem with stereotyping is not to group people together into boxes, but to maintain a fixed number of such boxes.”

“There are women who never get really hot, unfortunately.”

“If fighting criminals, response is brutality. If fighting virtuous, response is respectful. That’s why governments oppress the decent people.”

“The best way to avoid fake news is to avoid mass media.”

“Falling in love is like handing over to someone the power to seriously harm you, but only those who don’t abuse deserve it.”

“Some people’s only source of dignity is to scorn others.”

“Marx’ oeuvre and The Bible have in common the great discrepancy between the number of people who quote and understand.”

“I felt so strong when leaning on your shoulder, but I grew up to stand without support.”

“At times narcissistic women can be exciting, even inspiring, but when they become boring they get rather annoying and disgusting.”

“Privileges exist exactly as long as people exist who accept them.”

“If you want to promote peace there is only one power on this world you can rely upon, the people—a much too often sleeping giant.”

“Accumulation of data is not accumulation of knowledge.”

“If you want to change the world do it out of love not fear.”

“The beauty of a women is determent by the man who loves her and not by the men who dog her.”

“People’s stupidity is the fundament of every government.”

“A real friend stands by you even though not excusing your aberrations.”

“A nations wealth is created by work and not by redistribution. Redistribution, by contrast, creates poverty.”

“Women radiate happiness only in their reproductive age. They become spiteful after it.”

“While men strive to make women happy any time, women feel mostly satisfied when they succeed in making men unhappy.”

“The genuine female interest is to only allow men’s happiness in connections with her own reproductive interests.”

“Women are jealous of everything that makes men happy. (Other women in particular.)”

“There might be positions in which rational thinking might be a mere hindrance.”

“It is peace in Aleppo the people can prosper and lying will decline from now.”

“During wartime gullibility is not just stupid but dangerous.”

“I happened to have offered help to many people who not just turned ungrateful but even invidious.”

“You cannot fight a mafia by the laws that were made to protect them.”

“There are two types of men. Those who are controlled by intimidation and those who are inspired by adorable women.”

“The world is different when you change yourself.”

“I wonder about priorities. What does it help to respect LGBT at home while at the same time killing millions abroad.”

“The most rewarding experience is to make other people happy.”

“At any time in history and at any location the ruling class severely persecuted minor transgression and committed capital crime.”

“The most disturbing thing about this planet is people sharing a common goal.”

“When the oppressors fight each other, they use the oppressed as a consumable weapons.”

“There are two kinds of beauty—a temporary and an eternal one.”

“Justice is a euphemism for a set of privileges, and democracy is a euphemism for oppression.”

“It may come as no surprise, still it is widely ignored. The best way to fight irrationality is actually thinking.”

“The purpose of life is living.”

“Depression is the natural state (https://t.co/KcOyL8pgbB).”

“Strength can be weakness as killing your feelings is killing your creativity as well.”

“Political business as usual is creating problems and pretending to solve them by offering unrealistic solutions.”

“You cannot win the game with someone who is eligible to arbitrarily change the rules.”

“Wealth is created by giving and not by taking away. Though thievery can make a group of thugs more affluent, it reduces overall wealth.”

“You don’t have to change the world. The world will change itself.”

“The paradox of history is that those who are systematically eradicated by the state are the same people who fight for state’s persistence.”

“An important lesson of life a man has to learn is not to be emotionally dependent on the whims of a women.”

“Happiness is all you wish to a person you are in love with even if in an other relationship.”

“Life is so beautiful without you but still I love you, amazingly.”

“Loosing a battle is not loosing the war.”

“Intelligence is the ability to learn and not making the same mistakes again and again and again….”

“Some women have yet to learn that some kind of shittest is irreversible.”

“If a feminist posts a hate message it’s ok, but if a man calls this hate message a hate message that’s considered a heinous hate message.”

“If you feel something is stupid then there exist exactly two possible explanations either the thing is really stupid or you are.”

“A state is the dictatorship of the mediocre, the mediocre elite in particular.”

“I wonder if burning them as witches was a better way to dispose dissocial women than allowing them to mingle with politics.”

“Dissocial men commit suicide, dissocial women become feminist and a burden of society.”

“There is no real victory in a war: Some people always win – some people always lose.”

“Which is considered vanity in men, in women is normal behavior.”

“An anachronism: now that it is technical feasible to ask everybody about everything, a parliament (representative democracy) exists that makes decisions.”

“The problem with thinktanks is that they are financed by money stolen from us, no wonder they only produce ideas to steal more.”

“If you can’t publish your ideas openaccess, if they cant find an audience of their own, they are probably worthless.”

“Dying is terrible – burying is worse.”

“The ideology of statism is democracy. The ideology od Christianity is humanism. Guess what I prefer!”

“There is enough democracy on this planet. What we are constantly loosing is freedom.”

“The trouble of a genius is not to understand but to be understood.”

“If you realize that you underestimated an other person you are most likely less intelligent.”

“The unmistakable sign of your superior intelligence is that you overvalued an other person’s intelligence.”

“Admittedly, being intelligent, openminded, and truthtelling sometimes can become a lonely business.”

“Suppressing disgust is NOT actually tolerance.”

“Never be afraid of loosing a friend for speaking the truth s/he will return as soon as s/he understands. Maybe never :-)”

“Governments intention is not to solve problems. They want to keep them smoldering instead. Otherwise they would render themselves useless.”

“Men or women cannot rule the free world, they merely can enslave it.”

“The free world isn’t ruled by a man (or women). The free world is ruled by rationality of the people. Everybody rational contributes.”

“Some invaders take away your freedom and give you democracy instead.”

“Without communication is no learning. Without learning there is spreading stupidity.”

“Some people have yet to learn the truism that no communication is just what it is, no communication.”

“Body language is like any other language some are good at talking others are better at listening.”

“There is plenty of interesting people to learn about—you just have to understand them.”

“Those who want to communicate are interested in information FROM you—those who want to enslave you seek information ABOUT you.”

“Slave trader are not interested in a message’s content but in its sender.”

“Consciousness is but an illusion.”

“There are two major ways women use to seduce—intimidating and encouraging. I guess the latter is more successful.”

“War is always against working people—it is never against an other authority.”

“Fallacy of (de-)composition: On average, intelligent people live longer; on average, women live longer; hence women are more intelligent :-)”

“A female is worst at politics if she exerts her emotional pressure thru a male dictator.”

“While boys learn to reason, girls learn to exert emotional pressure. That’s why women are so damaging in politics.”

“The hallmark of a woman’s argument is emotional pressure—the hallmark of a man’s argument is reason.”

“She wont be a good mother, the girl that perpetually tries to intimidate her boyfriends.”

“Women want to be perceived as magic. They hate to be rationalized.”

“You can celebrate a women’s beauty and she will listen for hours, but if you offer some hints on stupidity, she will shut up immediately.”

“People adore flattery and are irritated by rationalism and even annoyed by criticism.”

“Interesting people are not obvious and to be quizzed. They have to be ingeniously discovered.”

“Every woman has her own strategy to make herself more desirable. Smashing doors ist most popular among Europeans.”

“If your boss says ‘you have a good prospect’ you probably haven’t. If instead he denies your chances to advance, they are probably better.”

“Men’s unwillingness to get married matches women’s willingness to get divorced.”

“I miss missing you.”

“War drags on til the next-to-last fanatic is killed. Unfortunately the last doesn’t kill himself, so fanatics always grow back.”

“The more ruthless its ruler the more successful the society.”

“The world is full of people poised to steal time and money. Still it’s so much fun to live here. :-)”

“Love is for masters. Mere closeness is for slaves.”

“I don’t care about myself, but if I break the heart of a wonderful women I feel really sad.”

“Harem is a good way to defeat loneliness. For men and women likewise ;-)”

“I’m not against harems as long as I’m the owner :-)”

“Behind every exceptional person there is an exceptional teacher…\” and someone exceptional he is in love with …”

“Some women provide inspirational pictures, but taking a closer look they prove disinspirational from the men they consume (devour, excrete).”

“I understand the evolutionary essence of shittesting but in an inspirational relationship this is rather destructive, and disillusioning.”

“I’m type of an idiot, but that type of an idiot that they use to disqualify a genius.”

“Spontaneity is the mother of charisma.”

“Creative working while driving with a train is so efficient because you always get freshly brewed coffee.”

“Creative working while driving with a train is so efficient because you cannot get pestering telephone calls.”

“Creative working while driving with a train is so efficient because you almost cannot leave your seat.”

“Creative working while driving with a train is so efficient because looking out of the window always provides new inspirations.”

“I wonder what a nation looks like whose children were systematically forced into a submissive habit.”

“Disney World and Universal Studios is about teaching habits: dozens of miniutes of waiting are rewarded by a few seconds of pleasure.”

“I ❤ u is probably the most used meme today :-)"

“Disney World is about teaching millions of people annually the discipline to stand in a line in a cramped sparsely illuminated room.”

“Disney World is more about fantasy and imagination and less about inspiration and creativity.”

““It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”\n― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations”

“Every body (mass) creates its own law (gravity).”

“A cross culture relationship has its excitements and perils.”

“Embarking in a cross culture love affair is like falling in love for the first time. It rarely has a happy end, but remains unforgettable.”

“Tweeting is like writing an articles headline and owing its body.”

“Empathobesity is the parasitic abuse of empathy.”

“Quote: It calls to mind that Plath pith, “Every woman adores a fascist”.\nFrom: https://t.co/RwF4Jza1xl\n#feminism”

“TANSTAAFL (take sex for lunch). If you don’t pay cash you may pay with your #enslavement.”

“I don’t blame your stupidity. It’s your privilege and my advantage. I just regret that it completely stopped our conversation.”

“As long as there are only male casualties nobody, except maybe the mothers, blames a war’s cruelties.”

“Women are inherently aggressive. Feminism is just their way to vent that aggressiveness. Better than war if you ask me.”

“Love needs to be perpetually renewed by embracing the beloved person otherwise it becomes fetishism.”

“Love is always attached to an image in your memory. How distant this image is from reality can be best measured by the time of separation.”

“Some people seem to believe that platitudes when wrapped into obfuscating language suddenly become wisdom.”

“I always feel love when I’m submerged in deepest creativity. Although I love a single person and its always the same, it’s not personal.”

“When I say \”I love You\”, please don’t take it personally.”

“The truth often can be found among the supposedly stupid answers.”

“Femninism is a woman’s denial of her personal feeling for the sake of social compliance.”

“When indulging in creativity, the rising power of love is felt while indulging in love spurs my creativity.”

“Spread love no fear no hatred.”

“I’m so glad to hear you are happy. May your happiness be contagious.”

“The world is full of cruelty and pleasure and sometimes you cannot tell them apart.”

“Censorship: If you compose a tweet with a link and hashtags like feminism and genocide in it, it will never show up in any list.”

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50 Shades of Cinderella

It is always the same stories we are fascinated about (at least some of us). They constantly reappear in various shades, and so does Cinderella. Not so much the fact of regurgitation is amazing, but its variation. The most popular versions of any time mirror social conditions better than anything else. They reveal the people’s social psychology, their values, and their believe systems. Stories are re-told with variations and people choose those variations that comfort them most. Those versions of the story are propagated and dominate for a while. Sounds similar to biological evolution by natural selection, doesn’t it. This article is not about such similarities which belong to the realm of fauceir evolution, a more abstract theory of evolution. This article rather focuses on social conclusions that can be deduced from variations of Cinderella stories across centuries.

Cinderella is mostly a female story. At least that was my impression recently when I watched the Cinderella Disney Musical in a Berlin concert hall. Most of the audience was female and the few males were accompanied by at least one female. (So much about gender differences.)

The major building block of the Cinderella story is that a girl rises from an underdog social position to the top of a hierarchy by just becoming affiliated to a high status man. In the German version collected by the Grimm Brothers, the girl is industrious and humble, and she felt suppressed by a female hierarchy that was formed by her step mother and two step sisters. She is released from her oppressed social position by a man who transfers her to a man’s hierarchy. The man is the real hero in this story because he doesn’t allow himself to be dazzled by female intrigues. He finds his partner by his own criteria, so in the end Cinderella’s industriousness and humbleness gets rewarded.

One can imagine that this type of story, which evolved in Medieval Germany had a great impact on social evolution. Over the centuries, millions of women were encouraged to work hard and humble even if they didn’t have the tiniest chance to marry a prince sometimes. Still many of them achieved a rise on the social ladder, sometime minute sometimes greater. And at the same time men were encouraged to choose women not by their social status but by their qualities to perform a successful work. That psychological inclination helped enormously to accumulate wealth and to build a successful and rich society.

The last century witnessed a significant mutation of the story, the Disney version. Cinderella’s industriousness and humbleness are no longer her major qualities. Her doing chores is no longer a virtue but portrayed as a tool to make her suffer more. Her dominating talent is networking. She feeds and fondles the even more oppressed, the animals, and cajoles them into a conspiracy to overthrow the existing hierarchy of her despised relatives and to help her to step up.

Also in the Disney version man’s role is substantially altered. He is no longer the smart boy, capable to appreciate a woman’s really important values. He is reduced to a mere provider of resources.

It is not difficult to find prominent examples in our society that mirror that Disney type of Cinderella. Think of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Social Justice Worriers that are typically female. The last century was characterized by Western (or Disney influenced) societies being increasingly dominated by female type of hierarchies. These hierarchies are not well studied sociologically, so there are no studies to relate to, but what we can conclude from Cinderellas original story is that those hierarchies are quite unfair and mostly rely on status, shaming, intimidation, and coalition forming. (Sounds like present day politics doesn’t it?)

The present century further degraded the original story by the now utmost popular version called the 50 Shades of Gray. The women is not industrious and humble any more, and she is not unjustly suppressed by any hierarchy either. Her only virtue is good looks and extraordinary f***ing capabilities. The man is not portrayed as the smart guy who is able to find a pearl in the ash. On the opposite, he is stupid enough to fall for the first female sexual offer. Although he offers a lot of resources a women can indulge in (a muscular body and of course lots and lots of money), he is not a hero who deserves all that. He is rather of the brutal variety who achieved his success by more fiercely fending off attacks of other men like him.

One may speculate where this kind of Cinderella story will lead us now. At least I have no good feelings about it. I’m rather old fashioned. I’d rather stick to the old Cinderella story of the preantepenultimate century.

Posted in Art, Culture, Feminism, Ideology, Manipulation, Mating, Media, Political, Psychology, Relationship, Research | Leave a comment

10 Ways to Spot a Psychopath on Facebook

While there are lots of publications written and recorded on youtube to describe what a psychopath is and how it can be detected and defended, this publication exclusively focuses on hints that can be obtained from facebook, and yes—I’m so sorry admitting—on female psychopaths. I’m straight male and therefore mostly communicate with females. Some of the rules, however, are applicable for men too, for instance the first criterion.

1. Night owl

Psychopaths are more likely active at night while early birds less likely show psychopathic behavior. Several theories exist to explain this phenomenon. The most plausible ascribe psychopathic behavior to descendants of criminals that did their jobs at night. I’m not sure about that I would rather prefer my own theory according to which psychopaths share some brain defects. These defects consist in uncoupling hypothalamic and fore-brain neurons and by the same token sensing of the circadian rhythm is uncoupled.

You can easily spot a night owl on facebook just trace the time when most of its activity takes place. Of course you have to take into account time zones and travel schedules.

You would be surprised how many … But please be careful in interpreting these results. (1) Yes many facebook users are narcissistic. That’s why they are here in the first place. But. No (2) not all of them are psychopaths sometimes it is just a question of planning the work round the clock, so you definitely need more criteria.

2. Impudicity

As psychopaths lack the ability to feel the slowly growing mutual affection in a developing love affair they press for rapid progress in a developing relationship. You will get surprised by rude symbolism and unveiled allusions. Don’t make the mistake to take this for passionate love. On the contrary such rude advancements rather signal frigidity.

Women psychopaths prefer in this case to post videos that expose barely clad women and make equivocal comments. Often it is referred to the holy grail of female psychopaths “Fifty Shades of Grey”.

3. Volatility

If living with a psychopath volatility is ubiquitous. You get so used to it you wouldn’t notice it any more. On facebook it is rather difficult to uncover. You can get some hints though from their wasteful spending of money. Those women will lure you into dubious financing schemes, ask you for financial support for some ostensibly seriously ill children or maltreated animals, or—when bold enough—picture themselves in front of a gambling machine.

4. Empathy

It is well known that psychopaths lack empathy. Also psychopaths know that, so you would rarely find a picture or comment that expresses lack of empathy. On the contrary, as psychopaths try to hide their deficiency they would show picture that demonstrate the opposite, for instance feeding animals or caring for elderly and sick people.

At least the careful observer will find occasions when a psychopath so much concerned with herself simply forgets to offer condolences when a close friend suffers a loss.

5. Self-worth

For psychopath difficult to hide is their inflated opinion of themselves. This has nothing to do with posting many photos of herself. Almost all women do that. It is a woman’s role to show her beauty to attract men. Nothing wrong about that. As a matter of fact I enjoy it and probably most men do the same. Moreover if you are in some artistic professions it is your job to show your talent in order to find better contracts.

If not the pictures themselves, the comments are often quite revealing. A good picture speaks for itself. It doesn’t need a comment like “The particular gorgeous me” or even some derogatory comments like “You will never match that elegance.”

6. Taste

Did you know that psychopaths have a different taste? They actually are bad at discriminating different flavors. Moreover they prefer food that has a bitter taste. If you meet a psychopath personally you may probably smell her distinct perfume, but this seems  impossible on facebook. If you invite her for dinner and she praises your cooking although you added much of a bitter substance, that could be a clue to her psychopathy. But be carefully in interpreting such an experiment. If she praises your food she simply may be polite, or even worse if she doesn’t smell the bitter substance, she could sincerely be in love with you as people in love like psychopaths exhibit impaired taste and smell.

If all this is impossible on facebook, how would you use this criterion on facebook anyway. Simply trace her food pictures. Many facebook users notoriously post pictures of their food. Most likely those who immensely enjoy food are not psychopathic. If you know the local dishes you may even check her preferences in taste. Is it bitter? Admittedly this is rather a daunting task.

7. Promiscuity

Promiscuity goes hand in hand with lack of empathy and impudicity. It is typical of psychopathy, but don’t be a fool, you rarely will find a women so stupid to expose her sexual history on facebook. As it is in our cultures unfavorable to have too many sexual partners that will be rather obscured and you have to rely on indirect hints.

Such hints include male friends who were close friends sometimes, commenting on every post, but all of a sudden became abandoned. If all this is accompanied by a change from euphoria to drama on his facebook page, you can be almost sure this sex affair ended with  dumping him. All you have to do now is connecting the dots and counting the number and you have quite reliable data on promiscuity.

D’entre nous, the facebook spying algorithm works the same way.

8. Language patterns

We enter the section of more complex criteria now. Although complex and demanding they are no less reliable. Language patterns are difficult to detect during a casual conversation. Actually you have to record the conversation and to analyze the transcript. It is much easier with facebook, though. Simply count the quotes.

If she prefers quotes that emphasize love and deep feelings and reacts rather moved to such a quote by you, she is less likely a psychopath. If however her quotes are shallow and arrogant, she is more likely a psychopath. But please be careful, with this criterion as well. Shy and intimidated people may show the same reactions, but only for a limited time. Therefore if you can changer her behavior while providing confidence she is a good person.

9. Reproach

Due to her inflated self confidence, she feels entitled to criticize you. Even if she barely knows you, her critique can become so bold and intimidating that it is hard to swallow. Here is good news for all victims, you don’t have to bear it. Block her.

10. Feeling of guilt

The most hideous character trait of psychopaths that unfortunately you can even experience on facebook is when she tries to induce the feeling of guilt. This is so hideous because you are not aware of any wrongdoing and every attempt to clarify the situation will make it worse. Be assured a normal person wouldn’t accuse you of some misbehavior in the first place. A normal person like you would double check if the impression of a misbehavior is just a misunderstanding, and a normal person would welcome any attempt to clarify a possible misunderstanding.

Accusations may sound absolutely absurd. For instance, after only a short exchange of messages a girl accused me of stalking her because I made a reference to one of her published pictures. Wait what? It is not unusual that psychopaths publish pictures to accuse others for looking and commenting, but she was merely an inexperienced amateur. In an other case, she accused me of being obtrusive, after I made clear that I won’t make any obtrusive remarks. Unfortunately that is rather typical. Psychopaths scan your messages for just one thing, they look for a vulnerable spot to make you feel guilty, so if you declare that you intentionally avoid something, then that would be exactly the point where she would assume your vulnerability.

Thus again there is only one solution to the problem. Immediately block her.


Finally, I’d like to mention that there are some more criteria to spot a psychopath which are difficult to employ on facebook. For instance it is difficult to verify a pathological lair if you don’t know her whereabouts. Also it is difficult to observe a resistance to contagious yawning. Still I hope this post was of some use.

One time, I would appreciate a facebook tool to tag all the psychopaths, but as I said in my introduction there would have been so many, probably.

Posted in Dating, Mating, Psychology, Psychopathy, Relationship | 2 Comments

The Perks and Perils of Intercultural Love and Relationship, Respectively

animation2

The whole essay is coming soon. At least so I hope. I started with that animation. I’m going to relate some experiences as soon as will gather some more.

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Zika Virus for Brain Cancer Therapy—I have my doubts

A recent publication in the Journal of Experimental Medicine claims to treat brain cancer by a Zika virus infection. Why such a finding has do be mistrusted?

It sounds like a weird idea to treat a disease by an other one. It is not impossible though, but quite unlikely. For instance diabetes, at least insulin dependency, can be ameliorated by an other disease, by chronic kidney failure. As the kidney destroys native insulin, a shrunken kidney would not, so in diabetics with a residual insulin secretion, it can become sufficient with the development of chronic kidney disease. But cases like this are a rare exceptions in medicine, more common it works the other way around. Usually, a supervening disease make matters much worse.

What about a Zika infection of a brain that has a tumor? Despite tumor research for many decades now it is not known a single case of a virus infection curing a cancer. On the contrary virus infection have been described as cause in many tumors. This is not surprising though. A tumor cell is a just body cell that went out of control. They escape control because of a whole range of somatic mutations. Tumor cells show some common patterns of mutation, for instance often tumor suppressor genes are mutated, but also great variability even among cells from the same tumor. Therefore it is easily imaginable that a virus infection can tip a cell off the balance and make it a tumor cell, but not the other way around.

However, what about just killing the tumor cells specifically, as the research paper claims? Sounds reasonable, in particular because viruses always have some target cells they can infect. These target cells bear specific receptors, so if a tumor cell bears a such a specificity, it can be infected specifically. But the mechanism isn’t such simple.

  1. The expression of receptors on tumor cells is quite variable.
  2. The mechanisms by which a virus kills a cell are cell specific as well.

Usually the viruses high-jacks the cell’s specific mechanisms to amplify themselves and to kill the host by apoptosis eventually. These mechanisms might be deranged to a variable degree in tumor cells as well. For instance apoptosis most often is switched off, which is why an individuals own cellular defense system cannot kill these tumor cells themselves,  so it seems rather unlikely that a virus can restore a deranged apoptosis, and even if it can succeed in some cells, it is unlikely that it can in all of them. However, if only a small amount of tumor cells survives the tumor attack, these cells will be selected to propagate as in a typical evolutionary process. We already know this phenomenon by the name chemotherapy resistance.

Now, if such a therapy seems to be rather a dubious approach, why is it published in a top-tier journal? The answer is simple if you know just two things.

  1. The Zika virus is patented by the Rockefeller Foundation (http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-owns-the-zika-virus/5505323).
  2. The Journal of Experimental Medicine is owned by the Rockefeller foundation as well.

The Rockefeller Foundation would earn a lot by such a therapy, but even if it turns out after some extended research that this therapy doesn’t work at all (as I supposed in the first place), the foundation would earn with every research project. As research projects are mostly publicly funded, many public money would flow into the pockets of lawyers of that foundation, and this in my opinion is the core purpose of this article. The wastage of desperately needed research money.

Again it is not unusual that a foundation sponsors research with an object they have patented, but it make alarmed to scrutinize for any fraud.

Posted in Manipulation, Media, Medicine, Rationality, Research | Leave a comment

Indoor/Outdoor Sports

The difference between indoor and outdoor sports can be felt.

outdoor

Three cranes.

 

Outdoor you almost always can enjoy fresh air and new impressions above and under water.

indoor

Insight a gym.

Indoor, by contrast, you don’t get cold in a rain, and the probability to see interesting people is stronger.

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Morning flower

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The Posture: Hands on Waist with Elbows up And Pointed out.

Spaniard with Tambourine (1909) Henri Matisse

Spaniard with Tambourine (1909) Henri Matisse

It may be attributable to my latent prosopagnosia, but because I cannot read too much from facial expressions, I’m quite good at deciphering body language. When I recently came across a picture of a friend I was fascinated by the mere posture, so I decided to do some research on the matter.

Where does this affection for women in that posture came from? I remembered I had seen this posture many times on paintings because obviously painters —like me—have been always impressed by women in that posture. When I actually browsed my archive, though, I found only few examples, but what amazed me most was some regularity.

38-gestures-of-body-language-26-728

Any body language dictionary says this posture signals readiness and sometimes even aggression. I cannot agree with aggression, but would rather call it decisiveness or a resolute stance. This—I imagine—would be the perfect welcome posture of a wife for her boozy husband. The gesture has something of authority, self-confidence, and dignity.

This posture obviously is understood in all parts of the world, so we find it in sculptures from India as well as from Pre-Columbian America.

Seven seasons of a women (1544) Hans Baldung Grien

Seven seasons of a women (1544) Hans Baldung Grien

It probably also has something to do with age. In this picture from a German painter that illustrates the seasons of a female, only women in her fecund ages show this posture. Maybe this is the genuine meaning of readiness which also conveys attractiveness and sex-appeal.

Young Lady - La Bella (1536) Tizian

Young Lady – La Bella (1536) Tizian

However there is more about paintings of women in that posture than just luring men’s attentions. It is remarkable that in Europe those paintings appear not before the 18th century. Italy is an exception which was more advanced that time as are some parts of Germany, in particular those that border to the Netherlands. Still we have to admit that in Tizian’s painting as in Baldung’s before the posture is rather hidden.

A typical painter of that posture was Goya. From Feuchtwanger’s book, we know his affection for strong women. With all his Maja portraits he just indulged in his love affair with the Duchess of Alba one of the most preeminent women of her time.

Portrait of a voluntary officer (1812) unknown Russian artist

Portrait of a voluntary officer (1812) unknown Russian artist

In Russia this development was a bit delayed, so the earliest painting I could found was a feeble attempt. The painting shows a portrait of a young person with a delicate face and clear complexion typical of a women wearing a uniform typical of a man. The title of the picture Portrait of A Voluntary Officer reminds of Jean d’Arc.

Detail of A Family Portrait Polowzew and Tatistschew (about 1840) unknown Russian artist

Detail of A Family Portrait Polowzew and Tatistschew (about 1840) unknown Russian artist

Next it were but aristocrats painted in that posture which seems reasonable as Russian society was still dominated by aristocrats at that time.

Interestingly, though, in Russian art is the early appearance of women members of the working class in that posture.

Mariana (1870) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Mariana (1870) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

At the beginning of the 20th century those pictures with women in that posture disappeared. As we witness is Rossetti’s picture painted at the end of the 19th century, he already felt a uncomfortable with that posture. Matisse’s Spaniard with Tambourine is the last one that I found of that kind, with only one single exception.

After World War 2, in East Germany, and for a very short period of time, female representation in such a posture was seen in some paintings. Interestingly, these women appear only in groups that they seem to dominate. Ever since those portraits disappeared, so it is refreshing finding them in personal profiles sometimes.

A German poet once said that artists act like thermometers sensitive to social tensions, and they subconsciously express these tensions in their work. They don’t rationalize social movements but they are able to feel and express these feelings with their specific techniques.

 

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