Language As A Window Into Human Nature

The RSA: In this RSA Animate, renowned experimental psychologist Steven Pinker shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings.

Bankster Death 'Epidemic' Spreads To China

Submitted by Tyler Durden: Until now, the terrible trail of dead banksters has been only among US and European 'financial executives'. However, as Caixin reports, the increasing pressures on the Chinese bankster system appear to have take their first toll. Li Jianhua, director of China's Bankster Regulatory Commission (CBRC), died this morning due to a "sudden heart attack" - he was less than 49 years old. Li was among the main drafters on new "caveat emptor" market-based rules on China's shadowy banking system and recently said in an interview that "now is not only a time to control risk, but to transform the trust industry.. if it's too loose, it's a big problem." Li was found by his wife.

Via Caixin,
Li Jianhua, director of the CBRC AfDB died due to heart attack, still less than 49 years old. As planned, Li Jianhua this morning to attend a major industry conference.

According to several sources close to the CBRC said, Li Jianhua was revising to 12 o'clock at night.

Unexpectedly around 6:00 this morning, his wife found him passed away, due to sudden heart attack.

Classified + What Is Feminism?

Sargon of Akkad: This is important. I am not attempting to offend anyone. The world has changed and you must change your perspectives.

"This Is What Being ‘Targeted’ By A State Sponsored Feminist Psychopath Looks Like" - Here Come The Lawyers To AVfM, Yet Again

By Paul Elam: Does a wife who may have driven a husband to suicide with the assistance of our corrupt family court system, then have a legal right to claim copyright of his suicide note?
According to attorney Rachelle E. Hill, of Bean, Kinney and Korman, and a judge, that is precisely the claim. They lawyer has written the offices of A Voice for Men to demand that we remove a post from the forums containing the note.
It is not going to happen.
The text of the note was posted to our forums months ago. We considered doing a feature story on it at the time, but opted not to because we had no credible corroboration that the story was factual.
Attorney Hill, her law firm, and the suicide victim’s former wife have now resolved that matter to our satisfaction. The demand letter itself is sufficient for us to believe that the following note is genuine.

The love that my daughter and I shared was truly special. She is a such a sweet, kind and gentle spirit. I am so sorry that I will not be there to see her grow into a beautiful woman. It absolutely crushed me to not be in her life over the last three years.

Jaclyn Friedman Fails To Call Out Child Rape Apologist Adele Mercier

Alison Tieman

This Is How Empires Collapse

By Charles Hugh Smith: This is how empires collapse: one complicit participant at a time.
Before an empire collapses, it first erodes from within. The collapse may appear sudden, but the processes of internal rot hollowed out the resilience, resolve, purpose and vitality of the empire long before its final implosion. What are these processes of internal rot? Here are a few of the most pervasive and destructive forces of internal corrosion:
1. Each institution within the system loses sight of its original purpose of serving the populace and becomes self-serving. This erosion of common purpose serving the common good is so gradual that participants forget there was a time when the focus wasn't on gaming the system to avoid work and accountability but serving the common good.
2. The corrupt Status Quo corrupts every individual who works within the system. Once an institution loses its original purpose and becomes self-serving, everyone within either seeks to maximize their own personal share of the swag and minimize their accountability, or they are forced out as a potentially dangerous uncorrupted insider.

Banksters Will Take US Deposits In The Coming Financial Meltdown, LIBOR Rate Rigging And More - Ellen Brown

Greg Hunter: Can bankster bail-ins happen in America? Ellen Brown of the Web-of-Debt blog says, "It could, and I think it will." Brown, who has written two books on the advantages of public banking, contends, "They don't have any alternative if they are going to keep these banks alive. This is the solution: They just knock down the liabilities, and they will be solvent again, but what that means is they'll be taking the depositors' money. . . . They are making it legal. This is what will be done in the event they are not solvent. They are too big to fail. They can't allow these banks to fail, so what will they do? They will take the deposits and case solved."

US Marine: When A Girl Hits You

By Joseph Kerr
What do you do when a girl hits you?
I was sitting across the desk from the child protective services supervisor, who spoke with confidence of things he didn’t know.
“You’ve been to Iraq, we know all the guys who come back are fucked up in the head… If you need medication to stay focused or to see someone for mental issues — we know the military just sends you to war and spits you back out on the streets — we can help you with that.”
That’s one hell of a worm in the water. I had steady hands on my gear as the bullets were flying. My voice was confident when addressing senior leaders no matter the circumstance. Now I wore a nice-guy smile and kept cool as the guy who was going to decide if I was fit to see my daughter again belittled my Marine Corps career and used my stack of medals to weigh the scales against me to prove my psychosis.
My hands lay gently on the table; the identification tabs from jail and the hospital were stacked on my left wrist. I turned my head slightly. He’d have to continue to insult my manhood and military service into a baseball-sized lump enveloping my eye.
“What do you do when a girl hits you? … You wouldn’t just stand there, right? I mean you’re a big guy, you’re a Marine, you’re trained to fight, the Marines wouldn’t teach you to get beat up….”
Clever.

The Middle Class In Canada Is Now Doing Better Than The Middle Class In America

By Michael Snyder: For most of Canada's existence, it has been regarded as the weak neighbor to the north by most Americans.  Well, that has changed dramatically over the past decade or so.  Back in the year 2000, middle class Canadians were earning much less than middle class Americans, but since then there has been a dramatic shift.  At this point, middle class Canadians are actually earning more than middle class Americans are.  The Canadian economy has been booming thanks to a rapidly growing oil industry, and meanwhile the U.S. middle class has been steadily shrinking.  If current trends continue, a whole bunch of other countries are going to start passing us too.  The era of the "great U.S. middle class" is rapidly coming to a bitter end.
In recent years, I have been up to Canada frequently, and I am always amazed at how much nicer things are up there.  The stores and streets are cleaner, the people are more polite and it seems like almost everyone that wants to work has a job.
But despite knowing all this, I was still surprised when the New York Times reported this week that middle class incomes in Canada have now surpassed middle class incomes in the United States...

After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.

And things are particularly dire for those in the U.S. on the low end of the scale...

The Art of Penis Negotiation + American Psycho Mums

Stefan Molyneux: Banning Bitcoin, the morality of casual sex, a lifetime of bad choices, talking to your son about his inherited dysfunction and a conversation with a pick-up artist.

Bear Grylls Accused Of Sexism For Not Including Women In Everything

6oodfella: If you are going to comment, please leave a bear pun in honour of Mr Grylls :)
He is making a show about survival, and all the contestants are male, which isn't a problem for the rest of us, but for a select few, it is a terrible thing, and rather sexist, for some reason.