It is with a heavy heart that I must inform all of my viewers and listeners that AVDP is no more. I have had a great time hosting this podcast, and when me and Yury started it up we had no idea how long it would go. A lot has happened since the podcast began. Yury graduated from law school and is now a practicing lawyer, I got married, changed jobs and became a vegan. I got a cat and Yury got a dog. Malone finally got a girlfriend… And probably a ton more stuff I can’t even remember.

I am glad that so many listeners were a part of those developments in our lives, as well as all the conversations we had over the years. It’s been a great ride but all good things come to an end. Of course you can still stay up to date with all of us on social media, and I will continue to make a variety of Youtube videos on a variety of topics. So please enjoy this extra long final episode!

The post AVDP EP63 | The Big Goodbye appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

We go pretty deep discussing not only this particular instance of a computer beating a human at Go, but all of the other things that humans pretty much have no chance with anymore. We even venture into a near future in which computers produce all of the art in the world using algorithms for look and virality. Will human-generated are be a niche market one day like artisanal hand-made pots?

Read more about it via the Guardian.

Star Trek transporters have many problems. One of them is what happens when you get disassembled. Aren’t you being killed? The being that is re-created atom by atom on the planet is a brand new being with all of the memories. To him, the transport went flawlessly, however to the first person, his life came to an end.

Watch some cool video explanations via IFLscience.

Our friend Mitch has something to say about mIcro aggressions. I must admit i might have been conditioned to be ultra sensitive about what might be hurtful to other’s feelings. Probably a product of my very liberal wife and society. But at the same time I am forced to asked, if you can get by easily in life and never use terms that might be offensive, shouldn’t you?

Although I do not deny that is is “fair” or “just” to make sure people getting free tax money are not using it on illegal activity, I still thing this is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars and fails to solve any problems. Also consider what is the difference if a person benefitting from free government money spends it on ANYTHING “wasteful” like movies, gambling or manicures? Drugs is just a single arbitrary way to prevent people from getting the help they need. All we can do is try to help people and if they don’t want to be helped, we need to just let that go. We have bigger fish to fry.

Here are some stats about how successful these drug testing campaigns have been via ThinkProgress. Here is a look:

I have never seen Blade Runner before. It is now on Netflix and I watched it. The movie is amazing and so is the soundtrack. Check it out!

Visit http://www.myscriptfont.com print off this special sheet, fill it out with your hand writing and upload it. You will receive your own personal font file.

Check out Mitch’s project. He writes the stories.

The post AVDP EP62 | AlphaGO, Transportation, Micro Aggression, Drug Testing appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

I personally feel it is low-class and selfish to draw attention to yourself over the death of another. To me it reads like a transparent “look at me” message. People reaping likes and comments for an event that isn’t theirs to speak about. The dead person is someone else’s daughter, son, husband, wife, father or mother. The sadness you is nothing compared to that and it is not your story to tell. At least that’s how I feel about it. Let me know what you think.

In the original letter, posted on Medium by Talia Jane, she complains and whines about how little she is being paid for the work she is doing at Yelp. Her argument is one of compensation equality at it’s root, and it is punctuated by tangents about how much the company spends on pistachio nuts instead of increasing her pay. The compensation debate is an important one to have and people have been having it for a long time. But why is this story from a privileged girls going viral? She isn’t suffering! She isn’t a single mother with 2 kids and 3 jobs unable to make ends meet. She is a college-educated young girl who chose to live alone and got a job right out of college. I am not saying she has it is, but of all the sob stories I have read recently, this is not the one that tugs on my heartstrings.

Anyway, the plot thickens a little when Stephanie Williams throws in her two cents about her career path, and the entitlement of the millennials.

This meme gave me pause. My gut reaction was how different these two types of rich figures are… But on further thought I actually couldn’t figure the difference out. Eric and I explore ways to shoot down this message.

Dr. Greger gives a very compelling speech about how beneficial a plant-based diet really is. You should watch the entire speech if you care about your own health. In the mean time here are some key facts I pulled out while watching.

Coup is one of the best games I have played in a long time. It’s super easy to understand and has amazing depth. It only costs about $10, get it.

Shout out to the Girl Scouts for having so many vegan cookies! Lemonades, Thanksalots, Thin Mints and Tagalongs are all animal product free. Get some!

The post AVDP EP61 | Social Media Etiquette, CEO Memes, Vegan Benefits, Ping Pong Balls appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

I guess I failed at valentines day. Emily shows up on the podcast to tell the tale of how disappointed she is in my gift giving ability. My gifts consisted of taking her to the casino and giving her some free gambling money, taking her to dinner afterwards, and a tennis racket (I also got myself a racket).

Apparently somehow I got the WRONG impressions that Emily wants to get into tennis. Fuck me right!?

Eric says he shuts himself out of dating from December to February because he thinks people are looking to hook up for the “relationship holidays.” He isn’t falling for it!

A particular episode of friends got me riled up. Courtney Cox’s character runs out of money on christmas time and decided to perform all of her tipping in fresh-baked cookies. I think this is AWESOME! But I guess it is a hilariously bad idea (laugh track). All of the people she tips in cookies get upset and get revenge on her, which I think is pretty dumb. But I guess Eric doesn’t think it’s that dumb.

This also raises some interesting question about who to tip and who not to tip. For example are you supposed to tip: Your landlord, mailman, garbage man or package delivery man?

The current big-wig console companies treat gamers like shit and show no signs of giving up. Both Microsoft and Sony are horrible and are doing their absolute best to exploit and extort their audience when they SHOULD be treating them well. I rage for a while about how bad they are and how they can and SHOULD do better.

Pass the sushi! In this fast-playing card game, the goal is to grab the best combination of sushi dishes as they whiz by. Score points for making the most maki rolls or for collecting a full set of sashimi. Dip your favorite nigiri in wasabi to triple its value. But be sure to leave room for dessert or else you’ll eat into your score! Gather the most points and consider yourself the sushi master!

Each player is a traveler crossing the “East sea road”, one of the most magnificent roads of Japan. While traveling, players will meet people, taste fine meals, collect beautiful items, discover great panoramas and visit temples and wild places. At the end of the day, when everyone has arrived at the end of the road you’ll have to be the most initiated traveler – which means that you’ll have to be the one who discovered the most interesting and varied things.

Your fleet of loyal ships, powered by the might of quantum probability itself, carries your empire to the far-flung stars. How will history remember you? As a ravenous destroyer? A clever tactician? A dauntless explorer? Command your armada, construct world-shattering technologies and rally the remnants of humanity for a final confrontation. With elegant mechanics, an infinity of scenarios and easy-to-learn rules that lead to deep gameplay, Quantum is a one-of-a-kind game of space combat, strategy and colonization that will satisfy both hard-core and casual players.

The post AVDP EP60 | Valentine’s Day, Dating, Friends, Consoles appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

I declare that being a server or bartender is a very easy job that nearly anyone can do with a fair degree of competency. Servers are generally a whiney bunch of brats that refuse to see how good they have it.

Based on a long series of whiney facebook posts about bad tips, and Mr. Pink’s monologue from Reservoir Dogs that is more true now than ever before.

Experience: Working as a server, cashier, delivery driver, restaurant manager. Also having many server friends.

Adam finally explains what that black dildo is all about. The short version is, he wanted to use a black dildo as a practical joke, found a great deal while ordered (3 for 19.99) so he ended up with three. Over the years one of them ended up at my house and here we are.

Adam hates how the words million – billion – trillion sound so similar. They open up the door to confusion which wouldn’t be a risk if they sounded totally different.

Originally when Adam pitched this idea to me I thought it was stupid because of how much sense it makes. However after some more thinking I realize that ten – hundred – thousand – million all sound nothing alike. It isn’t until after million that everything sound the same. So I agree now.

Companies, organizations and departments often have assigned budgets that “reset” every period. Which often incentivizes these groups to make seemingly idiotic purchases to “use it” before they “lose it.”

One clear example being how the University of Minnesota managed it’s technology budget by replacing already top of the line machines with even MORE top of the line machine to professors who certainly didn’t need them.

What would a world be like in which budgets rolled over year after year? Would new problems arise? Or would they just become more responsible with spending?

***

While writing this it actually occurred to me that any unspent money might have to be classified as taxable income. For example if a company posts a profit of 1 million they would be taxed on that profit. But if a company only posted a profit of 100,000 while dumping the remaining 900,000 into various departments budgets that they “had to spend” they would dodge a huge amount of taxes. I suppose spending 900,000 on seemingly stupid things is still better than paying 350,000 to the government for nothing…

Adam asks a philosophical question. Who decided what he likes and doesn’t like? How come he used to really be into baseball but now he doesn’t care about baseball at all?

This get’s into a deeper issue in which we discuss how the government should use tools and power to enforce the law. Adam is more concerned with liberty and would rather have a “pro-criminal” system in which police are hindered from investigating people. While I take a more pro-law enforcement approach in order to stop maximum crime.

My basic statement is technology is a tool, not a form of power. Police power should be kept in check with the law, not by preventing them from using technology to their benefit.

Very similar free apps that let you save interesting content and access it at a later time on a different device. Look them up on the chrome web store or the apple app store and change the way you consumer content!

Chris Harman describes the shape and course of human history as a narrative of ordinary people forming and re-forming complex societies in pursuit of common human goals. Interacting with the forces of technological change as well as the impact of powerful individuals and revolutionary ideas, these societies have engendered events familiar to every schoolchild—from the empires of antiquity to the world wars of the twentieth century.

In a bravura conclusion, Chris Harman exposes the reductive complacency of contemporary capitalism, and asks, in a world riven as never before by suffering and inequality, why we imagine that it can—or should—survive much longer. Ambitious, provocative and invigorating, A People’s History of the World delivers a vital corrective to traditional history, as well as a powerful sense of the deep currents of humanity which surge beneath the froth of government. Check it out.

Many people already know this game, but I did not. The good news is, you can play it ANYWHERE because you can simply download a dice-roller app on your phone with your friends! How to play.

My boy Sirlin, who has made a variety of games that have been picks on the podcast including Yomi and Puzzle Strike, is coming out with a new game called Codex. I’ll get the Kickstarter link in here as soon as I have it.

The post AVDP EP59 | Dildo, Server Crybabies, Millions and Billions, Government Power appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

Aside from an extending and winding conversation about Trump and politics in general, the more poignant question is, will the electoral college deny Trump? I argue they will for sure because Trump isn’t a “party boy” and he will not fall in line and do what they want. But what if he wins the popular vote? How will they explain it to the voters? interesting indeed.

I have a huge soft spot for Captain Picard and Star Trek TNG. I think that if we could select a single representative of humanity it should be Picard. He is absolutely the best of any of us.

Anyway, during my current session of watching the entire TNG series (again) an episode made me think. Strange, as I have seen this episode probably ten times and it never gave me pause before. In this episode a super powerful being (just like Q but not a Q) destroyed an entire alien civilization in a moment of rage. Seemingly unlike a Q, he cannot undo what he did, and he exiled himself to a single planet. Picard discovers this situation and has no choice by to just let him go on his way. I found this interesting for a variety of reasons.

Although Eric and Kurt did their best to troll me the entire conversation, and I got pretty pissed about it the point still stands. Milk does NOT go a body good and the only reason it’s been BEATEN into American culture so badly is unrestrained corruption and greed. Maybe I will revisit this topic someday again.

I’ll admit that I am user of Lumosity and Elevate mobile apps. I certainly don’t pay the monthly fee, but I have a pretty good time playing with the free versions. The problem though is Lumosity actually made claims that brain games give you a stronger brain. Claims that they have never substantiated.

Reddit published his book of 40 popular AMA and I think it’s pretty slick. One of the worst things about reddit (other than the users) is the shitty interface. I don’t actually ever look at Reddit AMAs despite how interested I am in many of the people because it’s so annoying to scroll through hundreds of stupid comments. This book streamlines that process but just posting good questions and answers. It’s $35 hardcover and looks great.

VSauce is a very popular youtube channel where Mr Vsauce answers a bunch of cool hypothetical science questions. If you don’t know about this channel already, you might as well check it out.

Who ever heard of snorting brandy? It’s madness.

The post AVDP EP58 | Trump, Picard, Milk, Brain Games appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

Even though it sounds like we complain a lot about the movie, we both very much enjoyed it. We talk about all of the major plot points of the movie and venture into spoiler territory. But let’s be honest, if you care about star wars, you probably should have seen it by now. Also we can’t remember Rey’s name the ENTIRE podcast and call her Ren, along with Kylo-Ren the bad guy… Dumb on us.

Adam, well-known “math guy,” ponders if he is into math because he was forced to do a bunch of grunt work early, allowing him to truly appreciate the more complex and interesting math later. I personally hated math early, but later find myself wishing I was better at it, and also enthralled by cool math concepts (Check out numberphile for cool math stuff).

I also wonder if totally gutting our math education system and replacing instead with course on how to “ask” computers to calculate for you. So instead of doing the math and understanding it, you simply need to know how to best ask a computer to give you the answer. Wouldn’t that get people deeper faster?

Does any single person’s choice really matter? Adam wonders if he opts out of a plane flight, in order to minimize his personal carbon footprint, does it really matter? The plane is still going to fly, on time. The conversation that ventures into voting territory, and how we can overcome the knowledge that our singular vote really is insignificant and will almost never truly make a difference.

Movie has pretty much no lines, and no character interaction. Just 1 man on the open water trying to survive.

Most of the movies currently in the Paramount Vault are pretty old and lame, but then: The Machinist. Literally watch the entire movie free now.

The post AVDP EP57 | Star Wars, Math Education, Reasoning in Aggregate appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

As you can tell by the above rant, I have hated Christmas for a long time now. The holiday just keeps on getting worse, more difficult, more stressful and more expensive. You no longer require gifts to get the toys you want like you did when you are a kid, which means you probably already purchased all of your wanted toys. So what can anyone get you? A bunch of junk. I also tell some interesting anecdotes about my parents.

I am fully aware that only about 5% of the population is vegan and regular people are afraid of veganism. However it is also a fact that meat consumption is one of the worst things for our planet from every perspective: environmental, economic, health and ethical. Food Network is the authority on food and they should absolutely be encouraging people to at least consider a vegan lifestyle. In the short term it might not be the best for ratings and that is certainly a consideration, but I think it is their responsibility to get the word out.

I coined this term “first-world privilege” after the podcast and I wish I said it on the air. But basically what I am saying is compared to third world citizens, everyone in American who gets to eat out at Taco Bell and has a Facebook account is incredibly privileged, even if they are relatively (by American standards) poor, and worked hard all their lives.

Secondly, I think the concept of “hard work” is thrown around a lot by people, and I have a news flash for most of them. You don’t know what hard work is. Granted working 12-16 hour days, or doing hard labor, or working in the heat is certainly hard work. However at least in America you are compensated for that work in a reasonable way. Compare that to hard work in Mexico, Thailand or Zimbabwe and your perspective should change. Not only is slavery a real thing in other parts of the world, but having no actual options other than working in some slum fishery for $2 a week with no hope of ever “making it” no matter how hard you work… That is a form of hard work that Americans cannot possible understand. So before anyone tells refugees to “stop being lazy” please check yourself. No everyone had the same starting line.

I explain the meaning of the Magic the Gathering card Shahrazad (Scheherazade) and how the history of the character supports the effect of the card. Long story short, a Sultan marries a new wife every night, and beheads her the next morning so she doesn’t have the opportunity to cheat on him. Scheherazade comes up with a plan to begin telling the Sultan a thrilling story the night, and not finish it. The Sultan is so excited to hear how it ends he does not kill her. Then she finishes the story and begins a new one. Hence the name of the book 1001 Arabian Nights.

The card text reads:

A fatal flaw in the Matrix’s plot: why does there need to be a matrix at all? Why not engineer a dreamless sleep? Why not simply go with putting all of the humans into a coma and not have to worry about crafting the perfect world for them to dream about?

The post AVDP EP56 | Solocast, Christmas Rant, Privilege, Scheherazade, Matrix appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

I was planning to get myself an Xbox One this holiday season but was so unhappy about the offering I opted out of next-gen consoles altogether. Instead I just got myself a new TV and purchased a bunch of cheap games for 360 on ebay.

The new wave of DLC-based content is ruining gaming and turning the gamer/developer relationship into antagonism. How can I, as a gamer, trust a company anymore when they frequently release unfinished games for full price and then charge more money for “DLC?” How can I be sure that DLC wasn’t just part of the game they help back in an effort to charge me more for the game?

We explore a variety of topics around the idea of genetically modifying human beings. Who will control it, how will it effect society, sports, global politics and more. We all agree that it is an inevitable step in human evolution, but what repercussions will it have? Might be a good time to watch Gattaca again.

Look like we might get a John Wick 2! Obviously amazing news for us since we went apeshit for the amazing original. You should probably go apeshit also by watching this badass clip!

Adult Swim Rick and Morty. Yury says it’s good, check it out.

It is a bong for Champagne. Classy as it gets!

If you are even half a person, you already love Rocky. Well buckle up for the next installment, this movie rocks.

This is a very smart blog post which uses logic to break down the arguments of people who are against gun regulation. It is an exceptionally good read for anyone on either side of the debate. Lots of great facts and links within to get a very good understanding of the issue. Read up.

The post AVDP EP55 | Black Friday, Video Games, DLC, Picks appeared first on AGREEorDIE.

The post AVDP EP54 | Syria, France, Facebook, Ninjas appeared first on AGREEorDIE.