October 2007
US Out How?
US Out How? is a pretty comprehensive coverage of the state of the Iraqi occupation.
Saul Williams album, Radiohead-style
Saul Williams album, Radiohead-style: Saul Williams does hip-hop like no other, and his collaboration with Trent Reznor THE INEVITABLE RISE AND LIBERATION OF NIGGYTARDUST is available for download pre-order for either $0 or $5. Sample track by torrent here.
“Do what thou wilt”
“Do what thou wilt”:
I did not expect the solid advice regarding life and purpose that I found in Aleister Crowley‘s Diary of a Drug Fiend. For all that the man was an ex-Plymouth-Brethren occultist drug-addicted pseudo-Freemason hedonist, he had a pretty strong clue. I started the book expecting to not like him, and finished it with an entirely different picture. Maybe “do what thou wilt” should be the whole of the law – but be sure to read it correctly.
Grindhouse
(A.K.A the Rodriguez/Tarantino double-feature “Planet Terror” and “Death Proof.”) An intentionally retro, self-parodying duo of films, the two are intended to be played back-to-back, in the fashion of the low-budget[…]
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I am compelled to post this
I am compelled to post this: T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland translated into LOLcat. (Original here.) “im in ur handfull of dust/showing ur fear.”
James Watson says some controversial things
James Watson says some controversial things:
He says that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really” …
This quote does not seem entirely representative, but it’s what everyone else is quoting, so I’m inclined to share my opinion.
Watson does goes on to say some (to my mind) obviously racist things, but I don’t think that the extract above is necessarily wrong. IQ tests are inherently biased to a certain form of thinking; they favour such a narrow niche that being white, male and middle-aged gives one a pretty solid advantage, statistically speaking. The important thing here is that there are different types or forms of intelligence, and IQ measures only one such shape.
I think (as alluded to before) that half of Africa’s problems stem from this expectation that they can act like civilised white men if we just give them a chance. I don’t see this happening – not because they are inferior in any way, but because we are not all the same. The world would be a far better place if we stopped pretending that ours was the one superior form of ‘civilisation.’
So awesome
No, MY god!
No, MY god!
There’s something a bit off-puttingly possessive about the possessive pronoun in the chorus: “Our God is an awesome God.” That word “our” has become increasingly common in evangelical praise choruses. It no longer seems enough to sing that “God is an awesome God,” or that “God reigns” — we sing that “Our God is an awesome God,” and “Our God ray-ay-ay-ayns, Our God reigns.”
— The ever thought-provoking Slacktivist, By our love, by our love
I have signed up for NaNoWriMo
I have signed up for NaNoWriMo. If you also feel like writing a 50,000 word novel in 31 days (in competition with thousands of others) you should sign up too (and let me know.) I have no idea how I will fare; 50,000 is a large number. But it should be fun. And hey, not as if I have anything better to do with my time, right?
Girls in emo songs today do not have names
Girls in emo songs today do not have names. We are not identified. Our lives, our struggles, our day-to-day-to-day does not exist, we do not get colored in. We span from coquettish to damned and back again. We leave bruises on boy-hearts, but make no other mark. Our existences, our actions are portrayed SOLELY through the detailing of neurotic self-entanglements of the boy singer…
— Jessica Hooper, Emo: Where the Girls Aren’t
I've watched and reviewed the Rodriguez/Tarantino double “Grindhouse
I’ve watched and reviewed the Rodriguez/Tarantino double “Grindhouse.” Kinda disappointing; I wouldn’t recommend it. Slightly more comprehensive thoughts in the review, for those interested in such things.
Worriesome
Worriesome: I wonder if this is causing half of Africa’s problems. Not the lateness itself, but the pressure to conform to “White Man’s” standards. Seems to me that if you have a culture with a relaxed attitude to time and efficiency and appointments, that culture could be a relatively pleasant place to live.
Also, computer hard disks are pretty amazing:
A computer hard-disk reader that uses a GMR sensor is equivalent to a jet flying at a speed of 30,000 kmph, at a height of just one metre above the ground, and yet being able to see and catalogue every single blade of grass it passes over.
Wow.
Also into cats
Also into cats: cats can has teh geek lolz, and cats can has teh bibluhcal lolz at lolcatbible.com. Matthew 1:16–20:
And Jacob maded Joseph. Joseph was teh mister of Mary, and she maded Jesus, who gets called Christ, liek all teh time. Srsly.
So all teh genenerayshuns from Abraham to David am 14 genenerayshuns, frm David to gettin lockeded up in Babblylon am 14 genenerayshuns, and frm gettin lockeded up in Babblylon to teh Christ am 14 genenerayshuns. Srsly.
Now, teh burth of teh Christ was liek dis: After Marry and Joseph were all “We’s gonna get marrieded, kthnx”, but before dey could had PENIS GOES WHERE?, Mary was all preggy from the Holey Ghosty.
Joseph was all liek “Oh snap, dis embarrassin. I’s gonna hide mah wife”.
But when he was tihnkin, zomg, angel frm Ceiling Cat was in his dreems! Angel sayed “Hai, don’t be fraided to has Mary for ur wife, cuz her baby be frm Holey Ghosty.
This is giving me some trouble
This is giving me some trouble. Basically my entire life, my plan has been to go and help other people ‘live properly,’ and it’s just beginning to dawn on me that I may actually have no idea or right. Also, the whole concept is pretty patronising, and (let’s be honest) isn’t far from being colonialism two dot oh.
Part of the trouble is that I have, realistically, no practical help to offer – I’m a middle-class white man white-collar information worker, and therefore one of the more useless members of the human race; I would be on Douglas Adams’ colony ship along with the telephone sanitizers. But the bigger issue is: who the hell am I to think I know better than these people who are already bloody living there, and whose lives depend on the choices they make?
Okay, I have a bit more freedom to tinker with the system, and yes, in a more pragmatic sense I do know a little better because I have an education and an understanding of how globalised capitalism works, but still my doubts remain. Any ideas? Anyone?
Fix Over-Population While Still Experiencing the Joys of Parenthood
Fix Over-Population While Still Experiencing the Joys of Parenthood:
(My idealistic, arrogant, I’m-young-male-and-single solution)
- Form a tribe or group of like-minded adults; I’d suggest between ten and twenty people to a group.
- Feel free to have (spread among the group) a number of children equal to, say, one child per couple. That’d give you half as many kids as adults, over time.
- Bring them up communally. No child would be an only child, and every adult would be partially responsible for all children… one big happy family.
Q. BUT I NEED TO SPREAD MY SEED! IT’S A BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE.
A. You are not your biology. Exercise some self-control. If you need to leave a legacy, start spreading ideas or education. Go read about memes.
Q. BUT I NEED MY OWN CHILDREN! BRINGING UP OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN JUST ISN’T THE SAME.
A. Stop being so damn possessive. Children should belong to the tribe – it’s better for all concerned. I mean, let’s be honest; the western nuclear family (generally speaking) isn’t exactly the epitome of functionality and health. And hey, on the bright side you’ll get to avoid experiencing the miracle of childbirth.
Q. What’s this all about? Why?
A. We have far too many people on the planet already, and at current rates of growth (~1.3%) we’ve got about 800 years until there’s 1 person per square metre of the planet [ref]. And everyone is still having babies, even as they’re starving to death in some parts of the world.
Slow it down, Son
Slow it down, Son:
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:27–28)
Earth filled: CHECK
Earth subdued: CHECK
Dominion established: CHECK
Maybe it’s time to stop with the being fruitful and multiplying?
Hockey Stick Charts
Hockey Stick Charts:
Tim Bennet (in Make Like a Hockey Stick) links a frightening article on the maths of exponential growth, with a look at population and energy consumption. Tim follows up with:
… Growth is Madness! That’s exactly right. And our culture is mad at its very core, because it’s founded on growth.
Scary stuff. (I’ve ordered a DVD of his movie, What a Way to Go; let me know if you’re keen to watch it, and when it arrives we’ll sort out a time.)
On Participation in War (and PTSD)
On Participation in War (and PTSD):
…it had always been assumed that the average soldier would kill in combat simply because his country and his leaders had told him to do so, and because it might be essential to defend his own life and the lives of his friends. Marshall’s singularly unexpected discovery was that, of every hundred men along the line of fire during the combat period, an average of only 15 to 20 “would take any part with their weapons.”
— Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, Hope on the Battlefield
