Fanta Se

2007-09-09T17:01:00.000-05:00

This will be my last post here till Steve says something

Fanta.se

Dear old Concord High

2007-09-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

I can remember asking Jon Edwards if he'd support a revived space program in that auditorium, and Lieberman if he thought that political outsider status might eventually benefit a presidential candidate. Looks like things have devolved. CARRY ON TRADITION CONCORD HIGH, come on.

In other news osama bin ladens hype men are prepping some sort of video podcast by the bad man in a new black beard.
this obviously means that Al-qaida=pirates and that means maddox too. Dirty stinking terrorists.

iWarbot Go!

2007-09-06T05:34:00.000-05:00

And I raaaaan

2007-09-04T05:03:00.000-05:00

i ran so far away

i couldn't get away

2007-09-04T05:02:00.001-05:00

AIEEEEEE!

2007-08-14T01:24:00.000-05:00

Click the beautiful picture for disturbing news.

2007-07-26T14:48:00.000-05:00

Double a cube

2007-07-08T20:43:00.000-05:00

2007-06-20T14:26:00.001-05:00

Everybody's Crazy

2007-04-26T13:56:00.000-05:00

Click the Pictures for associated stories

THC Battlin' Cancer Since '74

Clones are Coming

Concentrating on our Camp

Global Gambling

uberm sternenzelt richtet gott, wie wir gerichtet

2007-04-25T00:33:00.000-05:00

Many different desires are motivating us to create the new "Evangelion" film.

The desire to portray my sincere feelings on film.
The desire to share, with an audience, the embodiment of image, the diversity of expressions, and the detailed portrayal of emotions that animation offers.

The desire to connect today's exhausted Japanese animation [industry] to the future.
The desire to fight the continuing trend of stagnation in anime.
The desire to support the strength of heart that exists in the world.

Finally, the desire to have these wishes be realized.

For these purposes, we used the best methods available to us to make another Evangelion film.
Many times we wondered, "It's a title that's more than 10 years old. Why now?"
"Eva is too old", we felt.
However, over the past 12 years, there has been no anime newer than Eva.

Specifically, among the stagnant mood of the present day, it is the portrayal of will - not technology - that is most important.
To support the fans that support animation, we felt that a work that would appeal to middle and high school-aged men, who quickly grow away from Anime, was necessary.
When we decided that we wanted to something to support the anime [industry] of today, the determination to return to this title was strong.

As the creator of this project, [I assure you that] a very new-feeling Evangelion world has beeen constructed.
For this purpose, we are not returning to our roots at Gainax. I have set up a production company and studio, and it is in this new setting that we will start again.
Without looking back, without admiration for the circumstances, we aim to walk towards the future.
Thankfully, we have gathered staff from the old series, new staff, and many other fantastic staff to work on this series.
We realize that we are creating something that will be better than the last series.

”Eva" is a story that repeats.
It is a story where the main character witnesses many horrors with his own eyes, but still tries to stand up again.
It is a story of will; a story of moving forward, if only just a little.
It is a story of fear, where someone who must face indefinite solitude fears reaching out to others, but still wants to try.
We hope that you look forward to the 4 new retellings of this story.

In closing, it is also our job to provide a service to our customers.
Although it seems obvious, we aim to create a form of entertainment that anyone can look forward to; one that people who have never seen Evangelion can easily adjust to, one that can engage audiences as a movie for theatres, and one that produces a new understanding of the world.

This fall, we hope you can join us.

Creator/General Director, Anno Hideaki

Exceprt from the Apocalypse of Peter
"Then shall men and women come unto the place prepared for them. By their tongues wherewith they have blasphemed the way of righteousness shall they be hanged up. There is spread under them unquenchable fire, that they escape it not...

' The Father hath committed all judgement unto the Son.' The destiny of sinners -their eternal doom- is more than Peter can endure: he appeals to Christ to have pity on them.

And my Lord answered me and said to me: 'Hast thou understood that which I said unto thee before? It is permitted unto thee to know that concerning which thou askest: but thou must not tell that which thou hearest unto the sinners lest they transgress the more, and sin.' Peter weeps many hours, and is at last consoled by an answer which, though exceedingly diffuse and vague does seem to promise ultimate pardon for all: 'My Father will give unto them all the life, the glory, and the kingdom that passeth not away,' . . . 'It is because of them that have believed in me that I am come. It is also because of them that have believed in me, that, at their word, I shall have pity on men.'

Great Seal

2007-04-18T08:39:00.000-05:00

Space suits and Moon boots

2007-04-10T15:57:00.000-05:00

There is no future the future iz now!

BOMBS & BOB

2007-03-19T02:49:00.000-05:00

click these pictures for illumination

Excerpt from the Gospel of Mary

The Savior said, "All natures, all formed things, all creatures exist in and with one another and will again be resolved into their own roots, because the nature of matter is dissolved into the roots of its nature alone. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Oh Athena!

2007-02-04T14:12:00.000-05:00

After a break of 16 centuries, Greek pagans are worshipping the ancient gods again - despite furious opposition from the Orthodox church.

A Letter to Steve Z

2007-01-31T03:47:00.000-05:00

IF YOU BLOG I'LL GIVE YOU Oink LOGON!

The Denial Machine

2006-12-18T19:59:00.001-05:00

click to enlarge

2006-12-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

THE NIGHTTIME IS THE RIGHTTIME!

2006-12-12T01:48:00.000-05:00

Van Dongen told Discovery News that the finding about creativity and evening types is "certainly novel, and one I would not have expected on biological grounds."

Click the title of this post for the full story

cool

the views expressed in this video are bla bla blog...

Who Really Owns The Media In The U.S.?

2006-11-28T14:17:00.000-05:00

LIFTED FROM FORBES by Saabira Chaudhuri

If Ron Burkle buys Tribune, he'll join the ranks of the handful of moguls in the U.S. who control the bulk of the nation's media, running everything from newspaper empires to vast cable networks. Some, like the billionaire Cox sisters, whose Cox Enterprises owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution among many other media properties, keep low profiles. Others, like News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, make headlines almost daily. Here's a rundown of America's mega-media magnates--and their political affiliations.

Barbara Cox Anthony And Anne Cox Chambers
America's wealthiest media moguls, worth $12.6 billion apiece at last count, derive their fortune largely from equity in Cox Enterprises, a diversified media company that owns 17 newspapers, 15 television stations, 81 radio stations, plus stakes in cable television, online classifieds and the used-car industry. Chambers is a generous donor for Democratic candidates, having supported John Kerry's failed presidential bid in 2004. (Four years earlier, she donated $25,000 to Al Gore's recount committee.)

Keith Rupert Murdoch
Worth some $8.2 billion, the Australia-born Murdoch controls News Corp., a media powerhouse that boasts television, film, newspaper, magazine and book publishing operations. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Murdoch dove into new media last year when News Corp. paid $580 million to buy social networking site MySpace. Murdoch's subsidiaries have conservative leanings. Yet while Murdoch himself has donated to several Republican candidates over the years, he threw a curve ball at media watchers when he hosted a fundraiser this year for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Samuel Irving Jr. Newhouse And Donald Edward Newhouse
The Newhouse brothers own the privately held Advance Publications, owner of Condé Nast, Parade and Fairchild among others. Besides their massive magazine empire, the duo boast a portfolio of major daily newspapers in over 20 American cities, including the Newark Star-Ledger and The Cleveland Plain Dealer. They also own extensive interests in cable television and new media. The brothers are worth a combined $14.6 billion.

Michael Rubens Bloomberg
The current mayor of New York City, Bloomberg, 64, is worth $5.3 billion thanks to his founding of Bloomberg, the financial information firm whose data terminals are required accessories for hedge funds, private equity shops and investment banks all over the world. Bloomberg is a moderate Republican who supports gay marriage, abortion rights and gun control. Since 2000, New York's billion-dollar political figurehead has reportedly donated $29,200 to 11 Congressional candidates, nine of whom were Republican.

The Hearst Family
William Randolph Hearst is credited with launching the family's publishing empire in 1887 when he assumed control of the San Francisco Examiner from his wealthy father. Today, Hearst Corporation is a massive New York-based media conglomerate that owns prominent newspapers, magazines and broadcast systems. George Hearst Jr., the company's chairman and grandson of William Randolph Hearst, is a regular contributor to the Republican National Committee. All told, the Hearst family fortune is worth in excess of $8 billion.

Sumner Redstone
The 83-year-old media baron lords over Viacom (Paramount Pictures, MTV Networks) and CBS (UPN, Infinity Broadcasting). Hoping for a rebound in the movie business, Redstone bought DreamWorks' live-action studio for $1.5 billion in February. Today, the son of a drive-in theater owner controls 1,400 movie screens and boasts an estimated net worth of over $7.7 billion. In 2004, Redstone, who once declared himself a "liberal Democrat," dropped a minor bombshell on the nation's political community by announcing his support of President George W. Bush, allegedly because a Republican administration would be better for Viacom.

Haim Saban
Haim Saban, the Egyptian-born, Israeli-raised U.S. resident, built his $2.8 billion fortune on the back of the hugely popular kids show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Saban, along with a consortium of private equity groups, recently agreed to purchase the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision for $13.7 billion. (Univision shareholders have since filed suit to block the sale.) While Saban has donated to Republican candidates, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, he recently announced that he would support a 2008 presidential bid by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Our Sad Sad World

2006-11-17T22:12:00.000-05:00

Here's the cover of OJ's upcoming "Hypothetical retelling" of how he would have killed his wife if he'd actually done it. Subtle.

The Media-opoly

2006-11-12T21:42:00.000-05:00

Most of the wealth of our nation is in the hands of a few corporations. No, not the people in the corporations, the companies themselves. There is a lot of work that has gone into maintaining the status quo, and much of this effort has been focused on the media.

There was a cartoon on SNL a while ago that made hay out of our current media situation. Coincidentally, the cartoon only ran once and has since been banned. Here is that cartoon.

Election Day

2006-11-08T00:11:00.000-05:00

click the title of this post

America: Freedom to Fascism

2006-11-01T02:32:00.000-05:00

^From Google Video, and currently making rounds inside U.S. movie theaters. It's well worth a watch.

I was personally disapointed to see no mention as the film progressed to how much The New Deal contributed to the creation of the domestic federal attitudes they highlight here. The ground work for the paradigm shift of the American public from concious contributors to interned beggers stands heavily upon F.D.R.'s response to the depression. The repercussions being the seminal systems of an American National Socialist State. As Pearl Harbor was used to pull American Hearts into WWII, and 9/11 misused for the case to attack Babylon (Iraq), the depression allowed for a radical reexamination of our governments attitudes toward we the people. The key difference being that here the lense was turned on a public deemed responsible for disaster as opposed to the Axis powers and Terrorist cells.

more to come in this line of thinking...

A Poor Proposal

2006-10-05T21:10:00.000-05:00

As the St. John's College web site currently lists on it's homepage, SJC President Nelson spoke at a Cato Institute forum regarding The Spellings Commission Report on the Future of Higher Education(PDF), conducted by the Department of Education in conjunction with Boeing, IBM, and Microsoft in September.

He had this to say

The commission's call for a student unit record database serves none of the purposes I've described. It serves only the interests of the data collection, management and research industry. No one has made a credible argument that knowing the schools attended, classes taken, grades completed, and who knows what else, for each and every person in the United States will lead to improvement in the classroom. The connection is simply too remote. Why then, without a substantial hope of improving learning by collecting all this data, would we want to invest so many millions in such an enormous undertaking, and risk the privacy of our citizenry and the security of such sensitive data? As good as federal agencies are at protecting information, we've seen report after report in recent months of sometimes inadvertent, sometimes intentional, and sometimes illegal release or theft of sensitive data on thousands and thousands of citizens. We need a more compelling argument than we've seen to justify such a project. If the point of collecting the data is to satisfy lawmakers that the investment of taxpayer dollars in financial aid programs is worth the expense, there is more than enough data already out there to answer this question. And if even that data were somehow found wanting, statistical sampling would provide the answer without the need to create a cradle-to-grave catalog of each of our educational records.

Secretary Spellings has called for a privacy-protected student-level data system similar to what currently exists for K-12 students that would create a higher education information system.

In the past I've flirted with the rumor and loose allegations put forward that the venture capital required to start Facebook came from the failed DARPA Total Information Awareness Initiative. Now I feel that the aforementioned, publicly unpopular, and thus scrapped project may have just splintered for reassembly later. Who needs to pour black ops money into buying back facebook data when you can just set the system up under shroud of a Program to benefit "College Consumers." I'm equally leery of the presence of corporate representatives in an Education Department Commission. From reading over the final report I got the feeling that this database was to be looked at by college reps as offering potential revenue through sale and release of data to corprate entities.

All the same it looks like more privacy out the door...

Cato's Mission
"The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government."

A podcast of the forum from the Cato site

The Century Of The Self - By Adam Curtis

2006-09-30T00:03:00.000-05:00


"This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis

I've just finished watching this first part in a new documetary series from Adam Curtis. Curtis is the man who brought us (but not THE US thanks to television media censorship) The Power of Nightmares: the rise of the politics of fear, which Steve posted here some time ago. Click to title for link to the other 3 parts.

SCHWARZENEGGER GIVES UP HUMMERS

2006-09-22T17:42:00.000-05:00

Additionally

California Governor ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER has endorsed a new book by his ex-girlfriend even though it vilifies the former action man as a pot-smoking womaniser.

In other news.

Following in the footsteps of the anti-pluto planet movement science has struck again casting away the conception that there are in fact four states of matter. So as not to become too friendly what with all these talks of a Americo-Chinese space alliance in the works, China has unveiled some kind of super secret sattelite shooting LASER weapon!

Pictures from Banksy's Show

2006-09-16T14:45:00.000-05:00

Banksy is kind of like an artist-terrorist. Or something. Originally a graffiti artist, it looks like he's expanded his repertoire. Pics below from the "VIP preview" of his show in LA...

Watch this show to get the real truth about Scientology!

2006-09-15T18:58:00.000-05:00


"The What is Scientology Show is a 30-minute talk show featuring Scientologists who are actively utilizing the various life-saving technologies of Scientology, in their communities." I have nothing to say, just watch this.

Who's the man? Arnold!

2006-09-03T11:21:00.000-05:00

I first posted information revealing my affection for news about the rule of Arnold in Califoria three months to the date. Today marks the first newsworthy bit of information reported about the governator since.
"So, if that policy of fighting global warming is against our, the Bush Administration, then so be it."

California will have seceded from the union by '08.

Media-darling Karr won't be charged

2006-08-29T00:07:00.000-05:00

Have you been following the JonBenet murder mystery for the last decade? The press has. Most recently, CNN, FOX etc. went crazy for 12 straight days, posturing and weighing the guilt of John M. Karr, an admittedly-deranged, pedophile spotlight-grabber. There was apparently no evidence other than his own confessions in Thailand; it is apparent that the man just wanted attention.

Mr. Karr had twice refused requests after his detention in Thailand to provide cheek swabs for DNA, then later consented at a time when investigators were not expecting it and did not have the necessary kit.

. He just wanted the cushy flight back to the US and the FREE MEDIA ATTENTION. An Email written by Karr mentions his "Idea for a book" presumably about his own pathetic life. Karr got his moment just like he wanted, and the media played right into his hands. That doesn't take away from the fact that he's a

"lunatic...the saddest of all sad cases, a delusional, completely whacked out, early-teen-girl-marrying sociopath who writes bad poetry to long-dead little girls."

He's also a media-whore; but that makes the press into a bunch of Johns.

I thought they had sucked the blood dry from the JonBenet storyline. Seriously, it's been a decade. But the media had a WARgasm over Karr, barely mentioning the ACTUAL news of the moment, that a judge had ruled that the Administration's habit of wiretapping Americans' phone conversations without a warrant is unconstitutional. Look. I try to read the news, but it's impossible to do when it's all about one stupid topic that nobody cares about anymore. The way they carry on, you'd think JonBenet was British royalty. Oh, and I hate that coverage just as much; it's like Disneyland for the media over there.

Dear The Media,

Please stop boring us with this inane BS. If you don't have any news, just put on some music or something.

Sincerely,

Stephen Zweibel

Fanta Se!

2006-08-27T14:19:00.000-05:00

Well, I made it. After a long apprenticeship in Annapolis, I finally 'graduated' to the St. Johns New Mexico campus. It's not like I deserve my good fortune, but I appear to have hit the jackpot. The community here is awesome, the dorms are new and clean, the facilities are top-notch, and there's plenty of opportunity for athleticism (If you swing that way... The picture above is from Atalaya Trail. I didn't take the picture but I did take the hike.) Security is more relaxed, and so are the students. Even so, the classes are just as serious as in Annapolis. Even the food is better here. After being here almost a week it's clear to me that the grass is greener in Santa Fe, symbolically if not actually. (It's even rained recently, and the grass IS pretty green. So I've got that going for me too.)

This is all going too far

2006-08-23T02:01:00.000-05:00

Clowns have declared war on America!
But this might be just right.
An excerpt

"You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

Dylan said he does his best to fight technology, but it's a losing battle.

"Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it."

Shameless Advertisment for my Personal Blog

2006-08-23T00:29:00.000-05:00

I'm oh so very glad to be alive!

2006-08-19T20:49:00.000-05:00

Both these images link to odd videos off the now highlighted on every google search page google video service.
Which replaced froogle!

The above image links to something a little strange. I suggest videos 5 and 6 of 6 if you want an overview. Otherwise take the plunge AND WATCH THEM ALL!
The below image links to something a little strange. I suggest discretion by any weak of spirit in viewing the video below. It's pretty gnarley at times.

O'reilly?

2006-08-14T02:42:00.000-05:00

2 obvious things:
1. Bill O'Reilly is a hack.
2. He's really a big softie.

Treadmill Creativity

2006-08-02T03:24:00.000-05:00

I like the use of every-day objects in art. I bet you do too.

2006-07-31T19:33:00.000-05:00

Mel Speaks on

2006-07-29T18:53:00.000-05:00

Right Image:Mel Gibson at a press conference recently where he ranted ad nauseum about several pressing melgibzism.

Mr G started his address with a breif and solemn statement about his being blacklisted in hollywood, among the aftermath of an abuse acusation about his subliminal cigarette salesmenship amidst apocalypto trailer airings. A fact we reported on in May (check the archives). Gibson was flustered at losing his first list spot for a position in the Ocean's 13 cast, explogazzled nonesense about World of Mideastwarcraft III, finalizing his address with some nonsense about some blob he had a crazy theory regarding. An investigation into the intial image yieled a crop of seconday investigations into the criminality of covering people in white chalk and any potential punishment for Saddam Hussein look-alike-ism under the patriot act.

The last days, and they're so excited!

2006-07-28T00:35:00.000-05:00

Some evangelical Christians have come up with a strange and disturbing response to the wars in the Middle East: they're ecstatic! You see, apparently all this death and destruction heralds the return of their messiah... So they're celebrating. Some choice quotes fromn the Rapture Ready Message Board courtesy of Harpers.org:

Praise God! We are chosen to be in these times and also watch and spread the word. Something inside me is exploding to get out, and I don't know what it is. Its kind of like I want to do cartwheels around the neighborhood.

* * *

In another thread, someone brought up the fact that the kidnapping of the first Israeli soldier that started this whole thing was on June 25th and if you count from that day to August 3rd.......it is *EXACTLY 40 days!!!!!*

I find that to be a HUGE coincidence.

* * *

A question just popped in my head. Do you think children of around say 7 or 8 (but before the age of accountability) that have been indoctrinated up until that time by their parents religious beliefs will be raptured? . . . For example, would a 7 year old muslim be raptured? I know G-d will do right but I was just wondering everyone's thoughts. I hate to think of kids being left here.

* * *

Got that dancing feeling on the inside of me.

* * *

This is the busiest I've ever seen this website in a few years! I have been having rapture dreams and I can't believe that this is really it! We are on the edge of eternity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

Whoa! I can sure feel the glory bumps after reading this thread!

* * *

I too am soooo excited!! I get goose bumps, literally, when I watch what's going on in the M.E.!! And Watcherboy, you were so right when saying it was quite a day yesterday, in the world news, and I add in local news here in the Boston area!! Tunnel ceiling collapsed on a car and killed a woman of faith, and we had the most terrifying storms I have ever seen here!! But, yes, oh happy day, like in your screen name , it is most indeed a time to be happy and excited, right there with ya!!

* * *
I am excited beyond words that the struggle of this life may be over soon and I can finally be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

* * *

This is so exciting....I'm having a hard time believing this is 'real'!

Well that's touching, isn't it?

Also, I don't know if anyone watches Glenn Beck on CNN, but he's a nutcase and not a day goes by that he doesn't mention his conviction that the 'end times' are upon us. Check it out, spliced with some craziness from other apocalypse-enthusiasts.

Trying to protect marriage? Let's DO this thing!

2006-07-18T17:54:00.000-05:00

Bigots, who prefer to call themselves 'social conservatives', have been up in arms for years about gay marriage. We've heard the arguments: allowing gays to marry would degrade this 'holy institution', and possibly destroy civilization. But the proponents of an amendment to the constitution to ban gay marriage swear up and down the aisle that they are not homophobic, rather they profess to have 'Traditional American Values'. This study, on the other hand, shows that dislike of gay people is a much more influential factor in one's stance on the issue:

When one shifts from strongly opposing equality for women to strongly supporting equality (i.e., the maximum possible shift on this scale), the probability of support for gay marriage increases by about .26. That is to say, the change that one will support gay marriage increases by 26%.

When one shifts from strong aversion to gays/lesbians to strong affinity for gays/lesbians (i.e., the maximum possible shift on this scale), the probability of support for gay marriage increases by about .74.

Maybe, just MAYBE one's stance against gay marriage is about traditional values and not a cynically hidden bigotry. In that case, I suggest you support Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.) in his effort to create an amendment that treats marriage as the inviolable bond conservativesa suggest it is:

"Marriage is for life, and this amendment needs to include that basic tenant. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I think we should expand the scope of the amendment to outlaw divorce in this country. Going further Mr. Speaker, I believe in fidelity. Adultery is an evil that threatens the marriage and the heart of every marriage, which is commitment.

"How can we as a country allow adulterers to go unpunished and continue to make a mockery of marriage? Again by doing so, what lessons are we teaching our children about marriage? I certainly think that it shows we are not serious about protecting the institution and this is why I think the amendment should outlaw adultery and make it a felony. Additionally, Mr. Speaker, we must address spousal abuse and child abuse. Think of how many marriages end in a divorce or permanent separation because one spouse is abusive.

"And, Mr. Speaker, I personally think child abuse may be the most despicable act one can commit. This is why if we are truly serious about protecting marriage to the point we will amend the constitution, we should extend the punishment of abuse to prevent those who do such a hideous act from ever running for an elected position anywhere.

"We should also prevent those who commit adultery, or get a divorce, from running for office. Mr. Speaker, this House must lead by example. If we want those watching on CSPAN to actually believe we are serious about protecting marriage, then we should go after the other major threats to the institution. Not just the threat that homosexuals may some day be allowed to marry in a state other than Massachusetts. An elected official should certainly lead by example."

While this is certainly tongue-in-cheek, it adroitly points out the hypocrisy going on. It's all or nothing, people.

UPDATE: J. Clifford has put up video of Rep. Davis' speech. Apparently this fool voted FOR the ban, and was merely pointing out what he saw as shortcomings in the bill. Congressmen are so foolish sometimes it's impossible to tell between sincerity, pandering, or satire!

My posts here have gotten real short lately

2006-07-18T13:38:00.000-05:00

2006-07-15T17:56:00.000-05:00

TV on the Radio (!!!)

2006-07-07T23:55:00.000-05:00

TV on The Radio's unfortunately-titled new album, 'Return to Cookie Mountain' has been available on the internet for months, but it just went to retail, so it's FINALLY safe to talk about it. So here goes:

TV on the Radio is the perfect band for the 21st century. They have such heavy beats one could only describe them as funky fresh. They've been around a little while, this is their third LP, I would say their best. The guitars are crunchy, not TOO crunchy, but enough to push you around a little. Beautifully orchestrated, wonderfully produced, 'Return to Cookie Mountain' sounds like nothing you've ever heard before. And the lyrics. OH the lyrics. Tunde Adebimpe is a poet AND a scholar. He's got a great set of pipes as well.
Some quotes from review sites:
"a monster and a masterpiece"

NME (9/10)

"this album has such an incredible pull"

Pitchfork (9.1)

"a delight - an experimental album with a pop heart"

The Guardian (4/5)

"spellbinding ... wonderful"

Observer Music Monthly (4/5)

"evidence of fearless imaginations at play, Cookie Mountain is a triumph of psychedelic melody, drone and eerie groove"

Watch this video announcing the CD's release. It has David Cross in it!

HAMDAN V RUMSFELD

2006-07-02T23:46:00.000-05:00

Recently the Supreme Court ruled that the Executive branch does not have the power to organize military tribunals for the inmates at Guantanamo Bay (thanks to Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift), who may or may not be terrorists, we're not sure. At issue is the system of checks and balances the founders put in place to counter monarchic and dictatorial tendencies, very much the style of the Bush administration. You see, according to the constitution, the executive branch must appeal to CONGRESS in order to hold a military tribunal, which the administration did not do. The supreme court also upheld our adherence to the Geneva Convention. According to the constitution, as a treaty, it is to be followed 'as the supreme law of the land'. LATimes:

One of the most significant sections of Justice John Paul Stevens' majority opinion declared that the conflict with Al Qaeda is covered by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which requires that detainees be judged by "a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples." (Article 3 also casts doubt on the legality of aggressive interrogation techniques at Guantanamo because it prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.")

So, there you go. We're actually humans, we Americans. Thank God.

A better wall plug?

2006-07-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

Look at this. Is this a good idea? I think it is. Originally designed for geezers who can't bend over far enough to plug in their Craftmatic adjustable beds, this design is POWERFULLY ergonomic. Ha. Get it? Alright, moving on.

Seriously, I would love my house to be outfitted with these things. You know when you can't use the lower plug because an over-large power-adapter is in the higher spot, blocking your way? Well, worry no more. Your power plugs are free!

Dear Fabio

2006-07-01T22:54:00.000-05:00

France beats Brasil!

Coming Soon (click me for here now)

2006-06-30T22:18:00.000-05:00

Guantanamo Bay Explained

2006-06-30T19:47:00.000-05:00

Freak-folk? Psych-folk? More like Fun-Folk

2006-06-25T20:53:00.000-05:00

I'm a little late talking about this, but last week or so the NYtimes ran an article called 'Summer of Love Redux'. It was about the resurgence of folk music, sort of. C'mon people, this started like LAST YEAR! But enough griping.

While superficially similar, this iteration of hippie-dippy folk music is not quite the same as it once was:

The scene... has grown steadily and expanded sonically, getting less folkie and more, well, freaky. It has also gone international. And this season — the Summer of Love 2.0 — it comes into full, wild bloom with releases, tours and festival appearances that promise nothing less than a new age of Aquarius.

The new music is more a mind-set than a genre. It usually employs acoustic instruments, though it’s as likely to have roots in progressive rock, free jazz or Brazilian pop as in Appalachian ballads.

Vocals tend toward the willfully eccentric, arrangements toward the exotic, lyrics toward the oblique. The sound can range from gentle ensemble music befitting a Renaissance fair to electric psychedelia befitting an acid test. The musicians often conjure the 60’s in grooming and countercultural/utopian/back-to-the-land vibe. Many are friends, cultivating a communal network of informal collaboration: they tour together, play on one another’s records and sing one another’s praises. But with a tendency toward art that’s both homespun and solipsistic, and that shows little interest in music industry trappings, they can seem less interested in Making It Big than in keeping it small.

Bands like Comets on Fire and Dungen (mentioned before) exemplify this new music. But the spearhead of the whole movement, the man responsible for this hippie-power resurgence is none other than Devendra Banhart, the lovable freak who sings that song you hear on the Fat Tire beer commercial. In fact I bet it's because of him it's called 'FREAK-folk'. Give him a listen; he's a consummate musician with powerful, poetic lyrics, even if he is a little weird.

Side note: I think 'freak-folk' is a misleading term, as it encompasses both traditional singer-songwriter acts and the newer psychedelic/electronic bands, like those mentioned above and in the article.

Side note 2: We all know by now that culture moves in circles, revisiting trends, returning to old stomping grounds. So is this much of a surprise? Even what was once unbearably passe eventually comes back into fashion (cf comic books, or retrocrush, a website about all things 'retro'). We just have to get used to the fact that boy bands and hair metal will be popular again some day. I can only hope I'm dead before then.

Terrorists get Tired

2006-06-17T22:45:00.000-05:00

I saw on the Drudge Report today that an 'Al-Qaeda cell planned a poison-gas attack on the N.Y. subway'. This is according to a new book by Ron Suskind, called The One Percent Doctrine. Time:

U.S. intelligence got its first inkling of the plot from the contents of a laptop computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist captured in Saudi Arabia early in 2003. It contained plans for a gas-dispersal system dubbed "the mubtakkar" (Arabic for inventive). Fearing that al-Qaeda's engineers had achieved the holy grail of terror R&D — a device to effectively distribute hydrogen-cyanide gas, which is deadly when inhaled — the CIA immediately set about building a prototype based on the captured design, which comprised two separate chambers for sodium cyanide and a stable source of hydrogen, such as hydrochloric acid. A seal between the two could be broken by a remote trigger, producing the gas for dispersal. The prototype confirmed their worst fears: "In the world of terrorist weaponry," writes Suskind, "this was the equivalent of splitting the atom. Obtain a few widely available chemicals, and you could construct it with a trip to Home Depot – and then kill everyone in the store."

The weird thing about this story is that it didn't happen. Zawahiri, 'Vice-president' of Al Qaeda, called off the attack 45 days before it was scheduled to occur. No one knows why. Maybe the terrorists are sleepy.

Everything is a link in the chain

2006-06-09T06:22:00.000-05:00

The ability to destroy/detox a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force

Washington: Hero, Role Model

2006-06-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

George Washington was a virile gentleman. Watch.

Zoo lion kills man who thought God would protect him

2006-06-06T12:10:00.000-05:00

I think that any animal would kill a man given the chance and power:

On Sunday, a man shouted to a large crowd, "God will protect me from lions!" before stepping into a lion cage in Kiev. "A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery," and killed him, said a zoo official.

In Taiwan a few years ago, a man leapt into a lion cage and tried to convert the lions to Jesus. People make me sad sometimes. Why would God protect a CHRISTIAN from lions? We know what happened in the colosseum! It's just not clear thinking.

Let's Spin Some Newz!

2006-06-02T22:02:00.000-05:00

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an enigma, might be president by 2008 or commander and chief of an armageddon army by 2012.

31 Oct 2003 Regarding recently-elected California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fidel Castro declares: "To judge from the photographs, he has a lot of muscle, but they have not tested him to see how much muscle he has in the brain... He may well have more force in the arms than in the brain." -Source (NSFW)

At first, he was planning some kind of discussion. Now, it looks like he's declaring war against the Fox

Iraq Apocalypto

2006-06-02T01:22:00.000-05:00

Nobody wants to go to Iraq. For journalists, it's the deadliest war in modern history. Nice going!
One good thing coming out of Iraq, though.

"There's a soldier in Iraq who's been posting some crazy pictures of American SUVs and pickup trucks that have been modified by civilian security contractors for use as gun trucks. They're insane, in a 'Mad Max at the Wal-Mart parking lot' kind of way."

The way I see it Iraq is cool now in a post-apocalyptic-chic way, like The Terminator.

Some cool Stuff

2006-05-30T02:09:00.000-05:00

The post's title link is about this cool Philip K. Dick book. Another of Philip K. Dick's books is being made into a movie. That link goes to a trailer remix contest.

A crazy trailer for Mel Gibson's next project is out, with this image hidden in it. See if you can find it for yourself.

Proof Mel Gibson's Gone Gonzo

More news about the magnificence of the men Mel is depicting in his foray to the equatorial Americas, as well as being about pyramids.

Lastly, definitive proof that the military industrial complex had something to gain from the events of 9/11.

Cool huh?

If it feels good...

2006-05-26T18:08:00.000-05:00

I couldn't stop laughing. But also this comic is pointing out the difficulty in being mature. It's SO hard not to do things that feel good! I know I suck at it.

Subliminal Ad for my Personal Blog

2006-05-26T02:26:00.000-05:00

Clic the Pic, and the title of the post's a linc

That's some scary stuff this Bush guy's been saying.

Find MORE sounds

2006-05-22T21:40:00.000-05:00

If there's one thing I couldn't live without, it's music. God, don't you love music? But, damn, actually if there's one thing I REALLY couldn't live without, it's a computer, what with the internet and all. Seriously, computers can do anything. They're a more powerful tool than our own hands!... so yeah, #1) computers, #2) music. But together is better: using the internet to find more music. Imagine inputting a favorite artist or song, then getting in return a series of songs by other artists that match your preferences. Last.fm has done this kind of thing for a while.

I mention this because the forces of musical snobbery and computer nerdery, already estimable alone, have joined together in A NEW(ish) AND POWERFUL COMBINATION that will shake the very foundations of your music collection. Or maybe not I guess, but I bet it will. Pandora is a website that attempts to distill what it is we like about our music into discernible characteristics:

Pandora can tell you that Spoon's "My Mathematical Mind" features "acoustic rhythm piano, a 12/8 time signature, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, a vocal-centric aesthetic, and triple note feel"-- and that's why it came up on a post-rock station, instead of the indie rock channel where it "belongs."

Try it. It is sweet.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

TRY IT.

High School

2006-05-22T12:16:00.000-05:00

Being back in my home town for a while. It's my first summer home from college and I feel pulled in a million directions at once. I've been hitting the books with old friends and family and a large topic of conversation has been education. I feel a little like one of the poor people probed by Clarence on the most recent Wonder Showzen *Season 2 Episode 8* when it comes to the issue. I could complain a whole lot about the quality of the current public schooling system but if asked to be the be all and end all on how things should be running I think i come up a little empty. Textbooks always seemed like a problem. To be critical though, I think that our public school system impresses an antiquated state of reality on impressionable minds in a theater that feels more like a concentration camp than a blessing and bloats its own importance to in the eyes of those minds so that failure there is viewed as failure at life. This situation is appalling, In a world where this can happen, we should realize that youth are more capable mentally at a younger age than they ever have been before and that the exhaustive and somewhat pointless action of test-taking, pomp, and circumstance weighed so heavily in high school has very little quantitative benefit in the modern world. All the information you studied in every social studies or science class can be easily attained with a google search. All that math can be done with a calculator. Students are driven in high school by a will to power and not much else. Benefits of good grades? Good college of course. Benefits of good college? Good job of course. Benefits of good job? Money of course.

A problem arises, because the skills necessary to make enough money to survive in this world are taught to kids in video games before they're even in school. Money is not the be all and end all to life. Survival depends on some money, but not only money. Enough money to survive seems to be a pretty easy thing to make if you're willing to put in the effort. School shouldn't need to be the factor that motivates kids to exist in society. That's the only function I believe it could possibly see itself accomplishing and it does so poorly. Students should be offered more selection with less numerical evaluation. The subjects that interest you will be those you're willing to apply effort to, and theres no reason that schools haven't brought curriculums up to date to represent the interests of the modern world. Even more despicable is the absolute lack of valuable information granted in high school courses. My memory of them in retrospect was something akin to a complicated and unfulfilling series of brain teasers and memorization tests. Students interested in science and technology should be encouraged to know that there are fields and careers that match their interests. Artists should know their skills are invaluable to a corporate culture constantly reshaping its glossy chic public image. Those skilled in prose and language could be shown the plethora of possible outlets for their talents in a world shaped by it's words. Instead they are bogged down in rigid tests about names and dates that are all archived in the freakin wikipedia.

Creativity is the greatest tool at our disposal and the factor least present in this system. Students are rarely asked to present anything of their own other than reconstitutions of pre-researched information into charts and power point presentations. Kids could already be discussing issues of social, economic, and political weight, exploring the worlds of electricity and applied sciences, producing works of video, print, and music, and generally creating culture rather than having it hidden within them as dark and dirty secrets not be be revealed. Your opinion and your input into your education shall one of raw effort alone so that we can brand you with a number. This number will be your value to society. Get too low a number and you might just dissapear, you know like JFK.

CO2: They Call it Pollution, We Call it Life (?!)

2006-05-19T23:15:00.000-05:00

Global warming: it's real, and we're probably responsible. Scientific evidence of this is coming in hard and fast, almost every day. There are however a number of 'people' (corporations) who deny anything is going on.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute is one of the organizations created to lobby politicians and convince the public that 'there is no problem'. They've even produced a propaganda video! It's hilarious. No content, no nothing; it took me a while to believe it wasn't a parody. So, if this is all they've got, I'm not really that worried.

Root for the LOSING Team?

2006-05-18T01:13:00.000-05:00

Everyone and their dog has a problem with the president these days, and that means the Republicans in Congress are going to have a tough time in the midterm elections. It's even possible that Democrats could win a majority in one of the houses. So, good,right? More balance in a government that sorely needs it. Also a strong opposition can be a check on rampant corruption in the ruling party. I don't see Democrats as uncorruptable angels, but their pressure may make Republicans quit their worst transgressions.

Ah, but weirdly, some Democrats WANT TO LOSE in 2006.

From this perspective, it wouldn't be the worstthing in the world politically to watch the Republicans struggle through the last two years of the Bush presidency. There's the prospect of continued conflict in Iraq, high gas prices, corruption investigations, Republican infighting and a gridlocked Congress. Democrats would have a better chance of winning the presidency in 2008, by this reasoning, and for the future they enhance their stature at a time when Republicans are faltering.

The argument goes that allowing America to be alowly destroyed is 'good politics'. If Democrats gain power, they might be expected to do something with it. OH MY GOD NO!

That's just ridiculous. I'm with ol' Bill Clinton on this:

"I think when you suit up you've got to try to win, and I hope we will win because we will get better public policy and it'll be better for America."

At least there's some hope of that.

Spy Spy

2006-05-15T15:46:00.000-05:00

So I think I might wanna work for the CIA. I say that after years of fear-mongering the establishment that the CIA seems so intergral in, but lately I see that the element effecting change that I always so longed to be a part of is not a counter-culture, but rather a counter-counter-culture. This is not simple culture as the double negative might imply, but an ascended sort of understanding. There are great evils and there are great goods in the world. Every facet of human existence holds a commingling of these polar extemes. Institutions of order represent human attempts at higher being. These instititutions are things like governments, schools, religions, social networks, and community. The initial impulse of any conscious youth in America is an immediate revulsion toward our action in global politics lately. America operates a torture camp in a communist nation to indefinetly hold prisoners of a war with no determinate enemy. We've started a war against an enemy as staunchly secure in their religious conviction that democracy represents the ultimate god-less evil in the world, as we are that they represent a force of god-less stagnant opression and ignorance.

The key to life lived to it's fullest is really as simple as thinking and acting on your thoughts. The world offers a vast array of possibility to direct what is a nearly infinite human potential. The only goal that serves no end is disorder. The ordered whole as it is offers anyone of any persuasion a way to make it in this world. It's just about looking for it. The greatest system of order I could express desire for all humans to participate in is reality. There's really no reason not to be here. Our American society has bread an opulence that lends itself to hedonism, depression, and disorder. These things are destructive to society and the globe. The people in charge have a plan that I worry may be steering us toward a very dangerous place, what with war in the middle east and all, but they are a well intrenched powerful aristocracy that shows no sign of leaving its perched position. Our only hope for effecting change in the world is to affect the people around us. In the end people make the world. Half of America's populace doesn't vote! The government is pushing us around and spying on us. We don't care though, cause they've got us hooked on TV and Fast-Food. Stop reading what I'm writing right now. You're wasting your time I can assure you. I intend to say nothing in these last few sentences other than that I'm sure theres something very productive you could be doing with your time and I'm sure you're not doing cause you're reading my words. Actions speak. Words just talk. I'm not saying anything anymore. Get out of here already and DO SOMETHING!

Stuff We Just Decided: Addendum to Literary Canon!

2006-05-13T19:54:00.000-05:00

Some famous literate people (list) got together recently and decided on the best American books of the last 25 years. Votes were spread all over the board, but some patterns have emerged: Americans love the past, and we love novels that focus on some generalized "American Experience".

Other things: The list is skewed towards old fogeys; there is ultra-scant representation by the under-50 crowd, none of whom made the top tier.
Also, I haven't read almost any of these books, which I think is part of the point of making a list like this. I am nothing in comparison to these people! I am humbled by you, mighty list!

EVIL. Root it Out!

2006-05-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

Eventually corruption is revealed, justice wins the day, the guy gets the girl. More and more that is the picture I am getting of the world, an outlook that when commited to creates a positive-feedback loop of good vibes and happy coincidences. Evidence of this today is the rumor that KARL ROVE IS RESIGNING. Seems his indictment by Patrick Fitzgerald is imminent. Wonderful news if true.

Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush... that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources...

Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources confirmed Rove's indictment is imminent. These individuals requested anonymity saying they were not authorized to speak publicly about Rove's situation. A spokesman in the White House press office said they would not comment on "wildly speculative rumors."

Comedy!! in the 21st century... and beyond!

2006-05-12T02:45:00.000-05:00

In this post-pre-post-ironic world of ours, nothing is funny anymore. We have need of new comedy that is exciting and edgy! It needs to shock we who have been exposed to everything. We feel we have seen it all.

I think we need comedy to lure us in and then hit us behind the head. This new IT comedy would be something that is both inviting and frightening. It would appeal to our compassion and then violently disembowel us. It turns out this has been done. It's called Detournement.

This style of comedy is confusing on purpose. It's satire, which is great, but its more jarring than that. Detournement would be to take a well-established idea or character and putting it in a situation completely other. It's like The Ninja Turtles fighting Miles Davis. On most levels, it makes no sense. It's perfect for the disenchanted youth! It's like... take Sesame Street. Make the muppets and the children say sick, mind-expanding things. This is the approach of Wonder Showzen... This show does detournement perfectly. I saw a bunny slit a man's throat at storytime in front of a bunch of kids who screamed as they were doused with blood. It was hilarious.

The way I see it humor is closely associated with nervousness and incomprehension. No better way to accomplish that then to take stuff out of its original context and screw around with it, making it frightening to people. Take this clip, for example.

For a long-winded comic-version of what detournement is, see here. If you dare!

The Muzak

2006-05-09T00:18:00.000-05:00

I love the term "Wall of sound". I love the idea of it coming and smashing me with its dense loudness. The size of a wall of sound can vary. Many achieve the wall with huge arrangements of orchestras, while some musicians can create a wall of sound with a toy piano and a harmonica. It doesn't so much matter the size of the wall, as long as you can't run from all the sound.

So, continuing the metaphor, bands are like stone-masons. Some bands build really thick walls, and they are the best masons of all. These walls are sturdy, and every time you go back to them you can observe a different part of them (Ok so I'm stretching it now, but imagine jews at the Western Wall, standing there, looking at all the parts of that wall. Kinda like that.) The best band I can think of in that vein right now is Dungen.

Dungen is from Sweden. Sold.

No? Also they play neo-psychedelic folk rock (!?) and play the most excellent music I've come across in a while. They remind me of what I imagine a stained glass window would sound like.

NWO

2006-05-08T16:21:00.000-05:00

So this lab paper i have to write's topic would have me argue whose argument I find most convincing in their account of chemistry. Lately however I find myself far more interested in the phenomenon that is the thing that compelled man to account for chemistry, These men each offer a varied and loose understanding of the of the existence of a pattern of sorts in the natural world. They show that given a manipulation of our surroundings we can begin to see an order. Some element to what surrounds us and embodies us is intelligible. We human creatures possess the power to see the pattern. The pattern is beautiful, and glimpsing the pattern leads us to question why and how we exist within it. We can see that everything that happens happens because of something. This something is a real thing and not just anything. This thing is within us to see. It is shining its light on us always as the sun does. We can either seek to see it. Or we can choose to explain it away as some sort of madness. But we see explicable and inexplicable things occur nonetheless.
The sun shines and moves across the sky we see it move and we see it provide for all things. Our sight, and our survival are so intimately linked to the thing that it could be seen as the ultimate source of good. It obeys some sort of law, a law we see in its regularity. We see that what brings about change in the world is. That it was made came from something. We all came from another person in the most immediate of senses. But that only explains bodily existence. We have an existence beyond the body. We are actors on a stage that is our action, and the action of the first actor. We as intelligent entities are bound to a respect for what made us, as we cannot have been without it. When we see this, that we all have a role to play in a grander design, then we are freed from bondage. We are compelled to look around and to understand. We are struck by the awe and beauty of this grand design so strongly that we seek integration with it forever. We seek to stretch out ourselves toward it, to commit the mind to the love of existence, the love of the moment, the love of the now. Every moment courses with the lifeblood of the mind responsible for all things. A mind we share a piece of so that we may see that it exists.
Socrates fought to this end in his life, I think. He wanted people to see that the answers to man’s questions were embedded in the very positing of the question. We can really only know that we know nothing comparable to the source of knowledge. In all of the time our life encompasses we could never know everything, so we might as well just live our lives to the fullest while stretching the self out in a love of the possibility of a more perfect union. Choice and destiny are sewn together by time and it is a choice given to us to accept or deny our correspondence to this system. A certain sort of freedom arises from this stretching out of the self. The most immediate becomes less significant and one can see the broader picture of time as a huge progression for intelligent life.
These chemists try to break the world down into elements. Their understanding takes the shape of an ordered whole with intelligibility in the periodic table. Euclid showed us another sort of element. He showed us the circle and the triangle and the square. The same real value holds to both elements however. They are something that exists beyond us. No matter if we live or die a circle is always a circle. The nature of the world around that appears wild and fantastic shows us glimpses of the order. The most perfect perhaps being the circle of light in the sky that has taunted us to understand it’s magnificence for so long. We can see that the cause of all is manifest in our existence, as all things arise from things and not from anything random and disorderly. Music sounds best when effort is applied in its creation. Intelligence and awareness is the greatest gift with the greatest effort responsible for it’s existence. Acknowledgement of that gift is the future of mankind. To live life pursuing the perfection of time absent decay is the ultimate realization of the human intellect. We chase change. Change is in us as intelligent things. Rather than consuming the mind with worthless worry and wearily wandering without hope, we must see that we already possess all the keys. Time has been a long time coming. There is no future the future is now. Stop fearing it and just go!

Various Artists - New World Order

Listen and download @ datpiff.com

Various Artists - New World Order pt 2

Listen and download @ datpiff.com

Nightmare POWER!!

2006-05-06T00:25:00.000-05:00

Al Qaeda is real, and their intent is threatening. But all the hype we give terrorism is far above the real threat, and does nothing but empower the terrorists. Terrorists want nothing more than to be paid attention to!

"Zawahiri impressed upon Bin Laden the importance of understanding the American mentality. The American mentality is a cowboy mentality-- if you confront them with their identity theoretically and practically they will react in an extreme manner... They will then elevate you and this will satisfy the Muslim longing for a leader who casuccessfully challenge the West."

This is to say nothing of G Dub and his buddies. They scared us into being dependent on them.

That is what The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear is about. It's a documentary about the terrorists and the Neocons, and their parallel (and interdependent) rise to power. It's from the BBC (ooh, credibility!) but has never aired in the US except one or two film festivals. The best part is that they get the people who did all the dastardly things to talk about it themselves! And they're bragging! It gave me a creepy spine tingle.

Power of Nightmares Part 2
Power of Nightmares Part 3

Weird China

2006-05-05T00:34:00.000-05:00

The Chinese are creating near-exact replicas of American suburbs, down to using the same architect. Odd.

Fox Effect Real! (We Need Our Own Convince-o-Ray...)

2006-05-04T22:57:00.000-05:00

Check out this study, mentioned today in the Washington Post. Or, if you don't want to, I'll summarize it: researchers in Berkeley claim to have determined to what degree the popularity of FOX News affected the 2000 election.

In this paper, we present empirical evidence on the impact of media bias on voting. We consider one of the most significant changes in the US media in recent years, the entry and expansion of the Fox News cable channel. We exploit the natural experiment induced by the timing of the entry of Fox News in local cable markets and consider the impact on voting.

What they've found isn't surprising, but it does make one angry...

These audience estimates imply that Fox News convinced
between 3 and 8 percent of its non-Republican listeners to vote Republican. Alternative audience measures imply persuasion effects of up to 30 percent. Exposure to the conservative coverage of Fox News, therefore, had a sizeable persuasion effect.

Oh well. So... I guess we need to yell louder.

I hate the term 'Kafka-esque'

2006-05-03T23:30:00.000-05:00

Intellect vs Emotion

Intellect: ?You are evil.?
Emotion: ?You are evil.?
Intellect: ?No, You are evil!?
Emotion: ?No, You are evil!?
Intellect: ?Stop this nonsense! Why are you laughing? I do not see any reason why you should be so delighted.?
Emotion: ?I am not evil and it is fun to imitate you. You always sound hilarious!?
Intellect: ?Making fun of others is an evil act! You always make fun of everything! See then, you are evil! You are saddened; did I bring this sorrow upon you? Well you should be. Being evil is not decorous you know.?
Emotion: ?It is you! You are evil! You and your reasonableness! You always ruin everything with your dull facts! You always destroy my dreams! You envy me!?
Intellect: ?Why in the universe should I envy you!? Pray tell me you do not think I am jealous of your dreams! For, that would be the dreariest joke you have ever come up with!?
Emotion: ?You envy me because you cannot feel. You have never felt joy or sorrow. You can never love!?
Intellect: ?Well if I cannot feel, then how could I possibly envy!? Your words contradict each other. And as for love; love makes you weak; it also consumes your time. I do not see any reason why I should need it.?
Emotion: ?But love makes you strong! It makes you want to continue! It gives you hope! And you speak of time; what could be better than to spend your time loving someone and being loved? I feel sorry for you.?
Intellect: ?Time is much more important than to be wasted away by the futile act of loving. Why must one idle away their time with love, when one can cherish it with thinking!? Thinking upon ways to improve, to gain power. Better be sorry for yourself. For, you are evil.?
Emotion: ?But why do you think me so!??
Intellect: ?Do not pretend that you do not know! You may not be as clever as I am, but I do not think you are that dim-witted. You and your dreams! You and your hopes! You demolish all the things I work so hard to attain. You cannot comprehend the value of power. You always act like a fool!?
Emotion: ?I may be a fool but I am not evil!?
Intellect: ?Oh yes you are! You take away my freedom.?
Emotion: ?It is you who take away my freedom! If it was not for you??
Intellect: ?If it was not for me you would have been done with a long time ago. It was I who stopped you from??
Emotion: ?It was you who stopped me from showing my true self!?
Intellect: ?Then what I did was beneficent to everyone. I stopped you from spreading your evil in the universe!?
Emotion: ?You are evil.?
Intellect: ?You are evil.?
Emotion: ?No, you are evil!?

Look Behind You! It's Al Qaeda!

2006-05-03T19:30:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows that Al Qaeda is osama Bin Laden's terrorist organization, the stealthy worldwide spectre with unlimited funds that has worked tirelessly to destroy America. The name 'Al Qaeda' dates back to the mid 80's and means 'The Foundation', but the group was not associated with Bin Laden's brand of terrorism until the mid-90's. It supposedly was a global network by 9/11, and since then many terrorist attacks have been attributed to Al Qaeda. It is politically expedient for Islamic extremists to create an illusion of united power, but there is evidence that many of the people who carried out these acts did so alone. Now disaffected Muslims kill themselves worldwide for Osama Bin Laden's cause. So what we are left with is that Al Qaeda benefitted from the impression that it was powerful. But who made Al Qaeda appear so powerful in the first place? And why?(oh why?!)

"In the current context of Osama bin Laden's terror network, this name was imposed externally by Western officials and media sources. Mr. bin Laden has, in fact, never mentioned 'Al Qaeda' publicly."

CONSERVATIVES in America, specifically Neocons, have consistently pushed on us the idea that we are threatened by a killing machine with scary powers. Right now they're yelling at Iran, but they always have someone lined up.

More on this later.

Black Blood of Babylon

2006-05-03T01:37:00.000-05:00

Iran says take a hint from google and, "Don't be evil America, or we'll blow up your buddy Isreal!"

I find Colbert's actions falling parallel to the action of Aristophanes' performance of The Birds most readily. Athens was facing an uncertain military expedition with motives of empire during the Peloponnesian War. Aristophanes play sees idealistic humans transformed into birds to replace the gods in the affairs of men. They construct a wall around the entire earth so that the smell of sacrifice will no longer reach the heavens. The birds were satisfied in their own minds that they could be better rulers than the gods. Eventually the gods cede control to the birds with very little resistence.

Where in the past Aristophanes had been brought to trial for slander in his submissions to the annual festival to Dionysis (god of intoxication and theater), here he seems to say that the Athenians can rest assured they are virtuous enough that the gods will side with them and offer them the right to an extended empire. The substance of the argument and actions ascending to the conclusion are full of questionable content. The birds are described as "father beaters" in that they offer the ability to slander the established custom and action of their predecessors for an elevated god-like existence. The real gods are shown to be petty, near idiotic, and easily mislead by the birds, something that seems quite unusual given any prior account of the gods. The same message seems to resound here in Colberts attack on the 4 branches of government. "Everything is under control! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! That man right there! That one! Yeah... pay no attention to him. We've got the blessing of the gods. Everything is going to be okay!" One way or another I'm with Jon Stewart about the balls-alicious-ness.

And in closing I'm just pissed that this manifested itself in reality. Denver Defends Against Numerological Doom and Destruction

Video of Colbert at Correspondents' Dinner

2006-05-02T23:51:00.000-05:00

I demand you watch this. It's funny cause it's true.

edit: youtube removed their video at the behest of C-Span. The link is now to Ifilm.

Two Towers

2006-05-02T02:01:00.000-05:00

There's some ambivalence between myself and Steve as to the exact form this blog should habituate itself toward. Let's say I'd like it to represent, at least to some degree, my thoughts on the modern political cosmos. Let me start out by directing you toward the title link. I have done a lot of thinking about September 11, 2001, and not all of it was constructive. I've read a lot of web pages by a lot of looneys. In the end, my gut tells me the official story of the events of 9/11 is incomplete or false in part. The government won't provide answers to a bunch of crazies, cause they won't believe anything they're told. So I'm left to flip the pages of my shockingly blameless 9/11 Report, read the PNAC letter On Rebuilding America's Defenses and fume about what appears to be the most visible "conspiracy" for global domination in history.

One way or another I think Hip-Hop music is going to make an impact in the world of politics real soon. Here's a mixtape of material rather exciting. Jay-Z and Nas after having famously feuded in the 90's?, have finally moved on, realized they were both talented and wanted to make more money. So they "Squashed the Beef." Enjoy.

Jay-Z, Nas - Twin Towers Vol 1

Listen and download @ datpiff.com

China Syndrome

2006-05-02T00:32:00.000-05:00

One topic I'll probably bring up regularly is the rise of China. I am generally of the opinion that development is a good thing; I mean, I bet at least SOME benefit will come to the poorer people there, and not just the already-super-rich. But there are real problems that come along with this explosive growth. The Chinese threaten the American dream of easily-gotten comfort and prosperity, but more seriously, the strain on world resources created by 1.3 billion more rich people may become too much. Not to mention what the Chinese are going through...

Great Minds...

2006-05-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

It's funny that my first instinct for a post on this newly formed blog was going to be one in tribute to this funny man, and his antics at the recent White House Correspondents Dinner. Looks like I got beaten to the punch. The whole thing reminds me of V for Vendetta. The event's assuring in the sense that Stephen Colbert's not dead right now. Apparently Bush joked about an impersonator he had with him on stage having stood in for himself at debates. Perhaps we finally have an answer to what that strange protrusion was.

The Night Time is Clearly the Right Time

2006-05-01T01:40:00.000-05:00

Most of my posts will be from deep in the night, where I live. First thing I would like to talk about: Stephen Colbert hosted the White House Correspondent's Dinner recently, and he pissed off Bush and all the members off the press. Which is fine. But the newspapers barely mentioned him, clearly because they're embarrassed by what he called them, which is a puppet. (On a side note, I think Colbert is a funny guy, but some of his jokes up there were repeats from his show...)

2006-05-01T00:42:00.000-05:00

Announcing: the answer to your dreams. hopes. fears. desires. A monument to self-indulgence.