BIG GOOGLE IS WATCHING YOU
I have been watching the advertisements at the top of this page with some interest, and have noted that they change with the content of the posts. Since I’ve only been doing this for less than a month, it is hardly a perfect study, but once Star Trek was mentioned, the process started. It seems to take a couple of days to kick in, but, within 48 hours, there it was, a banner for online Trek DVDs. Then, after a dialogue with kaymo about AI, ads for robotic hard and software replaced Star Trek. My suspicion is that some devious, probably Google-driven robot scans for preset keywords and adjusts the advertising accordingly. This is, of course, the same technology as Carnivore that the NSA and Homeland Security use to catch terrorists. But we trust Google. Why? Because it’s Google. No better reason. A dear friend suggested I keep a list and see if my theory pans out over time. Ever the Instant Gratification Kid, however, I decided I would attempt to force the issue. So let’s post the following random list and see what happens...
John Wayne
The Simpsons
The Central Intelligence Agency
Godzilla
50 Cent
Dildo
Universal Pictures
Newsweek
THC
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
SERIOUS STUFF
From the excellent fidicen, links to two first rate pieces by Renana Brooks on Bush, the character myth, cognitive dissonance, neo-con newspeak, and what to do about the emperors bloody clothes (see also Dec 5th.)...
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1212-09.htm
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030630&s=brooks
Also a piece on the 9/11 Independent Commission on the seemingly disastrous cluster fuck that broke out between the FAA, NORAD, the Air Force, and Dick Cheney after four passenger planes were reported hijacked on the morning of September 11th, 2001...
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayairdefense.html
From the excellent fidicen, links to two first rate pieces by Renana Brooks on Bush, the character myth, cognitive dissonance, neo-con newspeak, and what to do about the emperors bloody clothes (see also Dec 5th.)...
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1212-09.htm
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030630&s=brooks
Also a piece on the 9/11 Independent Commission on the seemingly disastrous cluster fuck that broke out between the FAA, NORAD, the Air Force, and Dick Cheney after four passenger planes were reported hijacked on the morning of September 11th, 2001...
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayairdefense.html
Monday, December 29, 2003
FROM THE EMAIL (Quite amazing)
Hi Mick,
Thought you might like the very literal machine (AI?) translation of the Flirt piece (see Sunday 12/28) courtesy of Google Language Tools. At least it seems Gabba Gabba Hey is (for the most part) the same in any language! Really enjoying the riff btw, Doc40 is now a regular stop.
Cheers, Sid
====================================
Figure cult of the London underground sin from when it worked like usciere fo the UFO Club in 1967 and therefore leader of the Deviants anarchists (to when they recovery), Mick Farren worked like journalist for the NME for three years on ending of the Seventy. In particular, just during the outbreak of the punk rock. In the 1977 the Ramones arrived in United Kingdom in order to promote their Leave Home, and the British weekly magazine dedicated it cover to they and an enthusiastic article of Roy Carr. In appendix to that article there was the space for a piece of Farren, that it provocatively proposed a various reading of the sound ramones, and that, riletto today, in effects it offers to the cue for one various reading of punk American 1977. "When the Ramones has begun to record discs, people have endured them compare to you to the New York Dolls, the MC5 and the Who. This is one mistaken analysis. E' like comparing a cat to the uvaspina and saying that of she is descendant, solo because both are hairy!" Farren set up its controversy on a fundamental concept in order to comprise the sound of fratellini the Ramone. "the true masters of reference of the group of Queens are The To Libs, The Dovells, The Shangri-las, The Ronnettes, The Crystals, the Beatles". Just the riccioluto cantante/intellettuale he emphasized that, although the rough and dirty sound of the group, that that was to the base of the plan was the riscoperta one of melodia ultra the POP of the Fifty, the Spector sound and music from College of the end of years Fifty. It was alone the 77, and already Farren sputava in face to the public English its truth, that one of the difference between punk rock English and the that American. "the Ramones has taken the tradition of the baroque POP and they have reduced it to the bone? this is minimalismo in its higher and pure shape ". Today that cervelloni of The Wire and the post rockers of all the world they strive hard the spirit in order to define the concept of minimalismo in music, farren scovò it just in the attitude of a group therefore new but tradizionalista, a band that riproponeva the sounds of the vocal groups of the ' 50, the scarnificava, filled up it of chitarristici cutting guitars riff and introduced it with a primitivo "one two three four!". This shining reading, teorizzata, we insist, already in 1977, offers the cue in order to reflect on the difference between first vagiti punk rock Americans and that more mod and exactly "rock" of English, you define in way the much most elastic one than many it puts into effect them "expert" of rock and vanguards in matter of sonorous minimalismo, and it points out us how much is unjust to cite ramones when we speak about trash like Blink and the other rubbish punk from Mtv. Who writes never has not loved particularly the punk rock, but she found, seppur the sound of the Ramones young, entusiasmante, from the moment that truly seemed to listen to one brought up-to-date version of music from college of the 50 and of the surf movies. Farren was pushed still more in in its esuberante teorizzazione of a new minimalismo... "the Ramones uses often the phrase here the wanna, that it is the more important in the dictionary of the minimalista". Its conclusive words still today turn out convincing and entusiasmanti, therefore felt and various from the intellettualismo (to the money of the majors) of many experts of punk rock that today vaneggiano and scream their maldestre theories. "the world has need of the minimalismo of the ramones... is a band that it has distilled the moral, politics and the social philosophy in the Gabba phrase gabba hey... The world of it has need, hour ".
Hi Mick,
Thought you might like the very literal machine (AI?) translation of the Flirt piece (see Sunday 12/28) courtesy of Google Language Tools. At least it seems Gabba Gabba Hey is (for the most part) the same in any language! Really enjoying the riff btw, Doc40 is now a regular stop.
Cheers, Sid
====================================
Figure cult of the London underground sin from when it worked like usciere fo the UFO Club in 1967 and therefore leader of the Deviants anarchists (to when they recovery), Mick Farren worked like journalist for the NME for three years on ending of the Seventy. In particular, just during the outbreak of the punk rock. In the 1977 the Ramones arrived in United Kingdom in order to promote their Leave Home, and the British weekly magazine dedicated it cover to they and an enthusiastic article of Roy Carr. In appendix to that article there was the space for a piece of Farren, that it provocatively proposed a various reading of the sound ramones, and that, riletto today, in effects it offers to the cue for one various reading of punk American 1977. "When the Ramones has begun to record discs, people have endured them compare to you to the New York Dolls, the MC5 and the Who. This is one mistaken analysis. E' like comparing a cat to the uvaspina and saying that of she is descendant, solo because both are hairy!" Farren set up its controversy on a fundamental concept in order to comprise the sound of fratellini the Ramone. "the true masters of reference of the group of Queens are The To Libs, The Dovells, The Shangri-las, The Ronnettes, The Crystals, the Beatles". Just the riccioluto cantante/intellettuale he emphasized that, although the rough and dirty sound of the group, that that was to the base of the plan was the riscoperta one of melodia ultra the POP of the Fifty, the Spector sound and music from College of the end of years Fifty. It was alone the 77, and already Farren sputava in face to the public English its truth, that one of the difference between punk rock English and the that American. "the Ramones has taken the tradition of the baroque POP and they have reduced it to the bone? this is minimalismo in its higher and pure shape ". Today that cervelloni of The Wire and the post rockers of all the world they strive hard the spirit in order to define the concept of minimalismo in music, farren scovò it just in the attitude of a group therefore new but tradizionalista, a band that riproponeva the sounds of the vocal groups of the ' 50, the scarnificava, filled up it of chitarristici cutting guitars riff and introduced it with a primitivo "one two three four!". This shining reading, teorizzata, we insist, already in 1977, offers the cue in order to reflect on the difference between first vagiti punk rock Americans and that more mod and exactly "rock" of English, you define in way the much most elastic one than many it puts into effect them "expert" of rock and vanguards in matter of sonorous minimalismo, and it points out us how much is unjust to cite ramones when we speak about trash like Blink and the other rubbish punk from Mtv. Who writes never has not loved particularly the punk rock, but she found, seppur the sound of the Ramones young, entusiasmante, from the moment that truly seemed to listen to one brought up-to-date version of music from college of the 50 and of the surf movies. Farren was pushed still more in in its esuberante teorizzazione of a new minimalismo... "the Ramones uses often the phrase here the wanna, that it is the more important in the dictionary of the minimalista". Its conclusive words still today turn out convincing and entusiasmanti, therefore felt and various from the intellettualismo (to the money of the majors) of many experts of punk rock that today vaneggiano and scream their maldestre theories. "the world has need of the minimalismo of the ramones... is a band that it has distilled the moral, politics and the social philosophy in the Gabba phrase gabba hey... The world of it has need, hour ".
Sunday, December 28, 2003
SUNDAY IN THE DARK WITH NO-ONE
I guess in a combination of Sunday angst, the aftermath of so-far wretched holidays, the art avoiding art, and a general sense of impending disaster, I looked myself up on a web search, maybe to convince me that I still existed. Among all of the on-line stores specializing in obscure books and records (and heaven only knows I have enough of them) I discovered this lovely review from Richie Underberger. Thanks Ritchie, you brightened a dreary day.
GIVE THE ANARCHIST A CIGARETTE, by Mick Farren (Pimlico). Though Mick Farren might not have been a hugely recognizable name to the rock public in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was very much in the middle of Britain in both the underground rock scene and the general counterculture. {-Give the Anarchist a Cigarette} is his memoir of his wild early years, covering his flailing (yet ultimately successful) attempts to be in a rock group in the mid-1960s; his years as lead singer of the shambling psychedelic band the Deviants; his work as a journalist on the British underground paper {~International Times}; and his edging closer to the mainstream in the 1970s as a writer for {~New Musical Express}. On its own steam, Farren's story is very interesting; he got almost as much an inside view of the British psychedelic scene, as a fan and performer, as anyone, and likewise was much involved in the political protest and social counterculture of the time with {-International Times} and other activities, such as the psychedelic {~UFO} club. What makes this a truly fine read, however, is that Farren is also an excellent and extremely witty writer, churning out story after story of madcap adventure (and quite a lot of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll) in the British hippie era. These rope in characters from the most famous rock stars and writers to obscure groupies and hangers-on, from Led Zeppelin, Joe Boyd, Barry Miles, and Germaine Greer on down. For those who are interested, here at last are thorough details on his erratic yet intriguing band the Deviants -- their recording sessions, their chaotic gigs, the weird rotating cast of musicians, their ignominious bust-up on their first American tour. More than that, though, this gives a great sense of the adrenaline rush and heartbreaking disappointments of the hippie era, as well as its hangover into the 1970s, ending with Farren's decision to leave Britain for the US at the end of the '70s. Fans of Farren's writing were waiting a long time for a comprehensive account of his experiences during this era, which had leaked out in bits and pieces of various of his writings, and when he did put it all together in this book, he delivered the goods in splendid fashion.
I also found, on a website called Flirt -- The Snob Way To Indie Culture, a quite extraordinary analysis by one Federico Ferrari of a comment I wrote about the Ramones way back in 1977, in which I expounded the theory of rock & roll minimalism and suggested The Ramones were direct descendants of the Phil Spector classics, but stripped to the bare essentials. I received a lot of rock-crit flack at the time, but was later vindicated when Spector himself attempted to produce the Ramones. I don't know if Mr Ferrari agrees with me because his essay is in Italian, but it looks damned impressive.
I guess in a combination of Sunday angst, the aftermath of so-far wretched holidays, the art avoiding art, and a general sense of impending disaster, I looked myself up on a web search, maybe to convince me that I still existed. Among all of the on-line stores specializing in obscure books and records (and heaven only knows I have enough of them) I discovered this lovely review from Richie Underberger. Thanks Ritchie, you brightened a dreary day.
GIVE THE ANARCHIST A CIGARETTE, by Mick Farren (Pimlico). Though Mick Farren might not have been a hugely recognizable name to the rock public in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was very much in the middle of Britain in both the underground rock scene and the general counterculture. {-Give the Anarchist a Cigarette} is his memoir of his wild early years, covering his flailing (yet ultimately successful) attempts to be in a rock group in the mid-1960s; his years as lead singer of the shambling psychedelic band the Deviants; his work as a journalist on the British underground paper {~International Times}; and his edging closer to the mainstream in the 1970s as a writer for {~New Musical Express}. On its own steam, Farren's story is very interesting; he got almost as much an inside view of the British psychedelic scene, as a fan and performer, as anyone, and likewise was much involved in the political protest and social counterculture of the time with {-International Times} and other activities, such as the psychedelic {~UFO} club. What makes this a truly fine read, however, is that Farren is also an excellent and extremely witty writer, churning out story after story of madcap adventure (and quite a lot of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll) in the British hippie era. These rope in characters from the most famous rock stars and writers to obscure groupies and hangers-on, from Led Zeppelin, Joe Boyd, Barry Miles, and Germaine Greer on down. For those who are interested, here at last are thorough details on his erratic yet intriguing band the Deviants -- their recording sessions, their chaotic gigs, the weird rotating cast of musicians, their ignominious bust-up on their first American tour. More than that, though, this gives a great sense of the adrenaline rush and heartbreaking disappointments of the hippie era, as well as its hangover into the 1970s, ending with Farren's decision to leave Britain for the US at the end of the '70s. Fans of Farren's writing were waiting a long time for a comprehensive account of his experiences during this era, which had leaked out in bits and pieces of various of his writings, and when he did put it all together in this book, he delivered the goods in splendid fashion.
I also found, on a website called Flirt -- The Snob Way To Indie Culture, a quite extraordinary analysis by one Federico Ferrari of a comment I wrote about the Ramones way back in 1977, in which I expounded the theory of rock & roll minimalism and suggested The Ramones were direct descendants of the Phil Spector classics, but stripped to the bare essentials. I received a lot of rock-crit flack at the time, but was later vindicated when Spector himself attempted to produce the Ramones. I don't know if Mr Ferrari agrees with me because his essay is in Italian, but it looks damned impressive.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GUV ARNOLD
“Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandled feet.”
Perhaps it’s the holidays or maybe all those who voted for the clown are still in denial, but I haven’t seen too much adverse reaction to the news that Gov. Arnold has, under some obscure and almost forgotten law, invoked special emergency powers so he does not have to consult the legislature on aspects of state spending. My paranoia is also reasonably well know, but, in this case, I hardly think it’s paranoia to look a little askance when Austrians start helping themselves to dicatorial powers, especially Austrians nicknamed “The Terminator.”
Which neatly brings us to...
Before the this bog commenced, kaymo the science fiction novelist and I had been exchanging emails on the subject of AI and how if real artificial intelligence was developed, it might well consider, like HAL 9000, that humanity was redundant. The subject came up when the recent remake of Battlestar Galactica introduced the idea that the evil robot Cylons had originally been created by humans, but now we have moved on to Arnold and the Terminator trilogy.
Re T3
Caught this on Satellite t'other night. Struck me how the vision on this concept has darkened irretrievably to full black. T1 ended with the ominous dark note, the pregnant Sarah heading for Mexico and life waiting for the end. But it wasn't a guaranteed nuclear war etc. T2 was
the obverse, with the happy ending and the nuclear war averted. Full H'wood Happy Endings Mode. An uplifting vision for the Clinton era. T3 is back to T1 and more so, leaving John Connor and bride to be stuck in the deep shelter while the warheads rain down and the hellish future begins. Goodbye Happy Endings, Hello Republican world view.
What began as a warning against Reaganist "Star Wars" and the idea of AIs taking control of nukes and thereby of our future, passed through a secondary warning and a vision of that future averted and now ends with a gloomy shrug-- there's nothing we can do about it-- we can't stop ourselves from going down the automated, robot controlled missile system chute with the risk somewhere down there that we create true machine intelligence and it junks us. Seems like a grim analog of the political processes we've been through these past thirty years.
“Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandled feet.”
Perhaps it’s the holidays or maybe all those who voted for the clown are still in denial, but I haven’t seen too much adverse reaction to the news that Gov. Arnold has, under some obscure and almost forgotten law, invoked special emergency powers so he does not have to consult the legislature on aspects of state spending. My paranoia is also reasonably well know, but, in this case, I hardly think it’s paranoia to look a little askance when Austrians start helping themselves to dicatorial powers, especially Austrians nicknamed “The Terminator.”
Which neatly brings us to...
Before the this bog commenced, kaymo the science fiction novelist and I had been exchanging emails on the subject of AI and how if real artificial intelligence was developed, it might well consider, like HAL 9000, that humanity was redundant. The subject came up when the recent remake of Battlestar Galactica introduced the idea that the evil robot Cylons had originally been created by humans, but now we have moved on to Arnold and the Terminator trilogy.
Re T3
Caught this on Satellite t'other night. Struck me how the vision on this concept has darkened irretrievably to full black. T1 ended with the ominous dark note, the pregnant Sarah heading for Mexico and life waiting for the end. But it wasn't a guaranteed nuclear war etc. T2 was
the obverse, with the happy ending and the nuclear war averted. Full H'wood Happy Endings Mode. An uplifting vision for the Clinton era. T3 is back to T1 and more so, leaving John Connor and bride to be stuck in the deep shelter while the warheads rain down and the hellish future begins. Goodbye Happy Endings, Hello Republican world view.
What began as a warning against Reaganist "Star Wars" and the idea of AIs taking control of nukes and thereby of our future, passed through a secondary warning and a vision of that future averted and now ends with a gloomy shrug-- there's nothing we can do about it-- we can't stop ourselves from going down the automated, robot controlled missile system chute with the risk somewhere down there that we create true machine intelligence and it junks us. Seems like a grim analog of the political processes we've been through these past thirty years.
Friday, December 26, 2003
Slumped in front of the Boxing Day TV, I just saw Joss Stone singing "It's A Man's World" for James Brown at the Kennedy Centre Honors. What a voice, Janis Joplin but with such a sweet pitch, she doesn't need to cheat with grate and growl, and to think she's a teenager from Devon, England, home of dangerous cider and my mother's family. Blues turns up in extraordinarly places, and I am now a shameless fan.
Thursday, December 25, 2003
XMAS 2003
Got no sleigh with reindeer,
No sack on my back
You're gonna see me coming
In a big black Cadillac
-- Elvis Presley, Santa Claus Back In Town
Christmas 2003, which would seem to be a paradox within itself. I said a lot of what I had to say last week in LA CityBeat and a year ago in Spook Links to a little literary Xmas album, I guess.
Right now it's raining in LA which rather suits the mood.
Got no sleigh with reindeer,
No sack on my back
You're gonna see me coming
In a big black Cadillac
-- Elvis Presley, Santa Claus Back In Town
Christmas 2003, which would seem to be a paradox within itself. I said a lot of what I had to say last week in LA CityBeat and a year ago in Spook Links to a little literary Xmas album, I guess.
Right now it's raining in LA which rather suits the mood.
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
FROM THE EMAIL
Hister 333 comments on “Beam Me Up”
That was freaky. It got me thinking, what if it's like the 'net, and it's not YOU that travels, but your genetic information. That would mean you would be reassembled by the sub-atomic particles there. It wouldn't be too much of a leap to say you could travel to two places at once, and end up with two bodies. It could easily reach the point where there's no point in even existing, because there's millions of us everywhere, and any one of them dies can be replaced. One thing I can be sure of, is that it makes my brain hurt.
Hister 333 comments on “Beam Me Up”
That was freaky. It got me thinking, what if it's like the 'net, and it's not YOU that travels, but your genetic information. That would mean you would be reassembled by the sub-atomic particles there. It wouldn't be too much of a leap to say you could travel to two places at once, and end up with two bodies. It could easily reach the point where there's no point in even existing, because there's millions of us everywhere, and any one of them dies can be replaced. One thing I can be sure of, is that it makes my brain hurt.
QUOTE OF THE DAY (well...actually yesterday)
"Why do they want to look at my medical records? They didn't look at Bill Clinton's medical records." -- Rush Limbaugh
Welcome to the War on Drugs, Rushie. After $60 million and years of raking, all they could come up on good ol' Bill was some ill-considered sex. You, on the other hand, have been tagged as popping more pills than Jerry Lee Lewis in his prime, and now the DEA are wondering you've been junkie-hustling every silk-suit, $200-haircut croaker in the market share for OxyContin scripts. Ain't no conspiracy, Fat Boy, just how us narco-evildoers have been forced to live for most of the past century. Feel lucky you ain't being held in county. You ain't Elvis. Word?
BTW -- This Doc40 blog, like Erebus, has reached the point where it's started to eat its own tail. But the posts from before the start of time aren't lost. You can look under "archive" which, I think, is just over on the right there >>>>
Oh yeah, and if you're a stranger reading this, and want to comment, well, I ain't down with the comment tech yet, but I can be emailed at...
byron4d@aol.com
"Why do they want to look at my medical records? They didn't look at Bill Clinton's medical records." -- Rush Limbaugh
Welcome to the War on Drugs, Rushie. After $60 million and years of raking, all they could come up on good ol' Bill was some ill-considered sex. You, on the other hand, have been tagged as popping more pills than Jerry Lee Lewis in his prime, and now the DEA are wondering you've been junkie-hustling every silk-suit, $200-haircut croaker in the market share for OxyContin scripts. Ain't no conspiracy, Fat Boy, just how us narco-evildoers have been forced to live for most of the past century. Feel lucky you ain't being held in county. You ain't Elvis. Word?
BTW -- This Doc40 blog, like Erebus, has reached the point where it's started to eat its own tail. But the posts from before the start of time aren't lost. You can look under "archive" which, I think, is just over on the right there >>>>
Oh yeah, and if you're a stranger reading this, and want to comment, well, I ain't down with the comment tech yet, but I can be emailed at...
byron4d@aol.com
Monday, December 22, 2003
Kaymo the novelist replies to the previous post...
Most likely it just an "excursion"-- a massive tongue of superheated core material, heavy with iron, that's working up into the Mantle. But, it could be the beginning of a reversal. In which case compasses aren't gonna work very well for a few thousand years. We'll have lots of "little poles" and they'll migrate around etc. If that had happened during the 16th century etc. I think we might all still be in Europe, and the Injuns would have been left alone to get on with it.
Most likely it just an "excursion"-- a massive tongue of superheated core material, heavy with iron, that's working up into the Mantle. But, it could be the beginning of a reversal. In which case compasses aren't gonna work very well for a few thousand years. We'll have lots of "little poles" and they'll migrate around etc. If that had happened during the 16th century etc. I think we might all still be in Europe, and the Injuns would have been left alone to get on with it.
Sunday, December 21, 2003
FILE UNDER “ONE MORE THING TO WORRY ABOUT”
I have heard about this before on the websites and in the small press publications of the extremely paranoid, who seem to think that this situation would bring down every computer, communications device, and even simple electric motors, and plunge us all back into a new and probably well deserved stone age. I even wonder what it might do to the pick-ups on the average Stratocaster.
EARTH'S POLES APPEAR POISED TO FLIP
Article Published: Friday, December 12, 2003
By Douglas Fischer Oakland Tribune
SAN FRANCISCO - The Earth's magnetic field has weakened so fast in the past 150 years that scientists suspect the planet's magnetic poles are on the verge of flipping, a chaotic process that could dot the planet with multiple poles for centuries until two stronger poles again emerge. The change would wreak havoc with satellites and navigational aids and leave the Earth exposed to blasts of charged solar particles normally deflected by a strong magnetic field. Speaking Thursday at the American Geophysical Union, an annual international scientific gathering, scientists
cautioned that much is still speculation.
Any flip of the Earth's magnetic poles would happen over several thousand years. More likely, they said, turbulent forces deep in the planet's molten core are sending an errant but not unusual "excursion" to the surface that will ultimately fade and disappear, restoring the planet's protective magnetic field."Chances are this is going to die out," said Jeremy Bloxham, chairman of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. "Reversals are pretty rare." But history is rife with examples. The magnetic field has flipped between 200 and 300 times in the past 150 million years, based on studies of sea floor sediments.
The poles last flipped 780,000 years ago. But the rate of decay scientists are measuring is consistent with a reversal, Bloxham added. More worrisome is that a large patch over the South Atlantic has already reversed and is interrupting some satellites. A change wouldn't be catastrophic, at least as far as scientists can see. No mass extinctions have been tied to past reversals, said John Tarduno, a geophysics professor at the University of Rochester in New York. Typically during a reversal, the Earth loses its two traditional poles and weaker multiple poles pop up and fade away, powered by convection flows deep within the Earth's core, said Tarduno. Compasses would not point "north" but to the closest, strongest field, be it over sub-Sahara Africa or Des Moines. Then, after about 1,000 years, two stronger poles would emerge.
I have heard about this before on the websites and in the small press publications of the extremely paranoid, who seem to think that this situation would bring down every computer, communications device, and even simple electric motors, and plunge us all back into a new and probably well deserved stone age. I even wonder what it might do to the pick-ups on the average Stratocaster.
EARTH'S POLES APPEAR POISED TO FLIP
Article Published: Friday, December 12, 2003
By Douglas Fischer Oakland Tribune
SAN FRANCISCO - The Earth's magnetic field has weakened so fast in the past 150 years that scientists suspect the planet's magnetic poles are on the verge of flipping, a chaotic process that could dot the planet with multiple poles for centuries until two stronger poles again emerge. The change would wreak havoc with satellites and navigational aids and leave the Earth exposed to blasts of charged solar particles normally deflected by a strong magnetic field. Speaking Thursday at the American Geophysical Union, an annual international scientific gathering, scientists
cautioned that much is still speculation.
Any flip of the Earth's magnetic poles would happen over several thousand years. More likely, they said, turbulent forces deep in the planet's molten core are sending an errant but not unusual "excursion" to the surface that will ultimately fade and disappear, restoring the planet's protective magnetic field."Chances are this is going to die out," said Jeremy Bloxham, chairman of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. "Reversals are pretty rare." But history is rife with examples. The magnetic field has flipped between 200 and 300 times in the past 150 million years, based on studies of sea floor sediments.
The poles last flipped 780,000 years ago. But the rate of decay scientists are measuring is consistent with a reversal, Bloxham added. More worrisome is that a large patch over the South Atlantic has already reversed and is interrupting some satellites. A change wouldn't be catastrophic, at least as far as scientists can see. No mass extinctions have been tied to past reversals, said John Tarduno, a geophysics professor at the University of Rochester in New York. Typically during a reversal, the Earth loses its two traditional poles and weaker multiple poles pop up and fade away, powered by convection flows deep within the Earth's core, said Tarduno. Compasses would not point "north" but to the closest, strongest field, be it over sub-Sahara Africa or Des Moines. Then, after about 1,000 years, two stronger poles would emerge.
Saturday, December 20, 2003
DON’T BEAM ME UP, QUITE YET.
I have never been a big fan of the idea of being disassembled into my component sub-atomic particles, beamed or otherwise transmitted somewhere else and then reassembled, so when, last week, a think tank in Birmingham, England, predicted – a little rashly I thought – that in a hundred years computer capacity would be such to make such a thing so, I was forced to re-analyze why I was firmly against the whole business. The first time I encountered the idea was in the Dan Dare strip in The Eagle when I was about five years old. The Treens on Venus had a device called the Electro-sender which beamed Dan Dare and his lower class sidekick Digby (this was England in the 1950s) from somewhere near the Venusian flame belt to the northern capital of Mekonta. Even this early, a hint that all might not be right with such a system was implanted when Digby came through somewhat disarrayed. Then The Fly was released with all its help-me, help-me, Vincent Price consequences. (Which were repeated twice with Jeff Goldblum and then Bart Simpson getting the insect head.) Finally I watched all those decades of Star Trek with only Dr. McCoy treating the transporter as a potential hazard.
For most, the fear is seemingly that one won’t materialize in the same physical shape as one left, but this has never worried me. Any kind of travel involves risk, and all one can do is play the odds and hope for the best. My distrust of the transporter is far more metaphysical. I wonder if the “you” that arrives at the destination is really the same “you” that left the embarkation point. Okay, so it’s identical in every detail, atoms, molecules, mannerisms, memories, but is it really "you"? What’s to guarantee that it’s not an entirely new entity, an exact replica in every respect, but a different being, while, meanwhile, the original “you” is dead, gone, finished, croaked, deceased, and otherwise tuning up with the Choir Celestial. By this reasoning, a whole stadium full of James T. Kirks could have died riding the transporter in Star Trek, and no one really ever gave a rat’s ass as long as the replicas were seamless and perfect. Even the replicas wouldn’t know the difference because, according to their memory, they would have gone through the process unscathed. They swear blind that they're the original. (They only find out to their eternal cost, the next time they are beamed up or down.) In other words, no one cares whether it’s the real “you” are not. As long as it’s a close enough facsimile for rock & roll.
I have never been a big fan of the idea of being disassembled into my component sub-atomic particles, beamed or otherwise transmitted somewhere else and then reassembled, so when, last week, a think tank in Birmingham, England, predicted – a little rashly I thought – that in a hundred years computer capacity would be such to make such a thing so, I was forced to re-analyze why I was firmly against the whole business. The first time I encountered the idea was in the Dan Dare strip in The Eagle when I was about five years old. The Treens on Venus had a device called the Electro-sender which beamed Dan Dare and his lower class sidekick Digby (this was England in the 1950s) from somewhere near the Venusian flame belt to the northern capital of Mekonta. Even this early, a hint that all might not be right with such a system was implanted when Digby came through somewhat disarrayed. Then The Fly was released with all its help-me, help-me, Vincent Price consequences. (Which were repeated twice with Jeff Goldblum and then Bart Simpson getting the insect head.) Finally I watched all those decades of Star Trek with only Dr. McCoy treating the transporter as a potential hazard.
For most, the fear is seemingly that one won’t materialize in the same physical shape as one left, but this has never worried me. Any kind of travel involves risk, and all one can do is play the odds and hope for the best. My distrust of the transporter is far more metaphysical. I wonder if the “you” that arrives at the destination is really the same “you” that left the embarkation point. Okay, so it’s identical in every detail, atoms, molecules, mannerisms, memories, but is it really "you"? What’s to guarantee that it’s not an entirely new entity, an exact replica in every respect, but a different being, while, meanwhile, the original “you” is dead, gone, finished, croaked, deceased, and otherwise tuning up with the Choir Celestial. By this reasoning, a whole stadium full of James T. Kirks could have died riding the transporter in Star Trek, and no one really ever gave a rat’s ass as long as the replicas were seamless and perfect. Even the replicas wouldn’t know the difference because, according to their memory, they would have gone through the process unscathed. They swear blind that they're the original. (They only find out to their eternal cost, the next time they are beamed up or down.) In other words, no one cares whether it’s the real “you” are not. As long as it’s a close enough facsimile for rock & roll.
Friday, December 19, 2003
AMONG THE CURRENT EMAIL
Munz informs me that The Death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs: What Really Happened? by Uncle Bill Burroughs' long-time friend and trustee of the writer's estate, James Grauerholz, can be downloaded from http://www.lawrence.com/burroughs/
While HelgaLA forwards the following – “JACKO FINDS ISLAM: The King of Pop is restyling himself as Jacko X. Michael Jackson last night became a member of the Nation of Islam - and sources said his religious changeover comes along with a shake-up of his personal staff. High-ranking members of the Nation of Islam have been working to bring Jackson into Reverend Louis Farrakhan's flock - and Jackson's conversion is now well-known in the Nation Of Islam community. Exactly why Jackson converted was not clear to sources. But Fox News' Web site reported yesterday that Jackson's brother Jermaine, who converted to Islam in 1989, has been seeking to win favor with his more famous sibling, and has brought Farrakhan's chief of staff, Leonard F. Muhammad, into Jacko's inner circle as a "bodyguard." That's just one of many changes under way in Jackson's inner circle, sources said.” Which I guess is as good a way as any to remind the world that he’s one more black man up on a possibly bogus rape rap.
While the lovely natalein offered a link to a funny, Bush-bashing cartoon that should maintain morale among the troops. – http://flash.bushrecall.org/
Munz informs me that The Death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs: What Really Happened? by Uncle Bill Burroughs' long-time friend and trustee of the writer's estate, James Grauerholz, can be downloaded from http://www.lawrence.com/burroughs/
While HelgaLA forwards the following – “JACKO FINDS ISLAM: The King of Pop is restyling himself as Jacko X. Michael Jackson last night became a member of the Nation of Islam - and sources said his religious changeover comes along with a shake-up of his personal staff. High-ranking members of the Nation of Islam have been working to bring Jackson into Reverend Louis Farrakhan's flock - and Jackson's conversion is now well-known in the Nation Of Islam community. Exactly why Jackson converted was not clear to sources. But Fox News' Web site reported yesterday that Jackson's brother Jermaine, who converted to Islam in 1989, has been seeking to win favor with his more famous sibling, and has brought Farrakhan's chief of staff, Leonard F. Muhammad, into Jacko's inner circle as a "bodyguard." That's just one of many changes under way in Jackson's inner circle, sources said.” Which I guess is as good a way as any to remind the world that he’s one more black man up on a possibly bogus rape rap.
While the lovely natalein offered a link to a funny, Bush-bashing cartoon that should maintain morale among the troops. – http://flash.bushrecall.org/
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
WHY A BLOG?
Blog? You gotta a problem with that? Yeah, I’ve started to blog even though my dislike of the word kept me away from the whole process for quite a while. I mean, blog wasn’t even on my spellcheck. (But then again neither is “spellcheck.”) Finally a very dear friend dared me – on penalty of my techno-pride – to I check it out. And, in the course of a single weekend, I took to the process like a duck to water. Or maybe Daffy Duck walking off the cliff (but he only falls when he looks down.) Obviously blogging is a seductive lure for us egomaniacs who believe their every thought is of such immense fucking significance that needs to communicated to the world. I was also attracted to the fluidity and ease of the system, and that, in a weird way, it rather resembled an advanced and more lucid version of Uncle Bill Burroughs cut-up fixation, plus blog-time tended have the appearance of running backwards, something that would obviously have its attractions for me. Also I like the transitory, message-in-bottle feel about it. Is anyone out there actually reading this?
After running for a few days on a simple blogspot template, Rich Deakin of Funtopia came into the picture and customized the whole thing which made me very happy, and I’m now free to start thinking, gathering, cutting, pasting, and generally keeping a non-linear internal diary and scrapbook, with links, lures and all kinds of good stuff -- plus the usual errors and typos -- and hopefully something new at least every couple of days. The admiring and the pissed off are welcome to email me at...
byron4d@aol.com
...but be warned that relevant communications may find themselves posted. The friend who got me started also told me to talk to Rich about activating a comments device, but that is obviously something for the future. Assuming, of course, that there is a future.
Blog? You gotta a problem with that? Yeah, I’ve started to blog even though my dislike of the word kept me away from the whole process for quite a while. I mean, blog wasn’t even on my spellcheck. (But then again neither is “spellcheck.”) Finally a very dear friend dared me – on penalty of my techno-pride – to I check it out. And, in the course of a single weekend, I took to the process like a duck to water. Or maybe Daffy Duck walking off the cliff (but he only falls when he looks down.) Obviously blogging is a seductive lure for us egomaniacs who believe their every thought is of such immense fucking significance that needs to communicated to the world. I was also attracted to the fluidity and ease of the system, and that, in a weird way, it rather resembled an advanced and more lucid version of Uncle Bill Burroughs cut-up fixation, plus blog-time tended have the appearance of running backwards, something that would obviously have its attractions for me. Also I like the transitory, message-in-bottle feel about it. Is anyone out there actually reading this?
After running for a few days on a simple blogspot template, Rich Deakin of Funtopia came into the picture and customized the whole thing which made me very happy, and I’m now free to start thinking, gathering, cutting, pasting, and generally keeping a non-linear internal diary and scrapbook, with links, lures and all kinds of good stuff -- plus the usual errors and typos -- and hopefully something new at least every couple of days. The admiring and the pissed off are welcome to email me at...
byron4d@aol.com
...but be warned that relevant communications may find themselves posted. The friend who got me started also told me to talk to Rich about activating a comments device, but that is obviously something for the future. Assuming, of course, that there is a future.
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Channel 2 has just told me that scientists have discovered a gene in worms that makes them pre-disposed to drunkenness. Of course, they didn’t tell me what scientists or where, or any details about the worms, but it does leave me thinking the following...
1. My lifelong drinking isn't my fault. It’s in my genes.
2. I’m keeping a watchful eye out for drunken worms.
1. My lifelong drinking isn't my fault. It’s in my genes.
2. I’m keeping a watchful eye out for drunken worms.
Monday, December 08, 2003
The following clip comes from the desk of the mighty Henry Cabot Beck. I suppose we should be happy its all going on in Germany, and not in Nebraska. Meanwhile, back at home, the nation supposedly has it's underwear bunched because John Kerry said fuck in and interview with Rolling Stone. I fact, Kerry declared that Bush "fucked up". Seems succinct. Although I continue to wonder what reality we are all attempting to grasp.
KASSEL, Germany (AFP) - A self-declared cannibal told a German court in chilling detail how he killed and ate a man he says consented to be dissected and consumed in front of a running video camera. In matter-of-fact tones in front of a hushed court Wednesday, Armin Meiwes explained how an obsession with cannibalism developed as a child and eventually led him to kill and eat a fellow human being.
"I had the fantasy, and in the end I fulfilled it," he said.
He had the chance to kill and feast on other apparently willing victims, he added, saying "hundreds and thousands are out there looking to be eaten," but passed up the opportunity because they were not the right type.
The macabre case is unprecedented in German legal history. Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer technician who says he regrets what he did, admits killing, but insists it was not murder as he was only doing what he had been asked. Testifying on the opening day of his trial for murder, he said his fantasy began between the ages of eight and 12, when he would imagine killing, carving up and eating schoolfriends he liked. Meiwes, dressed smartly in a dark jacket and tie, said he felt lonely as a child after his father and two older brothers abandoned the family. He longed for a younger brother. "But then I realised one day that was not enough." He soon began imagining a friend he could keep for ever by consuming him.
"Slim and blond, that would have been the type," he said.
It also aroused him sexually, Meiwes admitted, although he denied that sex was linked to the alleged murder. "I didn't want to have sex with the partner I chose to slaughter. That had nothing to do with it."
Horror films and seeing animals slaughtered fuelled his imagination. Cannibalism is not a crime under German law. Meiwes is charged with murder for the purposes of sexual satisfaction and "disturbing the peace of the dead" for carving up the body. State prosecutor Marcus Koehler claimed Meiwes had always intended to kill and that he took advantage of a mental disorder in the dead man, Bernd Juergen Brandes.
If convicted, he faces life in prison. A verdict is due early next year.
Defence lawyers say Meiwes is guilty at worst of "killing on demand," which is punishable by up to five years in jail. Meiwes, who has admitted killing, said he contacted Brandes, a 43-year-old Berlin engineer, after advertising via the Internet for someone willing to be eaten. The whole scenario was recorded on video, reportedly by mutual agreement. Brandes travelled to his house in Rotenburg, near Kassel, after settling up his personal affairs. At one point he demurred but was persuaded to carry on, the prosecution said. After Brandes downed sleeping tablets and whisky, Meiwes cut off Brandes' penis which they planned to eat together, but found that due to its consistency, it was inedible "even when fried."
After a while Brandes became unconscious. "Spurred by sexual motives," said Koehler, Meiwes laid him on a bench, stabbed him and hung his body from a hook in the ceiling of his kitchen. The accused said he kissed his "friend" first, "then I did it."
He dissected the corpse, slicing off 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of the flesh which he stored in a freezer. He later ate two-thirds of it. "With every bite, my memory of him grew stronger."
The case did not emerge until an Austrian student spotted another Internet advertisement by Meiwes and alerted police. Officers who examined a mass of computer equipment and videos found at his home tapped into a hitherto hidden cannibal scene. Meiwes said he later met five other people who had also offered themselves via the Internet. One wanted to be beheaded, but Meiwes did not like him and thought him too fat. Another backed out when the accused told him, "if you come here, you have to realise that it will be for the last time."
KASSEL, Germany (AFP) - A self-declared cannibal told a German court in chilling detail how he killed and ate a man he says consented to be dissected and consumed in front of a running video camera. In matter-of-fact tones in front of a hushed court Wednesday, Armin Meiwes explained how an obsession with cannibalism developed as a child and eventually led him to kill and eat a fellow human being.
"I had the fantasy, and in the end I fulfilled it," he said.
He had the chance to kill and feast on other apparently willing victims, he added, saying "hundreds and thousands are out there looking to be eaten," but passed up the opportunity because they were not the right type.
The macabre case is unprecedented in German legal history. Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer technician who says he regrets what he did, admits killing, but insists it was not murder as he was only doing what he had been asked. Testifying on the opening day of his trial for murder, he said his fantasy began between the ages of eight and 12, when he would imagine killing, carving up and eating schoolfriends he liked. Meiwes, dressed smartly in a dark jacket and tie, said he felt lonely as a child after his father and two older brothers abandoned the family. He longed for a younger brother. "But then I realised one day that was not enough." He soon began imagining a friend he could keep for ever by consuming him.
"Slim and blond, that would have been the type," he said.
It also aroused him sexually, Meiwes admitted, although he denied that sex was linked to the alleged murder. "I didn't want to have sex with the partner I chose to slaughter. That had nothing to do with it."
Horror films and seeing animals slaughtered fuelled his imagination. Cannibalism is not a crime under German law. Meiwes is charged with murder for the purposes of sexual satisfaction and "disturbing the peace of the dead" for carving up the body. State prosecutor Marcus Koehler claimed Meiwes had always intended to kill and that he took advantage of a mental disorder in the dead man, Bernd Juergen Brandes.
If convicted, he faces life in prison. A verdict is due early next year.
Defence lawyers say Meiwes is guilty at worst of "killing on demand," which is punishable by up to five years in jail. Meiwes, who has admitted killing, said he contacted Brandes, a 43-year-old Berlin engineer, after advertising via the Internet for someone willing to be eaten. The whole scenario was recorded on video, reportedly by mutual agreement. Brandes travelled to his house in Rotenburg, near Kassel, after settling up his personal affairs. At one point he demurred but was persuaded to carry on, the prosecution said. After Brandes downed sleeping tablets and whisky, Meiwes cut off Brandes' penis which they planned to eat together, but found that due to its consistency, it was inedible "even when fried."
After a while Brandes became unconscious. "Spurred by sexual motives," said Koehler, Meiwes laid him on a bench, stabbed him and hung his body from a hook in the ceiling of his kitchen. The accused said he kissed his "friend" first, "then I did it."
He dissected the corpse, slicing off 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of the flesh which he stored in a freezer. He later ate two-thirds of it. "With every bite, my memory of him grew stronger."
The case did not emerge until an Austrian student spotted another Internet advertisement by Meiwes and alerted police. Officers who examined a mass of computer equipment and videos found at his home tapped into a hitherto hidden cannibal scene. Meiwes said he later met five other people who had also offered themselves via the Internet. One wanted to be beheaded, but Meiwes did not like him and thought him too fat. Another backed out when the accused told him, "if you come here, you have to realise that it will be for the last time."
Before the fact, I wrote a longish bit for LA CityBeat on Angels In America, but that was from the advance HBO DVDs. When I planted myself on the couch to watch the real deal earlier, I discovered that, for the first twenty minutes some vicious junkie homophobe at cable central was messing with the sound levels. Wassup with that?
Saturday, December 06, 2003
THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
Mick Farren
I HAVE AN AR15
AND FOUR BOXES
OF TWO TWENTY THREE
HIGH VELOCITY HOLLOW POINTS
AND I HAVE QUITE A LOT OF DEMEROL
LEFT OVER FROM MY HERNIA SURGERY
AND A PINT OF HIRAM WALKER'S TEN HIGH
SO I WILL FEEL NO PAIN
WHEN THE SHOOTING STARTS
AND I AM GOING
TO THE PLANT
TOMORROW MORNING
TO WASTE
AS MANY OF THE SONS OF BITCHES
AS I CAN
BEFORE THEY WASTE ME
I AM THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
I AM THE NEW FACE OF LABOUR RELATIONS
SINCE THEY BROKE THE UNION
WE'VE TAKEN THREE PAY CUTS
AND GIVEN UP THE PRODUCTIVITY BONUS
AND HALF THE MEDICAL PLAN
AND AFTER DARLENE LEFT
AND TOOK THE KIDS
I STARTED GETTING
TOO MUCH SUGAR IN MY DIET
AND TOO MANY PORK PRODUCTS
AND BEGAN
HAVING CONVERSATIONS
WITH THE JAPANESE GUY
INSIDE THE TEEVEE
AND I AM GOING
TO THE PLANT
TOMORROW MORNING
TO WASTE
AS MANY OF THE SONS OF BITCHES
AS I CAN
BEFORE THEY WASTE ME
I AM THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
I AM THE NEW FACE OF LABOUR RELATIONS
LAST FRIDAY
I SPENT EIGHTY SEVEN DOLLARS
PLUS TAX AND TIP
BUYING DINNER AND HARVEY WALLBANGERS
FOR JACKIE KOVACK
AT BIG BILLY'S
STEAK AND LOBSTER BARN
OUT ON I-7
AND AFTERWARDS
SHE REFUSED TO GIVE ME SO MUCH
AS A HANDJOB
SAID SHE JUST WANTED
US TO BE FRIENDS
AND THE NEXT DAY
I SAW HER
AND SOME OF THE OTHER WOMEN
FROM QUALITY CONTROL
TALKING AND LAUGHING
OUTSIDE THE FEMALE FACILITY
AND I KNEW THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT ME
AND I AM GOING
TO THE PLANT
TOMORROW MORNING
TO WASTE
AS MANY AS THE SONS OF BITCHES
AS I CAN
BEFORE THEY WASTE ME
I AM THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
I AM THE NEW FACE OF LABOUR RELATIONS
AND TOMORROW NIGHT
WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM WORK
YOU'LL SEE ME ON TV
I AM THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
Mick Farren
I HAVE AN AR15
AND FOUR BOXES
OF TWO TWENTY THREE
HIGH VELOCITY HOLLOW POINTS
AND I HAVE QUITE A LOT OF DEMEROL
LEFT OVER FROM MY HERNIA SURGERY
AND A PINT OF HIRAM WALKER'S TEN HIGH
SO I WILL FEEL NO PAIN
WHEN THE SHOOTING STARTS
AND I AM GOING
TO THE PLANT
TOMORROW MORNING
TO WASTE
AS MANY OF THE SONS OF BITCHES
AS I CAN
BEFORE THEY WASTE ME
I AM THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
I AM THE NEW FACE OF LABOUR RELATIONS
SINCE THEY BROKE THE UNION
WE'VE TAKEN THREE PAY CUTS
AND GIVEN UP THE PRODUCTIVITY BONUS
AND HALF THE MEDICAL PLAN
AND AFTER DARLENE LEFT
AND TOOK THE KIDS
I STARTED GETTING
TOO MUCH SUGAR IN MY DIET
AND TOO MANY PORK PRODUCTS
AND BEGAN
HAVING CONVERSATIONS
WITH THE JAPANESE GUY
INSIDE THE TEEVEE
AND I AM GOING
TO THE PLANT
TOMORROW MORNING
TO WASTE
AS MANY OF THE SONS OF BITCHES
AS I CAN
BEFORE THEY WASTE ME
I AM THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
I AM THE NEW FACE OF LABOUR RELATIONS
LAST FRIDAY
I SPENT EIGHTY SEVEN DOLLARS
PLUS TAX AND TIP
BUYING DINNER AND HARVEY WALLBANGERS
FOR JACKIE KOVACK
AT BIG BILLY'S
STEAK AND LOBSTER BARN
OUT ON I-7
AND AFTERWARDS
SHE REFUSED TO GIVE ME SO MUCH
AS A HANDJOB
SAID SHE JUST WANTED
US TO BE FRIENDS
AND THE NEXT DAY
I SAW HER
AND SOME OF THE OTHER WOMEN
FROM QUALITY CONTROL
TALKING AND LAUGHING
OUTSIDE THE FEMALE FACILITY
AND I KNEW THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT ME
AND I AM GOING
TO THE PLANT
TOMORROW MORNING
TO WASTE
AS MANY AS THE SONS OF BITCHES
AS I CAN
BEFORE THEY WASTE ME
I AM THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
I AM THE NEW FACE OF LABOUR RELATIONS
AND TOMORROW NIGHT
WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM WORK
YOU'LL SEE ME ON TV
I AM THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE
I have never felt totally comfortable with the anti-globalization movement. Obviously I support its aims of stopping the WTO and the IMF in their despicable tracks, but, even before I could read science fiction, I consumed far too much Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, and was filled with ideas of World Government, the UN, and a one-planet utopia. Later my travels, Bucky Fuller, and the clear need to consider a fragile whole-earth reinforced this that we are all one on the spaceship together. Thus aspects of the movement can’t help but strike me, maybe incorrectly, as echoes of counter revolutionary, proletariat chauvinism. It also occurres to me that maybe globalism is the weapon to fight globalism, and there’s been a model around for a century or more that might the reexamined. Yes, my friends, the IWW – International Workers of the World – the Wobblies, one big union. Scoff as you may, they scared the shit out of the plutocrats back at the start of the 20th century. They stuck it to those boys worse than they stuck it to the Black Panthers fifty years later. They killed them. Must have been doing something right.
Wasn't it Ronald Reagan who voiced on radio that he would like to see the world united by an alien invasion. (Of course it was. The Deviants sampled the speech for the start of the tune "Aztec Calendar".
Wasn't it Ronald Reagan who voiced on radio that he would like to see the world united by an alien invasion. (Of course it was. The Deviants sampled the speech for the start of the tune "Aztec Calendar".
Friday, December 05, 2003
I’ve heard a great deal of gloom recently – relayed in no small part by the alternative press, who should know better – about how the Republicans and the loathsome GWB will prove unbeatable in the 2004 elections. The cries of woe echo all round me. “Redistricting” they cry. “The Diebold touchscreen voting machines are fixed.” In fact, all in all, too many comrades are seem in deep despair. Katherine Seelye in the Weekly Standard informs me that, due to population shifts, “Democrats know that white men in rural parts of states like Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — all of which went for Mr. Gore are increasingly voting Republican, largely because of issues like President Bill Clinton's personal behavior and recent court rulings on gay rights. As a Democratic strategist said, "Older white Americans moved away from us on impeachment and guns, and now same-sex marriage is a killer."
All I can snarl in response is give me a fucking break, and ask what we are supposed to do about it? Distance ourselves from longtime queer allies to accommodate dumb white guys and rural loons, who want only to be armed to the teeth, and quake at some imaginary biblical horror that they can’t even fully grasp, and is none of their business anyway? Oh please. This is pure defeatism. And why bother making any adjustments, anyway, if the fix is already in?
To attend to any of this, and to be panicked into embracing Republican principles (if you can find one) or neo-con Newspeak and tactics, is to sell out before the auction has even commenced. There are worse things than losing an election. We can always return to the mattresses of bohemian anarchy, and then turn really ugly. Never forget that, at any given time, by his or her very nature, the fascist is more desperately frightened than you are. (Just have tea with Ann Coulter.)
In the meantime, the election is not lost. We have ten months to continue hammering at the great vulnerability. The President of the United States (POTUS) is an idiotic, half-formed nonentity who will bungle anything close to nuclear backed confrontation or global crisis, because he smugly believes he can lie his way out of anything. See how much the dumb white guys worry about gay marriage when they’re glowing in the dark, or when the insane weather patterns of threshold global warming have turned Kansas and Nebraska into a goddamned desert.
A believe Sun Tsu had a whole lot to say about the demoralizing of the enemy before any army is even deployed. I would also refer you to the words of ol’ Noam, below...
All I can snarl in response is give me a fucking break, and ask what we are supposed to do about it? Distance ourselves from longtime queer allies to accommodate dumb white guys and rural loons, who want only to be armed to the teeth, and quake at some imaginary biblical horror that they can’t even fully grasp, and is none of their business anyway? Oh please. This is pure defeatism. And why bother making any adjustments, anyway, if the fix is already in?
To attend to any of this, and to be panicked into embracing Republican principles (if you can find one) or neo-con Newspeak and tactics, is to sell out before the auction has even commenced. There are worse things than losing an election. We can always return to the mattresses of bohemian anarchy, and then turn really ugly. Never forget that, at any given time, by his or her very nature, the fascist is more desperately frightened than you are. (Just have tea with Ann Coulter.)
In the meantime, the election is not lost. We have ten months to continue hammering at the great vulnerability. The President of the United States (POTUS) is an idiotic, half-formed nonentity who will bungle anything close to nuclear backed confrontation or global crisis, because he smugly believes he can lie his way out of anything. See how much the dumb white guys worry about gay marriage when they’re glowing in the dark, or when the insane weather patterns of threshold global warming have turned Kansas and Nebraska into a goddamned desert.
A believe Sun Tsu had a whole lot to say about the demoralizing of the enemy before any army is even deployed. I would also refer you to the words of ol’ Noam, below...
"I can only repeat what I've often written. The US, and the West generally, has become far more civilised in the past 40 years, thanks to the activism of mostly young people in the 1960s and since. It is easy to give examples, including opposition to aggression and massacre, but also in many other domains as well. Of course, every effort is made to induce hopelessness and despair, but there is no reason to succumb. The future is in our hands, and the opportunities today are far greater than they have been in the past."
-- Noam Chomsky (who is 75 on Sunday)
-- Noam Chomsky (who is 75 on Sunday)
And now feeling obligated to post something with some content, here's the lyric of a fabulous old tune...
MAN THAT WATERS THE WORKERS' BEER
(Paddy Ryan)
I am the man, the very fat man,
That waters the workers' beer
I am the man, the very fat man,
That waters the workers' beer
And what do I care if it makes them ill,
If it makes them terribly queer
I've a car, a yacht, and an aeroplane,
And I waters the workers' beer
Now when I waters the workers' beer,
I puts in strychnine
Some methylated spirits,
And a can of kerosine
Ah, but such a brew so terribly strong,
It would make them terribly queer
So I reaches my hand for the watering-can
And I waters the workers' beer
Now a drop of good beer is good for a man
When he's tired, thirsty and hot
And I sometimes have a drop myself,
From a very special pot
For a strong and healthy working class
Is the thing that I most fear
So I reaches my hand for the watering-can
And I waters the workers' beer
Copyright Workers Music Association
MAN THAT WATERS THE WORKERS' BEER
(Paddy Ryan)
I am the man, the very fat man,
That waters the workers' beer
I am the man, the very fat man,
That waters the workers' beer
And what do I care if it makes them ill,
If it makes them terribly queer
I've a car, a yacht, and an aeroplane,
And I waters the workers' beer
Now when I waters the workers' beer,
I puts in strychnine
Some methylated spirits,
And a can of kerosine
Ah, but such a brew so terribly strong,
It would make them terribly queer
So I reaches my hand for the watering-can
And I waters the workers' beer
Now a drop of good beer is good for a man
When he's tired, thirsty and hot
And I sometimes have a drop myself,
From a very special pot
For a strong and healthy working class
Is the thing that I most fear
So I reaches my hand for the watering-can
And I waters the workers' beer
Copyright Workers Music Association
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